Trail Ride and Farm Fair!

Last night, I was up at the fire pit until 3:30 AM drinking homemade wine... needless to say, when I woke up this afternoon, the LAST thing I wanted to do was go ride.  However, I forced myself out of the house and onto my horse.  My plan was a relaxing, stretching ride in the ring before heading to meet Lynn at Farm Fair, where I'd watch her and Max take on the gymkhana.

First solo trail ride in 4+ years :)

Gali started off in the ring perfectly - he was soft and round and listening and moving his legs, all things that I rarely get at the same time.  I decided to work outside the ring and get him used to trotting around the arena, like we would do at a show.  He stepped up like a brave pony (he is NOT a brave pony!) and didn't change his marching tempo as we trotted around.  I decided to wake him up and let him run a bit down the longer stretch of the path, and despite being in a nice hand gallop, he did not get too excited and came right back when I asked.  After a few runs, I brought him back into the ring to check his brain, and he went right back to dressage work without much asking.

I took him out of the ring again, and he tried to walk up into the woods.  For a second, I forgot how much of a chicken I am, and I walked him down to the short trail on the property.  We walked between a few trees and back to where the road begins before I turned him around and went back to the barn.  It was short, but it was our first solo trail ride EVER, and the first trail ride where we were both totally relaxed.  Progress!

The trail cooled him down and I was able to put him away quickly before rushing to make the 3:00 Fair start time.  I got there and couldn't believe my eyes, there was a ZEBRA in the ring!

Oh wait.. it's just Lynn and Max.

While we were waiting for the Ride a Buck to end, an old friend, Darlene, asked me to take her horse Tigger into the baton "race".  She had never showed, and wanted to just walk him in the event for the experience, before Gale got to run it back with her OTTB.  Darlene's back was bothering her, but she didn't want to abandon her partner.  I ran back to my car and grabbed my helmet and boots, before I hopped... er, was launched? onto the big friendly belgian.

Not really sure how I got there

I know Tig pretty well, but I've never ridden him.  I took him into the warmup and when I asked him to trot, he pinned his ears and kicked at my leg, and looked over at his owner like "MOM! She asked me to move.  How dare she ask me to move?!"

Despite our appearance, speed events aren't our thing.

Tigger was rescued from an amish straight stall at age 18 or so, and he's 25 now.  He's got incredibly arthritic knees, but recently Darlene's vets told her to get him out to fun shows, get him moving, and take him places, because he's not in pain, he's just got a very funky way of moving to compensate for the knees. In our relay race, he picked up the trot on his own, and I just got out of his way.  He was moving like the giant gimpy lug that he always is, but his ears were up and he was having so much fun being in the spotlight.

Unfortunately, the show management wasn't hearing it, and asked us to scratch after our first event because of a few lame trot steps.  I thought it was fair enough - they don't know him and they have to look out for lame horses, but Darlene was heartbroken and really took it personally.  We weren't going to get much more trot out of him anyway, and he had a blast.  In 25 years, it was the very first time he'd been to a show under saddle, and I think him taking the busy Farm Fair atmosphere in stride was enough of an accomplishment.  I had a lot of fun, and I was honored that Darlene trusted me enough to take her boy out for the first time.  I know it was a special day for her.

Oh, and because Farm Fair brings out Jersey's brightest, Lynn lost count of how many people came up and asked if the portly quarter horse was a REAL zebra. I mean, she did a great job painting him, but... seriously?

Even though he's not a zebra, Max is an amazing horse.

Shopping for Shows...

Lynn and I are heading up to Dover tomorrow to take advantage of their spring sales.  I know I need to get fly spray, but in terms of horsey supplies, I'm pretty much set.

However, for the first time in a year, it looks like I'm actually going to be showing Gali this season.  We've travelled a bumpy road over the past 12 months, but I think we will be ready in a few more weeks.

