Vacation Saturday

Finally I got to see pony Dressage which was the main reason I went on this vacation! I got so many pictures and got to see so many beautiful and cute ponies that I'm just going to share my favorites.

This was Castleberry's Delight which I believe is related to Connor from Cob Jocky. He was brilliant and his owner was grinning from ear to ear for her whole ride :)

My favorite pony of the weekend! This was B's Lunar Eclipse. He is a 12.3 hand Welsh Stallion that was winning after his ride on Saturday.

This little lady was adorable. She wasn't being ridden by her regular rider, who's shorter so this wonderful rider stepped up. She was at least 6' and gave the pony a very good ride.

Cuteness overload!

Audrey Maschue was here with three of her ponies including Kabam, Bulgari Boy and Frodo Baggins. All of her ponies were gorgeous and Bulgari Boy's temperament during the test was just so sweet and calm that if I were ever to breed Katai I would seriously consider breeding her to him.

After we had watched the show for a few hours we went through the Kentucky Horse Park Museum.

It was immense and we actually skipped part so that we could go on a barn tour.

We stopped part way for some Burbon Ball icecream!

Vacation Friday

Friday started out with some boutique and antique shopping.

I found a couple of pretty horse head hooks and a riding shirt.

We got some Chinese food and then headed out to drive on some of the small historic roads.

In the evening we went to Churchill Downs to see some racing! I wasn't sure that we would be able to make it to Churchill for a race but our timing was perfect and last night was the first live racing of the season.

Today is the first day of Pony Dressage!!

Vacation Thursday

Yesterday was my first time flying. Despite what people were saying I thought it was not so different than driving. I don't tend to be nervous about that type of thing and it was just as uneventful as I thought it would be. Mostly I was really happy to not have taken 14 hours to drive here like I normally would have done with my family.

We flew into Lousiville so the first thing we did, of course, was visit the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs.

It was beautiful and we are going back to see a race there tonight!

The landscape is just so incredibly beauitful. I've seen it in pictures but seeing it in real life is just so different.

Best Sangria I've ever had :)

More to follow!

Vacation

I get to leave tomorrow morning for six glorious days in Kentucky!!!! I am so freaking excited not only to be going there, since I’ve never been to Kentucky, but also to have the time off. I haven’t been on a real vacation since I went on a two week road trip in 2004 with my mom. Each summer I’ve taken a few four day weekends and I usually have some time off around Christmas but that’s it. It’s the price I’ve paid for being the new kid at work and working places that don’t tend to have vacation time.

Lisa and I have been planning a vacation to Kentucky for a long time. She has a friend there with a few spare guest rooms who has been inviting her to visit and she’s been wanting the two of us to be able to go down there and do touristy things. Back at the beginning of the summer when we decided we were just going to buy tickets so that we couldn’t put it off any longer she asked if there was any specific date that I would like to go down there. I, of course, did a search for when the National Dressage Pony Cup was taking place and it was this weekend!

I get to see ponies doing dressage in Kentucky at the Kentucky Horse Park!!!!

We are also going to see a horse race, bourbon tour, wine tasting, live music, and a weanling auction. I plan on blogging throughout the trip :)

It is a weird time to leave with all of my current unhappiness at the barn but I already heard back from two barn owners this morning and will be going to visit both next week once I’m back. I have a couple more to set up and plan on doing that while I’m gone. I am really looking forward to this actually and hope that I can find a great, FUN place to ride where I can also continue to learn.

 

Matter and Mature

I've had a rough couple of weeks. 

First, in non-horse-related items I let the boy that dumped me in November back into my life. Of course it seems stupid as I type it especially after how he dumped me but I believe strongly in forgiveness and he made a good case. I was only willing to let him back as a friend but after a drunk night of conversation he admitted that he was back because he wanted me back as a girlfriend. I refused to agree to that and told him he better take some time and think about it. I've behaved only as a friend with him since then refusing any advances and to his credit he has been mostly polite and respected my wishes. However it has been extremely emotionally tiring for me. I really did love him and had just really gotten over him when he contacted me and it has been an emotional roller coster for me trying to decide what I want since I have a decision to make. 

I'm still on the fence but the fence starting to lean one way pretty strongly and it is not in his favor.

With all that fun going on my time with Katai and at the barn should have been my escape but that has not proven to be the case. In my last post I wrote about how Katai in heat was a pain to deal with but I was starting to have my doubts that it had anything to do with hormones and with the new supplements really starting to make a difference in her comfort and behavior I have come very strongly to the conclusion that it has more to do with J.

