New Barn Feels

First I just want to put a note that I've been trying to comment on everyone's blogs but for some reason google isn't allowing me to submit comments. I thought it was just a temporary thing one day but I'm still not able to at this point. I'm going to reach out to support to get it figured out but in the meantime just know that I'm still reading them all!

Mostly I’m loving the new barn. I adore the arena which is the perfect combination of cozy, cute, and had pretty decent footing. It’s not spacious by any means but two people can ride fairly comfortably in it and, let’s face it, Katai is tiny so if I can’t maneuver her around a space this size I don’t have any hope of getting any geometry correct in any test at this point ;)

Katai has a nice sized stall, the hay is amazing, I love having a nice low key trail just outside her paddock, there’s a grazing pen for horses that are in dry lots just so that they can have a mini graze while their people hang out, 99% of the people are great (just like any barn), there are a ton of very long term boarders, the barn manger is FANTASTIC, and I really like my new instructor.

The only drawback so far has been that 1% of people here (let’s be honest, that’s one person) haven’t been very nice but I can handle myself and I’m hoping that with time that will calm down (side note, it's already gotten better between when I typed up this post and when I posted it). It’s never been an issue for me before since I’m good at making friends, I work hard, I’ve been around horses since I was 7 so I know a few things, I have good communication skills, and I tend to get along with everyone but for some reason there’s one person here who I apparently rub the wrong way. Oh well, we can’t all be friends with everyone.

The other main drawback is that the two larger, outdoor arenas are fairly rocky. They’re fine for most horses but Katai is barefoot and we’re rehabbing her hooves right now so she’s still a little tender. The last thing I want is for her to not trust her footing so we’ve just avoided both arenas for the most part. With winter coming it isn’t worth worrying about but we have a couple of ideas for how to combat it next year if her hooves still aren’t at the gravel crushing phase.

The best thing is that Katai has been calm, happy, relaxed, and just seems really content at this barn. She was happy at Janes but still had more anxious energy than she does here and it’s a huge improvement from the last barn where she constantly seemed to be in flight or fight mode for some reason. I’m also loving the cost and the much, much shorter commute.

In addition, K (my new instructor) is nicely low key and relaxed about things while still having great suggestions and I love how she explains theory. She’s also already talking about bringing me to shows next year which would be amazing. I’m excited to keep taking lessons with her and see how far we can go together! I also have plans with one of the amazing barn people who invited me to go to a hunter pace with her! With weather and other things we aren't going to be able to do the hunter pace this year but hopefully next year and we already have plans for a trail ride in a couple weeks!

June Goals Recap and July Goals

June Goals Recap:

Practice More Lateral Work: Meh, we did start working on shoulder in again and I have been making sure to do lateral work each ride. The problem is that I'll do something like leg yield a couple of times to the right and then because I'm struggling I just switch to the other side. I need to do more (not drill but more) and just keep practicing or I'll never get how to do it.

Continue With Trailer Loading Practice: Meh again. I did some work, then we had horrible heat, then horrible bugs, and then (very unfortunately) Jane's young horse needed veterinary attention and stayed at the clinic for a few days which mean that the trailer stayed there with her. Bugs and heat are excuses but not bad ones and it's been tough to be motivated when I knew it would be over two months until I'm going to show again.

Practice Other Show Skills: We did a bit better here. I've been working with Katai and the wash stall/hose as you've seen. I've also been more consistently working with her with bug lotion, the spray bottle and other gunk. I need to do more work with the bridle number and I need to try a different way of braiding but mostly it's still been tough to be really motivated to do much work with this stuff since I have so much time.

July Goals:

Ride Longer: As I mentioned in my new and improved 2017 goals, I discovered that I've been averaging around 20-25 minute rides including warmup and cool down. Now that I'm riding more often (4-5 days a week at a minimum up from the 2-3 I was doing) it's time to increase the duration. To accomplish this I'm going to start riding with a timer. I don't need to absolutely hold myself to the time on the timer for every ride (If Katai does really difficult work or does something fantastic I'll end earlier) but at least I'll have more awareness of how often I'm cutting rides short. Both Jane and I want the majority of my rides to be 45ish minutes including warm up and cool down. Of course I'm not just going to start riding her 45 minutes each ride for 4-5 rides per week but we are going to start working our way up there.

