Zen

There are so many new things going on that I don’t even know where to start! I was going to just post a bunch of updates in the one post but I’m getting tired of doing that so instead I’m going to do a bunch of more involved update posts about some of the things that are happening in my life right now.

During the move. Luckily it's cleaner now but not quite
where I'd feel comfortable sharing a picture on the internet

To start this off my boyfriend and I have successfully moved into our apartment together! This marks a huge step for me since I’ve never lived with a significant other. I can’t imagine a more amazing person to experience this with though. Yes, I’m pretty sappy about all of it.

Walking Moshy in our "backyard"

Our new apartment has amazing views of a couple of Minneapolis landmarks and we’ve got a great view from our public roof top. The gym is amazing, now I just need to make use of it, as are all of the other public spaces. I love the layout of our apartment as well as the fixtures and we have in unit laundry which is fantastic. We’re still in the moving in phase, even though we’re mostly unpacked, and working to find homes for some of those last pesky things. We also have a few more things to pick up from James’ apartment but 90% of our stuff is here at this point.

Moshy's favorite place to play guard dog

We were also excited to be entertaining friends for the first time this past Sunday doing something extremely nerdy *cough* D&D *cough* and we’re both looking forward to being able to do things like this. Neither of our past apartments were good for having people over so that was one of the things on our checklist when we picked this place.

We have gorgeous views!

It is still a bit small so we’ve both had to downsize a bit. Space wise it feels huge compared to my last apartment, which was only about 400 sq ft but that apartment only needed to fit my stuff and since my bf owned a home at one point he has way more things than I do. We’ve both done quite a bit of downsizing and have a bit more to go but we’re getting there and it’s starting to feel less cluttered. I also came up with a really cool set up for my horse stuff, at least the horse stuff I’ve been able to keep through the downsizing, but that’s for one of the next posts!

At night the view from our public access rooftop is spectacular

Loosey Goosey

This is what she felt like today

One thing that's been amazing to see at the new barn is how much the turnout is helping Katai stay fit and loose.

At the last couple of barns we were fighting a losing battle with her fitness. Two barns ago at least I had an outdoor and a bit of, albeit flat, outdoor space to ride in. At Janes, unless I could con someone into riding down the road with me or if I could work out with the neighbor to ride in the outdoor I had I could only ride in the indoor and both of those were tough to arrange.

On top of that at both of the last barns Katai's turnout was only in a small paddock. She could canter around a bit but it was flat and small and unless she was really motivated to run around there wasn't much real movement.

We win at selfies

Now I have all sorts of outdoor space to ride in even if I never went on the trails since just the space around the arena, near the barns, and down the driveway is safe and roomy for riding. We also have a nice large outdoor that Katai doesn't have meltdowns in (mostly thanks to S2) which helps as well.

Even better, Katai is in a huge pasture with other horses! She has two palomino friends, that look like twins, and another paint and they all get along really well. The pasture is huge and hilly just like how we kept our horses as I was growing up. Walking to the end to graze on it's own is a good workout and is really helping to keep her muscles loose and definitely adding some fitness. In addition she's been more careful about where she's putting her feet since she can't just drag them along like she could at the last barn.

Plus, S2 is really helping me to work with Katai on getting her to relax the blocked tension she has had. She's always gotten really tight through her shoulders if anything is going on that she's unsure about and also, I'm finding out now, has carried a lot of tension through her hips. Like me with my shoulders I think that she's just been that way for so long that she didn't even know there was a different way to do it until S2 came along and showed her.

I didn't get many pony pictures so her's another puppy picture

It's part of my homework to keep working with her on it but it's also clear how much she's already let go, or will let go if you ask correctly. Her stride, which was already much improved at Jane's, has gotten even more buoyant and loose and it's easier to keep her from getting locked up. I also have tools on the ground so that if she does lock up and threaten to rear I can dismount, address on the ground, and then remount and have a nice soft, loose pony which certainly wasn't the case before.

All of these things led to a really nice ride today where she was right with me, loose, relaxed, pushing from behind and really trying for the whole ride. She, of course, had the wrong answer to things sometimes but now when I ask again differently, or do a minor correction she just melts into it and keeps trying. It was an amazing ride and made watching the rest of the team leave for the show even more bitter sweet. Oh well, soon Katai will be on that trailer too!

Doing the Thing

Well that escalated quickly…

As I was looking at numbers about owning a trailer vs. moving to a different barn vs. trying to come up with other options I reached out to a couple of friends, H and we’ll call her M. Both are competitive pony riders and H has, of course, been talked about in this blog before. M I know more through social media but she’s in the same area that I’m in and I’ve seen her at shows before. She’s currently riding 4^th (?) level with her pony.

