Monday, November 18, 2013

My Midgey and Meeeeee!

(Kids of the early 90's, you'll sing that title along with this classic commercial.)



Omigoodness. Is Tre not precious. I just want to squeeze her.

She is doing REALLY well. She put all her weight back on and then some, and looks more like a horse now instead of a scrawny waif. This is the first picture I have of me riding her, and I'm happy to see that I don't look like a giant Amazon lady despite her diminutive size (just over 15.0). Although over the course of the year I have packed on 15lbs, so I should probably do something about that... I'm not happy to see that it's starting to show in my big fat belly! Don't laugh at my jeans either... I didn't have any breeches with me, and my calf has been giving me serious hell whenever I have tall boots on, so I've just been taking the simple route and going with just the jeans and my ropers. Poor dressage saddle, I subject you to so much torture!

She has graduated to a proper normal running martingale - I managed to shorten my schooling one to an appropriate length for her. I actually could lengthen it a few holes, and probably will, but it is good to have options. She does need one right now as a 'just in case' backup, but I doubt she will for long. The girl is mellowing out and getting more and more mellow every day. She is QUIET. It's actually a nice change from O, who likes to go go go. Tre likes to just dink along in her little dinky dink trot, and lope along in her la la lopey lope. (That's a QH for you! Funnily enough, she is race bred on both sides... obviously that didn't come through very well in the breeding!) Now that we are cantering, it's just really nice to sit there and put my leg on instead of have to give 9573298739293 half halts all the time like I do with the freight train woman! 

I hadn't posted this before I don't think, but this is Tre cruising around a course last year with her old trainer:



She can jump eh?
The draw reins kill me though... why would you jump in those!

I've had her for exactly a month now... we had our little week of crappy downtime, and a week of just handwalking, and a week of just lunging, so I've only really been on her about four times. She has really chilled out so much... I was cantering big circles around in the field today on a light contact and she was steady and quiet. We even trotted up to the top field (where she historically has been very spooky and herdbound) and she was fine. Go mare!!


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As for Miss Perfect Queen, we went to a local H/J show yesterday and just CLEANED UP! It was a small show, and there weren't many people entered in our classes, but it was great for her to have to go and deal with cantering around with a group of horses. We did the in-hand classes, won them all and were the Mare Halter champions, and we did a showmanship class where we sucked pretty badly (okay well, I sucked because I don't have any idea how to do showmanship and the judge was looking at me like I was a crazy person!) but we got second in that one too. Our under saddle classes were supposed to be all walk-trot, but we opted to do a canter class as well, just for kicks. She won all of the walk-trot classes, and as expected came a bit unraveled in the canter class, but did manage to get second in that one too somehow. Apparently the judge didn't notice me almost running into the fence... 
Everyone raved about her, and of course they loved her clip job too!



I didn't realize she had her eyes closed when I posted that picture.... it's hard being a diva!




Her ribbons and loot.... it was supposed to be a Halloween show but it got rescheduled due to weather, so we had a lot of Halloween-theme prizes, including 5 bags of cookies and 2 jars full of even more cookies!



She's amassing quite a collection of schooling show ribbons!



17 comments:

  1. OMG Tre is adorable. Can't wait to see the athlete inside her become unlocked!

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  2. Way to go and Tre is scrumptiously cute!

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  3. Tre looks so much better already. I also hate jumping in draw reins. You can see her try to sit back before each fence but the draw reins are pulling her down on her forehand. Not conducive to jumping, IMO!!

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  4. Tre is going to be such a blast--look how handy she is with the draws on! Lol, when she can balance herself? That will be impressive.

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  5. OMG she is adorable!! Of course I have a weakness for the petite ones but she is just perfect :-)

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  6. I will say that I have jumped in draw reins ONCE. It was on a client horse when I was a working student... a TB/Perch tank of a mare that had spent her formative years as a combined driving horse and was just learning how to canter without being a runaway train. We used the draw reins on her during a low gymnastics jump school one day after she had gotten the basics to teach her a little bit more about compressing between fences. She had a tendency to get rolling through lines and to be completely unrideable by the end (I can't tell you how many times we ended up bouncing one-strides at the end of a line). The draw reins actually helped teach her to NOT run through the end of the line, and one time was all it took to help to teach her that half-halts have a place and she COULD rock back on her haunches and compress between fences. So, I think that they can have a place occasionally, if used correctly. That said, after watching the video I'm not entirely sure why they had her in the draw reins, and I would be nervous to jump a horse over fences that size with them (Sitka was doing 2' max the day we did draw reins, precisely because it was more about teaching her rideablility and less about the fence size).

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    1. See now that's an appropriate use for them... Tre was a 4 y/o in this video, they trained her exclusively in them. Not the right way to train greenbroke babies!!

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    2. Yeah, that they used them exclusively is what is confusing... seems like that would cause more problems than is would solve. I am sure you will get her sorted out and happy in no time, though!

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  7. Tre is really cute. I do wonder why in the world you would jump in draw reins. Crazy!

    Congrats on a good show!

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  8. Go O! Your girls are just awesome, so glad Tre's doing better too. She would look like a dinky toy in that picture were it not for the grinning human atop her!

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  9. Awesome on the show!! Tre is a super cute jumper...love her little zoomies around the course.

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  10. Tre looks terrific! It's the 'ole Andrea Magic Touch coming along again, no doubt. I guess there has been no hint of lameness lately? And the other people dumped her again, WHY???

    I agree that jumping in draw reins at that height is just looney-tunes. George Morris heart attack-worthy, for sure.

    Congrats on the Big Red Freight Train doing well and having fun at the show!

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  11. Yay on the ribbons and treats! You both won lol. Congrats!

    Jumping in draw reins...... ugh! I didn't realize she'd been trained over fences that high already. I can't wait to see what you can do with her. She's going to look a million times better with you. :) Oh and she is absolutely gorgeous!! I love that picture of you on her. I have no idea how you ride in jeans in a dressage saddle.... I did that once in a lesson and it rubbed the inside of my legs so raw I couldn't ride for a week! Oh I just realized your jeans are fitted. Mine were very relaxed fit. That's probably why they rubbed. I'm glad the fitted ones are comfy to ride in!

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    1. I don't usually ride in jeans in my dressage saddle... the seams rub the saddle and leave marks! But, my calf has been so awful lately that I can't seem to wear tall boots without feeling like I am going to die, so jeans and ropers it is!

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    2. Did you ever figure out what is causing the problem with your calf? I hope it gets to feeling better. :) I didn't even think about what the seam did to the saddle.. I was more worried about my poor raw legs lol. I wasn't criticizing, I was just surprised you could ride in jeans at all and be comfy, but I think it's because yours fit. Mine were loose when I got rubbed. Do you ever ride in paddock boots and half chaps? Might feel better than the jeans or the tall boots.

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  12. Tre is adorable! Personally, I love a small-statured horse (granted, I'm petite). They tend to be pretty athletic in my experience.

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  13. Tre is seriously adorable!! O is, too, of course (don't tell her I said Tre was cute first!) I can't view Tre's video, sad. Congrats on the schooling show success!!

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