Continue Outdoor Rides: Recently I've really been enjoying riding in the grassy area outside the barn since, in part, makes Katai enough more forward that it's easier to work on her canter rather than in the arena where she'd rather quit. I want to continue to ride out there and also start to take her down the road. I may also see if I can ride in the neighbor's arena again as well. I have a good stretch goal for the show in August so I need to put in the work to get there and getting Katai comfortable outside is one big step :)

Practice, Practice, Practice (or Sitting Trot): This goal is about not avoiding what's hard, instead I just need to do more hours of practice so that it becomes easy! Primarily right now that's the lateral work and the sitting trot but of course it could be anything else haha. Sitting trot is harder for me than posting right now and I feel like I'm going to hurt Katai's back so I don't do it. Instead, Jane want's me to do it for 5-10 minutes per ride so that I have plenty of chances to work on it but don't over do it. So far since my last lesson I have practiced it for that amount of time every ride and now I just need to keep it up through the month. If I do that, by August I'll be so much better! Of course this could also include doing more rides outside, trailer loading, lateral work, and practicing our medium gaits.

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 :)

Best Night

Old picture from my first spring with Katai

All of my nights at the barn are wonderful so when I tell you that Thursday night at the barn was the best night I've had in a long time you should know that it was pretty epic.

I've mentioned in the past that one of the big things I was worried about with this barn was that I'd miss the camaraderie of being around other horse people. I really like the people at this barn, it's just that our schedules don't work out often and there aren't as many people there so it's rare that I actually get to ride with anyone else. The person I'd most like to spend time with (K) is the other rider who works with Jane and rides Dressage but she works a very different schedule so is out often during the day when I'm at work. While it hasn't been that big of an issue for me, and I possibly actually get more done since I need to just concentrate on riding my pony, I do miss having more people around when I'm at the barn.

However, I finally got to spend some time with K on Thursday.

Also not from Thursday but from my first real trailride with Katai
This would have been late 2013 or early 2014

When I got there my plan was to first get Katai outside for a bit to practice trailer loading and hand walk her down the road. Since she's mainly indoors I wanted to make sure that she spent some more time outside to prepare her for the show. Both trailer loading and walking down the road went really, really well and she was as calm and relaxed as she's ever been. Plus, it was an amazingly warm and sunny spring day so it was very nice to spend the time outside.

After that I brought her back to the barn to tack her up for riding and with perfect timing K showed up just as I started grooming. We were able to talk a bit and Jane came out to feed so we all talked about show plans (K is my ride to shows this year). It was so much fun to get to hang out and talk. Even better, as we were getting ready to head into the arena Jane suggested that we ride down the road together. I'll admit that I probably wouldn't have been brave enough to ask but K agreed that it sounded like fun so we headed out and with some help from Jane (to hold Katai for a minute) we mounted up and headed off.

Since this seems to be the post for #TBT pictures this one is just so cute!

Katai was HOT but settled pretty quick and we proceeded to have a really nice ride. She was pretty up and it's a road that gets a bit of traffic so I didn't ride on the buckle until we got back to Jane's driveway but it still was able to be a relaxed ride with a bit of trot and mainly lots of walk. I was SOO happy with that!

Then, once we got back to the barn K and I rode together in the arena for awhile. K is showing 3rd level and hoping to get the last scores for her bronze this year. When she was taking a break she was my eyes on the ground and gave me some amazing suggestions for my transitions. We also commiserated on how hard this dressage thing is (but how much we love it) and how we have lots of the same crookedness's so we make Jane's job easier haha.

Last one ;)
"Does it look like I'm wearing my mom's clothes?"

After we finished up we untacked together, talking horses the whole time of course, and left in the dark. It was so, so, so nice to be able to talk with someone else that's on the same path. K loves dressage like I do, cares deeply for her horse, and rides an "untraditional" (small grey arab) horse in dressage but thanks to Jane has worked her way up the levels. I always enjoy talking and spending time with horse people but those similarities that put us on the same page make it even more fun.

It was an amazing night and I'm even more excited for shows this year and to get to spend more time with K.

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.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programing

To bring you the very interesting news that I'm going to a Hunter Pace tomorrow!

This blog has been going along talking about dressage and my lack of motivation and trying to get Katai in the trailer and then BOOM, out of left field I announce that we're going to a Hunter Pace.

This is what happens when I don't own a trailer, I need to take advantage of every invite to trailer off property. Plus its going to be so much fun!

