From the Archives: How to Dress for Riding in a Minnesota Winter Wonderland

If anyone reading this actually knows me, they will know that I am a freeze baby. I am cold all the time, and wear more layers than any person has any right to. BUT I did survive last winter (may I remind you, the -35 degree "feels like" and the wind so cold you couldn't have your face uncovered) with all of my fingers and toes. For a minute there it was tense, but with some thought and new winter boots, I SURVIVED!

 

Much cold when riding outside on a "nice" day.

Here's how I did it:

Baselayer: 

I start with Cuddle Dud long john bottoms, or, if it's legit freezing, I bump up to my Columbia Omniheat baselayer (Omniheat is the best. Seriously.) with coolmax base layer socks to hold them down. I also usually rock a Cuddle Dud top, or, again, the Omniheat (mine is a mens, but #YOLO) should it be legitimately too cold to function. The Cuddle duds are wicking, warm and the 360 degree stretch gives you a great range of motion, and they're pretty affordable, too!

Mid layer:

I add a fleece layer next; usually a Columbia zip up fleece and Kerrits Sit Tight and Warm breeches. I am a Kerrits ambassador, yes, but I sincerely LOVE these breeches (and the discounts Kerrits gives me ;) ). I walked out of the barn, bracing myself, the first time I wore them, for the wind to blow through them and steal every iota of body heat from my lower extremities. And I felt... nothing. Windpro fleece blocks the wind, and the seat is super sticky which is wonderful when it's freezing and muscles don't work. Over the breeches, I usually wear REI mereno wool hiking socks (they come in different weights, but I prefer to go for the warm ones!) or Smartwool knee highs, which were a gift last year. I love them, and they have Koi on them and they're just so cool.

Outer layer:

My riding jacket is my old college jacket - a Columbia interchange with a windbreaker layer and inside, a puffer type jacket with omni heat. As you can tell, Columbia has worked out really well for me - if I don't wear the omni heat jacket, I have another Columbia that is oversized that I wear when I need to be active and have room to move. If you have a jacket you like, maybe try an Omniheat vest. which is also one of my favorite layers.

For boots, I have my new Ariat Brossard boots (link to my review post), which I put toe warmers in. The thinsulate lined foot and leg are the winning factor with me - between them, and the wicking coolmax socks, my feet stay warm and most importantly DRY should I cold sweat or overheat. Dry feet are warm feet, remember that. I bought mine through Amazon Prime and paid 150$ for them (just watch the prices - a deal will come along!!).

For gloves, I'm at a bit of a loss. I really like my SSG ProShow winter gloves, which are again fully lined with thinsulate. They're flexible and I can actually do buckles and ride in them without feeling like I can't feel the reins or function. They are not amazingly warm, but they hold their own, especially because I don't have to pull them off every two seconds to do a buckle or use my fingers. Otherwise, if it's dry, I will double up on the $1 cheapo gloves from Target or where ever - I tend to go crazy buying them up when they clearance out in the spring, and I get to indulge my love of crazy colors in the process. Two layers of them blocks the wind better, and you can strip off the top pair should they get wet and your bottom layer might still survive.

I also sometimes throw on a neck gaiter, especially if the wind is super cold. I pull it up over my face when I'm outside. When I rode outside full time many-a-year ago, I'd ride with a full balaclava on under my helmet. And while you look like a ninja, your face is warmer and your snot doesn't freeze to your face. It's the little things, right?

I have Helmet ear muffs in my helmet and they actually work great - when I'm not mounted I wear an omni heat hat, and it is legitimately worth it's weight in gold, plus more. The minute you put it on it goes to work reflecting your heat back at you and keeping you warm.

Seriously, I'm obsessed with Omniheat - some of it is pricey, but you can find it at Columbia outlets or online (Sierra Trading Post FTW) for pretty reasonable prices. And it's worth it. So, so worth it.

Stay warm, my friends. 

A Comparative Winter Glove Review

Stolen from my other blog, here are my thoughts on winter gloves:

It's that time of year again: the time to freeze your fingers taking off your gloves every three seconds because you can't function with them on.

I own a depressing collection of winter riding gloves, but my collection is your gain! Here's what I think of them:

Dublin Thinsulate Everyday Fleece Riding gloves: 

Fleece exterior, thinsulate lining, synthetic "sure grip" palm and finger protection. Cinch velcro closures at wrist.

These gloves are great for above freezing riding, but the fleece exterior is less than waterproof and windproof, and is a major downside during shedding season. They are warm and don't seem to have extraordinarily long fingers as some gloves do.

