WW: Ben and Friends

Ben had been trying so so hard to play with Butterball and the others over the fence that we finally gave it another go. And he's been so nice! The babies are a bit intimidated by him still, but it's probably good for them.

They're separate in the morning so Ben can leisurely enjoy his breakfast, but I moved him over shortly after this

And we had our best, most relaxed equiband lunging session to date on Tuesday, probably not a coincidence. 

Sticks and Sand - Lesson Recaps

Two weeks ago, Butterball and I squeezed in a jump lesson on Thursday morning before I headed out of town. It was good, but also frustrating. Like, do I have to be reminded how to ride this pony once every two months? The issue this time was 1. not using leg and 2. jumping up his neck. Which got me in trouble and almost landed me on the ground when pony noped out of the second jump in a combo because see 1 and 2. After that I got myself together and started using more leg. And he jumped great. 

It was quite a fun course, lots of turning. Other than our one oops, everything went great. 

Then last week I had a dressage lesson with a new trainer who is less than 30 minutes from my barn, YAY!!! 

No lesson media so have a picture of the frost/ice in Ben's roached mane Wednesday morning

The take home message from the dressage lesson? Just keep riding the canter. We did the same rapid fire transitions JT has had us doing to strengthen the canter. And she got very exacting about SLOW IT DOWN after the down transition to trot. I'm not allowed to let him trot off in a sprawling, fancy, too forward trot for two circles before I control the tempo. Even if he loses the softness/roundness, half halt IMMEDIATELY and get the slower trot. 

After the rapid fire transitions, we did something she said she likes to use in warm up: walk leg yield into turn on the forehand that is basically a walk leg yield around a point. Ben and I had done something similar to the turn on the forehand/leg yield and it was great for suppling him completely through his back. With Butterball it revealed a few holes in his response to lateral aids. There were a few moments of "I don't wanna". I typically start with very shallow baby leg yields in the walk to warm up. She said those were for four year olds. Not that they're bad for the very beginning, but then move on to bigger. Actually get the hind legs crossing. We didn't quite get the leg yield/ToF feeling right, but I've felt it on Ben and I'll keep working on in before I see her again in two weeks. 

Then it was back to the canter, this time slowing it down. Creating more than one canter. Again, similar to what JT has been having us do (it's really nice when trainers independently have the same ideas). Then once he had slowed down and lifted a bit, softening my hand, letting him know that I will not hold him up there, he has to hold himself. It wasn't pretty and it still feels like I'm doing SO MUCH to make the canter happen. But, perhaps, maybe, I need to do that much right now. Her idea though was also some personal responsibility. He has to stay in the canter unless told otherwise. This is where she differed a bit from other trainers - if he broke he needed to pick up the canter IMMEDIATELY. Her point was that he doesn't understand that he is supposed to hold it if it takes me two circles to get it back. Which makes sense. I certainly sacrificed some quality of the transitions though to make that happen. Something to think about - which school of thought do you fall into? She definitely hit the nail on the head that I've been riding him softly and kindly and that those are fantastic things that I shouldn't change, but that we need to set the bar higher because he is more than capable. And also more than capable of hanging out at my very low bar and being very happy about that LOL. 

2025 Reservations

I heard the idea of reservations instead of resolutions recently on Tim Ferris' podcast. He recommended this as a way to ensure that you are spending time with the 5 or 10 people in the world who mean the most to you and with whom you have the most fulfilling relationships. Funny enough, my two childhood best friends and I have been doing an annual trip for the past four years and have plans to continue it. We're headed to Roanoke, Virginia this summer. 

But this is a horse blog. How do reservations fit in here? Well, for the first time in a long time, Butterball makes me feel like I can plan some things in the future and chances are pretty good that we'll get there. 

Our Winter/Spring:

January: This month (this week actually) we're trying out a new dressage trainer. I'm quite excited about her geographically because she is 20 minutes from my barn. Time well tell if the other pieces are a good fit. A few weeks later the boys get their teeth done. Butterball was due last month, but my lovely dentist has quite a booked schedule so I wasn't able to get her out any sooner. 