I can't wait and should have amazing media and a story to tell when I'm safely back home in one piece tomorrow.

Fingers crossed ;)

July Goals Recap

Previous Goals Recap:

1. Proper bend to each direction - I honestly think this is something we should have better by this point. I’m sure if I were a more advanced rider that this would be more consistent than we have it right now. I’m going to just keep working and improving my skills at this.
-Meh, I just wasn’t able to dressage consistently enough in July for this to get any better. Between the weather, my travel, and moving her back and forth to the other barn (and all the drama that entailed) I just haven’t had many regular dressage rides. Luckily she hasn’t back slid (much) but I also didn’t make much dressage-y progress.

2. Work outside - I just need to get her outside as much as I can and for as many different activities as possible
-Yes! I’m getting so much better that this! Pretty much every day that I could, where the weather cooperated, I rode outside.

3. Do chiropractor prescribed stretches before every ride (also getting a massage book so that I can do some of this myself :)
-Meh, mainly just because I wasn’t doing these before outdoor rides or lunging sessions and I didn’t have many dressage rides so I didn’t do many stretches with her. I am a ways into the massage book so going to continue working on that!

August Goals:

1. Work Outside – Yes it went well last month but I need a reminder to continue to make this a priority. Soon it will be snowy and icy outside and impossible so I need to get out while we can.

2. Stretchy Trot – I think from the lack of rides and all the trailering drama Katai has been tight and tense through her back. I want to head it off by doing a lot more stretchy work this month and really confirming that I can get her to stretch out when I ask for it.

3. Massage – As mentioned previously I’m partway through the book I got (really good book by the way and I’ll do a review at some point) and want to finish this up and start practicing on Katai.

4. Strength – In previous posts I’ve mentioned that I’ve really let my strength go. A combination of just not riding as often, and doing more trail riding, and letting my normal riding workout go which means that I’ve lost a lot of strength. It means that I’m flopping around up there and that’s making Katai crabby (I really don’t blame her) and tense. I also want to work on Katai’s strength and add more cantering into our workouts since she’s wearing out pretty quick for how far we are along at this point.

5. Ride More – This is the biggest goal and will make everything else easier. I just need to focus this month on getting out to the barn more.

Summertime Sadness

I'm not really sad that it's summer but I'm currently enjoying this song by Lana Del Rey.

However, I do have to admit that summer is not my favorite season. My favorite temperatures are 40-70. I love the spring and fall for this reason and although I've come to terms with summer and been doing better with the heat since I've gotten fitter it's still not my favorite.

It doesn't seem to be Katai's either. Even though the barn is fairly cool she literally tries to park herself in front of each fan we walk past in the isle. Her favorite is the one that is aimed right at her when she's in the cross ties. Every time I pull her out to groom she falls asleep in the cross ties and gets grumpy when I move her.

The thing pony dreams are made of

We have been spending time bonding while I scratch her itches, especially her udder because she loves that. I've also started to do some massage with her and she gets all blinky and chewy and cute about it. I'm planning to order a book on horse massage and start practicing. She's naturally a tense horse and I think she could use a massage every week if I could afford it. I finally decided that rather than paying someone to do very regular massages I should just learn myself and do some as needed.

I think she's also still getting used to all of the turnout. Her body feels pretty good but I think she's just a little sleepy and a little tired, looser, but tired.

I've been trying to give her lots of breaks from time in the ring and ride outside but unfortunately we've discovered that this barn has LOTS of horseflies. Horrible, nasty, stubborn things that follow her even at a canter on the lunge.

It's very important to get fan time on both sides of your pretty face

After a particularly bad experience in the outdoor ring we'd given up for about a week but we tried it out again yesterday and lived to tell the tail. Thanks to a really adorable ear bonnet we were able to keep them at bay for long enough to work in the ring awhile and then ride on our "trail". It was gorgeous weather and we had an amazing time.

Now I just have to get a picture of my adorable girl in her ear bonnet to share :)

Down and Out Again

Yep, still sick. Or sick again, not really sure which but it’s been a miserable week and a half.

Last Thursday when I rode I was feeling mostly better and mainly felt like I was getting over a cold then when I went on my date on Friday I was still feeling pretty good except that I was tired and didn’t have much of a voice. Normally with colds I work right through them and the only concession I might make is to not go to the barn the first couple of days or if it’s especially hot or cold out.