Finger Use Rating: 3/5, relatively dexterous but not waterproof, windproof or shedding proof.

SSG 10 Below Waterproof Glove:

Ribbed exterior and cuff, grippy palm with riding reinforcements and a thinsulate/fleece lining. Listed as Waterproof, I was unable to test that as one glove arrived with a hole in it (missed stitching). My gloves also have wrist hangers so you can feel like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" with your gloves on strings.

These gloves were too bulky for me to do much in - they were okay for activities like throwing hay or other manual labor, but were too thick for me to easily use snaps, buckles or other finer tasks.

Finger Use Rating: 1.5/5, one step above mittens.

Heritage Extreme Winter Gloves:

These gloves are similar to the SSG 10 Below with their ribbed exterior and knitted cuff to hold out drafts. They also feature a cell phone friendly index and thumb in addition to the thinsulate and fleece lining and waterproof protection. I like these a little better than the SSGs, though I can't put my finger (nuk nuk nuk) on why that is. These gloves also have a super cool pocket on the back to hold a hand warmer - which is great, as those buggers can burn you if put directly on skin!

Like the 10 Below's, I found these gloves to be too bulky for riding - I really hate feeling like my reins are floating in my hands between layers of fabric, and dislike feeling like I have to keep a death grip on them to have any sort of feel. These are probably perfect for western riders who neck rein or for trail riding, but aren't good for arena, dressage or jumping work.

Finger Use Rating: 1.5/5, one step above mittens.


Mountain Horse Trail Winter Glove:

I think these are the ones I have, at least. I know they're Mountain Horse, and are very similar to ski gloves you'd find in a sports store. Mine have the Ralphie-style wrist strings like the SSG 10 Below gloves, and a similar knitted cuff. Microfiber-esque exterior, and a fleece/possibly loft lining means that they aren't particularly waterproof.

These gloves were heavy - I wouldn't consider doing anything but the most basic, no dexterity needed chores in them, and riding was completely out of the question for me in these. With waterproof options on the market, I'd skip these.

Finger Use Rating: 1/5, one step above mittens AND not waterproof.

SSG Fleece Lined Winter Gripper Gloves:

These were a super cheap whim purchase, and would be great for people riding in a heated or well insulated indoor - just a bit warmer than one's standard riding gloves, these are basic and have a cozy fleece lining. My pair were SUBSTANTIALLY too large and grew annoying because of it, and have since moved on to use by my mom who has bigger hands and longer fingers. Not waterproof or windproof, these are not appropriate for chores - and wouldn't hold up, anyways.

Finger Use Rating: 5/5, in the correct size, these gloves would be no different than a summer riding glove in my opinion.

SSG Pro Show Winter Glove:

These gloves are leather with a pinched back and feature stretchy lycra material between the fingers, giving them a good close fit. They have a knit cuff to prevent wrist drafts and are thinsulate lined. These gloves are a great balance between warmth and dexterity but do fail out on the colder days, especially if it's windy. They are not bulky and I can do bridle buckles up with no issue.  With the addition of the Ovations below, these gloves will be my gloves for temps around freezing and a little below.

Finger Use Rating: 4/5 - these are not summer gloves, but they have very low bulk and do keep your fingers quite warm.


Ovation Syntac Thinsulate Winter Glove

These gloves are my newest purchase, and I'm pretty excited about them. They are a bit heavier than the Pro Shows, but are still nice and grippy and pretty darn low bulk. The exterior is grippy and stays pretty clean. The thinsulate lining appears to be augmented with a soft fleecy lining. As of right now, I'm pretty thrilled with this find, and intend them to be my gloves for the colder temps. I rode in them on a 35 degree day in our unheated, uninsulated indoor and found them to be almost too warm which was a lovely surprise!

Finger Use Rating: 3.5/5 - these are not summer gloves, but they have relatively low bulk and do keep your fingers quite warm.

Birthday Week = Not so birthday ride

Monday of last week, BB jumped the things in the outdoor on her freshly trimmed toes. 

Wednesday, BB got natural horsemanship-ed and ridden in a western saddle (and yes, I thought she looked ridiculous) and apparently didn't get worked all that hard (though her brain was definitely working).

