Lesson 11/1/16

We went back to Trainer L's yesterday for a second lesson (and, most certainly, the second of what will be many many many lessons in the future). One of the things I am really liking about L is the fact that has the ability to hone right into what needs to be done, and pull out a specific exercise for that problem. She herself has a Spanish stallion, and she understands that riding these horses is just different from riding warmbloods. When up on big huge bouncy warmbloods, you tend to have to stack yourself and create some energy. The hotheaded Spanish horses are all about riding quietly, really really quietly. L at one point said, "He can hear everything going on inside your head, so you need to have a secret compartment in your brain for XYZ transitions and whatnot that you're about to do." As in, don't let him hear your brain shrieking about the fact that you're about to canter at C. To a horse like Dylan especially, who is hyper aware of his rider and also to literally everything going on around him all at the same time, being quiet is really really important. You think it, and he does it. 

Wearing the Halloween devil horns, and seriously contemplating bucking me off and leaving for the border

I warmed up walking and trotting around by myself for a few minutes before L came to the arena - complete with a very elderly loose horse who was wandering through the arena by myself. His pasture gate was open and he was just casually meandering through, stopping to look in the mirror at himself for awhile. Dylan was not sure what to think about that, but I think it's good for them to have to deal with those kinds of situations. Should a horse ever get loose for real, it's nice to know that he won't go all Hi Yo Silver on me and lose his brain completely. He was fully aware that this one was loose, not attached to a human and not separated from him by a fence, so he was especially attentive. 

I was really unhappy to find out that posting, something I don't seem to do very much of, caused my bad leg to cramp up worse than it has been in a long time. It's not usually like that, but then again I am two weeks out from a massage and do need another one, so that could have something to do with it. Usually I warm Dylan up in the walk and canter, and when we get to trotwork his back is loose and ready to accept a sitting rider, so I sit. I don't post much if at all, unless we are stretching or doing the occasional trot warmup. Apparently this motion is really bad news for my calf - I wonder now if part of the reason I've been going so pain-free is because I haven't been posting enough to cause it major aggravation. My calf was stiff and painful for the rest of the entire ride, locked up and useless. It was disheartening - I really thought maybe the worst of it was behind me. I guess I was wrong.

Despite the leg being terrible, the rest of the lesson was great. I think the leg must no longer look obviously problematic, because L asked if my right leg is the one with the problem (it isn't, it's the left). I tend to collapse on one side and have a harder time keeping my right seatbone engaged and my right leg working properly. We started off doing some walk work, and then went into trotwork, with an emphasis on quiet and relaxation. Dylan likes to do things with almost explosive enthusiasm - OKAY CANTER GO! SCREECHING HALT! ZOOMING AWAY INTO MEDIUM! - so we worked on slowing everything down, focusing on relaxation. We spent a bit of time doing lateral work - 10m circles to shoulder in, 10m circles to haunches in - but his lateral work is really quite good, so we moved on to something needing more attention. His mediums are also really good, but he does tend to be so enthusiastic and abrupt in everything that he does, so down the long time we specifically focused on moving in and out of his trot mediums gradually, taking 4-6 strides to max him out, and 4-6 strides to bring him back. After a little walk break, we switched directions (at my request, because my leg was really cramped up and I felt I needed to canter to the left first to give it a rest) and started a really excellent canter exercise that I will absolutely use at home. First, we would turn down the centerline and leg yield to the rail at the canter, mostly just letting him drift back to the rail without a real definite lateral aid (but, he knows what to do). The emphasis was to let his shoulders lead the way, and bend him his neck a little more than would normally be acceptable. The idea was to gymnasticize him a bit, to get him to loosen up in his neck and work outside of what he expects is going to happen. As L put it, he tends to think inside his little box - he knows all of these things and he does them exactly the way he thinks they need to be done, so sometimes we need to encourage him to color outside the lines. By expanding his mind a little, it keeps him on his toes waiting for a cue from the rider instead of just assuming he knows what is going to happen, and going ahead and just doing it himself. From there, after a few of those gymnasticizing canter leg yields, we would come up the quarterline instead of the centerline, leg yield back to the rail about halfway down the arena (approx E or B depending on which side we were on), and then half pass back to the quarterline. The first few of these, Dylan wanted to lead a bit with his haunches, so L had me think about going across the diagonal to the opposite side of the arena when initiating my half pass. This profoundly changed the entire thing to me, and right away there was a massive improvement in the exercise. He really moved with power through his half passes - so much easier than before. When we switched directions, we had to focus again on my right side, and how I tend to spiral and collapse in one direction. L told me to think about my seatbones almost being pulled forward up into my ribcase, so I was REALLY paying attention to using the right one. She told me to also bring my right shoulder back, think about opening my chest, and let my shoulderblades settle back. This also had a profound effect on the exercise, and I did the thing so much better once I was really thinking about using and securing that rouge right seatbone. It does tend to float away by itself sometimes, which is not useful to anybody. 

