Recap of the weekend

I have been quite the negligent blogger this week, which is just not fair to the FOUR (that's right, FOUR) followers that I seem to have acquired. How exciting is that??? For you experienced bloggers out there whose follower lists are in the three digits, probably not so exciting. For me, it's a big event.

Anyways. Enough about that.

We did end up going to the show last Sunday. I took Macy and Louie, OT took a stud that he is showing at the App World next week, and the girl who bought Patrick took him. Leaving the barn at 5:20am made it an early morning, especially since I usually get up around 7:30am! I was tickled with how Macy loaded-she marched right up the ramp without hesitation and began munching her alfalfa. Pretty awesome for a 4yo that has never been on a trailer!

We arrived at the show grounds at 6:30am. Being October, it was still pitch dark. We turned on the spotlights on the outside of the trailer and pulled the horses off. I was a little concerned about how Macy was going to take getting off the trailer and being in a new place in the dark.

I definately had nothing to worry about, as it turned out. She walked off the trailer, looked around, and started grazing. I longed her for a few minutes (in the dark, of course, in a large field next to some woods). She was perfectly content to trot slowly around on the longe line. No screaming. No spooking, not even when a large, unidentified something went crashing through the woods.

Call me impressed.

When I decided that she was not getting much out of her longing session, she got tied to the trailer to wait for me to longe Louie. He was pretty unexcited about the whole trip as well. I love the minds on these horses. How many 4 and 5 year olds that have been hauled as few times as these two will arrive at a show in the wee hours of the morning and just take everything in?

After that, Louie got to hang out at the trailer while Macy was saddled and taken to the arena to ride. The facility that was holding the show is just beautiful. The barns and parking areas are at the top of a large hill. You get to the arenas by walking down a wooded trail. At the bottom of the hill, they have multiple riding arenas/warmup areas next to a large lake.

Macy did get quite wide-eyed when we walked down the hill and she saw the large arena with all the lights blazing. I got on and just let her walk around, taking in everything. She never spooked and was noticeably less tense within five minutes. After ten minutes, she was as quiet and steady as she is at home.

We did all of our flatwork and then began jumping by taking a small single. The poles had been removed, so it was just a little gate. Macy trotted right down to it, smoothly jumped it, and cantered off. No peeking. No overjumping. Definately no thoughts of refusing. By the end of our schooling session, she was adding around the entire course without any trouble.

I just can't say enough good things about this mare! She is so uncomplicated, so willing, and just a pleasure to ride. It makes me feel good, because I have done all the work on this mare myself. I am not delusional enough to think that it's all me, of course. I feel like most people could get good results from this mare, because she is just that easy to work with!

And now...a video of the amazing Macy:

I didn't show Macy, although she definately would have jumped around the 2'6" without any trouble. I felt like she had been so stellar that she deserved to hang out at the trailer with her hay bag while the rest of us showed.

Louie schooled well, as usual. That one is harder for me to jump, because he just uses himself so well! He really rounds his back and drops his neck over a fence, which I am just not used to trying to ride. I did end up showing him and managed to survive. I was nervous about making the strides and tried to add everywhere. In retrospect, it would have been smarter to just let him make the steps. We ended up chipping out of almost every single line. Duh! Complete fail on my part.

He is so honest, however, and just packed my sorry butt around when he jumped me loose. I am not sharing the video of his rounds. Too humiliating! I think I will be tuning up all the lesson horses next week in my English saddle without my stirrups. I will leave you with this picture. Ignore my equitation (or my distinct lack thereof, as the case may be!) and instead admire the cuteness that is Louie!

It was great to show again, although I was totally nervous! It had been over FOUR years since I had shown in a hunter class. First I was broke, horseless, and in school. Then I started working here and never had anything broke enough to go show. The equine market is still somewhat down, so now I have horses that are sticking around for longer. This is great for me, because I am getting to jump more and more! Obviously I need the practice...

The Ground is Not Your Friend

PSA: the ground is not your friend. Try to avoid landing there at all costs.


Allow me to expound on that gem.

As you probably know by now, I ride young horses for a living. It is inevitable that the ground and I will meet up at various intervals.

Today was one of those days.

The other trainer at the barn and I are taking some green horses to a small hunter show on Sunday. They need to get out, see some different jumps and arena, and be exposed to a show environment.

Quick introduction to the two that I am taking:

Macy is a four year old mare. Love this one. She jumps cute, is quiet-minded, and just a lot of fun to ride. She goes just like I like mine to, which makes sense being that I am the one that has done all the riding on her. She's going to make someone a fantastic hunter. She has never been off the farm, so we will see how Sunday goes!

