Butterball Gets His Own Farm

We closed on 9.6 acres outside of Williston a few days ago. It is essentially vacant - there is a dilapidated mobile home that we will have removed. And there are a bunch of trusses that we will also have removed. 

Trusses do make a nice vantage point to sit on and contemplate life 

But other than that, it is vacant. It is moderately heavily treed- none of the trees are that impressive, I'm guessing it was clear cut 50-60 years ago when the neighborhood was established. It is on a COUNTY MAINTAINED dirt road that dead ends with a loop around several properties, including our new one. I am so excited to be somewhere quiet. The farms where I've boarded the ponies have all been quiet, but I live off a main road and it is NOT quiet and is only going to get more and more trafficky as the area continues to grow and expand. So a county maintained dirt road is PERFECT. We will take so many hacks. There are also several groomed arenas within hacking distance... I'm definitely going to try to befriend those folks and ask about bartering or paying to come school in their arenas sometimes... 

The plan is to get to know the property over the next year or two. 

Hello friend! 

Then we will start clearing small parts to build an enclosed outbuilding to store equipment and various other stuffs, maybe including feed/hay and tack; then fence 2-3 pastures; then build a house. My thought is to do 2 x 2-3 acre pastures and then maybe a 1 acre sacrifice type area. I think I want to just do lean-tos spanning the pasture fences that could have gates closed if need be to stall. I don't want to clean stalls. And my lovely husband certainly won't be cleaning stalls when I go out of town. But being able to close in if need be would be nice. 

So those of you with horses at home or horses that you take care of 24/7, what are your tips/tricks to make things as low maintenance as possible? I'm thinking electric for the interior fence lines and some carefully planned lime rock in the high traffic areas around feed tubs and gates. Also, definitely planning to acquire a hay hut or something similar for supplementing hay from a round bale in the winter months. Then having some sort of fans in the shelter area would be perfect. I would like to minimize hoses, so carefully planning plumbing and electric is also on the agenda. 

Someone asked if I had looked at house plans. No, but I've definitely been sketching out pasture layouts... 

Casual Friday

My friend and I met up at Magnolia Sands yesterday morning for a fun little pop around. Per our usual adventure style, I didn't give the best directions and she ended up passing the entrance. The sign had also acquired a lot of vegetation and there was a truck blocking it, so she was doomed to fail on that one. It was her first XC school with her new Irish dude and since Butterball had worked his tail off doing dressage on Thursday, I wanted to keep it low key as well. Plus, y'know, it's roughly five million degrees + five million percent humidity, so the heat index is something special these days. 

Both boys were super brave about the sights - including a new barn that housed longhorns in the corner of the field. Butterball has schooled here before, I think, but I've never ridden him here. There are sometimes a lot of things to see... pasos on one side, baby horses/donkeys/mules, cows in tree lines, etc. But as said, both boys were just excellent. 

And Butterball was just amazing. I rode him in his double jointed happy mouth and never felt like I needed more. He was easy to the fences and just popped over everything. We got one deep spot to a bench where I kinda thought we should've taken the long, but he was all "Nah, mom, we don't have enough energy for that" and he was right. But he was dead honest over the half coffin, which can be spooky because the ditch is in a little valley. We had done it properly and popped over the ditch both directions before presenting it as a half coffin, but I was still impressed. We're starting to ask the tougher questions with combinations, and he took the jump into the water easy peasy as well. 

I'll save ya'll from the blurry screenshots this go round and just share almost all of what we did this morning. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but he's just the coolest creature. 

In the afternoon he got to play pony for my friend and her 7 and 3 year old kiddos. We grew up riding together; her mom was my riding instructor. But she's gotten out of horses for the most part. Until a year ago she did still have her QH that I learned to ride on when I was EIGHT! He was on lease to a family about 1.5 hours from where she lives. So her older son had spent some time with horses, but rather infrequently. Butterball seemed to love the attention from him though. Her older kiddo is a really gentle soul and rather than pulling for grass, Butterball just stood and got a relaxed sleepy look while he brushed him. Then we popped kiddo up on his back in the bareback pad and led him around the ring. At first he was holding on with his heels which led to a kinda confused face from BB, but after a few minutes he realized he was just to ignore that. And we got the kiddo to sit up and relax his leg down. Then it was just happy, relaxed faces from both of them. It was precious. My friend called him a Breyer pony, which fits him perfectly. He got well paid for his time with plenty of low sugar cookies, so I don't think he was too upset about two "rides" in one day. I seriously could not adore this horse more. To go from popping around some new questions cross country to being a kid's pony in the same day? Absolutely priceless. 