At the end of the lesson, I told her my goals for this horse. I said that I have him for an extended period of time and therefore there is no rush, but I do want to go out at 4th level and I do want to get my silver medal on him. I asked her if she honestly thinks it is doable and she responded with an enthusiastic yes, and that we really aren't that far away from that. The main thing we tend to lack is relaxation, which is definitely true, but that we have all the other components in place. She asked if I wanted to finish out my bronze medal too, and I thought about it. I have scores through first, but that's it, so I would need to go back and do 2nd and 3rd. I'm less interested in that because I probably can do that on a different horse in the future, but I almost certainly will never have the chance to get my silver scores on an already made upper level horse again. I have to prioritize. But, she is right - and I should think about it. 

On a totally unrelated note, look how ADORABLE this guy is in his new harness.... even though the breastcollar is too small! I'll have to have them send me a bigger one! I'll be writing a full baby update in my next post, just because I never really got a chance to cover them at all last month!

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Mind Over Matter

Over the course of building a business, I have been through many phases of what time means to me, and what busy means to me. When first starting out and transitioning over from a full time job and some small time trimming, I had no time whatsoever, but I only had one horse. Eventually I had two horses, then three, then two again, and then one again, and back to two, and so on. I went from a full time job and small time trimming to a part time job and part time trimming, which inevitably opened up a large portion of free time. When I was not actively working on business building, I had tons of down time to ride and play and do whatever I wanted. I was broke then, but I did all right, and I knew I should enjoy all the time I had, because one day I would have the money instead of the time. The business grew over time, and my free time started to dwindle. I started to have to redefine what "available time and energy for pleasure horse pursuits" started to be. It used to be I would need a full day off to get some real horseytime in. Working days tired me out, and I didn't ride or work horses on those days for the most part. Then my time REALLY started to dwindle, and I realized that if I was going to have horseytime at all, I was going to have to just get over my tiredness at the end of the day and just do it. That was extremely hard for me at first, but I really put my mind to it, and now I get it done. It's not uncommon for me to go out and do 15+ horses, and then ride or lunge a few when I get home. My biggest limitations are daylight and drive time - if I have to drive all over the Metroplex, to get my quota of horses done, it takes significantly longer than if I get them all done in just one or two stops. Every day is different, which is one of the great appeals of my job. I get to see different people every day, take different routes, and have fresh things to work on and see. But I do have to spend some time planning ahead, so that I know for sure when I have time to work whoever needs to be worked. 

The babies take hardly any time at all, although they always take mental energy. The Zoodle Himself is doing extremely well, and continues to be incredibly friendly and kind. He loves people, loves scratches, and will always come over for a snuggle. I've ponied him twice off Pmare, and he continues to get even better at it - he tends to resist for a moment when we start something, then his second answer is generally always "yes" and he proceeds without issue. 

Get a pedicure lady

Dylan is the one who gets the most work, 4 days of riding a week if I can squash it in. This would not be ideal or workable if he was an event horse or a horse who needed a higher level of fitness, but for the time being it's completely achievable in my schedule. It requires me trailering out to ride, which is a rather timely affair. I also have the trouble of not being sure when I will have access to the arena lights at WD, as I tried to use them the other night and they didn't go on. Not good! I need those, and will really need them as the winter approaches. 

I think as I continue to get into more detailed things with Dylan, I'll start fleshing that out better in blogposts. I used to write so much in detail about the rides I would have with Gogo, and have done so much less of that now that I have a bunch of babies who are doing extremely rudimentary and simple things. There is only so much description you can go into when you say, "Groomed the baby. Picked her feet! She was good." But riding an upper level horse when there is SO much in the way of complicated and subtle communication going on... that deserves more fleshing out. 

