Jumping once again
I was really excited to head on out and jump. Amber was decidedly less enthused we realized lol. I think she was just done with the wind. It was still blowing and she just felt a little done with the whole thing. She was a little “wild” in the beginning at the canter, but nothing bad at all.
There’s not really too much to tell for yesterday. She just felt sort of blah most of the time, and I do think it’s probably because neither one of us got enough sleep the previous night. In the beginning though, we had a few long shots. Part of it was me of course, but I think she was a little keyed up since she felt blah so she was sort of going a bit overboard.
She was feeling not quite like herself and sort of worked herself up a bit, started rushing a little, and not listening to my attempts to soften, so I worked on that momentarily before going to the trot and letting her step over it that way a few times so we relaxed.
Then I actually sat my butt down in the saddle and let her feel that I was supporting her in the canter (thank you mom for firmly telling me to do that lol she’s my impromptu teacher lol). Once I sat down, she relaxed, and the jumps came up much nicer. Aaaaaand then she smacked them a few times and caused the pole to fall lol. But I liked how it flowed much better, and I was very pleased with her. Towards the end, you can start to see her ears popping back up as she goes over them. I think by the end she was beginning to have fun again.
A few of my favorites were when I’d start to circle her, and her little ears would prick like “oh are we going…! oh, we’re not. nevermind” lol.
She was good and despite her feeling uncomfortable she was very brave and willing. I think she may be starting to feel those sore muscles, so we’re going to take our usual hack today and do lots of stretches and massaging.
I’m my own worst enemy with that. Oh it’s looking better? Yay! And I stop doing all I need to. Poor baby girl. I just need to keep stretching and keep massaging and keep on it. Goodness knows she loves it!
But we still had some great jumps from today, so I’m really happy with her.
One thing that did get her keyed up in the beginning was this huge semi that had dropped something off, then decided to park right in the street and watch me ride. I had just started so we were warming up, and they were telling me what a lovely horse she was and all that. I really don’t know why but it pissed me off. Usually I really don’t care if someone wants to watch me ride or whatnot, but this just irritated me. It was probably the wind and the fact that I could hardly hear anything, either, but it was also probably because Amber just felt horrible when we’d near the truck. Not like her freaking out like before, but I don’t know how to describe it besides she felt like she despised that truck. Then they’d do something with the truck and it’d jolt and startle Amber as we’d canter by. I was so happy throughout the ride that she handled the wind like she used to – she would’ve been a basketcase in the enclosed arena, but whatever that truck did just set her on edge. Which set me on edge. Which made her worse, of course. She felt really coiled, and until they’d parked there, she’d been very relaxed and blah about everything. Then she just seemed irritated.
I know she’ll need to get over something like that, sure, but I guess neither one of us were in the mood to have that happen yesterday. Regardless, I’ll be lowering the stirrups, putting my spurs back on, and hitting the trails. Tomorrow, dressage!
The weekend usual
Thankfully, I have today off. You know what that means? On our switch to English, we’re going to go…..JUMPING!!! (said like in White Chicks lol)
I, however, have yet to even ride today. I know. What’s wrong with me. But it’s kind of cold, and it was super windy last night and Amber is so exhausted that now she is snoozing in the sun. I’m gonna let her sleep lol.
So, we’re on to the weekend recap! There’s not too much to tell actually since I didn’t get to ride her Thursday or Friday. Saturday we continued with our plans for when we ride – focusing on her canter and she’s really coming along. She got touchy about her transitions, but she was really really good in her canter.
She’s getting a lot more confident in her left lead. I think with her leg getting stronger she’s finding it easier to center her shoulders. As I’ve been asking her to come off of that left rein to the right, it feels like her shoulder is falling a bit but I’m actually not very worried. It could even be that her ‘falling’ to the right is technically even because perhaps she’s been uneven for long enough that it feels even to me lol.
Sunday we played around with the patterns, and this show there’s a lot of switching leads. I’ve never pressed her for those, but it’s been on my mind as something to work towards.
So I played around with them, to her good side first, and she got really worried and really fast, but after a few times slowing her down, and going two handed, she really started to get it. Her left to right was harder, but I didn’t make it a big deal, and she was just fantastic. I could feel her get herself up, and was worried that she was going to get fast again, but she switched her leads and then stuck her head down and loped so quietly after that I was just tickled pink with her. She even got the lead changes from left to right twice!
I couldn’t have been more proud of her. To let her know it was good, we walked out of the arena and walked around outside the arena for a bit before calling it quits.
I’m still not sure if I’ll incorporate the lead changes for the show. It’s a budding concept for her – at least the fact that I’m actually asking for it – so I’ll probably go conservative for the show this weekend and perhaps only try the lead changes for the reining and do simple changes for the other patterns. We’ll see how it goes today. My mom’s going to take photos and videos for me, so I’ll have media for tomorrow!
Changing it up
Guess who got her teeth done?
So I couldn’t ride her Tuesday, and since they advise not to ride with a bit for a few days, we improvised.
Always keepin it classy we are. We had a fun day. Simple. No spurs. No bit. And she was great. Not quite on par with our last ride to the left, but her right lead was good. Uber downhill, but hey, she was steady, steered great, and felt good. I had nothing to really enforce anything and it was just supposed to be a fun ride anyway.
And it was a fun 45 minute ride.
She was really great on everything, nice and easy with me having to fix a few things. But it was good to finally get back on my little pony.
I’ve usually never had to do anything with her feet, they’ve always been really strong, but I think the sand and this area have been making her feet really dry. I think they’ve been cracking, so hopefully a bunch of Rainmaker will help!
But, come along guys, and take a spin with me and Amber! The first one is her right spin, not as fast since that’s her not-so-good side, and the left is coming back fantastically. Have fun! (Hopefully it doesn’t make you dizzy!)
I smell a rat
Most of last week was catching up on the show and a quick six-year shout out, so I’ll go over a bit of our rides and the weekend. Since Sunday’s show day was western, I’ve been sticking with western and doing some more training. Working on keep our jogging uphill, and beginning to ask a lot more from her canter.
In truth, it’s high time I do so. Part of it is I want to make sure her hip stays okay, but I was also a bit afraid to do some more training on her for that. She gets very keyed up when we train, and I want her to be relaxed, but I also think it’s that I wasn’t the most sympathetic rider to her when we trained before, so I’ve been avoiding it since I’m kind of nervous, too. But, when we started dressage and stepping into eventing, she was established in her jog and had all the essential pieces to just do it a different way. Her lope had been heading in the right direction a year and a half ago when we’d been in a different barn. But, after moving, it was never completely established and put on the back-burner. But now I think we really need to make it our #1 priority again.
So we had a pretty tough training day on Thursday (Monday and Tuesday she got off – which apparently she didn’t want a day off. Go figure. Wednesday was an assessing day after the show). I finally told myself the only way to make it better is to do it, and I know how to do it and get it done. It’s just that it’s Amber, we’re both highly attuned to the other, and while it was a tough day for her to learn, it really heartened me that unlike before when I’d trained on her, this time she willingly performed the maneuvers later without latent high-strung-ness. If that makes sense. It means I haven’t messed up completely, you know? lol
Most of the toughness was her right lead, which makes sense. It’s an odd concept because in reining you want the horse willingly guided, off of the outside neck rein pressure. In dressage, you want them lifting to that outside rein. Not quite sure how I’m going to make that less confusing for Amber yet, but I think the reining is the best start – establishing a lot of the basics I like while still leaving room for dressage in the future.
The majority of the toughness was just her not wanting to use her butt through her back. She has plenty of butt power (have you seen that thing?!) but we also just never progressed quite far enough to establish her doing that at the canter. She likes to throw her neck up and use that instead of the big, muscled powerhouse she has, so Thursday, it was time for me to start insisting she do it that way. That means for a bit, the actual dressage work will halt for a little while. But I really think that being established this way, as she was at the trot, will really help set her up for success in dressage. (Only difference in the trot was let’s go forward and contact is okay lol)
It’s going to be a huge balancing act of “is she sore, not understanding, doesn’t want to do it, or her hip is bothering her again” to go through every day, but we’ll see how it comes out. Her left lead was better Thursday, just with the added expectation. I’m also really trying to feel that as I start asking and expecting her to really work through her butt and back, I’m not sacrificing an uphill (or level as is our case most times) carriage for a downhill one. Granted, I only got a more uphill carriage once I started insisting more forward for dressage and could then transfer that back to western, but it’ll be interesting to figure it out.
Also on Thursday, my mom hopped on for a quick ride as well since I know she’s missing riding her pony. I thought perhaps Amber might be a little too keyed up after our training, but she was really good for my mom, and even helped us figure out some reasons as to why certain things may or may not have been working with my mom and Whisper before.
Friday I grabbed some grain and bedding, rushed home and hopped on the pony bareback. I think now she’s finally trusting me more at dusk. There were bird wing flutters, and before I could even respond to her quick “oh no!” she settled right back into her jog. I let her walk and loved on her. Thank you mare for not inadvertently dumping me again lol. We mostly walked, jogged and spun. I wanted to lope, but that could wait, and she did one of the best right spins she’s ever done in her life. Hopefully, that means that leg is getting stronger! Her spins that way are getting smoother, so I’m hopeful!
I’ve also been working on her walk. Since watching the two dressage videos and thinking on how she felt, she felt very tense, and I think that (potentially still combined with her hip) is why her gait got stabby. So every time I feel that same walk, I’ve been trying to lift her, push her forward, and really feel that right hind reaching forward the same as her left. Also establishing a soft, easy (but forward) 4-beat rhythm instead of the hurried one. So far, she’s feeling better, so I’m crossing my fingers all the pieces are coming together.
Saturday morning I went to Sandy Valley to be an obstacle judge. I’d been contacted Thursday, and since I’d never been over that way, curiosity and helpfulness for the people who’ve so helped NSHA saw me driving over there. It was actually a pretty cool competition. One group stayed around the ranch first to do 4 obstacles while a second group started their 2 1/2 miles of 5 total trail riding miles. Then, as the first group finished their 4 obstacles and headed out for their trail miles, the second group was coming in to do their first set. It made things go pretty smoothly.
I was in charge of two obstacles – the Never-ending Sidepass and the Maze and Pivots.
They were some hard ones, I’ll tell you that. This first one, level one was #1, sidepassing in between 2 poles. Level 2 was same as #1, but add a pivot on forehand and sidepass the zigzag poles like in #2. Level 3 was same as in level 2, you just go alllllll the way back to the start. Yeesh.
The Maze and Pivots had one side of ground poles, and one side of poles raised about a foot. Level 1 was backing into the chute and walking out (#1). Level 2 was backing all the way through the M, then sidepassing out (#2). Level 3 involved everything in level 2 only you sidepassed over the raised poles. Like holy crap. That’s insane lol. No one tried that one.
Still, I judged them based on the outlined criteria, and tried to comment on everyone’s go round, what I liked, what I thought they could do better, etc. Just keeping it super simple though. I enjoyed it, and the area was open, and super sandy with very little rocks. Ah…. can we maybe have an xc course here?! I so wanted to take Amber through this itsy bitsy water. Looked like fun!
They had a pit full of crunchy water bottles, too. I could foresee that being a huge problem for some horses lol.
When I got back in the afternoon, I immediately set out to ride Amber, and she was great. We had to work a little more on her left lead this time, again with depositing her shoulders back over her center of gravity. I think as that leg gets stronger, she’s not getting as upset when I do try to “put her back” to center. She still has trouble bending that way, but her steering is better, so she’s like this weird conundrum of “needs to rein off of the left neck rein on the right lead, but needs to dressage to the right neck rein on the left lead” lol. I hope my brain won’t explode from all these differences lol. But her spins are really coming along better.