This, of course, calls for new show clothes.  My horsey collection might be overflowing with things that Gali will surely never need, but my rider's attire is certainly lacking.  The boots that I showed him in previously have pretty much fallen apart (that's what I get for buying $55 boots... oh well, got my money's worth out of them, honestly), so I'm gonna need some new boots.  Toll Booth just got some very nice ones in...

I only own breeches that are either tan, or tye dye.  If I'm going to pull off the dressage look, I really ought to pick up a pair of white full seats, no?

These reins, or fully black ones?

I have a show shirt - it's short sleeve and white, but it's also a hot, sticky poly blend fabric, so I might as well pick up a performance fabric if I'm going to make showing a positive experience.  Right?

Stock tie?  Stock pin?  I don't have either of those, but I'm gonna need them!  I think I'll try to make my own stock pin, it doesn't seem that difficult and I'd love to find beads that match his bridle.

Oh, I don't have a show coat.  Guess I should add that to the list. 

Gloves, too.

At least I have a helmet to wear!

Now, I just need to figure out what I'm going to do about Gali's colors.  My stirrup pads are blue, and his bridle and reins are blue.  Should I swap out his blue rubber reins for a pair of black web ones that I have lying around?  Or should I commit to the color, since all of my riding attire is classic?  Should I do a white pad with black piping, or look for a white pad with light blue piping?

Birthday Weekend!

Gali turned 16 on Friday.  I don't actually know his birthday, so I've always celebrated on the anniversary of the day I first rode him.  It's been four years now since I've had him, and I've had a slew of great times and a handful terrible times, but through it all, we've come through it together.  I really can't imagine having any horse other than the Galabad, and I lucked out tremendously in finding him.  Enough of the sappiness, enjoy some of the highlights of the past four years:

From top left: Gali and Max grazing at Nouveau; My first ride on Gali; Gali grazing at Holly Tree; Hurricane Prep 101 (it says Come on Irene); Gali and Katie being friends at Been There Farm; Gali running with the geese at Nouveau; Gali and I matching on Horse sledding day - photo by Dom; Gali's first day of turnout at Holly Tree; Sledding with Dom and Herbie - photo from Dom

I celebrated his birthday by bringing him out two slices of carrot cake, a bunch of bananas, and a bag of carrots.  He's the horse who eats everything - pickles, chips, cheetos, corn husks, candy, etc - but he would not touch the cake.  He was so upset by it, actually, that he was snorting, backing away from it, and clenching his lips closed just after sniffing it!  No idea why - but he did enjoy his bananas.  As for the cake - I couldn't find a horse in the barn who would give it a try :(

I did make him work, though, and it was my first ride in over a week (yay, midterms!).  I expected a bit of energy, but he surprised me and was very loose and seeking the bit.  At one point, I rode past Lynn and Max and exclaimed "It's like driving a Cadillac!".  He did have some attitude, and kept trying to drag me towards the barn and the gate, but he would listen if I remembered to actually push him away with my leg, instead of trying to pull him around.  Once Max and Lynn left the ring to go do trot sets on the track, Gali got stronger and started giving me a hard time.  We worked through it by riding some square corners, and finished up on some good stretchy trot and two nice walk-to-canter transitions.

On Saturday, plans to ride got interrupted by the lousy weather, and Lynn invited me to explore Ikea in Philadelphia with her.  We had a good time, visited a friend that we don't see nearly enough, and got some fantastic barbeque.  As we split ways, we agreed to meet up at the farm on Sunday.

I woke up early and went to a different farm to ride a lovely little mare (more on that in a few days), and by the time I got out to see Gali, I was exhausted.  He wasn't exactly thrilled to see me, either, and I decided to just hop on bareback and stand in the middle of the ring, relaxing.  After some rest, I got my lunge line and made him work a little, just to let him stretch out and sharpen his verbal cues.  I'm pleased to say that "Ho." gets him from a canter to a halt almost immediately again - something we lose when we don't work on the line for a long time.  Afterwards, we grazed and shedded out our ponies - some quality time to end a pleasant weekend.

