Winter Blahs x1,000

Greetings from the Frozen Tundra... Still.

With more snow (really, Minnesota?!) and another swirl of the Arctic vortex rolling in, I'm about at my wit's end. Bailey and Foxie are surviving the winter blahs, but I think we're all bored and impatient and just so, so done.

Update on Foxie: Foxie has been doing some small amount of work. Lately, with all the weather changes, her neck has been suffering, and she is starting to get the tell-tale sore on her withers that says winter needs to be OVER. Foxie's withers were damaged by the blanket we purchased in haste the first big winter storm of the season - we took what they had, which had a large quarter-horse esque neck hole and sat too far back onto her withers. A sore ensued and the hair grew back white. She has had her "zebra" stripes ever since and the sores rear their ugly head late in the winter. This year I caught them at the "chapped and starting to bald" phase, and on went the slinky and the goo. This year we're trying out bag balm instead of our usual Corona brand ointment, and it's much easier to spread in the cold - and less of a mess. The neck soreness (a nice big block of rock hard neck muscle) seems to reflect general soreness in her body. I plan to start riding her more, as she loosens up well with lateral work and stretching. She will also spend extra time in the Back on Track blanket until the weather evens out and she's in a little better shape. She also is in the first stages of going on a diet, a decision I've been toying with all winter. With her reduced workload and general pigginess on the round bale, she has been fat and happy all winter. With the Spring vet visit about a month away in my estimation, her highness needs to slim up! She is going from a 50/50 mix of Ultium and Strategy HE to a 1:2 ratio of Ultium to Strat. She will hopefully end up on 4.5 lbs of Strategy HE.

Bailey, on the other hand, has gotten a feed increase. She has been in more regular work than her chubster of a sister, and other than a bit of mane rubbing, seems no worse for wear from the obnoxious weather changes. She has grown (Sticked at 16.1 today!) and changed shape. Her first blanket, the Schneider's, is beginning to look outgrown, and with all the crap I've gone through with it and with the liner, I'm pretty fed up. The blanket doesn't run size wise like the Weatherbeetas and is showing butt cheek - and as of today, I'm noticing her belly hanging out of it, as well. While it was cheap(ish) it has been a pain between needing more waterproofing and repairs - also I don't care if it's 1680 poly or 1680 nylon it is covered in teeth marks (insert frowny face here). Bailey's Schneider's liner has also been collecting three corner tears from what I assume is pressure (???) and the velcro "V-Free" mechanism is trying to tear free of the blanket. Albeit, the more expensive Rambo Optimo liner also has now developed a miraculous corner tear, and the front velcro is also trying to tear free. Seriously, I am so done with liners for her! Foxie's liner is still tear-less, and I just repaired a few weak looking areas in the wither area - it should hopefully last another season. In the mean time, I will be shopping for a new blanket that actually covers my red horse. Sigh.

We had a pretty awful jumping lesson two weeks ago (detailed in the last blog), which resulted in more jumping than usual, as I am stubborn and try to not let her backslide in her training. She has been lovely over the smaller fences and while I'm frustrated that we're still jumping around ~2 foot fences, rather than a more challenging height, I'm happy that she's learning to deal with different distances and canters pretty willingly to the fences even on the "first try". We're still a work in progress but I'm secretly hoping that my big brave over jumping beast she was this fall comes back when we're reunited with the outdoors.

I've also been struggling with saddle fit;

The dressage saddle seems to be too narrow and needs a lift in the back to look like it fits.

The Vision seems to be too wide, but is workable with lift front pads. B's shoulders are starting to exist so I anticipate that things will get better - with more growing and perhaps a reflocking, it should fit at one point. I keep feeling like it's too far forward but the flap tends to fool me into thinking it's way too far up her shoulder... I will need to continue to play with it, but it's so cold I never get the chance!

The magic is the enigma - it seems to fit, but flexes to be a bit lower than the standard 4 fingers of clearance. She does seem to like it, and it wants to sit in the proper place on her back - ample space for her shoulder but doesn't dominate her back. I'm slowly considering finding a dressage saddle with the same tree, but since Courbette is out of business and Stubben is just starting to put out the Phillipe Fontane models that look like dead copies under another name, so we will bide our time.

So... yeah. More winter blankets, more cold and no end in sight.

Exasperated,
Ashley, Bailey & Foxie

The Dark Times

So This blog hasn't been updated now for OVER a month... BAD ME!

There isn't a ton to say, sadly.

