Suddenly Farm, 6/22/14

I am SO proud of both of my horses!!

We brought Acorn and Tater Tot over to Suddenly first, and walked both of the ponies around to let them relax.  Acorn was immediately relaxed and didn't care about a thing. We hung out for a while before it was time for me to tack up, and Corn was alert but seemed really comfortable despite being in a new place with lots of things going on.

He warmed up well in both directions, but about five minutes before our test, a lightbulb went off between his ears, and we had this conversation:

A: O! We are at a show?!?!  I'm gonna BUCK AT THE CANTER wheee!

K: Uh... no?  Why?

A: Because, duh, it's a SHOW!! Wheeee!

K: You don't ever do this at home.  Let's just run around a bit and get that whole pogo stick bucky canter thing out of your little brian.

A: HOME is not SHOW and at SHOW we buck! Wheeee!

and so at the canter in both tests, he wasn't really moving out.  At one point, he threw a series of tiny pony hop-bucks and the comment for that move is just "Hopping.", which I find amusing.  I do think it's just a matter of show nerves for both of us, and that with experience, he'll get less tense about being away from home.  Our second test went WAY better, and Tom pointed out that I had an ear to ear grin from centerline to centerline.

Gali was trailered over once the ponies were ready to leave, and when he stepped off the trailer, Acorn neighed super loudly and dragged whomever was holding him over to Gali, and they both nosed for a while.  It was adorable, and one of those things you see in horse movies and think "haha, clearly the writers have never seen a horse! Horses don't do that!".  I'm glad both of my boys get along so well.

Gali had some time to stand around and relax before our tests, and he was super well behaved.  We waited up amongst all the commotion until Acorn's scores were posted and he barely flicked an ear towards the screaming kids on bikes and the golf cart, so, good pony.

Gali showing off and wearing his brother's ribbons, too.

He warmed up super well for our tests, and was immediately forward-thinking and reaching down into contact.  Both tests went VERY well, and the only real mistake we made was that we weren't prompt enough into the halts.  However, on our last centerline and halt, we got our first 8!!!  I'm thrilled, because last year, we always scored lousy on our centerlines and constantly got comments like "anticipates move off" and "crooked on CL"

All four of my tests were above 60%, which is a HUGE goal of mine and one that I rarely accomplish.  Acorn scored at 65% on Training 1 and a 64% on Training 2, coming in 1st and 3rd.  Gali scored a 67.7% (!!!!!!!) on Training 2 and a 65% on Training 3, coming in 2nd in both classes.

I am SO proud of them both!  All of my collective marks were 6.5s or 7s, which makes me really happy with myself, too.  The judge's comments about Acorn were just that he needs to get more off of his shoulder, relax and be willing to move out, but she seemed to understand that he was green, because she said she thought that it would come together nicely in time.  With Gali, she basically said that he's a tank and that I need to get his balance a little farther back, because he's a big powerful horse and he needs to appear lighter overall.

Overall, it was a super productive show, and a great experience for Acorn - which we desperately needed.  I have a good idea of what he and I need to work on, and I've been spending some time this week getting his brain to relax and cross training him with trail rides, hill work, and jumping (no spoilers, but post coming soon on that topic). He's so levelheaded and makes everything so easy - and I can really tell he's enjoying some time outside of the schooling arena and loves being out and about on the farm.  Lynn and I took him and Dory on a long trail ride on Saturday, and I think both of the ponies enjoyed doing something new.  The bugs were pretty bad, so we spent most of the time on neighborhood roads, and to their credit they both barely looked at the brand new sights.  I was particularly proud of Acorn for not even looking at the giant dam on one of the roads.  I'm also really glad Lynn took Dory out, because she was able to stop the pony from being a butthead and powering back to the barn, like all the other riders allow.  Both of the pones were good, and Acorn was so happy to not be in the ring! Maybe I've got more of an event pony than I want to admit... or maybe a CTR horse, haha. I know he's 10, and I need to stop treating him like a five year old, though, so I'm going to start upping his work schedule and adding trot sets to our hill work and getting him in the shape he should be in.

