Catch Up Post II: Pax's Two FEH Shows

Pax has survived the first two shows of her career! Or rather, *I* have survived Pax's first show shows.... with only some minor bodily injury on my part.

We all know Pax hit the ground rearing...

A very small sampling of rearing pictures taken over the past two years. A very, very small sampling.

So it's not really any surprise that, at almost two years of age, Pax still has a tendency to be.... light in her front end. She also has moments of what I can only describe as Toddler Rage, when you have a giant fit over something and your thrashing defies all reason, and also usually gravity. 

In early March, I decided to do a dry run with taking her off property and handling her in a strange environment, to see if she could mentally handle a show. I had taken her off the property by herself before, when she was almost a yearling, but she was such a wild animal that I decided to can showing her as a yearling and try again as a two year old. I'm glad I did - she's going to take a long, long time to mentally mature, but like with ponying, I tried it once when she was younger, decided to throw her back in the pasture for like a year, and then the next time I tried it went much better.

I hauled her to one of Dylan's lessons with Louisa as the trial. It was kind of the craziness you would expect when trailering a breeding stallion with a young sexy piece of tail - there was a lot of screaming, a lot of thrashing, and a lot of disracted horseflesh. Dylan was FIRED UP for his lesson, and Pax was obnoxious when left tied to the trailer. She put a foot through her haynet and had to be rescued, she pawed for about an hour, and then she finally decided to be quiet near the end of my lesson. After putting Dylan away, I led Pax over to the arena, and Louisa helped me lunge her a bit. She did very well! She has the basics of how to lunge, very lightly, and she trotted in hand like a civilized creature. I figured I had the green light to send in my entries for the two FEH classes I wanted to attend - one at Meadowcreek HT, and one at the Texas Rose HT.

I knew the judges wouldn't care too much for her. She's very short, and short-legged, and not a big mover. She's not a *bad* mover, certainly, but she's not going to Rolex. She's not one of those lean, long legged freak movers they're looking for. The FEH is designed to find the best that American breeders are producing, and Pax is not that. But, it's a good experience for her - you have to go and perform some simple tasks in front of a judge, wearing a bridle, and more or less behaving yourself in a strange environment. Plus, you get to see the eye candy that other breeders are producing. 

The first show was Meadowcreek. After bathing and braiding Pax at home (which she was very good for), we trailered in for the day, parked on the far side of the showgrounds, and tied to the trailer. Pax sort of held it together for the first twenty minutes or so, and then I bridled her and led her over to the showjumping arena, her halter overtop her bridle. I wisely brought a Newmarket shank instead of reins, as I thought there was no way I would be able to hold onto her if I didn't have a longer lead. The rules changed and helmets are now required, but I did not know that at the time - the steward didn't catch me until after the show was over, but oh well. I remembered it when we went to Tyler. Actually it's probably because of horses like Pax that they changed that rule.

Keeping her brain intact for a short while

I didn't go too crazy with the grooming - I carefully trimmed her bridlepath with scissors, half-assed her whiskers, and left her ears totally alone. I wore a polo but didn't tuck it in, so I didn't really make an effort myself either. Usually I get a little more into it, but I mostly was worried about not dying instead of looking nice, so I did have an excuse!

Walking over to the arena was.... exciting. She had to cross a dirt bridge with a ravine on either side, which was a bit scary. She had to pass a long string of flapping flags, which was pretty exciting for a minute. And she had to stand still while we waited our turn to go in the ring, although I did pacify her with some grazing. At least she was calm enough to do that!

For the FEH, it's basically set up like any other sporthorse in hand class. You stand up for the judge, who goes around the horse and judges conformation. Then you walk the horse in hand on the triangle, and then trot the triangle so that the judge can see the horse moving away and towards them, and also in a straight line past them. The judge scores you on conformation and gaits, and somewhat on behavior too - but mostly on type. 

There were a lot of young horses there - six two year olds in my division! That's crazy. And good for the program! Not so great for us though - we scored in the 70s but were still dead last in our division. The judge liked her legs and hind end, was a bit critical of the short front legs and the thicker warmblood type, and didn't care much for her gaits. We also got heavily dinged on her behavior, which was... appalling. There was a LOT of rearing and striking, and we had to trot parts of the triangle repeatedly, because we just could not do it without leaping and striking. 