Thursday was my birthday, and with it came a number of wonderful presents from my fiance, including my heart-eyes-emoji I can't wait to wear it new show coat. Take a look at this sexual thing via google images stolen photo:

S/O to the girl on Ebay who was selling it supa cheap to I could actually ask for it without feeling totally guilty. Along with my fantastic fiance gift, I also got (among other gifts) a new show pad for the BB for dressage. I need to coat it in Scotchguard before it gets anywhere near a horse, but it's very pretty and will look very slick in the ring next year!

Meanwhile, I celebrated my birthday and hung out with some friends and suddenly it was Sunday, raining, and I wasn't wild about riding... except I probably really needed to. 

I was right.

I retrieved my muddy horse out of her muddy pit of a turn out, and she ground worked fantastically, submitting and chewing and focusing. And at the walk, she was really quite rid-able. The trot and canter, though, were a giant hot mess. There was persistent spooking at the human door and about a 4 stride area each direction where I actually got her to focus on me, and not on something else. I tried cantering until she was tired, but that doesn't really work when there are other people in the arena (especially when these people stare at you like you're wildly galloping. Bails was spooking in control, on our own end of the arena, and was jamming along like it felt good to run, she wasn't bucking or being wild... but whatever). Next we tried leg yeilds and transitions, to mixed effects. I picked up my whip. I actually used my whip. We tried half halts, leg yields towards the scary doors and downward transitions to walk or trot past the scary things. I got progressively more frustrated because she was just being stupid.

I don't know if she finally hit fatigue and the game stopped being fun, or I'd finally beaten her into submission (because for a while there, I was popping her on the ass every time she spooked with my whip) or if the period she spend staring out the window into the future lounge - construction area place actually helped settle her fears, or if putting my stirrups down 5 holes and wrapping my legs around her barrel actually made her relax (I didn't realize I was tense until I put the stirrups down. So much for the AP saddle!) but I finally got decent work.  

And by decent work I mean I got relatively un-braced, brain-in-the-brainpan trot and canter transitions (both ways, up and down) and actually felt like my horse was being obedient and not totally forgetting I was on her back. She got tons of praise, had to re-work the end section of our ride again since she came to a lovely downward and then spooked when someone clanged open the door, and was done. She was totally steamed and I'm honestly looking forward to the colder weather because I'm over sweaty stinky horses and am going to clip her if it doesn't drop 20 degrees. 

I feel like this winter is going to be ten steps forward, 20 steps back - she keeps making fantastic progress and then she has a bad day, or a bad week, or whatever, and I go back to halfway hating her because it's SO HARD to act like a normal horse and keep her kimchee together. 

Dear horse, plz let me know when u learn to horse.

Kthanksbai.

Hi, My Name Is Ow.

Riding has continued along the status quo - we've had a freakish warmup to the 40's lately, and I was lucky enough to get out of the indoor on Saturday and yesterday to ride outside.

Saturday:

It was quiet Saturday morning even though I was late-ish due to feed buying and grocery shopping. More about the feed later. I got the B tacked up and we headed to the indoor since it was windy. Approximately 5 minutes of herp-derp spooking because the idiots constructing the lounge addition onto the arena (which is still a wood skeleton of a building) already cut the wall open in places, which rattles terribly in the wind, we went outside after all. 

I set up "The Mercedes" which is a Y shaped jump exercise I found on facebook. Bailey enjoyed spooking at me and the jump standards and the poles while staring at the people who were unloading two new horses into a quarantine pen. We got some good jumping in - only one knock down the whole ride, and the horse was bold, too forward and actually took a few longer spots despite having long feet that kept picking up snowballs. I was thankful for my running martingale, because doofus was feeling good in a "I fling my face in your face" kind of way a la last year: 

Super cute, no? She finally settled and was good, and I quit while I was ahead, though she wasn't even remotely sweaty. I tried using a flash strap to make a Ralph Hill style kineton-thing to try and get a half halt or some brakes, but that just made the head flinging and steering issues so much worse, so once I pulled that crap off of her and got her to a place I was happy with, we were done. I should have stopped and swapped her over to a waterford or something, but I just rode through it wishing Christmas or my birthday would get here faster (I have it on good authority I'm getting a slow twist dee ring for one of those) so I had more brakes in my arsenal. 

 I then got on and roaded the Fox for about 15-20 minutes and then did some arena work for another 15 or so. I can tell she hasn't been out in too long just from that ride; she kept trying to turn around and go home when I was messing with my girth, and while it took her some time, she finally got back to business and into the swing of things after a rough few minutes. 

