While I am absolutely THRILLED with Goggles, I wanted to get down a few "I could have done better" moments from the show last weekend. And I'll sprinkle in the show photos.
1. Get off the damn horse. When they were still running the 2' division, that should've been my cue to get off and hold him and let him graze.
Shot from under the covered where we eventually jumped to the small covered area where we were hanging out during the first of the rain
Under the covered
Dunno if that would have changed his feelings that he was having during our rounds that led to all the bucking, but it would have been better horsemanship. And I know this.
Feelings that we might be a feral llama. I love this picture because he looks like he is posing for the camera. Also SIT on your outside seat bone! Sheesh.
2. Ride to better spots. JT said that she has an exercise she feels like will help me with this. I unintentionally BURIED him to the single diagonal once, but that oops aside, I was riding him to take off spots that were a little too deep to most of the fences.
Absolutely buried him, he didn't touch it though in spite of what this picture looks like
3. Figure out what his 12' stride feels like. Once in the outside bending line we got 6 and a scramble instead of 7. And we got tight to the out of several of the lines. I'm very proud we didn't add because I have managed to do that on this 17.1 beasty, but now we need to figure out the proper pace so I don't have to woah at the last second.
A bit tight to the out of the 5 stride
4. Praise every moment of softness. I'm not going to be too hard on myself with this one, but he REALLY responds to the neck scratches with the inside rein, and I didn't take every opportunity to do that to try to soften his back during our rounds. Again, I'm not at all upset he had a hump in his back, bucking and that tension are 100% the way he feels his feelings and he had every right to have a load of them. But the more I can soften my seat and that inside rein the second he softens, the more likely he is to stay soft and not buck. Timing is everything
Chaos eye facing the camera
I love his stripe/snip, he's got the cutest face
I said it in the last post too, but I am SO freaking proud of him. He didn't think for one second about noping out of any of the jumps. He didn't care that the flower boxes were right outside of the arena, and he was just so bold and brave about everything. Once we can get his back consistently soft, he's going to be really genuinely fun to ride.
Absolute favorite and he acts like a normal horse begging for them
Approved as well, but not as delicious as carrots
Smartpak FTW, the first packed cookie I found that he would eat
These are the only two flavors I've tried. TBH Ben already has so many reject treats to eat I haven't wanted to branch out and try the other flavors yet
Goggles got to try these fancy treats at JT's. He ate them, but wasn't doing cartwheels about it. Considering how pricy they are, he isn't getting his own bag.
I've seen multiple good reviews of the Uckele Equi Treats, but Goggles said NO. Ben thinks they're pretty great, but he thinks everything is pretty great, so it is hard to tell if these are better than average.
Uhmmm, what? I would eat these things. But he won't.
These also smell amazing. But no.
Solid no. Wouldn't even try.
Before we discovered the SmartPak cookies we went off the beaten path to try to find something packaged he would eat... barn owner suggested savory. He tried them, but did not like.
When we were deep in the trailer training over the winter, Ryan thought surely carrot cake cupcakes would be appealing. NOPE!
Homemade horse cookies (I don't remember if I've shared the link, they're delicious unless you're Goggles) oat, carrot, molasses
What about your ponies? Any go-to faves for the picky ones? Or are they like Ben and the NO list is non-existent? We haven't tried a lot of non-traditional fresh fruit, but I don't have high hopes for any of it.
Goggles made his third appearance (read about the first and second) at our local HJ series this past weekend. There's something very appealing to me about these shows. I have no expectations of performance, they're ten minutes away, and there are always some new experiences to be had. And since there are no expectations it is easy to make them positive experiences. This show ended up having waayyyyyy more than the intended number of new experiences though, but he was such a trooper.
We had a lesson on Monday that week and then Goggles pulled one of his week old shoes off on Wednesday.
Hopped on bareback to hunt for it. He was good, but I still failed at finding it.