I really, really, really, really didn't want that to be the case. I am not someone who questions her instructors. I've been taking serious lessons since I was five, not in riding, but in music but I gave and was taught to give those instructors my utmost respect and NEVER questioned them. If something hurt or I had questions I asked and we came up with a plan which I followed. I've had excellent instructors my whole life and stuck with all of them for 7+ years until they told me and/or my mom that it was time to move on to someone with more experience. With that being said I have lost so much respect for J after my last few lessons that I am beginning to think of moving my pony.

The issue is the trot. J wants a slow trot, with Katai carrying herself on her hind legs, and with an upright neck and head. Basically a 3rd level+ frame and carriage. I'm no Dressage expert but 

it. is. too. soon.  

and this has of course been proven by Katai's discomfort, tense back, canter/trot/gaiting mess, etc. She is not even a 90 day horse at this point and more importantly, she has an amateur rider. What I KNOW needs to happen is long and low, lifted back, slowly more uphill, and slowly changing the speed of her trot until she can carry herself properly for a few strides at a time and then build on that. J doesn't just want this advanced frame for a stride she wants it the whole, damn half hour lesson and I know it's bullshit. Even if Katai was ready for it, and she is not, I am not. I'm an amateur rider for heavens sake riding a horse that I have made slowly and with great care so as to not screw anything up. I know I take that risk since I am not an expert.

I'm mad, and have been mad, because Katai is my girl. It is up to me to protect her and speak for her and its not something I'm good at but even beyond that J is just so domineering that she will not listen to a word I say. I have been trying to not mess up my pony while J seems to be trying her damnedest to do just that plus I can't get it out of my head that it's because she dislikes Katai and just wants to prove to me that she is unsutable for this.

I'm mad that I put us in this place.

On Monday this week I got us out of the arena, away from J's eyes as she taught other lessons. I rode Katai in an open field and despite all of the things that she could have had issues with and the fact that I have not riden her anywhere but the indoor arena since I moved her to this stable she was perfect. She listened, she generalized knowledge, she realized that she still needed to listen to my leg and seat even in a different and exciting place. Most importantly she troted, fast but even with her back lifted and her head low, curved and relaxed. Her back swung. She didn't duck behind the verticle. I had steering AND brakes. She pushed up hills and maintained her pace and got only a slight bit faster going down them. She evenly and quietly changed to a canter and back to a trot off my seat. She was perfect and I do not deny that without J we would never be here but I can't ignore where she is trying to take us.

I've had three lessons of this madness despite me trying to just get her to let me allow Katai to trot a little faster she litterally takes the reins out of my hands and walks along next to us expecting Katai to trot at her walking speed. This makes Katai try this tense, tiny prancy walk with no carriage and so much tension that she feels like she is going to snap but even beyond this if it were just Katai I would continue to put my trust in J. It's the fact that I've seen more and more of her students ride and almost every single horse is hollow, tense, prancy, and nervous. Not something I saw in the two months I took lessons before moving there but not something I'm going to ignore now.

To me, it's time to move and I have a few options. There are three serious dressage/eventing barns in the area and two barns that are very eclectic both with dressage trainers as well as western, english, jumper, hunter, etc. 

I have mixed feelings because the two eclectic barns are the cheapest but both have trails, indoor and outdoor arenas and instruction. One of the instructors is better than the other but that barn is WAY more crowded and busy and I'm just not sure its a good place to put Katai.

 One of the serious barns is home to a dressage trainer that is on the high performance list for the Olympics as well as an eventer that teaches dressage lessons. I would certainly not need lessons from the dressage instructor but having her available would make me feel like I could stay for the long term. I have actually asked to be on the wait list for pasture since it sounds like it could be a long time and that barn is closest to the location that I hope to move when I'm ready to move on at work.

The second of the more serious barns has a great eventing/hunter/jumper instructor that I've taken several lessons with but they only do stall board and I'm still not convinced that I'm ok with that plus the fact that just stall board is the same price as pasture + weekly lessons where I am now.

The third of the more serious barns is the one that I am leaning to the most strongly right now. I'm not sure if I blogged about it but I've taken a lesson with the instructor and I enjoyed it. It was more fun than lessons with J have been plus she does a lot of natural horsemanship and groundwork with her students. I'm sure she could and would help me with Katai's phobia of fly spray, clippers and help with getting her more relaxed for trailer loading. Those things would be far more valuable to me than continued dressage training at this point. Board, if there is pasture available, plus lessons would cost $5 more per month than I am paying now. Yes, $5. I think my budget can handle that. It's also only about 10 minutes further away and since most of my other choices are 20+ more minutes away it is one of the closest options as well.