 

Louie is a 5 year old gelding by our TB stallion. Super cool horse. He has a ton of jump, is almost too quiet, and not at all spooky. He takes a ton of leg to ride...you have to ride him up to each jump pretty hard. If not, he just kicks into a lower gear. This one takes some of our younger kids to the local shows to do the crossrail division. Got to love that mind!

You are probably pondering which one of these lovely animals was responsible for me meeting the ground today.

I schooled Macy first. She was FANTASTIC. In the last week, her canter has improved so much. It's like a light switch was thrown; all of a sudden she has decided that she can canter balanced and in a frame without any trouble. She jumped around (this horse is so honest-absolutely no stop in her!) and even had some lovely lead changes. I was thrilled with this one!

I rode a few of my three year olds on the flat before tackling my next fence horse. Enter Louie.

To be fair, none of what took place was even remotely Louie's fault. He was actually jumping around really great. I was having a hell of a time keeping him pushed up for the jumps, however. We started out wonderfully. He was forward and light off my leg, swapping leads like a pro, and generally just jumping like a seasoned hunter.

Once he got tired, however, the gas pedal started to get sticky. I would come out of the corner, close my leg to keep a nice steady pace, and...nadda. My beautiful spot that I saw from the corner would slowly disappear as my horse's pace dropped and dropped and dropped to a lovely chip.

Louie is a saint. It's a good thing that he is athletic, because he is honest over fences to a fault. If you point him anywhere close to anything that resembles a jump you had better be prepared to hang on. He is going over no matter what spot you put him at.

Louie, the ultimate horse at taking a joke.

We got our pace issues sorted out and then proceeded to take the two stride that we have set up in the arena. The good news is, we jumped out in a nice two. 

The bad news is...well, this would be a good time to interject that Louie has a tendency to jump like this:

Got bascule?

Yup, we have it.

Unfortunately, Louie also has the tendency to hit the ground fairly hard on the landing side, with his head in a nice, relaxed, low position. It looks great but...it doesn't end well if one happens to have the horrid habit of giving an unnecessarily large crest release while throwing yourself at your horse's neck (just to be SURE that you don't catch them in the mouth).

Ahem.

Guilty as charged. Louie cracked his back over the out jump of the line, I got too forward, and off I flew on the landing. I was fine, although my shoulder is a bit sore. The other trainer (OT) got on, jumped him a little, and then I got back on. Made sure to keep my upper body back a little (gee, novel concept!) and it went much better!

Add hitting the ground to the 2 1/2 hours that the OT and I spent at the gym this morning (yoga, ab workout, and water aerobics!) and I am going to be moving slowly tomorrow morning!

I get frustrated sometimes, because I still have so much to learn. Working on all these young horses all the time has been a great way to develop truly atrocious equitation habits. I used to ride by myself (before OT moved to the barn), so at least now I have eyes on the ground to help me!

Sometimes I wish that I had a super nice packer to re-learn all this stuff on. Taking several years off of jumping for college did nothing for my leg or my eye! I am used to starting the young horses and getting a solid foundation on them, both on the flat and over tiny jumps. This whole jump them around bigger courses at a show thing still throws me for a loop every now and then

I have to remind myself that I would not have any horses to ride if it weren't for this job. I have to remind myself that I am improving as are my horses. I have to remind myself that I am young and have time to reach the level of proficiency that I want. I have to remind myself that riding and training is a constant learning process.

I spend quite a bit of time reminding myself of things, obviously!

My horses are not coming along as quickly in their training as they would if OT were riding them but they continue to be solid citizens. I continually see improvement in their confidence over fences, their flatwork, and their work ethic. One thing is for sure: they learn how to take a joke!

Moment of Silence for an Amazing Mare and her Amazing Human

I don't have very much to say today. I just finished reading Andrea's moving tribute to her mare, Gogo. I don't know if any of you have followed Andrea and Gogo's journey over the last few years. It has been a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs. Unfortunately, the ups have come more and more infrequently in the past few months.

It all culminated yesterday with Andrea's heartbreaking decision to put Gogo down. Her suspensory injury never healed properly and was resulting in a breakdown of her hind legs. Andrea's strength and ability to put her mare's needs above her own is so very inspiring.

Andrea, you may never read this but just know that you and Gogo have touched so many hearts, including mine. Hundreds of people you will likely never meet wept over the loss of that special, fiesty, beautiful mare. Rest in peace, Gogo.

For love or money?

I have had people tell me not to mix my passion in life with work. Many wise people advised me to graduate college, go to grad school, and get a high-paying job so that I could keep horses as a hobby rather than as a job.

Did I listen? Of course not.

