Dressing LH with a side of DIY dyeing

LH's special tongue habit (ie always waving a nice hello with his tongue as he goes around the ring) needs a properly fitted flash for shows. I disagree with the idea that the flash "stabilizes the bit" so I am calling this one what it is - some judges will mark down for the tongue out and I would prefer not to lose those points. I ask LH to keep his in his mouth for roughly 2.5 minutes every 30 days or so. 

Anyways, small explanation aside, Yoshi's tongue truly was an expression of tense hands or a bit/bridle he didn't like. He ended up loving an "FSS monocrown crank" with no flash. Actually, I never tried a flash on him, but since his tongue expressed feelings, I didn't feel like it was right to smoosh it into his mouth. If he trotted down centerline with his tongue out and the judge somehow missed the other signs of tension, they would have been right to dock him points for it. I also hate the way flash tabs look when they're empty. 

So for LH, I ended up buying a used Frank Baines event bridle with a detachable flash. It has now become a moot point because we also have a dressage bridle that has a flash that he'll go in at shows, but that makes it even better that it is detachable. I've never had a bridle with a detachable flash, and I actually love the design. 

Slide the flash piece through a very not noticeable opening in the layers of the noseband

And now you've got a flash attachment!

I don't particularly care for the way the noseband adjusts though. The noseband strap fits through the crownpiece in a way that seems very comfy for the horse, but means if you're trying to adjust it on the horse you have to adjust the buckle on the left side and then fidget with the strap till it hangs evenly. It is also harder to even out if the noseband gets crooked.

Also, because it was what I found, the bridle is (was) oakbark. For some reason, I just hate that bright brown. It looks fine on horses in general, and it looked fine on LH's beautiful dark coat, but I still hated it. I also got him a fun browband off Amazon and bought that in Havana. And every time I put on that mismatched combo, I just cringed. In spite of the way my house looks, I apparently do have a sense of style/fashion (just hidden deep within that only emerges when it comes to horse things...).

Can't quite see the browband color here, but this shows the bridle pretty well

Browband

So, inspired by BreedRideEvent, I bought leather dye... and got to work. 

I'm a terrible blogger, so this is the sole picture I have of the process: 

I followed her steps basically, but here they are: 

1) Acetone on a rag to remove the waxy coating. Per her blog you can buy deglazer, but you can also use nail polish remover (acetone). We have a giant container of acetone, so I wasn't going to go buy something else. I should have checked this step in sunlight, because I think it is to blame for the slight unevenness of the finished product the first go round. 

2) Fiebling's chocolate dye for the bridle. 

I figured this was the color that matched havana (his browband and saddle) the best. Because it was a bridle and because we didn't have a foam paintbrush that I could find, I applied it by hand using a rag. SHOULD WEAR GLOVES FOR THIS STEP! It's still under my fingernails 5 days later... in spite of that acetone... I dipped the tip of the rag into the container and did my best to work it into all the crevices of the leather. 

3) Apply some kind of sealant. I used Obenhauf's heavy duty leather preservative. 

It was highly recommended on Amazon and people weren't wrong. After I finished, the bridle feels much nicer than it did before. It is soft and supple and... 

A very nice chocolate brown with a little ombre... Steps 1 and 2 should be done and verified in the bright sunlight

I redid a tiny bit on the noseband and the cheekpiece by just doing steps 1 and 2 on the tiny bit that was still too oakbark, and...  

No more ombre! 

For his dressage bridge, I got him a Premier Equine "diamante" because he is fancy and MUST sparkle. 

The joke is on me because the noseband adjusts in the same way as the Frank Baines. Must be a British thing. It does make for a cleaner look on the off side, so I can see why they do it. Noseband aside, I really like the bridle. This is my first leather goods purchase from them and so far I'm impressed. It was very, very reasonable price wise and seems to be good quality. LH does stadium and dressage in the same bit, and I am not switching the bit back and forth at home just so the bridle matches the saddle. Which means the Frank Baines is going to continue to be our daily bridle, so I won't truly get to test out the Premier Equine durability. 

But I will get to test out my dye job on the Frank Baines as he sweats and gets rained on. So far we are three rides in and there is no sign of fading or leaving dye on him! 

Unrelated update, Yoshi and his new owner are getting along superbly, and he looks fantastic. It makes my heart happy to follow them on facebook and see the spoiled life he is living.

