Stable View Recap

This is a post with no media currently, apologies. I waited on writing this, hoping to get a pic or two from the show photographers and also dilly dallying because it wasn't our best. The TLDR is I screwed up dressage, he screwed up stadium, but we both came together to make cross country super fun. 

Dressage: I had still been riding at home with the slow, soft mentality. But when I put this into practice at the show warm up, it ended up being a sticky, behind the leg warm up. JT had me get after him to go forward, but it didn't work super well and I kind of picked a fight with him. We carried this into the dressage arena which is at the top of a large hill with plenty to stare at, and had the most tense, spooky test we've ever had, reflected in our 38.  Unlike at FHP a few weeks prior where I managed to relax the spookiness partway through, I just held onto it and was cranky and tense myself, so he never managed to relax. The judge was NOT feeling generous either, first place score was a 29.7. And his tongue plumb doesn't stay in his mouth no matter what we do with his noseband, so every movement the judge can see it, subtract another point. I was salty, but this phase was all on me. Still, it is disheartening to take what was previously our best phase and have it fall apart. 

Stadium: He warmed up great. But I got into the ring and rode him a little under powered at the first jump, a plank oxer. I have forgotten a bit the feeling that he needs to be almost running away with me to be going the right pace for him in stadium. And again, a lot of atmosphere, and he was feeling spooky and attempted to stop at the first one. I whacked him with the crop and we had a decent jump at two, but dallied into three and knocked it, then put 6 strides into a 5 stride line and knocked the next one too. I said out loud "We are GETTING our SHIT together" after that, and we actually did. The rest of it rode fine, but I was decently annoyed. He's 13, he's travelled all over the east coast, we're doing novice, this should not be this much of an issue. He is so emotionally sensitive though, that I'm not sure he'd gotten over me being unpleasant and unsupportive during the dressage test. 

Cross Country: We ran cross country the same day as stadium, with about 1.5 hours in between. So he got a break and I wrestled his studs in. He clicked "ON" after his second warm up jump. THEN he felt like the seasoned competitor I know he is. He was taking me to the jumps and felt trustworthy. 

We'll do the rest of the recap with the jump photos because of lack of other media... 

Get him GOING, make sure he takes you seriously. Which he did. And he jumped it great. 

Friendly box log that he jumped great as well. 

I took this picture right at the time of day when we went, so it was in fact this much in the shade. I rode the crap out of it, spurs in, hands forward, not trusting him at all. He didn't bat an eye though. 

Then we rolled downhill to #4. Around this point I half halted and he responded well, so I let him roll forward a bit more before bringing him back to this. 

Sort of across a hill to these chevrons. We got a wonky spot, but he pinged over it anyways. 

Through the shade then across a deep, red sand road, to a jump we shared with BN. He didn't bat an eye at any of it and gave it a suitably unimpressed jump over it. 

We wove through some upper level jumps to get to this one, but he was only mildly spooky at the other jumps and once I put his eye on this he was totally focused. 

Then he POWERED up this hill. With no urging from me, he just dug in and stretched out to a true gallop. 

Per instruction, I eased him up a bit almost at the top of the hill and we both took a breath before rolling forward to the brush. 

Then rolled forward again to the double brush

I rounded the corner a bit tight, so he chipped to the ditch, but read it right and pushed forward for the correct 3 to the out. 

The fenced in pine cone collection cracked me up so I had to take a picture 

Standard table, jumped it great

Stable view hammock that we jumped dead center, so not quite at the lowest point, but he seemed very nonchalant. 

Through the water, no prob

Over the corner, again totally trustworthy 

At this point he did feel maybe a bit tired by his gallop up the hill, so I had to push him forward. But wasn't a sketchy slow down, just a bit of a tired feeling. 

He picked up the pace again for this

And finished easily over the house. JT warned us people have been eliminated by jumping the wrong side of these (the M/T one was also the same size for both, but flagged separately just like this BN/N one). So I gave it a good hard look. 

We finished 25 seconds under optimum time and it felt GREAT! I was so happy, we definitely needed that after struggling through the first two phases. We actually finished 6th/13 on our 46.3 and got a pair of winter gloves. Fun! 

Plenty to work on, including a few more dressage lessons, and an outing to the spookiest stadium course we can find with JT in the irons. But overall, finishing on a XC run like that felt great. 