Where have you been my whole life?

Butterball and I took a lesson with a new dressage trainer (JV) yesterday. And it was amazing. The way I've gone on and on about some rides I need to just focus on his response to my leg in order to keep him sharp to it? Yeah, he called me (us?) out in the first two laps. "You're nagging and he's not responding and is cranky about it." YEP. 

So he explained the 1, 2, 3. 1 is a brush with the calves, what you want them to respond to. 2 is a boot or poke with the spur. 3 is a kick and tap with whip. And the response should be proportionate to the aid ie a 1 should get you a 2 mph increase. A 2 should get you a 3-4 mph increase. And a 3 should get you 4+ mph increase. Jigging is not actually the right response either because it is still not actually forward. Once the forward has happened, then you have to test that you trained - ask with a 1 again. This is how you train them.

JV did a LOT of asking "How's your trot?" And sometimes I would say it was good and he would go "Wellllll I do not agree" LAWLZ. But I never felt picked on or rushed and consequently never transferred those feelings to BB. So by the end, he wasn't chomping on the bit at all, and he was lifting and moving in a way I haven't felt before. The constant questions feel SO USEFUL for working at home. With my prior fave dressage trainer of all time, I always had a hard time replicating the work we did in our lesson at home. But with the constant questions here I actually had to assess myself and then sort out correcting it. Testing, it definitely helps with learning. 

Blurry screen shot of prancy pony

He said that horses should be on cruise control. Whatever pace they're at, they stay at that pace until otherwise directed. The rider is not to aid them (/piss them off?) by pushing each stride. We moved from the walk to the trot fairly early on in the ride. I was told to keep my hands quiet but not throw him away. Initially the roundness wasn't there, but as time went on, it arrived, all on its own, without me having to screw with his face. We played with the same brush with the leg in the trot to get a really lovely trot. And then when we had a really nice trot, moved on to the canter. 

In our canter depart I was told not to: 

- Cluck

- Drive with my seat

- Lean my upper body forward 

A little tight at first

In other words, the canter transition comes from the legs (and I assume eventually the seat, but it sure doesn't come from the list of three things above that I tried/do all the time...). And me doing it from one of the other things listed above meant we cantered 4-6 strides and then rinsed and repeated. A couple of times I had to get to #3 which led to some flailing around on my part and a wrong lead on Butterball's part. But a few attempts later, when I slid my outside leg back and closed my inside leg at the girth, he lifted into the canter. 

The ONLY time I did anything with my hands was tracking right where he wanted to tilt his head to the left. Then I gently closed my fingers on the right rein a couple of times to get him bending properly. 

Half-halts followed the same pattern - quietly close and lift, but if that doesn't work the next one is sharper. If this causes a break to the trot, the trot must also half-halt. But then STOP slowing down. So if the canter is 10 mph and the trot starts as a sprawling 10-11 mph, then half-halt to get the trot to an 8 mph. Then legs are used to tell him to continue at that 8 mph if he tries to slow down beyond that. Then pick the canter back up and try the half-halt again. 

Through all this work, essentially just on responsiveness to the aids, he became softer and more through with more lift in his withers than I've felt before. 

That will do... 

I'm planning on going back once a week for the next few weeks. This was so incredibly useful. And even though it is by far the most I've paid for a lesson, I finally sold both saddles that were not in use. So that can be Operation Stop Nagging dressage lesson money for Butterball and me. 

Wednesday Walks: Splish Splash

Last week, Butterball got to go on a great adventure. My friend has a house on a lake about 45 minutes outside of Gainesville. And she sent me pictures of horses riding in from the boat ramp on the lake. I roped my friend into checking it out with me. I did say multiple times I had NO IDEA how it was going to be other than the lake is a nice sandy bottom, relatively clear lake. She made it extra adventure-y by zoning out and missing a turn and having to turn around in someone's yard. 

I can see why the zoning out though, it was a beautiful drive

I managed to get there on the first try, but did get a little worried when I pulled through pretty narrow metal gates into a long, single track sandy road that led to the boat ramp. I consoled myself that people with boats managed to turn around, so surely I would be able to turn around the two horse trailer. And indeed, there was plenty of room at the end. When I got out of the truck, there were a million bugs that looked A LOT like MOSQUITOES all over the truck and trailer. I braced myself and started rifling for bug spray in the tack room before realizing they didn't seem to bite. Okay, we can co-exist then. 

