NTW Romp in the Willows 5/14/16

Well, that was about as bad at the last Romp in the Willows. Meaning, not the worst show ever, but it very prominently highlighted what happens to O when she is faced with things she is really good at, and faced with things she is really not good at. She is really, really good at going fast, having endless endurance, and tight turns. She is really, really bad at precision work that requires a lot of careful, slow maneuvering and frequent stops. 

There are three parts to the Romp - an obstacle course, a cones course, and a XC course where you have to pick up ribbons along the way and return them to the timer at the finish. O is really good at two of those things. The obstacle course? Oh man. It was total carnage. It was a different course than the last Romp, but we did just as horribly as we did last time. And came in the same place too - dead last.

Since the map looks confusing, I'll explain the course. The first obstacle is a big board bridge which the horses must go over. The second is a narrow wooden channel - you have to drive one wheel into the channel and drive through the entire channel with that one wheel still in it - which is way harder than it sounds. The third was a narrow raised obstacle that you had to drive through without knocking anything down. The fourth was a push through gate made of a pool noodle that was elevated and set between two standards - the horses had to push the gate with their chests and walk through it. The fifth was an alleyway made of flutter flags. The sixth was a tiny little board, like 12"x12", that you had to stop one wheel on and stay there until the judge told you to proceed. The 7th and 8th were a barrel that had mail on it, and a mailbox that you had to put the mail in and raise the flag. The ninth was a back up knockdown U-shaped obstacle where you had to pass it, turn, and back into it, knocking down the back rail (but not the side rails) before proceeding on. The final obstacle was crossing the bridge again, and exiting.

I thought for sure O was going to have a way better time than she did last time. She was feeling zen all morning, taking a nap while we waited for our turn. I thought for sure we were going to be fine. And it did start off fine. O crossed the bridge with no issues, approached the wooden wheel channel, and actually successfully executed it on the first go. It was great! And then, at the very end of the channel, she just stopped dead of her own accord. All I could think was, ohhhhh no here we go. That is her default when she is about to get all kinds of fried. Sure enough, we got into obstacle 3 and made it halfway through, but when we tried to turn to exit, she stopped dead again, backed up, jackknifed the carriage, and would NOT move again. I actually reached out and patted her butt to tell her it was ok, because it was all the way over to my right side and I could reach it. We continued on, went very successfully through the pool noodle gate (which creamed SO many people - I saw SO many horses either freak out or actually jump over it, complete with airborne carriage... not good!!), went through the flutter flag alley fine, stopped right on the square fine, picked up the mail and put it in the mailbox fine. All went fine. Then we tried to back into the U, and.... nope. Unfortunately with the 4 wheeler, it is SUPER easy to jackknife and not back up straight, so we couldn't get it straight. Just couldn't do it. I tried to get her in line, but kept having to walk her forward and straighten her out, which just did absolutely nothing for her brain. Finally, we backed into the wrong portion, knocked down the wrong side, and I just gave up and decided to go on. Unfortunately, she was still completely sulled up and wouldn't go forward again. Eventually after FOREVER I got her going, got her over the bridge, and then tried to get her to trot forward and exit - but halfway between the bridge and the exit, she just stopped dead again when I clucked at her to go forward. She started to back up, jackknifed the carriage again, mowed clean over the entire bridge complex and all the cones and numbers associated with it, and then again wouldn't go forward. She just stood there. Forever. Completely unresponsive to anything I did. Finally, she moved on, but I actually had to get someone to lead her out of the gate because she would NOT go forward. 

It's just her thing. It's why I bought her for $500. She was so fried when I got her that she would not. Go. Forward. You would sit on her to ride, and she would just stop dead and refuse to move every time you would put your leg on. You could thump her in the ribs, whail on her with a crop, or even just pet her and tell her it was all going to be okay. None of it worked. And, none of it works now. When she checks out, she is just DONE and that's the end of it. I can't do anything about it - physically there is just nothing. I just have to sit there and wait for her to come to her senses, and then she will move on. 

This really annoyed me for a long time. I gave you a command horse, you need to listen and do it. I felt for a long time that just letting her stand there was letting her get away with it. But it did not take me long to learn that there is no physical way to manhandle her into compliance. If you try, she is going to rearflail and completely unravel. And you STILL won't get anywhere - you'll just have an even more upset horse. And what good is that?

So, when she checks out to No Brains Town, I let her stand there and completely take the pressure off. I let her try to come back to her senses. And *then* we try again. There is just no way to train a horse whose brain has completely shut down. The only thing that can come of forcing that checked-out horse to do something it doesn't understand is someone getting hurt. 

And, it's okay. I understand that these things are very hard for her mentally, and mental overload just shuts her completely down. I know this about her, and I accept this about her. It's something I don't believe can be changed. She finds precision work super mentally challenging, and she always has. She is who she is, and she doesn't make apologies for it. And I can respect that about her, because she is always 100% honest with me. She doesn't misbehave just to misbehave - she misbehaves when she truly and honestly can't deal with something. She is SO very good at the things she is good at, and just SO very bad at the things she is bad at. There isn't really a middle ground for her.

One thing she is great at - total immobility when waiting our turn to go. I could probably take a nap up there

Right from the exit of the obstacle course, we cantered down the road and then trotted right into the cones course. She zipped around it like it was a piece of cake, not terribly fast but completely compliant and willing. She finished 2nd, and then we untacked for lunch and hung around, everyone commiserating about how hard and crazy the obstacle course was.