Ohhhhh no

Just a few of the rearing pictures captured. Believe me, there were more. 

So, it wasn't a great day, but it went about as well as I expected. It was a good experience for Pax, who had to ride in the trailer alone for the first really long ride she ever had to go on, and had to survive tied to the trailer even though she didn't like it. Not too bad, not too bad.

The second show was two weeks later, at the Texas Rose HT. It's the same distance from me as Meadowcreek, which made for another trailer-in for the afternoon. There were fewer babies at this show but more going on, especially where they had us park. There were horses schooling, horses passing, people and vehicles going by. I think Pax did better with other horses around - where she was at Meadowcreek, she couldn't see anyone easily, which bothered her a bit. She was much quieter tied to the trailer, bridled easily, and led a LOT better than she had at Meadowcreek. 

In the ring, she scored about the same overall, but this judge liked her gaits a lot more and her legs less. She loved her hind end and highly complimented her on that. She was a lot nicer than the previous judge too - she asked about her and what my goals were with her, and thanked us at the end. Pax did have one majorly explosive rear the second I tried to trot off - caught on camera, no less! - and when she struck out she nailed me right in the arm. It hurt, but I wasn't injured, and we continued on. I kept her under powered for our trot work, mostly because I did not want to incite any more explosive behavior. She was losing her patience by the end of the class, but walked back to the trailer quietly enough, and then stood there like a champ when we were finished. She parked herself and munched quietly on her haybag for quite a long time when we were done, even when we left her to go to the office to collect our scoresheets and ribbons. We were second (out of two), so we at least got  a piece of satin for our efforts, but overall I was super pleased with how much better she behaved at the second show. Especially the end when she stood immobile and quiet when left tied to the trailer!

The photographer at Texas Rose got some awesome shots of Pax, which I will be ordering and sharing when they come in. For now, you'll just have to wait!

For now, Pax goes back out into the field. She'll get groomed and trimmed regularly, but she's off duty until next year. It's time to just kick back, relax, and grow up. She will be two next week.... can you believe it! 

Day 326

Day 326 is here and gone - and no baby!!

She rested comfortably for most of the night while the storms whirled around us. We didn't get anything too major, but other bloggers did... I'm sure you'll hear those stories too. We are lucky today. We may not be next time. 

This morning O acted funny again around 7am, but quit shortly thereafter and took a very long nap. So long in fact that I finally just gave up, turned her out with Dylan, and went back to sleep. When I woke up they were both in the foaling stall together, just resting. I kicked Dylan out, locked her in, and decided to trot to the feed store to get hay. By the time I returned, it was sunny and beautiful out, with the foaling paddock area dry and nice, so I moved the entire panel system back AGAIN and rehung my lights. One light is already burned out.... Comedy of errors. I bought the dumb thing two days ago.

She now has bright white milk and literally nowhere else to go on the milk testing chart. I am done testing because I would rather leave her colostrum alone rather than risk losing any amount. She dripped some today so I want to keep the rest in as much as I can.

Surely tonight.... Surely!?

Day 325, Comedy of Errors Style

Well wouldn't you know my luck. Last night O was testing very close to imminent, and I fretted all night about whether or not I should stay home, or go to the show. I pretty much knew my answer by 5am - safer to scratch and watch my mare than to risk driving off and having her foal alone.

At 7am, she started to get restless. She hadn't eaten much all night, and was stretching out like she had to pee, but wouldn't. She then went right into pawing, sweating, and trotting around. Yes, literally trotting in circles. Around and around she went, only stopping to paw. This is it, I thought! This is labor!

Aaaaaand two hours went by. Three hours. She stopped and took a nap. She started up again. Then she stopped. Started. Stopped. It was impossible to tell how much of her irritation and tail swishing was due to the flies that had come out by this time. But after six or so hours, I felt pretty confident that the baby was just repositioning. 

Damnit mare. I scratched from a series show for this! Did I mention we were supposed to be at a WE show? I will have more on that soon, because we did go for our dressage on Saturday! EOH and speed were today but obviously I stayed home. Because my life is a comedy of errors.

So late afternoon comes around and the sky gets black. I check the forecast - oh great. Tornados. Yes, tornados. We are supposed to have hail and tornados. Fml. Comedy of errors. 

