2025 Wrap Up

This post is coming a bit earlier than normal because I'm done with it, and I'm doing a technology detox between now and January 1st! 

So with this post, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, I hope you are having/have a wonderful holiday season. 

Past Wrap Ups: 

• 2024
  
• 2023 - this is prime Ben if you want to stare at pictures of that handsome horse again
  
• 2022
  
• 2021
  

Ahem, I've definitely gotten way more wordy this year. I just love gushing about Butterball that much though. 

By the Month: 

January: The year started with an assessment of both boy's feet. And a decision to change farriers for Butterball, while staying the course for Ben. 

Butterball continued to go on frequent hacks, but did struggle with some spookiness due to frigid weather and too much responsibility

And a few lunge sessions for Benjamin

I spayed the cats. And had serious struggles keeping them quiet

Towards the end of the month, Butterball and I met with a saddle fitter and afterwards had an absolutely marvelous pop around the XC at Majestic oaks

The result of the saddle fitting was ordering a new jump saddle and sending out the dressage saddle for a new tree. 

At the very end of the month, I came off Butterball when I leaned at a spooky fence, and sprained my ankle. In hindsight it was probably a reasonably severe sprain. But y'know I'm a horse person with all that entails... so I still went out... 

February: And competed at Three Lakes, where we WON our novice rider division on our dressage score. We didn't have the most beautiful stadium trip, but we left all the rails up. In hindsight, the stadium trip was foreshadowing some of our stadium struggles that were yet to come. 

Photo by Victoria DeMore Photography

Perfect pony is perfect. My left ankle is large. 

Two weeks later though, the results of poor farrier work and my decision to pull his hind shoes showed up, and we had a bit of a rough trip around Majestic at a schooling show. Hind shoes were already back on, but we made the decision to do his hocks as well. 

Ben got some dolphin stim work from Ryan and loved it

And by this point, Ben and Butterball were absolute besties

Which made it a bit harder to send Ben back to his previous owner in California at the end of the month. But it was definitely the right choice for this special boy. 

March: This month was a month of getting things right for the pony. He got his hocks and stifles injected after his sore hind feet led to some soreness higher up. We spent the month regaining confidence over smaller fences. We also got our custom fit jump saddle and re-treed dressage saddle back from Kate Ballard. In the getting things right, we missed Carolina International. But turns out that was good timing because the out-of-state weather curse continued with the novice divisions only running a CT due to terrible Sunday weather. 

We worked on learning about cows too, pretty successfully

He also got a brand new pony sized cooler

And Ben arrived back in California

April: We went to two events in April, Rocking Horse and Ocala Festival. They both highlighted that all was still not right in the world. While we had a winning dressage test at Festival, we had a stop/slide into a stadium fence there. And at Rocking Horse we had a clear stadium round, but a run out on cross country. Granted, Rocking Horse was a spooky course for a lot of folks, but the problem was the same one we'd been dealing with. 

We still managed a 7th place finish at Ocala

And more importantly got some very fun pony galloping pics

Dressage test at Rocking Horse

Later on course at Rocking Horse

And golden pony galloping

May: After our rough March and April, May brought some changes with the introduction of PW. We started with a LOT of slowing down the canter and then jumping from either a trot or a 9' canter stride with placing poles. Proving you don't need speed to get over fences. He also helped me discover my outside rein and started shaping Butterball's jumping style a bit with lots of gymnastics. 

The end of the month finished with PW venturing over from jumper land to coach us to jump a clear round at Area III champs. We'd had an unfortunately spooky dressage test but a clear XC round, so we finished the weekend in 5th. 

Completely adorable even if the banners in dressage did make for a tense test

June: We met our beloved dressage trainer this month. And started working on pony impulsion, which was essentially the focus of the next two months of lessons. We also discovered that Butterball LOOOOOOOOOVES water.

