Current Equipment

One of the things I love about dressage is the simplicity of the gear required to do such complicated and intricate things. You don't need the most expensive set of everything in order to do it. Sure, you can buy $200 breeches and a $1000 pair of tall boots, but you don't *need* them. If you have a well fitting saddle, a well fitting bridle with appropriate bit, and a girth, that is really all you seriously need. 

When I was eventing I had basically one of everything in baby blue (or purple, before I got into the baby blues). Everything. Boots, bells, bit guards, reins, saddle pads, martingale and rein stops... even my spurs had baby blue stones set into them. If it came in baby blue, I had it. I had SO MUCH STUFF. And I have a lot of carriage driving stuff too. Carriage driving basically requires you to have an insane amount of everything... there is SO much gear. Regular plain old dressage is bringing me back to refreshing simplicity, and I'm enjoying it for a change.

Have saddle, have bridle, have boots, will ride. (And of course, helmet and gloves!)

I own surprisingly little gear. It surprises even me sometimes. I only own three really good pairs of breeches. (I have a number of others, but they either don't fit or they're aged and showing it... I should get rid of those). I have a few pairs of schooling gloves, which I think are important and worth spending money on. I have two helmets, a Charles Owen and an IRH - the IRH is the only one that is really dressage appropriate, but it is also aging and will need replacing before long. I only ride in tall boots (force of habit, I think), and am getting ready to invest in a nice new pair - I also always wear a set of spurs. As for shirts, I wear polos when I am at clinics, lessons, or schooling shows, but the rest of the time I just toss on whatever I feel like wearing, mostly tank tops or the occasional t-shirt. I don't have a million pairs of ridiculously expensive breeches or fancy fabric riding shirts, not by a long shot.

DSB boots and polos

Dylan's gear is also very simple. While I have about 50 million polos and boots, all that I use with regularity on him are either his DSB boots or leg liners with polos over them. He always wears bells, and I have lots of pulls ons in rotation as well as a pair of fleece lined ones. He has only one saddle pad, a Back on Track pad with a Thinline pad sewn right into it. It's the best pad I've ever owned, and still looks great, despite the fact that it both gets a ton of use and a ton of washing. Before I had the saddle fitted, he also had a Mattes correction pad, but since he no longer needs that I only ride him with just the saddle pad and nothing else. I've never had a saddle fit so well that I didn't feel like I needed some kind of something between it and my regular saddle pad, so this is new and exciting territory for me. He's going SO well with the newly fitted saddle that it makes me wonder how I ever got on otherwise! His saddle is obviously the Schleese, which is the one he came with that was custom fitted for him years ago. I alternate between the snaffle bridle and the double. I've been considering just showing in the snaffle bridle to start when we go out at 4th, which is completely acceptable. He goes just as well in either bridle, but since I tend to forget how to ride when I'm anxious, I don't want to get hung up on my curb unnecessarily in the show ring. 

Only the best pad ever

DSB boots and bells

Polos and leg liners

Double bridle (and O's lunging bridle next to it)

Picked this up for not very much money! Patent noseband and unnecessarily ridiculous browband

The old reliable... Schleese and girth!

There are things I am willing to spend money on, and things I am not. Things that really are important to a horse's comfort and ability, like well fitting saddles and well made bits, are things I don't compromise on, though I will always look for a good deal if possible. But all the frivolous stuff? Eh. I don't need it. I have more important things to spend money on, like good feed!

I pride myself on being a ridiculously good deal finder. I like nice equipment, but... why pay full price on it? I'll have another post on that later!

So, what do you use for your horses? Do you stick with the necessities, or do you go all out? 

Prepping for Show Season - O

Thank you everyone for all of your kind words and thoughts about Darby. Now that I have set the date, I have a dreaded several days to make it through. I wish it was happening right now, but I didn't have any openings in my schedule and it's non emergency. She's on painkillers and is in her boots, and is content for the moment, but she's really not comfortable under all of that. She'll be all right until Tuesday, but I might not be. I'm trying to keep a game face on but underneath it all I'm pretty sad. I'm very fond of my old gal. 

Thankfully, there are lots of things to distract myself with, especially fun things like planning for O's show season - which includes needing a new outfit. It seems a bit frivolous to do things like this when I'm facing the imminent death of one of my herd members, but in a way I think it's healthy to do something light and simple. It brings about some small amount of balance, I think - weighing the hyperemotional and deep with the completely frivolous and shallow. It's why retail therapy really is a thing. And it does really help, I think.

Now that I have upgraded to a four wheel vehicle, I want get a whole new outfit. My two wheeler is that beautiful painted navy, which is lovely and beautiful and suits O very well. I had obviously coordinated my entire outfit to match that vehicle - a cream colored jacket, a navy/cream hat, navy/cream plaid apron, navy/cream bonnet for O. It is a nice outfit and while it does look a tad rookie (cause, I am a rookie!), I have now run into the problem of the entire thing being completely clashy with the new carriage. The Dartmoor is black. Black on black on black. There is no other color on it anywhere, save for some *very* minor tan pinstriping on the wheels. You don't even notice it if you're not looking for it. Needless to say, navy and black are super clashy and the whole outfit would look completely silly with the carriage. Black carriage, black harness, orange horse.

I asked about it before on the blog and I had some amazing answers and suggestions! I went to my apron maker and gave her all the suggestions, and then she went off and found a million awesome fabrics for me. I went back and forth, looked at them all, and decided I didn't love them. She pulled out several colors that had burnt orange in them, and that was it. I HAD to go with the burnt orange.

I'll be the first to admit that this is kind of a risky move. After all, my horse herself is bright orange. Her bright orange-ness was the highlight of the turnout prior to this because of how noticable and pretty she is. A really neon orange would be a HORRIBLE choice for her - any really bright colors, really.


The original apron fabric I picked actually ended up being too lightweight to make an apron out of, so I picked my second favorite choice:

There were several different ways I could go with that - I could pick any one of those colors for the jacket. A tweed, black, or maybe even burnt orange could all match well.