After lunch was a rather abbreviated XC course. Most of the property is currently underwater; the organizer had to change the location of the XC course and had it significantly shortened. I borrowed the owner of the carriage to ride with me, and O cruised around it like it was no problem, stopping obediently at each ribbon stop (we had to pick up a ribbon at checkpoints and then give these to the timer at the end). She did well, finishing 2nd and being extremely compliant - she listened to every command, everything I had to say. See what I mean? She is totally happy to listen and obey when she understands things - she is all about straightforward concepts. She is such a straightforward cut-and-dried kind of personality herself that I think she is just attracted to the same kinds of ideas - you go fast in a straight line here, you turn fast here. Simple, easy to understand, and completely clear. As soon as you get to nitpicking her, she doesn't take it well - too much sensory overload. Even a jointed metal snaffle is too much sensory overload for her - she needs her Happy Mouth mullen mouth, which is about as straightforward and simple of a concept as a bit can be. In anything else, she gets to rattling and clacking her bit, short-circuits herself, and takes off. I'm sensing a common theme here... 

So, it wasn't a *bad* show per se. The cones and the XC were of course fun, because O is good at those things and does them well. The obstacle course really was rough though. It was just as rough as the last time we attempted it. And I can't say it will be less rough the next time, if I choose to do the next Romp in the fall. (Although maybe I will have a moole to show next time!) To be completely honest the only reason I went to this one was because I am point chasing this year - I want Horse of the Year points, and this is a show that counted. We unfortunately probably were knocked back several pegs after this show, which kind of sucks. I've complained before about the organizer showing in her own shows, but of course she once again was Champion in our division at this show. Again. As usual. The only thing that made the placings less crummy is the fact that the Reserve in our division went to a lady who works really, really hard but has a difficult horse and she always gets beaten by us at every show. Today she beat us, and she looked like she was almost going to cry because she was so happy. The organizer doing all the organizing and then winning it all is annoying as usual, but the other lady getting Reserve gave me the warm fuzzies. I can totally get behind her beating us for once, because she really does deserve it. 

Next weekend we have a clinic, which I am really looking forward to. Then comes Pine Hill and immediately after is Stillwater! Holy crap time is flying by! 

Deathstorm Season is Here

Texas Deathstorm Season has arrived here in earnest this year, and early. Last week I had all sorts of blogging plans, yard plans, riding/driving plans.... aaaaaand then it rained solidly for a week and a half. Literally every day it poured and/or stormed. We had 5 tornados last week, and then another one this morning. Trust me, getting jarred awake at 6:15AM on your only day off because of the tornado alarm isn't really a fun way to wake up. Not to mention the fact that crappy satellite internet dies every time it rains two drops, so I've not been able to do anything important like blogging or, you know, taxes or silly things like that. 

Instead, I rode. I rode the pants off Dylan last week, I rode all week long and it was awesome.

Since my pastures are basically underwater at the moment with all the rain, I've been trailering to WD a lot. Last week in particular, we worked on trying to put together the dressage tests for Novice and Intermediate working equitation. I feel like I am actually starting to look like I belong on a real horse instead of a carousel one now... like my body is FINALLY starting to cooperate. I am finally starting to be able to sit the trot again without feeling like my ankle is going to break in half, our changes are coming much cleaner (since I am better able to sit them in all their enormity). The Intermediate tests have walk half pass, leg yields at the trot, flying changes and simple changes through the walk at the canter, and circles of varying sizes - all things we are capable of. Now it just needs finesse. 

I've been seeing my physiotherapist about every two weeks, which is expensive but effective. It's a slow process, but I am starting to feel like my body is actually working properly, and riding has become a lot less painful.

The first WE show around here is in mid-April at the Texas Rose Horse Park. It's just a schooling show, but the following weekend has a B-rated show somewhere else. That's not very far away! Entries for the first schooling show close on March 28th, so now I am left with deciding which division I want to choose. I need more practice with the obstacles, which will require either building them or seeing if I can trailer out to use some of them. I think it's perfectly doable to build several of my own things - putting down sidepass poles and the like will be super easy, and it won't be that hard to construct a gate, a barrel with a garrocha, a table with a jug of water.... etc. It's just finding the time to do these things which is proving to be difficult. Hell, I barely have time to blog much less do anything else! 

Muddy beast

It's been Hormone Acres over at my house this week. The mares are in heat, so Dylan is naturally going absolutely bonkers about it. He's back to stalking the fence and screaming instead of eating, which is driving me insane. He's dropped a bunch of weight in an extremely short amount of time, so I had to triple his feed in order to try and get ahead of it. I totally get why he was shut up in a stall all the time - because he literally does walk the weight right off of himself when he's in that kind of a mood.

Looking suddenly more svelte today, although the angle of this photo thankfully hides it for the most part. Shall we name it Fencewalking Fit?

To make matters worse, not only has it been pouring rain (which means I've been unable to work O at all), but yesterday O scraped up one of her back legs doing god knows what. She's in blazing, roaring, flaming heat, which also means she has been on a hunger strike (she literally can't function like a normal horse when she is hormonal). The scrape on the leg exploded today into a HUGE fat sausage leg, which is blazingly hot and super tender. Aaaaaaand we have a show on Saturday. Naturally, right? It figures. 

Are you kidding me

I'm about 50-50 on the fence about scratching from the show. She's not lame, and the only reason the leg is huge is because this is exactly what happens EVERY time she gets the most minor scrape or cut. I'm convinced this poor mare is made of paper and glass, seriously. A lot of the marks you see on the leg are old scars from previous small injuries, but you can definitely see the fresh ones. BUT, Sunrise Ridge is only two weeks away, and that's a big and important show. I don't know if I want to risk taking her, but I also feel like if I don't take her we will never get a really good warmup before the show. This small show was meant to be a warmup! Just like last year, I feel in no way prepared for Sunrise Ridge. Same as last year, she has scraped her leg up this month and given herself a fat leg, and had to have time off. Same as last year, it's been pouring and I've been unable to work her at all. It feels like deja-vu all over again!

I have a few things left to prep for Sunrise Ridge. My ear bonnet isn't finished yet, although it should be soon. I need to find an appropriate colored polo shirt for myself and for B2, who is navigating for me. I have gloves ordered that aren't in yet, and I also have ordered a wicket basket that is supposed to 'dress up' the carriage a little bit for dressage and cones (and also carry my spares). 