First of several summer lake trips, although the only one to this particular lake

I gave up on 3 scores under 35 for the gold medal and sent in my scores for the novice silver medal

And we dressaged in the heat

This was also a month of changes in location. Butterball moved to Ms. GY's farm and found himself right at home with the two horses that used to constantly bite my thoroughbreds. Pony brain worked wonders. 

And DH and I bought a farm with hopes of being there in a few years. 

July: This was a relatively quiet month in the heat. We fit in three dressage lessons, but I was out of town for 10 day stretch. And July is just kinda miserable in the heat. I did write about the same amount, but it was musings or property planning: 

• Property Planning
  
• Supplement discussion
  
• Reservation Check In
  
• Gardener vs. Architect
  

August: In August we FINALLY successfully headed out of the state to Bouckaert Farms. Although our fun was cut slightly short by me coming off in stadium, it was still a lot of fun to get to travel with my best friend. When we came back Butterball spent several days in boot camp with EM who focused on keeping him soft at all times and letting him gain some independence and responsibility when it came to leaving the ground. 

September: We squeezed in a trip to Majestic Oaks schooling show in September to help make our next out of state trip to Stable View at the end of the month more successful. It paid off - we jumped clear at Majestic and at Stable View. We added only 3 seconds of time to our dressage score at Stable View to finish 8th in a big novice division. 

October: In October we went to Kentucky and did the novice classic three day. Then I wrote a LOT about it: Travel and the jog, Dressage, Endurance day, Stadium, XC Pro Pics, Lessons learned/Three day info). It was absolutely amazing and the trip of a lifetime. Butterball was THE BEST partner the whole time and it was so much fun to do a long trip with him and my husband. 

Lots of quiet mornings and evenings grazing 

And we steeplechased!!!! Propelled by his tail. 

November: November was definitely a bit quieter after the big October trip. We did have a few fun trail rides and a nice cross country schooling at Sweet Dixie. 

We survived an attempted murder by these bovines when they GALLOPED at the fence as we had our backs to them

Black Prong with Amanda and Hillary 

And we trucked right along in our jump lessons with PW focusing on my aids, Butterball's form, and our pace and rhythm. 

Very nice, Butterball

At the end of the month he got his teeth done, and we learned he is damaging his roots and bone with his bit clanking. 

December: Which meant that we started December with a few different bit trials. I very much appreciated everyone's comments and suggestions on the initial post. There was definitely helpful information there, and everyone was kind as well, which was lovely since I was beating myself up. Yay for bloggers! 

Trial Myler Level 2 D Ring

We also went fox hunting (drag - dragged by an absolutely adorable Connemara and her rider), which was pretty awesome. Butterball loved the long pauses to snack and then intermittently galloping with a group. 

Galloping in a civilized way 

He also made Henry into his new BFF. 

TOUCHING, LOVE HIM 

We finished up the year with our first trip to jumper land, which was a big learning experience for both of us. 

2025 by the numbers: 

• ONE USEF/USHJA recognized jumper show
• TWO horses at the start of the year, ONE at the end. And what a ONE he is. Ben is doing quite well back in Cali though. I got some adorable pics of him dressed up as a minion for the barn Halloween party. He looked happy as a clam. 
• THREE out of state trips
• FIVE lake trips this summer
• SEVEN recognized events 

Two buckskin BFFs 

Taking the HITS

Butterball and I had an educational time at HITS. We took FULL advantage of the ability to swap out riders and PW took him around both meter classes. We schooled Tuesday and after I managed to pop around a few of the fences in relatively good style and NOT collide with one of the FIVE other people in the ring, I begged PW to let us call it good. 

Jumper land pony complete with open fronts and Pinsnickety number pins

So Wednesday, I wasn't expecting Butterball to be LOOKY when we got in the ring for the 0.90m. But he was. And I wasn't effectively half-halting. I was giving him the same light touch I had in warm up and it wasn't enough. Which meant we had that gross combination of too quick yet no power. We had THREE rails, definitely not the norm for him. We also did two strides in BOTH one strides. Ugh. But three months ago he would've stopped and he didn't even think about it, so there is that. 