Cute fluffy puppy is cute and fluffy

I had become aware of where she boarded over the past year or so and the barn she’s at is one of the barns I’d mentioned that was within my budget as long as I dial back lessons slightly. I’d been really chewing over if that was something I wanted to do since I’m all about education first, fun later. However, I’m honestly at a place where I think I could do ok without weekly lessons. Definitely not without lessons completely since I am very much a beginning dressage rider but I’m confident that I could do ok with 1-2 lessons per month. In the past when I’ve missed lessons for up to a month I did fine at my following lesson and had been able to take action on almost all of my homework.

I was still hesitant since along with increased cost, fewer lessons, a smaller indoor arena, and a longer drive it meant moving Katai and myself and all of the stress and change that goes along with that. Despite my love of change and my, sort of, gypsy life style over the past several years I’m at a point where I don’t want to keep shifting. I’m tired of moving and I’m tired of change right now especially after the past several months and I really thought that I’d be with Jane until she retired.

 

Also had a boot spa day and unfortunately found that I'm going to need to
replace these. After 5 years of constant
use the leather on the foot cracked open

However, I had some text communication with M and email communication with the barn manager/owner who we’ll call S2. The barn was quite full but they have a small group that does consistent dressage shows during the year and they were looking for another dressage show participant. There were some changes coming up that might have left an opening so I scheduled time to see it earlier this week. I went to see it and felt like I was literally in heaven.

ALL of the things I’ve wanted since I’ve been owning horses were present at this barn including a dressage instructor, the ability to help trailer train, fantastic footing, indoor and outdoor arena, stalls, lots of turnout, FANTASTIC hay, fantastic care, very generously bedded stalls, amazing ventilation, four heated wash stalls, heat lamps over the grooming areas, TONS of trails as in miles and miles of trails through woods, meadows, hills, roads etc.  In addition, they routinely travel to some of the really big shows in our region, participate in regionals, and have a fantastically supportive show team that has all the infrastructure to make it fun.

I got to meet S2 who I’ve only met in passing at shows before. I also got to meet the guy who works at the barn (we chatted for a while about my Smartcar), S2’s spouse, and some other people at the barn. I was there for over 2 hours chatting with M and company and getting two tours J. Honestly while I love where I’m at this was an easy decision considering all of the factors. Plus, it could completely eliminate the need for me to get a trailer in which case I can use my trailer savings to pay for shows and replacing a couple of key pieces of equipment.

I went ahead and let both of them know (M sort of co-manages show schedules and the show group stuff and has been there for a long time so I know the right people ;) and found out that I actually could move in as soon as 4/6. Cue total panic. I, of course, need to give Jane a month notice and I need to figure out travel over there. In addition, they’d like me to come with them to a large show out of state at the end of May. Cue more panic haha. I haven’t shown since last July was it? This will be my first real rated show (not opportunity classes) and I haven’t even ridden very consistently all winter with everything going on. However, I have just about two months and all of the buttons are still there so I’m confident that with consistent rides we’ll be very capable of doing a couple of first level tests at that show.

As of right now I’m aiming to move middle of April (of course still paying Jane through the end of the month) and will plan to take at least a couple of lessons with S2 prior to the show in May. I’ll do a few seperate posts on the details soon but for now I’m completely over the moon and sooooooooo excited to move!

Full Barn

I sort of feel like I just need some catchy theme music and a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Maybe something like this?

Back to the updates though, my friends moved in!! There are now nine horses in the barn with 5 of those being people who will be riding and taking lessons, 2 that belong to Jane, and 2 retirees.

First though I want to back up a little.

Since my last post I gave Katai Friday off and then lunged on Saturday. It was apparent when I lunged that pony had a very tired hind end, especially her right hind. I'm fairly certain that's what started the argument on Thursday and if I'd known I would have just given her the day off but hindsight is always perfect I guess.

Instead, at least I know now and after that I decided to try a redo on the easy stretchy ride this morning. I got to the barn fairly early so that I could ride and get everything closed up and put away before three new horses (all mares) and a bunch of people showed up. Long story short, it worked! She was definitely not completely thrilled about the idea of working and definitely felt a little tired but unlike Thursday she was willing to at least try to do what I was asking.

I kept it really simple with lots of straight lines and big circles. I worked a lot at the walk, did a little trot, and finally just a tiny bit of canter in each direction. I didn't even try the lateral work since I didn't want to push her at all and I was really trying to repair human/pony relations.  After the ride I worked on her hooves a bit and then cuddled her back up in her blanket and turned her out.

Neither one of us is thrilled with this weather

It was right around lunch time at that point so I headed in to town, got some taco bell and a coffee to try to warm up and then headed back. I had just gotten back into the barn and started cleaning my tack when Jane showed up and shortly after that we heard the truck pull up outside.

