Majestic Dancing

Butterball and I did the December Majestic Schooling Show on Saturday. Google photos reminded me a few days prior that four years ago was the Majestic Schooling Show that Jolais and I did together. That marked my return to eventing as an adult (other than one POP show in vet school). 

What a cool mare, I was very lucky to have the ride on her for a bit! Anyways, Butterball and I had a delightful time at the show. He continues to be just the most pleasant kiddo. We've been really working hard on our dressage at home, focusing mostly on my own position because whaddya know, he goes better that way. I've been trying to make sure I am centered and balanced at every moment. He's definitely the smallest horse I've ridden consistently (the mare pictured above was 15.2 which is the closest). My balance can influence his negatively very quickly if I start throwing myself around and doing weird things when asking for bend and transitions. In addition to putting that piece in place, I've been working on a slight shoulder fore feeling most of the time to help with canter transitions and general bend. We've also been practicing smoooooooooth transitions, no slamming down into the walk. Initially I started working transitions to improve his sharpness, but his reponse to aids improves the more balanced he is, so my own balance and the shoulder fore actually has him more responsive. The transitions have been very helpful in keeping his back up and swingy. 

Photo credits to Lisa Madren. 

And we got to show all that off on Saturday. The only part that wasn't as good as it has been at home was the 4-5 strides of walk at A. I didn't prep him enough which I found irritating because we've gotten that move really nicely down most of the time. Our canter work was still by far the worst scores, but I think the saddle may be playing a role in that. It is far too close in front and I think lifting up in the canter is made much harder by it. It is now off to Forestier (again) for repaneling since they didn't do what the fitter asked the first time. 

Anyways, small saddle gripe aside, the test got us our best score yet, a 30.3, which put us tied for 5th.

The last halt comment, shoulders left, was very interesting to me. I had felt that as haunches right. Something to mull over as we continue to work on the halts. We've been doing haunches right/shoulder left into our halts at home, so it made me laugh a bit to myself as we did it at the show. 

Stadium was not one of our better rounds. I think, after watching the video, I'm going to blame it on the saddle. He was behind my leg and looked cranky. We only had one rail, but had several ugly jumps.

Thank you Hillary for the video! 

XC was great though, we had so much fun blasting around. He was a bit sticky to the first so I tapped him and he took it seriously. 

1 - freshly painted too 

2 - long gallop stretch to this one 

3- roll top

4- another long gallop to this one

5 - chevrons, I thought he might peak at this but he jumped it super

6 - cut out table 

7- also freshly painted, he did peak at it but was game when I told him to do his job

8A- flagged water

8B- corner after a left hand turn out of the water

I had to take this close up because the lady bug is so cute! 

9- I thought this might be spooky, it is also freshly painted, but he was so good to it 

10- uphill from 9

11AB- half coffin

He is so long strided we were pretty tight to the ditch. 

12- Wagon

13- Cut out table 

14- Down bank, I think I managed a pretty good half halt a stride out and then following down the bank 

Because 15 came up relatively quickly 

16- Trakehner

17- and home! 

We finished 12 seconds under optimum time which was good enough for 4th! 

 

Deep Breath

November was not a month I care to wrap up, so we're gonna take a deep breath and start over in this second week in December. 

Two nuggets. There were 7 but that story stays in November

Meet Dolce, thanks Libby! We welcomed her in pretty soon after losing Pico. The house was so empty. The last time I lost a cat I still had a dog. She's got a lot of similarities to Pico which I don't mind at all. Doesn't change the ache of not having my shadow cat, but its been fun having a kitten in the house. 

Goggles headed back to the folks at TRRAC a few days ago. A few things happened that made me decide to do this, but they don't really belong on the Internet. To be honest, I definitely have feelings of inadequacy and failure. But I went through those already when I bought Butterball and decided to sell Goggles, so I'm desperately trying not to feel them again. 

Butterball continues to be an absolute delight. Best egg ever. We don't have electric at the barn so I walked him up to the house for his most recent clip. No crossties (or tie period) and kids playing basketball nearby and it went just fine. 

Ben is getting more attention now. He went wrapless in November, and that was a mistake. But he's been back in wraps for a week now and seems to be feeling pretty good. His hind feet are looking amazing. I'm doing a coat of hoof armor shortly after each trim and he's actually got some decent depth to his soles and real heels for the first time in a long time. I'm doing some of the cowboy work with him, trying to give him an inner peace. He also is back to his weekly acupuncture, and he's getting all of Goggles supplements (liquid magnesium, Relyne, and Calming 707). 

Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon. Thank you again for all the kind words about Pico, I know everyone reading knows the feeling of losing your heart cat/dog/horse. 

A tribute I didn't want to have to write

Pico developed her third UTI in just as many months over the past weekend. We treated the first two, each with a month long course of antibiotics and multiple flushes of her SUB (fake ureter, placed in 2022 when she had a stone block her ureter). But we decided not to put her through that again. Her quality of life wasn't bad while on the antibiotics, but it wasn't great. So at a month short of her ninth birthday, we euthanized her at home after a gourmet meal of bacon and tuna steak. 

She spent the last few days before developing the UTI at her favorite place on earth, the North Carolina house. There are slick floors to slide on, stairs to stampede up and down, and sometimes surprise bacon hidden not quite out of her reach. 

She truly was the best cat. I work a lot of swing shifts and so arrive home between midnight and three am to a quiet house. We had a ritual where I would get ready for bed and then lay on the couch while she laid on my chest, purring, helping me let go of the stress of the day. That's where I'll miss her the most.

But her absence is felt everywhere since she was "the omnipresent cat". We joked that she was Bob from the movie What About Bob, "you think he's gone? He's not gone! That's the whole point, he's never gone!" She was always in the same room as me. I started setting up a towel to attract her off the yoga mat during my workouts. It only sometimes worked, she still often insisted on lolling on her back square in the middle of the mat. I, of course, worked out around her. 

She was the most people oriented cat I've ever met. She was infinitely trainable. I clicker trained her to beg on her hind legs and to give high fives. Ryan, not a cat person in general, trained her to politely ask before inviting herself onto his lap. She tried out new sounds all the time, sorting out which coos and chirps were best at getting her humans' attention. She always announced when she jumped down from things, but shockingly never made a sound when she was jumping up to explore the counters. 

She assessed new visitors and insisted on rubbing her face on their hand before allowing them to pet her. After that introduction she pretty much insisted on being petted. She had the softest fur and would deliver world class purrs for some good ear scratches. She always assumed they would adore her, and they universally did. 

One of my favorite pictures- her and my mom, my mom intent on reading and Pico confused about her lack of attention

She was incredibly playful as well and trained humans to play her games. A favorite was "Kitty volleyball" where she sat on top of her cat tree and smacked the toy mouse down when a person tossed it up to her. There was also "fetch, human" and a chase game. She was happy to help teach you the rules, but also had that cat characteristic of looking at you like you were completely out of your mind if you didn't play properly. 

She didn't like other cats, but tolerated most dogs and did meet almost all our baby poultry. She was the softest cat ever- she caught a mouse twice but failed to deliver any kind of killing bite. She thought about biting me once when I was holding her poorly for an IM iron injection, but she settled for just making four tiny red dots with her canines in my bicep. 

She was such a trooper for her extensive hospitalizations, surgeries, and treatments over the past 2+ years. She made friends with her doctors, nurses, and students. If she hadn't tolerated everything so well we wouldn't have kept going for so long. But this time, well, it was time. Her last day was full of cuddles, naps, and good food. She passed peacefully at home with the two people who loved her most. May we all be so lucky.