On Saturday I went out to the barn right away in the morning and had a great ride on Katai. As mentioned I’ve been really motivated to work on riding her outside so I took her out to the arena and started off by lunging her. I put the neck stretcher on her, which unfortunately was too loose, and really focused on making sure that I was the center of her universe while I lunged. Any time that I couldn’t get her attention I brought her in on a smaller circle where I could reinforce the bend and slow her speed and then when she was going well I’d let her back out on the circle. This worked really well and there were only a few shenanigans.

Then, once she was walking calming on the lunge I pulled off her lunging stuff, had to adjust the saddle but more on that later, and mounted up. She was still pretty up and since it was quite hot and humid I had kept the lunging to a minimum. Once I made sure that she was listening to me at a walk I put her right to work at the trot. I did my default when she’s tight and tense through her back which is lots of 15-20 meter circles with exaggerated inside bend getting her to really stretch down into the contact. As soon as she stretches down I reinforce the correct bend and keep the forward but focus on keeping her balanced. I also do LOTS of changes of direction She really wanted to canter but listened and after only several minutes I had her back up and swinging and she was soft through her jaw and goobering on her bit. Because it was so hot and humid and she was already sweating, and since she is still coming back into work after a week and a half off, I moved to the real plan for the day which was riding her out of the outdoor and directly into a trail ride.

It’s embarrassing but this is the first time I’ve done that since the entrance to the outdoor has demons (according to Katai) and I have to ride past a “fairy” garden that belongs to our BM and a couple of dumpsters which all the horses hate. She did that part well but was dancing around by the time we got to the beginning of our “trail”. Then she stopped dead and I realized that there was this brand new bug catcher thing. It seriously looked like an alien and was making tapping sounds from the bugs hitting the edges so I didn’t blame her at all.



Thanks for being amazing BM but my horse thinks this is an alien





Size Reference.

I let her stand and look at it until she was willing to go past on her own and then she was good. Until she saw the purple flowers. They were clearly out to get her, or the butterflies around the purple flowers, or the wind that was moving the purple flowers, or, well something was going to eat her. I had to make her trot at one point so that she didn’t spin and bolt but otherwise she really did quite well and I was pleased.

I got her past the scary trailers and back to the beginning of the trail and dismounted. I then led her back to the bug trap and we both touched it and looked it over and it wasn’t as scary then. Overall I was really pleased with both of us.

Then, because this isn’t already enough of a saga, I got REALLY sick on Sunday. I was in the bathroom all day again and just miserable. I had a really bad fever and was dying just laying still even though my roommates had the air conditioning turned down to 70 and I should have been freezing. That meant that I gave up my last chance to ride L’s horse which was extraordinarily disappointing.

Then on Monday I was still pretty miserable and after making it through work for most of the day I crashed pretty hard in the evening. This morning I still felt pretty icky but started to feel WAY better as the day went on and now I’m as close to 100% as I’ve been in over a week. My stomach is still not my best friend but I can think, my fever is gone, and I don’t have a cough or congestion so doing pretty well. I’m SO excited to be able to get back to the barn tonight!

Getting Out

For some reason it's like some sort of switch has turned on in my brain after the show and all of a sudden I feel really capable of making changes without involving other people. After watching this video  I realized that I really want to be able to get Katai outside and have her handle the terrain and just be able to be handled outside. Something about the calm, relaxed way that Elisa handles her thoroughbreds just really motivated me to get out and deal with Katai's behavior and start working on making it better.

I got Katai tacked up and ready to go and went out into a drizzle to do some good work. I decided to hop up to start off and jump down if I needed to. I schooled mounting and keeping her still for a little and then, once she was doing well there, I mounted up and she immediately lost her mind.

More on that later

At any rate, I dismounted and got her going forward around me in a circle. Then, once some of her brain was back in her head I started "ground riding" her with one arm over the saddle. She was doing pretty well until we got her near the trailers and then we lost it again so I started playing my version of the "Squeeze Game" and trying to get her to stop close to the trailer and making her work when she was moving away from it.

It worked really well and she caught on pretty quick and was standing between me and the trailer, facing it. So I ground rode her around the horse pens. It's a decent little trail ride and she did a great job.