Her right lead was beautiful. After about 3/4 of a circle I let her stop, but I also have a tendency to do that and then never give her the little extra pushes she needs day by day. So we loped off again, did a revolution or two around the whole arena, a circle or two on opposite ends, and called it quits. And she was so focused on getting that right lead correct I was so proud of her.
Saturday I also pressed her for her lead departures. All at a jog, which she can do well, but once she just totally flipped me the finger. I think I was more amused than upset, even though I had to pretend I was upset with her because this thing rarely throws me the finger. And even then she just pinned her ears and flipped her nose in the air and like gave a grunt lol. So way more amusing. But then we’d worked on the left transition enough that she thought I wanted a left even to the right. We worked through that with a few laughs and she got it great. Ah, silly girl.
We took our long overdue hack Sunday, and I think due to Whisper being in heat and her not being out for there for 2-3 weeks caused her to be pretty lit, but we meandered and practiced our neck reining around bushes, down little rocky banks into sandy areas and she eventually settled. She really took offense to this giant slab of rock-looking concrete. Sniffed it, saw it ended and like leaped straight in the air. Tantrum over lol. I doubt her feet really ever left the ground, but she sure humped up good. After that she was just fine. We passed the “ditch” again, and as I presented it to her, gave a little cluck and a tap and she just hopped over it very softly and cantered very softly after it. I brought her to a walk where she then proceeded to practically fall on her face. Oh, little mare. But with no need to do it again, we meandered back to the property to call it a good ride after 45 minutes. The walking really seemed to help as well.
So, just a simple weekend with lovely training, but it was needed and she got Monday off. Oh, the life, right?
As for the title…..We’ve been battling Mr. and Mrs. Rat for a little while now. They chewed through my mom’s thick plastic bin to get to the grain, and haven’t looked back. We now have metal cans, but those things were still prowling around. A few days before, a neighbor had caught Mr. Rat in a trap. Sunday, I found Mrs. Rat curled up in between the cantel and the skirt of my western saddle. In my saddle cover. With poop all over it. And scratches from her nails on my leather. Because she wanted to live there. Ick.
So, we set the traps. We were a little worried that our little chipmunks and ground squirrel/prairie dogs may get caught, but nope! Mrs. Rat is now officially….er…..I really don’t want to say she’s in heaven. She’s wherever rats go lol. But she is no more. Hopefully, we don’t have anymore rats. Now we just seem to have a lot of spiders which is only natural but still. Ick. I love the outdoors, but seriously spiders, go away.
Safe and sound
I am okay. I wasn’t at the concert. But I know many aren’t okay. I was going to do a weekend recap this morning, but with how hectic it’s been – how many people I know that have been checking in to let us know they’re safe as well as people asking me if I’m okay – I haven’t been able to formulate many words. I barely heard reports last night, shortly before going to bed, but only this morning know how bad it was. It’s been…..surreal.
Walking into work this morning made it a lot more real. Everyone’s here at our little office, with a checklist, making sure we’re all safe whether we verify by email or we show up for work. We’re checking people off when we know they’re okay. It’s been pretty crazy here, all. Please keep Las Vegas in your thoughts.
Six years strong
Although Amber’s birthday is on April 20th, and she officially became mine the first week of June, I was first assigned and met her mid to late September. June would be an apt time to celebrate a horse-iversary, but to me, I feel that ours is actually this time of year, shortly after starting the colt training class my junior year and when I first started to work with her.
Not much needs to be said about it since the story is outlined in the post about Miss Amber, but I can’t believe I’ve been able to have her for 6 years now. It’s been back and forth with training and figuring everything out with her, but she is absolutely my heart horse.
Emma posted recently about the little moments of horse owning, and that’s really the same thing I’d like to say in this. Just those little moments. The ones where I’m sitting and watching her graze in the pasture in Colorado when she was better from her injury. The ones where she walks up to me, and she nickers at me for food and scratches. How she tried to follow me from inside her stall when I arrived to buy her from her original buyers. Always how she touches my stomach with her nose whenever I bring her close.
Horses have so many ups and downs and successes and failures, but those quiet, little moments never change. She has brought me so much joy, and not because she’s super talented or has amazing bloodlines or is worth a lot of money. Her injuries limit her. Her breeding is good and very well thought out, it’s nothing super special. And money I was not made of when I bought her.
It’s how goofy she is all the time. It’s her unwavering curiosity. It’s how much effort she always puts into our rides. It’s how she always looks for me when I come out. It’s when her head flies up and her ears prick when I call her. It’s how she takes her lip and nudges me with it when she’s hungry or she wants scratches. It’s how she trusts me, and I in turn can trust her. It’s how she is consistent in dealing with pressure and new situations. It’s when she pushes at the gate because she wants to get out and do something with me. It’s her everyday silly faces. It’s how she’s so comfortable with me, and how steady she is on a day to day basis. It’s how she chooses to follow me whether she’s in her stall or the arena. It’s how much she tries for me when she won’t try that hard for anyone else. It’s how I’m absolutely her person. It’s how after our rides she puts her face to me so I can love on her.
All those little moments are what gives me joy. We’ve definitely had our ups and downs:
And lots of things that we had to work through and get past:
But so far, it’s been a fun ride, the best ride, and will continue to be one. I can’t wait to see where our adventures take us, and how many new things we can learn together. So, here’s to six years.
Happy Horse-iversary, Amber.
NSHA V horse show: part 2
Western day dawned bright and clear, with Amber considerably less temper tantrum-ish than she was the day before. Everything was pretty much ready to go, and she walked right on in. Good girl. She announced herself once again before hopping off, and I had the miraculous ability (again) to grossly misjudge time, so we got there, tacked her up, changed, and had about 5-10 minutes to warm up for ranch riding. Yeesh.
She was still a bit tense and nervous, but like the smarty-pants she is, she knew it was western day. We got a nice jog going, and while she was high-headed and tense in the canter, in ranch riding they don’t want a headset like the current reiners – they want the horse’s head up and eyes in front of them and paying attention. So that means noses not perpendicular to the ground. Which meant our current status worked out in our favor.
Unfortunately, since I was rushed hopping on, I forgot my phone and to ask if anyone would be willing to video for me. My mom was announcing for the club since they needed volunteers, so she wasn’t able to get much. One of the ladies there did take a live fb video of my ranch riding pattern, and took one of my reining pattern, too, so hopefully I’ll be able to get those from her and show you guys.
Ranch riding she walked in, perky ears and a ground covering walk. Again she was looky, but I didn’t correct her. Just went about my business, and I swear that horse multi-tasks because she was looking at horses on the other side of the arena but did this gorgeous sidepass to the right. After our turns and we loped off, I thought about asking her to go a little faster, but decided against it. She was looking at things but just felt very relaxed, and I’d much rather have that. I want her to think shows aren’t The Big Bad, so we just eased to the middle, did an okay simple change and nailed our halt and back up.
Even going easy on things, we still got 3rd place out of 9! I was very pleased with her. We were one of the only ones really dressed up – most of the others were wearing jeans, short chaps, vests and whatnot, and I showed up in my fringe suede chaps and uber sparkly shirt, but that was mainly for the reining and the horsemanship classes that I was just melding my outfits into the other classes.
Next up was reining, and I was just tickled pink with her the whole pattern. Her right spin was great. I misjudged and we got a penalty for an overspin, but her left was just beautiful as well. We had some trot steps going into the lope (which is another penalty), but we were just loping the circles nice and easy and she was doing really well. Not much of a fast/slow difference, but that hadn’t been my goal during the ride anyway, so we didn’t get many points there. I had to simple lead change left-to-right since that’s her bad side, so that was another penalty, but she was just really game and relaxed and listening to the right circles. We put in a bit of a change of fast/slow pace, and at that one I thought “I’m just gonna try that lead change; what the hell”. And she did it! I haven’t been going over changes with her, and her right-to-left is always easier, but she has a hard time when I’m sitting down in the saddle. She also just doesn’t quite understand yet that I’ll ask for it occasionally, but I just sidled her to the right, put my outside leg on her and steered to the left, and she changed! Not together, but hell, I was just happy the hind end even fixed itself! Good girl!
The judge had to have seen me smiling because my grin was just enormous as I passed her to start our rundowns. Those were very measured, not fast, and she still slid a few feet as one person who watched told me. Our rollbacks were more slow 180 turns and she trotted out of one, so a few more penalties, but man she was just being great. On our turn to our last rundown, I kept feeding her the reins, and she just kept lowering her head and feeling fantastic. As we headed down I really wanted to ask her to step up the pace because I knew if she did she’d slide, but I had to tamp that down and we came to a nice collected halt. I almost missed the back-up, but we finally completed our first ever scored reining pattern. It felt really good. I even had on the never-used white polos I’d bought specifically for when we did our first reining show. It was a bit nostalgic, but it was also even better because I wasn’t showing a random horse – I was showing Amber.
I hopped off of her and gave her all the love she deserved. They called our scores, and I got a 58 1/2; not a very good score (since 70 is the baseline/average score) but it was good enough to get us 4th. I was just as happy as I could be with her with what little practice we’d actually had, so I thought 4th out of 5 was just fine.
We had a long break to our horsemanship class, so I just walked her around a bit, gave her some water, and then stood there. With those two intense patterns I figured rest would be good for her, and it was. She got pretty nervous when we went back into the ring for our pattern, but there were 7 other pairs in that one, and we were last to go, and just like before, the standing helped her relax.
Our pattern was good – not where I wanted it and not what we’re capable of, but the judge liked it and we placed 1st out of 7! I swear, guys, this little girl and her heart of gold. She got many more face loves and we got geared up to do the Youth club sponsored fun class! It was – get ready for it – putting on makeup horseback. Yup. It was an absolute blast. There were two guys in there too, and at the walk we had to apply eyeshadow, and then apply lipstick at the jog. It was definitely one of my favorite fun classes the club has put on so far!
After that we had a relaxing lunch break before tacking up again for our last class – western dressage intro. Thankfully, there were a lot more people entered in the class – around 5 or 6. I was third to go, and again had my mom call for me. Again, the judge was extremely fair. She gave us points where we deserved them (I mean, an 8 for my halt!), and dinged us in the walk again. She gave us a 5 and I can understand that since Amber was sore and her right hind wasn’t tracking up nearly as much as her left. But, I feel we’re never going to get over a 6 or 6.5 perhaps because her back legs just don’t really overstep like that, and it’s due to the way she’s made. So I’m fine with that.
But as you notice – no comments on the corners! I very much took her previous comments to heart, tried to bend into my corners, NOT overshoot center line again lol, and yet I STILL missed something at the end – I completely spaced on where G was lol. So I was short. But hey, it was an awesome test. I mean a 26? Wow!
It actually made me happy that at the end of our test she wrote that Amber “needs more energy” lol. And for English she said that Amber had nice rhythm and energy. I couldn’t be more pleased with Amber because while that was actually a faster jog than we normally do, it means that she knows exactly what the different tack means. Such a good pony mare!
So for the end of the show, we managed a 3rd, a 4th, and two 1sts for Sunday. It was a great show and learning experience, but I think my favorite part was at the end as I was filming a fellow rider, and Amber passed out. I mean, legit passed out. I cheered very loudly at the end of the ride, and poor girl jumped and was startled awake. Oh, Amber.
Our next show is in 3 weeks, so I’m hoping we can make some more improvement by then!
NSHA V horse show: Part 1
On to the good part everyone! Show day number 1!
