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!

Playing Catchup

Free lunging from the Sunday where I flew out to Seattle

Momentum is an interesting thing. It's not that I don't have information to share, in fact I almost feel like I have too much information to share, it's more that I just haven't been able to convince myself to sit down and write.

Last year I started to really struggle with my seasonal depression but this year I started taking my vitamin D way earlier so I'm actually doing well. Beyond just being tired recovering from my Seattle work trip I'm feeling great.

Last weekend I rode Saturday-Sunday and then gave her Monday off before my lesson on Tuesday. In those days I had a lesson on Sunday and a lesson on Tuesday. The Sunday lesson we worked a bit on canter and some shoulder in.

Tiny dog is a ham and I think he missed me :)

We did two exercises, one was leg yielding to center line away from the long side. Once we hit X we made a 10 meter circle in the direction of the bend and then, figure eight style, changed the bend at X and did another 10 meter circle towards the other long side. Back at X we'd leg yield back towards the original wall we'd started from.

The second was one that we've done before where we'd shoulder in along the long side, midway down the side we'd go across the diagonal, change the bend prior to hitting the wall and cue for canter. In canter we'd do a 20 meter circle at the end of the arena and then go back to trot and do it again. I LOVE this exercise and Katai does too. We did so much better this lesson than we have in the past and the SI was clearly improved.

Little blurry and tough to tell, but that's a hot tub boat on Lake Union

On Tuesday we did a bunch more canter including shallow loops to work on our counter canter going into 20 meter circles where we'd spiral in and out. Going to the left it was pretty funny because she wanted to half pass to the center rather than move straight. Not what we were asking for and we were able to correct it but talk about an over achiever!

We also worked a lot more on SI and it's feeling SO MUCH BETTER!! It's actually starting to flow a bit more and Jane mentioned that she's impressed with our quick improvement. We worked a lot on the concept of me lifting her with my seat to control the sitting trot rather than sitting down into her back to control the sitting trot. Or as Jane says, "bounce her up with your seat". There were magical moments but they didn't last long and it would take me awhile to get it back. When it worked though it really worked so I'm excited to keep working on this.

Someone had asked for a picture of my Ariat coat.
Here it is, courtesy of the AirBnB Bathroom mirror 

In other news I started the first clip of the season today. I got almost all the hair off and got the lines pretty good. Tomorrow I'll just clean everything up. Poor girl is a bit moth eaten tonight and poor Jane probably wondered what I did to her when she saw her at evening feeding. Oh well, I'll finish getting her cleaned up tomorrow. I also got her bridle path cut but I still need to "pull" her mane, do some work on her tail, and I'd like to do one more bath before it gets too cold.

In sad news, her feet are looking pretty thrushy. During most of the year I was keeping up with it but after the past month were I wasn't at the barn as much they've back slid a bit. It will be my focus for this month and hopefully I can get it cleaned up right away!

What a Summer

Alternate title could be All the AirBnBs since I'll have stayed at 6-7 by the end of the year 4 of which are for this trip.

This has been a crazy year for me travel-wise. In the past going to Lexington for the Pony Cup and doing a couple of work trips (of one week or less) to WA were about all I did. This year that has not been the case.

Certainly can't argue about the accommodations

 First there were a couple of long work trips to Seattle early in the year. I went out in January and again in March for a week. Then I went to Omaha for World Cup which was amazing! After that, I ended up with another trip (this time stressful) to Seattle in June. I had a chance to recover from that and then got to travel to Lexington for Pony Cup again :)

And of course got to hang out with Jen and Connor!!! Photo credit: Jen's mom

I've known that I'd have a longer trip at the end of July for work (mildly stressful) but then that turned into a longer and more stressful trip that was going to be 8-9 days. However, plans changed and it's now going to be 12 days. Yikes...

Puget Sound outside my bedroom

I do get to go to Portland which is a trip that I'd previously wanted to do this year but decided not to do for financial reasons. However, work is paying for the hotel and since I can drive down there from Seattle I don't need to pay for a flight so I'll have 2-3 days in Portland this weekend (for the cost of a rental car) and then back to Seattle for the following week.

The day before I left I was feeling the stress and didn't want to get
into an argument with her so we just cuddled and played in the arena.
She did think I was unfair not getting her Starbucks

I'm also in Seattle long enough that I'm getting to do more exploring than I have in the past which is awesome but... I really miss my pony and I miss Veggie. I'm probably going to go slightly crazy between not being able to see them for 12 days. Not getting to ride means that I'll need to remember what I'm doing when I get back along with likely being sore. All of that with just about 3 weeks to prep for our show at the end of August.

Opportunities like this just don't come around that often and even though it's stressful it's fun to explore and get to spend more time on the west coast. I haven't seen the ocean since I was 18 and I'm SOOO excited to get to go back in a couple of days. I've also had Portland, or OR in general, on my list of places I'd like to live so it will be nice to get to spend more time there so that I can decide if it stays on my list.