I have more to write about all of it but as usual I should really be in bed instead of sitting up writing! I have a full day of work tomorrow - really, really super full - and then when I get home I have to decide about the show. If I am going, then I'll need to stay up late trimming O, unloading my truck box, winching the carriage in, cleaning harness, cleaning horse.... then leaving my house at about 4am on Saturday to get to the show. It sounds a bit less fun when I write it out like that...! 

Oye. Between Dylan and O's hormonal problems, being tornadoed away every 5 seconds, working until I'm exhausted, and not ever being able to catch up with everything I need to do... I think I need a vacation! 

Future Event Horse Series - Maybe?

Having baby horses is just the most fun thing on planet Earth. Having been the first person to handle Pax literally from the moment she was born (I pulled her out, if you remember!), and having been largely the only one to handle her thus far, it has really just been SO NICE to have a little beast who doesn't need nine million things fixed, retrained, and reschooled. I've had largely nothing but adult horses needing much in the way of fixing over the last several years, so to have this little babe from scratch - I just love it. Pax is smart, and easy, and doesn't question things. Her main problem is that she is overly friendly and sometimes all up in your space, as heavily handled babies tend to be. She likes me, and she thinks I am super interesting, so whenever I come into the pasture, she is the first to come straight to me. Things don't frighten her, and even when they do cause her concern, she readily accepts them as just part of her baby world - like a little sponge, she just sucks it up. She is still very immature about many things - she is only 10 months old, after all! - but her brain will mature as her body does. 

I have no intention of rushing anything with her, or doing things that I don't think she is mentally or physically capable of until she is really ready for them. That said, I was mulling it over and over in my head recently, and I decided - why not do the yearling section of the Future Event Horse series this year, if she is mentally capable? 

The Future Event Horse program, if you are not familiar with it, is run by the USEA. It is not to be confused with the Young Event Horse program, which showcases the potential talent of 4 and 5 year olds under saddle. I don't really agree with many of the things they are asking these super young horses to do under saddle, so I wouldn't participate in that series if I ever get back to eventing. But the FEH is shown exclusively in-hand, and evaluates the potential for horses as upper level event horse prospects.

Is Pax really an upper level event prospect? Eh, not really. I think she is and will be totally capable of cruising around mid-level, with either myself should I decide to get back into eventing (and maybe I will!), or with another person should that time ever come. But, I think these programs are great exposure for these babes - they are local, they are pretty low-key and they are good life experience. There are a few of them within two or so hours of me, so we wouldn't have to go on long stressful trips or spend extended periods of time away from home. Since there are only a few of them a year, the rest of the year she can go be outside growing and playing like any baby should - and this is highly encouraged by the program. They specifically state that it is more important for a baby to be turned out and look a little scruffy versus be super shiny and slick and fat from standing in a stall, which I really appreciate. 

I started looking up dates for the FEH events in our area. Oh crap.... there is one at the end of next month. That is NOT very far away!

On Wednesday, I loaded and took Pax around the block in the trailer, as her first ever totally solo ride. She has been in the trailer with her mother a few times, and practiced loading by herself at home, but hadn't ever been totally shut in and going down the road by herself. She handled it well, and only had a minor fit when we got back home and all of her idiot marefriends started having a total panic attack. Even Dylan was going, "I don't know these beasts..." Pax almost fell down when trying to turn herself around in the standing stall (not small enough to do that anymore!), caught herself, then stood still and waited to be unloaded. She still can't figure out how to back out, but she is able to turn around and walk cautiously down the ramp. Thankfully she is not a leaper - she is a thinker, mostly.

The side-eye is strong with this one

Yesterday, I decided I had better see how she was going to handle going off property for the first time by herself. I figured she would be pretty awful, as babies tend to be. and boy was I ever right. She was just AWFUL, although she did eventually settle down some.

I can't blame her for her awful behavior. Going off property for the first time is scary. Being without your herd is scary. Seeing things like cows for the first time is scary. It is quite a thing, to be frightened of these things. But, my main problem was not that she was afraid of things. She wasn't afraid, not like I expected. She screamed bloody murder the entire time for the other horses, and she did spook half to death when she saw the cows go by, but her main problem was her fallback tantrums she has when something is overwhelming for her. When she can't handle something (as toddlers are wont to do), she goes into bananas bersek mode and comes at her handler, She doesn't try to get away from you, she tries to come at you. This works in the pasture, because at 10 months old she is the literal boss of the entire mare herd. She shakes her head and she shoves her body around, and all of the other mares - her own mother included - get out of her way. And P herself is kind of a cow sometimes, and fully had her old owner taken advantage of in the same way - she just barged around, and the old owner got out of the way. She doesn't do it with me, but I know she would if I let her.

It's not like this is anything new. I've been dealing with this attitude since she was a neonate. I sat on her and squashed her more times than I can count when she was very small. I still have a mark on the back of my neck from where she reared up and struck me with her little needle hooves as a very tiny babe.

About 2 weeks old, trying to kill me

She's not nasty about it. She doesn't pin her ears, or bite, or kick, or be mean. She just barges her giant brown body around and she expects this to get the point across... like her mother does.

Needless to say, there was some major baby beating going on in that area for a little while.



BUT, that all said, somewhere in the middle of all of that, I took her back to the trailer and tied her for awhile longer. She gradually became more quiet, ate some hay, and actually stood still. I took her back in the arena, practiced some more handling, and was pleased to find that she was listening. She loaded well back on the trailer, rode well all the way home, and today seems to not hate me for having put her through this ordeal.

Pax know how to stand still in an open position, leads very well at the walk, and trots in hand better than nearly all the other horses on my property (save for O, who is super good at this). She just.... has these giant baby tantrums.