"Who you calling a ho?"

 

 

A bolt is the cure for every evil.

Alexis, Lynn and I had planned a full barn day yesterday, and it ended up being the best weather we've had all week.  The plan was for Lynn and Alexis to both jump Max a bit, and Alexis and I were going to swap rides on Gali and play dressage pony.  Gali's been very well behaved this week, but I guess expecting him to be good three times in a row was asking a bit much of the pony Gods, as he was strong and avoiding outside aids for both Alexis and myself.  He's certainly been worse, and if this is his new "bad", I'll take it in a heartbeat.

DERP I RIDE A HORSES. DERP.

I really was no help to him yesterday - my paddock boots are out of commission (ahem, Lynn!) and I've been riding in my muck/lake/yard boots - which, while perfect for our swimming adventures earlier in the week, are really not the best to ride in.  They're slippery and lightweight, and I'm used to riding in my sturdier Blundstones and half chaps.  I know it isn't any excuse, and for hacking around and trail riding the lake boots are great, but I do think they contributed to my awful position today.  I had no base of support in my leg, and the instability combined with my natural tendency to be tense when Gali's got attitude, and his tendency to get tense when I'm tense, led to me looking like I really shouldn't be on a horse in the first place.

Gali was happy, though, for the most part.  His favorite thing in the world is jumping, and while he's not allowed to jump regularly because of his ringbone, I can pop him over a crossrail once in a blue moon.  Today, I let him walk over a few as part of his warmup, but I guess he doesn't see the point in crossrails if you don't jump them, because he just walked straight through the second one.

Figures, it would be one of the first days in a long time that I had Jason out to get pictures of my ride.  Oh well, it really illustrated what I need to work on (Sit back, have elbows and GTFO Gali's face, Kim!) when I have days where I get nervous and let myself get in our way.  As Alexis repeated from the ground all ride "Check yourself, before you wreck yourself!"

I hopped on Max for a little while today, too.  He was acting lame and Lynn wanted to see it from the ground instead of his back.  When he was on the forehand he looked worse, and it could be foot soreness.  Lynn's putting front shoes on him this week.  The good news is that when I half halted him, did some transitions and got him back on his hind end, the lameness disappeared and he felt great.  More position failture: I wanted to be off of his back so we could see if it was back soreness that wasn't letting him come through, and I was in a jump saddle.  I was in some awkward combination of half-seat and just a forward riding seat the whole time I was on him.

Getting some good work out of the big dumb.

Alexis rode Gali for the first time since the winter.  She's not a huge fan of him, because he's big and dumb and tends to take off with her.  To her credit, she does get on him and has gotten much better at bringing him back from his canter-bolts, which was something she had trouble with when we boarded together at Nouveau.  Her position has improved tremendously since she started riding at Centenary, and she looked a lot better than me today.  Gali responded appropriately and looked much better for her today than he did for me.

Lynn hopped back on Max and while Alexis coached her over some jumps, I flipped through the pictures Jason was taking and told him that I wanted one series of canter shots where I didn't look awful.  Famous last words.  I hopped back on my horse and walked him over to a spot in the ring that has very good footing and isn't too cluttered with jumps, and decided I'd do one or two more canter circles, try to look like I have been on a horse before, and call it quits.  Gali was getting tired and I wanted to end on a fun note.

Leaving.

I trotted a circle to get myself together a bit, and Gali immediately sucked back and played his "I'm done!" card.  He tossed his head down, threatened bucks, tucked his chin to his chest and braced against my hands.  When I was done laughing at his antics, I sat down and booted him forward.  He went forward.  He grabbed the bit and launched us out of the circle and up past the shed.  I had to laugh at him, though, because his "bolts" have gotten so much less serious in the time that I've owned him.  I did recognize that his fit was an "I'm tired!" protest, and after I made him trot a circle and down to the jumps and back (and he cooperated), I let him be done.