So, I decided to try going a bit crazy with it. And I found this burnt orange hat and jacket:

If I add some tan to the boring hat, it will match the apron and tie it all together. And look AWESOME. Or HORRIBLE, possibly. 

Now, I will have to put it all on and see if it clashes horribly or not. It's either going to look INCREDIBLE, or look AWFUL. I can't quite decide! The good thing is that the jacket and hat were both cheap Ebay finds, so if they turn out terrifyingly ugly I can take my apron and find a new jacket and hat to go with it. Go big or go home, right?

The calendar isn't full up yet, but I have a tentative outline set up. Last year I missed a LOT of shows due to weather/timing/crap happening, and I don't intend for that to happen again this year!

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February 7th: Driven Dressage Schooling Show

March 19th: St. Patty's Day Driving Show (MAYBE)

April 2nd-3rd: Sunrise Ridge HDT 

April 17th: NTW Games Day

May 14th: NTW Games Day Romp

May 28th: HACA Pine Hill HDT

June 4th: OHHA Cowboy Country HDT

September 10th: NTW Games Day Romp

October ??: Let's Have Fun In Texas! HDT

October 30th: NTW Games Day

November 4th: Black Star CDE

November 30th: Crossroads Charity Show

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EXCITED!!

I'd also like to give a shoutout to Janie at Chimacum Tack, who not only saved my butt this spring when I needed my new harness FAST, but who also got me several new harness parts after a shipping snafu. She had the wrong address (my old one) when I needed a longer girth, trace carriers, and shorter hip straps. We were unable to retrieve the package after it was sent, so she sent me a whole new package, which arrived today! Thank you Janie!!

Retail Therapy

I'm having kind of a terrible week. The weather has been freezing cold and horrible for two weeks now, and when it hasn't been sleeting/snowing it has been overcast and full of soul-sucking mud. I haven't been the sun in two weeks. O hasn't worked in that amount of time either. My hard drive crashed this morning and as of right now none of the information is salvageable, meaning years of really important data is lost. (Hopefully some more intensive tech work can sort it out... hopefully.) And on Tuesday, my grandmother passed away, which is a big blow to our very small family. She helped me start up my business, and she always believed in me, even when others didn't.

All in all even though I am stir crazy in my house, I also don't really feel like doing anything at all. There's really nothing to be done about any of these problems - they are what they are, and there's nothing really in my power that I can do. So, I'm just making the best of it.





Speaking of things people normally do to feel better: retail therapy is something I'm not particularly into ususlly. It doesn't please me to go buy new things for myself most of the time. I enjoy shopping for my horses, but it is strongly counterbalanced with my generally frugal nature and the fact that I lived for so long by the seat of my pants - spending money needlessly is something I learned not to do long ago.

But, I have a shopping list of things I need for the baby horse and the upcoming show season... so I've been making some exceptions here and there. That said, I'm not one to go blow giant amounts of money on things I can pick up cheaply if I just shop around a little - so I went on a bargain hunting mission yesterday to cheer myself up.

My driving outfit as of today is now complete minus hat and bit of jewelry. I did buy a hat and it is currently being shipped to me, but it isn't here yet. OneHindResting suggested I add a bit of rust/russet into the outfit to compliment my orange horse, and I love that suggested - I think I'll shop around and find a copper colored brooch and earrings. (Listen to me... buying jewelry. Pretty sure the last piece of jewelry I bought for myself was a new nose ring several years ago.)

I found the cream jacket and the navy scarf on Ebay for less than $30. I pulled out a pair of trusty old black paddock boots one of my bosses gave me years ago, and will polish those up for dressage and cones. I did buy a nice pair of deerskin gloves, as I think having a good pair is important and worth spending money on, but they still were only $15. Even the apron didn't cost much money - I bargain shopped and found the prettiest and least expensive one around. That left a pair of dressy pants, and a shirt to go under the jacket. I also needed a navy polo for the marathon to go under my Tipperary, and a navy longsleeve shirt in case it ever is unseasonably chilly. Where better to get those things than the local Salvo?

I was not disappointed at all. I had dozens of pants to choose from, all in the same general size and style that I needed (dress pants in either black or really dark navy, without the frump factor, and long enough to hit the ground, the way I like them). I ended up with a pair of deep navy pants with very subtle pinstriping, soft with a bit of stretch, long enough and cut in a way that makes my butt look fantastic. Not that the judge is going to be looking at my butt, but it was nice to look in the mirror and go, damn that ass looks fantastic today. The whole point of the pants is to be more or less invisible, and blend me right into my cart under the apron. They're perfect. And they were $5.
I also found not only a perfectly usable $4 navy long sleeved shirt for anything I might need, but I also found a brand new American Eagle navy polo for $4 as well. Original tags were still on it and everything. It's stretchy and cut perfectly right for me. I could not have hoped for better! All told, my total was $13. That's the right price for a cheapskate like me.

The final outfit (with deerskin glove on the right hand so you can see what they'll look like, although lighting is bad):

Lifted up the apron to show the pants color. And dirty paddock boots.

Maybe if the sun ever comes back, I'll try the outfit on and get a picture outside. But seeing as my front door is currently iced shut AGAIN, this might not happen for awhile. 

I think it's going to look great. I'm really happy with it. Playing dress up is a big part of the fun of this sport! 

I've been picking up items here and there over the course of the past month or try, trying to get all of my needs together without doing everything at once. This week I picked up a new noseband for my bridle (20% off of course), vetwrap for tails (for both mares, one for sport and one for popping out a baby!) and navy and black electrical navy, one for boots and one for securing any bits of flappy harness ends that are sticking sloppily out. I also found a big sporty eventing-type wristwatch - navy,  of course, and the right price at $10. Slowly I'm gathering up all my loose ends!