Roading Foxie is the best - she cruises along with about 6 gears of canter/gallop and once she got back into the routine (it took her about 10 minutes) she found her usual roading trot back, which is this stretched out, nose poking out mega trot. She trucks along like the beast she is, and it's lovely. I actually got her sweaty, though we spend the majority of our last 20 minutes under saddle walking. She was totally coated in gravel road spray from galloping, but was very happy with herself when we were done.

Monday:

The girls got their feet done, so I automatically tossed Fox back out in the pasture without lunging her or anything. Bailey wasn't so lucky...

The riding instructor at the barn stole the straight bottom of my Y excercise so we had a V instead - I had an inkling to road the B after a few good jumps, but she totally ruined that plan after doing about 10 minutes of relatively ok flatwork. Someone spooked up a huge amount of Canadian Geese who were honking and circling for what felt like FOREVER while Bailey quietly and ridiculously lost her mind over, and over, and over. She had done great ground work before our ride, and while her work pre-spook wasn't spectacular (someone is getting whiny and lays on the bit between "I AM OUTSIDE AND I FEEL GOOD" moments of head flinging joy) the spook itself was ridiculous. I couldn't get her to loosen or relax her neck, I hardly could get her attention, and she wanted to passage. Or bolt. Or stop and stare. But walking or trotting was TOO MUCH. When I finally got some semblance of steering back and kinda-sorta had brakes I started jumping her, wondering if jumps would make her focus. We jumped and circled and changed direction a billion times, and she was still looking out of the arena and blowing me off every opportunity she had. I didn't have a half halt, I couldn't turn her shoulders easily and I certainly couldn't get her to fix her freaking lead while she obnoxiously cantered around on two different leads.

So I made her gallop for like 10 whole minutes. 

The majority of the time she was bent out and being a total asshole, but then she got tired, and I made her keep going and suddenly she was straight and carrying herself and actually acting like a horse. Normally I would quit, because she was acting pathetic and tired and was puffing and stretching.

But I made her jump some more, and it was lovely. We didn't have the snow factor this time, but with the V instead of the Y I was able to play with a tight little roll back and was mostly able to keep the impulsion, while also throwing her at jumps crooked and on angles and she never could anticipate where I was going to send her, but she was a good little muffin and went out and did work. She did have a tendency to land on her right lead (the lead towards the geese flying field area) over the smaller of the two jumps, but in general she was half halting, coming back to me, and was actually looking for me to set her up and tell her where to jump from. I wasn't really trying to play with the spot or go for long or short, I just kind of worked with what I was getting since most of my consciousness was taken up by how much my ass and thighs are not in shape for this sort of crap at all, much less two rides in a row.

But by the end, the red horse was tired, and while she stopped and wanted to look at the indoor when we walked past, I could just kick her forward vs. having to worry about her twanging herself into the fence, or otherwise freaking out. 

So I'll take it. 

Other quick news: the girls are trying out a new feed - Purina Equine Senior Active. My current mix (Ultiumx Strategy Healthy Edge) is 12% protein and 10% fat, and the new feed is 14% protein and 10% fat with the same calorie per lb value and nearly the same NSC, but without me having to hand scoop 200 lbs into their cans every 22 days. I'm hoping it agrees with them, and that the protein doesn't make Bailey hotter. I'm not too worried about Fox - she looks spectacular right now since Drew has been lunging her back into a topline, and I'm hoping the extra protein helps give Bails the muscle definition I'm looking for.

We also got a second tack trunk, since I was getting REALLY REALLY tired of playing tack trunk tetris every ride trying to fit crap into it, while still having to store a lot of stuff in my car. Second tack trunk is AWESOME and I am so happy I spent the money (technically, I replaced my show trunk and demoted the show trunk to barn duty). I can now fit coolers/quarter sheets in and actually find things in my trunks - and I probably have room to spare for an extra bridle or two so I can have brake options for the B. Note to self - get the waterford out of the trailer and onto a bridle!

I already have Foxie's lunging bridle (sans reins and noseband) which is a Dr. Bristol Boucher, but the last time I used that it didn't do much for Bails and I. The waterford was too much for her last year (though we will be trying it again) and thus, I'm hoping that the slow twist D will give me a bit of extra steering and brakes without her being too reactive/over stimulated like she gets with a curb chain/pelham, faux kineton or, I am guessing, a pair of sliding gag cheeks. Bailey is a much trickier animal to bit than Foxie - Fox was easy! It probably helped that I had trainers loaning me bits at that point, but hopefully I won't have to buy too many to find what I am looking for. 