Her reaction to seeing cows

SO much side-eye

There are cows over there and cows are outside my worldly knowledge or comprehension

So, I think the FEH at Meadowcreek next month is still on. She will stand, lead, and trot in hand fine, I am sure of that. She just might, you know, show off some of her redheaded side at the same time. If you're going to Meadowcreek... you might want to some watch the fireworks!

Countdown to Sunrise Ridge HDT: Two Days!

It's been a long time since I had a real countdown to a rated show. Like, a long time. A really, really long time! I think the last rated show from any discipline was the 2009 AECs. Everything I've done since has been schooling shows, no national organizations involved. That's all about to change! (And of course, by rated I mean ADS sanctioned... 'rated' being the catch-all term for a show sanctioned by the national mother organization.) I haven't really even had the ability to blog about my prep work yet - I've had little ability to prep yet so far this week, which has been super hard. 

I am feeling pretty dang nervous for this show, I'll admit it, although I am feeling relatively in control of my pre-show checklist. It's SO hard to go into a brand new sport - there is SO much to learn, so much to remember, and so much that is still confusing to me. I know exactly what to expect from USEA or USDF shows - hell, even rated h/j shows, from the handful I've peppered into my regular show schedule over the years - but the ADS is an entirely new thing for me. ADS, like many of the other major US sport organizations, is under the USEF umbrella, and like the other major sport organizations, it has an extremely lengthy rulebook that covers each sect separately (pleasure shows, combined driving, etc). There is SO much information in there, it's hard to get your head around it. I like knowing the rules - I hate being left in the dark on things - so I have spent a lot of time pouring over the rulebook and committing things to memory.

Still, it's HARD to remember stuff. It's hard to remember 20 sets of cones, and it's hard to remember not to forget the compulsory turning flags on the marathon, and it's hard to remember the order in which things need to go. It's all uncharted territory for me!

That said, I think I have things mostly under control. We did go ahead and put O on Altrenogest, so we don't have to worry about any, erm... hormonal upsets. That's a large load off my back... she was due to come back into heat this very weekend and I was not looking forward to that one bit - especially since she'll be stabled behind a gelding who was only just recently cut!

I installed my chrome rein rail a few days ago as well. Considering the fact that I am about as handy as a cream cheese bagel, this is just as much of an accomplishment as the winch install was. But it looks AWESOME!

For reference; this is what the old one looked like:

Ugly AND broken

I put all of the original bolts back into place and painted over them. When I have more time, I can putty the holes and pain over them again - I just don't have that kind of time right now though. Nobody will notice at an HDT, especially not with the presentation portion being assessed during the actual test itself. They do inspect your gear before your dressage and your marathon, but they're looking for things like safety issues, not your lack of style. 

We had our final drive today, after several days off - it's been raining and we've been stupidly busy. O was a wonderful lady, solidly putting in a few relaxing miles on a nice contact before we headed back to the barn. A few days before a show, I always tend to get a little nervous, and rather than drill my horse in their dressage work, I opt for lighter things like hacks and conditioning workouts to keep them fresh - and to keep me from letting my nerves get in the way and start up with the nit-picking. Tomorrow, she'll be lunged, and we leave Friday afternoon for the showgrounds.

I made a few adjustments to the harness and I think everything is sitting well now. I raised the tugs a little bit, and was pleasantly surprised to find it made it ride much smoother - way easier to balance it while in it. I also stuck my saddle pad back on just for schooling purposes - we'll remove it for the dressage, but I think it is worth it to use it during regular schooling at home. Between the new ear bonnet, the new rein rail, and the outfit I'll have on, everything will look mighty nice at the show.

Today I cleaned out my trailer tack room, printed off all the show info, fixed my winch issue, had my trailer spare repaired, drove O, did barn chores, and cleaned my harness. I'll admit, I'm pretty sold on my synthetic harness now - it was stupidly easy to clean. All I did more or less was hang it on a gate, turn the hose on, and spray it down, then wipe it clean. Voila! It took me less than 10 minutes and it looks brand new again. 

Tomorrow I need to: pack up all hay/grain/buckets/haybags/etc, clean out the back of the trailer, get shavings, clean my cart, clip/trim/tidy up O, and probably get some raingear because there's something like a 90% chance of rain on Saturday (awesome). Among many other things... there's a lot to do before we leave on Friday!

Thankfully P (who is at day 335 today) looks like she's going to hold out on us until at least next week. She finally has fluid in her udders (FINALLY!), so I have been able to test them. The fluid is in the water/sticky amber colored stage - far, far from milk - and is nearly off the charts on the pH scale. That means we still have a fair bit of cooking left to do, thankfully. Cook all you want, baby! Don't come out until next week!

"Warmblood Mare, Comes Complete With Issues."

"Warmblood mare, comes complete with issues."
Remember that line? That was O's sale ad from when I first bought her. And if you remember, she had some SERIOUS ones.

 Sometimes I forget exactly how far I have come with my wild redheaded beast mare. But sometimes, like these past few days, I am reminded of just how far we have yet to go.

And sometimes, you just gotta lay down a little law and have a come-to-Jesus meeting with your extremely stubborn redheaded beast mare. Redheads tend to have this tendency to, erm.... think they know better than you ALL the time. O is obviously no exception to this rule.

Following O's planned week off, I broke out my lunging equipment for her first day back on Saturday. She started off pretty quiet, trotting/cantering over some poles going to the right, and then she knocked one of the poles over and zoomed off into the canter. Several verbal "trot" commands from me were completely ignored, or met with one trot stride followed by an immediate pick back up into the canter. Well, fine then. Canter until you're done wanting to canter, and then you have to canter some more. I knew I wasn't going to wear her out per se, but given the chance to let her fizzle herself out a little, I knew I'd have a slightly more malleable horse on my hands.

45 minutes, she was still cantering, with no interest in trotting. I tested her a few times to see if she was ready for trotwork (she wasn't), and when she broke a few times, I asked her to keep cantering anyway. Finally, she responded to a trot command and stayed trotting quietly. 