Of course, I also went bargain shopping for foaling needs. I'm a strong believer that you should not ever give young creatures of any species anything that is actually nice and expensive - they are just going to mess all over it and destroy it anyway, so why buy them expensive things? No need to spend a million dollars on a foaling halter that my baby will outgrow in two months - a $10 cheap leather one that will probably break anyway was my pick. And why spent $40 on a newborn blanket when I'll probably never use it anyway? A recycled dog blanket, one of the Dobie's, is heading to the barn just in case. I stocked up on other supplies, like gloves, vetwrap, cleaning supplies (Chlorhex, iodine, soap, eyewash, etc), hemostats, plastic bags, and towels (along with a bunch of other things) - all stuff I'll need for foaling and general barn use. I think I have everything I'll need, minus a headlamp - if she foals outside, she is guaranteed to do it in the middle of the night in the darkest spot of her paddock, because that is Murphy's Law!

The sun is finally out and thankfully I'll be back to work tomorrow... finally. I've been off more time than not this week and I am tired of being stuck in the house. I'm also tired of not working my horse. I'm tired of the snow. I'm tired of everything! I'm ready for spring. Ugh!

End of December Analysis; January Goals!

 Is it the end of December already? I'm pretty disappointed in this month - we barely got any of our goals accomplished, and I don't feel like we got much done. We had the bitting fiasco mid-month, then a lot of rain which turned everything to soup and make it un-driveable, and then we were away for Christmas. Bah! January is upon us, and we're not going anywhere for awhile, so we'll be knuckling down now that the holidays are about to be over and show season is about to begin.


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O-Ren December Goals:

1) Keep a tight schedule and stick to it! (Needed days off for either of us and changes due to weather acceptable of course!)
I was less successful with this than I had hoped. With the bitting fiasco in the middle of everything - which took a solid week out of our schedule to sort out - things got jumbled. Then they came to a standstill when we had oodles of rain and thick, black mud everywhere. Then we went away for Christmas! Not in January though.... we'll be getting down to it in January, barring more winter weather problems. Not having an arena isn't usually a problem, but once in awhile it just plain sucks.

2) Whip training - teach her how to move off the whip
This one didn't get worked on, and I am not happy about that. It's largely my fault - I had chances to work on it, and didn't. The rest of the time, we were bogged down in mud and couldn't drive out in the pasture. January for sure.
 

3) Figure out ways to life-proof the new cart - to keep it nice while in use!
Success, sort of! I have more ideas for shaft preservation - wrapping them in ACE bandages, namely. That way they stay clean but aren't in the way of work. I have covered all areas of fabric on my seat, and clean the cart whenever it gets dirt or dust on it. It also lives in a carport under a horse blanket with pool noodles on the shafts when not in use, which is a decent system. Beyond that, I don't think there is too much I can do - in the words of my cart maker, the only way to life-proof a nice cart is to just not use it, which is not exactly an option!

4) Start working more on dressage tests and cones exercises
I started working with more cones exercises this month, but unfortunately our lack of a good schedule/useable field made for a failure here. 

5) Transitions transitions transitions - keeping a steady and quiet contact throughout upwards ones!
 We were having problems with this until I switched her bit back out to the Happy Mouth. She was great, but this past drive she was getting fussy and backing up in her halts (she wants to GO). I made the mistake of flapping a rein on top of her butt when she wouldn't listen to a verbal whoa, and I may as well have just shocked her with a cattle prod because that's how indignantly explosive she reacted to that. After that, every other halt was full of bubbling anxiety and a huge head-high lurch forward into a speedy trot instead of a nice walk. I got her to settle by the end of the drive and get some decent walk-halt-walks in, but it wasn't easy. She is VERY easy to offend, and god help you if you do. Even if she likes driving relatively well, it still doesn't change the fact that she has a violently sensitive side, and she's not afraid to show you what she thinks about anything you do that offends her.

Pangea December Goals:

1) Same as before - watch her comfort levels, especially as she gets bigger! 
Success! She went through a small period of discomfort with this last bogging down of mud - it was only a day and it was minor, picking out her feet solved the problem.
 

2) Fine-tune dietary needs, starting in January changes will begin!
Success! We just added in alfalfa this month, just 1/2 flake in the AM. In January, that will up to 1/2 flake AM/PM, then in February 1 flake AM and 1/2 PM, then March 1AM and 1PM and stay there - depending on her weight. In January, she also is having her vit/min supplement upped as per its feeding recommendations for pregnant mares. Beyond that, everything else will stay the same - she might be growing a baby but she is not wasting more calories than she has to on it, and is packing the rest of them away for herself!

3) Next rhino shot!
Success! And also, self explanatory.

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Basically December didn't go as planned, for a lot of reasons. Barring really awful January weather - which is unfortunately more likely than not to happen - we'll be sticking to a much stricter schedule. Our first HDT is in April, after all! That's not very far away!

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O-Ren January Goals:
1) Practice and memorize all Training level dressage tests (specifically ones needed for the two upcoming HDTs)
2) Cones work - practice cones in the new cart at show measurements
3) Whip work - teaching left-right cues
4) Steady transitions, always!
5) Start to plan out show season, show clothes/tack/equipment needed!

Pangea January Goals:
1) Change diet
2) Solidly make plans for vax/deworming dates up through due date

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O has had nine days off for her winter vacation. She's not a horse that can be hammered on continually forever without experiencing some mental backslide - she really benefits from bits of time off here and there to refresh her brain. She always comes back from these breaks fresher and better... although admittedly there is a time limit to this, as she gets super spicy and feisty on the ground if she has *too* many days in a row off. I know she's had too many days off if she is doing random aerials for no reason in her paddock, and she is about at that level now!

As for me, I've spent the past few days working, doing general end-of-year chores and paperwork, setting up 2015 goals and calendars (and the show schedule!), and giving my harness an amazingly good cleaning. Tomorrow O lunges, then we will be back to driving, provided our forecasted ice storm doesn't come in too hard and shut us all down for a few days. (Not likely but when they do hit, everything on the planet shuts down here, so we all have to be prepared for it!)