February 1st: Three Lakes Horse Trials at novice. I've never been to this venue in spite of it being 1.5 hours away on maps, just like Rocking Horse (where we go a lot). Partially because it just never lined up with my work schedule, but I think we also were basking in the comfort of Rocking Horse. Three Lakes HT is divided into two one day shows with Prelim, Modified, and Novice running on Saturday and Training, Beginner Novice, and Starter running on Sunday. I actually love this. I will have to drive down Friday to walk courses and sort out where to park, where the office is etc etc, so it will end up being just as much driving as Rocking Horse over two days, but the first day I get to take the little car and Butterball gets to chill at home. 

Image from threelakesht.com

February 18/19: Majestic Oaks is hosting another weekday schooling show. We may head there for a quick pop around because the Rocking Horse on the 15/16th that everyone else is headed to conflicts with a trip Ryan and I have planned. I LOVE these weekday schooling shows since my weekends are at such a premium. It would be good to do another show though because next up is...

March 14-16: Carolina International HT. This is another new venue for us and would be our big "away" show for this half of the year. It will give us a chance to compete somewhere with LOTS of atmosphere at novice. 

Image from Eventing Nation

March 27-30: Terranova. I'm not sure on this one. Being gone two LOOOONG weekends in the same month is a bit much. So we'll see how I'm feeling around this time. 

April 5-6: Rocking Horse. If we don't do Terranova, we'll probably head to Rocking Horse for their spring HT. Because next month...

May 10: Training move up at Majestic HT! This is assuming all the wheels are on the bus and things have been going along swimmingly. 

Moving on to summer and fall...

May 31-June 1: Ocala Summer HT to start solidifying out training level feels.

Then we'll probably spend June and July avoiding the heat but continuing to truck along. Because the tentative goal for the fall is the classic series training three day at KHP in October to cap off our season before Butterball gets a nice 4-6 week break with some hacks and relaxation in the last part of October and all of November. 

August 23-24: Bouckaert Equestrian International. This is a tentative plan because this fall is going to involve a lot of travelling. But because the venue sold (formerly Chatt Hills) and I haven't made it up there yet, I 100% want to get up there if they're going to stop hosting events. 

September 26-28: Stable View Oktoberfest. If we didn't make it to Chatt, this would be a good final prep before the Hagyard Classic Series Three Day in October. 

Alright, now I've thrown it all out there, cue lameness, backwards movement in training, etc etc. But I'm feeling pretty optimistic with this pony of mine. 

2024 Year in Review

Highs: 

• Obviously acquiring Butterball in August is the TOP of this list. Words cannot describe how much I love this horse. He's the coolest partner and brings me joy in so many ways. 

• Goggles HJ show in January was the perfect combination of novelty while still staying well within our comfort level. My husband was our ground crew which made it extra fun too. 

Lows: 

• Losing Pico in November is another obvious TOP of the list

But she got to spend the weekend prior in NC

Feeling so cozy and getting lots of love and attention

• Ben's feet... he worked into the mid-spring and then got foot sore with 4 shoes and pads. He moved to Goggle's farm in May and I yanked all four shoes then. He is finally getting back to some semblance of working order. I think in the long run this will have been a good thing. His hind feet look GREAT. His front feet are slowly, ever so slowly, getting there. Word to the wise, DON'T yank all four shoes headed into the wet time of year. 

January: 

Goggles moved to his new farm. Overall he settled in well, but he did struggle with being solo in his field. We also hit a bit of a wall with trailering since we were hauling more often. Rather than desensitizing him it highlighted the hole in his education. Under saddle, his new saddle in fact (a Custom brand Monte Carlo), he did quite well with a fun schooling at Majestic and a very successful HJ show where he was a star at cross rail jumpers. 

Big time winner

February: I didn't keep up with filling this post in at the time, so I had to look back at posts and photos to figure out what went on in February. 

We hatched out a whole buttload of cortunix quail

My grandma visited and we explored some of the UF campus

And went to the butterfly garden 

Goggles continued to work on manners and inner peace via the cowboy's methods

And we took a solo Majestic trip where Hillary filmed us! 

Goggles continued to be a star about ditches

March: Since I didn't write these months at the time, they're getting all the good Pico pictures inserted. 