Which meant that Thursday we trekked back down to JT's to get it put back on. Schedules being what they are, he ended up staying the night there. Friday morning I picked him and his four shoes up and we headed up to the Alachua County Equestrian Center. I'd heavily debated entering the hunters in order to be in the covered, but I'm glad I didn't since they ended up moving the jumpers in there. I was all gung ho about hunters until I realized I couldn't use the running martingale. But the arena change meant that EVERYONE was schooling in the covered Friday before they ran the equitation divisions starting at five. We got there around 1030 and he ate hay on the trailer while I went and got my number.
Another nice oak to park under
I tacked him up and headed in where four other horses were already schooling. He was actually better in the traffic than Ben is historically and couldn't have cared less about the stuff in the arena. He wanted to counter bend and examine everything outside the arena, but I managed to talk him in to straightness and sometimes inside flexion. The arena filled up with six other horses and then we were at the max number of horses they let in at one time.
Walking around like a civilized beasty
Then we jumped, and he was just super. In my lesson Monday, JT and I discussed how Goggles was much more willing to take a correct spot off the ground vs Ben fitting in roughly ten strides in the last twelve feet before a fence. So I needed to be okay with the actual correct distances instead of holding him to a chip. I also took the message from our stadium warm up at the last POP show and since he was being soft, I stayed up and off his back and soft for several strides after each fence. We trotted and cantered in to the lines and got the right number of strides down them. He bucked after one particularly gappy spot, but still came back to me in time to make the turn to the next line in a balanced fashion. The jumps were probably still 2'-2'3", but I didn't figure another 3" the next day was going to be a huge difference. One group of riders had exited to wait till fences went up to go back in and school again. But he was so good and it was hot even in the covered, so we called it a day.
Carrots for the bestest pony
And post hosing grazing
Then he loaded up smoothly, again
And ate hay in front of the fan
He definitely expressed his feelings about the prior 24 hours when I got him home. He went for a good gallop around his field and chased Ben a bit before settling down for lunch.
Saturday I went to get him around 11. He and Ben were both laying down. Ben has let me hang out with him before, but the one time I saw Goggles laying down he got up when I reached the gate to his field. I think Ben letting me hang with him gave Goggles confidence because he stayed laying down and we cuddled in the sweaty sand for a few.
Ben flat out in the hot sand. How is that comfy dude?
Such a sweeite
Hi handsome kid!
After he got up, I bathed him and then fed him lunch before loading him up (again) and heading to the show grounds. I left Ben in a stall with some hay so he wasn't lonely without Goggles. The barn owner said when Goggles was gone Thursday night Ben had gone around whinying in the most pathetic way. He definitely has pathetic down to a T, that one.
Once we arrived, I had about two hours before the my classes would start, so I left Goggles to eat hay on the trailer in the shade and went to learn the courses.
I had started tacking up when they were starting the 2' division. There were 6 riders x3 courses each, so I assumed (hahaha) that we'd have about 45-60 minutes from the time they started to when they started the 2'6" division. The "projected for entertainment value only" schedule online agreed. He started out warm up with a pretty big hump in his back, wanting to look at everything outside of the ring and be reactive to everything in the ring. To be fair, there were beach themed decorations in the barn outside the warm up ring and that did include large beach balls. There were also children on electric scooters zipping around. All stuff he needs to get used to, but it was a lot. Like other shows though, once I pointed him at the jumps he was actually pretty business like. So we jumped a few jumps and then went to check the ring. There were only two ponies with riders left standing around outside the ring for the 2' division and one pony with the rider standing nearby. Seemed close to the course change, yes? So we went to park under an awning by the warm up ring that also had a nice large fan in it. He didn't so much want to park under the cover outside of the arena, so this was a good compromise. While the last mounted kid was finishing up, it started raining. Once it started raining he was pretty content to turn his butt to the wind and stay under the cover.
AFTER the other two finished, the one kid got BACK ON the pony and very, very leisurely started their second trip after about ten minutes of sitting around with an empty ring. FINALLLY, about two hours after the division of six riders had started, the division finished and they set for the 2'6". Man do I hate not having ride times.