I also have a good picture of where Gali and I stand in terms of moving up to first level.  All of the ingredients are there, and he's getting strong enough to hold it together.  It's hard for him because of how long he is and how large of a moose he is, but I'm confident that once I get myself together, he'll follow suit.

A Well-Deserved Break for the Boys

Mid-roach.  It looks *okay*, I guess. 

I decided to give Gali the weekend off, other than roaching his mane on Saturday.  He absolutely hates having his mane pulled or braided, and it's way too thick to blade it and braid it, especially with him being a monster.  Last year, I was lazy, bladed it and went to shows with a tidy but unbraided mane, but this year, I knew that wouldn't fly.  We're starting first level work, and showing up unbraided is just sloppy.  All of that, plus the fact that he had rubbed out a HUGE chunk of it over the winter, made me just hack it off.  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it's done, so I've gotta learn to like it.  It doesn't look as bad as I thought it might!  And Nicole had a good point - if his mane is up in braids, it's showing off almost as much of his neck as it is when it's roached.

The fact that Gali is a sweat monster and doesn't handle the heat very well made me think chopping it off might help him, too, so there's that.  I did seem to help him a little when I took him for a short ride yesterday in 90+ degree heat.  I dropped down to Training 2 and Training 3 with him for this weekend, so we just touched up on our one loop serpentines and getting a more expressive trot than we did last year.  His canter is definitely stronger and he seemed more willing to stretch down and out in our stretchy trot, so I'm expecting better scores than last year.  I figure, with missing so many shows already, I might as well try to get our training level scores over with before moving up, especially because those 15 m canter circles are still such a fight.  This week will be a nice break for him, just working in a training level frame, and not pushing him through the harder work we have been so diligently schooling.

Acorn also got a little bit of a break - on Saturday, when we went bear hunting, I had originally started off in the arena.  We ran through our T1 test, and he was such a good boy that we spent the rest of the time exploring the farm.  On Sunday, I decided to take a short lesson and jump him.  It worked out well, because my boots are still breaking in and riding for an hour just wasn't going to be fun.  Nicole and I set up a small course of 2' jumps in our under-construction jump field.  Acorn was REALLY excited to be ridden out of the arena, and to jump - he loves it.  We practiced a bending line a few times both away from the barn and uphill, and towards the barn and downhill.  Understandably, he wanted to get quicker going towards the barn and downhill, but he's a good pony and only needs a little bit of correction to understand what I want.  After our last time going down the bending line, I let him loosen up and canter a little more freely, and he loved it.  I think he'd be one hell of an event pony, honestly, because I think he would love it more than anything else in the world.

Bear Hunting

 This is a Black Bear.  He was seen hanging out in a nearby town towards the end of last week, kinda woozy and coming out of hibernation.  He pillaged a few homes and ate a number of small pets (just kidding) before heading up towards my neighborhood.  In this particular picture, he's eating young children (or birdseed) out of a birdhouse in the neighborhood across from mine.

Our township has been tracking him pretty diligently, and our suburban town is kind of having a blast keeping track of this guy.  However, NJ Fish & Game won't tranq & relocate him, for whatever reason, so we've also all kind of been on the edge of our seats.

Now, some of you know that I got my bachelor's degree in maps.  I knew that toiling away over ArcGIS and learning everything in the ArcMap ArcToolbox would ArcPay Off one day, and that day is today.  I present to you, my highly scientific, high resolution, properly sourced and totally accurate map of the path of the Marlton Bear.

See, the black line is where I assume he has travelled.  Again, it's scientific.

The interesting part of this is the part where the Red Dot is placed... you see, that's where Galahad and Acorn tend to congregate.  Very close to this unpredictable but bloodthirtsy and ravaging thirty foot tall Grizzly.  