A Hypothetical Christmas Wishlist!

She Moved to Texas just did a hilarious post about what Simon would put on his Christmas list. I think if O and P could create one of their own, there would be only one thing on there: alfalfa. 

Alfalfa is horsey crack. I just bought a few bales for Pmare - she's about to enter her final stretch of pregnancy, and the jump in calories and protein needed calls for some feed changes, which include the addition of some alfalfa to her free choice grass hay. O is getting some too - it's perfect for a hay meal right before a workout. Our climate makes for crappy grass hay - we can only grow coastal around here, which is why we pay out the nose to have timothy shipped in. The lack of grass hay is somewhat made up by the legume hay - they grow some AMAZING alfalfa here. AMAZING. The horses smell it, and their eyes start rolling around. They see me walking by with a flake, and they go NUTS. The stuff I got is all leaf, green and soft and sweet smelling and gorgeous. They're only currently getting 1/2 flake each once a day in addition to their grass hay, but that's the stuff they make a BEELINE for in the morning.

Yes. If the mares had a Christmas list, I'm pretty sure the only thing listed would be alfalfa, in huge capital letters. ALFALFA FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WE WANT MORE ALFALFA, ALL THE ALFALFA ALL THE TIME FOREVER MOAR ALFALFA.

As for me, I have a few other things that I'd like Santa to bring me.... stuff I don't really feel like I should spend money on, and stuff that definitely won't actually be under my tree, but these might be on the list of purchases over the next year or so!

1) Freedom collar (and new traces)

 I love these collars. Love them! My current breastcollar probably used to be pretty nice back in the day, but age and wear has left the backside of it somewhat rough - it's just a flat piece of leather with no padding. Fine for schooling with a harness pad, but not really a show quality piece of equipment. My saddle is really nice with beautiful patent leather on it, and my bridle has patent leather blinders as well, so a gorgeous brass and patent leather breastcollar would be awesome. I'd also need new traces, since my traces are sewn in.

2) Brown show reins

 Driving reins are always brown. There's some tradition behind this - in the old days, black dye was not very fast, and in a rainstorm (or with a sweaty horse), the black dye would run all over your clothes if your reins were dyed black. (And your horse too.) So the reins were left undyed and brown - and so were leather driving gloves. My current reins are half brown and half black - that's kind of a cheaper way of making reins that still don't stain your hands, since it takes a higher quality leather to make brown reins (black dye hides imperfections). The leather on the black part is definitely not as nice as the brown leather, and I don't love them. They're fine for schooling, but I definitely would like a nice pair to save for shows.

3) Show clothes

If I'm going to be showing this year, I need a wardrobe for it! I have EVERY piece of riding show clothing I could ever want in my life, but I have no show clothes for driving whatsoever, save two hats that I got at the driving club's holiday party. Nice brown leather gloves, a show apron, and an appropriate coat/shirt/scarf are all things I'm going to need. Luckily most of these things I can score for relatively cheap or secondhand!

4) A Money Tree

Because you need one for this sport... and for horses in general!

O drove like a little sports car yesterday.... I put her back in her usual Happy Mouth and she was SUPER happy about it. She was incredibly responsive, light, easy, and listening, which was a nice change from the last few drives! She was filthy and muddy (and the mud was fresh and wet black gumbo, so there was no getting it off!), so pardon the lovely grooming job in the pictures... at least you can see her nice goobers.

She had a day off today, gets back to it tomorrow and Sunday, and then will have the week off for Christmas while we are away on vacation. Yes, I know we were just off on vacation... but we get another one, because we are lucky m-fers!

A Bit of Experimentation

O is, and has always been, a completely tricky case when it comes to bits.

We know some of the things that were done to her in the interim between her old owner and myself. We know she was being ridden by people with no concept of how to not royally tick off a sensitive red mare - trail riders who didn't even know their own leads yet. We know they wrote her off as "crazy," and put enormous shank bits on her (pony sized ones, apparently, but still with giant shanks) and tried to "teach her sliding stops." A rider who doesn't even know which lead they are on, but who still thinks they can teach a hotheaded animal how to sliding stop... well you can imagine how well that went. Basically they cranked on her mouth hard enough, for long enough, to make her angry enough to utterly collapse into total shutdown mode. Which is how I ended up with her, more or less unrideable, for $500. 

She had huge scars in the corners of her mouth from whatever cranking and yanking they did to her, and scarring on the bridge of her nose. I knew from day one that bitting - and everything, really - would be a challenge.

And it was. Every day of it was a challenge.

Though a lot of experimentation, we discovered a few things:

1) She is REALLY weird and titchy about metal - sometimes she likes it, sometimes she hates it

2) Jointed bits overstimulate her - she gets to jingling and clacking and short circuits herself

3) Going bitless completely freaks her out - but she does like her long shank hackamore quite a lot

3) Her favorite mouthpiece by far is the Happy Mouth mullen mouth - it's simple, lightweight, a little bendy, and very soft on the mouth

Bodywork, chiro, teeth done by a specialist - none of these things changed her behaviors. Believe me, we tried! 

She drives well in the Happy Mouth eggbutt. She can be a bit evasive with it - namely she likes to still dirtbike into her turns and splatter over onto her shoulder. This is something she likes to do under saddle as well, so it's not a unique problem, and more of a body-type problem than a bit problem.

I decided to go ahead and order the Zilco Flexi-Mouth liverpool - same exact mouthpiece as her Happy Mouth, but a different flavor plastic. She was less enthusiastic about this bit than her regular snaffle, but there was quite a bit more finesse to it than the snaffle and things were harder to evade (AKA she found she could actually bend right after all).

The look says it all... she was not particularly impressed with this one but she was tolerating it:

So I thought I would try something else. What could I use that would stop her from using her favorite evasions, give me some finesse, and keep her happy? My friend Sandy suggested a Glory bit, saying her fussy horse who also rides in a Happy Mouth mullen mouth loves his Glory bit and drives exclusively in it. I thought it was a really good idea!

