Spring Break!

My spring break began yesterday, and after a much-needed catch up dinner with some good friends last night, today was my first day spent at the barn in a full week.

My goals for today were small.  Gali is just two rides back from his month off, so I wanted to work on conditioning.  I wasn't expecting him to be Mr. Dressage Horse, but after our long and low warmup, he gave me some beautiful trot work.  We started off in the small ring to the side of the barn, but after feeling how nicely he was moving at the trot and canter, I walked him over to the larger ring to let him stretch his legs.  For some reason, he was more reluctant to open up in the big field, but he was still offering me lovely trot work, and I wasn't about to say no!

He was definitely testing me in spurts, though.  He'd be lovely for a circle, and then grab the bit and pop his shoulder and try to drag me out of the figure.  Luckily, I remembered to actually ride for the most part, and when I'd get after him with my legs instead of my hands, he responded well.

He got tired more easily that I would have liked, though, and a few times he actually started chomping his teeth.  He's not usually one to complain in that fashion, though I'll write it off to the heat and a "but I was dooooone" protest unless it crops up again this week.

I also took Max over a crossrail twice today, and looked like crap both times.  I recently oiled my boots (which aren't really the best for riding, anyway) and my leg was nowhere to be found.  Oops.

The weather is supposed to be lovely, and I'm going to be riding every day until I have to go back to Rutgers.

Call out the instigators, because there's something in the air.

It was either the wind, the coming storm, or a combination of both that had both Max and Gali in a tizzy this afternoon.

Gali turned up sound this weekend, so I hopped on more than excited to ride.  I really focused on riding every step and not letting him disable my outside aids, and after a few reminders about what an outside leg means (GIT. OVER. HORSE.) he began to make circles, instead of eggs.  His head carriage was a lot more stable tonight, and his back was most definitely up in the uppest of ways - I lost count at 8 bucks during our canters today.

This is more a quick note to myself than anything else, because I want to remember to keep my inside leg from sliding forward - when I could feel him underneath my calf, he was more likely to step up and stretch out.  I also need to get quicker on my releases when he gives at the trot, remembering the advice from Lendon that if I need to use my reins, use them in bumps, not constantly.  I tried to remember that tonight, and there was a clear difference in Gali's performance when I asked instead of nagged. Oh, and as always, both of us need to slow the tempo significantly coming back from the canter.

Still Lame?

I think Gali's still lame.  I'm sort of in denial and hope that Bekka can get on him this weekend and see if it's just an "I'm going to suck back, screw going forward!" attitude.  I went out and rode after class tonight, but by the time I got down there, it was dark.  I turned on the lights in the ring, and put Gali on the lunge and walked and trotted him in both directions.  He was very well behaved on the lunge and looked mostly sound, but when I hopped on he immediately felt off again.  I trotted him in both directions, on contact and on a loose rein, and he felt better on a loose rein but still not 100%.

I hope hope hope he's just faking lame.  I probably should have gotten on his case a little more tonight, but he was spooking at the shadows and there was a young kid on an OTTB in the ring getting led around, and he kept trying to follow the other OTTB who was cantering laps around the ring and I didn't have time to push the issue.  He felt off, I felt bad pushing him when I think he was obviously telling me "No, it hurts."

We did have a mounting manners lesson.  It was... interesting.  You'd think for as much as I drilled the game into his head when I first got him, he'd get that the point was to stand still by now.  It took 5 tries before he stood still on a loose rein getting on from the left, and after half a dozen times he still didn't get it completely on the right side.  I was running late to meet my parents for dinner, though, so I just backed him up the step that he had moved, and made him stand still on the buckle for a few minutes before I called it a day.

Not gonna see him til Wednesday morning... maybe, maybe Tuesday night.  Blah.

Juggling.

Sometimes, I get so sick of juggling.  I feel bad complaining, because everyone I know is juggling, and many friends have it much harder than I do.

Still, school is a lot right now - I don't do all of the readings I'm assigned, and I still have well over 200 pages a week to read.  Most of it is interesting stuff, and I don't mind the work, but finding time is not easy.  Work isn't awful, but my hours put a strain on me sometimes.  Tonight, my shift is 6:45 PM - 2:00 AM.  I know I won't get to sleep until much later than that, and I have an exam tomorrow afternoon, so I am going to have to wake up early enough to eat breakfast, review my notes, and get to class.  I just get tired.  I'm lucky that tomorrow's latest class is cancelled, so I can go to see Gali right after my exam.

It's really tough having him an hour away.  I don't know how much longer I can do it.  When I have time on the weekends, it's fine, because we have all that time together - but more and more frequently, my weekends are being taken up by work, family, and academic responsibilities.