I spoke to Gali about this.  I told him to leave Paddington (now I've named it!) alone if he sees him, and not to make friends or try to bite him or anything.  Gali assured me he would stay as far away from the fuzzy critter as he possibly could.

When I went to talk to Acorn, the younger pony seemed to have different ideas.  After some consideration and a well thought out plan, Corn and I went Bear Hunting.

Heading out on our Adventure to find The Bear

We looked left!

We looked right!!

We looked left again!

...and when we didn't see any bears, we rode a couple of laps around the farm, did some hill work, and called it a day.

I love this pony.

Friday the 13th

I'm not superstitious, but after Friday, I'm a little sitious.

I found out that the show was cancelled around noon on Friday, and it really disappointed me.   This is the second show in a row that wasn't going to happen because of a lack of entries, and it's really messing with my plans to get both of the boys out and showing!  Originally, I was going to alternate between taking Gali and Acorn, but missing two shows now means I have to take both boys out at the same time.  At small, local schooling shows, that can get a little hectic.

I started the day stressed out because of my poor ride on Thursday, and by noon I was frustrated and upset at the poor luck.  Work was stressful as well, and by the end of the day I was already pretty close to being *done* with everyone.  I decided to give the boys the day off, and dragged Justin up to Rick's so that I could try to find some tall boots.  After all, I had been getting e-mails about their tent sale all week, so I might as well shop now!

Got up to Rick's, an hour away, and found out that the tent sale was at their West Chester store.  Good reading, Kim!  I shook it off, though, and was determined to find boots anyway.  I tried on every possible combination of Ariat heights, calf sizes and foot sizes in three or four different styles.  I tried maybe four or five Tredstep boots.  By the time the tenth or eleventh boot didn't fit, I gave up.   Justin and I went straight to Outback Steakhouse where I downed something peachy and alcoholic before our delicious dinner and way too much Bloomin' Onion.

Other than the Onion, Friday just wasn't my day.

The good news, though is that on Saturday morning, I found a great pair of boots at Toll Booth!  I went through the trying-on-every-pair thing with a couple of boots, and just as I was about to wonder if I'd need customs, I tried on a pair that fit very, very well - the Ovation SportFlex Field Boots. I didn't hesitate, bought them (on sale, too!) and have been breaking them in all weekend.  I *love* them!

Lesson 6/12 - Gali

Had a lesson yesterday, and we spent the whole time working on getting Gali's right shoulder.  The reason we can't get our 15m circles is because he blows that shoulder out and drifts, completely ignoring my outside aids.  When I try to move him over with the whip, he pretends he doesn't know what a crack on the shoulder means, and uses it as an excuse to jump FORWARD, not SIDEWAYS, and gets very strong and tries to run off.  I don't exactly have the confidence to crack him at the trot or canter yet, not like I need to, so we spent a lot of the time working on getting him to move. over! at the walk and at the halt.

Before we did that, though, Nicole had me work on riding squares and getting Gali truly straight on my right rein.  We did very well going to the right, as to be expected, but struggled with both balance and listening while trying to do the exercise going left.  By the end of my ride, I had him going well in both directions at the trot, and at the canter (sort of) towards the right, but still really struggled with getting him to move straight in the canter heading to the left.  After a couple of frustrating attempts, we began to work on the "get! over! now!" at the walk that I mentioned above.

Frustrating, really, but I should try to remember that our training level work is outstanding this year.  He feels as fluid and soft as he has in years, and is really, really willing to work at nearly EVERYTHING except this whole 15 meter circle thing.  The hard thing is that I've never been stuck on "one" thing with him, this stubbornly.  It's always been a combination of things, or he's been generally argumentative, but to have everything going so well and to get hung up on one thing is just beyond aggravating.

We were supposed to do Training 2 and First 1 tomorrow, but the show cancelled.  I wasn't going to do 1-1 anyway, but I am disappointed that we can't go out and at least school around and do our training level test.