It was so much fun to help them find their stalls and hang out while they got the official barn tour and started to move their stuff in. This is such a fun group and we were having a great time just hanging out getting the horses used to the arena :) Jane also figured out the lesson schedule and it worked out great! I've been trying out a schedule of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday rides. That way I'm still riding 5 times a week without it all being back to back and I don't need to drive on Friday night and risk all the drunk drivers. All three are planning to have their lessons on Wednesday evening which means I won't need to change my schedule in order to not interfere with their lessons since that's already a night off.

Tomorrow my hope is to do a bit more work and at least do some leg yields and a bit more canter. What's really exciting is that there will be OTHER PEOPLE there! At least two of my friends, now identified as C and J2, will be there as well. It's so much easier to be motivated to go to the barn knowing that there will be other people there.

All The Mares

                         
                         
Oh my goodness I've been bad at blogging this month. Last year it was my seasonal depression, this year it's just that I've been enjoying the fall weather, getting chores done, and enjoying some down time after all the travel this year.

I've worked my way back up to riding 4-5 times a week and had a couple of make up lessons so I think we're back on track. I had a couple of amazing rides last week and then a decent ride on Monday this week. Tuesday evening I had a lesson with Jane that was sort of meh. Honestly I think we're in for lots of meh rides and lessons right now since we're really starting to change things up for both Katai any myself.

Whole bunch of new lights in the arena <3

For my lesson we started with a square of turn on the haunches. I struggled with keeping the correct bend and Katai didn't want to stay in front of my leg. It's the first time we've done them beyond really just basically introducing them to her so we just need some more practice.

                            
                                                Now if only her owner could help her stay in balance and 
                                                     still change the bend so she doesn't trip and/or loose the big stride

Then we did some warm up at the trot with some leg yields. Despite originally feeling like we were NEVER going to be able to properly do a leg yield they're looking pretty sharp now :) They still need to be able to have a bit more angle when I ask and she doesn't love to cross over with one hind. Each time though that hind leg but that seems to change. I'm not sure if it's because she's fairly ambidextrous or if there's something else going on from a riding perspective.

Old vs. new stall fronts

After that we went right into canter and that's where the wheels fell off a bit. Recently Katai has been REALLY good. She still almost never has a tantrum but that evening she got as close as she has recently. She was really just very jazzed up and didn't want to stop cantering dammit! When I would cue for trot she'd take one trot step and then go right back to a canter and refuse to go back to trot. She wasn't a run away and was taking direction well but she just didn't want to change back to trot.

                       

Practicing our counter canter

We took our time with it and got a few good transitions in either direction but also something we need to work more on. After when Jane and I had a chance to debrief she mentioned that it's likely that we're just asking for so much more and changing how we're asking (we were asking her to keep her pole up more at the canter) that she just didn't quite understand and wanted to run.

New fencing being installed

Then we worked on trot a bit more and did a bunch of SI. That was fantastic and we're both really starting to get it. There were still more moments where she was sucked back and tight through her back than there have been but we had a few magical moments and I was able to identify part of the problem when we switched to the second direction.

Hot water!!!

Wednesday she had off and then I was going to ride today but she ended up having her feet trimmed. My previous farrier would just show up every 6 weeks, trim them without me there and then bill me or I'd keep track and leave him a check. This farrier, who's amazing and used to be president of our farrier society, really wants me there. I do actually appreciate that but unfortunately the last two times have been during the morning on busy work days. This morning I sort of somehow made it work with lots of phone meetings in the car but it's far from ideal. Also because of that since I just can't justify driving that distance twice in one day it meant that she won't be ridden (also ok since I'd rather give her a day off after a trim).

Also this is exactly what my farrier looks like, complete with mustache and tattoos.
He actually used to be a body builder and he's in his 70s now.
He's a really interesting guy and his son actually dances with a big dance company in NY.

Hopefully she won't be tender tomorrow and I'll be able to ride again!

Also, in other updates at least a couple of my friends are moving!!!!! I know that two of them gave their 30 day notice at the start of October so they'll be moving in on November 1st :) I'm so happy and can't wait to have more boarders at the barn. I haven't heard from the third person but at this point I still think she may be moving as well. All three of them have mares and it's all mares at the barn now so we'll be full up on sassy females.

The sad part is that I may need to consolidate my tack a bit.
Possibly having three saddle racks to myself isn't very fair ;)

Exciting Happenings

Old pictures from J's barn

I think I've mentioned, probably a couple of times, that it's been sort of a weird and stressful year for me personally. While the horse things have mostly gone really well (other than the farrier thing recently and not having a saddle so I couldn't ride) other things have just felt like I'm trekking up a steep mountain without enough oxygen and no breaks.

This past week I've finally felt like I can breath a little and I'm getting a little respite and over the past couple of days a few really exciting things have happened!

Unfortunately I'm not at a place to bring up two of those three things in this blog quite yet. One I'll likely have more information on early next week that I can share. Another I likely won't be able to share for at least a few months. The third though I can share just a bit about.