Missing this nose soooo much right now

I do have two more trips planned this year. One at the end of August to Rochester, NY (can't wait to hang out with my sister and BIL and meet Bobby!!) and one more for work in October/November but hopefully that will be it. I'm also really hoping that next year there will be less travel. I'm really a homebody but I haven't been able to travel that much in the past and I don't think next year will have as many opportunities for travel so I'm going to enjoy this while I can and pray that I don't fall off or completely forget what I'm doing when I get to ride my pony again.

T minus 8 days and counting until I get to fly back home.

NDPC Recap Part: 1

I have so much to write about! For now I'll start with a recap of my NDPC Friday :)

I had an amazing weekend and this was easily the most fun I've had at Pony Cup so far. I also realized later that it was their 10 year anniversary and I've been there for three of those 10 years. Not bad! Now I just want to actually ride there at some point :)

This year my flight to Lexington was scheduled for early morning on Friday with a 1:30ish arrival. I was going to check into my AirBnB and then go straight to the KY Horse Park and planned to get there around 2:30ish. I knew I was going to miss Jen and Emilie's rides since they were earlier in the day but I had hoped to make it to H's ride since it was scheduled for 2:37. I was so close but ended up being just slightly too late. I wasn't worried though since I knew I'd be able to see everyone ride on Saturday.

Don't let Katai see this...

This pony cup was slightly different for me than the ones I've gone to previously. Since I had three people I knew I ended up spending more time with them and their ponies in the stable area and less time watching other people's rides. That's also part of what made this year so much fun!

This is the driveway to the garage at the AirBnB that I stayed at
Reaaaaally doesn't feel like it's going to fit in person either.

When I got to the horse park I had a brief fan girl moment when I looked up and saw a big name pony breeder/rider/trainer and said hi. I'm sure she wondered who this weird person was who recognized her when we've never met. After that I went and found H right away to see how her ride had gone. Turns out that the mare she was riding (a young GRP belonging to her trainer) had an issue with a bug. Overall H was happy with the test but disappointed about that part of it. The pony was also quite young and green and hasn't shown much so she really was fantastic for the most part.

I spent some time with H and the other two women from her barn chatting and figuring out their schedule and then decided to go meet some blogging friends! Emilie was closest so I went to say hi to her and Crumble first. OMG is Crumble ever adorable!! He was going to work on his hay and probably not impressed with another admirer but it was great to get to see him. Emilie was also trying to get her tack ready for the next day so I kept my visit pretty brief.

Getting Connor kisses :) So jealous of that forelock!

Then I headed over to meet Jen. I went straight to Connor's stall first. He was pretty sure I had food for him and spent some time licking my hand while I texted Jen to see where she wanted to meet up. We figured out a good spot and I headed over. It was SO GREAT to get to meet Jen! I've felt from reading her blog that I'd get along with her really well and I was so right. We sat and chatted for awhile and I got to meet her mom and Connor's breeder as well!

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon chatting, trying a bridle on Connor and doing some low key shopping (seriously tough to resist getting some things!) and then Jen headed out and I went to say goodnight to H.

Later that night I ended up going out for drinks with Jen, her mom, and Connor's breeder and I had so much fun!! It seriously felt like we'd known each other for a long time and it was great to try out some new craft beers and learn more about everyone. I really want to visit Jen and Connor and am definitely planning on Rolex next year!

Next up, a recap of my NDPC Saturday :)

And Then I Was Sick :(

I've got some sort of devil cold. Everyone at work has had it by now but I had been fighting it off until the stress of this trip did me in. Someone at work has proposed that burning down our building might be the only way to stop it and now that I'm dealing with it I can't say that I disagree.

I started feeling sick on Thursday, was miserable on Friday for my flight back (thanks cold, so helpful and pleasant for my 4.5 hour flight), then Saturday and Sunday I pretty much laid around in bed and felt ok. Monday I started to go back downhill and now today I was miserable. Mostly it was because this also hit my monthly headache day so I was dealing with that as well.

More blurry arena photos. I may need to follow T's example
and finally invest in a nicer camera

I'd been doing so well and had made it to the barn Saturday - Monday and I RODE every day!! We also had a couple of great breakthroughs :) On Sunday Jane came out and gave me an extra mini lesson and started working with me more on using my seat to slow the canter. Whatever she said just clicked and I had a couple of amazing strides in each direction where Katai really came up with her shoulders and lightened in the connection. Katai won smart pony of the year award and we just had a great ride.

Then, on Monday we had another breakthrough that in some ways meant even more. With Katai it's the relationship stuff that means the most to me. Both because that's just more important to me than dressage ride improvement but also because we haven't always gotten along very well and Katai was so difficult to start that I didn't spend as much time building the relationship as I should have.