In other news, Acorn is fantastic as always.  Just working on building up his brain and keeping him happy why we plug away, gaining muscle and getting him working steadily at our training level tests.

Another Frustrating Ride

Yesterday, I couldn't get Gali to do a 15 m canter circle to the left.  It just wasn't happening.  He was ignoring my whip and spurs on his outside shoulder, blowing through my outside rein, and being a total jerk about everything.  Second ride in a row where he was just fighting me every single step of the way.

The good news is that we ran through Training 2 without a hitch, and I think that test will go well.  Unless tonight's lesson is a complete 180, though, I'm scratching from 1-1 this weekend.  Ugh.

Lesson 6/8/14 - Tater Tot and Gali

Yesterday was one of those days.  The kind of day where everybody is running late, everyone is forgetting things, and the horses all have their heads in the clouds.

Tater says "I'm tall!"

The day started with Nicole and I teaching lessons to this very sweet couple.  We used Gali and Acorn, and they were primarily walk lessons with a tiny bit of trot towards the end.  Of course, Gali decided to give this first time rider a nice canter,"because it's fun, ma! look how nice I can canter for this guy! and he's new!", but otherwise, the boys were well behaved.

The next lesson, though, was with a woman on our new pony, Tater.  Tater Tot has been a great addition to our lesson program, but he had something on his mind yesterday, and all he wanted to do was throw his head in the air and run around like a giraffe.  He broke the cross ties twice and was just generally in a mood. Nicole asked me to ride him before my Gali ride, and I gladly agreed to.  He was a good boy, but it takes a lot of work to get him round and up through his back. I do think with some more muscling and a little more education, he'll turn into a nice dressage mount for the kids.  We even  worked a little bit on trailer loading, and despite his initial hesitation, he was quickly loading himself and standing very well.

Most adorable pony.

Gali, on the other hand, was a beast for my ride.  He was trying hard, but at the same time, completely blowing off my outside aids going to the left. Our T2 test is ready to go, and I think he's going to score better than last year, but 1-1 is going to be tough. We did most of the work we need for our 1-1 test yesterday, and if he's in a fighting mood, it's going to be a hard test.  We didn't have 15m canter circles to the left.  Just simply didn't have them.  I couldn't get him much smaller than 18m, and that isn't going to cut it.  However, after my (only ~20 minute) lesson, he gave a stretchy/long and low lesson to a younger girl at the barn, and she was able to get him to relax about everything.

I think it was one of those rides where he and I were both frustrated at each other - him at me for not helping him move his right shoulder over, and me at him for being such a bulldozer about it, when I know if he put in a little more effort we'd be okay.  He'll have off today, because it's pouring rain, and tomorrow I have another lesson.  Still planning on showing Acorn and Gali on Satuday, so, fingers crossed.

Playing with Acorn

This weekend I took some time to work with Acorn, since he had been in lessons all week and we're showing on Saturday.  We ran through our tests, he was a good boy, and then I spent some time hopping him over "fences".  I put it in quotes because I haven't jumped him higher than 2' yet, because our standards are in a jump field on the other side of the farm.  This week I might take him out there and try a few 2'3" jumps.  He LOVES jumping and is such a good boy about everything.  I, however, look like a mess and need to figure out how to not jump ahead and let him move out a little approaching a jump.  Acorn is super patient with me, though, and I couldn't really ask for a better partner in this whole "jumping" experiment.

Acorn also won lots and lots of scritches and cookies for playing "boyfriend horse" this weekend:

Playing 'noses' with the super friendly human

I asked Justin to cool out Acorn while I put jumps away.  Look, he's already one of us, texting and riding.

They played a game of "how to steer the pony", too.  Good Corn.

