April Wrap Up

 

 

	Butterball
Training rides	4 - 2 my friend, 1 PW in grids, 1 PW round at LCT
Lessons	1
Hacks	3 – 1 with EB
Flat rides	9
Cavaletti or jumps @ home	2
Conditioning rides	0
XC school	1
Shows	2 – LCT 3 days + schooling dressage show

The obvious fail this month is lack of conditioning rides. I've been discussing the three points I decided on after attempts to jump meter courses led to a loss of confidence for me and pony pants. And I've definitely failed on the fitness one. I can feel it too. He's blowing pretty hard after a single course, pretty much validating that we don't have the fitness base that I wanted. Rising fuel prices and hard ground have made conditioning away from home and at home challenging. I came up with a solution for May and the next few months, but that will be a surprise for a different post. 

But we still don't feel completely in sync and ready for increasing height even if I had kept up with his fitness. The gap between 90 and a meter is where he actually has to make an effort and where my eyes bug out of my head a bit. Bad combo when there's still bad riding going on. 

If you watch the video at 1:08 and 2:08, you will see a direct contrast at the same fence with the same distance. The first one I flung up his shoulders and didn't support to the deep spot. The second one I stayed back and kept my leg on and supported him. The first one would've led to a stop in December, January, or February. And now he's going. And I desperately don't want to ruin that. 

Said all that to say, while I am fine increasing height in very specific situations (PW on him in grids), I don't think our three month check in due in May is going to end with upping the heights for pony and me outside of a grid or placing poles to a single fence. And it feels good to be a very active participant in this decision. I was chatting with my friend who was talking about the virtues of having frank conversations like PW and I did back in February. PW knows I'm not going to dip just because we haven't made it to a meter by the end of the spring season. He knows that the horse's confidence is my primary goal. He knows that I am sticking with THIS horse and whatever we can do as a team, defining and prioritizing the team, not the end goal. And I haven't gotten any pressure about what I should be doing. And between Ms. GY and my two other friends who ride with him, we have a truly fun and supportive team. 

Anyways. Good things from April: a schooling dressage show; a fun weekend at Local Champions Tour; a couple of reasonably productive jump sessions at home; and a super fun cross country school at Majestic. 

Hoof Update: 

I'm still very pleased with my barefoot performance pony. We are going through a bit of a Scoot Boot issue, more on that later as well, which has also slowed down the hacking out. But I have taken a few walk only loops with just hind boots on. Knock on wood, so far he seems to be handling it fine, although he will put himself in the grass shoulder rather than walk on some particularly rocky spots. 

I think overall the medial/lateral balance is getting better in his feet. As mentioned, his trimmer took off more of his hinds this time to try to get them to stand up and develop his heel a bit more and they look great.

Left hind: 

Right Hind: 

Woohoo! There's some heel on this foot!

Right front: 

Still a little wonky medial-lateral

Left front: 

Isn't it lovely? 

Conformation Pictures: 

In process of self-trimming (I asked if he was chipping up to his nail holes. He demoed his unfortunate pawing habit when we were chatting, his trimmer pointed out he may be trimming his feet himself...) He's a perfect pony in every way except his dislike of being hosed and his pawing habit. Neither of these have anything to do with me letting him get away with things... definitely not. 

You don't want to know how many shots I deleted trying to get him standing square and looking straight ahead. Thank goodness we're not in the days of film still. 

Looking ahead to May... 

- Renewed focus on fitness

- JV comes back into town

- We double down on a few weeks with lessons and training rides with PW

- Plan for a June check in re jump height. 

March Wrap Up

Obviously March is the best month because it includes the pony's birthday!  

Birthday WEEK with his favorite Kodiak Granola

Noms

	Butterball
Training rides	3 – while I was out of town he stayed with my friend
Lessons	4 – 3 jump, 1 dressage
Hacks	2 – 1 with Ms. GY, 1 bareback birthday snackamore hack
Flat rides	11
Cavaletti or jumps @ home	3
Conditioning rides	2 – 10 miles and 8.5 miles, as much trot and canter as we could on the footing
XC school	ONE!!!
Shows	0

March was the second month I actually set some little cavaletti or jump exercises up at home, prompting a new row on the chart. For this month, we did the cavaletti on a circle exercise twice. The second time I set a GOING four stride line down the long side that involved one of the cavaletti. Make the circle with a compressed canter putting five strides between each, then move forward out of the circle into the show canter, come down the long side and do the four strides between two tiny fences (the second being one of the cavaletti that made up the circle). It's fun to play with things and work on improving my riding and his responsiveness between lessons. 

I also intensified my focus during rides at home. That whole mindfulness resolution. Every stride. Am I straight and even? Have I used an aid for no reason? Has every aid gotten a response? How is his ____ (gait)? Could it be better? 

We've ended the month playing with our warm up. I have been playing with the idea that if I'm not asking for more then I'm not giving him the opportunity to ignore the aid... JV's method gets him very sharp off the aids, but kind of to the idea that every aid adds tension, we spend the first 5-10 minutes pretty stiff and hollow (but prompt and with impulsion and energy). I'm playing with a longer rein and fewer aids as a whole, if that makes sense. Which means I'm sacrificing the energy, but not the impulsion; he still has to carry himself forward without me nagging. We're not just lollygagging around though. We are doing things the whole warm up - changes in direction, transitions within and between gaits. But with a longer rein and less energy. His gait still must get bigger and smaller as I ask, but it doesn't have to have the energy that it would for a test. 