I bit the bullet this week and rejoined all of the major organizations that I will need for showing - USEF, USDF, and IALHA. The 2017 season in our area starts in the fall, and we go through basically the entire year with shows on the calendar, although the majority of these are jammed up into the spring months when our weather is the best. It's a bit of a circus, trying to get all the paperwork together for this - these organizations all require notarized copies of our lease, which meant K had to go print them off, mail them to me, then I have to go get them notarized, and then send them in with fees paid. Dylan is thankfully lifetime registered with all organizations, so that's taken care of. As for working equitation, I'm a member of WE United and WEIAUSA, and intend to show, but probably my biggest goal is trying to get my silver medal with the USDF. I'll clinic this fall and possibly do some WE schooling shows - and next year, if all goes well, I have my eyes on much bigger prizes, like Pin Oak, Haras, and maybe even the Andalusian World Cup in Las Vegas, as well as the possibility of IALHA Nationals. There is a LOT between now and then, but the possibility of these looming in the imminent foreground is tremendous motivation to get my butt up and go ride, whenever I have the spare time.

Half pass left

Ugh he's so perfect I just love him so much

This doesn't mean I can't take a little down time to have some fun through. On Monday, I did something very different - I rode Dylan bareback and bridleless. I left a halter and lead rope on him, just to be safe in case we coudn't stop, but mostly I rode him in his neckrope. He steers beautifully, although stopping was not quite so easy. How many stallions do you know that somebody can just jump on them bareback and bridless and just go for a spin? He's a special dude, that's for sure. 

Ummm excuse me you're not paying enough attention to me

On the same day that I rode Dylan bareback, I also worked both Sriracha and Lendri. Lendri has basically been off for two months in the summer heat, and has had one lunge this past weekend. I long lined her on Monday, and then this happened...

She's hitched!

She wasn't fully hitched in this picture. The breeching is not on yet. But she is hooked via the traces and pulled the weight of the cart by herself. I approached this way differently than I did with O, who I first dragged a tire with, then put her in drag shafts, and then hooked her to Janky The Training Cart. With Lendri, her intelligence and reactions made me approach this differently. I think I'll approach it differently for every one that I break to drive. I certainly didn't just stick it on her and go - not at all. There was a lot of careful introduction, of leading her and rolling the cart next to her, and behind her, of placing her between the shafts to feel them, of pulling the cart along behind her with her in the shafts but not hooked. She did so well that by the end of everything, I had her pulling the cart by herself with full weight in the breastcollar, although not with breeching as I think that needs more desensitization - she might speed up and get fast when she feels it for the first time. As you can tell by her expression, she was not terribly bothered by the entire ordeal. 

9 months ago, she was at the kill pen and so wild that I almost couldn't wrangle her onto my trailer. I can't believe how far she has come!!

Speaking of wild, Sriracha was not terribly good this week, but here she is lunging with harness and bridle: 

We need much work with acclimating her to the bridle. It took her two seconds to figure out how to flip her tongue over it, which then pinched her tongue and made it bleed. That's not exactly the best way to teach a mule that the bit is not a bad thing. This snaffle is an eggbutt with a double jointed copper alloy mouthpiece, so it's about the nicest thing I could put in there, but I may need to look for something else. 

Despite all that, she sure is fancy isn't she? 

Baby School

The babies are all doing well in baby school. Working babies is one of the most fun things ever.... I'm not sure which I enjoy more, working my schooled horses or playing with the blank slates. Sure, the babies do dumb baby things with regularity, but the feeling of developing them just the way I like the is super rewarding. I wish I had gotten my hands on the mules when they were newborns - the difference in their reactions and Pax's reactions to new things is 100% different. Obviously part of that is due to their mule-ness, but Pax's completely trusting nature and total relaxation about basically everything I throw at her definitely has something to do with being reared from a little tiny tot. The one thing she can be slightly weird about is the inside of her ears, which I attribute to me not working with them enough. I think I've moved pretty far beyond stripping the hair out of ears... they need that hair, even if they are showing. I'll snip off the old man hairs or put on an ear bonnet, but I don't think I'll ever clip ears again unless it's for a HUGE show somewhere. 