With much grumbling and heaving, I dismantled the pen and moved the entire thing into the front pasture so that it could be placed in her shed. I sectioned it off half for her with a run, and half for Dylan. At dinnertime, I checked her milk again, and she is even closer than she was before - now decidedly in the 95% category. We should have a baby within 12 hours but since my life is a comedy of errors I guarantee nothing!

So once I have done all of this I realize that I can't see her in her shed. I didn't even think about putting up a camera but it orrcurs to me that I can run to the store and get a baby monitor easily enough. I drive off with the clouds hanging low, picked a suitable monitor, and came home. I set the whole thing up, turned on the screen, and... The screen is cracked. It's faulty.

Comedy of errors.

Back to the store.

The second time was the charm... The monitor is up and working. And now.... We wait.

When It Rains, It Pours

My life motto for the past several years has been "if you're not laughing, you're crying." My life is basically a constant comedy of errors, as I've written about before, and January thus far is really kicking off in fine style. 

I had big hopes for 2017. Have. Still have. There are a lot of things I decided are going to happen this year - 2016 ended pretty much with a crash and I decided that I wasn't going to let that get the best of me. I had increasingly good years following my move to Texas, and last year felt a little bit like a plateau. I want it to keep getting better, so I decided that I'm going to *make* it better myself. 

I decided this is the year Future Hubs are getting married (and then he can just be Hubs). We've been engaged for several years now, but I decided this year we're officially tying the knot. 

I also decided this year I'm getting a new truck. I've been wanting one for awhile, but my truck has officially reached an age now where I feel like it's rather important to get a new one sooner than later. Old Patron has 260,000 miles on it, and I am not sure I am really going to get another year of heavy use out of it. 

So positive stuff right?

Weddings are expensive. Super expensive. So, that's something to keep in mind. But that's easy enough right?

Well. There is more. New trucks are expensive... really expensive. Truthfully what I need to do is buy a low mileage used one, or one that isn't a brand brand new one (like a 2015-16 model instead of a 17). And really, I need to do this sooner than later, as my current truck is losing value with every day that passes. At some point it will be worth nothing and then I'll really be in trouble. 

Okay. That's fine. Two big expenses, that's doable. I think. 

Then I took my trailer in for it's yearly going over. I went to a new dealer, one I had been to for another small trailer repair and really liked at the time. He fixed up a bunch of things for me, put a bunch of improvements on like a new jack and LED lights, and then told me that there is some rust on the underside. The sides are aluminum and the frame is steel, and we already sandplasted and primed and painted it once before some years ago. I'm going to take it back in next month and have some reinforcements welded onto the underside, which will strengthen the frame. But the trailer is 17 years old now, and the fact is that I use it every week, several times a week. It gets a TON of use. Really and truly, it is time for me to get a new one, and sell this to someone who will be a little more gentle on it. Despite its age, it is really in great shape otherwise, and it certainly has served me well over the years. But it's time to move on - and probably get a 3 horse, considering how many animals I have now. My 2 horse is a warmblood size, which I needed at the time (Metro was a BIG BOY), but now all of my horses are 16.0 or under, except for Frank. A 3 horse slant is better suited to my needs - but do I get a gooseneck or a BP? I have to get a new truck first, especially if I consider a gooseneck. I also have to factor in the fact that I have to transport my carriages, which usually go in the bed of my truck - which means I can't have a gooseneck unless I have enough room inside the trailer to transport a carriage. There's a lot to consider. 

And, that's a third big expense. Can I really afford this?

And then today happened. I have a second vehicle, a mini van, that I use for toodling. I was heading to go see B2 and R for brunch this morning, and in the fog and rain I rear ended another small car. My radiator is crunched and the front end is all busted up, but at least I'm okay. B2 and R came to my rescue, checked me out, and helped me get the mini van home safely. As per my parents' advice (both attorneys), this little runaround vehicle only has liability insurance, not full collision coverage. I have to pay for all the repairs myself. 

So, that's a FOURTH big expense. It's worth fixing since it's clearly still driveable and fine (we drove it home post-accident), but.... still. Seriously. My god. Is it ever going to end!?

Sigh. Oh well. At least I'll have shiny new things, even if I'll be in debt for like.... ever. And ever. 