I'd rather not have my horse stuck on an endless circle for a huge period of time, but sometimes you don't have much of a choice. Either get into a big fight, or let her fizzle herself out... I chose the fizzle route. 

We went through the same thing in the other direction, although it thankfully did not take as long. She went along in zoomy canter and zoomy trot, then of her own accord decided to smooth out the work. It's interesting to watch... she will be flying around in this unbalanced Standardbred-type trot, and then suddenly will shift down a gear and give you a nice, quiet, balanced trot. Shortly after she does this, she'll try to do a downward transition ("see look I did what you want, now I am going to stop.") If you ask her to quietly move onward, she will fly off again in her Standardbred trot or canter with a very pissy face. Anything to not do what you originally asked.

She is very interesting in that she never gets nervous or tense in the usual 'hot horse' sense.... she just chooses when she is going to use speed as her evasion of choice, and when she is going to be quiet. She is not an inherently hot and high energy character - around the barn and during hack rides, she is a completely chill cucumber, happy to stand immobile all day long, snoozing and eating her way through the day. I can hack her all day long at a walk in a halter and leadrope, no problem. But when she is asked to work, and she either a) doesn't understand, b) is unbalanced, or c) just doesn't feel like it, speed is her first and favorite evasion. Being a stubborn redhead, if she doesn't see why she should bother doing what you ask, then she is either going to fight you tooth and nail about it, or completely tune you out and ignore you. For being as strong-willed and forward as she is, deep down inside, I honestly think she is a seriously lazy critter at heart.

Sometimes, you just have to tell her "too bad, you have to do XYZ thing because I said so, and that's the final word on it."

On Sunday, all I wanted to do was get on and have a nice bareback hack around the barrels. Two of the hinges on my trailer tackroom door are broken, so until T can see about fixing it, I can't get into my tackroom without risking the door falling off. A nice bareback hack seemed like the way to go. We walked around the barrels once or twice, and then I asked her for a little sideways movement. She obliged, I stopped and patted her. We went the other way, she stalled out halfway through the exercise and sulled up against my leg. (Remember, this is the horse that when I got her would only walk, because any leg cues were met with a dead stop and an attitude of "nope won't do it," complete with kicking out, glaring at the rider's leg, and pinned ears. I don't take any regressions lightly.) I asked her to go forward, and move sideways again, and she stopped and threw her head around with an air of, "no, I'm done with this now." She refused to budge.

I got off her and started to move her around in hand. She had grown roots at this point, and when I touched her side to move her over, she didn't respond. I poked harder, no response. I poked HARD, no response. I openly slapped her in the belly, no response. NONE! She stood there stubbornly, looked at me out of the corner of her eye, while I poked and slapped away at her side. She knows FULL well how to move over and exactly how to do the exercise I was asking. Finally I poked her in the gut with my knee, and she begrudgingly obliged. We moved around for several minutes in this manner - her ignoring me, me insisting she do XYZ thing until the escalation got so high that she finally begrudgingly did it. But there was no improvement in her attitude, or the speed at which she did anything. She just said "no" to everything I asked, because she didn't see why she should say yes.

In all of my soul-searching I have been doing over the past month or two, I've come to realize that all of the non-eventing things I've been trying with her - barrels and endurance specifically - are all things I chose because they allowed me to avoid bringing out this bad attitude in her. They allowed her to run along in straight lines and sharp turns, but they did not address the real issue - the attitude she came with. She still doesn't even get her correct leads half the time. That is irresponsible and bad training on my part. That is me avoiding the real problem. Sure, she can canter along for an infinite amount of time, or run and turn, but does she *actually* listen when I put my leg on her? No, she doesn't. In a way, she is no better trained now than on the day that I first picked her up. That is irresponsible of me. If your horse can canter for 25 miles but can't put in even a mediocre and obedient Training level dressage test (not a winning test, just be able to w-t-c halt and do reasonably round circles)... does it even have the basics down? Nope. I've been using the excuse of, "oh, she just doesn't like to do dressage," which is code for "geez this mare is SO HARD to ride on the flat, she makes it a total nightmare sometimes." That is me being a lazy, bad trainer. And that has to end now if I ever want this horse to succeed.

Unfortunately that means I am going to have to roll up my sleeves and not take no for an answer from her. Her "no" is not just a "no" either. It is a big, resounding, "No, F-YOU and I WON'T and JUST TRY TO MAKE ME YOU'LL BE SORRY."

(Add-in: I'm under the impression she was born this way. There is still a copy of her original ad floating around online, when she was 3 and not yet under saddle, and it contains a few telling buzzwords and phrases such as: 

"Gabby can be strong willed, so she will need someone who is experienced and patient. She has also become very herd bound over the spring/summer. As long as she is around other horses she is very sweet and affectionate, but gets upset once she is by herself. This mare will make someone who has time and patience to work through her issues an amazing athlete."

Sound familiar?? She wasn't even broke back then!! And that was a SALE AD, imagine how much they actually glossed over her REAL attitude!)

And yes, we've combed over her back and forth with a fine-toothed comb on physical issues. The only thing we can come up with is that she tends to have really whacked out heat cycles - last time we checked her, she had two giant angry swollen ovaries, both of which were covered with huge 25-30mm follicles (like 15 on each ovary). My vet, who specialized in repro work, kind of said, "wow.... that's really weird." She had just finished her cycle and was already out of heat. Basically she's just a swirling vessel of hormones, or as I like to call it, adrift in the estrogen ocean. We did put her on Altrenogest for the rest of the season, and that did keep her from going into heat, but it didn't really change the behavioral stuff, and it's REALLY expensive (AKA just not worth it). Aside from breeding her or spaying her, well... what can you do.