I believe I mentioned that Jane had asked me to post on our local online bulletin board that she had a couple of openings for boarders. I posted and got a really great response and was especially excited when one of my friends, who I boarded with at J's barn, expressed interest. I'd LOVE to board with her again and missed most of the people that I boarded at J's with.

Baby nose and baby lipstick!!! Same bit I'm using now

Over the past month or so she and another person from that barn have visited and taken video of my lesson to show to each other. After that video I hadn't heard much back and it was a rougher lesson than I've had in awhile so I wasn't quite sure how it was received. Last week I found out that the boarder who'd watched the video and not been able to be present for the lesson LOVED Jane (I'm really not sure how you couldn't) and wanted to come tour one more time before making a decision.

Last night both people showed up and they brought another person from J's barn! That's three people from J's and it just so happened that they're the three people I was closest with at Js. Two more family members showed up as well so it was quite the reunion and it reminded me how much I've missed having more people to ride and interact with at the barn. K is AMAZING but her schedule is just so different that I don't see her much. Katai also adored having all of her fans there and I don't think that any of them could quite believe how much different she is than she was at J's.

Baby pony in a really good but rare moment at J's barn
Also, I've really stepped up my ROOTD game ;)

It was great to see all of them and now I'll be on pins and needles waiting to hear if they're going to move in with me and when :) Oh, and figuring out how to consolidate my tack sprawl in the tack room if they do decide to move in.

Lending a Videoing Hand

The bay Arab in the front is who I was taking video of.

Something fun and horse related that happened last week that I didn’t write about is that I went to see a friend ride in her lesson. M is the person that’s taken all those gorgeous show pictures of me and Katai. I used to board at the same barn as her and she has a gorgeous little bay Arabian mare. Unfortunately for the majority of the time that I was at the barn M was dealing with her horse’s soundness problems. Right after I left her mare actually ended up going in for a fairly serious surgery but is now happily sound. M also takes lessons with L was it was great to see her again as well 

I showed up at the barn pretty early and we had a fun time catching up while she groomed and tacked up. The already gorgeous barn also had a few really nice upgrades including new paint, better flooring, nicer tackroom and they added rubber footing to the arena which was AMAZING! I was partially there to talk and catch up and partially there to take some video so I had my hands full with that for most of the lesson and didn’t get any media. I also dislike sharing other people riding on my blog especially if they don’t blog themselves. However, M had a really great lesson! Her mare is still fairly green especially with the setback they had in her soundness but they’re making huge strides and there were parts of the lesson where she was carrying herself like a 2nd level horse.

The arena I was videotaping in with baby pony and awkward riding from me

I also got a chance to catch up with L who had just returned from a really fun road trip out west. I also found out that she’s shopping for performance ponies!! Since Jane is her instructor as well I also found out later that she’d sent some video from her trip to see some of the ponies over to Jane for Jane to assess so I can’t wait to hear if she ended up getting one of them.

I had such a great time and we’re going to try to meet up again for lessons or a trail ride. M also volunteered her truck if I get a light enough trailer and it would be so much fun to have someone to do more trail rides and shows with!

NDPC Recap Part: 2

On Saturday I had three people to watch ride and those rides spanned the entire day from 9:50ish am to 5:30ish pm. For a horse show, though, that didn't feel too early and since I'd planned to spend all of Saturday at the horse park those ride times actually worked out.

10 years! It sounds like it was so big this year that next year they may need additional space.
That says a lot since they were using at least four of the
five rings in the KYHP dressage complex the whole time.

I got to the horse park just a bit before the first ride, which was Jen's, after stopping for Starbucks. I'm getting spoiled with  my trips to Seattle where there's literally a Starbucks on every corner and it took me a bit longer to get coffee than I expected so I didn't get there quite as early as I'd hoped. At any rate I had a bit of time to chat with Jen's mom and Connor's breeder before Jen went in for her ride.

I don't want to give away any spoilers but their ride was fantastic! I ended up video taping the ride on Jen's mom's video camera plus I don't like to share pictures of people riding unless they approve them first so I don't have any media but I'm sure Jen will have some to share.

After her ride we talked a bit and then Jen headed back to the barn with Connor while I waited with the other two for a golf cart because #ourfeethurt.



We got back, got Connor hosed off and helped with a scary loose horse situation (everyone was fine as far as we could tell). We grabbed some food and then headed over to the Mustang Makeover to see what was going on over there.

Helping with Connor's bath. He clearly wasn't too fussed by the loose horse.

Unfortunately we would have needed to buy tickets to see any of the demonstrations and we weren't quite dedicated enough to do that but we did check out some of the horses and burros that were up for adoption and walked through the barns.