I graduated from Texas A&M (whoop!) and took this job. I desperately needed a break from school and had worked for the BO all through high school. I knew what the job entailed and knew that I would enjoy it.


Here we are, over two years later. It's been a great ride so far, both figuratively and literally! I get to wake up every morning, walk out my front door, and ride some amazing horses. I work for an amazing boss and have free rein (haha, pun intended) to do whatever I feel needs to be done. Good group of boarders-the list of positives goes on and on.

            

                       

It hasn't been all fun and games, however. I work A LOT of hours. Something about managing 60+ horses, three employees, 15+ lesson kids, and 15 training horses takes up an amazing amount of time. I have had to learn to acccept that whatever does not get done at the end of the day will still be there the next morning. (Horses being fed, appropriately clothed for the weather, etc. not included in this statement, of course).

The horses have not become just a job for me but I do find myself spending less time just standing in the barn listening to them munch on their hay or watching them play in the pasture. In high school, I used to spend hours just sitting in the stall with Patrick. I would read a book, watch him eat, or just talk to him.

I miss times like that. Real life seems to have caught up to me, however, and I find myself doing grown-up things instead. Dishes, laundry, spending time with family-all these essential things that have to be done.

A much-needed storm moved in last night. The DPH was working on some things for school and I was having a hard time not distracting him. I wandered out to one of the smaller barns right before the rain hit. I had a glass of wine, a book, and my heart-dog with me.

I ended up sitting on a stable sheet on top of a big bale of alfalfa, glass in hand and dog curled up next to me. We had a huge storm, complete with thunder, lightening, and rain pounding on the tin roof. Mariah, the three year old filly in the stall closest to the bale of hay, was so interested in what we were doing in her barn.

There was something about sitting there, watching the rain and stroking Mariah's velvety nose, that made me appreciate my life on the farm in a way that I haven't in a long time. I am so blessed to have these animals in my life. It was so peaceful. The book was abandoned as I sat there, taking it all in. I realized that I need to make time for things like that again. It helps center me; helps remind me of how I got to where I am today. It's good for my heart.

To quote OneRepublic, "it's a good, good life".

Girl Power

Some horse people truly loathe mares. I cannot tell you how many people have called about horses that we have for sale that specify that they will not try a mare, no matter how perfectly she might work for them.


“Mares are just too hormonal.”

“Mares don’t make consistent show horses.”

“Mares have such attitudes!”

　
I have heard all the typical comments about mares and thought that they made sense. Geldings never come in season. Geldings are sweet and affectionate. Geldings will perform consistently at shows and are undisturbed by the presence of stallions. Blah blah blah.


I have had geldings that I completely adored. Patrick had enough personality for five horses and was very affectionate. (I am not sure why I used past tense…he still does!).



That being said, I think that I have gone to the dark side. I am coming out as being a huge fan of mares.
I ride quite a few different young horses on a daily basis. I work with both mares and geldings. I can honestly say that, as a general rule, my favorites are mares.


Allow me to give you some examples.


　
There was Lizzie. Fantastic, opinionated, and talented mare. She was an elegant mare with that feminine look that I love. Pretty head, pretty neck-just the type of horse that you look at from a distance and know is a mare.

Lizzie would, on occasion, get that attitude that so many horse enthusiasts hate.

There was the time that I sent the working student to retrieve her from her paddock. She didn’t want to come in and let that be known with a well-placed hoof to the innocent student’s thigh! (Please understand I am not condoning kicking and she was appropriately reprimanded. She was two at the time, had just been brought up from the pasture, and was in her semi-feral, naughty stage…).

There was the time that I turned her loose in the arena and she cantered gracefully off, firing two hind legs in my general direction as she got halfway across the arena.

As an early three year old, she would grow quite impatient with standing tied in the barn and paw. She could be fussy, opinionated, and borderline obnoxious.

However.

As Lizzie matured, she began to channel that assertive nature into her work under saddle. That pushiness in the barn of her younger days, that boss mare mentality- these things served her well as a riding horse. Lizzie was not spooky. She was extremely intelligent. All I had to do was introduce a concept once and she understood.

She became dependable under saddle.
Unflappable, even. Introducing small jumps to her daily routine was a non-event. Larger fences with colorful fill? No problem. Nothing seemed to phase her.

The first people to come out and look at her decided to buy her. I was not surprised. She is currently being prepared for her career as a show hunter. Her new owner has taken her to several hunter shows to hack around and reports that she is retaining that unflappable personality.

Love it.

I had another mare's story typed up but, when I went to publish this post, blogger.com somehow ate it. Fantastic.

And I still have not been successful with commenting. I may be hopeless.