Fix mini van first, then wedding nonsense. New truck next, then new trailer. Or.... something.

Oh yeah.... and I need to still find enough money at the end of the day to SHOW! 

Since the trailer is back, Dylan is back to work as of tomorrow. Thank god too, I've been dying to go riding. It's been rainy and gross here for several days now, and without my trailer and subsequent access to an indoor arena, I have been out of luck. So at least after this, I'll be able to start blogging regularly again, at least about Dylan. Maybe not so much about the others until the rain stops....!

OH YEAH ONE MORE THING. I finally bought some new tall boots after trying on a million different pairs and not finding any that fit me properly. We ordered some through Dover, they arrived this week, and.... they don't fit. At ALL. So now I need to take them back and keep looking. Because I just have so much money and time to throw around! 

Can't you cut me just a LITTLE slack universe? I'm REALLY getting tired of this and it's only the 15th of January. 

Big Momma looking BIIIIIIIIIG

Seriously how is she getting bigger!?

The Arctic Blast

Texas is not known for being gentle or half-assed about ANYTHING. This of course includes the weather, and this past weekend was a prime example of the extremes that we get.

This usually happens a few times every winter, but this time it was EXTREME. It was about 75 and somewhat humid on Saturday. The horses had all been naked the night before, and were enjoying the warmth. Future Hubs and I had to leave that morning to go to Austin for his family Christmas, so I left my pet sitter with instructions to blanket them when the cold front hit that evening. We knew the temperature was going to drop, but you never really can appreciate how violent it is until it actually hits.

The cold front coming in. No precipitation, that's just REALLY cold air!

We were out on the porch having some beers when the cold front hit. It came in like a freaking freight train. Out of nowhere, this huge cloud covered everything, and suddenly we were slammed with icy cold wind. Chairs flipped over, papers flew, and people fled for cover as our fingers and faces instantly froze. The temperature dropped from almost 80 degrees to 20 in a matter of minutes, with wind chills in the single digits. It was like Mother Nature reached down and punched Texas in the face, and then beat us with a bag of ice. 

Back at home, my poor pet sitter was faring little better. I had wrapped all the faucet heads ahead of time, and made sure the insulation in the well house was good, but all the hoses still froze immediately, and the troughs iced over. The horses were naked and the wind was gusting wildly, so my pet sitter had to catch and blanket all the ones that needed it (P, Pax, O, Big Frank, and Dylan). Most everyone was easy to catch, and I had her catch and blanket Zoodle too (she said he was wonderful), but she couldn't catch Dylan. The neighbor's collie was back and chasing him around, and he was doing his usual you're-a-stranger-and-can't-be-trusted thing, giving her the runaround and refusing to be caught by any means. It must have taken her an hour, including the few minutes where she had to go sit in her hot car and warm up. Finally she got him after she gave O a carrot and convinced him to come and get one too. 

Fortunately, everyone survived the horrible weather. It was 14 degrees on Sunday morning, and the windchill was 3 degrees. When we arrived home it was little better, still very cloudy and gusty with temps in the 20s. Naturally, since *something* had to go wrong while I was away, when we arrived home all the mules and mares had let themselves out into the yard and were causing a ruckus. Dylan and O were FREAKING out. I grabbed Pmare, and everyone more or less followed her back into the pasture like little sheep. Everyone was fine thankfully, but of course, my life is a comedy of errors so something HAD to happen while I was away.

Moo and Tonka say, the only way to survive cold weather is to be inside and asleep

Finally warmed up today!

Unfortunately WD was not unaffected by the cold snap. A pipe burst in the indoor, which flooded the arena and made it unusable. I'm sure it will be fixed soon, but I guess Dylan's winter break is starting a little early! It's too cold to do much anyway, but when you have a lit arena to trailer to, you can make due during the winter even when it's chilly. Except... not if the arena is a skating rink.

Oh well!

The Hay Saga

I've been dealing with a super annoying hay saga over the past month. It has me at my wit's end - I am SO irritated by the entire thing!

It started out innocently enough. I net all of my hay in slow feeders, and have done so for years. Simple, right? A good idea? 