I got another golf cart ride back and made it just in time for H's ride! I took video again for her and this time the GRP pony filly did really, really well and they snagged a placing for their training level class. I spent some time hanging out with H and the women from her barn again after and then went to do more shopping!

I did a really good job of budgeting this weekend and didn't splurge much other than on coffee. For shopping I just ended up with a set of appropriately pony sized, navy blue polos (no pictures but I'll get some of them on her soon). They were a good price and it's so tough to find polos that fit Katai's dainty legs so I couldn't say no. I also got an NDPC logo grey polo shirt that will work great for schooling shows and clinics. They had a lot of really cute NDPC merchandise this year but the polo was the most useful so that's what I decided to go with. That was the extent of my shopping which is both disappointing and makes me happy haha.

By that point it was around 3:00pm and I was dragging a bit. The weather was cooler than I had thought it might be but still quite hot and humid and it had been a long day in the sun so I decided to head to the Starbucks for some coffee and air-conditioning. I got back around 4:30ish and headed over to watch Emilie ride!

Busy warm up ring

By that point I just couldn't be in the sun anymore so I found some shade that put me a ways away from the ring Emilie was in but where I could see her warm up and ride. She and Crumble looked really, really good and the judge must have thought so as well since, from Facebook, it looks like they made out pretty darn well ;) Emilie is an amazing rider and it was really great to see her warm up and ride her test, it certainly gives me something to aspire to!

After that I pretty much packed up and headed back to the Airbnb. It was great to be back in the air-conditioning and I spent the evening watching Friends on cable (I don't have cable so it was a treat) and spending some time on my computer.

The person taking care of Veggie (I booked through Wag)
took this picture of him modeling the bandana.
I think it may be a bit too big and he clearly doesn't think it's his color.

My flight back on Sunday morning was uneventful and I got home around 2:00. I quickly got an Uber home, drove to Minneapolis to pick up Veggie, and then headed to the barn for my lesson! It was a really great lesson but I'm going to make you wait until the next post to read about it ;)

I had such a great time at NDPC this year and really hope that I can spectate again next year and that in the next few years I can go to compete!!

An Ideal Day

I'm sure that many of us have ideas of what our ideal day(s) would like like. There are so many things that I think would make up an ideal day. A beach in Greece with a Mimosa would certainly be an ideal day for example ;) This past Saturday though was the most ideal day, especially horse wise, that I've had recently.

To start off I got to sleep in and then had some of my homemade cold brew coffee with my favorite vegan creamer. I pulled Youtube up on my tv via ChromeCast and watched a bunch of riding videos.

I had a delicious lunch and then took a break to bring the Vegetable out for a walk. Around 12:30 I headed to H's barn for a Janet Foy clinic! What's really cool about this barn and these clinics with Janet is that it's a really small audience and most of the people watching are also riding. I think I was actually the only auditor on Saturday. They aren't advertised beyond an occasional Facebook post by the owner (H's trainer) and with the small number of people watching (2-5) every time I've been there Janet really interacts with everyone.

The other thing that makes it fun is that this barn has the highest concentration of upper level riders in my area. Around here there aren't many people riding above 3rd level but on Saturday I watched two riders that were competing at Prix St. George, one at 4th, and one that was training Grand Prix movements on her baby horse that still isn't showing at that level. She did a couple of PERFECT one tempis and I got to watch as they introduced canter pirouettes, and worked on getting better piaffe and passage.

Ignore my inability to get a good canter picture, this pair was AMAZING!

H was the last ride of the day on her pony and it was really great because they worked on stuff that I can (for the most part) do even if we're not as good or consistent at it yet. They focused a lot on straightness since he's wiggly and then did some lateral work and ended with counter canter. H did a great job and it was great to be able to learn from Janet while watching someone riding at a similar level to me :)

Hungry pony after a great ride :)

I'd worn my riding clothes and went out to ride my pony directly from the clinic, after stopping for my favorite Starbucks drink (which I got to use my free drink stars for!) and stopping at Chipotle for dinner.

I got to the barn and the weather was so perfect that I decided to ride outside. I've been using the extra oomf from riding outside to really work on canter since Katai doesn't keep trying to quit on me. I really focused on maintaining the rhythm in the canter and getting it slowed down while maintaining the jump and longer stride length. I also did my 5-10 minutes of sitting trot and started to feel like I was actually getting somewhere. After another little walk break I did some walk/canter and canter/trot/canter transitions. She did so well! She was more hot about the walk/canter on Saturday and was launching more. I'm curious to check with Jane to see if it's good launching (powerful and engaged) or if she's launching so that she doesn't have to step under and carry herself up into the transition. As it was, since I didn't know if it was good or bad I just giggled and carried on. The canter/trot/canters across the diagonal were beautiful as well! She did fewer trot steps and maintained her rhythm better. Plus we got the correct lead every time!