STB Eventer was awesome enough to send me hers to try, just to see. I figured she'd love it - it's a sweet metal, ergonomically shaped for some tongue relief, and simple.

The first drive was pretty good. She threw her head once or twice and stopped herself dead, but then settled into it and relaxed.

Second drive was a total and complete disaster. We went for a short jaunt down the road, and while the warmup walk started out well, the trot was an utter disaster. She spent half the time throwing her head, which caused the bit to slam around in her mouth, which freaked her out, which shut her down, which sent her shooting backwards in a panic. Want to know what is not fun? Being in a big wooden box with a horse attached to it that is running backwards. She also would randomly go from trotting to veering to the left for no reason, head cranked off to the right. It was bad enough that I went back to a walk on a nice long rein, turned our butts around, and headed for home. We ended on a good note - that nice relaxed walk - but given how much more dangerous a misbehaving driving horse is than a misbehaving riding horse, I was not about to get all crazy and try and work through it otherwise. There are other ways to do that.

Yesterday morning, I pulled out my lunging equipment and the Glory bit. I wanted to see if it was me and my noob-handling of the reins while driving, or the actual bit itself. I warmed her up, set the rigging of the Faux-ssoa on the snaffle (not the curb!! Never the curb when you lunge!!), and set her off.

And I had this:

A horse who was actively pitching a huge hissy fit. When she wasn't bucking like a rodeo bronc, she was slinging her head, hitting herself in mouth, doing the random veer-to-the-left thing, and then trying to throw herself on the ground. The top photo was set on the chambon - I tried that too, and it didn't help.
Well. There you go. We managed to end it on a very nice note but it was only due to the fact that I have had this little red firecracker long enough to know how to carefully de-escalate her.


I decided I needed to do a bit of experimentation - literally. Today I broke out the lunging equipment again, and brought out three more bits: a double jointed loose ring with Cyprium, the Liverpool with the same mouthpiece as the Happy Mouth mullen mouth but has a different flavor plastic, and the actual Happy Mouth mullen mouth itself, also knows as the Bloo Bit (it was Gogo's bit, it has baby blue plastic). I have a second Happy Mouth mullen mouth that I usually drive her in; the Bloo Bit is used for lunging since it is getting pretty old and ratty. EVERY horse loves that dang thing though. I tend not to lunge with a noseband anyway, but not having a noseband definitely gave me really good insight into just how quiet she would be with each bit.



The verdict on all four bits:
Glory bit: bucking, throwing head, trying to throw herself on the ground
Loose ring double jointed snaffle: curled behind bit, clacking bit, bolting
Liverpool on the snaffle setting, same mouthpiece as her usual mullen mouth but a different plastic: throwing head, gaping mouth, sticking tongue out
Happy mouth mullen mouth eggbutt snaffle: quiet mouth, goobers, stretchy, forward



Huh. Well, there you have it. The mare has clearly chosen her bit.

It was really interesting to see just how differently she reacted to them. Obviously the Glory bit was a huge disaster, so I wasn't going to try that again - instead I started with the Liverpool. She has been driving decently in the Liverpool (not perfect but decently), but then again, I use a noseband when I drive. Today with the Liverpool on the snaffle setting, she was gaping her mouth wide and rolling her tongue out of the corners of her mouth. I've NEVER seen her do that before and thought for a second that the other bit had fried her brain for good! Since it was on the snaffle setting, I wonder if the bit just wasn't rotated quite the right way in her mouth and if that was bothering her - it sits different with the curb engaged. Still though, it was pretty clear that even though it was the exact same mouthpiece as the Happy Mouth, it has a very slightly different configuration and different tasting plastic, and she wasn't very happy about it. Next I tried the double jointed loose ring - I hadn't put her in one in a long time, and now I remember why: she curled up behind the contact, started to rattle and clack the bit, short-circuited herself with all the movement in her mouth, and took off at a dead run. Last up was her usual Happy Mouth mullen mouth (the Bloo bit). I was very curious to see what she would do, seeing as she was a little wired from the changes in bits - I was almost starting to wonder if something wasn't wrong with her, and that whatever it was was causing her to behave erratically. The second I opened her up for the Bloo bit, she sucked it right up into her mouth and sighed. She then trotted off like a lady, quiet and goobery and forward.

You can't help but appreciate a mare that is going to tell you exactly what she likes and what she dislikes. (And what she seriously hates, apparently). While I'm sure I'll want to go back and play around a bit with the Liverpool (or maybe another Happy Mouth with a full cheek, or something similar), I will keep her in her usual Happy Mouth mullen mouth. It really is the perfect fit for her spicy little brain.

All The New Things

Well readers, that beautiful beefy cart that everyone loved so much was sold, and not to me. I was not fast enough to get my hands on it... bummer. 

BUT, I decided to jump on the package deal set that was for sale. It's hard to turn down a cart, a nice harness, two harness pads, two bits, AND a whip, all together. The shafts on this cart can be removed and replaced with curved ones if I so desire, and tires can be replaced with either big motorcycle tires (like the ones on the beefy cart), or with solid rubber. So I can beef up the cart as much as I like instead of buying a pre-beefed one!

I made the trip down south to pick up all the gear today. It was about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get there, and I made the very wise decision to be a total dork and go to the library to pick up a book on tape. Our library is small and puny, and the only one there that remotely interested me was The Lost World (read it and loved it as a kid), so I snagged it. I had a super pleasant drive listening to ideas on chaos theory and Tyrannosaurs eating people. Not a bad way to spend a few hours. 

And it was hard to complain about the weather today... low 90's and beautiful cloud cover:

I arrived at the place, inspected the cart and harness, and found them both to be agreeable. The cart is at least 15 years old (maybe older) but in PERFECT shape - it wasn't used much, and was kept in a garage the rest of the time. It's excellent. The shafts are 80", which is still just a hair too long for her, but overall it's not a terrible fit at all. She would do better with a 78", I think, in the future. 