(Mostly) WW: Majestic Oaks novice course

With JT's help and a French link elevator 3 ring (reins on the 2nd ring though), LH and I tackled the novice course from their show this past weekend. 

We warmed up over a few jumps including this training level wedge, good boy! 

He was super and I actually rode (maybe that sentence should be reversed...) 

Rocking Horse part 3: Cross Country

Course walk photos:

Back side of 1- friendly house

2- friendly coop

Decently long gallop to 3- quail feeder

4 - mushroom table

5ab - bending line of ramps

5b

Nice gallop to 6 - "triple bar"

7 - ditch, a pretty quick left hand turn from 6, JT emphasized making sure he had his eye on it so it didn't surprise him

8 - bench

9 - slope into sunken road, kinda in between those fences, we decided to trot into that one, it's not apparent until you're close that you're not going down the double down bank

10 - table

11a- roll top

11b - water

5-6 strides out of the water to 12 - roll top

13 - yellow hut

Long gallop up the hill, past some UL jumps to 14 - white table

Through the woods then a left hand turn to 15- corner, a very petite one at that, the wide side of this one was narrower than the table before

Gallop to 16 - table, not sure what they were going for with the XXX 

And done with 17! Log and box 

These photos almost didn't get put in, blogger was not cooperating with order of selection from my phone, but fortunately I'm back on my laptop and it nicely put things in in the proper order. 

LH and I got a slightly later start in the light, thank goodness. He got to finish his whole breakfast before getting on the trailer for a daylight drive through the Ocala NF. I got there in time to walk the course once more and cement it in my mind. My second walk on Saturday I was still looking at the map on my phone to tell where I was going, so I wanted to make sure it was there without any aids. My husband suggested the pictures last year to help with reviewing it at home, and they're a huge help. I don't post them here, but I sometimes also video JT's description of how to ride to something and review that too. 

I then tacked LH up and we headed to warm up. We intentionally left more time for a long warm up because the horses had been in the night before with the nasty storms. He wasn't at all jazzed up though initially. But cross country ended into the warm up area which end up making him a bit prancy and snorty. He does this adorable head shake and prance when he's excited and he definitely knew what was up. He warmed up really well over the log, coop, and brush they had. Then we headed out onto course!

The first 3 felt great, I was riding like JT had told me to - "don't trust him, ride positive" and he flew over them. He got a bit squirrely in the woods on the way to 4, but still felt solid over the jump. As we headed to 5, he got squirrely and wiggly and heavy. I didn't SIT up and half halt and instead just kind of continued to ineffectually pull. We made it over 5ab, but he was definitely crooked to both. This is when it kinda started to feel a bit out of control and I never made the choices to get it back under my control. 

5a - he's moving left, I'm looking right towards 5b, but not doing much other than pulling with my dang right hand

5b- he was pretty impressed by the looks of it and jumped the heck out of it

I kicked him forward after 5b, wanting to get that positive forward feeling back. But I didn't pair it with a good half halt. He jumped 6 a little wiggly and crooked and then needed a BIG woah to make the turn to 7, the ditch. He jumped the ditch fine, but then we wiggled our way over the bench at 8 again. He came back to me well to trot down the sunken road, which should have been a clue that when I meant it he responded to me asking him to woah. He also galloped forward nicely to 10, again, hints that if I rode like I meant it he was responding. 

11a was wiggly, but he went nicely forward to b. I felt like we were slogging through the water a bit, so moved him up into my hand, which meant that 12 rode the nicest out of any jump on the second half of the course. 

We wiggled our way up to 13, and I'm so glad I have these pictures of how NOT to ride. Xpress photo is pricier than some of our local photographers for single shots, but if you pre-order ALL the pictures they take then it's only $110 or something like that. So I did that and definitely got a lot of shots I wouldn't have purchased for the glamour of them, but that are so educational...

Try to pull horse straight with rogue right hand going UP while he's taking off (I guess that's better than back)... I promise you my left leg wasn't doing much here

Even in the air, rogue right hand continues to not release properly, good left hand though

Right hand still refusing to get it together, the next jump is a loooong gallop up a hill and actually a bit left before turning right

Then we got some pretty galloping pictures between 13 and 14....

This horse is unbelievably good looking!!! 