Anyhoo, I am going to go and bemoan my hips, thighs, knees and butt which are all currently too sore for words. 

It's been a Week

It has, it has. 

I didn't ride on Wednesday evening; I made pie and cheesecake instead for Thanksgiving. I then got up and was going to go ride, but lost motivation and ended up watching a movie. 

Thanksgiving was uneventful, but the long weekend was nice. I rode on Friday, and then Sunday, and am planning a trip out again tonight. We've been continuing the routine of groundwork - bridle - ride and things aren't awful. The B has been putting out some good work after some initial time being stressed and worried and not focused. I've been shamelessly using Foxie when Drew is lunging her - we go in circles around the lungers and Bailey feeds off her energy... or I do... or she's distracted by horse on a lunge line and is better behaved. 

Sunday was a particularly nice day - I swapped to riding in Foxie's new Philippe Fontaine Deauville since I feel like an idiot two-pointing in my dressage saddle (and it needs to be cleaned and conditioned). I like the balance more for the work I'm doing, and like the security of the double block. It's not as perfectly balanced as my Vision, but it's also lighter and more appropriate for flatwork because my leg isn't so far out in front of me. While the groundwork started out kind of rough, as did the riding, she came around and rallied really nicely to do some real work. We did some flying changes (jumping a cone because Bailey can't change her lead without a catalyst) and I really feel like the change is there, and really nice - she just can't figure out that I'm asking her to change the hind as well as the front. It's an ongoing project - in the mean time, she still has a nice simple change, even if I dislike the idea of doing simples in the show jumping ring. 

We put the girls in their medium weights with the neck covers on Friday, and I was happy with the timing - it was chilly and then it snowed early yesterday morning and was still kind of going this morning - it makes me happy to know the girls are warm and dry in their good coats. Bailey may not care, but Foxie certainly does. 

We also got our Farmily photos back with the girls - I'll post some more later, but here's a favorite (despite BB being a turd): 

Hopefully she makes up for making that face with more good work and fewer mental meltdowns!

Note: I actually resisted horse-related Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals - I got myself a knee brace, and there is horse stuff on my Christmas list, but I didn't buy them anything yet! They're getting a HUGE amount of cookies and peppermints from their Dad, so I need to come up with a few small things to get them for their stockings (in part because 5 lb bags of peppermints don't come close to fitting in them). 

​

I Can't Even

Today is the day of I-Can't-Even. Work? Newp. Motivated to ride? Definitely not. Capable of normal human thought? Not really.

Since I can't sleep (I mean I could, but I would be in major danger of losing my job) I figure... blogtime. What's happened since I posted last? Lots. Clearly I am bad at blogging. 

Since my last post, BB got used in a Natural Horsemanship (Buck Branaman style) clinic as an example of a horse who is spooky/doesn't trust her hooman to keep her safe. She didn't kill the guy, for which I was grateful, since that would have been embarrassing. She also wasn't full on Bellatrix Lestrange crazy... but from watching the clinician and then working with her/riding her, I think I have actually figured that facet of her neurosis. 

Clinician basically started off defining his "bubble" of space, and then worked with the B to get her feet moving when she tends to freeze while staring at something scary. He progressed to having her move laterally to get her to soften her body. By the end (when he had the audience applaud and stop randomly and start randomly) she was showing progress and was also much more respectful of hooman space and hooman guidance. Things I didn't like? When he disciplined her for not backing up on his cue - she's been taught a different one, and I think it's kind of obnoxious to punish a horse for responding perfectly to a cue you don't use. I also didn't appreciate him whapping her in the face once or twice with his flag - I don't remember the exact context, but I feel he could have been more understanding of a horse who hasn't ever been worked with on the ground that way. I am a soft mom, though.

Post clinic, BB was lovely on the ground. I did some basic work again before my ride, and I felt she was better than she would have normally been - more tuned in to me. Our last ride (Monday) was surprisingly not crap. We had farmily photos done on Saturday (thus no weekend ride) and Bails was AWFUL. Spooking, snorting, half bolting on the lead, and of course I wanted her in her show halter so I didn't have a nice rope halter or stud chain to pop her with. We're still waiting on photos, but Monday's ride went pretty well. 