Butterball was a bit confused about what he was doing at this new spot all alone and for once didn't want a drink. We made our way in hand down to the boat ramp. 

His little ears go a bit sideways when he is unsure. So cute. 

Then he got his drink from the lake

After getting his feet wet at the ramp, we walked over to a more gradual sandy lead in to the lake. 

Unsure ears again since there were little tiny waves

But it just took him a minute to get comfy

I took my shoes off at the shore and didn't actually fear for my toes, he's such a good boy. I should've brought water shoes, not a single pair of boots that I didn't really want to soak. 

We wandered back up to the trailer after that. 

Speckly pony from splashing around

My friend arrived shortly after we walked back up. Butterball got a quick brush and then got his hackamore and the bareback pad. The one fault of the bareback pad is it is hella slippery when the top of it gets wet. Which it did. Oops. But all good, I did not unintentionally dismount that day, although I did come close at one point. 

The boys were actually quite goofy about the concrete barriers. I was surprised when Butterball balked, but then realized it wasn't about the water in the distance, it was about the weird concrete barriers. But we made it past and then back into the water. 

The black ear tips are just THE CUTEST

This was the best group photo I managed

The boys had a fabulous time. Other than keeping them out of each others laps, which they both seemed to really want to do, we gave them very little direction. Without me asking, Butterball walked out about as deep as he could walk without starting to swim. He moseyed around, drinking some, holding his chin in the water some, and then pawing a good bit. This is what soaked the bareback pad, but that's the whole reason I was in it. Eventually they seemed to have had their fill and we headed out. 

We headed down the dirt road to the boat ramp and then spotted an entrance into a state forest right across the road. But there were also cows. In the woods. That kinda sorta chased us. I regretted the bareback pad and the rope halter at one point, but it turned out fine. Butterball doesn't truly want to go anywhere when he spooks, which is great. 

There were a few flies, but it wasn't terrible, so we took a solid 20 minute walk down a relatively shaded track before turning around and back tracking. Then the ponies got groomed and got to graze a bit before we loaded up and headed home. 

Overall it was an absolutely delightful June morning, I would 100% go back. Out of respect for the people who live there and/or use the boat ramp for boats, I won't ever go on a weekend, but we had the place to ourselves this weekday morning. We did pick up the poop that they left in the grass, so hopefully this continues to be allowed. 

Psychological Reactance

When PW said "you're afraid to go there and ask him for more" my first reaction was "I AM NOT AFRAID TO GO THERE! SO NOT AFRAID! WHAT A DUMB STATEMENT. WHY DOES HE THINK I'M AFRAID?!?!" Definitely thought in ALL CAPS because that was the only thing that was going through my brain after such an outrageous statement. And in one sense, my reaction was correct. I am not at all afraid of getting hurt by Butterball. In spite of my fall in February, this horse feels SAFE. He shows up, he does his job as asked, and when it's a stupid ask, like a flat on your face flail from a long spot, he politely says no. Even when he gets a little squirrelly (ie when cows run at the fence behind him), he still feels safe. I think it's that he has never once checked out on me and lost his own sense of self preservation. Both thoroughbreds, at different points, checked the fuck out and went blank in the back of their eyes. Butterball? Never checked out. And he's 14.3. And in spite of his athleticism, being able to wrap my leg around his barrel makes a huge difference in how secure I feel on him. 

Old media, I didn't get any new this week, but leg is wrapped

SO anyways. Not afraid of getting hurt by the horse. But when I checked back in and decided that I should try to dissect the information coming from the person I'm paying to give me information rather than just shouting internally that it wasn't true, I realized what he meant. 

To make a long story long, I've spent the past week riding Butterball in his hackamore (which is a rope side pull). I started using the hackamore because I was sick of hearing him chomp chomp on the bit. So, see above about him never feeling like he's endangering me, I took away the bit. 

To clarify, I don't actually hate the sound of teeth on metal. The one sound that really does that for me is anything scraping along ice. But, I hated what the sound of him chomping meant... The chomp chomp means he's not truly through and accepting contact and it means there is tension. So for a week before PW told me I was afraid, we were merrily trotting and cantering along, nose to the ground, steering off my seat and legs and somewhat adjusting pace/balance off my seat and legs. And it felt so harmonious and lovely. We even jumped things in the hackamore. Those things were small, but they came up perfectly out of stride and in a lovely forward way. Yet I could still halt in a straight line afterwards off my seat and voice. Basically, angels were singing, and I was plotting leaving the show ring forever and riding solely in his hackamore. 