Lesson 6/3/14 - Gali

On Monday, Gali and Acorn got their shots.  Long story short, when I was done at the barn, I knew they were staying down there to eat, so I left them in the paddock that attaches to the barn.  Forgot to close up the door to the actual barn, and they both made a mess in the barn.  Yesterday, I had a lesson.  I guess Nicole didn't forget about that, because it was a TOUGH ride!!

Gali was seriously inconsistent and not really respecting my leg.  I think I need to start riding in spurs again - I don't know why I haven't put them back on yet this year.  We started off doing 15m trot figure eights to get him off of my inside aids and to get him to lift up his shoulders and stretch his neck down.  He kept bobbing up and down in his neck, and it really took a while for me to get him forward enough that his hind legs were actually *moving* and not just dragging along.  It's tough, because I'm constantly fighting his "I'm going to be strong and bolt!" brain when I'm trying to get him to move out.  Yesterday, he was actually quite good about not running off, but he still tried to skip to canter at first, as a way to get out of working hard in the trot.

Trying on his new jammies... a LITTLE tight

We did some leg yields and started to introduce something similar to a half pass... I started by just leading him from F to X with left bend, ~12 m circle around X, and then leading him from X to M with right bend, and then doing the same out of the short side.  As he got better with that, I started adding right and left leg to get his body to follow his head better.  It wasn't a true half-pass, but it was some solid lateral work and I was really proud of a few of them.

We then moved on to some canter exercises, which were similar but with no real lateral elements.  Canter diagonal, canter circle around X, canter diagonal to trot and then back into canter on the other lead.  I had to work really hard to keep Gali soft in his trot-canter transitions, and I almost had to trick Gali into thinking he was just falling into the canter, but it worked and we did get a few good transitions.

It's hard to go from his normal gaits into what need to be his working gaits!  This horse takes all of my energy... but at least he's cute!

Goals and a Snapshot of Where We Are

I like "goals" posts, because they let me reflect on what I'd like to accomplish, and when the season is over, on what I have and have not done, or how my ambitions have changed.  This year, I have a couple of goals with Gali and Acorn.

Gali: I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd get to be showing Gali this year.  At the end of last season, he wasn't fully sound, and I thought it was his ringbone acting up after a pretty busy show schedule.  He had the winter almost entirely off (lameness, weather, and Aiken) and my BO let me know he wasn't fully sound on frozen pasture.  She even caught himself standing with his right leg in an icy water trough - bad Gali being bad, or smart horse icing himself? While I was in Aiken, I made the decision to put him on Previcox and see if it helps, in addition to his SmartFlex and Polyglycan shots.  I think it really did the trick, because he was sound when I brought him back into work in April.

Now that his body seems to be doing well - in fact, he's more sound than he's felt in over a year - his brain will be my challenge.  Gali is a difficult horse, there's no denying that.  Sure, he's up for shenanigans and is generally well behaved, he can be a real pistol sometimes, and he likes to fight me frequently when I'm asking him to actually work.  So far, though, he's been a willing volunteer and we have been getting a lot of quality work in.  During my last lesson, he was particularly stubborn about moving from my inside leg, so we did centerlines to 10m half circles to get him moving.  He NAILED it, and I made the decision right there to start this year off with a First level test.  We entered a local show in Training 2 and 1-1, but unfortunatley the show was cancelled due to lack of entires.  The next show is at the Meadow, and I've never gotten a good ride out of Gali there, so I might only take Acorn, therefore pushing my Gali debut back to the 22nd or so.  Bummer.

My goals with this horse are always, first and foremost, to keep him sound and happy.  I've been trying to "trail ride" him a little more on the days he's not on edge, but he's been really enjoying the work so far.  I can tell he feels good.  My show goals for him this year, though, are to get my ESDCTA and ECRDA bronze medals, which mean pulling in six scores above 60% over four different shows with four different judges.  I'd also LOVE to break 60% at any of the first level tests, and if he stays sound, I'd love to show through the entire level.