14 wasn't photographed, but we spooked at things all the way up to it. Again I tried to pull him staight/forward (how does that even make sense) rather than kicking him forward. He wiggled over 14 and then we spooked our way through the woods again to 15, the little corner. It is slightly narrower than the other jumps (I guess) and he slipped out to the right over it. We circled and jumped it on the second go round. Again, can verify there was no right leg engaged (or left leg for that matter) on our first approach.

It wasn't him spooking at that particular jump, it was the combination of him being a spookier, more sensitive horse than Yoshi (what horse isn't really...) and me not DOING THE THINGS JT has taught me to do over and over again. To get him to come back to me, I was pulling instead of one big half halt and then release, and I'm not sure I put leg on at all after the water. 

I was a bit mad at that point though, so I sat down and RODE to 16 and 17, so they rode great. Those were the jumps that JT could see from the warm up area. I came in disappointed, and she was surprised because the jumps visible from the warm up area were the jumps I rode him to, so they looked awesome. 

The frustrating part is that while he does know this job, I have to ride him to get it done. He's less straight forward than Yoshi out on cross country, but again, what horse isn't. Yoshi seemed to learn the lesson of jump the thing you're pointed at (or even near, see my falling off incident when he thought I wanted him to jump a jump sideways) SO quickly. He also was such a chill horse with a quiet mind that he wasn't really spooked by anything. 

To be fair to me, although I'm not sure I want to be, LH got strong out there in a way he hasn't while we were schooling. He was in the french link D ring, so we're going to try something with a bit more brakes and we're also going to string together entire long courses to simulate this while schooling. I also haven't ridden at this level in... 15 years. But to go from 4th after stadium to... 19th? UGH! 

And I KNOW how to ride better than I did out there. I KNOW to not just keep pulling and pulling but to sit my butt down, half halt and mean it, and then let him go forward again with leg ON. And he does need leg ON to do his job. 

We'll get it together, unfortunately with my work schedule my next try isn't until mid-May at Majestic (and if I can't get it together there were we school ALL THE TIME then I might quit... kidding... only kinda though). 

I might have eaten my feelings on the way home

This morning we're actually heading out to Majestic to run the course from their recognized (and then their schooling show this past weekend) like it is a show. JT is going to supervise from the golf cart, but I'm going to do the things she has trained me to do. 

Rocking Horse Part 2: Dressage and Stadium

After my somewhat harrowing trip there, it was really nice to get in the saddle and have LH warm up like the pro that he is. We're finding out he really only needs about 10-15 minutes of warm up and then he's ready to rock and roll. We got ready to head in because they were running ahead of schedule, but then the rider in front of me ended up wanting their full warm up time. So we took a break and then got ready again. 

The test was novice test B, which reads unlike any dressage test I have ridden before. There is an interesting amount of walk work, including "Centered over A transition to medium walk 4-6 steps then proceed working trot" and a medium walk turn down centerline before picking up working trot at D to halt and salute at G. It actually rides pretty well though. The test writers have done a decent job making the novice tests slightly more interesting and challenging than the beginner novice tests. Novice test A includes two loop serpentines at the trot and a stretchy trot circle. B has change of rein across short diagonals instead of the two loops and the short medium walk work in lieu of a stretchy trot circle. 

We picked back up and headed into the ring right after the rider in front of us finished. I hadn't practiced the medium walk much, so LH definitely had a moment of disbelief that I was asking him to trot again. He's a very good boy and I think doesn't want to jig during his walk work, so it took some poking with spurs to tell him I truly did mean trot. 

LH has a habit of sticking his tongue out. It happens ALL the time whereas Yoshi's was a clue I was tense/pulling or he disliked some part of his bit/bridle set up. LH's owner and trainer told JT and me that they just let him do whatever he wants at home and then put a flash on at shows. This had worked well for all of warm up as well as for the Majestic show, but I looked down in the middle of our left lead canter circle and saw his tongue waving about. I promptly forgot where I was in the test and also how to ride. Fortunately this only lasted about two strides before I got my shit together and realized we'd have to do even better if they were going to ding us for the tongue. We moved on with a nice trot transition and left trot circle. Our right canter circle included a nice trip in a mud puddle, probably created by me tensing and stiffening about the possibility of tripping in the mud. The rest of the test was really lovely though and the judge agreed, giving us a 25.8. 