The harness is very beautiful. It's a little old, and a little worn out in spots, but it's a genuine Smuckers and the leather is still very good. It could use a layer of polish - with that it will look fantastic. There is patent leather on the blinders and saddle, which is just gorgeous. I love shiny, shiny leather. I'm just not into the dull look of synthetic tack. I want my leather soft and shining!

Pre-drive... I made some fitting adjustments before I actually drove off. I also did not actually drive her with the blinders. I've been driving her in an open bridle, and she goes quite well in that, but this is the first time she has had the blinders on while actually hooked. I led her around for a little while when she was wearing them, and she was actually a bit fearful. She is SUCH a visual horse that I think it genuinely concerns her when she can't see everything.This is a slight problem because she is also very whip-shy - seeing the movement of the whip behind her will probably scare her to death, and for that reason I haven't driven her with one yet. I don't think she'll object to the feel of the whip when used in gentle sweeps across her shoulder (I will probably never need it for more than just straightening or mobilizing her from side-to-side, definitely will NOT need it for more go), but I think that she will have a heartattack if she sees it moving around. She'll need to get used to the blinders more, because she definitely will need some whip aids to help with her straightness and bend. (By whip aids I mean gentle brushes with the lash, not anything more!)


The harness is beautiful and it FITS. It still needs some fiddling to get everything right where it needs to go, but it fits! Now we can REALLY get down to business!

Harness!

You'll have to forgive my radio silence for the past several days. My elderly greyhound (who you've seen on and off through my blogging experience over the years) had a really terrible week last week. Unfortunately she was crashed by a vet who decided to take a certain route of care without consulting with me first, and now she is in outright kidney failure. We're not really sure what is going to happen, but this is terminal and at some point it will kill her. Whether that happens in a few days or in a year, it's impossible to say.

(Gogo and Ti in 2010)

She had a really good day yesterday after a few really bad days, but today she's not looking so great again. Lots of meds, sub-q fluids, and an emergency diet change after she stopped eating altogether seem to have helped until now, but we don't really even know if she is going to make it long enough to retest her bloodwork in a few weeks.

Ti is my first dog, and I've had her since she was 3 and freshly retired off the track. She has been in my life through college and all of my subsequent moves, jobs, relationships, and so much more. It is very hard to watch your companion age and start to wear out. I trust her to tell me when she's ready, and I'm ready to make that choice for her when the time comes... but I hope I get a little more time with her.

If you could send along some good thoughts for her, it would be much appreciated. I am very, very attached to my old doodle and I'm really not emotionally ready for her to go.


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In much brighter news, O had several days in a row off while I was attending to Ti's medical needs, but she also drove down the road in the long lines for the first time, AND she wore a harness for the first time!!!

I've ridden on this road 892910873392021938 times, so I wasn't worried about going off property and down the road, and true to form she was fantastic. For a horse that is so new to long lining - and SO hot under saddle - she is incredibly quick to pick up on an idea and is incredibly mellow in its execution. We walked and trotted down the road back and forth, and she walked out away from the property without hardly any of her usual barn sourness (which manifests as walking super slow, looking back over her shoulders, walking in really crooked lines). We trotted along quietly up and down the road with me jogging along behind her, and she is so very chill about this that I have absolutely no trouble keeping up at a wheezing jog (note to self: maybe try running a little more).

She was so good that I dared take a short video while we were trotting along on the way home. Don't try this at home kids... also please ignore my wheezing. I'm not very in shape!

Yes, that is my crazy redhead being decidedly un-crazy. I have a theory on this: she has a lot of bad associations with riding, and carries all of that baggage around with her all the time. She has no bad associations with driving of any sort, so she just jumps right in without any problems or evasions. I want to continue to cultivate this in her, and make sure everything progresses smoothly, because I've seen just how bad she can be when she has a bad association with something.

 We also progressed to our next step: an actual harness! I managed to get my hands on this one and I'm pretty happy with it. It's actually quite nice for what it is and will serve us just fine for now. The one thing about it is that it is sized for regular horses, and O is a very small horse (don't tell her I said that). I had to punch a lot of holes in everything, and will need to punch even more. Even everything on the bridle is too big - the blinders are huge on her and I had to punch all sorts of holes to keep her bit from falling out of her mouth. She's a big bodied horse for her size, but she is only 15.1 after all.... about cob size. I'll have to keep that in mind for sizing in the future. 

 Driving people, what do you think? Does it look ok or do you see something glaringly funky? Something I should change/fix?

The traces on this harness are removable, so I ran the breeching straps up through the breastcollar and back again to keep them out of the way. Since the harness is a little big all over, that worked just fine, although the straps might have to be cut shorter in the future. They are loooooooooong.

True to form, she went, "Ok more stuff on my body... whatever." She goosed herself once with the crupper, and then forgot about it, but I left the crupper really loose (way too loose really) just in case. I'll punch more holes and tighten her backstrap up with care. She had never worn a crupper before today and I think that will be the one thing so far that she'll object some to. I lunged her for a little bit in harness at the walk and trot, but not the canter yet - which is probably when she'll be goosey about the crupper, if she is going to be goosey.

She was not very amused by the blinders. I can't blame her for this - she is a VERY visual horse, and she has to look at things and be able to see in order to process. I led her around for awhile, and she got the hang of them, but they were confusing to her. She figured it out, true to form, and was lunging within short order, but I'm definitely going to continue to do most of my work in an open bridle. She needs to be able to do both, but since she learns new things better if she can see them and process them, I expect I'll do everything in an open bridle first. There seem to be conflicting opinions on this, and there are reasons to have your horse in blinders later on when they're broke, but since O is a very visual horse I'm pretty sure that I'll do everything in an open bridle first until she learns it, so she can see and process things. I never really thought about the pros or cons of blinders (or even why you'd use them, really.... I never thought about them at all until now!), so I'm doing my research and asking my resources for guidance. What do you guys think?