Such a sweet lap cat 

Ben continued to do some work under saddle both with me and a friend. We also added in more lunging as a more time efficient way to work

He also got electroacupuncture once every few weeks 

Pico did some more lounging looking like a model

Goggles went to school at HSITP and was fantastic 

Pico cuddled

And participated in yoga 

Goggles grew in a spring coat with dapples

And came over to the GY's to have a few training rides with AT there

He also went on his first official trail ride with Ms. GY and her older guy, Ben's BFF, to supervise

Ryan and I visited by BF and her family in NJ. It was a great trip but did end with both of us getting sick. 

April: Goggles turned FIVE in April. We continued working on trailer loading, an ongoing theme for basically all of my time with him. We also did our first "event", a combined test at Majestic where Ben came along to teach Goggles how to horse show. This worked really well in terms of learning to eat hay and drink (and play) on the trailer. But not so well when it came to separating the two of them. I found myself flying a horse kite when I tried to take Goggles on a hand walk before stadium. But we survived and ended on a number! 

Finishing on a number and getting a ribbon

Matching bay butts

We also went out and schooled some BN XC at the end of the month. 

Ben continued to build back up, but ended up with bruised front feet when I did a 15 minute trot set in the pasture. My friend had been about to get back into jumping with him, but that got postponed, unfortunately indefinitely. 

In non-horse events, I got to spend time at a lovely quiet cabin off Juniper springs run with a friend. And Pico continued to be as adorable and cuddly as ever. 

May: Ben got all four shoes pulled this month and also moved to Goggles' barn. He spent a bit of time in padded wraps, but pulled them off relatively quickly, leaving him sore and sad again. 

Goggles and I continued to work on the nitty-gritty of things, including addressing a relatively new habit of jumping up his neck. He also did his first 3 phase event which was also his first USEA event. We had a 20 on XC because he got too busy sight seeing everything around to focus in on the jump. And I didn't "get busy" to get him refocused, a phrase that I found very helpful at later XC schools. 

This was also the month where Pico developed a UTI. We started doing aggressive flushes of her SUB system and injectable antibiotics every 8 hours. Ryan and I had plans to go to a conference in the panhandle at the end of the month and ended up switching to a pet friendly hotel so she could come with, and we could continue her medications. 

A brief moment of empty beach with storms rolling in 

She was pretty happy about this decision. She also used the shelf above the bed as I thought she would and did a couple panther moves onto/off of the bed in the middle of the night. 

SO cute, she was such a good traveler

Intercoastal

Don't buy Frenchie's ya'll... CT scan image. Black is gas (air). You can see there's actually no pathway for air to go from outside the dog to inside the dog. In addition to tiny nostrils (stenotic nares), long soft palates that hang into the airway, everted laryngeal saccules, and tiny tracheas (hypoplastic tracheas), they tend to have "macroglossia" aka tongues that are too large for their mouths. The trachea and tongue cannot be surgically corrected. We have bred these dogs to be completely unable to breath. This sets them up for SO many problems going forward, all kinds of GI issues because they have to work extremely hard to breathe. And don't even get me started on their spines... 

June: The horsey highlight of June was the three phase schooling show at POP that Goggles and I did. It was the first dressage test where I could really RIDE him instead of just surviving. We also felt very professional out on cross country. He started to feel really trustworthy out there and the canters between fences felt great. Schooling before JT helped me with "getting busy" when I felt his feet slowing down.

The non-horsey highlight was a trip to Alabama with my two childhood best friends. We saw some new places and got lots of quality time together playing cards, cooking, and catching up. A somewhat low point was 18 hours at Shands for cellulitis and lymphangitis from a chi surprise biting my hand. While it wasn't a pleasant experience because when is the ER ever a pleasant experience, the nursing staff and doctors there were great. 

My "uhhhmmm this isn't good" picture to my dad and coworkers 

July: Goggles was QUITE a grown up this month with a fairly high stress trip to HSITP that had us hiding out in the covered with wind blowing rain in sideways and standards blowing over. After all that he put in three professional trips in the 2'6" thoroughbred jumpers. He had one clear round and one rail in each of the other two rounds. But he was totally focused on the fences, just had a bit of bucking in between. 

I took a trip to North Carolina with my dad and Pico came along. 

Cuddles

Definitely a cat bed

And Ben spent some time in glue on Octos that Ryan and I experimented with. We didn't end up getting them to stay on longer than about a week and a half, but they got him through some of the worst of the soreness he was having after a very minor trim. 