WW: Manners, young grasshopper

Goggles has been in solo turnout, in a paddock in the middle of lots of other paddocks, since he kicked Ben about twenty times in one night. Since Ben wasn't the first horse he'd kicked, he didn't get a second try with anyone else. Until today. 

No Goggles were harmed during the making of this video. In fact, he's probably better for it. 

Jompies!!

Goggles had his first "jump" school with JT on Monday. It's been really interesting watching the evolution of his understanding of jumps. When I first got him, we did a lot of walking and trotting over ground poles. He was pretty nonchalant about it all. We also did some work over the natural jumps in the GY's field in hand. When we added those in under saddle, he continued to be very nonchalant and trotted in and cantered out in a really lovely, relaxed way. 

Once down at JT's, when the poles turned into slightly raised poles, he felt like the rules had been changed on him a little bit and he suddenly had to think very hard about them. It almost felt like back tracking because his nonchalance was gone. So we spent a few weeks trotting ground poles and cavaletti until he got the relaxation back. 

Last week I took him out in hand and walked over baby cross rails until he was bored, which really was almost immediately. He also jumped over a log somewhat buried in grass. I was just trying to desensitize by standing on it while he ate grass nearby, but he popped over it several times with no prompting from me. Good boy! 

He would be fairly easy to screw up if we pushed him too fast too quickly. He's sensitive and does internalize stress to some degree. He's also very willing and wants to please and wants to be a good boy, so it would be easy to have him rushing blindly and GOING and DOING IT because that's what he's supposed to do. But he wouldn't really understand the questions and would be quick and tense. 

So we kept the questions tiny and easy and JT rode him to get the timing exactly right. Not allowing him to rush into her hand before the jump, but still giving him complete freedom over the jump. 

I missed the last pass where he cantered the furthest way X really nicely and softly. Good boy!!! 

We started with ground poles between standards again, but he was very relaxed with those so then I turned them into the tiny cross rails in the video. The first pass over the cross rail, he then thought he should in fact jump the ground pole he came to next. It's so interesting to me watching him puzzle all this out. 

Semi-related, he took a field trip this weekend to majestic oaks to professionally stand on the trailer and eat hay with JT's 4 yo OTTB. I was at work, but reports were good that he went from pretty wide eyed to relaxed and munching hay. Baby steps! 

He is a LOT taller than her 4 YO 

Anxiety at A Blog Hop: 15 More Random Questions

Fun blog hop from Anna at Anxiety at A

1. If you could create your dream horse, what would it look like?

My dream horse would be a blood bay TB gelding with Ben's movement and Goggle's brain 

2. Least favorite equestrian brand? 

Hrmmm I don't know that any one brand has been super offensive to me. There are certainly some that I have found better substitutions for (ie Equiderma for MTG, hoof mud from Pure Sole Hoof Products for Thrush Buster), but they haven't really topped a list in my head.  

3. Favorite horse show memory?

I have two... one is the last show Zing and I ever did together, just a POP schooling show at the horse park where he COMPLETELY and JOYOUSLY ran off with me on XC, partially because I forgot my gloves and partly because he was so overjoyed to be galloping XC. We won our small division that day. The other would be my first training level with Ben last December. XC felt AMAZING and like we had the same goal in mind and were so in sync out there. 

4. One thing you learned in your youth (or early in your horse experience) that has stayed true in your horse training today?

Always look at yourself first when the horse misbehaves. My instructor from 8-18 was huge on being fair to the horse and always encouraged self examination, especially in a repeated misbehavior. 

5. How many horses do you think you’ve ridden in your entire horse career?

Rough count... 20-25 when I was aged 8-18 in a lesson program and doing things like pony club camp and C camp. Since then... Probably only 4-5 different horses during undergrad, 10-12 during vet school... 10-12 post vet school. Soo 54 high estimate, 44 low estimate? 

6. Favorite “Celebrity” horse?

Teddy O'Connor might always hold the top spot. He inspired my still unrealized dream of having an event pony. 

7. Embarrassing moment in your horse experience?

I took my appaloosa, Blue, to pony club camp as a teenager. I was mediocre at polocrosse at best, while some kids were really, really good. But Blue LOVED it. He loved mounted games, he loved polocrosse, he loved things he saw the point in (aka not jumping - you could just go around - and dressage - wtf circles endlessly). I volunteered him to be the ref/coaches mount since he was so game and engaged. However, once the coach was on him, Blue pulled his patented appy move and REFUSED to move from the sideline. He did this occasionally, mostly with adult ammys when he was used in lessons with my instructor. I did not expect him to pull it with polocrosse. I stood there mortified while the coach tried everything short of beating him with the racquet to get him off the sidelines. Lesson learned, the appy will always make a fool of you! 