This meant that PW popped on to take him around the meter. He had him MOVING his feet and they jumped a clear round so went on to the jump off and ended up taking SECOND in the large class. 

Friday was MUCH better in the 0.90m. In warm up he was having me ride him fairly forward. I told him it felt aggressively forward compared to the pace we've been doing at home. The video tells you it looks pretty appropriate. I tried an inside turn at the end of the course and didn't keep him straight over the last vertical, so we had that down. 

We wandered around for a bit after the class and then started warming up for the meter. The first large oxer that PW set we found ourselves sliding in to the base of. And unlike our lesson, I had zero idea what happened. I told PW I wasn't sure I could do this, which should've been my cue to let him get on right then. But I fumbled around and tried chasing him to the base of a few, one of which we jumped, and two more where he stopped. At which point PW called it and asked to get on. He warmed up fine, but then had a stop in the ring. PW reapproached and they jumped the rest clear. 

Afterwards, he analyzed the video and noted that the stop in the ring was the same as in warm up - a slightly long spot to a bigger oxer. He said we could fix this, we would move a one stride out to a long spot and teach him that he can confidently leave the ground from a longer distance. Which is what he set to work doing yesterday. 

Overall, a great learning experience for both of us. Not the show that I was hoping for, but y'know such is life with humans and horses. We're entered at WEC Jan 6-11, so we'll see what that brings us. 

Dolce is getting more environmental enrichment these days, including trips to the trailer tack room to hang out while I clean tack. She was pleased. 

Foto Friday: Fox Hunting

Amanda and I went fox hunting last Saturday. It was the very festive Christmas hunt with Misty Morning Hounds. They run drag hunts; this time it was dragged by a delightful Connemara and her person. Butterball and Henry were both delighted by the whole thing. Butterball had zero idea what to expect initially, but sorted out that you galloped and jumped with friends and then got to stand around and eat (or cuddle with Amanda/Henry). If he could've partaken in the port wine and then champagne/cranberry mixes offered at each stop/rest, he would have. 

He was mostly civilized

But did have some wild moments

Overall just a lovely, fun, morning just enjoying the horses, the hounds, and the day. 

I Panicked

As mentioned at the end of my last post, I was basically setting myself up for some dumb decisions based on posting about how well we'd been doing. We started our jump lesson by putting together the lines out of almost the same course as the last time. The difference was that the one stride to the five got broken up and we started with the oxer that had been at the end of the five and then ended with a trip through the one stride. In contrast to the last time, I was managing the bending line to the liver pool much better. Land, go straight, half-halt, and then turn to the liver pool. Wheeee!! 

But then the jumps got a bit bigger and as we headed down the outside line, I saw what I thought was a pretty long spot and I jesus-take-the-wheel'ed and threw him away. PW said the spot would've been perfect. Pony-o thought about trying to leave the ground, but felt totally unsupported and was DEEP at that point since I'd thrown away all contact two strides prior. We fixed that, then came around to do the diagonal line. We got to a long spot and even though I was semi supportive, it was gonna be a very long one. And PW said you only get a few of those at this bigger height and I'd used up my quota for the day, so he stopped. In the process of putting that back together, pony brain kicked in and he quit at a totally reasonable distance. OOOOOkay, we put that back together again. The first two were 10000% my fault, the last one was kinda on him, but who could blame him at that point. 

My friend who has featured on here before with her words of wisdom was watching and said she thinks that he's actually making an effort now both in his canter and jumping and might've been testing out options other than working that hard. Makes sense. 

So of course this slightly rocky lesson is the one that was videoed. But there were lots of good parts and when he stopped the first time, I KNEW exactly why he stopped. We are back to the plan of PW popping him around the first meter round at the show and then me going in. But that's the perk of HJ shows, yes? 

Don't Panic

Butterball and I had another lesson with PW on Monday. We had done a tiny bit of jumping on our own last week. I was setting fences at home, which I wasn't at all sure anyone was going to be around for the next several hours, and had an *interesting* interaction when the other boarder turned up. 

