First horse, first loss

Today I made an easy decision that was hard to make.

 



11 years ago I was part leasing a 14yo TB/Appy cross named Stanley.  That's a picture of two of us shortly after I got him.  I did it because he was available, cheap, I wanted to ride more, and I was tired of getting ditched by my trainer for lessons (who I eventually left).   Six months later his owner asked me if I wanted to have him.  What else does a broke college student who has always had a dream of galloping off into the sunset say?  I took over ownership of Stanley and all his vices.

 

Unless you had a chain over his nose he basically dragged you around.  He didn't tie AT ALL and would throw himself to the ground to break whatever he was tied to.  If you saddled him in his stall he'd smash you into the wall.  Once you got him saddled you had to pin him in a corner between a barrel or have someone hold him or he'd take off at a canter as soon as a foot hit the stirrup.  Which was probably the only time he cantered because his previous owner was afraid to canter him so when he'd buck she'd get off him and put him away.  He'd also stand straight up if you even thought about putting him on a trailer. 

 

We had our ups and downs, I taught him to lead, load, and tie.  He eventually self loaded onto the trailer and was an excellent trail horse.

 

 

 

 

  He didn't blink at his first dressage show. 

 

He learned to jump... when he wanted to

 



I eventually transformed him into a handsome horse

When soundness issues made me retire him I told him he had a home for life.  I made due by riding other people's problem horses and found that I had a knack for it.  I turned them into solid citizens as well.  Stanley enjoyed retirement and giving the occasional ride to adoring children.  The girls even graduated to riding on their own, in their very own helmet.

He loved food and his favorite thing to eat were Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights and I had just bought him a box a few weeks ago. 

Over the last several weeks I had noticed a loss of topline and general slowness in Stanley.  I also noticed a ventral Edema that I thought was from a kick.  Earlier this week I noticed that he wasn't cleaning up his grain or hay, which is a big fat Stanley red flag.  I spoke to the vet and we agreed to watch him for a few days then run some blood.  I spoke to my barn manager who thought that maybe he was having trouble eating regular food and needed to go on senior.

By Thursday Night I knew that something was seriously wrong and my time with him was nearing an end.  I sat with him in the middle of the arena with his head on my lap for an hour while he slept and I patted his face.  I didn't sleep a wink Thursday night. 

Friday morning the vet came out and determined that Stanley was in heart failure.  I asked some questions about options but I knew what I had to do so I made the decision nobody likes to make.

This is Stanley not looking noble at all.  Someone gifted me a custom portrait of him and they chose this picture.  It captured his personality in every way and it now hangs in my home. 

Today I held the end of his lead rope while the vet put him down. 

Goodbye to the best/worst first horse a girl could ever have. 

Dan Hobyn recap

Last weekend Annie and I went to Dan Hobyn which is probably my favorite show facility around.  It's 7 miles from home, has great XC fences, and it's just so friendly. 

Cathy was out of town that weekend so I put out a call to see if a friend who was also going could pick Annie up.  Much to my surprise and gratitude a total stranger who boarded at Dan Hobyn said she would give me a ride.  She ended up being busy doing show prep so "short trainer" Rachel picked me up in their trailer (a Corn Pro stock trailer).  Since I was trailerless I crammed all my things into my car, no easy feat in a two door coupe. 

Here's a picture of my car after the show

There was a (welcome) storm blowing in so Annie had to work in the indoor then Rachel opened the gate open and we ventured outside for a short hack in a bit of a sprinkle.  Or rather, I whacked Annie and she trembled outside. I was really happy that I was able to ride her around in a strange place she had never seen before, without another horse or person in sight and she behaved herself like a professional.   Here she is in her stall with her new (annoying) friend.

The storm changed the high temps for the day from a high of 93 to 82 so we really lucked out. 

Annie is still convinced that warming up on grass is warming up for "galloping" so we had the world's happiest 20m circles but she really stepped up her game in the ring.  I thought that it was a fairly solid test.  I felt like she was tense over her back and in her pose instead of really connected and I am still having trouble making smooth transitions.  However we ended up earning our highest score to date which was a 40 so it means that I actually broke into the %60 world for my first time ever!!!!!  40 was only good enough for last place but who cares.

Stadium was a struggle for me.  It was deceptively hilly and Annie really got rolling downhill.  I also let her stop at the brick wall.  This is how the conversation went.

Annie "Are we supposed to jump that thing?"

me  "I don't know, maybe?"

Annie "Hmmm, can I stop and sniff it first and check for monsters?"

me "Sure, whatever."

Sigh. 

After stadium we took a nap and then we got to go XC schooling with Rachel and several of her other students.  Annie has a big forward walk so despite being the shortest one out there we lead the bunch down the trail to the back XC field.  We kind of snorted and spooked our way there since she hasn't figured out that her big walk puts her in front!