Old me, would have just called it there but the new more motivated me hopped up and went to do the same thing actually riding my pony. Once I mounted up she got tense and naughty for a moment (again, more on this later) but I was able to ride her through it and soon we were walking in a relaxed manner back around the pens. I thought about hopping off before we had to ride past the trailers again but instead I stayed up and told her that I'd give her snacks (which she hasn't been getting at all) if she was good. She was! She walked right past and then halted and stood still while I dismounted so she got lots of orange snacks.

I was extremely proud of both of us, not only that we got out and did it but also that we did it on a slightly windy and rainy day when the other horses were pretty keyed up. It will be great practice for a show environment and I'm planning to do the same thing very soon.

Then today I rode her in the indoor and I had exactly the same fussy, bratty pony that I did last Friday right before the show. This time though I FINALLY put together that I think she's out somewhere either her ribs, pelvis or back. She is still really (as in literally traveling at a 45* angle) swinging her haunches to the left and when I dismounted I noticed that she's still got a bit of a twist in her tail when she walks which is really unusual for her.

I had seen that slightly odd tail carriage when I lunged her after a few days off after the show but I figured she was just a little stiff or sore. Now, when she's still doing that I'm sure she has something going on either in her musculature or, more likely, needs chiro. I feel bad that I didn't put it together sooner but I'm also wondering now whether that effected her show day at all. Who knows, I have a feeling there was enough adrenaline that it wouldn't have effected her behavior much but I'm still curious. At any rate, I'm sure it explains her bad behavior more recently.

I've texted my previous farrier, the one that I fired :(, because she's great with chiro and I think that we agreed that I'd still have her do chiropractic but we'll see. Hopefully she'll be willing to come out while I'm out of town, or hopefully she'll just be willing to come out period...

Vacation and Development

First, thank you all for your comments on my last post. It was very helpful and also made me feel better. I think my goal is to just take my worrying down a notch and push myself to ride her at least a little even when I think she might be sore since I honestly know that it will help and it isn't anything more than I'd expect for myself.

I've been really enjoying my vacation but it's been a busy few days. On Thursday I went to the barn and then threw a party for my roommate's birthday. Then Friday was MN Horse Expo day!! Honestly, it was fun but the vendors have been worse and worse for the past few years. The expo was always dominated by western tack vendors but this year it was particularly bad.

How Guy's horses started out. You can also tell that this wasn't very well attended although the bleachers I was sitting in were much more full

I did go for a few hours and saw Guy McClean and did a little shopping at the used tack sale but that's it. I didn't have any reason to stay after that so I didn't. The expo is always on the same weekend as Rolex and next year I'd really like to try to do Rolex instead.

Guy and two horses at liberty side passing over a horse that's laying down. The trust that the horses have in him is amazing.

After the expo I went to the barn with the goal of getting Katai in the outdoor arena again. She started off nice and calm but then something got to her and she went tearing around for awhile again. Finally she slowed herself down and we did a nice walk around the arena. I discovered when she slowed down that she'd put a massive hole in one the left rear leg wrap. One of those moments where I'm glad I put them on her because who knows what she might have done to her leg without it. Then, since she was calm, I climbed up and walked her around for a little while and finally did a short bit of trot and then canter. She remained calm but very up and forward.

Then Saturday, since she wore herself out Friday, I just wanted to take her out for a trail ride. I'll admit that I've become a bit of a DQ recently when it comes to riding out of the safe confines of the indoor arena but my goal for the next month is to get her outside at least a little every day. I know that she's going to melt down for the show next month but at least if she's really comfortable outside it will make things a little better. So, Saturday I braved up and rode her around the paddocks outside. I started at 12 riding at my parents by doing trail rides so I'm comfortable out there once I'm up and know how to safely diffuse situations, it's just that last time I rode her extensively outside was when she was a green baby and now, even though she's a trained horse, I have flash backs to that untrained baby horse. Plus, then she was unpredictable (my least favorite thing) but now she is far more athletic and able to do things that really could unseat me which she really wasn't up to before.

Random picture of the vegan sushi I made for dinner to break up the wall of text

At any rate she was pretty good on her baby trail ride. She started off not listening at all and thought a couple of times about doing something naughty. In the end though we had a very reasonable and calm walk around and then went out at a trot again. I just did a long trot along one side of the pens and then turned around and walked her back. She didn't want to go back and neither did I but the footing is still pretty iffy and she was still prepared to be naughty so before I pushed it that far today I wanted to just end on a good note.

Once I climbed off she didn't want to stand still so we schooled that a little and once I had a decent stand we went back, untacked, and then she got hand grazed for a little before I left for the Janet Foy clinic.