Pax has been wearing saddle pads with regularity since she was little (and once, a saddle and girth!), but she wore a bridle and bit for the first time the other day. She opened her mouth to pick the bit up by herself, and then was completely unphased after her preliminary baby-mouthing of it. She went and just kept on eating hay. 

She'll need to wear a bridle for the 2 year old in-hand FEH classes next year, should we choose to do them, so no time like now to start getting her used to it!

Everybody loves the sweet iron snaffle

Sriracha continues to get better and increasingly friendly. She also has developed a bit of a spicy attitude that matches her name - she's pinned her ears and snapped at me once or twice in the field, when she comes over and doesn't feel like she's getting the attention she deserves. That doesn't fly around here, which she is also learning. 

She now picks up all four feet, and I've trimmed all four as well. She wears a harness and is lunging and learning her walk-trot-whoa commands. I like being able to teach them lunging myself, as they learn to actually walk and whoa on the lunge. She has also worn a bridle once, which she'll do more of in the near future. 

Look at this creamy ear.... what a funky color! 

He might be smokey black... his mother was a buckskin and his father was a zebra, so who knows really? 

Fun fact about donkeys and a lot of hybrids: they don't have rear chestnuts! Some of them do, but many don't. Out of my four, only Sriracha has tiny rear chestnuts - the rest do not, and their front chestnuts are wide and fat like a donkey. 

He's so easy for a zebroid! He definitely has some zebra moments, but he's more like a horse than anything for the most part. He's even easier than the mules - he takes corrections really well, and figures things out ridiculously fast. I know he has been lunged in a roundpen, and worked in long lines, but I do things a little differently in that I don't turn my horses when lunging - I stop them, manually turn them, and then send them off again. He tried several times on the lunge to hit the brakes and turn himself around, but it only took a few corrections until he got the point, stay on the circle! He is completely fine with the harness, and has worn a bridle three times now. 

What is this crap in my mouth

I still can't get over how friendly he is. Here and there, he'll show a little zebra, but for the most part he always comes right over for scratches and kisses. He likes people and he wants attention, which is so rare for these guys. I intend to keep fostering that in him, because I don't want to lose it! 

Alas Pax is still the boss.... nobody can oust her as top boss B. 

The Zu won't do much lunging, as he's just a babe, but wearing a bridle is important as he'll also be learning more about long lining and steering with a bridle. And look who got back to work yesterday - Lendri! She's been off for two months, seeing as it's just been way too hot and I've had too many others to work. She picked up right where we left off with no problems whatsoever. She's about ready to start dragging a weight!

Hot Hot Heat

As other Texas bloggers have recently been writing about, it's hot. Like, really hot. Like really REALLY REALLY HOT in Texas right now. I'm starting to think Dylan torqued his leg just because he wanted a summer break from the heat. Can't really fault that logic. 

His leg is looking good and he seems quite sound. The leg isn't as *perfectly* tight as the other one, but it may never be exactly the same. He goes back on Friday for a two-week checkup ultrasound and lameness evaluation. Dr. H was pretty optimistic that he would be back to work within pretty short order, so I am hoping we get some good news. He's been completely out of wraps for about a week - it's SO HOT right now that I felt like wrapping was just keeping excess heat in, and not helping anything. He still gets poulticed and coldhosed, and during the day has been back in his fly leggings (because he is a man baby and bug bites make him chew on his poor widdle leggies). I've been thinking I should get him a pair of Equisleeves, which are less hot and bulky than standard quilts and have the dual purpose of not letting the bugs bother him. Anyone use them and like them? I've never used a pair before. 

The temporarily out of commision fatties club

O's kind of getting a belly on her isn't she! Well, it could be just fat... but.... we'll say it's a wee baby bump. Her udders are changing too, which I find super interesting. Her baby is about the size of a kitten right now, so certainly not very big yet. She's completely peaceful and zenned out with her pregnancy hormones - she's such a nice, quiet, sensible mare when she's not in heat! I miss working her, but she gets groomed and doted on every day which she finds quite agreeable. 

In the meantime while I wait for Dylan to heal up, and despite the heat, there are a bunch of wee babes and youngsters to be worked!

Lendri's first ponying

Love/hate relationship. Lendri loves P, and P hates her. 

Good baby!