Annie grew at least 10 hands in the back field, there were a lot of horses running and jumping in varying degrees of control and a pony dumped it's kid when we got there and galloped past us headed for home.  She only stopped to look at one fence, a coop with some funny bark on it.  She jumped several log piles, other coops, and even TIRES!!!  Then we led the group back down the path toward the main show area. 

Annie was the first horse in the water.  The Dan Hobyn water is a bit spooky.  It's in a shady area and the water is very dark, there's also a big patch of mulch in front of it to provide more solid footing.  We snorted sideways all the way down to it and I had to whack her but she went right into the water.  Then another snort at the jump out of the water which had brush under it but she popped over from a walk.  When we went back through the water she trotted right into it and popped out over the log like a pro.   

After that we jumped a log and then I had selective hearing about jumping the GIGANTIC log that was next.  Unfortunately Rachel was paying attention and made me jump it again which Annie did with no problems. 

We did have a stop at the last fence, a big funny looking green barn.  I felt like she wasn't really spooking at the barn but that it was getting further and further away from her buddies and the end of the farm lane was there with possible horse eating monsters beyond.  I had to ride forward confidently and she jumped over it after that. 

Annie really needed a bath after schooling (such a sweaty animal) and it took a friend whacking her with a sponge to get her in the spooky washrack.  When she was in all I did was toss the leadrope over her back and she stood untied while I hosed her off.  Silly mare.

At the end of the day Annie's adventure wasn't quite over.  She had to ride home on another trailer, with someone else I had never met!  One of the main things that attracted me to the sport of eventing was how friendly everyone is.  I really appreciated having someone who didn't know me offer to haul my horse home.  They had a really nice Hawk trailer with a ramp, which was Annie's first ramp so she had to eyeball it before she got on but get on she did. 

It seems to have become standard for Annie to have a massage after she shows so Monday evening the massage lady came out to do Annie and I gave her the next three days off.  Sometimes I like coming home early from the barn to clean the apartment, relax, and play Candy Crush.   I've also noticed that after a hard day's work my horse gets hosed down, turned out, massaged, and a short vacation.  What do I get?  Some Alieve and right back to work.  Nice huh?

Unsuitable Horses and Unrealistic goals

I want to buy this horse here

http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/grd/4007070571.html

I shall compete him at PSG

Anyone who tells me that he can't do PSG is just a stuffy Warmblood loving DQ

Dressage clinic recap and reflection

Over the weekend I attended a Lou Denizard dressage clinic http://delantedressage.com/

He comes in every 2 months to Greystone Equestrian Center and is capable of teaching 4th level work.  What I like about him is that he seems willing to work with any breed of horse and type of rider. In the clinic there were several warmbloods, two arabians, a fjord, and a shire.  He had heavy emphasis on being even and through in both reins and helped several riders step the level of their work and their understand of what is correct and what is really correct.  He also focused on the egagement of the hind legs, asking the horses to step evenly with both legs in the transitions into the trot and canter.  He did quite a bit of counter canter work as well. 

On my Monday ride I tried to be aware of how even Annie was in the reins.  She likes to hide from the right rein and it takes lots of activation to get her to step into them evenly.  Lou had a rider leg yield two strides onto and off the rail a few times to make the horse more even and this was a good exercise for me to practice. 

I saw lots of really great sitting trot work so I did most of my trot work sitting.  Annie is a good barometer of my ability to really sit and if I'm bouncing around she will jog like a western pleasure horse with her nose BTV making grumpy faces.  Only when my seat is still will she step up the level of her trot.  She's a bit of a smartass and will "test" me by trotting more and more forward until I lose my position and get bounced loose.  Then she slams to a halt with a big sigh.  Last night she even offered up a medium trot down the long side, followed by a buck halt transition when I got out of position. 

Her forward energy was difficult to capture and I had to work hard to not let it leak out the front door.  When I captured it I had lots of power from her engine to manage.  Half the ride she felt fantastic and the other half she jack hammered away with her nose in the air. 

I had some really nice shoulder in work as well but her canter was a bit of a hand gallop.  I'm steering clear of lead changes until I have someone's eye on the ground and I feel like she isn't going to get out of hand. 

Egg timer

This was the face I had last night for a moment.  We were on right lead canter and at the exact moment Annie decided that cantering on da bit was too much to bear, pulled an arabian and stuck her head straight up in the air to regain control of pace and speed, and careened around the corner we were faced with the other rider in the ring doing a shoulder in around the corner.  I think we may have cantered up the wall a bit and I may have used a bit of a pulley rein, but we did not crash.

Annie's at this in between stage.

We go along doing some really nice dressage.  She's on the bit, she listens to my half halts, she bends, she flexes, she moves off my leg and I feel like we stand a chance at having a reasonable Training level test and maybe see First level in the Spring.