I am thankful for the farm, though.  I don't think I'll find a facility as nice as this farm any time soon, or anywhere around here.  The fields are meticulously maintained and massive.  The trails go back for miles and miles - as far as you can ride, there will be trails.  There's a track!  The jump ring is big enough for any sort of riding, and the dressage ring is small enough and fenced in enough that I feel secure when Gali is acting up - almost as secure as I would feel in an indoor.

I have so many friends there.  I'm not a competitive rider by any stretch of the imagination, so having friends at the farm is one of the most important parts of choosing a farm to me.  Riding is about myself and my horse, yes, but it's also social.

It's not even like I'd get much closer.  If I find a farm near Rutgers, I have to deal with 287 traffic and nearly all of them are over half an hour away if I go west or north.  Allentown/Horse Park area would be a super easy trip from school, but it's much farther from my *real* home. 

Still, I don't think I can deal with the distance much longer - if my schedule doesn't lighten up. Plus, if I'm going to get an NYC internship and take summer classes, which I really should do, then I'll be at Rutgers most of the year anyway.

So, now, in addition to juggling school, work, and horse, I'm trying to decide if I should move him closer, and risk a crappier facility or poor management, or deal with the distance and not get to see Gali nearly as frequently, but know that he is in good hands.

Help.

I miss my horse!

I haven't seen Gali since Friday due to an incredibly busy weekend, and now because of class I am not going to see him until Thursday afternoon.  I'm away all weekend at the AAG conference (can't wait! NICK KRISTOF will be there!!!) and it looks like I won't be able to see Gali again after that until next Wednesday!  That's nearly two weeks with only two pony visits.  Ugh, so not okay.

I've been half-heartedly toying with the idea of moving him closer.  I don't want to move him at all - I love Been There and I don't have to worry about him there, plus it's cheap enough that I don't really have to stress over where my board checks are coming from.  At the same time, though, I miss when he was only 15 or 20 minutes from me, rather than the 45 minutes to an hour I have to travel to see him now.

Oh, and the videos from my post about Max weren't working, so I uploaded them to YouTube and they're up now.

Where the Wild Things Are

I mentioned a few days ago that I had a fantastic ride on Max, Lynn's lovely quarter horse.  Max has put up with me jumping him for the past three years that I've known him, but it's never really been a pretty thing.  I had a few 'lessons' from my friend Alexis, who had him in training, in the summer of 2010, but I haven't really jumped him since.  Last week I jumped him for the first time in months, and this past weekend I took him over some crossrails again.  Lynn got video.

I'm not a jumper by any stretch of the imagination - my only formal jump training came at a 3 week camp when I was 16 - but I've tried to pick up as much of it as I could from working with Alexis and clinging on to Max and Katie as they tolerate me over fences.   As these videos make painfully obvious - I haven't been jumping regularly in quite some time!  Still, Max is the best horse and dealt with me getting left behind and my pendulum leg with nothing but a smile on his muzzle.

Helpful critiques are welcome, as I know I have a lot to learn.  I think my biggest issue is my total lack of relaxation - I jar so badly on the landing that I'm sure Max must hate me.  Anywy, enjoy my singing of Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

This is the worst of the bunch.

Max took Jason on his first ride since his TBI and subsequent brain surgeries in December - on the very first day he was cleared to ride :)

Small Goals.

Last time I was out, Gali seemed almost 100% sound.  That was on bute, though, so I'm not sure what he'll be when I go out to check on Wednesday.  The thought of a sound horse has my heart racing, and I'm eager to get Gali back to work.  We have our big goals of the year planned out - 65% or higher at bothIntro B and C, moving up to Training and going through all three Training tests, competing at the Draft In Hand and Draft Ridden Trail classes at DVHA (and maybe some Draftkhana...), and a hunter pace in the fall - but all of those goals are far away, and it's hard to stay encouraged if there are no small goals for me to meet.  So, in the spirit of the Year of the DoStuffWithMyHorse, here are my "small" goals for the next two weeks.

• Well, first and foremost, the goal is soundness.  To facilitate this, I'm going to start taking longer walking warmups and cool downs when I ride.
• Ride in bareback from the field.  This sounds silly, but it just dawned on me that I haven't ridden Gali bareback since he's been at Been There.  Ridiculous, because we used to spend one day a week at Nouv working bareback, and I just realized how much I miss it.
• Work on mounting manners.  Easy to do, and easier to forget.  Seeing how enjoyable Max is at the mounting block really motivates me to get on Gali's case about his manners again.

That's it.  Those are my goals for the week.  It'll be a light week, and Gali will have the weekend off (unless Bekka takes him out) while I'm in NYC for the Geographer's Conference.