This winter continues to be the worst since approximately 1996, or if you ask me, the last ice age. I've been able to sneak some good arena time, but in doing so I've been breaking a lot of personal rules, like not liking to ride below zero. My "no riding below zero" rule has recently met the addendum "in the indoor arena" which is not insulated and sometimes sounds like it's going to blow over in the winds we have been having. On those cold nights Bailey stays bundled up in her quarter sheet and we generally stick to walk and trot work. We have gotten some decent weekend reprieves (what am I saying, it hasn't been above freezing - or above 20 for more than five minutes in weeks) and I've been taking lessons when I can - both on the flat with Edee and over fences with the barn's hunter/jumper trainer, Erika.

Edee worked Bailey and I through a big "Come to Jesus" period during which we discovered that a) Bailey is super, amazingly LAZY and b) I'm not very good at making her go forward, and I'm way too much of a softy when it comes to certain behaviors (giving and stretching) and she is c) VERY WELL AWARE that she can take advantage of me when I throw my reins at her in shock. Our rides are much more up tempo now, and we're just now getting to the point where I can work her up into a more active and firm contact. Edee explained this to me as "dropping the rubber band". This metaphor works for me and really gets through to me what the below graphic really MEANS.

Borrowed from The Perfect Horse

I can now connect how Bailey comes into the bridle is so very different than how I worked Foxie into the bridle. The conformational differences between them is the set and length of the neck, as well as the shoulder through the back... so they are entirely, totally different, mind and body. Foxie needed the chance to get into a giving connection from a halt at first, and then needed lateral work, or even just a simple leg yield to get her stepping up underneath of her even if it's a step to engage her back, which she was more than happy to let trail along after her "head set" but when implemented together and in a forward ride, she was able to step up under herself and engage. 

Bailey is still weak and will engage but look for any reason to drop you - usually a lack of forwardness, or offering a stretch followed by a distinct, unbalancing lack of forward. Please note I just used FORWARD twice in a sentence. The baby horse does not like forward. I have begun to focus more on stretching and reaching down straight with my leg to not only create a proper line and STRONG base (shocker, my leg kept swinging back to engage my spur further back on her flank) as well as using that base to reach up and push her up into herself from below. I also have started to carry my crop or my dressage whip so I have an immediate way to DEMAND forward without exhausting my body. I'm basically the fun police in her mind, but I make sure to use my voice (and it's nice to have a voice and not be panting and sweating trying to get her trotting) to tell her when she is being GOOD!

This gives some small idea of where her trot is going - the speed and the roundness clean up the angles and push her out from being sucked back and push her expressive tightness to something more productive.

Above, Bailey sometime in December, being spicy in the outdoor. 

Right, Bailey warming up for the triple bounce. Note that there is momentum enough for the quarter sheet to loft (YAY!) and that we're basically back where we were this fall. Oh, how the mighty fall. 

With Erika we've been working on bounces for most of January after a brief reintroduction to - GASP - fences.. Bailey did her first double bounce and we worked through a triple the last time - she managed to go clean through the triple a few times (and admittedly she doesn't have great endurance and the poles aren't in the cups very well) but we of course missed the one really forward and flowing try and she didn't give us another one. Our last jump lesson focused on cantering poles (which is our homework for this week - she was awful with her back end and wasn't listening to me- SHOCKER) and cantering to a single fence. Bailey has seemed backed off in the arena which I don't blame her for - boring indoor arena is boring and there are lots of noises to spook at and get distracted by - but also, it's kind of time to grow up, Honeycakes. She backed off when we put the fence up from an xrail to a vertical and basically refused to go through. I basically had to "beat" her over the fence with half pulled down and then it went back up - at half of it's original height and each fence was a struggle. By the end the crop went from noise maker on my boot to being used behind my leg, along with lots of trainer growling. She doesn't like to take long spots but she also doesn't take a half halt well enough for me to be willing to let her lose every inch of speed coming into a fence. 

Urghness, lazy red beast! In addition, she has continued to grow and with that have come some annoying rub patches where the panels of my saddles sit - I suspect the dressage saddle, as the jump has stretched in the tree and doesn't sit high in front like the dressage saddle does. I grabbed a fresh saddle pad and saw a larger collection of hair there after my last dressage ride than I liked - no sores or tenderness, but I don't want her bald, either! Plans for this week include researching saddle pads to see if this could just be winter hair brittleness and a wiggly butt, working over canter poles, trying on her big sister's flex tree saddle to look at options if the saddle really doesn't fit (... I don't know at this point) and Baby's first trot set (in the arena, but still!). 

Wishing winter would GO DIE IN A HOLE,

Ashley and Bailey