I really did not want to be moving again or making this decision again. I wanted to stay at my current barn for years and I know some people who read this will think I'm jumping the gun but seriously, if you saw the way that she is starting to treat my pony paired with the attitudes of the other horses at the barn you would be jumping ship as well. 

Mare-ish

Well, I survived the Great River Ragnar!

From Friday at around 9:00 to Saturday around 10:00 I ran 11.8 miles in three stages the first being the longest at 5.4 miles. I truly would have told you beforehand that I was going to die so I'm very pleased to not only be alive but to have really enjoyed the entire experience and not feel half bad only a couple days after. 

Pre race at 4:30am on Friday (furthest on the left)

Post race at about 6:00pm on Saturday (in the middle)

So, for pony things.

I've posted a few times before that Katai is very into the boys. In the past, however, I haven't felt her to be especially moody or cranky when she's in heat but once I started riding that changed. On the ground she is her same sweet self with slightly more separation anxiety but when I try to ride her during that time she is impossible. At first I felt it to be behavioral because when palpating her back she had no reaction and she was only slightly more tense than normal. Recently though she's been getting so, so much better that I started to question whether it was behavior or pain and now I'm convinced it's the latter.

At a walk she is perfect. Her back is loose and swinging and she stretches down into contact but at a trot she becomes so inverted that she's almost gaited. Her feet fly in something between a canter, walk, and trot and she is so tense that she feels like a piece of steel. Most of the time her trot is better and has continued to improve but in heat she is impossible to work any faster than a trot and she has been in heat for the past week! Most of the time her cycle seems to be only a few days but this one's been a doosey :(

I finally decided it was time to do something about it and I've ordered a supplement to try. I've also got her back on a magnesium supplement since that is supposed to help loosen back muscles and is calming.

I will post more about my experiment as soon as I know more :)

Respect

I feel like we finally turned a corner in my lessons. J has had respect for me from the beginning but had none for Katai. I really don't blame her because Katai has been a little brat and has made my life more difficult that a more well trained horse would or just a horse in general since ponies are pure evil.

At my last lesson Katai was far from perfect but she listened and wasn't trying to rear or flip like she had been. She was relaxed, calm and sweet. I could tell that it changed how J felt about Katai.

This weeks rides have sucked. I've honestly been less motivated than I was for the past few months and Katai was back to being really tight through her back and resisting again. We were having some luck towards the end of my rides but I've felt like every time I had to go through the same struggle all over again. Of course this is why I have a trainer :) 

At tonight's lesson Katai started out horrible. I have no clue what was going on with her but half the time she was trying to bolt on me and the other half she just wanted to stop and stand or lazily walk around. 

I. Had. No. In between.

For about three seconds during my warmup before the previous lesson finished I got a nice trot so I quit on that and went into my lesson. J is a miracle worker, seriously. It's not that Katai wasn't horrible at moments it's just that she helped me change it, showed me what I needed to do next time and helped me get some of the nicest trot work that I've ever had with Katai.

I can't wait to go back now and try to recreate it!

In other news here is proof that we've been working hard.

I've been cleaning tack every couple of weeks and it's still getting this dirty. I can't do full cleanings more because I have to have pizza and every other week is more than enough pizza.

Yum :)

Next week I'm running in Ragnar and won't be able to have my normal Thursday lesson so I'm having a makeup lesson with a different instructor this Saturday. This is someone that I haven't ridden for or even around so far since she doesn't teach many lessons. I'm looking forward to having another person coach me and it is always good to get a different opinion. Sometimes one instructor just has a different way of describing something that will click with the rider.

It is sort of throwing off my scheduling though since normally pony gets Friday and Saturday off and I ride three of the remaining four days before my lesson. I'm still trying to decide what makes sense for a schedule this week. At any rate I'm trying to be better about blogging again and will post an update after Saturday's lesson!

The Feeling is Mutual

Wishlist

I am extremely happy to say that for the most part I have all of the tack that I need for Katai right now and it all fits, is in good shape, matches (at least for the most part), and works well. This means that I’m mostly able to focus on what I need/want which is absolutely wonderful since I used to feel like a homeless person when I went to the barn wearing old, baggy, stained t-shirts and old, baggy, stained breeches that sometimes had holes in them. Since then I’ve come a long way and have six, yes SIX, pairs of nice breeches that fit and don’t have stains or holes. I’ve also been stocking up on polo shirts, from Goodwill mainly, and have five or six nice tops to wear to the barn but let’s face it, that’s not a lot especially in the summer when I don’t dare wear a barn shirt more than once before I wash it. So I’ve been doing some shopping :)