We also got our latest bit, it seems like an improvement but still isn't magic. And we've finally accepted the flash, I think. There was a 1.5 week time period where I felt like throwing in the towel, but our last few rides were soft and lovely with a good, steady, soft connection. The bit seemed fine for our FIRST cross country school in quite a few months. 

As far as the fitness game, diesel prices + the price to condition made me stay at home this month. We did complete two longer rides from the farm. When the footing was soft, we trot and canter, when it was hard lime rock or paved road, we walked. 

Clever pony drinking from a puddle

I adore this view

Beautiful big oaks 

The first ride went swimmingly, but the second was a bit rougher. He had been trimmed Wednesday and we went out on Sunday and his front boots would. not. stay. on. His feet are looking lovely, but I think they are changing shape/getting smaller front to back (ironically I had been reading this article the day prior) so the size 2 slim up front probably should also be a size 1 like his hinds. I'll remeasure soon. I also had taken the pastern straps off, not a good plan. I gave up and he was barefoot up front for the majority of the ride. 

Leaving the farm, blissfully unaware of how many times I was going to hop on and off the pony 

Luscious green grass at a culvert

How we completed the ride

Cool looking pines, but he kept falling in holes from where trees had been taken out, so we didn't spend long in here

Highly suspicious: deer carcasses dumped in trash bags beside the road

More of our classic view

I ended the month dropping him off at my friend's place to spend the week. 

Happy pony, he's spent a lot of time at her farm, we used to go for farrier appointments, so he settled right in

Hoof Update: 

Left hind: 

Right hind: 

I think we're making progress on this heel 

Right front: 

Nail holes are just about gone!

Left front: 

Conformation pictures: 

Looking ahead to April... 

- Cross country schooling again if it rains more! 

- Schooling dressage show on April 11th

- Continuing to plug away at the details in our jump lessons 

- Fitness work at least every other week 

February Wrap Up

We're rolling a bit more into the monthly wrap up this go round, specifically including his hoof progress pics/update too. And also I'm publishing this on the first day of the month, woah. 

February was a busy month for us and if I count the two mile loop in hand as a working day, I succeeded in working pony pants at least five days every week. We even did six rides the last week of February. We also went to Sweet Dixie TWICE and did trot and canter sets. He is absolutely hilarious there. He doesn't even come to the back of the trailer to look around, I have to fetch him from the hay in the front. Even at PW's where he goes more frequently he usually comes to stick his head out the back. Sweet Dixie he goes "Oh crap, here's my workout day, no thanks, I'll keep eating." 

	Butterball
Training rides	½
Lessons	5- including 1 dressage(!!) lesson
Hacks	2- 1 in hand, 1 ridden with equibands
Flat rides	8- including 1 fix a test
Conditioning rides	2!
XC school	0
Shows	1- 4 days at HITS

Hello gorgeous pony face

February was a month of transitions. We ended January on a high note, but started February with a not so great lesson that prompted some soul searching about what I wanted and what the pony needed to function happily. We put that in to play at HITS where we spent three confidence building days at 80 cm and then moved up to 90 cm for the last day and had a confident, smooth, SLOW half round in the 90 cm class. 

Photo by ESI. THIS is how he jumps when I keep him straight. 

We took the week after HITS off from jump lessons, but did get back to see JV, finally. He provided us with plenty to think about and work on. The next week we headed back down to jump again and worked on filling in some holes with our circle of doom exercise. I haven't had time to get out the cavaletti to work on this at home, but that is definitely in the cards. 

We also did a fix-a-test and scored a respectable 34 for our first outing with a training level test. We got some very helpful tips from the judge afterwards, and I've already been working on putting those in to play. We ended the month with a final jump lesson where we did some course work. So far, so good, and we are definitely putting deposits in the confidence bank for both of us. 

Hoof Update: 

Butterball got his feet touched up on the 18th. These pics can be compared to the ones I took immediately after pulling his shoes and at his first touch up trim. He's starting to build some concavity to his hind feet that is really encouraging. We're also about two trims away from getting rid of the nail holes. He isn't chipping around them at all. If the rest of this creature hadn't already sold me on the Welsh breed, this sure would. I am doing Keratex and Jim Ricken's #1 formula. But I think it's mostly just that he has really, really good feet. 

Left hind: 

Right hind: 

Right front: 

Left front: 

Immediately post pulling shoes on the left.
Sheesh is it hard to get the same angle and distance every time...

Butterball seems quite happy barefoot and does the slipping a hind leg feeling much less without shoes. I'm still booting him any time we hit the lime rock roads, but otherwise he's completely nekkid. 

Conformation pictures: 

Hey look! I remembered to take monthly conformation pics the same day he got his feet done! 

March Plans: 

Our goal going forward is a jump lesson weekly, dressage lesson every other week, and fitness work every other week. 

No further shows on the horizon for the time being, but I'd like to get out cross country again now that it has started raining again. It's been a minute, and I would like to feel my best boy galloping cross country again, I just need to be more discerning about footing now that he's barefoot and still in the transitioning period. 

It's also time to start up his Platinum Refresh and I'm switching him from Dac oil to ahiflower oil. I am going to let his Optiwize run out as well and see if I notice a difference. March is also the time for vaccines, deworming, and his q6 month adequan series. 

We're getting warmer days and the red buds are flowering, it really is spring! I hope everyone north of us (so basically everyone LOL) is seeing some signs too!