Hackamore for the first ride at the GY's and he was perfect

Then in the lesson, I rode him in his usual Neue Schule Turtle Top Full Cheek. He actually only chomped it twice when I bridled him, which is a definite decrease. But once I picked up contact, there it was, the familiar chomp chomp. It was during our warm up when I was "asking" for a collected canter that PW told me I was afraid. And I clued in that I am still afraid of ruining this horse. He is, by far, the nicest horse I've ridden. He is also exquisitely sensitive and somewhat lazy. So if I let him get away with a half-assed version of what we are capable of, he is happy to deliver. But if I ask for more, but reward the tries along the way, he will deliver that too. But I have to reward the tries along the way because he is sensitive and he WANTS to be a good boy. If I don't reward the tries along the way he gets shut down and kinda turned off and dull. Whew. 

PW dissected that the chomping is him not being through and then talked me through asking for more collection in the canter. When we truly got it and he lifted his forehand, the chomping stopped. Whaddya know, an initial reaction of tension and a not through attempt at slowing, but then by being gently persistent, he released the tension and actually came through. HUH. His initial reaction was one of reactance, probably that I've created, but then he came around to it. My horse and I have some things in common... 

The rest of the lesson was equally interesting. Butterball's straightness fault is a left drift. I think this was there initially, but really worsened when I kept riding with my sprained ankle. This made my left leg ineffective and made me lean right pretty badly over fences to protect the ankle on landing. We're dealing with the consequences of that now. 

I can see the twisting/lean happening here, this was two weeks after the ankle

Corresponding view from the right side, looking at my hips they're definitely to the right

And maybe getting jumped out of the tack is actually just leaning right

The hackamore helped to show me how inactive my left leg is compared to my right. This inactivity has allowed the left shoulders to escape. When I'm not relying on my hands, the ONLY way to fix it is by actually using my left leg. I can fix the left shoulder issue on the flat either by actually counter bending to the outside with a present, supportive left leg (funny because a bulging left shoulder while tracking left isn't actually a true counter bend, thanks brain), or by booting him off of that shoulder with my left leg at the girth to achieve true inside bend. Useful info for sure. 

In the lesson, we were working through a gymnastics line of three canter poles to an oxer, one stride to a vertical, and eventually one stride to an oxer. At one point I tapped him on the left shoulder over the first fence. PW told me NO, that will chase him quick, which is not what we want once we're in the grid. Instead, he raised up the left side of the fences and added placing poles and had me aim for the right hand stripe on the poles. That finally got us straight. He also pointed out my right lean over the fence and said no matter where the horse goes, I stay in the center, but can use an open right rein to encourage him to stay right. Okay, got it. We eventually did put it together successfully and then called it a day on that. 

Plenty to ponder going forward. I do think for his mental health, and mine, that some rides in the hackamore are good. It also has been very helpful for revealing holes in my position and aids. But I also tend to take it too easy on us as a team, so I'll need to structure that in a way that there are days where I put the pressure on (AND REWARD) to be better, lift more, sit more, etc. 

A few other notes from the lesson that didn't fit into my story line above: 

- Do not sit back and drive with the seat to go forward... close the hip angle and stay light in the seat

- When sitting the trot to fences, 90% of the weight should be in the stirrups, 10% in the seat 

- Do not throw away the contact to go forward

Wednesday Walks: Utilities Inspector

Last week Butterball and I headed out for a hack. They are doing some sort of utility work up and down my whole road, which is also Butterball's whole road. Perhaps we're getting high speed internet? Might make waking up to the whole house shaking worthwhile... 

The ride started out innocuous enough

But this sign along the side of the 55 MPH road (where people go 70...)

Made me hop off to walk up to it in hand, which I had already done once before over a gaping hole they had left in the ground. 

Once I was on the ground with him, he pretty readily approached the sign. And considered knocking it over, but I managed to talk him out of it. Fortunately he's not the type to do that and then spook at it. But the poor utility workers need their sign. 

Then we found someone's mattress. But with the click and treat method, he approached it all on his own. 

And touched it all over. 

Before moving on

He also touched this flag for fun. There's a whole fenceline of them that spooked him pretty badly the first time we came by. Now he gives no shits. I love that about him. 