 

Katai:

Thankfully right now I only have one item on my tack wishlist and that is for an ergonomic girth from Total Saddle Fit. 

http://totalsaddlefit.com

Katai’s girth groove and size mean that she always hits her girth with her elbows on every stride. I’ve tried several different standard girths in different lengths, thicknesses and shapes and she has the same issue with all of them. Luckily it doesn’t seem to bother her much and she doesn’t show any rubs or marks but to me it looks like it would be uncomfortable and I don’t want to wait until there is an issue to try to fix this. The girth I’m using right now is very low profile and long enough that when she is girthed up she doesn’t hit the buckles but it still looks really uncomfortable. I don’t particularly have trouble with the saddle riding forward on her and it pretty much stays where I put it but I think this girth would be worth a try especially with the 30 day 110% money back guarantee.

 

Of course if I decide to go this route it will mean that my girth was more expensive than my pony but hey, if it works.

 

Me:

SmartPak Wishlist:

Horze Wishlist:

Can you tell I like socks?

Tonight I had another excellent ride on Katai. She was so so good and although I lost steering and forward at various times she also tried the whole time and didn't get so sensitive and upset about my minor corrections when I tried to tell her that something she was doing wasn't what I was looking for. She is getting really strong too so she gets less frustrated when I ask her to do things that used to be hard for her.

Just look at that nice foamy mouth!

Houdini Pony

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on this blog before or not but Katai is apparently an escape artist. I believe that at the previous barn it was mentioned to me that once or twice they had found Katai in a different pen especially when they were swapping around where horses were located but once they put up a strand of tape that was closer to the ground she stayed where she was supposed to.

At the current barn J had mentioned to me that Katai has been ducking under gates and I was disappointed. It’s just one more thing to have to worry about and it would always be nice if your horse/pony was just a good citizen and didn’t try to wreck anything, escape, or otherwise cause any problems.

On Sunday when I went to ride I noticed that Katai was still in the dry lot all by herself. I was a little concerned but since I knew she had been escaping before I assumed that a student had found her where she wasn’t supposed to be and put her there just to be safe. However, apparently Katai’s previous motivation for getting out was the grass. After she kept sneaking under the gates, which didn’t have the lower strand of tape to keep her in, several times she figured out where the boys are housed. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that Katai is hugely boy crazy. Like seriously nuts over cute guys and most particularly she goes straight for the leader, like Every. Time.

 

J, understandably frustrated, put second lower strands on all of the gates that Katai had access to so that she wouldn’t be able to escape any more but now that Katai had figured out where the boys live she wasn’t going to be deterred. I asked J how she had managed to get over/through/under the new double strand gates and J said that so far no one has seen her do it. Hence pony prison.

 

J brought it up to me by saying “Your pony is incredibly horny”. Hmmm, yeah that doesn’t surprise me. Apparently one of the geldings, named Conquest, who was gelded late is so interested in her that he won’t eat and gets aggressive around the other geldings when she is in their pen. She squeals, flirts, rubs herself on them and basically just makes a fool out of herself.

 

The situation is tough on me because since I’m used to keeping my horse(s) on my property and taking care of them myself I feel extremely responsibly for her naughty behavior. Of course there is nothing I can do and I’m paying board to someone to deal with this type of thing. I’m sure Katai isn’t the only pony/horse that’s done things like this and since J has to deal with cribbers, kickers, muzzling the fatties etc. It’s not like this is especially bad and so far Katai hasn’t broken anything, just managed to find a way under or through.

 

On Wednesday I went out to check on Katai's eye and luckily it was almost completely better. I was so relieved and glad I listened to a friend and didn't call the vet right away. Eyes are just something I don't feel like you should take any chances with. Unfortunately on Wednesday I was unable to ride because I was moving my couch to the new apartment and because of Katai's eye and moving and I've been sick as well with some sort of crazy lung cold where I can't stop coughing so I decided to cancel my lesson on Thursday. I was disappointed to do it but between being sick and only having a chance to ride once since my last lesson it really didn't make sense to try to get anything productive done in a lesson. 

Then since I didn't ride Thursday or Friday, I had plans, today I was really ready to see her again. I can't believe how much I missed her and I feel like it was mutual. She came right up to me with her ears pricked and was so quiet and well behaved in the barn even though we were the only ones there. I then proceeded to have the BEST ride on her that I've had. She was ready to go and trotting with rhythm but she listened to every half halt and I was getting some wonderful bend around the circles since she was listening to my leg just beautifully. She even had wonderfully soft white foam.

This pony is really mine and not going anywhere :)