It was raining pretty seriously at this point, but we popped back into the uncovered warm up ring and jumped a vertical and then an oxer. He was pretty nappy going in and bucked a lot in protest at having to get rained on as I put him back in the warm up ring, but again was business-like about the jumps. We headed up to the ring and they said they would let us do one trip around and then two warm up fences in the ring before starting our round.
We popped down the outside six stride line for our warm up line and then were preparing to start when the skies absolutely opened up. It was raining sideways INTO the arena and the planks from the jumps were blowing out of the cups. They let the other two riders who were in the 2'6" division into the covered and then we all stood around for 15-20 minutes. I dismounted after about 5 minutes and we stood there during the deluge. He kept all his marbles together really, really well for that part in spite of the crashing thunder and flashes of lightning. The video does a pretty good job of capturing it. Eventually it let up so the other two riders exited the ring. At this point Goggles half reared since he had been ABANDONED by his new friends in the empty arena. I took him out, walked him over the flowing rivers in the sand and got mounted up. He stepped right over and into the water without a single pause, GOOD BOY! We then headed back in to start our first course. This was about 2.5 hours after I had first gotten on him.
I'll break down what went poorly in another post, mostly to do with my riding, but overall I am SO SO PROUD of him. I am positive we had not jumped an entire 2'6" course before and he stepped right up and did it three times at a show. He did not think twice about any of the jumps and marched down the lines. There was A LOT of bucking. But he was tight over his back and had every reason to be, the whole day was a huge ask of him from start to finish.
When I thought that the jumps looked big our first go round, I pointed him at them and told him to do his job, and he did, and a damn good one at that. He got more rideable each round and was such a good baby horse. Each time we go some place he gets easier and easier to regulate. His emotions are still highest with regards to other horses, but even that has improved by leaps and bounds from where we started.
Jumping out of the three stride looking like there's a lot more scope in there
The video is our two warm up jumps, the pause for the deluge, and then the three courses in order. The angle wasn't the best for grabbing screen shots from, but I'm super grateful to have video at all! I'm hoping there will be some pro pics although he wasn't jumping the best, so I don't have high high hopes.
We did our first two courses basically back to back, then went back in for the third after one other person went. As soon as we finished, I jumped off and untacked him. He got loads of carrots and a hose and then we headed the ten minute ride home. We hit a few more bands of the storm on the way home, I love pulling with the 250 when there is standing water on the road. I can feel things slide a bit, but the truck never moves, thank goodness.
He was very happy to be home and immediately flung himself into the dirt to roll on both sides. Then he went for a good gallop around his field and harassed Ben into playing with him a little bit. He had Sunday off, but was still happy to see me and marched right up to the gate when I went to check on him. I'm glad he didn't decide I was zero fun after the long day the day before.
Huge shout out to my friend for being our horse show mom. She brought him a bucket of water, fixed my number when it tore through (cardboard + rain + sweat = tearing paper products), brought me a cool bottle of water, videoed us, and hung out the whole time even through the torrential rain. She even set the warm up fences for us IN the downpour. We met way back when I first moved to Gainesville and have stayed friends since then as we've both moved around some. It was fun to be back at a show with her. She got someone from her barn to snag this picture before the downpour. The perspective on this makes the 8 inch difference between Goggles and her mare look even bigger.
I discovered last week Goggles actually doesn't care about having his mane pulled. So I did that a tiny bit.
Don't mind the side eye, this wasn't actually after pulling, he was in the stall eating hay while I did that
I also took a conformation type shot of him because I thought he was looking pretty good. Then I got home and stared at it and thought about how far he still has to go and started doubting any progress had been made and thinking that I was not in fact doing anywhere close to a passable job of developing this horse.
Then I pulled up pictures from his arrival.
And from a year ago.
Dappled lighting is oh so pretty but doesn't make for a great conformation shot
And I decided we were on an okay path. I absolutely wish he had a stunning topline to share. But I'm hopeful that it will come. We've just really started to unlock some quality flat work that will build it.
Anyways, thanks for reading along for my journey of self-doubt prompted by an innocent picture.
Goggles: The obvious big news of the month was Goggles' super adventure at the Florida Horse Park where he decided dressage was sorta kinda chill (or he was reallllly tired from schooling the day before) and then jumped two beautiful, rideable, clear rounds.