Then I think she has an egg timer under her saddlepad where she reaches her limit of being a good dressage horse and the egg timer goes off and she switches from happy dressage Annie to Grumpy Annie.

 

 

Then she sticks her nose out and pins her ears when I half halt, wobbles across the diagonal, or my personal favorite, the canter sproing.

There we are cantering on da bit at a reasonable rate of speed and DING!  It all becomes too much, she grabs the bit, sticks her nose out, and tanks off.  Steering goes out the window, speed increases, and we bank the corners.  Extra fun when someone else is in the ring.

This is not the same as what I call the "post canter face"  which is basically Annie saying that we just spent a lot of time cantering, and she'd really like to canter again and not do this stupid trotting crap.  However, it must be a canter on her terms so nose in the air at hand gallop speeds.  Until we do so I get the post canter face where I stare at the inside of her ears for the rest of the ride.

Oh well. 

A difficult course of no height and an old show is back baby!

Sunday Annie got to take another LAZ lesson and she was very happy indeed.  So happy she didn't want to do any on da bit trotting and kept trying to canter.  She bravely tackled 3 groundpoles at the canter despite my worrying that we were going to face plant over them.  Since we were in a lesson with some lower level people I got to do my first couple courses over groundpoles which was amazingly difficult trying to get the correct distance and not get left behind or ahead over a jump of no height.  Once the fences were raised I think it actually got easier! 

Then we got to go out into the XC field and do a little course of XC fences cold.  It was fun! 

After our lesson she got a massage by someone studying equine massage.  Which is interesting since I don't get massages after my lessons and I think I need one more then my horse!  For some reason jumping around with LAZ makes Annie walk a little tall and my dressage school after a lesson is always puncuated with lots of "THIS BORING CANTER!!!" The massage, lesson, and a Pentosan shot and I had a fire breathing chestnut mare Tuesday.  We did some sort of sproing thing because she accidentally got herself in collected trot in her tizzy and couldn't figure out what to do with it. 

For all the moments when Annie is a total cow there are so many more moments when she's a solid horse that gives me a lot of confidence.  She's not spooky, she has a ton of whoa, and she's not afraid to go.  She settles into work and seems happy to do it (Except for dressage that is).   Sometimes I find myself grinning like an idiot when I start off nervous and then realize I have nothing to be worried about on her. 

In other news DAN HOBYN IS BACK!!!!  They stopped hosting shows for 2 years during an instructor change but when the instructor took a job in another state they decided to host a "welcome back" CT.  Thanks to the kindness of other horse people Annie gets to hitch a ride for their September 1st show and I am going to enter her in BN and look at the pre novice.  Now before my fans (If I have any!) get all excited BN is listed as 2 feet and pre novice at 2' 6"  It'll be a great opportunity to go to a strange place and jump around and a real test of her bravery and my ability to pilot her around. 

Visit their Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/DanHobynStables?ref=br_tf for information about the show.  I'll be there, will you?

Steamy

Man, it's steamy outside.  As a result I've been spectacularly unmotivated.  I've piddled around not getting real serious about much (although we had some wicked nice right lead canter departs a couple weeks ago). 

I rode Annie in a rope halter

and was pleased to see that she did still have brakes.

Then I convinced Cathy to take Penny out on a trail ride for "Annie Bravery Purposes."  LAZ said that hacking out would help Annie in the bravery department XC since everything was a problem but the fences.

We headed out to  Southwestway yesterday while it was a balmy 91. 
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/204530125309/

For those who have never been, first, change that!  It's a great park inside the city that's a multi use trail.  Mountain bikes, people, and horses.  It has some great views of ravines and the river, flat open spaces for galloping, and plenty of hills for working on butt muscles. 

There isn't a huge parking area and we've never actually met other horses there although I've had plenty of friends who have been. 

Annie was a very brave horse, leading most of the way.  We stopped dead at our first patch of mountain bikers and I had to motivate her with my stick (Thank gosh I brought it!) after that the motivations decreased until she was fine.  I rode her on the buckle with her head well below her withers and when we struck up a trot she stayed in control and down shifted easily.  Except for giving the park benches the hairy arabian eyeball (un nature in the middle of nature?  how unnatural) she was super.

All the mountain bikers we met were fantastic, stopping off to the side or even getting off their bikes and pushing them. Thanks guys! 

We did meet some people walking loose dogs and a friend we were with shouted "I don't know about these horses but mine kicks dogs!"  She really didn't, but it made the owners collect their lab from under Annie's legs.  Leash your dogs people! 

All in all we had a fantastic time for just 17 miles from home.  Penny was fantastic for her first trail ride, and it was great having Lynne's horse Twigs there as the experienced endurance horse in case we got stuck anywhere.