Amber was staring at me wide-eyed as I finished preps on the truck and trailer. Like “oh shit, no I think I know what this is and I AM NOT HAPPY” because literally as soon as I started the truck, she leaped in the air and ran around her stall throwing a temper tantrum. I mean, really, horse.
So what did she get? Tied. And she sat there all upset for a while until I grabbed her boots and we walked on in to the trailer to get going. And we were running late too (which we ended up being fine) so I was hoping she was going to be the mare I usually ride and not some strange animal.
Either way, we got to the show grounds with plenty of time. I talked and chatted with a good friend for a bit, and that helped to calm my suddenly very crow-hoppy quarter horse. I don’t blame her though. It did get into the 50s overnight and she still has her summer coat. After a bit though I hopped on and she was pretty lit. A bit looky and tense in the trot, but I let her canter and sat up a bit. She got the zoomies out (which was like, nearly no zoomies at all) and then settled alright in the trot. She was definitely more comfortable in the canter than the trot, but after some work both ways, I stopped and stood there. I was worried about her fitness level as well as her hip being sore, so I didn’t want to get all the juice out and then make her keep going. Even when she’s lit she only gets tense. She still really tries to do everything for you, and if you just sit quiet and relaxed she comes back to you.
Our first class was just a HUS flat pleasure class. Personally, I think we look as lit as she felt, even though she really kept it together and was listening. The judge apparently really liked us and placed us first!
I felt bad about placing first because as you can see we broke gait (I told her good girl and she slowed lol), and it was also a bit intimidating because there were about 5-6 other horses in the class and you could hear some people gasp and a few murmurings when they announced me first but I digress. I took the ribbon anyway. She was a super judge though because she really took each class individually. It wasn’t a “I like this horse, and they’ll definitely be the best of this class” which I’ve seen many judges do, so I was pleased she assessed each and every class.
Which meant that she really dinged Amber and I for our jigging in the walk in the next class, which was jackpot. (Which I agree she should have because the first place horse didn’t jig). So we got second, and a total of $26 to put towards our bill. Yay lol.
It seemed the order of the day, though – being a carded USEF judge, I wasn’t surprised that she’d like the more uphill travel. Which I am actually happy about because I’ve been noticing AQHA HUS is just…ick. It’s as slow as western; I swear. But, that’s another topic for another day. She seemed to like us, but I really appreciated the fact that she always judged the class fairly. For our equitation pattern, she dinged us a bit (I think on the sitting trot at the end) and we ended up second. But Amber was really laying down some good stuff, so I was super pleased with her.
In between these classes I mostly just parked myself next to a friend, helped her gather up her confidence and just let us chill. Again, while she was tense, she was trying her little heart out, and while warming up would’ve gotten the tense out in her movements, I was more concerned with where her brain was headed. The standing helped relax her, and with each class she got less tense. Plus, Miss Thing only has so much energy, and I absolutely didn’t want to potentially make her sore by riding her a bunch.
The end of our equitation class marked the end of the morning for us, so I took her back to grab some food and take her tack off. After a short rest and lunch break, we tacked back up for our Dressage Intro Test B (and of course had to wear our sparkles!). She felt much calmer and perhaps a bit tired as we stepped into the arena, but the minute I asked for a trot, she gave me the energetic trot we’ve been working towards.
She was looky for our test, but again, the more still I am and the less nagging I do, the more she tries to fit into frame for you. Again I think most of her resistance in her face is due to her teeth right now, but we’ll get those done soon. But she was really superb, tried, and delivered for me. I can’t ask for more than that! I was sad looking at the test that she seemed really stabby on the right hind. I’m going to look more aggressively into that.
Reading the comments on the test, I was really heartened by this judge. She seemed to want to give us points for our tries and our good moments, as well as our “moving in the right direction” times, but she was also very honest and dinged us for where I messed up. Like at the end I WAY overshot centerline. Haha whoops. All in all, a very positive first test. I was a bit surprised by a score of 34 – I was expecting higher penalties like a 38 or into the 40s, but I’ll take it! We got first, but we were the only ones in the class, so….it’s fine lol.
It was a great first show day, though, so we packed all of our stuff and headed home. I have to admit it was so nice to be able to put the horses away, all the English tack got put away and could immediately go back in the house or tack room, and then it was so easy to pack the western stuff. Love having the horses at home. Quickly, I banded Amber’s mane for western (I know, I should’ve braided for English but I felt I didn’t have time), put her sheet on, and we were all set to go for western on Sunday.
Looking at the videos, though was nice to see that while we’re still very nose-out, the moments she comes into contact (and I’m not messing it up, either) are really starting to look nice. She has the basics of pushing with her butt, so now we just need to transfer that to the rest of her body for a better outline and perhaps a little more lift in her shoulders while taking into account her structural limitations. I’m excited to keep working at it!
The pre-show post
So guys, sorry I won’t be recapping the show quite yet but I have to get all my media sorted. If you guys were following me on Instagram though, you’ll know we did really well! I am so pleased with my pony! We placed in every class we entered, and she was such a trier for everything. Even though I was really messed up on timing half of the time and got on her and was only able to “warm up” sometimes for a grand total of 5 minutes.
Since I already had media from Friday sorted I’ll start with that. She was feeling really good, and doing very well riding English. She felt uphill and moving through her shoulders, and pretty easy in her canter. Once we put in a good ride, I gave her a thorough bath and kept packing up the trailer.
Thankfully, I didn’t see any weirdness like Thursday, so I figured we’d stay entered in all of our classes for the weekend, and see how it went. It was suddenly chilly on Friday – getting down into the 50s when it hasn’t been that cold for a while – so I stuck on her sheet.
Her cute cotton sheet, that she has since ripped in true Amber fashion.
Thank goodness that one was the bad one.
Thursday, my back-ordered Mountain Horse Sovereign boots came in the mail, just in time for the show!
I walked around the house a lot in them on Thursday and Friday. I didn’t want to say anything on them yet until I was sure they were the right size, but they fit beautifully, and there was almost no leg, ankle or foot pinching!
By Friday evening, I felt good about the show the next day, felt that while we were better prepared for English than Western at this point, we’d take it as it came and I’d ride the horse I had on the day. On that note, I will leave you guys with these few pictures I’ve gone through.
Ye olde Friday
This week has been…..definitely the weirdest in a while. Remember when I said I had a great week at work but horrible riding? And then I’ve had awesome riding weeks and work was the absolute opposite? This week was like…..a jumble of that.
Horrible day at work: no ride. Better day at work: pretty good ride. Feeling horrible at work and it was whirlwind: great ride. Horrible day at work (because somehow I lost my brain and forgot some important things): Amber has a mild colic episode. I don’t even want to know what’s going to happen today.
Yesterday was a no-ride because of sustained 20+ mph winds and gusts of up to 50 mph. And Amber had a mild colic episode. Like tucked her butt weird, pooped, and immediately laid down and sprawled. Slightly elevated breathing. Wouldn’t touch her water or food. If nothing else, that last one was the real trigger. That horse ALWAYS wants food.
Thankfully, she stood up very easily, no other typical signs of colic that you’d see. She wasn’t drawn up in her flanks, her nostrils weren’t distended and she was still alert – it was just clear she was uncomfortable. A whole tube of Immediate Response later (she was definitely pouting after that) and within a half hour she started to look a little better. She was eating and drank a little, and thankfully by dinner time, she looked much more like herself and nickered for food.
Way to give me a heart attack, horse.
I am not sure what triggered it with her, but it’s been a weird week so maybe she was affected by the wind and the sudden drop in temperature?
My mom let me know this morning that when she walked out to feed breakfast that Amber proceeded to jump and buck and play. No doubt because the weather got into the mid 50s overnight. So, I had considered scratching a few of the show classes, but looks like she’s feeling good! Bullet dodged there. Now we just need to put on last good ride in, pack the rest of my stuff, and we’re ready for the weekend! I just hope there won’t be a lot of this tomorrow:
Off kilter
Wednesday was a really odd day. Thankfully, Amber is doing just fine and is looking great, although unfortunately not any thinner.
So thankfully while there is nothing wrong with Amber, I’ve been feeling off kilter for most of the week. I’ve been getting pounding headaches, weak legs, neck pain that clamps on my nerves and ends up making my hands numb, nausea…. It hasn’t really been fun. We’ve had a few sick people coming in to work, and I really want to tell them to stay home. And then viciously scrub their area with Clorox wipes and follow them with Lysol spray or something. Please don’t get the rest of us sick. I really don’t want to be sick.
After a quick nap I felt relatively okay so I slowly made my way outside and got us ready. I wasn’t planning a long ride. Between the sore muscles and headache I wasn’t really up to much but knew that Amber needed the work, as evidenced by her pregnant belly in the photo above.
We actually ended up doing a lot of trotting. I was nowhere near good for my position – my legs kept moving places and my abs were floppy, but it ended up really working out as weird as that sounds. It took Amber a bit to realize that I really just wasn’t up for much, which included when she anticipates and then gets very worried about that shoulder to the left. But once she did, she started off easy for me, kept pace pretty nicely, and stopped getting worried about my legs moving everywhere. I kept apologizing to her. It was also windy enough that going into the wind would throw me back if I didn’t prepare, and she had to fight a bit to get through it, too.
She was also a bit more resistant to contact than usual. Normally once she understands something and isn’t too worried, she’s very willing to put herself in that position for you. But it seems to be a bit hard for her recently, and I think it’s a little more evidence that her teeth need to be done. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch the vet to do them really soon. So since it seems more difficult, I let her reach down a little more and stretch like we’d need for HUS. And she seemed a lot more content with that.
We did more cantering – a lot more to the right than to the left, but again just let her stretch down and try to replace her weight over that right hind leg. I think it is getting a bit stronger – it seems a little easier for her to do things and considering that she also seems less reactive may mean she’s more comfortable as well. She was a bit too downhill to the right, but after a bit of fixing we were pretty successful. Her left was very comfortable, and she really was fantastic at keeping her neck level when I let the reins out. Since my body was not successful, I wanted to give her a good workout but trying to stay out of her way as well since I wasn’t going to be much help.
I was pretty nauseous and still had a pounding headache by the time I got off, but riding always makes everything better. We ended up riding for about 40 minutes – much longer than I had anticipated I would, but it was great. It was one of those weird rides where there was a lot that wasn’t perfect and a bit that was stepping in the right direction and yet you still feel it was a really good ride and a lot of progress was made.
It’s early yet so hopefully this whole weird-everything-feeling will stay away today. I want to ride but should perhaps take it easy and focus on packing the trailer. Because….ah…..I haven’t done anything along those lines yet. I’m such a great planner. But I’m really not too stressed about the show. Between her teeth needing filing, our minimal western and my not feeling well, it’s just going to be a fun time, even if I was hoping we’d be really on our game since this judge is a USEF one. There’s always more shows, though. I’m just glad I don’t have to wake up so early this time!
Flat prep
Tuesday I had limited time to ride between getting home late from work and then dusk being upon us very quickly. But we made it out there as fast as we could while still taking enough time for stretches. I of course had to dress her up in most of the new stuff.
I was taking another gamble with it being a little later in the evening and her issues with that, but figured it was another bit of strength training and just a switch back to English to see where we were after western. If she was starting to lose it a bit, we’d just stop and call it a night. She was pretty looky when I first asked her to trot, but after a short side of having my leg on her and reminding her that this is work, too, she settled into the contact with a bit of “I remember this!” Good girl.
I was very relieved that our week of western hadn’t caused her to fall on her forehand like she had so horribly last time. It almost felt that we hadn’t even missed a day English (furiously knocking on wood to make sure it stays that way). I kept it nice and easy but keeping in mind the things I worked on this past week in western – just in more contact with smaller spurs and posting trot. And she did really well.