Trotting with his nose to the ground in his hackamore is just delightful. I wondered if he was going to try to eat while trotting. I wouldn't put it past him. 

And then acted as an inspector. He sniffed the plate. And then pawed at it. Fortunately it was pretty well anchored in so it didn't move. 

He didn't pass this one though, it was not fully placed... 

Nope. Not okay. The corner is lifted. 

Rewarded for his GOOD BOY status by getting to weed eat the pasture fences

A few stops to walk up to the scary things, but some canter and trot bits 

Plz excuse the janky formatting. I added a gif I made for the first time. And struggle bussed the whole way through it. Twenty minutes later, I gave, so if the alignment isn't right, sorry, not sorry. Sheesh. Good thing the only technology I need for my job is the ability to type. 

May Wrap Up

May was a lovely and productive month for us. We did a LOT of gymnastics type exercises in our lessons with PW this month: bounces, a true gymnastic line, and the way we started the month, cantering the same three canter poles and oxer repeatedly. 

	Butterball
Training rides	0
Lessons	4- 3 Gymnastics type, 1 course work
Hacks	4- 1 off property, 2 with equiband and hackamore
Ground work, lunge, long line	0
Flat rides	12
Conditioning rides	0
XC school	2- Majestic Oaks and Sweet Dixie
Shows	1- Area 3 Champs at FHP

I also discovered that he has THE BEST TIME EVER when I let him hack in his hackamore with the equibands. Our last two dedicated hacks of the month were hackamore and equibands. We did a tiny bit of trot, and some porpoising, while out on the hack and then finished both of those rides with some trot and canter on the buckle around the field at home. 

All geared up to go hack! 

This month has been a bit of my awakening to how tense he can get with dressage. He'll still feel relatively pleasant, but will chomp incessantly on the bit. I've been practicing picking up light contact on our 15-30 minute walk hack we do at the start of every ride. I don't drop the contact again until he softens AND stops chomping. He's pretty clever, so I think he'll get this soon, but I don't know how well it will translate to not chomping in the ring. 

The other half of this is that he is part pony and can easily sucker me into just nagging him forward. So for the past several months I've had one ride every two weeks or so where THE ONLY thing I do is focus on each leg aid getting an appropriate response. If a light brush doesn't get a response, then a soft squeeze, then a boot, then tickle with the whip. As a non-pro, I have to just let this be my ONLY focus the whole ride so that I notice every single response he gives AND then stop asking. But also notice if there is a non-response and then respond with the next larger aid.

I did take some check in photos of feet and overall condition this month.

I finally have his weight at the right point and his muscling is getting there too! 

Condition? I'm in a cookie deficient condition! 

Front feet are looking pretty excellent

Excuse the terrible angles, these are shot on the road we hack down so I was hesitant to let go of him for too long. But the hind feet bruising from my barefoot experiment is finally growing out. And when the farrier did him two days ago he declared he had finally grown some hind foot! Yay! 

And we ended the month with a successful outing at Ocala Summer I/Area III Champs with two beautiful jumping phases to follow a not as great dressage test. Pictures by Victoria DeMore Photography.

The dressage test did have some nice moments though 

Lookit him go! 

He's just so dang good over every fence 

June is going to bring a check in with the saddle fitter, which is great. He's been kind of argumentative about the contact and softening over his back during warm ups in the jump saddle. It was brand new in February and is wool flocked so will definitely need to be reflocked. Plus his muscling has changed a lot since then. Just before the saddle fitting appointment, we're moving (back?) to the GY's. Butterball has not boarded there before, but between Yoshi, Ben, and Goggles, I was with them on and off for 3 years. His current barn owner is lovely but I miss having someone to ride with (I'm the only person who rides at the farm...) and I miss the groomed arena. The pocket gophers and I have had a war this winter/spring that I believe I've lost. 

This arena..

Towards the middle-end of the month there is some news that will be exciting for BB in another 3+ years. But it is exciting for me now, so I'll share it anyways if it all comes together. I'm also looking at showing at WEC in the AIR CONDITIONING in July, which means continuing weekly lessons with PW to get us ready for that. We'd just do the 0.9m so I'll have to see exactly how much a whole new set of registration stuff would cost... Oye... 

I also want to check out a spring fed lake about an hour away where we could take the horses swimming. But I'm a little concerned we will be murdered by yellow flies while doing so... But anyways, lots of adventures to come in June, and Ms. GY will be joining on a lot of them which is exciting, I've missed riding with her!