I am very appreciative he said nothing about the tongue. LH is an OTTB and is also SO through and honest in the connection that while I can understand why a judge would knock scores or comment on it, I would be fairly frustrated by it. The only place I think it might have shown up is in our collectives. I'm not at all upset by a 7, but given the rest of the test and the lack of comments, I don't know if it reflected the tongue a bit. 

Good boy!!

After we put him up on the trailer to eat some alfalfa and hang out for a bit while we walked the courses. Stadium had been moved out of the arena with footing into the grass nearby because pouring rain Thursday day and overnight had completely waterlogged the arena. Fortunately LH is not Yoshi and is much more aware of where his feet are, so I was not as concerned about wiping out in the grass or in the deeper sand areas. The course was pretty straight forward, so we moved on to cross country, which I'll post pictures of in that recap post. JT snuck off to eat some lunch and I walked cross country once more on my own before tacking LH up for stadium. 

We popped over the warm up jumps just a couple of times before getting out of the chaos that is a jumping warm up arena. Overall our round went well. Honestly by waiting this long to write it, I've forgotten a few of the details. I got him tight to the first few but he carefully popped up and over them without knocking the rails. 

Tight to 1, but what a good, careful pony

Right hand rollback to 2, also tight, I'm jumping ahead as well

5

The impending storm made the sky look very dramatic

Tight AND crooked meant he pulled this rail with a hind leg

But I managed to sit up and ride the 5 strides to #10 well enough to end with this jump! Not sure what the tilt left is that's happening though...

Overall we made some major improvements from our first round together at Majestic. Even though they were both 4 fault rounds, this one he and I were much more together and it felt less frantic. JT and I were both happy with it, but obviously still have tons to work on. 

JT helped me hose him off and then we tossed him in the trailer and I started the drive home. The sky was SUPER ominous and at one point I stopped for gas and considered trying to wait out the worst of the storm. 

But my phone told me there was 100% chance of rain until 7 PM and since it was only 1:30, waiting didn't seem realistic. Ms. GY had texted it was hailing at her barn, but fortunately that didn't make it as far south as JT's and Rocking Horse. There was some pretty darn heavy rain, but the truck and trailer handled well, and it had tapered off to a drizzle by the time I was unloading LH. He got a liniment rub down and then cozied up in his stall with more alfalfa to wait out the storm. 

Rocking Horse Part 1: Getting There...

It's taken me a full 48+ hours to even start to put "pen to paper" so to speak about the show. A bit of it is exhaustion (see below), a bit is disappointment, and a bit is that I headed out of town Sunday night and am stuck with swyping on my phone to write this. 

Spoiler alert, we made it to XC, awesome since I pre-paid for the full package of photos

Please release properly.... Rouge right hand... 

Teaser pictures side, I'll start chronologically... Actually arriving in the dressage ring on Saturday was a bit of a cluster to put it mildly. 

To start, Friday I was scheduled to work 6pm to 2am. My coworker took pity on me and switched, so I was 5pm-12am instead. However, I live an hour from work and 45 minutes from JT's. I rode at 9am on Saturday so needed to be leaving JT's at 630. I made the decision to sleep in my trailer Friday night then to get a bit more sleep since her place is only 30 minutes from my work. I came out to the barn around noon and got in a light hack. I bathed LH and put him into his stall to dry, eat lunch, and wait for one of the working students from the barn to braid him. While he was eating/drying I set up my bed in my trailer and packed my tack for Saturday.

JT's working student braided LH. She's absolutely amazing. The braids were beautiful when she did them and just as beautiful Saturday. 

Sleepy pony napping as I tacked him up for stadium, he's so cute. But also, those braids 😍

After she braided we dressed him up in a sleazy and light Rambo sheet that I need to investigate... because in spite of the mud in the paddocks from the downpour on Thursday, he was totally clean Saturday morning when I undressed him. I actually skated out of work around 11 Friday night so was laying down in the trailer, now hooked up to the truck, by midnight. I didn't quite account for the kerfuffle my arrival would cause amongst the horses in the pasture by the trailer parking, so they were still trotting around and snorting a bit as I started to fall asleep. The temperature also dropped from about 65 when I got off work to 55 by 5 am. This meant at some point during the night I woke up freezing and had to zip up my sleeping bag and shut off the fan to fall back asleep. Super restful night...