Especially to the left at first she was overreacting to my aids and I knew that was from my “fix the shoulder” and not “train the hind” so I tried to take it with a different approach and it seemed to work alright. We only trotted for a bit.
But true to my plan I cantered a lot more this time, keeping in mind bend but also replacing that weight over the inside. She anticipated a lot at the walk to move into the canter, but that’s really something I don’t mind. I worked on a bit of transitions, and the second time cantering around just mostly focused on maintaining pace while letting the rein go a little. She tried relaxing into it very nicely – even though she’s not too successful at it with lack of strength.
I quit there. Didn’t even do the left. My main focus was assessing where our English was after western, dispelling a few “habits” we (me) have gotten into and to change the way we think about it, and if there’s time, do a bit of work on something. It was only a 30 minute ride, but I felt we really accomplished that well. And considering it was dusk and practically dark by the time I hopped off, I counted it doubly successful. She was still a little worried, but really tried to focus on the ride. Good girl, Amber!
Riding longer to pick up her strength is important and something I want to work towards, so thankfully after switching days at work I get off at a good time today and the next 2 days before the show. Lots of time to work on that then!
All the lights in the barn got finished, so it’s in perfect timing for the days getting darker earlier. So, we’re all set to go for a good ride today as well as to start packing up the trailer. I think I’m looking forward to that the least….
Eau Naturalé
I suppose I have a conundrum. Since I’ve begun heading towards eventing I’ve left Amber’s whiskers alone. Personally, I think they give her a lot of character and look adorable. Also, less work for me.
I have to trim her eyelashes still since (I’ve trimmed them since she was 3) they now curl up to her eyeballs and that’s uncomfortable. Mostly I leave her ear hair because gnats and flies just LOVE her and get in her ears. But, I also don’t want to look like we just ventured out from a summer on pasture. Although……we sort of have.
However, she doesn’t look unfit or seem to lack shine. I don’t think we’ll look that homeless. And from where the judges are standing I don’t think they’ll really see her whiskers unless they look really closely. Personally, I don’t think she looks unkempt, and I will trim a bit of her ears and eyes, but what do you guys think? I’m inclined to say whiskers, but I’d like to know your thoughts too.
It’s a local show; nothing like AQHA points or anything. Classes I am entering:
- Hunter Under Saddle and Hunter Equitation
- Dressage
- Reining
- Ranch Riding
- Horsemanship
- Western Dressage
So…… Whiskers or no whiskers? What do you guys do for shows? Do you just go with whatever or prefer a trimmed look? Let me know, and let the fun begin!
Strength training and realizations
Friday as I was browsing through some more horsey blog posts to read while I had some down time at work, I came across A Enter Spooking’s blog and her post about straightness. And it was as if a lightbulb – or really a dozen lightbulbs – fired off in my brain. She spoke about how her horse’s weak hind leg attributed to her hand and the general crookedness of rides. And it was the right hind leg. With him bulging to the left in his shoulders and doing weird things with his neck and head to compensate.
And it was an OMG AMBER moment. She does all those things. And it’s been recently, in the last 6-9 months that I’ve noticed her doing things she’s never really done before. She ALWAYS dropped her shoulder to the right. She dropped her shoulder to the left but it was her naturally better side. Suddenly she doesn’t drop her shoulder to the right. If nothing else, it now severely bulges to the left. We’re getting deeper into connection and dressage and now her head and neck do weird things. Coincidence? I think not!
I’ve attributed her lack of straightness recently to her hip that was twisted, and while that is absolutely without a doubt still true, I think I’ve been thinking about it the wrong way. For the moment, she’s not short on that leg anymore, but I’ve been thinking about it as taking it easy on her and letting that heal. It’s been a little over a month since our chiro and acupuncture appointments, so I don’t think her hip is twisted anymore. If she is sore, though, mostly it seems to be muscular now from harder work or so like last week so consistent massage is still definitely needed. But what this blog post was talking about was strength training. And suddenly, it made sense. That is her weak leg. It’s probably been her weak leg most of her life but she was pretty close to even I think when we were pursuing reining in earnest.
But now I get it. Strength training. Like when your right side is weak so you train in a gym to target that weak area. That’s what she needs. She needs to get that leg stronger because it will not only help her in her body, but it will be easier for her to do everything. I’ve known she needs to get more fit and that it’s a process of building muscle, it’s just the way that this was worded suddenly put two and two together for me. So Friday I set out for a super short ride, but with that strength training in mind. Megan was suggesting a lot of really great stuff to do for strength training, but me being uneducated a lot of the things she was describing really escaped my brain. A lot of it was lateral stuff and Amber and I are just not there yet (mostly me). But she did suggest forehand turns, and I figured that even though she didn’t mention it, there is one thing we could do that’s in our arsenal that is established – spinning.
It’s an advanced maneuver. Doing it right requires the horse to really sit on their hocks and lift their front end. Amber has never had the most success to the right – mostly because I believe she gets a bit uncomfortable with the stress the spin puts on her knee that direction. But again, with her twisted hip I noticed a huge decline in the success of that spin. It was never as good as the left, but it was still good. Now she really leans out to the left, and spins around her outside hind. Ha, weak hind leg!
So Friday was short but to the point. Warm up. Spin. Walk out. Spin. Walk out. Spin. Walk for a bit and do a very slow side pass to the left so she had to put that hind leg under her. End for the day. Emphasis was placed on weight bearing the right hind. Success? Yes. She was really good. I just asked her to spin slow and steady, and she delivered very well.
However, even at this point, her left hind is weak in terms of spinning. So it won’t need as much strength training, but I’m going to work on it, too and see if it gets better. Will she still need an injection in her SI? Perhaps. I’m absolutely not ruling that out, but I really want to see if this strength training begins to work. It’ll take time – lots of time, but it’ll just be one day at a time.
Saturday we worked on pretty much the same things, just with more circles and cantering and jogging involved. A little bit of “stop” and a little bit of “rollback” with some good circling and cantering. She was even better to the right this time, and she was even able to hold her canter with her head level nicely. I tried to get my hips out of the way for her, and when I was successful she got very soft in her body and it was easier for her to canter on the right lead as well.
Once I looked at her weakness as one of the hind leg and not she’s letting her shoulders drag everywhere, it changed how she rode. By me thinking to put her weight over that hind leg, not to “fix” her shoulders, it just felt different and more successful. Lots of work for us but I think it’s going to work out better. But again she tried her heart out.
Even though we’re rusty she still spins pretty nicely to the left. She was a little sore when I palpated her after the ride, but I did some stretches with her and gave her a massage that evening.
Sunday we did things a little different by working in the arena for a spell first and then going on our usual hack. This time we worked on our Ranch Riding pattern, and I think we’ll have more success in that one than the reining. Either way it may or may not work well on Sunday lol. I’m not worried, though. She was absolutely super, and did just enough to get her warmed up, doing some more turns and strength training on her butt. We worked more on transitions, and after a few mild protests of “really, mom, I simply can’t rock back on my own and canter off collected” she gave some really super tries and we called it a day with a quick cool down before hopping on out of the arena.
She walked great, nice and calmly. Until I decided it would be great to walk down this street where she’s kind of enclosed by trees. And seeing goats for the first time. While on asphalt. Smart, Mandy. Real smart right there. I had a hand wrapped around the horn because she may not be bothered by a lot but she’s still only 7 and I could just imagine everything going wrong and her skittering on the asphalt and us going down…. But she was actually quite fine. After looking at the goats and snorting, I tried to have her back to go the other way, but she was like “no, mom, I’m going past those things and don’t try to stop me”. And it wasn’t a big deal at all. Reverse psychology, everyone. Took a few years off of me but we’re okay lol.
I’m a little sad to be going back to English, but really that’s mostly because it may be a lot more work again getting her back up for dressage. This time will hopefully be better since I didn’t let her collapse on her forehand (too much) like last time, but it may still be a challenge. Either way, I’m thinking I may even add western days mid-week of English simply to add spinning to the repertoire as a type of strength training for her. So far it actually seems to be really helping, especially when I’m sifting through the basics and making sure she’s on the inside hind or interchanging her hind legs instead just on the outside.
I’ve had a few new things come recently, which I haven’t used yet at all but am excited to, so we’ll see how that goes. I have a few other things (hopefully) coming soon too so I’ll put together a list with a lot of pictures so you guys can see!
Happy Monday!
Back to western
Our last two rides have been western fun and games. Oddly enough, though, after I put 2 boots on her and then her western saddle, she seemed to look back at me like “oh so we’re NOT doing fun things today? Greeeeaaaaatttt.”
But, she was good. I stretched her hindquarters as best as I could before heading out each ride, and it really seemed to help. All the evening muck rake scratches seem to help as well so that’s a plus.
I was tripping over myself most of the time I was walking; I’m definitely not used to walking in my western spurs anymore. I was really nervous they might be too much for her considering how sensitive she’s been dressaging and doing small jumps, but she was absolutely super chill with them. Maybe it’s because I had a fender in-between my leg and her this time so she couldn’t feel my calf as much? I’m not sure, but I do find it amusing that she has 3 different settings for the 3 different disciplines lol.
Wednesday I hopped on with the intent to play around, do a modified reining pattern and a bit of ranch riding just to see where we were. She was a huge trier through the whole thing, and I think after a bit it sparked her memory like I know what this is! It was also a great opportunity for me to lay a little better training on her slow jog. Loose rein and western suddenly means uncollected jogging to her, so it was a good opportunity to instill in her that while western is slower, LIFT is still required. We sort of got that by the end of the ride.
Dressage is definitely helping her overall balance, and I was really pleased that while she had loose reins, she was really steady in her pace. Usually she also gets upset if I apply that inside leg to get her to lift that left shoulder (no doubt due to when it was uncomfortable to do so), but she didn’t get too upset and felt very easy. I did a few run downs at an easy lope, asked for a stop and then a very easy rollback that was more of a spin, and then worked on loping off.
It was good to get my trainer pants on for reining because things that I was relaxing on for English I find I expect more of her in western. Mostly because that stuff she’s really already done; it’s just a slightly different format for English. So I filed that away for Thursday.
Thursday carried a few different things – a few impromptu things that I hadn’t filed away on Wednesday but still needed work. She’s really quite solid on neck reining to the left – not so much to the right. It’s really a lesson I should have had with her a while ago, but we’re getting to it now so that’s okay. I kept mostly to circles, and focused on steering but with the addendum that lift was still needed. She did super to the left and needed a lot more work on the right. But again, I’m not too surprised.
She really tried though, and I honestly laughed out loud when I took her across the middle to lead change. She’s just so funny. English and jumping and she’s been pulling those lead changes out pretty consistently. Me sitting down and steering to the right and she just kept on loping, all calm and willing to counter-canter despite how much she dislikes counter cantering. Ah, little mare.
We worked on our spins a bit, making sure she wasn’t staying prone to leaking a shoulder to the outside, and I was really pleased with her. I could feel her telltale “hot” that she gets when you correct her and work at it a few times, but I was very happy that unlike she has before she kept her calm and just kept listening to my legs and cues.
I worked on a bit of stopping as well. We’ve let ourselves go a bit, so it was good to remind her that stopping requires more butt use than neck and shoulders use. Since she doesn’t have sliders on and she doesn’t like sliding, I wanted to just get her to stop softly. And she did. She just….still slid. Only like a foot and a half but still. And again, unlike before when she’d get worried, she had a lot of confidence with it even on her bad side. I’ll take that any day.
We loped for a while, working on keeping the pace and lift and not worrying about where her neck and head were. It was actually quite nice to get back to reining (working on reining things unlike what we did the last time) and I really think she quite liked it too. It’s what we did for a time, and she remembers that. We’re doing it in a slightly different way now, but it’s relatively the same.