This is what Gali thinks of my goals.

My Saddle Pad :D

A few days ago, Kate surprised me by letting me know she had some spare time to paint the saddle pad I won on Valentine's day.  I am SO excited and can't wait for it to get here:

In terms of real-life updates, I'm just waiting for Lynn to upload the pictures and videos she took of me jumping Max yesterday, and I'll do a real update.

More contests! Not for me this time...

Hey followers!  Bothering you again.  The little girl that I teach lessons to has entered herself in our local tack store's "You know you're a horse person when..." contest.  The prize is a $100 gift card, and I'd love to help her win!  If that link doesn't work to bring her entry to the top, she should be on the first or second page, saying "If you prefer the smell of the stable to perfume!" signed by Shianne F.

And, for the cutes, here are some pictures of her with her 30+ year old quarter horse.  She does everything for him herself. If you can't give a kid who keeps a 30something horse looking like that some love, then you must not be human!

Prepping for the model class at the Meadow this year.

Can't make an entry without including Gali somehow, can I?  He loves her.

How'd I miss it?

Gali has always had an Equine Metabolic Syndrom body type.  Cresty, weird fat despoits, easy keeper, part draft... all the typical stuff.  I've known this, and since I've had him, I've kept him on a low starch grain and on low starch or limited treats.  There have been few times that I've struggled with his weight, but this winter has been one of them.  He spent all summer on hay stretcher (with no ration balancer, yes, I realize NOW that was a mistake) and while his condition over the summer was great, once the weather cooled and he got put back in to work, he needed something more.

After a small drama where the barn owner put him on her textured feed without telling me, I started bringing his food out and got him back on the grain he's been on for the past two years.  We've had a mild winter, and despite him being pasture boarded, he was doing well on the grain and twice daily feedings of hay.  (He's by far the alpha in the field, and had no problem eating his fill of the other horses' hay, as well!).  Over the past month and a half, since the weather cooled a bit and he's been in even more work, his grain amount was raised.  He was keeping good condition, and while it was more grain than I'd like him on, he wasn't overweight at all.

At the same time, he started getting grumpy.  He's never been the most pleasant horse, especially in the barn, but something kept striking me as odd.  I know my horse, and I thought something was bugging him.  I had the dentist out to see if it was his teeth.  I went over his body thoroughly looking for any sore spots.  Everything came up negative - so I started searching for reasons why a horse would suddenly turn grumpy for things like grooming.

Right there, admist all of the "he's just girthy!" and "just beat him more!" forum posts, was my answer: EMS. One symptom is general grumpiness.

I now think that all of the grain he's eating is the culprit, and starting tomorrow he's on a significant fat supplement to replace some grain.

Oh, and in addition to the xrays I'm getting to recheck his ringbone progress, my vet is going to run a CBC and a Cushing's blood chemistry panel.  Depending on the results of that, we'll either continue testing or start managing his diet.  The test is scheduled for just under a month from now (over my spring break), so if the diet change helps a ton, I'll have some more anecdotal evidence to put the puzzle of Galahad together.

Woohoo!!

I woke up this morning to see a text from Lynn saying "Yay congrats!!!!".  I was pretty confused until I remembered that today was the last day of the Polar Square Designs Valentine's Day contest - lo and behold, I won the random drawing!!

Now, I've only ever won one thing in my entire life - a Rhett Miller photo contest when I was 15 - so I am THRILLED!  Now I've got to start thinking about what I want painted on the saddle pad!  Kate does an amazing job - I can't convey how excited I am.

I know I want a short quote - I'm a HUGE fan of quotes and lyrics - but I can't decide between two of them.

The obvious choice is from "Little Victories" by Matt Nathnason.  That song gets me through my worst moments and describes my battles with my fears to a T.  Here's the first verse and chorus, I would get the bolded line somehow:

"This time, I'll be sailing / No more bailing boats for me / I'll be out there on the sea / Just my confidence and me.

But I'll be awful sometimes/weakened to me knees/ and I'll learn to get by on the little victories"

another, more fun but less significant line that I am really considering is from Vampire Weekend: "it struck me that the two of us could run." 

That's certainly something I need to remember more often!  From the verse: "She said, "You know, there's no where left to go"/ But we have fun, it struck me that the two of us could run!"

I also have to decide if I want a dressage pad (meaning boring and white) or an AP pad (meaning colors! but not as good of a fit).

And a deisgn?!  I love the trotting line-drawn horses, so probably one of those.  Maybe one cantering.  Maybe a line-drawn horse face with Gali's diamond.  I really have no idea.  Input?