Janet was great to watch again and H rode really well. Last time her horse was being naughty (he's a pony and it's normal for him) but this time he was really chill and focused so they were able to accomplish a lot. Mainly she worked on getting him more even in the bend since, just like most horses, he's still pretty one sided. He is also strong on the same side that Katai is so it was really helpful to watch.

H and Janet talking about lengthening the upper part of her pony's neck

I saw part of the horse before H rode and he was an amazing Welsh/German Riding Pony that was probably right around 14 hands and extremely athletic. He was only 5 so they were just working on consistent rhythm and contact but oh my gosh was he ever amazing. I wish I had gotten there a little earlier so that I could have seen his whole ride! After H rode I watched part of a Friesian's ride but he and his rider were working on such different things than I am that I decided to talk to H instead while she untacked and cooled her horse out. Then I went back in to see this big grey Holsteiner that was training 3rd. He was a great horse, very balanced and extremely well trained. His trainer was up and seemed like a very accomplished rider. She and Janet were having fun with him and working on all of his buttons. It was fun to watch them improving his changes because even though it's way above my head, it's interesting to see how the same concepts are still used as at the lower levels.

Such a gorgeous horse even if he's about 3 hands too tall for me ;)

Working on Half Pass

We're making plans for the National Dressage Pony Cup this year and talking about our show seasons. H and her horse went to their first schooling show already and she said that he was a handful. She was also reassuring though that he was WAY better at the end of the show than the beginning and I'm hoping that Katai will be the same. He is 13 and she's 7 but still hopefully something from the show will stick and she'll retain it for the next one. H is also planning a whole bunch of shows this year so I think I'm going to try to add some to my schedule as well, I just have to figure out which ones!

Badly Needed Update

On Saturday we had a fairly bad ride. I’m usually a glass half full sort of person and some good things came out of it but both Katai and I were feeling weak and floppy and having a tough time concentrating. When one teammate feels that way it’s one thing but when both do it’s a recipe for a bad ride. 

 

I could tell going into it that we weren’t firing on all cylinders so I kept it short and sweet. I worked on making nice 20 meter circles at the walk and trot and tried to slow her temp down again since it seems like she was getting quick, probably because I didn’t ride her consistently last week L, and by the end had her trot resembling something more dressage-ee. I also worked on her canter in both directions and this made her spaz out. When I’m working her all the time she remembers that canter is just another gait and one that is tiring but when I haven’t worked her in awhile it’s all about the CANTER and she just can’t help herself she wants to canter so bad. That was the pony I was dealing with on Saturday which meant that we had some of our worst transitions to date. I’m really ready for another lesson next Sunday so that L can help me sort this out!

 

Then on Sunday we did baby’s first real trail ride!! I’m lucky enough to live right down the road from a HUGE trail system but because it is right near a large metro area there are things/people on the trail that horses normally don’t have to deal with. Also, since I hadn’t been on these trails before I really had no idea how to even find them. On Saturday one of the other people who does chores (we’ll call her A) invited me on a trail ride and it was the perfect situation since the other person she was riding with could only walk.

 

Sunday ended up being really windy and there was a storm rolling in so I almost lost my nerve especially when people at the barn who found out it was going to be her first real trail ride were telling me that there was going to be a record number of bikes/rollerbladers/runners/dog walkers on the trail. However, I really, really, really want Katai to be a good trail pony and eventually I want to be able to go out there and do canter sets by our self. That’s going to take time and miles and since this was the perfect first trail ride opportunity I decided to buck up and do it.

 

A actually boards at the neighboring barn but rode partway out to babysit Katai back to the barn she boards at where the other trail rider was getting ready. Katai got to hang out in a strange place with strange horses and a pile of hay. Everyone fed her treats and she was certainly the center of attention but most importantly she was awesome!!! She never called, she didn’t get prancy, and she stood still and polite while we waited for the other rider to get tacked up and mounted. I climbed off for awhile and then when it was time to mount back up she stood still at a strange mounting block for me.

 

I was soooo proud!