In short, I bought this horse for so cheap because she had been so thoroughly screwed up by an idiot trail rider that she was unrideable. Hell, her sale ad read, "Warmblood mare, comes complete with issues." It's not like I didn't know this had deep roots. I bought her because I believed I could fix her, and I still do. She has come a long way, but we still have a long, long way to go.

Anyway. Back to our work on the ground. 

After about 15 minutes of no progress in our groundwork, I took her up to my trailer and decided to tack up and get on. I did some more work in hand (backing up, switching directions, yielding), this time with the aid of my dressage whip. O was even stubbornly sulled up against that, and it took one or two solid whacks before she begrudgingly moved over. When I went to switch directions, she bolted forward directly into me, bodyslamming me and sending me spinning off to the side. She has come pretty darn close to doing the exact same thing before when working on the ground, so I wasn't completely surprised that she made full body contact with me, I was just... pissed.

That's enough. No more being nice. You do not come barging into my space. You especially do not run me over. Game over.

I spent 15 minutes absolutely handing her butt to her on the ground. Back, forth, sideways, forward, round and round. We were both covered in sweat by the time she started responding quickly. I hopped on when she was finally responsive and quiet, and still she fought me - I had a jigging, head-tossing, prancing hothead on my hands. I went about 20 feet before I turned around, hopped off, and went to go fetch the hackamore (I had picked her usual snaffle). I am also an idiot and fell into a cactus while climbing down from the fence with said hackamore in one hand... holy crap that is the worst sting you've ever experienced. With a butt-ful of cactus hairs embedded in my thigh and butt, I put the hackamore on overtop her snaffle, and climbed back on. 

 That's a lot of hardware. The hackamore was actually overtop the front of snaffle for the ride, acting kind of like a kineton.

She took only two jiggy steps. Only two. The second that hackamore activated, she came to a screeching halt and stood immobile. I watched the wheels in her head turn. I smiled. I dropped the hackamore reins completely. I knew I wouldn't need them again.

She moved off quietly. She trotted on a steady contact in a steady rhythm. She stayed on a 20 meter circle with no speeding up. I was able to put my leg on her, and she lightly arced around it. 

I asked for a canter. She picked it up easily, on the correct lead, with no head tossing or bolting. She stayed on the 20 meter circle, on a steady contact, with no galloping/bolting/falling in/disaster. I put my leg on, and again, she bent nicely and stayed balanced. I think that is the first time ever that I put my leg on in the canter and had that response.

I slowed back down to walk. I trotted again, with the same results. I cantered again, with the same results. She was absolutely excellent.

I didn't even bother to go the other way, so great was my desire to end on a positive note. I just praised her heartily, patted her, and walked off on a long rein.

She had a very deserving two days off after all of that. 

I am no professional, but I'm not a half-bad jock. I have ridden a lot of hot, hard-headed, difficult horses over the span of my riding career. I can safely say that this is far and away the most challenging horse I've ever sat on. And this is coming from the girl who had Gogo The Rearing Wonderhorse.

At least O doesn't buck, rear, bite, strike, kick, or do anything mean. She just, you know.... makes me work really REALLY hard for every good moment. I will come out of this a better rider and a better horseperson, I guarantee you that.

Tally Ho!

The Horse That Does Everything now has one more notch in her belt: she's a newly minted foxhunter! And, not surprisingly, she was totally awesome at it.

I groom for, know, and have crossed paths with several members of the Brazos Valley Hunt. (Apparently Texas, despite being enormous, is actually a really, really small place.) At some point in talking to one of the ladies that I groom for, we got to talking about hunting, and she invited me as her guest to the closing hunt today for Brazos Valley. I've been out hunting with Hickory Creek before, but not with Brazos Valley. It was local, the weather was just right (overcast with slight mist and about 55 degrees), and I was game!

(First though, I had to dig out and clean up all of my tack and hunt clothes... it's been awhile since I've had all of my stuff out. I really, really enjoy cleaning my tack when I sit down and get to it - something about shining, good-smelling leather makes me feel so good. I take pride in a clean horse, clean tack, and sharp attire, so I made sure everything was looking nice ahead of time.)

The morning dawned a bit chilly, grey, and damp. I was NOT awake early on, but somehow managed to drag my butt out of bed and out the door by 6:00 in the morning. (I leave the house at 6 most every day, so it's not like that was super early or anything, but the bed was so warm and the pets were so snuggly.... so hard to get up on days like that!) I fed and groomed both ladies, and noted with some surprise that P had several new bite/kick marks on her, one of which was a solid chomp to the middle of her back. I had been hoping to start sitting on her bareback soon - the girl doesn't even have enough weight/muscle in her back for any of my saddles or pads to remotely fit her - but that puts that out of the question. O only had one mark on her, a good bitemark to the chest, but was otherwise unscathed. My guess is that there was a coup in the middle of the night, and O put in one last stand for boss status and came out on top. Yesterday, she was following P around like a little lost puppy, but today she was completely doing her own thing. Yesterday they were side by side sharing a haybag, but today O would move from one haybag to the next, and P would get out of her way and go to the other haybag. Hopefully this is the last of the fighting.... I'll have to separate them if they don't knock it off. I'm not sure P will take to being second in command very well.

Anyway. We loaded up, headed out, and made it to the property at around 8:45AM. The hounds were set to be released at 9:30AM, so I tacked up, met some folks, and hung out for a bit while O munched and napped.

ZZZZZmunchmunchmunch. She's efficient like that.

The hounds were released right on time, and I headed out with the first flight. This hunt operated a little differently than I was used to - the staff went off totally by themselves, and the first flight stayed behind with another staff member. The second flight (which was mostly a hilltopper group) stayed back even further, and they just walked. We trotted and cantered along behind the staff, but never kept in hot pursuit with the hounds, and never got up close to the master, huntsman, or the whips at any point. The grounds were really beautiful wild prairie, unimproved cattle pasture that wound through some rugged lowland brush and trees and came back up again for some beautiful vistas. It was actually really great - we were back far enough that we got to watch the hounds work a wide area, which is quite different from times when I have hunted in the past and we have been largely in the woods. It was damp and the wind was quiet (for here), which made for perfect scent conditions.