The best part of this trip was the vegan rum ball
rum soaked chocolate cake coated in dark chocolate :)

This weekend Katai has been HORRIBLY in heat (because we like to line up our girly days just to make sure we can be especially productive together once a month). On Saturday it wasn't that bad and I just wiped her off with a damp rag but it was much worse on Sunday and she was starting to chafe and get some raw skin. I put her in the wash stall ready for fireworks since she HATES the cold water and typically she piaffes her way through baths with a couple of rears and kicks at the wall for good measure unless we have warm water (which we don't at this barn). However, I was determined to make this as pleasant and quiet as possible for both of us so I did lots of baby talking and petting. I always try to do this but for whatever reason it really worked on Sunday. She was calm and resting and never once even threatened to kick at me even though I was washing between her legs when she was in heat.

It was just such great proof of how far we've come and gave me lots of hope that we're going to make it through this upcoming show with much less fuss.

Summer 10

Rhiannon, of The Horse Is Not Black, put together this great list of questions for an informal blog hop that I decided to join. At the very least it's content while I deal with stress causing my brain to ooze out my ears ;)

1. What are your summer goals? 

 All. of. the. shows! I mostly just want to get Katai exposure to trailering off property so that it's not as stressful for either of us. My main goal with her is for this to be fun for both of us and it certainly wasn't for our last show.

More of this...

Less of this :)

2. Do you have any tips or tricks for fly control? 

No, unfortunately I don't. I will say that the last two facilities I've been at have seemed to manage it pretty well so it hasn't been much of an issue. Well, other than the HORRIBLE horse flies at the last barn but I don't think there's much you can do with them.

3. How often do you bathe your horse? 

Very infrequently, I think I actually only bathed her maybe twice last year. Princess pony is a princess and mostly keeps herself pretty clean despite being white so I only wash her if I have something like a show. This year it will likely be more because, well, more shows :) 

This bathing photo is the most recent I have and it's from 2 years ago

4. Do you have any upcoming travel plans? 

Equine or otherwise? Unfortunately yes, I'm in WA now for a work trip. Other than this I'm not planning any more travel. If I won the lottery I'd go to the National Dressage Pony Cup again and would probably visit some part of Vermont and Portland. 

5. What is your favorite way to beat the heat? 

I love spending time at the beach or in the pool. Otherwise I pretty much hide at home in the air-conditioning. My body doesn't like the heat very much so I have to be pretty careful how much time I spend outside when it's over about 95* for the heat index. With our humidity unfortunately that's fairly often during the summer.

6. Do you do anything to prevent your horse from sunbleaching? 

I'm very lucky that I don't need to. Since she's white and a roany chestnut there's not much fading that can happen.

7. How hot is too hot for you to ride? 

Like I mentioned above it doesn't take much heat for me to get heatstroke/an all day migraine so anything around 90* is too hot for me to ride. Once my body gets used to the heat I can make it work as long as I can take it easy so trail rides are ok but anything that involves really riding is out at least unless I can do so in the shade.

8. How important is sun protection for you riding or just in general? 

Pretty important, however since I typically can't spend much time outside in the sun it's sort of a mute point. I really suspect that it's just because in MN we go through such a drastic change every year that my poor body can't ever get used to a temperature. The temp easily goes through a 110* difference between winter and summer so I'm pretty sure that when I move to a more temperate climate I'll *hopefully* be able to handle warmer temps easier. I do love my KastelDenmark sun shirt though and I got myself an Asmar long sleeve shirt for Christmas that I've been wearing as well.

9. Have you ever gone swimming with your horse? 

Yes! I was lucky to grow up within riding distance of the Mississippi river and a beach. When I was growing up we routinely took our horses to the beach and swam them in the river. It's pretty much the most awesome and adorable thing ever.

10. And because shopping is always on my mind, what’s on your summer wish list? 

So many things! Mainly more B Vertigo breeches because they're my favorite. The other things I've mainly picked up since they're all show things but I'll share a post on those later. I've also still sort of got a trailer on this list. I'm going to see how things go this year with K and if it's easy this will come off the list for the time being.

March Goals Fail

He's just such a little prince

So far I have not been doing well with my goals for March. I haven't done a great job of getting to the barn or blogging.

The lack of riding has been mainly due to weather and a tired pony but last night there was a return of #mareproblems and Katai was sore and extremely in heat. I got her cleaned up and coated in diaper rash ointment and I think I caught it soon enough but I did cancel my lesson tonight. My plan is to go to the barn Wednesday-Saturday and then I fly out early on Sunday for a work trip to Seattle.

So tough to get pictures of her when she wants to just follow me around :)

I'll be gone for about a week so Katai will get a nice break and then we'll be back to working on our goals once I get back. I'm not looking forward to this work trip, it's going to be stressful and busy, and will be really missing Katai but I always enjoy Seattle!