I also spent a long time this evening chatting on the phone with the driving trainer I was able to locate! She is sending me some more information about continuation with stuff that I can do on the ground with her until we can proceed with some lessons!

That's My Embryo!

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet the cutest embryo you will ever see:

P is at 32 days today, and we checked the embryo for a heartbeat. It was there, tiny and pounding away, like a little black pinprick flashing on the screen. The embryo is that white thing in the middle of the black blob - the blackness is the fluid in the sac. My little future champion is between 1/2"-3/4" right now, small marble or grape size.

(If you want some more details on fetal development, check out this link!)

For the next few months, we don't need to do much. We'll recheck her in the fall to make sure baby is still in there and doing well - we could opt to do 45 and 90 day ultrasounds, but since we have a heartbeat now, it's not really necessary, not to mention the fact that if she loses her pregnancy we won't rebreed her this year, it's just too late in the year and summer is hard enough on her as it is). She needs to keep moving as much as possible in her paddock/pasture (her stifle isn't up for much, if any, saddle work anymore, so this is probably my only way to keep her fit). Her nutritional requirements up until month 8 stay the same, and I'm quite happy with her diet as is (high forage, high fat, very low starch/sugar, balanced vits/mins). I'd like to keep the chemicals and drugs out of her as much as possible while she is pregnant, so we'll use a lot of discretion for dewormer and play other things by ear (like the other day, she had a painful eye that swelled itself shut when a bug got into it - we got the bug out but she needed banamine to help the swelling and pain in her eye. She is fine now, but that obviously was not something we could have avoided!). She'll need her rhino shots - current recommendations for those are 3-5-7-9 months. At month 8, a lot of things will be changing and things will be altered. Until then, her job is to eat and be healthy and keep growing her little fetus!


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On the O front, we've been dealing with torrential rain (which is very weird for Texas in June), but inbetween huge storms we have been able to get out and road-ride some more. I don't like to pound her down the road a lot, so I am fairly judicious with what we do, but we are able to get some really quality work done. I really, really like the double on her. I wasn't sure on the first day, but since then she has just been *awesome* in it. She stretches out to the bridle, is responsive to aids, and is starting to get a little more sideways step in her lateral work. We're just doing rudimentary things like leg yielding at the walk (and starting to at the trot), and starting to do stuff like turning on the forehand and some really poor walk pirouettes, but she is learning the idea of moving individually off of each set of aids. I am probably going to have to put spurs back on as well - for being as hot as she is, she is quite sluggish off my leg aids sometimes. It seems a little silly to be using a double bridle when you're just teaching the horse to go forward and sideways, but you gotta do what works for the horse.

I made a splurge purchase and ordered my own curb and bridoon. The bridoon is double jointed, and the curb has a very short shank and a low port. I really think she will like this combo. The bridoon I am using is single jointed, and the curb has a pretty high port and super long shanks. I don't need THAT much action by any means, so something smaller and nicer will suit her just fine.

What I purchased:

The huge shanks and single joint on the bits I borrowed. The curb is way more than I need. And I added a nice touch to soften up the skinny little bridoon: a Fruit Roll-Up! She LOVES Fruit Roll-Ups and opens her mouth happily for her bits, which is a big thing for her. That's obviously not a forever thing, but she is soft and pleasant and thoughtfully mouthing her bits as well as taking a really nice contact in them, so for now it's perfect. Also pardon the figure-8, that was on the bridle originally but got removed and traded out for a plain cavesson:

Also, who thought of the genius idea to combine a Back on Track saddle pad AND a Thinline pad all into ONE THING? S gave this pad to me as a trade-out for my Back on Track standing wraps that I never use anymore. I use this pad all the time now and I love it! I don't think it makes a difference in O - even after hours and hours of hard riding, she has never had any sort of back soreness or problems - but it is so nicely made that I use it all the time. I'm almost afraid to wash it!

Double Trouble

We've had a few more good days this week, complete with some tack experimentation!

On Thursday, we had a very productive lunge. She lunged on Monday, and had two very intense dressage schools on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I wanted to ease up and do an easy lunge session on Thursday. You never quite know which horse is going to show up for you every day (Jekyll or Hyde), but O really had her game face on, and was extremely quiet and responsive. The lunge was very short, only about 15-20 minutes - but she was so good that there was no reason to do any more.

You can see that she was very relaxed at the canter, keeping her speed under control. When she keeps her focus and is quiet, the canter actually becomes quite nice. When she is rushy, it becomes flat and lateral, but when she is quiet, it is pure and actually quite pretty.

 

She looks crabilated, but she was very chill. She's always gotta let me know what she is REALLY thinking though!

Today I experimented, and borrowed a double bridle. I thought maybe it would be worth a try, although I suspected she wouldn't love having two bits in. I was right... she definitely didn't love that. She even ground her teeth once or twice, very lightly.... she only does that when she is really, REALLY mad about something. At some point we halted, and I asked her for a step backwards. She sulled up against the bridle and stood immobile. She refused and refused to move, until I finally had to get off and back her up in hand. Even then, I could NOT get her to move. I even had full pressure on just the curb once or twice, just trying to get her to respond to ANYTHING, and she stood there like a rock, completely tuned out. (I later backed her in hand with just a light hold on her snaffle, and she skipped lightly backwards with no problem... she's a stubborn thing.) I may have to start carrying a crop in order to help with these occasional in-hand schoolings.... sheesh. When she doesn't want to, she's just not going to do it.

But, other than that moment, she was very good. Eventually I just dropped the curb rein, and she was very good. She was still hovering a little behind the bridle at times, which I don't like.... I think it is time to just go back to her snaffamore. That is the only mouthpiece that she really reliably likes enough to firmly take a contact on.

And now, I'm off to watch the Belmont... will California Chrome make history today??

Self Exploration

Phew! I have some catching up to do. I have another post to follow about my birthday, but I better catch upon this one first!