Acorn: Corn was my beacon of hope when I thought Gali wouldn't get off the farm this year.  I took him to BCHP last month, and it ended up being a big mistake on my part.  It was my first show with him, his third dressage show ever, both of our first recognized shows, and his first show of the season. That's a lot to think about.  We were with our trainer and her horse, who had an early ride time.  We got there around 10:30 and Acorn didn't have any tests until almost 3:00.  He was a VERY good boy walking around and watching the other horses school, but trying to ride him while his friend was in the trailer screaming for him, when the arena was up on a hill away from everything, and when it's been THAT long of a day, just wasn't going well.  He was bucking and pissed off and it wasn't a good experience for any of us.  We finished the day with mid-50's scores and a sour taste in my mouth for this pony.

I took a few days off riding him after that, bummed that he wasn't the angel he is at home, and wondering if I should even be thinking of him as my next show horse.  He's been teaching a lot of lessons and seems to be okay with that - maybe he's not as fancy as I think he is? Maybe he and I don't get along as well as I had been thinking?  There was a lot of doubt in my mind.  After riding Gali that week, though, and getting back on Corn, I was a little happier.  He's an easier horse.  He's got better gaits and is usually very willing to work.  On Sunday, after a particularly trying ride on Gali, I hopped on Acorn and it hit me that I always forget what a pleasure it is to ride this pony.  He tries and he really doesn't try to get into my head like Gali does.  Corn doesn't threaten to bolt when I get nervous - he doesn't escalate all of my issues and take them on as his own.  Anyway, I ended up setting up a few small (2', 2'3?) jumps in the ring and popping him over those a handful of times.  I also let him stretch his legs a bit, which is something he doesn't get to do in lessons.  I did have to work on reinstalling a slow canter though, after I let him move out into more of a hand gallop.  It was a blast, and I need to remember how much I DO enjoy this pony, every time.

Goals for him include keeping him happy with his work, trail riding him a LOT more, and getting him off the farm as much as possible.  I'd like to show him in the training level tests and also over a few Green Hunter courses at the Meadow.  Also, I think we're supposed to sell him at some point :P

Well over a year later, let me try this "blogging" thing again.

My last post in this blog was February, 2013.  Well over a year ago.  In that year:

• I graduated Rutgers and began searching for a new job (May 2013)
• I broke up with my long term boyfriend, leaving me with a summer completely to myself.
• I rode more last summer than I ever have before, growing tremendously as a rider.
• Ended up taking Gali to a few shows every month, eventually breaking through to First Level by the end of the year (mid-50s, but hey, I'll take it!)
• Agreed to take on Acorn, a pony I have known for years, as a sale project along with my barn owner.
• Showed Acorn over fences!!! (LOL, 2' crossrails... but still!)
• Got a job at an event barn nearby, picking stalls and grooming horses.
• Continued riding a lot, both at the event barn and at home.  Fell off a few times, got back on, yada yada yada.
• And then, I went to Aiken for the winter.

I'll pause there and elaborate a little.  KB, eventing boss, asked me to go with them for the winter.  I'll tell the rest of the story in pictures:

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The farm was gorgeous and our apartment was right above the barn.  This was the view from my balcony.

The horses (Jackson, above) settled in really nicely

And then Hell froze over.  You know that EN picture of the firetrucks bringing water? That was us.

We didn't have water for over two weeks, but luckily Brooklyn and Drake helped me fill buckets and Jerry cans.

Once we got through that, it was incredible.  I got to ride some CCI** horses and audited PD clinics weekly.

 

I also had the world's cutest temporary puppy, Wilco, for whom I found a home in NJ :)

Three months in Aiken were unbelievable and I learned so much about horses, farm management, and riding.  I've been excited to be home, though, and picked up with Gali and Acorn right were I left off.  I'll try to keep this blog a little more active now that I have the time!

Here's a recent picture of each of my boys:

Galabad looking sharp

The chill pony not caring about anything.