Last time I rode western I commented on how cross-training was super beneficial to see that dressage was helping her so much and how good it was for Amber to do the switch. I’m going to comment on it again, but this time, it was cross-training for me. I’ll do bullets so I’m not waxing poetic on you guys.
Things I learned:
- Working on my dressage seat is easier in the western saddle, and it not only really helps her, but makes sitting her lope easier for me
- Actually doing reining things with emphasis on butt power really makes me understand now why reining is called the dressage of western
- We worked for close to an hour. Cool down took us past that. Which means I seriously need to up my game for English. No wonder it seems like she’s gained her weight back. I may be riding more days, but somehow it is so easy for me to ride nearly an hour in western tack, but 30 minutes feels like forever in English
- I need to expect more from her on our flat days. I had breaks in between, but we loped about 12 revolutions combined. That’s a lot more than I do English. Granted, trot work is very important in dressage and much less so in reining, and I’m working on frame, and collection, and trying not to push her too much past what her muscles can hold for dressage, but in order for her muscles to get stronger, I need to push those extra strides every day
- My twisted hip really affects the way I sit her lope to the right. I will not be able to ever get it perfect, but I can work on attempting to at least get it not so pronounced.
All in all – a really really good 2 rides so far. Before I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue with western, but I’m going to hold off on my decision with that. It may be that these next few months preparing for the shows will be perfect training not only for her, but for me to really switch around my thinking and working a lot more on her fitness. I think I’ve been doing her a disservice with not working hard enough on flat days and then we canter a lot on days I’ve jumped her. As ever, though, she’s a super girl, and is taking the back-to-western well. Can’t wait for the weekend! Even though no jumps. Which is sad, but alas. Must be done lol.
Dipping the toe in
Sadly, I have no horsey updates.
I didn’t ride yesterday because I had errands and a club meeting to go to; however, I did a lot of research on USEA, and relatively came up with more questions than I had answers. That of course always makes things less stressful. I printed out the rulebook and have been going through that (thank god it looks like I’m good for show clothes). But looking at all the information, I feel that to be honest I’m an amateur, I have to make a call to NRHA and make sure I’m good.
I gave up my amateur status in 2014 to show a few horses in some NRHA shows, but since then haven’t shown in anything NRHA Open since then. According to the rulebook, this year would mark the end to my ineligibility to apply for a Non-Pro card. Not that I’m planning to renew a membership with NRHA, but I feel that to really be considered an amateur in USEA to register for BN (if we ever get there), then I can’t be a “pro” in any organization.
I’m not planning on going BN anytime soon, and you and your horse need to be registered to compete in BN. But, do you need to be registered to compete in Intro? Or elementary, or perhaps pre-competition as it looked like a few places were calling it. It’s all just a jumble in my head as I sort it out, so it’s just going to be a process for me to get it all straight. But it was definitely exciting as I was looking through everything. I’ve been perusing venues I could potentially get to and will probably soon organize some lessons. Yay! Although soon for me could mean next month, so….we will see. For now, though, it’s continuing to work towards this show!
Food and mini ditches
I wasn’t sure what else to name this post. It’s mostly about Amber’s desire for food and the mini ditch we found. Pretty simple.
After getting off work at 5 I hurried out to grab a nice hack. I spent some time stretching her hind end, and I could tell it was the right exercise to do. Before, when I’d done them she’d stretched no problem, but she was still tight and it took a bit for her to relax in to them, but once she did I could tell she walked better for sure. So it was time to saddle up and head out there in our obnoxiously matching things.
I was taking a bit of a gamble since she’s been wired recently and it’s been linked to dusk, but I figured this was totally different from arena work and to give it a shot. No round and round, no “real work” – just a nice walk outside where it’s always been pleasant. She was actually really good. I wasn’t expecting her to be bad, but just not as confident as she is when it’s bright and sunny. She walked out really nicely, and perked up when she realized we were going for a hack. It almost felt as if the time of night didn’t bother her.
What did bother her was the fact that Whisper wasn’t missing her. She kept looking over at her like “Don’t you realize I’m gone?!” Whisper did, but was busy with alfalfa. Sorry Amber. Looks like alfalfa is preferred to you. So we kept walking along our usual path. I didn’t deviate much since it was beginning to darken and I didn’t want to make her too worried or to potentially have an issue when this was supposed to be a good change of pace and to help her relax (cause it didn’t work last time).
The house in the picture above is on the way back to barn, and the people have dirt bikes and ATVs so it’s softened the ground and gotten rid of a lot of those tiny rocks, so I took that moment of her wanting to jig as well as freaking power walking to work on our medium walk. Our free walk is a non-issue; she’s really great at that. But you take a hold a hold of the reins and she collects and does this really nice slow walk. You know, if you want her to walk that slow. Which for dressage not really. So with her thinking very forward, I thought perhaps with the contact she might get more nervous but if it didn’t work I’d play around with it some other time.
She didn’t want to the first time, evading a bit and jigging a bit just as I thought, but when I put my leg on her, after a few seconds she obediently put her head into contact for me. Held it just enough for her to be relatively in frame but thinking forward and released. It actually worked super well and I did that for a few strides here and there until I could do it for a bit longer. I was a bit surprised how responsive she was, but also very happy it was turning into a good ride.
Since the people in that house had dirt bikes, they’d made this little ditch. I’d passed by it before, and suddenly had the thought that evening that we should walk over it. She did with a teensy hop the first time without much encouragement. Unfortunately, she crow-hopped afterward. I yelled at her “No! We don’t do that on cross country!” aaaaaaand brought the people’s dogs over to start barking. It’s my karma for laughing at Remus’ little bucks with Michele earlier in the day.
We “hopped” the ditch a few more times since after that first one I wanted one without bucking (crow hopping, sorry; she’s never bucked under saddle lol) and then the next few tries she was like IT’S A BLACK HOLE MOTHER I CANNOT. Which was really just her staring down into the ditch sniffing it and trying to see if she could go to the side. Super refusing horse right there. And the ditch is maybe like 6 inches deep and like 8 inches wide? Very tiny. But she hopped it every time! The last one we did was still a hop, but it only took a slight nudge from my heels before she went over so we continued on. Plus, I think the barking dogs were getting on her nerves so it was good to continue.
After that she could see the barn, and started jogging a bit, so it was a good time to do some small circles and practice pushing her into the outside rein. Once she realized this was what we were doing, the jigging stopped. We got back no problem, with her happy and it hadn’t gotten quite dusk yet so that was a win. My mom was mixing some meds for Whisper, and her brain was suddenly back on food.
You know, because this horse is obviously starving. We never feed her.
All in all, a good ride!
Waterlogged
It rained a lot on Friday. A lot. Not much compared to Houston, but quite a bit for Vegas.
By the time I got home at 5 more clouds were threatening to drop rain, so my plans of a good 20 minute walk, practicing my dressage seat at a nice slow pace and letting her muscles stretch and walking my dressage pattern was accelerated.
I brushed her quickly, threw her half pad on her, and hopped on as fast as I could. About 10 seconds after I got on, it started drizzling again. I only managed to walk the pattern once. There was a lot of lightning off in the distance, the thunder was getting worse and it felt like it was raining a little harder by then.
Sweet girl was like “ew, mom, why are we in this stuff?” but she never once startled or paid any attention to the thunder or lightning other than flicking an ear at it. Shortly after I got off, the wind and rain started in earnest, and we had to shut the girls in for a while. Amber was her usual you-must-scratch-me self and adored her butt scratches.
It kept raining for a good three hours – not too common in Vegas, but we really do need the water. So, after one last check, it was time to call it a night.
Saturday morning was nice and cool. It was such a nice relief from the boiling weather we’ve still been having into September. It couldn’t have been more than 80 or 85 when I stepped out at 9 in the morning. It was humid due to the clouds, but even the humidity was such a welcome change, and the light breeze definitely made it bearable. I’m ready for summer to be over, but I also don’t want winter yet. I am not a cold weather person.
I wanted to do some jumping on Saturday or Sunday before I’d start dressage and western in earnest for the show, but considering her recent smacking of her left front, we just dressaged. I had watched another master dressage video, and low and behold it was just what I needed to give me a kick in the pants (because lord knows I don’t do it right).
I did get some nice work from her, but I was focusing more on my seat and translating that to her, and it worked out much better for us both. Even still, it was mostly a chill day since her last few outings haven’t been the most pleasant. I think she may need her teeth done soon, and she was still a bit sore on that right hind, but otherwise it was a good day. Not our best work, but I was still happy with her. And I did threaten to show you guys video of our dressage, right? So, enjoy the torture.
She still tends to nose out above the vertical instead of on it, but for me, it still remains a non-issue and something I’m working very slowly towards. I know how hard it is to change a horse’s habit of going way back of the vertical with nose to chest, so the fact that she’s way more prone to be above than on it is in my opinion much easier to work with. Plus I want her to utilize her body and her butt first. Her head can come later.
Our canter work is still looking promising, although I’m certainly glad I won’t be showing cantering yet. She has really nice natural balance, but since her hip and this is a new discipline, it just takes time for her to settle in.
Torture #1:
Torture #2:
Torture #3 (if you’re even still watching at this point):
While these snippets are our good stuff, we still have many, many moments of this:
And this:
And this, too:
It was a short ride – 20 to 30 minutes of light work mostly just working on letting her mind settle back in to work. And, since Whisper is on stall rest at the moment, my mom hopped on! She hasn’t done English in a while, and Amber is fun and lazy so why not?
She was absolutely superb with my mom. She started with this itty-bitty jog and just kept a nice, slow pace for my mom. Sweet girl. Part of it is, though, that she knows it’s not me, so she figures she can slack off a bit, but also, she’s just so great at taking care of you when you need it.
I know my mom was happy to be in the saddle again, and Amber was great with carrying her around. It was supposed to be a “fun” little ride anyway, and that’s what it was. I know it’s frustrating when your horse isn’t rideable, and it’s not like Amber will take off and bolt like one of my mom’s old horses did, so it was easy for me to offer my mom a horse with solid brakes. (Literally, anything sounding remotely like “whoa” and she stops)
All in all, it was a nice Saturday.
It was easy for me to see that she’s still sore on that right hind – if I won’t get it much better after me trying to work it out and the chiro/massage/laser therapy, then I’m probably going to have the vet stop by and inject her SI. With her being in progressive work, and her never being injected for anything until her knee a few months ago, I think it’s safe to say that it will help a lot.
Sunday I didn’t get to ride. I had planned on it earlier, but realized I’d forgotten a few last touches on a birthday present for a friend of mine’s daughter. It was a little mermaid (though not The Little Mermaid) wooden box that I painted and varnished as a little jewelry box for her daughter to throw all her fun jewelry in. So after I fixed that, we had miscommunication on exactly where the party was.
I ended up leaving around 5 so by the time I got home, chores and other adult responsibilities were due so no hack on Sunday. But, I plan to take her on her usual hack today, try to sort out her sore hip and see where that takes us. Hope you guys had a good weekend, too!
Tough times
Tuesday’s ride ended up not being the ride I planned. Wednesday didn’t work out, either. And neither did Thursday. After such a fun and learning weekend, and with a show coming up, it wasn’t the outcome I was hoping for.
First, the problem: the time of night. It honestly has nothing to do with me taking Amber away from her food. Over the years we’ve spent together, that’s really never bothered her. It’s the specific time of night – juuuuuust getting into dusk.