These gifs aren't from Saturday and she's been getting better and better outside so I'll need to get some new footage soon but I realized that I'd never shared these.

The trot is getting so much bigger and more uphill! (I was pushing her sideways in the second one trying to get her off my left leg) 

Since she did harder work and spent a lot more time in canter along with needing to work harder with the uneven terrain I kept it shorter so our total ride was more like 35 minutes than 45 but that was still an improvement so I'll take it!

Slowly but surely getting more strength at the canter :)

It was an amazing, relaxing, but productive horse focused day :)

Riding Update

I haven't really done an update on my rides recently, partially because I didn't end up having a lesson this past week and the lesson before that I did briefly recap.

Since that lesson I've been working on getting the impulsion 100% of the time like Jane wants. At the first show Katai was slow and sticky because she wanted to quite like you saw in the video. At the second show she was really using it as an evasion and was working so differently than at home that I was really getting backwards in trying to get the bend. Jane wants this to be more established before we do anything else.



Until recently we couldn't ask for more without just getting lots of rushing footsteps but now that she's understanding the concept we just have to ask for it more of the time. Of course it's not like a switch just flips so she still gets rushy sometimes which means that I'm really having to remain solid in my core and keep my posting as consistent as possible. It's tough, and our rhythm is all over the place at times but we are getting more active steps with her hind legs.

The other thing we've been focused on is doing lots of canter and increasing the sit while getting it more rhythmic. Katai has been working really hard and getting tired but we're pressing on. Building muscles is tough sometimes.

I've also been trying to work on the other things on my list. I made a ton of progress with the spray bottle yesterday afternoon and we've been working with the hose and wash stall. I've also been working on riding more outside both in the grassy space outside the barn and down the road. We had our first solo road ride this year (or ever?) yesterday and it was fun but SOOOO mosquito-y that I'm pretty sure we both have malaria. At any rate it was beautiful and really nice to get out of the arena for awhile.



I've got a lesson scheduled tomorrow morning and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Jane thinks of our progress!

Yesterday I also got to go watch H ride in a lesson again. She had a great ride and she and her pony have made tons of progress since I was there last. They really looked great and it was fun to be able to talk horses with her. She's got a few busy weeks but I'll be looking forward to seeing her at Pony Cup!

Looking so good! Plus, her barn is so ritzy :)

Misc.

I don't have media very often so I'm SLOWLY spreading
these out over my next few posts :)

Apparently it get's to be summer and I become a horrible blogger. It's only because I'm doing all the things instead of writing about all the things but I really need to try to make time to post so here goes.

The other reason that this post has taken me awhile is that I've been trying to figure out how to make a couple of concise posts that cover everything that I want to talk about but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Instead you get this one slightly messy post but some of this stuff I really want to document so I wanted to find it some sort of place.

First off, Katai was MUCH better about the trailer for Spring Party (the second show) but there was still some drama. She loaded the way a horse is supposed to (after a decent amount of rearing and drama) by walking into the two horse straight load all the way so that we could get the butt bar up. In the morning she ran back into the butt bar twice but then stood without further incident. On the way home once we got her into the trailer (after a similar amount of drama) she let us put the butt bar up and didn't run back into it. Hopefully it was a good learning experience for her and she won't try running into the butt bar again as she certainly gave her butt muscles (at the top of her haunches since she's short) a good beating. Sometimes HULK PONY smashing doesn't actually work.

I'm right back to practicing and I really want to get her self loading. I actually think this will take some of the fear out of it for her by turning it into more of a game. I started working on it last night and she was already walking 3/4 of the way in on her own. Of course that last 1/4 is the tough part but I'm really impressed that I got that far already!

Second, I really need to figure out braiding. I had her really adorably braided that morning (she seriously looked like a cute little European sport pony haha) but by the first class they were starting to get floppy and I had to pull them before the second. I'm going to try a few things including knotting them in better and/or using waxed thread instead of yarn. She has a tricky stiff and thick mane that doesn't have a lot of grip (even though I used copious amounts of hair jell) so I'm just going to need to experiment with what works.

Still not quite sure why I forgot to
take my hoodie off for this show 

Third, I've started to put some thoughts into what I want to do for shows for the rest of the year. It hasn't come up with Jane yet but I'm going to run this past her at some point and then it may change. However, my tentative plans include at least a couple of the following;

- 8/19 - NRF Schooling Show
- and/or 8/26 Northern Lights Rated Show
- 9/2 - Dog Days Schooling Show
- 9/16 - NRF Schooling Show
- 10/1 - Rocking R Farms Schooling Show

I chose these for several reasons including location since I'm relying on someone else (probably Jane) to trailer me. The other main reason is that I've decided not to invest in joining all of the organizations this year (for a couple of reasons) which leaves me with opportunity classes and schooling shows. Since opportunity classes don't "count towards" anything and are still more expensive, schooling shows are a great option for this year.