 

Then it was time to tackle the trails but we had set it up perfectly for a young horse since A’s horse is a big, calm, experienced babysitter. To her credit Katai dealt with about 100 bikes without ever spooking and although she got a bit up at some rollerbladers and a bike pulling one of those kid trailers she never really had a big spook and certainly never thought of bolting. When we did turn around to head back the other horse we were out with freaked out briefly and she jumped a little but then calmed right back down. I actually rode her on the buckle for a large part of the ride back and she even took the lead briefly when the babysitter horse was concerned about some random branches that were down next to the trail. She really is a brave little toaster :-)

 

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures from our trail ride because I didn’t have any hands free to take pictures and I ended up not having a good place to put my phone. I recently upgraded to the iphone 6 plus and have no clue how I’m going to carry that with on rides. I could attach it to the saddle somewhere but then, of course, if we got separated I would be in trouble. I’m going to have to figure something out before we head out on the trail on our own.

 

On the way back A walked us to the driveway of our barn and Katai had been a little up, I think she was getting tired and had finally hit the point where all the stimulus was just getting to be too much. Then when we separated and A went back Katai lost it and got really prancy. I just handled it and didn’t get after her at all because she had been such a good girl. I was also proud that in the small tantrum that followed she never once tried to run into me or over me which is HUGE progress from even last year. I led her prancy self back to the barn where she had another small tantrum when I tied her up outside, near another horse. There was no way at that point that I would have trusted her in cross ties. It was tough for me to see her that way again since she used to be like that all the time and the progress that we’ve made just in these last few months has been so, so nice. However, she is still a baby in training if not in years, and I know that she will still have her moments.

 

I’m also feeling really confident about doing more trail riding with her since she just has such a nice, calm, brave mind. I’m hoping that we can do a few more walk only trail rides before we start going faster so that she doesn’t think it’s all about running.

In Limbo

I had a discussion with my new barn manager, who I will refer to as J from now on, last night and this morning and we made a mutual decision to wait two weeks before I move Katai. It sucks but really is the right decision for everyone involved and I am very greatful for the wonderful, supportive attitude of J who is being proactive and responsible about this outbreak.

Unfortunately this really leaves me in limbo. I was supposed to be out of the place where I was, now am, boarding and had moved out and reorganized all my stuff. I used to have three saddle racks and room for the huge plastic tote that I use as a tackbox and had it all cut down to fit in the one locker and one saddle rack that I will have. Going from this (plus there is a saddle rack even higher that you don't see in the picture)

To this plus one saddle rack,

 

(Not the actual lockers but it looks just like one of the smaller ones in this picture.)

Now, of course, I needed to move some stuff back to the barn but I didn't want to undo all of my new organization so I just schlepped the most important stuff back in one bucket plus my saddle, bridle and lunge line.

The best thing about this whole thing is that I'm going out of town this week and now I won't have to worry about leaving my pony in a new place with no support. It also meant that I got to ride and spend time with her again today rather than dealing with a stressful move. So....

We went on a trail ride!

This was her first real ride outside of the arena and she did great!! Of course she's been ridden outside a lot in the past but mostly that's been in her pasture which is a place that she is familiar. This was her first time in a new environment and she did great!! We even trotted for a long ways :) 

My little girl is growing up and it makes me very proud.

Pony Withdrawl

I didn't get to see my pony tonight and I'm missing her badly. It's just too cold though. I blanketed her yesterday after our ride so she should be reasonably comfortable and it was going to be cold enough again that there wasn't a good reason for me take it off so she'll wear it until tomorrow or even Wednesday morning.

I did spend some time working on my goals for the year and although its nowhere near a complete list I think it's time for me to start writing them down for the world to see, or at least the world of horse bloggers :-)

 

Goals for 2014

 

1. Attend at least 3 dressage shows

 

2. Get out of the arena

 

3. Try an endurance ride (if I can find one that is local enough)

 

4. Take as many lessons as possible

 

 

I am seriously serious about accomplishing these things this year with my girl come hell or high water. I am already working on plans for transportation and figuring out who, where and when I can get lessons from. I see 2014 as a jumping off point for us and a way to get to bigger and better things. I think that a nice, fairly simple year of just accomplishing tons of miles and sweaty saddle pads together will leave us in the perfect place to get more serious about lessons and competing next year. This plan also runs concurrently with my career goals. I see myself at my current job for about two more years. I am hopeful that at that point I can find a new job with a higher wage as I am seriously underpaid now. Hopefully this new job will either be in or closer to the cities and at that point as I am looking for new boarding barns I will need to know more about my competition plans since the facility I move to will depend on where I want to take things.

 

 

All I know is that at this point the world is our oyster.