I have to hang my haynets at a certain height, because I found out pretty quickly that little Uma in particular likes to paw at the nets, and her tiny little feet tend to get stuck in the holes. It gets old finding a tiny mule standing out in the field doing a stationary can-can kick. You can only walk out of run out of house in a panic so many times before you decide they need to be higher. Unfortunately, they can't be TOO high, because then the mules can't reach them. There really isn't a height where she can reach with her mouth, but can't reach with her feet. 

Not comfortable for eating

And then, there is the destructive force of nature known as Pmare. Pmare is so smart that she takes all of these softer nets and carefully and systematically shreds them until she forms giant holes in them. She is so smart that she can undo the repairs I make to the nets as well. Once she creates a giant hole, not only does she wolf down all the hay in record time - completely defeating the purpose of a haynet - but if it is muddy out, she drags half of it onto the ground and smashes it into the dirt. She completely defeats the dual purpose of haynets - keep the hay fed out in a steady slow stream, and keep it from getting pooped and peed on.

Hay around here ain't cheap. A bale of timothy costs me about S40. Yes, S40. I'm not kidding you. At some point, I decided that this was ridiculous and unaffordable, so for the littles I also added in some coastal. The main show horses live exclusively on timothy, orchard, and some alfalfa, but the smalls get coastal too as it is much less expensive (grown locally). Even though I'm a northern snob and had a hard time letting go of my distaste for coastal, as long as I find the best hay that I can it works fine.

Pmare's net shredding finally got old after she tore holes in ALL of the nets one day, and wasted a bunch of expensive hay. I promptly went to the store and bought the smallest holed nets I could find, 1" x 1". Tear THOSE up, I thought gleefully.

And, they worked! Not only did they slow her way down, but nobody was able to destroy them.

Until one day I looked in Zoodle's mouth, and noticed that the nets has been cutting his gums. In order for the material to be tough enough to stand up to Pmare, it had to be so rough that it damaged poor Zoodle's wee little gums. 

Poor baby!

That was the end of that. I threw in the towel. This elitist hay snob from the north went right out and got a roundbale, for the first time in my life.

And even THAT wasn't without drama. Finding a supplier of really good quality horse roundbales is NOT easy. My first supplier was awesome but doesn't normally sell singles, so it was no good to keep going back there. My second supplier promised me the moon and stars, and the bale ended up being moldy and smelly. The third time was a charm - I think I finally found a supplier of horse quality, tested and certified, barn stored hay that will suit my needs. Although that said, he hasn't called me back yet after I left him a message this morning....

One more word to the wise about unloading roundbales. If you are the ultimate clutz like I am, and also have a knack for breaking windows on accident, I'm just telling you now that it will probably happen. 

One expensive roundbale

Because my life is a comedy of errors, that's why. 

Oink Oink

JenJ just posted about the weird thing that wandered onto her property recently. I too have had a weird thing wander onto our property recently... and it's still here!

Uhhh....

There is this fat pig that has been wandering around our neighborhood for some months now. I keep seeing her here and there, and I was starting to wonder if she was a potbelly pig that got dumped when she got too large. (That "teacup" pig fad where people buy little piglets and assume they're going to stay tiny forever... they don't stay tiny!)

One day, she wandered up my driveway. Much to my surprise too - I was outside doing chores, and all of a sudden there was this pig wandering towards me. I was completely surprised by this - what pig wanders if it is taken care of? There isn't another driveway close to ours, not really. She had to wander a fair way to get up to our driveway. But once here, she made it quite clear that she had no intention of leaving again.

I gave her a little mud hole, some fresh water to drink, and some veggies. Her back was sunburned and the skin cracking, so I put some lotion on her and let her go wallow in her mud for awhile. Apparently, to a pig this means "welcome to the spa, make yourself at home." And she stayed. 

I left the gate open, so she could go home. But she did not go home. She stayed. For days.

I finally managed through a series of complicated events to track down her owner. She lives several houses down from me, quite a long ways from where my driveway entrance is. She was just as surprised as anyone when she realized where she was and how far she had wandered. They took her home, and I thought that was that, although I really like pigs and had enjoyed her time with me so much that I considered adopting one of my own. Like I need any more animals...!

And then, last week, she came back.

LET ME IN

She couldn't get in through my no climb, so she sat in my neighbor's yard (we share a fenceline) all day and complained. She finally actually broke through my no climb - no, seriously! - and let herself back onto my property. That's a determined pig!