At the old place, I think it became one of Amber’s biggest fears. Not only were the trees enclosing the arena, but the birds were fluttering everywhere, and she couldn’t see them, or they’d suddenly fly overhead, and at dusk I think it really scared her. Going out to an open arena hasn’t changed this much at all. It will only take time and good experiences.
It’s safe to say that didn’t happen Tuesday or Wednesday. I’m positive it was 80% the time of night, and 20% that I put spurs back on. I also could not ride on Tuesday to save my life. She was also trotting HUGE and I could not sit it so….it was a bit of a failure all around. I feel more like one, because I didn’t remember about the time of night early enough, and I didn’t dial it back. I made her keep going, even though I know that pausing and giving her a breather usually helps better. I did do one last attempt, just to let her reach down for a bit of stretchy-ish trot, and she relaxed and it was so much better so I hopped off on that note.
I do know that with consistency and confidence-building rides she should get over her fear of dusk. But this week, with rides that were supposed to soothe her muscles, was not the time for it. I do feel like I failed her because I wasn’t paying attention. Granted, she does not hold a grudge, but I feel I failed because I should know this about her. I should have noticed. Because yes, she’ll need to get over that someday, but we have a long time to be able to do that.
So Tuesday was a bust, so I stepped out Wednesday with a “we will just lunge” attitude and have a nice easy time. Well that didn’t happen, either. Not the exact dusk time, but kind of close to it, something startled her very badly, and she nearly pulled me across me the arena. And proceeded to clunk herself.
However, I actually don’t know if it was done during lunging or sometime during the stormy night because I only noticed it in the morning. So, I grabbed her ice boots, and iced her leg. There was no heat, and seemingly no tenderness when I pushed on it, and she didn’t take a lame step, either. None all day Thursday actually. The bump feels more on her canon bone than any ligaments or tendons, but I feel it’s best to be cautious. I’d intended to ride her Thursday – just a walk, but intermittent storms hindered those plans. Perhaps it’s good I didn’t ride though considering Tuesday and Wednesday…. What I did find cute was that she sniffed and looked longingly at the crossrail after Tuesday’s ride. It was quite funny.
Either way, I feel pretty bad about it. I feel like I let her down because I should know better. I feel that her clunking herself was my fault. But, I also know that we have to take the times we fail with the times we succeed. And while those days were not good days, we have to be able to put that emotion aside and give it another go. Because if there was anything I learned while training the young ones, it was that sometimes you just had bad weeks. Bad months, even. Horses aren’t machines, no matter how much or often they try to be consistent for us. And while Amber is seven and not a baby brain-wise by any means, it’s a new discipline for her. Two, really, if you count our little jumping. So I have to understand that both of us can get overwhelmed with it all.
So, while the past few days I’ve felt like I’ve let her down, I’m going to get back at it this evening and just go for a nice walk. In the arena, to let her muscles work and to make sure she’s not lame and to ice some more. Just in case. She’s still got weight on it, walks fine if perhaps a little stiff – though everywhere, not just that limb – but is still her usual self and loves her scratches and nickers at me to give them to her. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem much to worry about, but I’m still going to be careful.
On a better note the patterns for the show came out today. The club likes to post them 2 weeks early, so I snatched the dressage tests up so I can start studying what I’ll need to be able to do in two weeks.
The purpose says to “introduce the rider and/or horse to the sport of dressage. To show…..proper geometry of figures in the arena with correct bend (corners and circles).” Uhhh….let’s just say I will fail at the geometry of figures. Math was never a strong point of mine. So being able to see how large a 20 meter circle is? Eh….not really. Oh, well. This is supposed to be fun!
I also legit salute in this test. Probably because it’s USDF. Either way, I think that’s probably going to be the funnest part of the test for me. No idea why. I even salute in my western dressage pattern. One thing’s for sure, though: it’ll definitely be interesting.
Let the anticipation begin
So, uh. I did a thing, guys. I signed up for the September show. But, that’s not the crazy thing. I signed up for not one, but TWO dressage tests. Uhh…..what now?
Both are the Intro tests so walk/trot, but one is actual dressage and the other is western dressage. The western dressage is part of a performance buckle I’m aiming towards after 3 shows of points, and this September show has a USEF carded judge. So, uh, why the hell not?
Sure, we’ve never had formal lessons yet, but I figure why not just go for it? It is only walk/trot, so not a lot of pressure, and it’s a small local show with maybe 2-3 people showing dressage so not a lot of pressure, so hey, let’s go for it.
The show is in a little over 2 weeks, and I’m mixing those two classes with some HUS flat classes and reining/ranch riding and horsemanship patterns. It’s a total of 4 classes Saturday, and 4 classes Sunday. It should be pretty simple.
Except, ahh….our tack is a bit mismatched right now? I have a white pad with blue piping… I hope that won’t be bad. And I do have white breeches and a good looking short sleeve show shirt and can use my hunter jacket….
You know what? I didn’t really think this through. Yay me. But, after this show, though I probably won’t do a dressage test again until after some lessons and I’m at an actual dressage show. Since I’m having so much fun jumping and progressing with her, after this show I might even decide to forego the western day and have fun english. Or show Whisper western day. THAT would be fun.
Either way, I’m pretty excited about the show. I will probably be grossly unprepared for dressage and western, but hey, let’s throw myself out there because shows always help to teach you where you have some holes. Let’s get to it!
Flying high part 2
Amber didn’t feel sore at all walking around the arena in the morning, so I figured a few times would be just perfect. And it was. She was great! She felt more confident and relaxed this ride, and I loved looking at her little ears prick up every time we’d head to that crossrail.
This was the first attempt of the day: success! I loved how she assessed it and was just spot on. No hopping over it – just nice and fluid and over instead of up.
So I asked her to canter shortly thereafter, and hopped over it a few times. We had a few really good ones, and just a few not so good ones, but mostly the striding wasn’t right so she spliced it. But I was really pleased with her – even if it is super amusing that she realized she didn’t have to work so hard to get over the thing. Even still, I just love how she’s figuring it out and deciding when she thinks she should go for the jump or wait. Pretty clever girl.
In the video above she felt like she had a good active canter (and yes that’s pretty active for her), and it just really flowed into the jump. It was my favorite of the day. My other favorite was this one, and how well she’s beginning to judge the little crossrail.
She deserves a good walk tomorrow with some light riding, and that’s just what I plan to do. She was just phenomenal this weekend, so I’ll probably do another ride or so with the crossrail at this height and then move on up!
Even though some rides I feel like I can see the distance and count the strides, many times I don’t get it. I’m still super green with it. However, I take that as a bit of a good thing at this super low height – I do want her to figure out how to get her feet out of the way if I make a mistake, and so far, I’ve made plenty of distance mistakes. But with each ride I’ve tried to rate her speed better to be able to see the distance better, and it’s just a work in progress.
So far, I don’t think going a little higher will be too much too soon – she’s really proven how smart she is and how much she wants to do well. And I really think she is having tons of fun with this. I definitely think having these new things to really challenge her is something that she really likes. It’s new, with many new concepts so she’s not completely confident about what to do, but I think she’s very much enjoying the challenge that this presents. The only thing now is to keep her fitness going, and not do too much too soon in terms of fitness. So far, I’m very excited to keep plugging away.
Even though she’s working harder, I think I’m spoiling her a little more. Girl just gets the Queen treatment most days lol.
So far the ice boots are working really well. Her legs stay cold and it goes pretty far above her knees so her knees are getting cold as well. It does work better with gel packs, but I’m undecided whether to bite the bullet and buy them for the boots or make my own. And have them leak. Again. We’ll see how it goes.
Flying high
Although really, not that high. Amber and I did do some jumping Saturday (yay!) and I thought we were fairly good at it for the second time really trying (yay!!). So get ready for lots of GIFs and lots of pictures. Because I love pictures.
Friday we went on a simple bareback hack. Just walking for fifteen minutes to get her blood moving and muscles working.
Saturday, I switched out the orange boxes for some bigger cardboard boxes (we STILL keep it uber classy) and made the jump a very small crossrail. Nothing big at all – probably not even 18″. But I was super excited because while I was expecting her to just trot over it like cavaletti, I was high as a kite for the rest of the day.
She was awesome. Warmed up a little stiff, and perhaps a bit nervous since I decided I should put my stirrups up for jumping one more hole. My legs were in a higher position and I could feel her react to my left leg a lot so I know she was worried about it. But she began to relax to it about halfway through. I’m discovering that she really doesn’t need spurs for jumping.
Her first trot over was much like her many first attempts 2 weeks ago:
Maybe it’s just me, but despite her jumping up and not over, I think she looks pretty darn adorable.
My balance isn’t quite where it should be, of course, but I will definitely get better with practice. With my stirrups up a hole from the last time I jumped, I felt less balanced and uncomfortable, but my super old muscle memory sure remembered what I was supposed to do even if I didn’t quite accomplish it.
Our second attempt was a bit more amusing, considering I had ironically shared a video of a horse doing almost this exact same thing:
I’m not too sure why she stopped, other than perhaps she was just feeling “meh” about it, but as you can see she still went over just fine. You can’t see in the video but I gave her a few little taps with my heels and some clucks, and she walked on over. Turns out that’s really all that’s needed to tell her stopping isn’t necessarily an option because our next attempt looked like this:
No way she wasn’t going that time! I was just happy as a clam the whole ride. She was so super. We had a couple other really great goes over the crossrail:
They worked out well and she was feeling pretty confident.
And I really wanted to canter her after that last one. By that time it’d only been maybe 20 minutes, and although she was sweaty from the heat she wasn’t puffing since I made sure to walk a lap or two after each one. She just felt very eager Saturday, like she knew we were doing the fun things.
Even though now I think she realizes the fun things are hard, too. But those little ears….man she was so focused on that little crossrail.
When cantering, it was just so exciting. I know I probably sound like a broken record, but man, it was just plain fun. I love this little mare! Our next cantering ones were pretty much successful with only one flub and she didn’t even knock the pole down when we didn’t get the striding right, clever girl.
My mom suggested sitting back, getting her into a softer canter, one I usually do for a little more dressage and to help slow the tempo and let her think calm, and I have to say it turned out nicely, I thought. She was calm going up to the crossrail, didn’t rush, and came back down to a trot of her own accord after a few canter steps and some fun head shaking. Silly girl.
With those last few she started getting less offended if the contact I had pulled a bit. At first that’s when you see her throw her head up, thinking she did something wrong, and towards the end of the videos she isn’t worried. I do love looking at her shaking tail though. It’s not straight up in the air but damn she’s adorable.
We cooled out for a good while, and I was just tickled with her. And she seemed to have a good time as well. Her ears were up and while she was puffing more at the end of the ride, she still cooled off and came back to normal quickly. I kept feeling for if she had a bad step or felt short, but overall she felt pretty even. She seems to get a little short when I pick up contact, but I watched her walk after me and both hind feet touched the back of her front footprint to be very even. So I iced her up and gave her her much-deserved grain.
Sunday was our usual hack and around 30 minutes. She had a nice marching walk most of the way, and wanted to be a bit jiggy and stop a bit, but after a few clucks and a few taps with my heels she was very forward moving again. I checked her over before the hack and after, and she didn’t feel bad at all. Perhaps a teensy bit tight, and that seemed to loosen with the walk.
She was very excited for the hack Sunday, and her enthusiasm for being outside and how she feels a bit jumping makes me super excited for the future. I always told myself if I ever went cross country – even on a baby course – it’d have to be on a horse that I trusted with my life. And I trust this little girl to the moon and back – no matter that she’s only seven and doesn’t know what we’re doing. We take care of each other, and what better animal to go cross country with than with one you’ve built such a relationship as ours?