Saturday morning then got off to an even rougher start. It was crazy foggy, and I was spooking the horses left and right as I walked out in my slickery pants over my white breeches to get LH. He hid behind his pasture mate, but let me catch him easily. Hiding behind his friend should have been a clue in, but I didn't pay attention... I was leading him through the gate, dodging a giant puddle, when I noted that his pasture mate was shoving through the opening on the other side of LH, pushing him towards me. I tried to stop him, but he was about 1/3 the way through when I noticed, so there was no stopping it. He cavorted merrily down the lane to see his former pasture mates. LH and I walked down that way, but as soon as I was within reach of him he took off again. I walked after him, prancing LH in one hand, but as soon as I got close he took off again. At that point I reassessed the situation, scurried to the front gate and shut it and then threw LH into his stall. I could only tell where his friend was by the squeals and occasional hoofbeats. As far as seeing him? I was totally SOL. I was cursing myself for forgetting to pack my head lamp. My cell phone light was useless so I just quit trying and did my best to let my eyes adjust to the cloudy and foggy pre-dawn darkness.

I debated but ended up deciding I should call JT. LH's pasture mate is her up and coming horse and I figured catching him sooner rather than later was better. I knew I could get him eventually by myself, but if he got hurt in the dark, foggy morning... 

JT lives about 45 minutes from the barn and I definitely woke her up. I felt like such an asshole, but I didn't have anyone on the property's number and FB messenger seemed like a poor substitute. JT called her mom who lives on property, and she came out to help. LH's pasture mate had found his way to the fence line with a few mares and was standing neck arched, squealing like a stud. He took one look at the halter in my hand and noped out again. JT's mom went around the other way to block one direction while I went and grabbed LH's breakfast bucket. JT's mom headed towards him which pushed him towards me. He initially went to take off again but paused when he heard the grain. I shook it again and set it on the ground and backed away a few steps. He took the bait carefully at first, eyeing me still, but after I gave him a few seconds to really get into it, he dug in and relaxed don't. I slowly stepped up to him and got the halter on. I rewarded him with another mouthful of the bucket and then we headed in to his stall. 

Then I looked at my watch. My hour of lead time had magically vanished and there were 10 minutes until LH and I were supposed to be pulling out of the driveway. I tossed his breakfast in his stall. He gets a LARGE amount of food and is also the most leisurely eater I have ever met. It takes him a solid 40 minutes to eat his meals. He chews each bite the recommended 20 times and often takes breaks to sip on some water or stare out his window. So he got roughly 2 bites of breakfast before I pulled him out and tossed him onto the trailer. Sorry buddy, blame your pasture friend. 

The drive to Rocking Horse was really delightful in the fog. I was so paranoid about hitting a deer or other animal (or vehicle!) on the way. I took my boots off to try to let my uber wet socks dry. Although I'd forgotten my head lamp, I had packed 3 pairs of socks for the day but still driving in squealching boots was no fun. About 20 minutes after I pulled my boots off I realized my calves were cramping because I was so tense I'd crunched my toes up and hadn't relaxed those muscles at all. I attempted to relax everything, telling myself the show day would be extraordinarily long if I was this tense the whole day. 

LH is not a good traveler in two horse straight loads. I am not sure what he does, but he moves around more than any horse I've put in there and needs his tail wrapped so he doesn't rub it. He did this even when he had a buddy when we cross country schooled last week. My friend hauled in her roomy two horse bumper pull with her steady traveler gelding next to him. I tried him in the passenger side the rest of the trips the show weekend and it helped, but not a ton. So next step is getting my husband to pull the divider out so he can ride in a box stall to see if that makes him a happier traveler. Regardless, this Saturday morning wiggling was also not helping me relax on my drive

In spite of everything, we arrived ahead of schedule, and I could feel myself loosen up a little as I got out of the truck. As I've said before I am not a naturally tense, anxious person, but the whole 24 hours leading up to arriving had been a bit trying. I grabbed my packet from the office and then set about getting LH and me ready. I opened up the back ramp but left the butt bar up and undressed LH in the trailer. I was not taking a chance with a second loose horse by removing his sleazy off the trailer. JT and I were texting jokes about the heavy fog and dressage back and forth "6, I think it was the right gait in the right area..." "Was that the arena fence coming down that I heard? Hello? Are you still here?"  I joked with her when she arrived that this was to keep me from getting on too early, but she swore it wasn't. 

Part two coming soon: dressage and stadium.