I texted the owner, and she is out of town right now. The pig was supposed to be home with her husband, but apparently the pig doesn't like the husband, so she ran away from home to come back to our house. And I use the term "ran" pretty loosely... more like, shuffled her morbidly obese self over to our house. The husband had no idea she was even missing, even though she had been gone for a full day. 

The owner won't be back for at least another week, so I guess we're pig sitting? 

Oh yea... did I mention they're super destructive? We're graveling the carport and she has decided that the carport is her home, and this landscaping fabric was in her way. 

Although I don't know why they've even bother to pick her up at this point... she's just going to run away again and come back to our house and break down our fence again!

Cowboy Country HDT 6/4-6/5/16 - Dressage and Cones

Doing back-to-back shows is insanely exhausting. I've done it a few times in my showing career, but it always leaves me feeling like I have a million loose ends at home and at work that I haven't gotten done on any kind of timely basis, which I don't like. As we have a limited amount of shows in our area, we don't have a lot in the way of choices, so when there is a big show and then another big show right after it - well, that's what we do. Immediately after getting home from Pine Hill - the very next day - I set to work prepping everything all over again, washing all of my show clothes and O's boots, cleaning my carriage, washing harness, remembering tests and courses, getting hay and feed, and all the rest of the song and dance that comes before a show, on top of working basically nonstop all week. 

Friday arrived in no time, and before I knew it I was loading up my carriage and getting ready to hit the road. One downside to driving is that it's basically the biggest song and dance production you've ever seen in terms of getting gear ready for a show. You think it's a pain in the butt to clean a couple of bridles? Try scrubbing down a marathon carriage. Sometimes people bring TWO carriages. And two harnesses. And two horses, or four horses! Can you imagine? Four horses plus a spare horse, eight plus sets of harness, and two big carriages? It's hard enough to me to wrangle just one carriage, one harness, and one horse - especially since I do it all myself. It's such a process to get ready - the carriage has to be cleaned, then it has to be winched carefully into the bed of my truck and strapped in securely, then the trailer has to be hitched, and THEN the horse gets loaded. THEN we can get on the road.

Naturally, as is apparently my curse when going to shows, I had YET ANOTHER flat on the way up.

Again!!

I had replaced the spare on the way down to Pine Hill after the other blowout, so I had my brand new spare ready to go (hell, the spare I put on for Pine Hill was also literally brand new). I didn't replace the spare on the continuing trip this time for some reason - I don't know why, but I just knew I wasn't going to get another flat. And, I didn't. Although relying on a feeling like that isn't exactly recommended most of the time.

Oklahoma is pretty

We arrived in Stillwater after an otherwise uneventful drive, if you don't count the tire blowing and driving through yet another small town completely decimated by a huge tornado. Apparently that is also something that happens when I go to horse shows? 

Because the world is really small, my favorite college professor who taught me for four years when we were both in Ohio now lives in Stillwater. As such, I had an extra set of hands and a soft squashy local bed to crash in all weekend - what are the odds! I love Dr. G dearly and am always glad to see her, and still shake my head in wonder over the fact that we both ended up way down here, far away from the chilly crap winters of Ohio. Dr. G met me at the showgrounds and helped me set up O's stall and tuck her in for the night, and we also picked up my packet. After unloading my carriage, we went and walked the cones course, which made me feel itchy just looking at it. The thing was the most horribly cranker of a course that I've ever seen, and I'm pretty sure the turns were all set for VSEs. It was also on a bit of terrain, which was not something we've practiced much with. I was feeling very confident coming off of my clean cones at Pine Hill, so I wasn't terribly worried about it at the time. 

I also got to meet Bumblebee when Dr. G and I went to dinner.... Optimus Prime was on the other side of town. Who knew?