Ben also went to the chi institute again, but the clinician was by far my least favorite of all the people we've met there. His scanning was VERY aggressive and Ben was pretty put off by him. 

Sorry bud, usually it is a very pleasant experience. 

August: Highlight of August was deciding to buy Butterball. But Goggles also had a great month with a trip out at BN at Majestic with AT where they finished 5th. 

Why hello beautiful

Clearly everything exists for you to lounge on

Our first XC trip together

Our first stadium jumps together, the first day I tried him

September: 

Goggles spent all of September healing from a large gash on his leg that I didn't share photos of at the time due to his being for sale and all. This was the first month he was listed for sale. Clearly that was not productive since he was on stall/paddock rest for the whole month. Don't keep scrolling if you dislike gory pictures. 

Freshly stapled up, optimistic...

Mid-september after all the staples except the most medial failed. We started furodex at this point to deal with the impending proud flesh  

End of September

End of November... I was shocked it healed this well. I went through several phases of despair during the process, but he ended up with a teeny tiny scar. 

Butterball and I spent this month getting to know each other better after we started with our first schooling show at POP. 

He had a few aquatredding sessions. We also went for several hacks from JT's and one trot/canter set fitness session at Sweet Dixie with a friend and her TB. 

We had our Novice debut at POP a few weeks later with one of the best stadium rounds I've ever jumped and a really fun XC trip. 

I hate corners, he's the best

Looking at his adoring fans 💝

Pleasant hurricane hacks

The month ended with a mild brush with hurricane Helene for us and a catastrophic hit for the Carolinas. We had 48 hours without electricity, but that was a minor inconvenience. All the horses were fine. We did not end up at Stable View though because the show had to run without water and electric and adding another horse and truck to the mix vying for scarce resources didn't seem like a good plan.

 

Tossed in pic of Goggles playing with his grooming tools

She had the most gorgeous and over the top whiskers

October: 

Hurricane Milton followed Helene, this time heading south of us and leaving us with even less damage than Helene. Butterball moved home and I panicked about feeding him and not letting him get fat. His insulin levels after an overnight turnout on grass were fine though, so we dropped down on the grazing muzzle to just three nights a week to keep him from gaining weight. 

Unfortunately Butterball and Ben aren't actually turnout buddies, Ben was mean to him!!! 

Butterball and I had a private XC lesson at Naked Horse where we worked on my galloping position. 

After that lesson I got serious about not putting a girth back on him until a pesky cut just cranial to his girth groove healed. 

So we did some bareback hacking

Ben's hind feet were starting to look really good. 

And he kept getting at home acupuncture

And he took a much more productive trip back to the chi institute

Processing his adjustment

Towards the end of the month when he could wear a girth again, Butterball and I did a long fitness session out at Watermelon pond. 

And finished up the month with a fun jump lesson that involved trips through the grid as part of the course. 

Pico always thought saddle pads were intentionally left there for her to sleep on. 

We also broke out her Halloween costume. 

November: 

Butterball and I tackled our first USEA Novice at Rocking Horse and had a great time. 

A week later, Goggles tackled his first USEA BN at Majestic. He was also super with a tense dressage test but clear stadium round (one circle for a jockey mistake since the numbers had fallen over during the wind and rain that happened right before his round) and clear cross country trip. 

Unfortunately this was also the month Pico's UTI returned from her SUB for a third time, so we said goodbye to the best cat ever. 

Last cuddles

And a tuna steak cooked in bacon grease

💔

December: Goggles headed back to the folks at TRRAC, which took a lot of my plate. We also welcomed two five month old litter mates (acquired two weeks apart because I like to make things complicated). 

Gabapentin was involved in the making of this picture... We gave them gaba to make vaccines more pleasant and they stayed verrrryyyy sleepy 

Butterball and I worked out more nitty gritty details of XC at Naked Horse after JT watched our XC round at the Majestic schooling show. At that show we had our best dressage test to date. Stadium wasn't as smooth as at POP and Rocking Horse, but XC was a blast. 

And that about wraps up the year! Some very bright spots and also some pretty terrible ones, but we're moving forward still. I'm looking forward to what 2025 will bring.