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Little Miss Tre left for her new home this past weekend! After this experience I can safely say I am NEVER EVER EVER doing the buying and selling thing ever again, EVER. It was a horrible, frustrating, money-bleeding experience, and I never want to take part in it ever again. She went to a great place, but not for what I wanted and not within the time frame that I wanted. It was a learning experience for me, but mostly all that I learned is that while it seemed like a great endeavor, it was not, and I am not made of the stuff that horse sellers are made out of. I am never. Ever. Doing. That. Again.

EVER.

Doing this also gave me some good insight into my own workings though, and for that I am grateful. I realized at some point that I am really just a one-horse kind of person. I really like just have one single one to spoil and dote on. It's very hard for me to have two that are both in work at the same time (having one retired one or one youngster plus a working one is a different story, that is doable). I don't know, I'm just sort of... horsey monogamous, I suppose. Only having one means that the one that I have doesn't have to want for anything. Only having one means that I can take as long as I feel like every day, because there isn't a time constraint. 

From here on out, it will just be O, and of course Pmare when she comes home. Obviously, at some point in the (way distant) future, that will change in some way or another (I get rich, somebody dies, something unexpected happens, etc), but not now. Now is a time for conservation instead of excess. Now is a time to focus on building up the things I have instead of trying to reach for outside things. 2014 looks like another huge year for personal and professional growth, and not surprisingly I am feeling a little wiser with every passing day. My 29th birthday was yesterday.... hard to believe I am approaching the end of my 20's. What I know today is certainly far more than I knew at this time last year, or the year before, or especially five years ago, or ESPECIALLY ten years ago. Ten years ago at this exact time, I was waiting for my brand new horse Metro to arrive from Canada, while doting on my old man Quincy. Five years ago at this time, I had just recently moved to Connecticut, and was prepping young Gogo for her Novice debut in Area 1. Two years ago, I had just moved into a house with Future Hubs and was wondering how in the heck I had survived a year already in Texas. Last year, I was about to get struck in the ankle with a rock and have everything in my life completely change for the better. At the end of my 20's, I am seeing that everyone was right - your 20's is a RIDICULOUSLY dynamic period in your life. It is a time for growth, a time for huge decisions, a time for successes, and a time for mind boggling mistakes. A time to really figure out who the heck you are, and where you want to be going with your life. I know that I will change every year - that's just life - but I know a lot more about my older, wiser self now than I did my younger, more irrational self. I am also old and wise enough to know that I am neither old nor wise in reality, and that I don't know nearly as much as I used to think I did. 

Anyway, I digress. 

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The past two weeks has been absolutely insane. I was sick for a week and a half, which threw off all of my appointments, and then the weather tanked which didn't help any of the complexity. I then ran myself ragged trying to catch up with everyone, and finally everything is back to normal. In the interim, I only had time to lunge a few times and go for a quick hack, but hey, at least it was something! This week things have finally gotten back to the normal level of crazy, so I've been happily back in the saddle. 

O doesn't like to do the same thing every day. If she lunges two days in a row, she'll be much worse on the second day. Same thing with flatwork, or conditioning - some combo of being bored and using the same muscle groups makes her much less pliable on the second day. She seems to do quite well if you space out her more intense workouts with either a day off or some very differing kind of work. After our dressage ride on the 1st (a Saturday), she had a day off on that Sunday (when the weather tanked), and then on that Monday we went for a 5 mile hack. We checked on all the new baby cows (so far there are 14 new little squeezy cute beef tips!), trotted over some raised poles, patterned on the barrels for a little while, and then called it a day.

It was REALLY COLD, and I had to practically peel my frozen self out of the saddle. Is winter over yet!?


The rest of the week passed in a whirlwind of business. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, she had off, and Wednesday and Friday she lunged in the Faux-ssoa. Putting a day off in between the two of those sessions was very helpful, although I did think that on the second day she was a bit less cooperative than she had been on the first. We worked on our usual stretching out, trotting and cantering over raised poles, and relaxation.

(If you couldn't tell from the change in background weather/scenery, those were taken on two different days.)

On Sunday (the 9th), I decided to try a little experiment. I had the idea long ago (meaning, a month or two ago) that I should try a pelham on O for some flatwork. This pelham has a short shank and the same Happy Mouth mouthpiece as the snaffle I ride her in. My idea was that I could ride off the snaffle, and then would have an extra bit of "excuse me whoa there wild animal" with the curb if I needed it. And that was a good idea, of course, but in reality it seems as though O has recently really connected with the idea of a half-halt. She stretched out and took a nice contact, moved off my leg, took half halts from my seat perfectly well, and was in general just fantastic. I ended up tying up the curb rein and just riding off the snaffle anyway, because I had a horse who was listening to my body and just taking a nice relaxed contact with the snaffle. I was also surprised to find that we have leg yields in both directions, really nice ones! I didn't know we had them... we certainly didn't have them before. Not sure when she picked that up, but she did!
She was great. Back to the regular snaffle, because all good dressage-y things come from a simple snaffle and that's how it should be!

She sure did look cute though!


We had another lunge, which looked quite a lot like this (although this was taken a few days earlier):



Awwww good mare.

We also had a fun day of desensitizing with a rope and playing on the barrels. She has started cantering the barrel pattern and is REALLY pretty good at it all things considered. I tried to get a video of that, but unfortunately all I ended up shooting was a long video of the sky. But, at least I got a short clip of playing around with the rope!




Caveat: do not be this lax with your own personal safety unless you really know the horse. I'm being very sloppy about safety in this video because I know this horse and I knew she wasn't going to do anything. Still, that doesn't mean that something unexpected could have happened - practice safety!

You can see that she's not particularly keen about it flying around near her head, but it won't take long for her to get used to that. I am a total goob with rope handling, so I won't be swinging around off of her anytime soon, but this is a good place to start. Not surprisingly, she didn't care about it much. You also get to see some very poor leading skills on my part... I suppose I've been letting her be too lazy with the leading as of late. I will get back on that now that I have noticed her trying to drag along behind me.

Phew, I think I caught up with all of the riding stuff!