The main reason I don't have anything planned for the next couple of months is that I don't want to deal with the heat. Also, I'd like to really work on some of the things that I know I need to improve and since I'm not chasing awards it makes more sense to take a break and establish some of that first.

Also, at the beginning of the year I had planned a lot of rated shows since that's what my barn mate (who was going to trailer me) was doing. However, we haven't been able to get Katai in her trailer so Jane has been trailering me. Yep, we've had two trailers at both of these shows...

From last year's NDPC. Look at that sky!

Since schooling shows are at least $60-$70 cheaper than opportunity classes at rated shows and since I've found out that I have THREE friends/acquaintances going to National Dressage Pony Cup including Jen from Cob Jocky, Emilie from BecausePony, and my friend H with one of her instructor's baby GRPs I'm planning (at this point) to go as well! As a spectator of course :) My plan to not go originally was more because I wanted to do more shows this year but this way I can sort of have my cake and eat it too, plus I just can't miss watching three of my friends ride at NDPC!!

*The first two pictures are by my amazing friend M :) I still don't know how she got such amazing pictures in the indoor although her camera lens is at least a foot long lol

The Hunter Pace

I had SUCH an amazing time at the hunter pace on Sunday!! It was easily the most fun I’ve had on a ride recently and I think Katai had a blast as well!

Goons in the trailer

I was with an amazing group which really helped. There were four of us total and our leader Jenny (trailerer) has done lots of trail rides, some hunter paces and hunts in the past as well as lots of trail riding. She was on a very tall draft/TB cross who was an amazing large gentleman that wasn’t spooky at all. Then there were three of us from my current barn me, Vanessa, and Allie. All three of us had younger, inexperienced horses and out of the group Katai actually had the most trail riding experience. Vanessa was riding her OTTB, Cat, who is off the track just since early this year (February I think?) and who has never been on a trail ride in her life. Allie was riding her young Quarter horse (I think), Sarge, who has just been ridden consistently since around May and who has also never been on a trail ride. I was, of course, riding Katai who has been on trail rides but never trailered off property for one and who admittedly become a screaming hormonal unicorn at our last experience off property.

My legs look so long in this picture!

I honestly wasn’t sure that I would even be able to get Katai on the trailer especially once I got a look at it. Jenny has a four horse head-to-head trailer and while I knew that the extra space would be welcome (the only trailer I’ve struggled to get Katai on so far is a straight load two horse) I also knew that the very steep ramps and maneuvering needed inside might be tough. Katai started off resistant but calm but as soon as Jenny opened up the second ramp and suggested that we just walk her through a few times Katai walked right through. From there it was easy to just stop her in the middle and back her into her space. We got her secured and easily loaded the other two. Yay for good baby horses!!!

We got on the road but pulled over for gas and to check on the horses about 15 minutes into the trip. I was extremely happy and impressed to see that Katai didn’t have a single bit of sweat on her, was eating her hay, and was perky eared. I can only imagine that she really liked being able to see the other three horses and that it was making her feel more confident.

Leading the pack

I was really pleased and feeling more confident about how she would do once we unloaded than I had. The trip was about an hour and then we pulled into a nice large field with several other trailers. We unloaded and were able to tie two horses to the trailer with their hay bags. The other two had to be held since the trailer just didn’t have enough tie rings. I opted to tie Katai and with her hay bag in front of her she was a perfect lady. She actually ate her hay and didn’t even call to the strange horses. I think it helped that it was very low key and not nearly as electric as her last show experience and, of course, being able to see her three buddies the whole time really helped as well. We all started getting tacked up and ready to ride. I got in the saddle a bit before some of the others and let Katai stretch her legs in the field a bit while everyone else got mounted up.

We left the gate at about 10:08am. I knew that a hunter pace was different than a hunt but I wasn’t exactly sure how it differed. First off, there aren’t hounds for the hunter pace and you don’t go out at the same time with a big group. Instead, you go out with as many or few riders and horses as you chose and try to meet an unidentified time over a specific course that was set by the person who, I believe, normally would lead the hunt. The group that put on this event does Hunts as well and I’ve actually been invited to the one at the end of August!!

What’s fun about the hunter pace is that it’s sort of like a really long cross country course with fewer jumps and no jump judges. You can chose to go at whatever pace you want but we were hoping for a ribbon (1st – 6th) so we went a bit faster than you might on just a normal trail ride. The whole ride (with trot, canter, and some gallop) ended up taking us about 1 hour and 38 minutes was just about 7.5 minutes off the pace and meant that we came in 4th!!!

Gorgeous satin!