Oops.

Right about this time, Alexis hopped on Max to jump him over some crossrails.  He was a good boy, and because the theme of the day was "Let's not know when to quit", Alexis decided to take Max over an oxer than he dumped Bekka on a few weeks ago.  Alexis took him over a crossrail and cantered back around to the oxer, and the usually-brave Max put on the brakes.  Alexis didn't let him run out, and made him sniff the jump so he would see that there were NO tigers hiding behind the gate, and took him at it again.  Twice more he refused, and she came off both times.  It was the type of "fall" where you just end up over the horse's shoulders and land on your feet, and Max seemed perplexed both times when she was on the ground but still attached to his face.  In the end, she got him over the fence twice, and he leapt it like a deer both times.  It might not have made for the best jumping lesson, but I got some good pictures out of it, and Alexis did a great job sticking with his jumps despite how... well... you see.

More pictures and captions behind the jump.

Build me up, Buttercup?

Today's trail.  Katie wanted to go home.

[Note: Pictures throughout are from today's trail ride.  More on that in a second.]

Yesterday was a fun pony-filled day.  I left New Brunswick and met up with Lynn to go to the tack store, even though I really didn't need anything.  For the first time ever, I left without buying anything for myself - but then I came home and ordered stuff I saw there online.  That doesn't count, right?

Anyway, Gali is still on walk rest.  I wanted to walk him around the ring while Lynn rode, and then around the track.  Max threw a bit of a kink in that plan by faking lame when Lynn first started working, so we switched and I hopped on to see what I could feel.  He stretched out of it almost immediately, but after riding him for the first time in months, I realized how badly I missed him.  I reluctantly gave him back to Lynn and continuted walking Gali.  The draft horse came out in him as he helped me move standards and poles, and I set up a small ghetto rigged cavaletti for Lynn.   She's been nervous to jump again, but it was a good place to start and Max really took care of her.

Ooh woods!

After she was done, we switched again and I moved the poles up to a crossrail.  I haven't jumped in ages, and when Max is out of O/F work, he tends to deer-leap and over jump.  I really eased him into the first two jumps and held him back, and once he realized that there was no need to launch himself, he was very happy to jump again.  I took him around two or three more times letting him show me how he wanted to take the fence (lazily), and asking him to canter away.  He was reluctant to keep up the canter away from the fences.  Over the last three times, I really pushed him up over the jump, and he took them very well.  I asked him for a lead over the jump, and he gave me his left lead easily.  He fought me for the right lead the first time I asked, but I got after him the second time and he did land correctly and canter away. He was hardly jumping them, which is okay.  My goal was to teach him that tiny jumps can be jumped tiny, because I think that will really help Lynn when she starts over fences again.  I was so happy - it was one of those rides where the horse was just spot-on, and it's been a while since I've had one of those.  Such a good man.

Woods!  Woods!  Goat!

Today, Bekka, Lynn and I met up for some sleetpony trail riding.  Bekka took Gali out, and I took K.  We were trying to find fields we saw on google maps - more on that in a second.  One thing that cracks me up about my horse is his tendency to be a mountain goat - he INSISTS on walking up the banks on the sides of the trail instead of on the trail itself.  It's hard not to laugh as she brings him down and he visibly pouts.

Anyway, we wandered down past the "Dogs House", this residence right across from the farm's boundary, and back through the woods.  After some deliberation about which was was correct, we found the trail that looked least likely to be private and filled with murders.  Ahem.  We followed it until it ended, and then doubled back to try another branch of the trail.  Everything was going well, and when we found a nice path along some power lines, I offered to let Lynn's boyfriend (who took these pictures) up on Katie while I walked along for once.  The footing on the trail was superb - it looked more like sand dust arena footing than anything in the pine barrens.