The hounds sent something to ground early on in the hunt, and we moved on to a different area. In a lowland covert, much to everyone's surprise, the pack suddenly all went from sniffing around to baying and leaping around with a prize. There was no chase, they just happened to find and get something. We weren't sure what they had at first, but they went nuts over it. As it turns out, they actually had gotten themselves a grey fox! How about that, good job hounds! Our field master turned to us and said with surprise, "that's the first time in 17 years that this has ever happened!"

(Disclaimer: we normally hunt coyote down here. Foxes are not that common, and grey foxes are not pests. Coyotes, on the other hand, are huge pests, especially in a cattle pasture like we were in. A lot of modern day hunts just do drag hunts, which is when there is a pre-laid scent that the hounds can go out and pick up without having to actually hunt a living thing. Down here, both Brazos Valley and Hickory Creek do live hunts, probably just because there are so many coyotes that it is kind of pointless to lay a scent - there is always going to be a scent. It is not common to kill. If something goes to ground, you don't flush it out, you let it live on to see another day. When this fox got killed today, I was truthfully sad. I love the clever little rascals and I always want them to see another day. The thrill of the chase, the tradition, the attire, the camaraderie, it's all wonderful and I do love it, but I don't have interest in killing anything for sport. I've never seen a kill happen on a hunt and hope not to again - and probably won't see it again, simply because it just doesn't happen often and that isn't really the point of modern day hunting.)

As for O, she was compltetely 100% spot-on could-not-have-been-better perfect. I actually thought something might be wrong with her because she was so chill! (She is quite fine though, thankfully - I think she just wore herself out overnight having fights with P.) I rode her with a martingale and pelham, simply because I was expecting her to be strong and wanted at the same time to stick with some tradition, but I didn't need it. I cantered along on a totally loose rein, even popping over some little logs. She stopped on a dime and stood like a rock. She didn't bat an eye when a few stray hounds came busting up out of the brush and right behind her heels. She just looked on with interest the entire time, and I didn't have to do a thing except enjoy the hounds.

Basically, she's pretty much just awesome.

She was unimpressed about standing for photos. "Dude this is boring... time for a nap."
After the hunt, she promptly zonked out and took a two hour nap while we had out post-hunt brunch. She must really have been pooped after whatever happened last night. It's normal for her to be quiet and napping after a ride, but she was really out - I don't think she moved a single foot the entire time we were having brunch.

Once we were at home, I watched her for another 3 or so hours while I putzed around the barn, cleaned paddocks, filled water troughs, trimmed Pmare, and put on blankets, and she happily snarfed hay the entire time. She is fine, I think she was just worn out from whatever happened with P the night before. I did give her a gram of bute just in case she was feeling sore from her bites and kicks, but otherwise she is just going to have a few days off to relax and recoup. Mares.



On a TOTALLY unrelated note, as it turns out someone did get video of our run at Glen Rose! I had to laugh when I first saw it - I thought we were FLYING along, but we were pretty much just slowly cantering the entire pattern. I thought the turns were crisp and tight, and they were really sloppy. I do have to say, the third barrel was pretty good though!




She's something else isn't she. She events, does dressage, jumps, does poles, has had roping work done with her, chases cows, barrel races, foxhunts.... she does it all!

O Runs some Barrels

Scratch that title. How about, "O runs some barrels... and wins some money!"

(But before I get into that story, I wanted to make sure everyone is clear on what happened with Immy and P. Immy did go with P to the lessee's place at first, but she ran the lessee's other mare through the fence repeatedly, so that wasn't going to work. She ended up at a different place doing babysitter/pasture ornament duty, and is fine, fat, and happy at her new forever home where she never had to be ridden or do anything more complicated than get handfuls of cookies. She's doing just fine and they love her. So don't worry!)

Anyway! On Monday, after I brought P back, S and I went for a nice little walk hack and talked about what we were going to do on Tuesday. There was a barrel race at Glen Rose that she wanted to go to, so I decided to tag along and do some exhibitions for fun. As it turns out when we got there on Tuesday, she entered me in it!! I am obviously NOT a barrel racer and neither is O, so mostly I just flung my hands up and went sure, what the hell, why not!

Our exhibitions went decently - I trotted a few, I cantered a few. S gave me some tips on how to stop riding like, well, you know... an English rider... and we went on our way. (It still sounds weird to me to tell people I ride English down here... people down here don't know what dressage or eventing is, so I either tell them I ride English or that I jump. Then they sort of get it.) Mostly she told me to just let go of her head, to trust her to turn, to hang on and to just go as fast as possible. Yep, sounds about right.... I tweaked a few things in our last exhibition and it went pretty well. Much to my TOTAL surprise, O has the barrel pattern completely figured out. I would hustle up to the barrel, get to it, sit up and settle into my seat, and the mare whipped around each one by herself. I didn't have to turn her, just put my outside leg on to support her and around she went by herself. Which admittedly is exactly what you really want, versus all the people you see doing this cringe-worthy cranking..... yikes. 

As a small aside, it's a well known fact that there's a LOT of really, REALLY bad riding going on at barrel races... it's a sport where you don't need a trainer, much money, or any real equitation to actually be able to sort of crank around and get the job done, and it has some sort of weird glitzy cowgirl allure to it.... so you get a lot of really Bad Riding going on. There is a VERY obvious difference between people that clearly know what they are doing, and people that should seriously take up another hobby... maybe like underwater basket weaving, or taking care of pet rocks. 

I am not one of those riders. I will not EVER be one of those riders. The cranking and the spanking and the flailing legs.... that's not for me. I'd rather not fall off or royally tick my horse off, thanks! 