P is not sure when she got signed up for resident baby-dragger, but she is pretty certain that she did not authorize that assignment. Luckily, the more she gets ridden the better she is, so even though she tends to gripe about it when we first get going, once she is out on the trail she is all ears forward and marching onward. Her soundness actually feels better now that she is starting to be ridden more often - she may have just needed to grease her joints up and get moving, since she is the one who basically parks herself at the haybag and never EVER leaves. She is that lazy slob that eats twice as much as anyone else, poops twice as much, and walks 5 feet to her pooping spot, 5 feet to the water trough, and 5 feet back to the haybag. She never goes ANYWHERE else. So I don't feel too bad putting her back to light trail work, because she needs to move way more than she does!

She really is a great pony horse. She gets on with anyone, drags them when they don't want to go, doesn't get upset if they do something silly, and just keeps marching along no matter what happens. She also stands parked immobile, which is immeasurably useful, especially when teaching babies about standing still. Pax is probably the least wiggly baby I've ever met, which is nice. She stands still for everything, including standing whenever we stop while out ponying. Pax gets better every time we pony, although I did start putting a rope halter on her to remind her about her manners. She about pulled my arm out of my socket when she tried dragging us all a few pony sessions ago.

And Lendri is now starting to pony too! She went for her first ponying lesson yesterday and did very well. I originally put the Be Nice halter on her, anticipating some trouble, but it actually caused more problems (i.e. her putting on the brakes and refusing to move) that I took it off and just used her regular halter. She surprised me with how well she can keep up with Pmare! She is a FAT little sausage so ponying is really a good thing for her - gets her exercised!



And Sriracha is still the Valedictorian of the mooles. She is so incredibly smart! Not having any prior handling has actually been the biggest benefit of all - she's just this totally open book, waiting to be written in. She's learning at such a high rate of speed that it just floors me every time I work with her. And I don't work with her every day either - every day, she gets a cookie and gets petted a bit and talked to, but certainly not pulled out of the field and worked with. Whenever she does get worked with, if something makes her unsure, she might wiggle and flinch, but as soon as she realizes whatever it is isn't going to hurt her, she is immediately fine. Today she let me pick out her hind feet for the first time, and it was SO worth it to wait for her to come around for that. I tossed a saddle pad on and off her a few times, which she was a bit flinchy about, but then on a whim I decided to show her the harness and see how she reacted.

In about 2 minutes, she was wearing it fully girthed, crupper and breeching included, like she had been doing it her entire life. As is usual with her, she was super squinchy when I pulled up her tail - which I had never touched before - but she was completely fine with it once she realized it was all right. I've been lunging Lendri in harness for months now and I STILL have trouble getting her crupper on, every time. (Admittedly I'm 100% sure Lendri was abused.)

Piece of cake. I honestly think she won't be all that hard to teach to drive. I've had my lingering doubts about whether or not Lendri will ever really be a driving candidate or not, but I have no doubts about Sriracha.


Now we just have to get Dylan well... if I can find him under all the dirt that is....

NTW Sunrise Ridge 4/3/2016 - Marathon and Final Results

What a weekend we had. We obviously had some serious lows, which you've already heard about, but we finished on an extremely high note on Sunday with an amazing trip on the marathon!

Drama posing mare and B2, ready to hitch up and get on with marathon!

O was really into the dramatic poses all weekend

B2, R (her husband and also our comedic relief for the weekend) and I walked the marathon course on Saturday after we were done with dressage and cones. Since this post is already going to be extremely picture-heavy, I'm not going to waste more space with individual pictures of the obstacles on course - but you can see them all listed here! You can also see the competitor list, omnibus listing, cones course map, times, and other things there. It's a great resource for us competitors to have ahead of time! B2 has never done a marathon before and this was only my second one ever, so while we knew what was going on and how we were going to approach every obstacle, there was still an element of, "ok let's not kill ourselves today." We just wanted to get through alive without messing up!

As a recap, Saturday just sucked. It was awful. O was not playing the game, there was all the stupid drama with people going nuts with rumors, and the like. We were in 6th after our crappy dressage, then moved up to 3rd after cones - but despite that, I couldn't let everything that had happened go. I was so upset by it that I stewed about it all night long. I'll be the first to admit that I'm kind of an emotional cripple who doesn't handle these kinds of situations well inside my head - it's just part of who I am. I was still so bothered by it still in the morning that I very nearly scratched from the show and stayed home. I didn't even want to go. I was really and truly that upset by it. (Caveat: since I don't think I was clear before, I am *totally* okay with the TD coming over to check a horse with a rumored injury - that's their job and what they are supposed to do! That part is totally fine. It's just the fact that someone started the rumor, and the fact that the whole thing was inappropriately handled and information was allowed to leak out all over the place... those were the problems.)