I got a new halter for her – a beta-biothane one you see in the picture above of her in the crossties. It’s completely waterproof, so it’ll start saving her leather halter from inhaling so much water. We’ll see how it does!
Since today I’m off of work, I’m planning to do a little more jumping again, but only perhaps 2 or 3 times and then work on loosening up her muscles. Goodness knows I need the work, too. Those shorter stirrups are now killing my thighs. But, I can’t wait to do it again!
And now for all the stills from the videos.
Happy Labor Day!
Those mid-week works
I feel like I have a lot of these and that they’re really not that interesting because…well….it’s dressage, and I feel there’s only so much you can talk about lift and position. But, guess what I’ll talk about today? Yup. Lift and position. And other dressagy things.
One of these days I’ll get video of us riding dressage and torture you guys that way.
But, as it stands, Amber was certainly ready to go yesterday morning. We only had 15-20 minutes for a ride since I got out there a little late, but she walked out with a purpose, accepted contact phenomenally, and is beginning to understand that contact and walk means she can still go forward. But I think we’ll have a nice free walk at least. I let go of those reins and she sure swings!
She wanted to let her shoulder leak out to the left, and she was a little out of the contact, but she was still trying. And she was letting her shoulder go but was keeping her head a little straighter so….progress? I think the biggest progress though is that when I start asking her to pick up that shoulder and go a little straighter, she’s not getting as worried about it. She’s beginning to think that she can fix it while in contact without picking up her head or compensating somewhere else for it.
Her circles were actually great yesterday. She really tried to keep herself straight – or at least not trying to do it a different way so much – and I could really feel that transfer of energy to the outside rein but not to where her whole body was leaning outside of the circle. That outside rein felt really cool, kind of elastic, so I hope that means we’re getting it. I mean it feels pretty good, so crossing the fingers. I’ll nab a dressage lesson one of these days!
We did a teensy bit of canter to the left, and it was good to feel another hole that we have to work on. She doesn’t have the walk-to-canter transition solid at all yet – and it’s hurting the start of our cantering. My body encourages her to go forward, so I come out of that position that’s beneficial to us both, and I just don’t have the strength or ability yet to go back to the good position once we actually canter. Our third transition worked much better, almost no trot steps, and the start of the canter felt really good. I was able to stay in position and it really kept my lower legs from totally having a mind of their own. It was a short ride, but a good one!
Definitely can’t wait to do some more intro-to-things-higher-than-ground-poles on Saturday!
Introducing Choco
So my little doxie has been featured on here a few times, but I don’t think I’ve officially introduced you guys to her. This is Chocolate Mousse, or Choco as she’s more often called.
She was born in 2004, coincidentally when we first moved back to Vegas from Hawaii. She was a litter of 3 that we had the wonderful opportunity to dogsit. She was four weeks old when we came to live at the family’s house while they were away for a reunion. These little puppies were such a blast.
We had official names for them of course: Moonshine (for her little crescent moon on her chest), Choco (since she was the only all-brown one like chocolate), and Chino (for cappuccino since she was pretty hyper). We also had other nicknames for them – Moonshine loved to explore so she was Cruiser. Choco loved to sleep (that hasn’t changed) so she is Snoozer. Chino loved to play and play hard so she was Bruiser.
We all had our favorite puppy, but it was such a blast to take care of them. By the time they were about 6 weeks old we had them pretty well potty trained. We fed them oatmeal and milk and it was just an overall blast.
The family came home when the pups were 8 weeks, and of course we’d grown attached so we knew we had to grab one. So Choco came home with us, and she’s been the best family doxie we could’ve asked for. She sleeps all day – literally sleeps like 20 hrs a day; I swear – and loves her snuggles on your lap. Just like us she hates the cold, loves food, and loves going out on her morning walks. She has perfected the art of begging. She’s slowed down now, of course, now that she’s gotten up in years. She has a little bit of arthritis in her elbow but glucosamine in the morning helps that a lot. Otherwise she’s healthy and still going strong.
Going to the new property has seemed to bring new life for Choco. She loves going outside with me to feed the horses, and actually doesn’t seem so afraid of them anymore. Amber’s stall is still a huge no no, but she hasn’t gone into her stall yet – just Whisper’s, and thankfully Whisper looked really confused at what she was. But Choco loves hunting for rabbits and chipmunks and these little…prairie dog things that aren’t really prairie dogs but still rodent-ish animals that are cute. She loves sniffing out their burrows and attempting to dig down to get them. She almost caught a rabbit once, and has caught 3 birds (all injured since let’s admit that she’s not that good lol).
She’s quite a bit deaf and blind now, but she hasn’t lost her desire to be near her people, to continuously follow us, to beg for food and snuggles. She’s still enjoying life and loves going outside with me, and I think that’ll keep her young for quite a while. Here’s to Choco!
It’s hard being a spoiled doxie.
Back at it
Amber got her feet trimmed! And they look so pretty.
The clouds came over shortly after work, so I got all dressed and ready to go….aaaaaaand the wind started. Which in turn brought the rain.
But thankfully, it didn’t last long (boy has it been a weird summer/monsoon season here) so I got chores done and hopped on for a quick ride.
I took it easy since she’d just gotten trimmed a few hours before, and she was really great. She felt much smoother than before, and when we trotted I mostly focused on me and just let her hack along on a loose rein. I had to reinforce a bit of straightness, but she fell into the ride very quickly. I didn’t have my spurs on since it was a light ride, but just for giggles gathered up the contact once in the trot and boom she was right there and just started working into it. This horse, guys. I love her.
She still likes to do something funky (which is my way of saying I can’t describe it) with her shoulders (which goes into her neck and head) when we do our circles on contact, but she and I are both beginning to understand that outside rein. (At least I hope we are) Once I fixed me a little better, focused on getting my position right, she let me know she liked it and has been working with relative confidence through it. So we practiced a lot of those circles to the walk, and she’s really beginning to understand the idea.
I cantered just a little with her, and her left lead felt very elastic. I would hold with my calf and she’d try this marvelous half halt – not in contact (mostly because I only had very light if not no contact) but boy is she starting to understand what I’d like from her. I picked up my reins a few strides, and just like the trot she settled right in. After almost a week of no riding – or at least “training” – I was so tickled with her. Her right lead was a little harder. I think she had to understand that it was no longer so uncomfortable, and once she did she started developing more elasticity with not-so-good half halts but they were more in contact. I will take all that as progress, however mish-mashed that is lol.
Then we walked a bit longer, I did some circles both ways in contact with just some straight walking in contact, and she’s really gaining confidence in it. She’s getting very peaceful with contact and just ready to work in it until I release it. My position was less awesome today (thank you extra pounds from cake that I have yet to work off) but I actually got it pretty well for a while of trotting. I let her go at her own pace, and challenged my body to be ready to go with her flow. When I set myself right, her pace miraculously matched mine. When I let my grip come off my inner thighs and my abs to go lax, her pace would be inconsistent. It was good learning for us both! So happy we could finally get to work again.
Yay for more pony time today!
The long game
Long feet are awesome. Said no horse owner ever. I totally understand that even our dear farriers need a vacation every now and then, but now I wish I’d known that ahead of time and scheduled him to do her early. She’s not horrible; I can tell though that she’s not the most comfortable when she moves. She decided to tell me she disagreed with her feet being so long on Saturday:
I didn’t have a chance to get her out Friday, but she was plenty excited (and frustrated) to get out on Saturday. I don’t really blame her, and poor thing kept losing her feet so we kept it short.
Friday I checked out a park about 2-3 miles away from our house. They have a dressage arena, so I thought perhaps once in a while I could haul over and do a ride, work in a smaller arena.
Unfortunately, there is no “enter at A” or numbers, but it’ll be just fine. It’s a really nice park even if it’s a little small, but I’d like to take Amber there and practice our budding dressage and our load and unload and being comfortable away from home. She’s not ever bad, but practice is always good, right?
Saturday evening we had a bit of a scare – found a blister beetle in the alfalfa/mix flake I fed Amber. I wasn’t too surprised to find it there because that flake was full of really blossoming alfalfa stems, and there were a ton of grasshoppers in it as well. That is a no-go for us, because where one is, there is a possibility there’s a whole lot more and I really do not want my horse dead due to blister beetle poisoning, thank you very much. Not to mention no one’s really a fan of grasshoppers in the hay.
So we scooped up the hay and dumped it. My mom and I will message the people to warn them about the hay since it could affect other horses, and ask if they can take the remaining bales back. We grabbed some mix from our local store Sunday morning, and the hay looked much better. Before this we had decided to buy from our local anyway, but the 4 bales we bought from them looked much better, and the horses liked the hay a lot more as well.
Which, by the way, the horses look fine. We probably overreacted, but I’d much rather be safe.
Amber and I took our routine hack on Sunday, but a much shorter one just around our property. She’s already long so I didn’t want to go over a lot. She initially looked as if she thought we’d be gearing up for a day in the arena – and she didn’t look too pleased. I’m sure because she felt uncomfortable.
But as soon as she realized we were outside she was happy as a clam.
Rode a nice 20 minutes, and she was done. She actually felt quite even most of the ride, really listening to my direction even though she was a bit focused on Whisper. It was a simple ride, and nice to hop on after two days without.
My mom took a few pictures for me of us riding since I actually don’t have any photos of us going around outside. We were also very matchy.
Happy Monday, all!
How wide is wide
I was showing a horsey person some photos of Amber recently, and they said “Oh, she’s not really that wide.” I just laughed and nodded. It’s interesting to me that Amber’s largeness doesn’t really translate to photos most of the time. It did when she was fat, but even now that she’s trimming down, she’s still a very wide beast.
She’s not very tall – 15.2 maybe – but sometimes I compare her to Whisper and I’d swear Amber was the all around bigger horse just because she’s so thick in person. For some reason people also don’t believe that she wears every inch of a 34″ western cinch. And wore a 52″ long girth. That PS of Sweden breastplate on her in the picture above is a full, and most of those buckles are on the loosest or second to loosest hole.
While Amber will trim down a bit with work and already has, her width won’t change. She’ll be just as wide then as she is now. I just laugh now whenever someone says she can’t really be that wide. Because she is. But I also laugh when I ride her bareback. It’s legit like riding a barrel. Whisper is narrower, and so much easier to sit! Ah, those wonderful, wide QHs.
What about you guys? Do you find pictures deceiving in regards to size or do horses usually look exactly how they are to you? Was there a horse that you thought was either larger or smaller and were wrong?
Coming together
Tuesday’s ride almost didn’t happen. I hadn’t been feeling well, but decided to ride at the last minute, and I’m so glad I did. It was close to feeding time, and at the other place Amber would let out the general extent of her mareness to me by being very unfocused and all over the place and calling. This time, I fed Whisper first, bridled Amber up and headed out. She was not the happiest about that, but she actually settled into her work pretty quickly.
It felt like Tuesday it might have finally clicked for her that our dressage work is still work. (Although I feel like she gets very excited about the days we do the baby jumps-that-aren’t-jumps and our outside hacks) She actually jumped into a good trot from the beginning. It was a little bit of her faster pace, but it didn’t feel bad. It felt….different. Which I know is very descriptive. But it didn’t feel like her usual lengthening huntssage, yet her body didn’t feel like a coiled spring. It felt somewhere in between with – dare I hope – a bit of actual lift and actual collection.
We of course didn’t have it all the time, but the fact that I think about half of the time we did have that was a really good indicator. And I think most of it came down to the fact that I changed a few things up with myself. I really tried to be more aware of my hands and create firmness in my wrists and remember that when I thought my thumbs were up, they weren’t nearly up enough. I also decided that I needed to up the contact. I prefer to be very light and let them stretch into my hand, but Amber already does that (almost too well) and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been having some issues with consistent trot work. I think that’s also why I felt we had more lift and collection but still maintained a good forward stride.