First change? BB felt like she was trying to be good. Drew lunged her while I took the Fox for a spin and I was honestly a little worried - she was a total doofus. Once I got on, we focused on the two door corners of the arena. Right now, I'm trying for the following under saddle:

1. Continuing to go forward at the same pace (not stopping or scooting forward)

2. Not dramatically throwing the body to the inside when passing the scary thing (usually followed by a scoot/bolt)

3. Not locking the base of the neck and the jaw

I'm hoping with 2 and 3, we get the desired result of not losing bend/lead/etc when spooking and that she learns to "keep it in her pants" so to speak. She does well when asked to do shoulder in or leg yield towards the scary thing so I think we'll get to going through normally. I'm also trying to boot her forward and through the spooks and reward her when she relaxes - I also discovered I'm holding my breath at the canter, so I'm also trying to keep breathing, keep my elbows soft and not brace for the spook through my own body. I am sure she reads tension in me and reacts, so I can definitely help us improve by being more in control of my own body while I teach her to relax through hers.

We're not getting much "work" done, but I feel like it's good for her brain to learn to chill out. Her canter will improve from her gaining balance and focus (and hopefully so will her problem of losing the lead in the back when distracted) and she's staying fit and getting sweaty each ride, so I think we're doing the good - if not the fun/desirable - work. She was a little weird through the contact on Monday, as well, so I'm tempted to toss her into the boucher or the waterford for a ride or three. We can only get better, right?

Quick Catch Up

My last post was technically "sent" on the 11th - though I forgot to hit "post" until today - so there is that. The indoor arena #strugfest2015 has continued. I didn't ride Friday - I had a potential saddle buyer meeting me on Saturday morning, so Drew and I trooped out Saturday morning. The girl bought the saddle (YAY DOLLARZ!) and Drew lunged the Fox while I got BB tacked up to jump. I set up something similar to the run-and-jump exercise from the Lucinda Green clinic two years ago, but someone came in to lunge, so my run and jump became more of a turn and jump. Bailey warmed up great and had some serious hops over the warm up fences. By then Drew had appeared (he had to blanket and turn out his horse) and he had fun making the jumps as scary as he could - BB jumped them with no problem, like the silly red star she is. One was an uneven oxer with miscellaneous poles added on and under, while the other was, at first, a single vertical with no fill. Drew added some fill ( a very scary gate that wasn't in cups, just leaning against the standards) and put it up and off we went. 

Outside, Bailey was much better about taking the longer distances, though she got up the butt of the vertical a handful of times, nearly unseating me. I'm thankful she's generally honest and didn't buck me off while I was up on her neck dicking around. I also needed my martingale hardcore (my face is, however, in pristine condition thanks to it) and was wishing for more bit. Once the gate got added to the vertical, she started to duck down right before (like 1-2 strides out, max) and stall out/jump it SUPER awkwardly because OMG scary thing. With one hit/knock down of the gate (which gave me whiplash because Bailey bolted on the backside) I finally got to riding more aggressively and got her over it much more smoothly with a couple of clucks and a few well timed taps behind my leg with the whip. Not only did I feel like a bad ass jumping the big jump with one hand, but Bailey soared over it with absolutely no problems.

Red horse has got some hops!

Indoor Strugfest, 2015

It's not even December yet, and I am already bored to tears when forced to ride in the indoor. I don't care if I am riding in sleet, hail, etc, I WILL be riding outside this weekend. I can't stand the indoor anymore.

Wednesday's ride was great; I didn't ride Friday because we left for a wedding that morning and I didn't want to wake up early (I like sleeping in. Even though I didn't, and I woke the FH up and he was crabby because of it). The wedding was great, and I picked up riding on Monday. 

Drew lunged Foxie, who had a case of the I-wanna-buck zooms while Bailey was similarly unhinged. They are starting construction on a lounge (don't ask me; I don't want it) and the contractor placed some items in the doorway/corner of the arena presumably to keep them out of the weather. These items are clearly horse eating and Bailey lost her tiny little mind whenever she was asked to go near them. Walking eventually got ok past them, and trotting was tough but she eventually got her kimchee together about it, but the canter was a disaster.

The only saving grace of Monday's ride was that once Drew left with the zoomy Fox, I could ride in the middle and far side of the arena. I finally got some semi-normal canter and some great lateral work out of the #FeralRedHorse. She did some very nice leg yields that were, again, mostly straight and not tense in the base of her neck, and I got some great shoulder in at the trot. 

The struggles of the indoor arena are real, and really freaking frustrating, ya'all. Idiot horse kicked sand on the Scary Corner Stuff and then attempted to spook-rear-bolt away from it, and while I shut that down, my saddle moved forward like 4 freaking inches in the process. 

I think I should just move to Florida. 

I iz not crazy I iz cute.