Photo by BNB Photography
Every time I look at this picture I think that this is a horse for a 6 foot tall man. I'm 5'6". LOL. Photo by BNB Photography
Photo by BNB Photography
Other notable fun moments include ponying his big bro off property (in the bareback pad no less) and having a pretty nice little hack from the farm.
Definitely no pictures from the hack itself, but a post picture
The yearling from the barn accompanied him to JT's one day when he was getting a training ride. He was VERY in love with her and VERY concerned when she left him to go explore. Whole llama here.
Then he was spooked by the ice boots drying on the ground
But AT put him to work and still got some really nice stuff from him
There's soooooo much body to put together at the canter
And he even did some really nice stretchy trot at the end, Good BOY!
Ben
Goggles
Training rides
0
1 – flat
Lessons
0
3 – two jump one flat
Hacks
2 – ponied from Gogs
3
Ground work, lunge, long line
3
2
Flat rides
1
3
Conditioning rides
0
0
XC school
0
1 – FHP
Shows
0
1 - POP
Ben: Ugh. The experimentation in being barefoot is not going that well. He had both wraps on for all of two weeks before losing the left front and then the right front. The right front is his low foot and is the one that gets sore more easily. It also started raining which meant that his feet have started crumbling. I've started him on biotin, a Zn:Cu supplement because some reading made think that the very high iron content in our water here might be causing a relative deficiency in Zinc and Copper. I also applied Hoof Armor to his hind feet at the end of last month and they looked really pretty good until a week ago. So once both his wraps fell off, I went ahead and did his front feet. They were already pretty torn up though; I'm not sure it will stick as well to very chipped up feet, but who knows. The barn owner had a new barefoot trimmer out who she really liked, but Ben really does not have enough foot to take anything off at this moment. I'm not sure how to break the cycle either. To even put shoes back on it looks like they'd have to be glue ons right now.
He did go for a few lunges, one ride, and the two hacks ponied off Goggles when he was having good days. So he's still doing a few things, but not much. It's REALLY FREAKING HOT so if he stuck to a normal horse schedule he'd be having a few weeks off around this time of year anyways. But as I've lamented before, he doesn't like to do that.
I cringe posting these pictures because I know they look awful. What I don't know is what to do about it.
Hinds look a bit better
I did give him a summer hair cut though, which I think he likes. Honestly he just enjoys being fussed over in general.
Summer hair cut! I did it with scissors because there's no electric at the barn. It could be worse.
Once a week we're doing acupuncture for his feet and for ulcers. He loves the attention in the stall under the fan. It certainly works well for his local muscle soreness from his feet hurting, but I don't know if it is having an effect on the foot pain itself.
He and Goggles are also going out together mostly now. It's... okay. They LOVE having each other to hang out with, but Goggles is kinda (okay, really) an asshat. He goes after Ben for no reason. Not with real vigor, so when he's in work Ben is quick enough and gets out of the way. But when I went out of town I came back to a very bit up Ben. I split them up when I went to NC for a few days at the end of the month to try to save Ben's hide. The bites are right on that fine line between doing enough damage for me to want to separate them and just removing fur... They are happier together and go off and eat and stand in the shade and such, but Goggles is really pushing it close to the point of me separating them again.
I don't usually post life updates here, but... (slightly graphic photo to follow)...
24 hours in the hospital for cellulitis was fun... I have extra sympathy for the horses. It didn't hurt too much unless I tried to do ANYTHING with the hand. Can't imagine how that works when it is your leg.
Don't get bit by Chihuahuas ya'll, they seem to have teeth like a cat (small punctures with lots o bacteria) that had this whole thing swelling up within three hours and then leaking puss within eighteen. The lymphangitis running up my arm was what prompted me to go to the ER. Fortunately it turned around pretty quickly with IV antibiotics.
To not end on a gross note, here's some NC shots.
Young(ish) bear from the porch! Eek!
She went with me to NC because she loves it up there
But she does hate being in her carrier for the car ride, poor mittens
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