Amber was very good with the increased contact. Sometimes I worry that since she’s had little to no prolonged contact for the past 5 years of her training life that if I up the contact she’ll get very confused and worried. But she handled it really well actually, so I don’t think I rushed anything.
I also actually remembered to squeeze with my thighs and point my toes forward most of the time. The only problem with that was now that I’m getting used to putting weight on my left hip, my right foot came loose of the stirrup a lot. But I got the right pressure a few times without letting my lower leg drift! Work in progress.
We worked on circles, staying straight, transitions in contact from walk to trot and trot to canter, and she did those well. I was expecting some shenanigans and I wasn’t really into the ride until I could tell she was really trying to focus, and so we ended up riding for 45 minutes instead of the 20 to 30 I thought we would.
Her canter is actually becoming really really nice. It’s still a bit of hassle at first – laughingly of course because every time we canter she always has to blow her nose. Each direction. Many many times lol. Which of course throws her off because she’s snorting so hard. So, while I’d like to be able to nab a good canter from the get-go, I’ll probably just relax on the first time around the arena and let her blow it all out, then bring her back and get to work. As with the trot I tried to keep a steadier contact but still giving (which I may or may not have achieved) and she felt really soft. I didn’t pay much attention to where her head and neck were, mostly just concentrating on the feeling. And it felt great.
She’s kicking her hip in again to the right on the right lead, and feeling as if she kicks it out in certain areas to the left, so I’ll wait and see how that progresses. She only just started it again recently, around the time that she started to get long, so I think that’s potentially why she’s not feeling 100% anymore. Looking at her feet you can see that her inside grows more than the outside – the right hind is also a little more cowhocked than the left and the foot has a more pronounced flare than the left foot.
It does look like she’s growing more evenly, though, probably due to the flatter arena. After a while at the other place the farrier and I discussed that she’d been recently loading her legs differently due to the way we could see how her feet were growing. Her right front already looks much better. I thought the farrier was supposed to come this week, but it’s not until next Tuesday. So I won’t do anything about her hip just yet, other than massages and stretches. But, if it extends past the shoeing, I’ll probably have someone come out to look at her again.
It seemed that Wednesday we really hit the “too-long” phase for her feet. She walked out really nicely, eager to get to work, but as soon as we trotted she just felt labored and really slow. Since the past few times she’s given me really good work, it immediately set the warnings off in my brain. I did get some really nice trot work with her – just a few short spurts, but after trying a left lead canter, I called it quits. She was trying her little heart out to do well, but it just felt choppy and she was evading the contact. Considering how fluid it’s been feeling, the choppiness meant something was wrong.
Plus she kept losing her feet and tripping so we just walked out, got more used to walking on contact and then hopped off. We had an impromptu rain on Wednesday, so of course since the rain hadn’t stopped yet I had to protect my saddle.
I won’t ride today – probably just lunge her or turn her out to get her muscles moving but I’m not too worried. It looks like it’s going to be a quiet couple of days again, so hopefully her uncomfortable-ness will go away when she’s trimmed!
Review: Kerrits Ice Fil Shirt + Sleeves
Review Wednesday is here again featuring the Kerrits Ice Fil shirt and Kerrits Ice Fil sleeves. This is the third summer I have used this combination, and I have to say that it’s become a summer staple for me. The three shirts I originally bought are still going strong, and one I bought in the last year and a half has yet to show any wear.
The short of it is – this is absolutely perfect for those wicked hot summers – be they humid or dry and I really love these shirts. My favorite aspect is just how light they are. They never get bogged down with your sweat and feel heavy like some sunshirts. They’re airy and kind of holey, but they’re solid and don’t need any other type of shirt underneath them. They are described as using your sweat to cool you, and they absolutely deliver on that account.
My second favorite thing is the collar. It’s really saved the back and sides of my neck from getting too much sun, especially since I’ve been wearing a helmet more and my western hat less. I was worried that the collar being too tight after you zip them up, but I haven’t felt like these were too tight at all. I’ve had absolutely no issues with the collar.
The fit is pretty true to size. I like a slightly larger shirt, mostly because I have very broad shoulders and don’t like to feel restricted so I usually buy a medium in these shirts. However, if you want a bit of a closer fit, then go a size down. The black shirt I’m wearing is a small, and you can tell that it’s not too tight but a slimmer fit than my shirts in medium. In either size, I think the shirts are very flattering.
The other thing I like about them is that they are short sleeve. I’m not sure about anyone else but I dislike wearing anything long-sleeved for extended periods of time. The option of wearing them with or without sleeves is perfect for me. The sleeves slip on underneath, and they actually stay there! I was very skeptical at first of them staying up my arms, but they did just fine. They do slip a little, but definitely not as much as I was anticipating. When I get back in the shady barn, I can just peel them off and now I’m just in a short sleeve shirt. I like it!
Since Vegas has an abundance of hot summer days as well as that energy-sapping dry heat, I like to wet down my sleeves and the top of my shirts. The reason for this is that the temperature is so hot, and the air so dry, that your sweat pretty much evaporates before the shirt and sleeves can really use your sweat to cool you. I have also had a nasty bout of heat stroke, so it’s imperative that I stay cool when I’m outside – especially since it can be almost 100 degrees before 8 am. The water on the sleeves and the shoulders and neck of the shirt act exactly like sweat, and it has an amazing cooling affect as you ride.
When I rode in Texas, even without wetting my sleeves or shirt these worked just as well. I did need to add some water at times since it was northern Texas and a little drier, but an excursion to Kentucky proved that with a lot more sweat these shirts never change – they always keep me cooler than any other shirt I’ve owned.
One shirt does have a nick in it from when I didn’t turn them inside out to wash them, but otherwise, these things have been pretty indestructible. I’ve worn them nearly every day for three summers, washed them a ton and they still come out looking great, they haven’t faded, I’ve worn them for hiking or yard work – anything outside where I’m going to be working hard and sweating a lot. They’re a really great all around shirt. I also love that they come in lots of colors. Even the black one I have keeps me cooler than a plain, light-colored T-shirt.
These retail for around $50, about the same price as most other short sleeve sunshirt brands. The sleeves retail for approximately $20. You can find the shirts at Amazon, RW, and Smartpak (free shipping!), and the sleeves at Amazon and RW among others. Either way, for how long I’ve had them, for how hard I’ve used them, and for how well they’ve held up to the abuse, I believe they are an excellent investment. I actually just bought two more shirts – sale at Riding Warehouse!
I give them 5/5 stars – something that I will always buy for as long as they make them.
Introducing jumps
So I want to start off with a muck rake advertisement: it’s not just for mucking.
Amber nickers at me now when I’m finishing up mucking poop because she desperately wants her scratches. You know, because I don’t ever curry her any other day and buy TTT things for her itchiness…. I’m torn between laughing that she nickers and thinking it’s the cutest thing.
I got tons of media this weekend! It was also very very fun.
Even though I had my stirrups shorter, it was good to see where our dressage is headed. It still needs a lot of work, but now we’re getting 5-7 really nice strides of good trot like this:
But most of the time our trot work looks something like this (with me looking horrible):
Our good stuff probably still looks like hunters, or perhaps our new term of huntssage, but I think we’re doing okay for us at the moment. We’ll keep plugging away at it and hopefully nab a few lessons before the year is out (because really, I need it way more than she does).
I undid her forelock on Saturday… Guys, it was HILARIOUS. I couldn’t stop laughing. Seriously.
I tried to tame it. Still looked hilarious. She did not appreciate me laughing at her.
All in all, Saturday was a blast. She looked and felt okay, so I went ahead with my plan to raise up one pole. We’ve been cantering over poles just fine for the past few weeks, but slow is many times better with Amber. If I just let her figure it out at a slower pace, once she does she’s usually on it every single time. She’s a super trier.
So we trotted over it every single time. And while MY position was certainly atrocious most of the time, it was so much fun. So many laughs. Especially this first time over it:
She’d gone over cavaletti at this height, so I was thinking she’d just trot over it…. Yeah, she surprised me. My mom and I had a good laugh though because she’s just so cute and you can see the wheels in her brain turning as she tries. And while I certainly need to continue getting stronger, this is better than the last time I popped over a crossrail to test out a saddle 6 months ago…. But here’s a closeup of her over-exaggeration.
I have to say that I think she looks pretty darn cute. But, because she over-jumped the first one, my body went into hunter mode for the next try, and I was definitely the one over-exaggerating a lot more that time.
After that, though, true thinker that she is realized she didn’t have to give it so much clearance. And mostly that was all Saturday was, really. I just wanted her to get acquainted with something higher, figure it out, and also for me to (try to) stay out of her way and let her figure out what was needed. She only got a little wobbly once, and I only had to encourage her once (after the first pop over). Otherwise she felt focused on the task at hand. This one was my favorite:
I love how expressive her ears are, and to me it’s a good sign she’s not racing off afterwards. She tends to get like that if she gets worried about things, so I was really pleased to see and feel her calmly hopping over by the end of 5-6 tries like it was nbd. It was also good to see that there’s still hope for me and my position – no over-exaggeration, and no hands freezing on her neck that time! (Though don’t get me wrong – plenty to work on for me!)
My new ice boots had finally come in, so I got to try them out! It’s not the best working with ice cubes but I didn’t have anything else yet, so I’m going to DIY some gel packs and see how those fair. Or ones from Walmart. Whichever works better. But her legs felt great afterwards, and she stood in them like she’s always worn them. Good girl!
But she was really really super on Saturday. I’m so pleased that it really didn’t seem to phase her!
I think I’m going to try cutting her days off to only 1 a week. It’s difficult for me to ride on my two 7-5 days, but I’ll probably just try to make one of those days another hack. Brain wise she’s really good in that if you give her a day or two off after you’ve had a difficult or not-so-successful ride she is absolutely on it with a vengeance your next ride. But I think body and muscle wise as we’re venturing into a land of new things, it’ll really help her to have another nice long ride that’s just a good, marching walk outside the arena.
Saturday though was overall super fun. She did look a little short at times, and I’m thinking perhaps it’s because her feet might be a little long. She seemed just a touch sore in that right hip, so I’ve been doing a few more stretches and exercises with her to hopefully help her stay looser.
Sunday was our usual hack and I think she is beginning to understand even the difference between breastcollar and no breastcollar. As soon as I started putting it all together with the girth she started getting antsy, touching me with her nose and glaring at me like “let’s get on with it, ma!”. Seems like she knows those are the fun days! She’s also learning that if we mount up outside that means we’re going for a hack, and she’s very excited about that too.
She was really great – didn’t call once and kept up a really nice marching walk. But this was a direction we’d gone before, so I had a feeling she felt more comfortable due to the familiarity. Most of the time she walked very forward, but I am starting to read when she’s just about had enough. Especially since we’re not doing anything of great brain-thinking importance, she gets done with trail rides very quickly.
But we were actually gone for about 45 minutes, which was a really good stretch of walk. I did have to start some steering when she seemed a bit racey towards home, but then she settled and was absolutely fine. It was also a really great opportunity for me to drill my dressage position because many times I focus on her and not both of us. I could feel when it was right, so it’s just a matter of making that a habit now.
All in all, it was a great, fun weekend, and hopefully, I’ll get better so I can better help her out, poor thing. She’s so forgiving of me. Which I need it because a lot of things need a lot of work. Which comes with the territory of starting 3 new things at once, but I’m just really grateful that Amber really is so forgiving and puts up with all my mistakes and still loves me. On to dressage days!
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