Through

I rode last night and it was actually a pretty awesome thing. I arrived just in time for the lesson kids to be wrapping up, and my horse was hardly muddy and actually seemed to be interested in me. I rode Monday, but with the deathcold, I rode for about 20 minutes and most of it I struggled to think and breathe at the same time. Last night I was feeling much more like myself - and I was ready to take on the inconsistency that I had felt in the bridle the last two rides I've had with BB. 

We started with a lot of walking warm up, and then trot and canter. I really focused on my own position issues (leaning forward, not keeping my heel down, leg under me and thigh applied. hands going everywhere, shoulders caved in...) and tried to use my whole leg to push the red mare up to and through the bridle, while also keeping my reins short and thumbs up. She's always been light, and unlike Foxie, has never really been the time to "hold" the bit and the contact like a handshake. I noticed two very positive things from these changes I made last night.

The first was that I was able to push her through a lot of lookiness and spookiness. I would prefer to not have to "muscle" her through turns or times when her attention wanders, but at the same time, we didn't lose nearly so much work, even though the doors were open and she was very interested in what was going on outside. 

The second was that I felt that I was actually able to push her into the bridle - meaning that she wasn't behind the vertical avoiding a more firm contact, and even when her head came up, I still had her face and was able to push her forward, and bam, the poll would relax and she'd go back to work. From this work, I was able to do a lot last night - it wasn't nearly so hard as I was expecting to get her into this much more malleable and workable frame and attitude. 

We schooled a rather poor dressage test (I mean, spooking in the two door corners, but it was generally obedient) and I actually got some collected canter to extended on one lead - the whole cadence changed, which was awesome to feel and hear as she's struggled with the canter since we started trying it. She also gave me some lovely lateral work at the walk and trot, and even did some somewhat-not-awful shoulder in, and really showed off with some stretchy trot at the end that was actually in the contact. 

Moral of the story: maybe I should ride more correctly before I see the problem as 100% caused by my horse. She's a weirdie, but a goodie. She also will probably end up clipped because I'm OVER her taking her approximately 18 years to dry. 

Wordless Wednesday: Flying Feral Horse

My Horse Is An Asshat (A Variation on a Theme)

On Thursday last week we had a great jump school. I'll do a wordless Wednesday post with the pictures, I promise. I didn't ride Tuesday because of illness, and when the FH and I went to go see our girls on Halloween night, things took an... obnoxious turn.

We arrived at 7pm or so - it's pitch black out, and it looks like no one is at the barn, Except for my least favorite barn worker's car. Why is she here? Because the horses aren't in. FH and I retrieve Foxie and her Boyfriend (because they don't like to go into the barn without the other, and I felt bad for her Boyfriend in the cold wet dark) and grain them. I then go out, in the pitch black, slipping in nasty cold deep mud, to go catch my horse. But my horse, and her friend who is usually all "TAKE ME INSIDE THIS INSTANT PEASANT DONT TAKE THIS RED INFIDEL TAKE ME" when I come out at dinner time are over on the fence, giggling. I now see that the Barn owners gelding has been put out, and I'm pretty sure he's usually put out after these two. Why? Because they were both flirting on the fence line and galloping around wildly when I got anywhere near them, while the other two mares ho-hummed it at the round bale. 

Bailey and her friend continued to elude capture for approximately the next 20 minutes. FH comes out, asks what's wrong, and then goes back for a halter to wade out into the paddock to help me. I finally grab Boots, BB's nasty bitchy friend, and Bailey is lured over in the process (I am luring them with a used kleenex. It showed up in the dark and it was all I had in my pockets) and FH catches her. We get them inside. BB seems her normal cheerful self, and doesn't seem to realize that her two humans are muddy, wet, cold and angry because of her. 

So we went home. FH was wet up to his knees, we couldn't go out for dinner after now that we were coated in mud, and BB was probably going to be a brat anyways.

So we went home. And watched Game of Thrones until bedtime. And it was okay.

Horses can be so frustrating sometimes, but I'm glad I had the FH there to tell me to walk away. Some days you win, some days you lose, but when it comes down to it, one night isn't going to make or break our plans and goals - where a bad ride might set us back in our work.So there's my bright spot in my Halloween weekend. 

On to another day.

Uffda

Another week creeping towards half gone... this time crap is making me feel old. I rode Friday and Sunday this week, and meant to ride yesterday. My beloved FH reminded me that perhaps if I am home sick with strep-like symptoms, maybe I shouldn't be riding, either... so I didn't ride. Instead I stayed home and we burned through most of a season of How To Get Away With Murder, which is intense and I love it.

