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!

Crazy Week and Crossed Wires

Well I tried to make this past week productive and sort of like boot camp but it didn't really turn out that way.

As mentioned I had two lessons last week, one on Sunday and one on Tuesday and didn't ride on Monday to give her that time off. The plan was to lunge on Wednesday, do a longer tougher ride on Friday and an outdoor ride on Saturday morning (still work but not as focused) when I could ride outside without the bugs being too bad.

On Wednesday I lunged as planned and Katai was clearly tired but was a good girl. She got Thursday off and then on Friday I showed up ready to work.

Pulling out all the stops in the bug battle this year.
The farm is in a marsh so they seem to be particularly bad.
These boots are working really well!

I'm a bit OCD about my horse things. I'm not that way with anything else in life but everything at the barn has a place and I put stuff back the same way every time. I was surprised to see the crank noseband on my bridle fastened differently than normal. However, since I'd lunged last I thought maybe I'd done something different than normal when I put it away and just didn't remember or that someone was checking out my bridle which I never mind.

However, that night Katai was REALLY weird to ride. Very unlike her normal self and very tired and behind my leg. She kept stopping and spooking at the end with the door and she never does that, or almost never, and never this bad. I kept it pretty short but was nervous that she wasn't feeling well. Because of that I decided to do another quite day on Saturday and gave her a bath and hand walked her down the road and let her graze a bit. It was really good for both of us but not really the way I pictured the rest of our week going. With that being said I still got to the barn 5 days so that felt good.

All geared up minus her fly mask :)
For a $25ish fly sheet this one has been doing great so far!
Please ignore the horrible angle, she's not nearly this downhill.

Sunday I got to the barn in the evening and planned to do a ride outside. Jane had put together an arena outside and I really wanted to play ride in it. While I was tacking up Jane came out to feed and walked straight over to talk to me. I found out that we'd had our wires crossed and she'd thought I was out of town last week so had my fellow boarder K ride Katai on Friday. Jane felt so bad but I wasn't worried about it and honestly was just glad that I had a reason for Katai's weird behavior on Friday.

the new arena!

I then went on to have an AMAZING ride! Katai has SO MUCH FUN riding outside and I need to remember to do it more. I played around with transitions and asking her to be consistent in the trot but we didn't ride for too long. In the span of about 5 minutes we had attracted a nice little herd/flock/murder of horse flies and they were plastered to her ears. I seriously don't know why she didn't just buck me off and run for the hills but she didn't. Instead she was a princess pony and just kept listening and playing along. I didn't want to make it a miserable experience for her though so after a couple of really good transitions I called it, we went for a little walk loop past the outdoor "arena" and then ran for the barn. I was covered in biting flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes so I was ready to be done as well.

Sort of working but I'm going to try a different type of lotion next time.
This would all be easier if spray bottles were a thing...

Next time I'll use her cute little fly bonnet but it's bad enough out there that I'm not even sure if that will really fix it. At any rate, she was a total princess and I had so much fun!

Now this week I've already been prevented from riding tonight (I'd planned another good long ride) because it's in the 90s and extremely humid again with impending storms. I had wanted to at least go spend time with her but an hour in the car just to go rinse her off for the second time in three days just didn't seem like the best idea. It looks like it will be cooler for the rest of the week so I'm planning to continue my boot camp through Sunday and then I'm off to Seattle and pony will have a few rides from K but mainly a vacation :)

The One Where H Visits*

* Title courtesy of watching too many episodes of Friends last night.

I had a horse filled weekend planned and so far the first day was incredible! H and I had decided to meet at the local tack shop since they were having an anniversary sale. We had a great time shopping and didn't buy much so my saddle budget is still intact :) Then we went out to lunch and had a great conversation, of course about horsie things, and finally went to my barn. 

H really liked everything and I think is even more anxious to move to her new barn. She had offered that if I wanted to ride she would take some video which was incredible! It's been so tough riding by myself all the time without eyes on the ground. I knew I was developing some bad habits again but just didn't have any great way to identify them and fix them. Now I not only get to watch myself ride but also have that lesson set up tomorrow. I can't wait :)

Here are some stills that I pulled from the video. Please ignore my extra short stirrups. I had cleaned my saddle and leathers and guess I put them back together wrong. I actually didn't notice it until I looked at these pictures!

Look at how she's lifting her back!

Downhill but my favorite picture.

A little canter :)

Little tense but my position is better.

Walk cool down.