The morning came WAY too early, and after staggering out of bed and making my way back to the showgrounds, I did my usual morning ritual of feeding the mare, cleaning her stall, taking her for a handgraze, and then going to walk the cones again. O was AWFUL about eating all weekend long. She's a good eater at home, but horrible when she is at shows. She lives on Ulcergard and ProCMC when we go away on overnights, which is probably the only thing that saves her from being eaten alive with ulcers. Over the entire course of the weekend, I don't think she ate more than two flakes of hay total, if that. She also managed to eat one of her grain meals, but only one - it took her the entire weekend to finish it. Granted, I had put some electrolytes in there, which she doesn't like taste of, but still. She grazed whenever I'd take her out, and here and there I would catch her eating, but she did not eat much. She doesn't act concerned, or nervous, or anxious in any way - she just stands in her stall and looks around, or stands in her stall and naps. It drives me completely nuts, but as long as she is on her ulcer preventative, and is at least eating some cookies and grass, that's something. 

I watched three VSEs (mini horses) eliminate out in a row on the cones course, and started to feel a little more anxious about it. Even they were having hard times making those tight turns. How was my big horse going to handle it?

I bathed the mare, readied all my gear, and hitched up for dressage. I felt that I had warmed up for too long at both Sunrise Ridge and at Pine Hill, so I shortened my warmup quite a lot. While I think it was a decent move to do, I still had a blazing hot horse when coming down the centerline. In some ways, this was good, because I had all the forward I needed - I got tagged at Pine Hill for not being forward enough. This time, we were *too* forward, and I got a few comments that we were rushed here and there. I also lost a whole lot in the way of relaxation and submission, because I basically had no submission whatsoever. O overshot all of her transitions and fought me through nearly all of them - she wanted to trot, and trot NOW, and trot fast. She chucked her head in the air a few times in both the downward and upward transitions, although they must not have looked quite as horrible as they felt because the judge did not hammer me on them. The test scored mostly 6s all the way down the line, which I felt was fair. We ended up with a 62.0, which was actually only one point worse than our score at Pine Hill. 

I think this was an effort to keep her straight on the centerline, and failing to do so

I definitely need to learn to SIT UP when I am in the box seat. Why do I always hunch over?
I'm also starting to dislike my outfit. I don't actually think the color goes with O as much as I had originally thought it did. Ah well... lots of time to think about that, for the future.

We were in 3rd after dressage - not last for once!!

In the cones, however, things got all kinds of interesting. And by interesting, I mean they were terrible. O just was on the muscle from the first turn, which was this horrible cranker to the right. I creamed the very first cone, and had a firebreathing dragon on my hands all of a sudden - head tossing, snarling, no steering and no brakes. And then suddenly, too many brakes, when she nearly stopped dead in the middle of the combination.

So angry

SO SUPER ANGRY!

  

Really? I hit the first one? Really?

Angryyyyyyy

Less angry

A lot less angry

Me looking down at the ball I am knocking over... damnit all

Overall, I had three knockdowns but quite amazingly no time faults. I had to spend a few minutes schooling the mare in the warmup on how we listen to turning aids and how we don't just thrash around angrily whenever we don't want to do something. I think she could very well be out again chiropractically after Pine Hill - she's not normally THAT disagreeable. Had I thought of it, I would have gotten her adjusted this past week, but... she could also just have been being her red self, which she does whenever you make her mad with too tight of a turn when she didn't expect it. I have to be careful in how I set her up so as not to fluster her little brain beyond capacity.

We were in 3rd again in the cones, so solidly we were in 3rd overall. The cones course was truthful carnage - not ONE horse or pony went clean, not anybody. A few VSEs went clean, but not any of the large horses. I also feel strongly that some of my cones were awfully narrow - they didn't all appear to be measured the same, but I didn't say anything to show management as I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination or not. Several other people said the same thing to me later though, so it's hard to say.

After dressage, I washed the mare, cleaned the harness and carriage, and got ready for the next day....

Pine Hill HDT 5/28-5/29/2016 - Part I, Getting There

Normally I would not need dedicate an entire post to just the journey to get to a show, but it was kind of completely insane, so in order to not put everything into a GIANT chunk I will separate it out!

If you've been watching the news recently, you'll have noticed a lot of reports on the EPIC FLOODING that happened in southeast Texas this past weekend. Images of 100+ head of cattle stranded on the freeway, several drownings, dozens of total road closures, people stranded, water actively flowing over the roads.
Yeah. That was all EXACTLY where we were all weekend. EXACTLY the town we were in.