Boarder: "Are you going to jump?" 

Me: "Yeah a couple of things."

Boarder: "oh cool! You're going to put them up more though, right?" 

Me: "Nope"

Boarder: "....Oh..."

Rude. 

Anyways. We actually jumped twice, once in the myler and once in his rope hackamore. Both sessions we played over our single cavaletti friend to warm up. I'm not sure where that exercise has been my whole life, but it is so so useful to us to just repeatedly canter a single cavaletti till I can get him smoothly waiting for it. 

The second session I incorporated the barrels and included a solo barrel on its side. Well, sort of solo. I got lazy and tucked it next to the cross rail to use that standard to mark one side. Which Butterball, my good, honest pony, found a *bit* confusing to be pointed at from a distance. Duh, human. Ms. GY was around though and helped me fix it, which did involve disassembling the cavaletti to use those blocks as book ends for it. He understood it much better alone and actually jumped it quite straight and well, whereas he'd been twisting over it when it was smooshed next to the standard/jump, I think feeling like he didn't fit. 

After we finished with our hackamore jumping, I pulled out the neck rope again. This time we did some trotting in addition to walking and halting. He was super and we were able to smoothly do 20-30 m loops around the arena. 

His face when he hears someone getting into the cookies in the tack room

In our dressage rides, we've really been working on creating two different canters. It's hard work, but we can now usually canter the long side in a slow collected canter before we lose it. I didn't do much of trying to create that canter while jumping at home, but we did have the bounce line that I asked for a bit of a wait before with my voice and shoulders. And shockingly when I did that he rocked back and lifted instead of rolling over his shoulder.

I think that combo of rides at home actually managed to prep us for our lesson with PW. In the lesson we started with 3 x 9 foot bounce poles to a vertical. It was set pretty short off the end of the arena and when we were coming off the left lead, I KEPT letting his danged right shoulder slip through my right side. Staring at the inside corner of the first bounce pole did help some, but it was still tricky. This is also where we have trouble with our single cavaletti. If he has to take a longer spot off the left lead he almost always lands on the right in a bit of a heap. But his left lead is actually his stronger/straighter/better lead. So... 

After we got the vertical right, he added an oxer one stride after. Keep the ride the same. Then an oxer five strides out. Land from the first oxer, GO for the first three strides, assess/half-halt for the next two. He was jumping that really well and PW built the oxer up pretty large. Then we added in the rest of the course. Land from the gymnastics line, turn right (but GO STRAIGHT immediately after) to cross the diagonal and jump an oxer; then seven to nine stride bending line to a liver pool, which required going straight for the first five or six strides, then turning to the liver pool, it was a tricky line. Then across the diagonal again five stride line oxer to oxer. Right hand turn and up the long side for oxer to vertical in six. I got a funky distance to the first oxer a couple of times, but he has POWER now and will happily leave the ground from short or long as appropriate. The liver pool I COULD NOT get right for the life of me. I think the left hand turn at the end of the bending line was the really challenging part. Gotta continue working that left lead and adjustability. 

I had started the lesson telling PW that if he thought he should ride him in the meter class the first day at HITS then that was totally fine with me. But we finished with an entire course at 1-1.10m and PW telling me there was no need for him to ride if I kept riding like that. Butterball was jumping SUPER. Over that height there is definitely an actual effort, but I was mostly able to stay with him this go round. And even though I KEPT getting him to a weird spot at the liver pool, he was still happily leaving the ground. He did land and kick in protest once when I got him to a deep spot AND dumped him at the base. But I just did that once and so he only protested once. Sorry bud. 

He is just the coolest horse. Jumping a course of this size wasn't actually even on my goal list, so it is really cool to have it all coming together (cue either a disastrous show or lesson LOL). PW teaches in a way that makes so much sense. It's not just "don't dump him when you don't see a spot or it is going to be deep", it's "when you see a deep spot and drop the contact, he lengthens further and that spot gets worse." OH! Clarifying the why of what is happening makes it so much easier to follow.