I'm so proud of my pony :-)

Back On Track

Honestly I’m not sure what Katai thinks of the new barn but I’m extremely happy. I’m mainly happy because of how easily and quickly Katai adjusted. Prior to this move it would take her a week or more to be easy to handle in a new environment. I’m sure it was a lack of consistency with handling and being a green baby but it was really disheartening to think of showing her like that since it’s tough to have a week to adjust at a show. This time she got to the barn and instantly made it her own. She was calm right from the first moment she was there and, although still a bit tense at times, she has pretty much maintained all of the things we worked on at the previous barn. This is a huge win for both of us and I’m relieved.

 

I’m also really comfortable in the new environment. There are a lot of people there all the time so I never feel like I’m being watched or singled out like I did at the previous barn. Katai is more accepted as a mount and actually when I rode on Tuesday, more on that later, she was the average height in the ring with the largest horse being a 14.3 hand Morgan!

 

I also really do like the stall set up. Her feet have been excellent, clean and dry, and I am incredibly impressed with how clean her stall has been kept. Of course she’s only been there for just over a week but I’m still happy with how things are going so far. It is also so incredibly wonderful that she is consistently getting supplements. Twice a day, every day someone is giving her DMG, Magnesium, and soon the coat and joint supplement. It is so good for my peace of mind and of course for her health.

 

So far I’ve spent all four days, that I worked in an arena, in the larger but not heated arena that is part of the barn she is kept in. This is where the Eventing instructor teaches her lessons so it tends to either have jumping lessons or people riding English. The other heated barn has an attached heated arena that I have not ridden in yet. It is smaller, looks like it tends to have more beginner lessons and/or western lessons and is more crowded since who wouldn’t want to be warm when they ride. I’m hoping to ride down there soon but figured I’d let Katai adjust to this arena first since it’s where we’ll be for lessons.

 

On Tuesday I rode for the first time at the new facility and it was amazing! She behaved almost exactly like she did last time I rode her at the previous barn. No spooking even when one of the horses that was jumping knocked down a rail and she’s never been around during a jumping lesson before. This is of course how I would expect her to behave but it’s not what’s been the case in the past. She was a TOTAL nervous wreck when I first started brought her into the last indoor arena and that wasn’t her first indoor arena so she shouldn’t have had an excuse. It was so bad that I spent two months doing lunging and ground work before I felt confident climbing on to ride so having her so comfortable on her second time in the this arena EVER and first time riding made me extremely proud. Sometimes it’s the little things :-)

Friday I also rode and since I only worked a half day that day I got there around noon. I felt bad because she was freaked out with the change in routine. She kept trying to tell me that she wasn't supposed to be in the barn alone and was a little terror to tack up and handle on the ground. As per usual though she was a little angel under saddle and other than having to ride around two people having a jumping lesson things went really well.

                  Can haz cookie?

On Sunday I rode again and was so, so happy. She was struggling to stretch down more than she has been but she was very balanced and I finally got her to move off my leg calmly. I also worked her through a minor meltdown when the only other horse in the arena left. It was a great day and I was so proud of her.

                 Think she knows that if she's cute enough she'll get a cookie?

 

Also, in completely random and unimportant to most people news, I’ve decided to change her color to grey. It’s cute buying bright colors and I’m going to continue to use what I have for saddle pads, boots, bridle, quarter sheets, etc. but since I already have a flashy mostly white pony and she’s already small and is now very brightly outfitted it’s just getting to be a bit much. It’s time to professional up a little so I’m going to start buying things in grey. I think it will complement her, be modern and cute, and still more professional than pink and the other pastel colors that she’s wearing now. I’ll still include some pink like on her bridle but I don’t want it to be the main color anymore. I always figured that grey would be her show color, at least for schooling shows, because white will either cause her to look dirty or cause the pad to look dirty. Black would be too much I think so grey was the plan showing but now also for schooling.

I am also starting to work on my goals for 2015. For the first time I'm starting to feel like I can be more serious about developing my little athlete and that means goals so that progress can be measured. Because I'm a big picture thinker I've decided to do a list of goals for the year with monthly checkins. Then if things are going really well I can always add to it. Otherwise I find that I set simple goals that I know I'll be able to achieve in a month. This way I'm hoping to push myself more. Hopefully I'll be posting that list soon!

New Home

I don't know what it is but I feel at home here, at the new barn, already. Everyone has been so nice and open. It's a warm inviting atmosphere so far even if it's extremely cold out.

Yesterday the son of the owner showed up to transport Katai to the new barn. I really wondered how she would be because I haven't had a chance to load her even once since I moved her last time. Amazingly enough, especially for a horse that was almost impossible to load initially, she was really good! She flew out backwards once but then loaded in quietly and stood while he hooked her up and closed the slant. 

She also rode well and was just a sweetheart when she unloaded. I the past she's been quite a handful but all this work and consistency is obviously paying off because she walked on a loose lead through the new barn, back out and down a Lane between new horses to her new home. 