It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

I had a great group since both Vanessa and Allie are eventers with young/green horses and this was their first experience. Both are bold riders and happy to push the pace a little but both also wanted to give their horses a great experience and didn’t have extremely fit horses. Both Vanessa and Allie took some jumps and neither Jenny or I took any. We all were in agreement about pace for the whole ride and were happy to walk or gallop as appropriate which made it fun. Amazingly enough with all the young horses, and especially with the lack of trail riding experience, none of the horses were spooky. The draft cross or Katai led through anything spooky for the most part but the OTTB led over two bridges!! She just walked right on and over very calm and composed and the others followed her over just as calmly. It was really pretty remarkable and I think that rider attitude had a lot to do with it since we were all happy, positive, calm, relaxed people that were out just to have fun. 

Allie’s young Quarter Horse was probably the most worried and spent the first half of the ride cantering and jigging but did really well and by the end was really happy and calm and comfortable for our longer sets of canter and gallop towards the end. All four horses were equally sweaty and none of them seemed especially tired out after the ride. I will say that I didn’t actually think the ride would be that long especially with the amount of canter and gallop that we did. It sounds like most of the time these rides are closer to 45 -60 minutes. 

 

Posing ;)

Knowing how long it was and how hard the horses worked, next time I’ll bring liniment and probably give Katai some electrolytes before the ride. Live and learn. At any rate it certainly wasn’t too much for her. She is routinely ridden for 45-60 minutes with a lot of trot and canter and is very fit cardio wise. It was just a lot more hillwork and canter/gallop than she was used to. With that said though, we still did a lot of walk and she was perky eared and bright eyed throughout and after the ride. She got a little bute last night and this morning with her grain to help fend off too much soreness and she’s getting today off, a very light lunge tomorrow just to stretch her out a little, and another day off Wednesday. Then, depending on how she’s feeling on Thursday we may just do an easy walk ride.

LtoR: Allie and Sarge, me and Katai, Vanessa and Cat, Jenny and Ollie

I was SOOOOO proud of her and how she handled everything. Multiple people complemented me on her about everything from her willing and sweet personality, to her ability to keep up with the others, to how fancy she is.  I still don’t think I can quite believe that she’s mine.

Made It

Human(s) 1 - Pony 0

Or maybe not 0 since my BM wasn't able to get her loaded last weekend...

At any rate we were able to get Katai loaded up and back to our current barn on Thursday evening. It only ended up taking about an hour but it was a lot of stress to me and my pony and I hate that. I had to be the "bad guy" and put a lot of pressure on her. I kept giving her options to take a break or have the pressure taken off but she was being "manipulative" (verified by my BM and barn friend who were there to help and be my support system).

I started out making it easy. I walked her up to the trailer and offered her treats and just did my best to let her take the easy option. Unfortunately she didn't want to do that and as soon as I put any pressure on she lost it. I spent almost 45 minutes just trying to get her to walk up to the trailer and stand there for a moment.

It really wasn't happening but she also stopped rearing (I learned how to deal with that when I first started working with her to trailer load) and was starting to be a little more respectful.

At about 50 minutes I admitted that I'd never made that little progress in that length of time and my barn helpers went and got some grain to do sort of a good cop, bad cop, sort of thing. Once she saw the grain she walked right in but wouldn't get far enough in for us to get her locked in. This trailer was a ramp and so we couldn't just push her in the same way that we could have with a gate.

Eventually I looked back to see the BM and the barn owner and Jane pushing the ramp shut and I freaked out as my pony threw her butt backwards into the gate. I was expecting to see them flattened by my pony but they held it somehow. Below is an actual reenactment of the battle of the trailer ramp.



At any rate we triumphed (unlike the video would have you believe) and got Katai back to our barn. After all the work and stress she was pretty sweaty when she got off the trailer so after letting her relax for a minute I gave her a bath and then turned her out with her buddy. Her buddy is the boss and after briefly showing her butt to Katai, Katai walked away, they touched noses and went back to eating hay together.

It was a little sad because it would have just been nice to leave her at the new barn rather than taking her away for a month and then going back but I didn't want my current BM to be out the income and I can't afford to pay for two barns for a month. I am glad that I get to enjoy another month of lessons with L and that I have another month with all of my barn friends. Luckily my new barn is just down the road so we've still got plans to do things together and see each other at clinics and shows.

Thankful

The things I am thankful for this holiday season;

First and foremost friends. Lisa, the person that I rented from for while, not only has been extremely supportive this week (and always) but also knew that my family wasn't available today on Thanksgiving so she invited me to her family's Thanksgiving meal. She also gave me two pairs of winter breeches which is soooo wonderful since I have been freezing when riding but just couldn't afford winter breeches.

Secondly I'm thankful for a good job, a clean place to live, and a working car :-)

I am also extremely thankful for a wonderful barn and boarding situation which is easily the best I have had so far. I know that my pony is being well cared for and I adore the facilities.

Finally, for now, I am thankful for my wonderful pony and buddy Katai and everything that she does for me every day.