8. Favorite stallion in your discipline (or generally favorite stallion if you have one)?

This isn't a question I've thought about a lot prior to this... but both of my guys have Giant's Causeway, so that might be it for TB sporthorses. 

9. How’s your sitting trot?

This question actually prompted me to do a bit on Ben the other day. I would call it fairly mediocre these days, it isn't something I do much of. Like, it wasn't atrocious, but could I influence his back and shape as well as when I post? No. 

In high school it was something I worked really hard on, I had an appaloosa with a terrible, sharp trot that was hard to sit. And you had to sit for first level those days, so I suffered. Once I got Zing who had a lovely, but large, trot, it did improve a lot. 

10. What are your favorite colors on your horse (s)?

GREEN! Ben's dark bay looks great in green! Goggles is probably just gonna go with the same even though he's a bit lighter bay. 

Never miss an opportunity for reindeer Ben! Green bonnet and green smart pak sunshirt. I wish the shirt were a bit darker, but hey, it is the closest I've found so far! 

11. What social media do you spend the most time on?

Instagram, better for scrolling through neat videos without a lot of filler stuff (thanks facebook ads). 

12. Any horsey books you’ve read recently?

I just finished Horse Brain, Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship by Janet Jones at the recommendation of The Green Horseman. It was EXCELLENT. I got a library copy and had to rush through the last little bit, so I am looking forward to checking it out again soon. 

13. What is your favorite online store to buy horse products from?

SmartPak, Riding Warehouse, Dover more often now than ever before, they carry a few bits and spurs I haven't been able to find elsewhere. 

14. Is there a supplement you give your horse that you don’t think you could go without?

Hopefully Ben's Relyne GI will be the ticket to keeping him ulcer free. 

15. What is your favorite part about blogging

I love tracking our journey. I love being able to look back on the show recaps, lessons, gear, and my own fitness tracking and remember highlights and changes. I have also really enjoyed connecting with other bloggers and commiserating about horse hoof ailments or learning what techniques have been working for them. 

Wednesday Walks

While moseying around the neighborhood with Ben on Monday, I thought about starting a (semi) weekly post to catalog hacks with the boys. Hopefully this will also motivate me to get out and go places so I'm not stuck posting the same loop over and over again. 

This week Ben and I did a 2.3 mile walk loop from the barn. 

We head out the driveway

Many years ago there were no trees lining this driveway. I'm glad there are now, it's pretty magical

Then turn right and head down the lime rock road. I love riding this road, I hate driving it.

This field sometimes contains goats. For a while one was 3/4 shorn. I kept wondering if he just said F you in the middle or if the clippers died. 

Man in yard requires special attention

These folks have a beautifully productive yard with loquats, bananas, Roselle, and so much more

Then there are the olive trees on the other side of the road

We reach the paved road and go left again. I think these are green beans on the fence? The fence doesn't touch the ground, it starts about 12" up, which I found super confusing until they planted these. Clearly very planned.

Ben was sooo good about trash cans, no cares. Sometimes he does care because they come and go, which isn't allowed in his world.

Also very brave about the flag

Another left turn back onto the far part of our loop. Sometimes there are cows to the right. Sometimes they hide in the trees up ahead.

The new rails on the ground were worth a second look. It was many, many trips past those rocks before he stopped spooking at them. 

Something rustling in here prompted a spook in place. Such pretty flowers though.

This is newly cleared. We went past one day while they were actively dropping trees. He was very, very brave. 

This is our trot set field. There are also a ton of wild blackberries here. We could've turned left to make the smaller loop.

But we continued straight. Sometimes there are goats to the left. Or maybe they're always there and I only sometimes see them.

Then we turn right

Through some abandoned property

Past some abandoned single wides

Not the most scenic part

Past the trash into some woods

And we turn left again. Cow pasture to the right here. Every once in a while the owners dump a dead cow in the back near this fence. Then there are lots of vultures.

Out of the woods. Ben was relaxed enough for a snack and hack. 

Past weird trellis things

More snacking 

Working on his black jack

Noms

One more left turn and we're on the home road now. More cow pastures to the right. Sand is quite deep right now in the road. We need rain!! 

The other entrance to our trot set hay field

Close to home! 

Home pasture fence to the right

Back up the driveway