Tonight I went out to work with her for the first time in the new arena. I almost skipped it because of how cold it was and the fact that it's supposed to be much nicer tomorrow but I knew I'd feel guilty all night and I missed my pony. My car said it was -1 when I got to the barn but it is considerably warmer in the barn. Of course in this cold that means it was close to 10-15 degrees so still far too cold to be comfortable. 

Katai was a little uppity in her stall and was certainly happy to see me. I got a few huge nickers and could tell that she's stressing out. Tonight was her second time with her new stall schedule so it's still pretty new. I was happy to see that her stall was clean except for two small normal poops, she had a nice clean bucket of water and had been chewing on her mineral block. All good signs that it's already starting to feel at home. 

I was also pleased with how calmly and politely she stepped out of her stall as I led her out and I know it speaks to the handling she's been receiving. Right now she's still in a paddock by herself so handled morning and evening. Soon she'll be on pasture turnout so will have to figure out how to find her stall when the let the horses into the barn in the evening. 

One of the best things about the stall I have her in is the attached tack locker. You can see the door open up above. It means that I can tie her right to the front of her stall to groom and tack up and didn't have to schlep equipment which is nice. Especially since I forget things.

The stalls are old and quite used but maintained well and they bed them quite deep. I was pleased to see that so far her feet look better which doesn't surprise me since there's less time standing around in poop between her nice clean, dry stall and the paddock. I'm interested to see what will happen in the pasture turnout.

She was nice and quiet for grooming and just moved a bit when I went to put the saddle on. She also was a complete sweetheart about the new arena and after a nice 15 minute walk with me around the arena in both directions I lunged her both ways mainly at trot. She was stiff and slightly off. I kind of suspected that she'd pulled something yesterday after trailering either by slipping in the pen while introducing herself to her neighbors or on the trailer. She didn't head bob at all but was a little short behind. I'll see how she's doing tomorrow and hopefully ride!

Well Tonight Sucked

I have nothing positive to say other than that we didn't kill each other.

I'm normally a really positive person and on my blog I find the sun behind the clouds or the half full glass but tonight that just isn't the case. I really did know that she wasn't going to be her normal self at the new barn, in a new environment, around new horses, in a new arena but I hoped that some smidgen of the Katai that I know and love would remain. Instead I got some sort of devil pony in her place tonight.

I think she was more scared than naughty and I treated it as such being gentle but firm but when she continued to blow through my aids on the lunge I got firmer and it barely made a difference. On top of that, and I'm aware it wasn't helping me at all, I had an audience. All things considered it was the best audience I could have had of a few of the more"rough and ready" riders that have dealt with young horses but they've been boarding there for many, many years and although nothing Katai did was any different than what any young horse might have done I still feel like it's going to be the gossip of the barn.

I stayed almost two hours late at work so that I could get to the barn late, and I easily had enough work to do to fill the time since it is retirement plan audit season, so I got there around 6:30. I ate my dinner and changed so that I was catching and tacking up closer to 7:00 and hoped the barn would be quiet and it was for a little while. I wanted nothing more than to have the place to myself the first couple of times I worked her so that I wouldn't make a scene or disturb anyone else. It did sort of work since not one of the three people that showed up rode their horse but Katai did certainly get a lot of attention. They cooed over her while I tacked her up and she wasn't great in the cross ties but not as bad as I'd feared either. Then I got her into the arena and all hell broke loose. I knew she'd look at the mirrors but what I didn't guess was that she would think that every time she saw them she was seeing a friendly herd member that immediately trotted away as soon as she went past. She was transfixed staring at them since that was the only way to keep the "friend" there and every time I got her to go past the mirror she about had a heart attack. The one thing I'm proud of, and yet still second guessing myself on, is that I rode.

After close to 30 minutes of lunging, all over the arena and in different directions, she was calming down just enough that I thought I might actually have a better shot if I were mounted. As I said at the beginning we did survive but lots of turn on the forehands later and a couple of fairly reasonable short walks in a straight line at my direction and I climbed off and called it a day. She felt like she either wanted to rear or bolt the entire time but she did listen to me and kept all four feet on the ground with some help from me.

Its tough to know if it was the right thing to do and I was evaluating the situation the entire time I was in there trying to figure out what my options were to turn the situation around. I think a whole bunch of stuff like the weather, seriously?!? 8 days of pouring rain and crazy howling winds at below 40, or the new place or the people while I tacked up hugging her and making a fuss over her certainly didn't help and I do realize they are all things that she needs to get used to and I WANT her to get used to it's just that I wanted to do my best to ease her into all of it and not have it strike at once.

I'm still trying to pick out anything positive that I can and I'm definitely not by any means giving up. I'll be out there again tomorrow to repeat the whole process. Hopefully minus that craziness.