On Friday morning, the day before the show, the TD contacted all of us to say that while  nearby Brenham had gotten literally 17" of rain - no, seriously, they really did - the showgrounds had at that point only gotten 1". The show was on, so we got ready to roll. It was also raining up here in DFW, so I had to wait to finish washing my carriage and putting out hay for the home horses, as Future Hubs is allergic to it and can't do it himself. I was on the road with O by 12:30pm, and B2 got on the road at about 3pm. This will come into play later.

Well, over the course of the day I tailed pitch black rainclouds the WHOLE way there. Halfway down, I got a trailer flat, and had to pull over to change it. I seriously am cursed with trailer tires... I change them ALL the time. I had literally just gotten a new spare two days beforehand. 

Damnit

Double damnit

I was not feeling so good about the radar or the look of things. It looked as though it were raining heavily at the showgrounds. Immediately after passing through Navasota, I had to slow down and stare wide eyed at the trees and houses sprawled in broken pieces all over the place - a tornado had come through that area and shredded everything into toothpicks.

At some point, my nerves forced me to pull over into the nearest Discount Tire so that I could replace my spare. Since I clearly have fantastic luck with flats on my trailer, I decided that continuing on without a spare was the worst idea possible, so I went and replaced it. They told me it would be at least 30 minutes, which did not make me happy - O isn't a great traveler most of the time, and tends to fidget when the trailer isn't moving, as well as refuse to eat any of her hay for the entire journey. I don't know why she won't eat from a haybag parked in front of her nose for several super boring hours of just being in one spot forever but she won't. So, I stood in the trailer with her, stuffing cookies into her mouth, and waited for my spare to be replaced, which it eventually was. O was really quite good, and contented herself with just watching the mechanics work on cars. She's not afraid of things like heavy loud machinery, just interested in watching.

We continued on, following the black clouds. Rather amazingly, it did not ever rain on *me* while I was driving. I did, however, come across this right before I got to the showgrounds:

Ooooookay then

If you can't tell, that's water. That's ALL water. And some of it was flowing along at a fair pace too. I stopped the trailer while trying to decide what to do, then watched several tiny cars go through it without a problem, so I decided to go for it. Normally I am a pretty adamant turn-around-don't-drown advocate, but in this situation I was kind of stuck. I had nowhere to go. None of the little cars had any trouble, so my big heavy truck and trailer were likely to be all right. We made it through fine and the water wasn't deep. The road wasn't closed on my side, but they had erected a barricade on the other side of the road, which could not be seen from where I was. It was a pretty hairy few minutes. Don't do what I did. 

I made it to the showgrounds without further incident, unloaded O and her buckets and haybag, then dropped the trailer and unloaded the carriage. We all had dinner and a competitor's meeting, and then I started to get texts from B2. She was stuck - the road was flooded. She turned around, and tried to go a different route - it was also flooded. Then she got a flat tire too, and was stuck on the side of the road. Roadside assistance came to help her thankfully, but I think she was strongly considering saying screw it and going back to Dallas. 

While she was on her way, I went out to see the cones course. And oh man... the conditions were HORRIBLE. The showgrounds got at least 7" of rain that I know of that day alone, and it could have been more. Everything was literally underwater. Someone found an actual fish swimming through the dressage arena. A FISH. THERE IS PROOF.

A LITERAL FISH IN THE DRESSAGE ARENA I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING RIGHT NOW

Well, that wasn't terribly promising. The cones course was also basically underwater, which made walking very mucky but did give some specatcular views on the tail of the storm:

Lovely view, terrible everything else.

B2 eventually made it, and after making sure O was settled for the night, we got into my truck and headed back into Bellville. We were *supposed* to go to Sealy to where our hotel was, but we hadn't even gotten out of town yet when we were flagged down and turned around by a road crew. The road was closed, they said. Yes, flooded. To Sealy? Well, go that way and around.... for like an hour... and maybe there will be open roads somewhere. We weren't all that keen on that idea, so we went into Bellville and picked the only hotel we could find, a seedy Budget Inn. I've never been to Pine Hill before, so I didn't know about the *lovely* accommodations there. As The $900 Facebook Pony told us afterwards, "make sure you get checked for Ghonoherpasyphicrabs."

O says, I am not completely sure about this whole thing

The next morning, we were up bright and early for the show.... stay tuned for the rest of the story soon!