But, I didn't want to let it drag me down. I didn't want to throw away my 3rd place just because I'm a hyperemotional trainwreck, and I didn't want to let the old bats who were causing the drama to get any satisfaction out of the whole thing. So I got up, put my big girl panties on, pulled my mare in from the pasture, and headed out to the show.


O's specialties are her everlasting endurance, speed, and ability to turn on a dime easily. This is what is going to make her an exceptional marathon horse, and a good cones horse too if yours truly can actually steer properly some of the time. She doesn't have a lot of patience for intricate things, slow work, or anything involving a lot of aids coming from me. She would rather be left to do it on her own without a lot of input on my part. This makes dressage kind of a mental challenge for her - she might end up being like a lot of those event horses you see that kind of just fumble through their dressage but get out and eat the XC up. Moreso than in eventing (or at least it seems that way to me), you must have a horse that can handle the marathon and the cones and not just have a good dressage test - especially in the lower levels of eventing these days, you can have a killer dressage and as long as you can flop your way around a few jumps you'll win it every time. It's not quite that easy in combined driving, which was reflected in the way our placing lept from nearly last to nearly first by the end of the weekend!

B2, O, and myself all went for a nice walk before the marathon began. People were out there trotting around and getting all busy, but we just walked. Why waste energy? We had five hilly kilometers to tackle, no rush for us!

The countdown began.... I started my watch... off we went!


There were five hazards/obstacles to tackle along the way. She handled every one of them like a total champ, including the second one which I very nearly messed up - in each one of the obstacles, there is an enter/exit gate, and several lettered gates you have to go through in consecutive order. The gates are live until you cross them, then they are dead and you can double back through them as much as you like. Training level only does A, B, and C, but there are also gates D and E for the upper levels. You must go through them in order, otherwise you get eliminated. They try to trick you too - they'll put gate B in front of where A is to make you go around, and similar things. You as the driver must walk the course ahead of time and choose your route - and there are multiple ones to take. You play to your horse's strengths and the terrain, and while the obstacles aren't timed in Training level, they are timed at all the levels above it and you must get through them as fast as you safely can.
In the second obstacle, I flew right past A without even realizing it. The obstacle was full of trees and I got lost immediately - thankfully B2 yelled out that I had missed it! I managed to turn her around at the walk, get back through it, and continue on our way without further incident.

What a champ she was. She was just awesome. I didn't have to do anything, just sit back, steer, and enjoy it!

We can flying into the 300km-to-finish marker. We were coming in hot, so I had to slow her way down to make sure we didn't come in under our speed time of 20:05. Just like in eventing, there is a speed time and an obtimum time (which was 23:05 for us). You must come in that window, and if you go on either side of it you get time pentalties. I make very sure that my watch read more like 20:35 or thereabouts when I cross the line, just to play it safe. This will come into play soon.

She cooled out well, was checked by the vet at the finish, got a bath, and took a nap back at the trailer while we waited for results. B2 and R eventually went home, and I continued waiting.

The scores were posted. And... I had 7 time penalties, which means I had about 30-odd seconds of being over or under the time allowed. Since I had been watching my stopwatch so carefully. I knew it wasn't correct. The TD, who was gracious and kind all weekend, took me up to the office and we looked at the official scorecards. And it turns out we did catch a mistake made! It was truly an honest one - whoever handwrote my start time made a 6 look like a 5, which subtracted a whole minute from our time, landing us solidly below the speed fault time. This is why it's always important to check your watch and be sure! It was corrected, the penalties removed, and it landed us in 2nd place for the marathon. We moved up to 2nd overall!!!

Ready for a flood of pictures from dressage and cones? Brace yourselves...

My strategy for cones: go reallllllly slow

It had highs. It had low. It had drama. It had excitement. It had all the makings of a good Hollywood blockbuster. And it was only just the first show of the season!!

O has a well deserved bit of time off now, then our next show is on the 17th. Can't wait!!