ANYWAY. Before I knew it, it was time for us to head on in. Remember, this mare has only sort-of cantered the pattern a few times.... she's no pro. I'm no pro either. But hey, why not! Down the alleyway we went.

And actually, we did pretty well all things considered! I took a really bad approach to the first barrel, and sort of cantered and weaved around trying to figure out exactly where I wanted to place myself. I failed at that and ended up burying her at the first barrel, and she just about trotted around it. We were not exactly hauling some ass at that point. However, I got us more or less unstuck on the backside and pushed her on. From there on out, she was MOVING - she zoomed to the second barrel and whipped right around it, zoomed to the third and whipped right around it too, and FLEW all the way home. The girl was HAULING ASS. And it was FUN!

Our time was a 20.29. We were the slowest ones there by several seconds, and were in LAST place. Not surprising! But somehow, even though we were in dead last, there were few enough people there (around 30-4) that we were 3rd in the 4D. Don't ask me to explain the divisions, I do not remotely understand how it works. But I got a check for $31! Not bad! And considering that I totally flailed and wasted a ton of time around the first barrel (and really, we were trotting), our time would have been WAY faster had we just gone about at fast around it as we did around the other two. 

So there you have it. My warmblood does pretty much everything ever.

As for old Pmare, she is doing well. She had a bath today when it finally warmed up enough to allow for it, and while she still looks sort of dull and grungy, she already looks way better just from eating good food for a few days. 

Not impressed with the bathing, the grooming, or the paparazzi. "Lady, leave me alone and feed me already will you?" Definitely still the same crusty old bat as she always is.

The mares got into an EPIC battle on Tuesday. I think what happened is that O used to be on the bottom rung when she first came to join the herd, and Immy regularly beat the crap out of her. Then the girls left, and she lived alone for awhile. When Tre came, O found herself on the top of the totem pole for the first time, although Tre did regularly try to take over. I think maybe she thought when P came back that she could try and pull a fast one over on the old mare and make herself the head honcho, but nobody knocks old Pmare off the top rung. O definitely started it - she turned her butt to P and backed into her, hopping up like she was threatening to kick. P of course turned her butt right around and backed right into O, and the hooves started flying. They threw themselves at each other like sumo wrestlers, screaming and double barreling - I almost thought their blankets had hooked at one point, they were mashed together so tightly for so long. Usually I let them sort their differences out, but this fight got out of hand quickly, and in a flash O had knocked P clean off her feet. P got up, hurled herself into O, and knocked HER clean off her feet as well, then jumped on her and started savaging O's neck with her teeth. I was making my way over there to break up the fight when they both stood up, reared and struck at each other, and P got one final chomp in. Then they quit and went back to grazing peacefully side by side. O has a number of scrapes on both hind legs, and P had several swollen bitemarks on her neck, but other than that they are both fine. O is now humbly following P all over the place like a little lost puppydog. 

P looks so crappy compared to O.... we'll get her back to where she was!

Addy-Tude

After our wonderful success last weekend at O's inaugural dressage show, we've had another good week of work mixed with some days off. She got Monday and Tuesday off, quite rightfully (not that she worked hard on Sunday at ALL, it was easy-peasy compared to her usual, but I did feel that she deserved it anyway!), and then she was back to work on Wednesday with a nice long hack. It was dark by the time we got back.... there is part of me that wants to gripe about that, but it means that cooler weather is coming, so I guess I can't whine too much!!

It was back to work on Thursday with a very light dressage school. Our flattest area on the property, which I use for my flatwork, is unfortunately also currently full of rocks, all of which seems to have sprouted after our last massive rainstorm. It's a bit tricky to do anything serious up there because of this, and I didn't put O's boots on, which was not a smart thing to do. We got some very productive walk and trot work done, but that was about it, and I called it a day after a short but very successful session. 

O also made a new best friend....

S's little niece was there visiting, in all her precious cowgirl attire. She is 4 and she was in loooooove with O. O has really become super gentle and quiet since I've had her, and was more than willing to follow the tiny little human around wherever she wanted to go. 

Kind of reminds me of another little mare and her pet kid...

Gogo and my old boss' little 6 year old son, who did in fact carry his Hobbes around with him everywhere. Gogo doted on him and followed his every move... seriously adorable.

Today was supposed to be another easy hack, just because I was enjoying the cooler weather so much and wanted nothing more than to just toodle around, but that didn't work out quite the way I was hoping. We set off down the road, but O gave me a little bit of a sour face when we turned away from the barn. It wasn't any outright misbehavior, but she had her ears pulled into that not-quite-back-but-not-quite-relaxed position, just a little bit of attitude about having to leave the barn. I gave her a minute to change her attitude and legged her on, but when she continued to be just a little balky and crabby about leaving (not doing anything wrong, just moving out a little stickily and turning her head from side to side like she'd really rather turn around and go back home), I booted her onward and we took off down the road. The entire reason I got this mare for so darn cheap was because of her totally unchecked bossy attitude, so anytime she gives me ANY grief of ANY sort, no matter how subtle, I put my foot down. We had a decent workout after that, trotting and cantering back and forth up the road, but I never really felt like her attitude was totally 'with it', if you know what I mean. She was obedient and didn't do anything wrong per se, she just wasn't particularly amused by it. Sorry mare, we were supposed to just go for a nice walk, you know!

Tomorrow, she gets the day off..... BECAUSE OF THE AECs!!!!!!!!!! That's right, they are right here in Tyler, TX for the next three years! It's about a 2.5 hour drive from here.... I'm going up for the whole day to spectate and have fun and shop and enjoy myself!!!!! The goal for next year... COMPETE in it! 

I also have some news.... some very big news. Some very very big news! Some of you guessed on Facebook already.... but.... I am going to make you wait for the official announcement until next week when it is official! Let's just say that finding little cheapie fixerup projects might really be my calling...