We had to cross one bridge (there was a nice sized stream following the path) and despite Gali and Max both insisting it would eat their feet, it went over pretty well.  This part of the trail is usually flooded or sloppy, but the ground was fast and the horses were happy.  I knew we should be getting close to the big fields, but my phone was in Bekka's pocket and I didn't feel like checking.  Just as the trail straightened and leveled out, Max was jolted by something running across the trail a few yards up.  From what Lynn could tell, it was a fox or coyote.  We thought about turning around, and then we saw it.

Just to our left was a building about the size of a two car garage.  It had generators buzzing next to it, and it was surrounded by six foot high barbed wire-topped fencing.  We were trying to figure out what it was, and then we saw something in the yard - a chopped up toy rocking horse.  Hmm.  Then I noticed a sign on the fence, and before anyone could say anything, I decided that Katie and I were out.  Anthony hopped off to take a picture and I sprung up on the mare.  The horses were all worked up, so Ant got a few pictures of the scene and we headed back.

At this point, Katie was on full "HOME!!!" mode and threatening to take off the whole way back.  She relaxed when crossed the bridge, and in one part of the trail, it got sloppy and a bit deep.  I gave the mare her face and she completely took advantage of it by leaping into the bad footing and trying to forge ahead of Gali in a poorly executed bolt.  The leaping part threw me off balance, and I lost a stirrup.  Katie is the type of horse that doesn't have brakes when she really doesn't want to, and with no stirrups I wasn't taking any changes in the bad footing.  I probably would have fallen off if she got away from me, and she was close to getting away from me, so I bailed.  I landed on my feet, got a lecture from Bekka about how I need to not bail off of horses, hopped back on and walked most of the way home.  When Katie started acting like a bitch again, I brought her back and handed her over to her mom for a better schooling about what NOT to do on the way home.  I thought about getting back on Gali, but we were nearly home, so I just decided to walk him back instead of trying to climb up.  In hindsight, I should NOT have bailed off of Katie, and I should have ridden her back home - but I've NEVER been good on trails, and honestly, today was the best I've ever been.  It's the little victories, really.

As for "buttercup" - we've figured out that it's a Pemberton Twp pump station, but it still needs some serious investigation.  Luckily, I have a friend who is pretty into urban exploring, and one hell of a rider...

To Be Continued... 

Horse Sledding 2012

The snow that fell on Saturday was the area's first real accumulation of the year.  When I woke up on Sunday and it was still on the ground, I invited Dom, Lynn, and Lynn's boyfriend Anthony, out to play snow ponies.

Ghetto rig last year.

Last year, our attempts were not quite graceful, and our ghetto rigged sled needed a running start before we could get pulled, but the icier snow and better rigging this year led to a lot more success.

After a short mad scramble for a sled, I found the perfect one and headed out to the barn to meet up with everyone.  My original plan was to borrow a western saddle and throw the tow rope over the horn, but Gali loudly objected to a western saddle, and we decided to tack him up in his usual saddle and attached the breastplate that I may or may not have purchased for exactly these situations.

Lynn's horse, Max, was relieved when he saw this was not for him!

Now, I've been having a lot of problems with Gali lately - even my trimmer noticed his nervousness and antsy personality change - so I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I took complete advantage of Dom being out there and threw her up on Gali first, and she took him around the track to explore the footing and farm.

When they came back in one piece, we hooked up a lunge line to the breastplate, hopped in the sled, and hung on.

Gali could not have been better for everything.  He gladly cantered back and forth along the long side of the track with a very loud sled (and very loud riders!) chasing him, and Herbie running alongside.  He was exceedingly happy and I think he may have had more fun than we did!  It was great to see him in a good mood and behaving as I know he can, but it did make me think that he's asking for a change in discipline... I love dressage, and he usually loves dressage, but maybe we can mix it up a lot more in the future.  It's a shame he hated the western saddle, because I think he'd have a blast cutting cattle, running barrels, or in trail classes.

Anyway, on to the pictures (yanked from Dom and Anthony) and videos (taken by Dom while Gali and I pulled).