Friday's ride was both naughty and nice - nice, because the baby horse was generally well behaved. We did lateral work, walk-canter and collection-extension work, and I don't remember anything spectacularly bad. In fact, she was quite well behaved, despite being kind of wet-about-the ears (literally) because she'd been out in the rain all day. 

The old lady mare, however, has a perpetual case of the zooms and somehow decided that every time we crossed the center line, we were doing a flying change. This is humerous, because Foxie can't do a real flying change, especially now that her hind end is messed up from the suspensory injury. Because I was holding her into the bend, she couldn't actually throw the new lead, so she was basically herp-derp-grunting while leaping randomly into the air. I was riding Fox in my usual set up of Thinline bareback pad and her french link pelham, but I really could have used stirrups for that ride. We had a 30 minute come-to-Jesus ride with lots of tension and Fox spent most of that ride not wanting to come through her back, relax her jaw or move at any gait other than a canter. 

That set of rides was delightful, half sarcastic, half not. 

On Sunday, I was in a bit of a rush; I had a birthday cheesecake and dinner to concoct, I had woken up later than I'd like with less sleep than I wanted due to a late night out with friends, and had forgotten that I had about 2 hours to ride before the Halloween party festivities and horse decorating were set to begin. I set up 3/4 of a pinwheel set up, with a low vertical, crossrail and a decent sized vertical. I breifly had to chase BB down when she realized I wasn't holding on to her while setting jumps (mostly because I got tired of dragging her lazy ass along with the jump standard) and when I took a few quick steps to catch up with her, the trit-trotted away like "NEENER NEENER I AM FREE!". I pretended to have a peppermint and she stopped dead in her tracks, and set off to ride. 

Even with a quarter sheet, Bailey was feeling the morning chill and was a bit up and hot. I do, sincerely, appreciate the fact that she enjoys jumping but cannot/will not/can't even fathom rushing the fences. In fact, when I try to rush her, she usually puts another one in. She's clever, and goes from about anywhere, though I do wish she was a bit bolder in chasing down the fences. She pricks her ears up, keeps her head up, and instead of accelerating like I'm used to, she waits for it to come. We played with getting a variety of spots  on the verticals once she was warmed up. I found that on the little vertical (probably 2'3 or 2'6... it looked weenie...) she was much more comfortable letting me push her into the air sooner. On the bigger vertical, she really wanted to bury herself at the base and I had to develop a very gallopy forward canter with clucking and major motoring and leg on the turn to keep her up and willing to get something that was a bit more free off the ground. 

It's odd - when she is more free off the ground and really flies, she feels awesome and I am perfectly pulled by the momentum and muscle memory to give her a great ride, proper release, and I stay very balanced. When she comes up from the base, a lot of the time she hits me in the chest with her withers and I feel like my leg tends to slide back. This problem is approximately 18,000x worse on XC, which I really can't do much with until next year...

I guess I need to get enough jumps together to get a decent gymnastic set up, and find a decent time to put it up!

The Days, They Fly

Seriously how is it already Thursday?! It's crazy how fast weeks and months and a year has flown by - and I feel like I haven't done a damn thing. 

Monday, we did dressage. Shocker. It's dark when I arrive at the barn, or almost there, so to the indoor we go. BB and I worked on general dressaging - we had the indoor to ourselves and I foolishly left the door open, so she had a direct something to spook at, because hey, it's dark out there. The idiot girl is driving the gator back and forth getting hay from a round bale (why don't they just move the round bale?!). We did a long walking warm up, and I had a whip, and it was a pretty ok ride. Things were just about to get better because I finally got over the door spooking and closed the fucking door.

Cue shitshow girl arriving with ugly paint horse, riding bareback in a halter, who opened the door with a giant BANG and then was like "....door."

That's not how that works, honey. And don't tell me you like my horse, either. You admire my horse because she's well trained and well cared for - something neither of your horses are. You jump your TB in a barrel racing bit and can't figure out how to teach your horse to jump calmly and not bolt after every fence. And you're too damn proud to ask for help or take a lesson. So don't look at the horse that I've poured two plus years of my life into and tell me she's wonderful. I know she is, I trained her.

I is best poneh, mahm.

Anyhoo. Sorry for the bitch moment; I'm not actually sorry. Monday's ride was pretty ok. Wednesday's ride, despite a natural horsemanship clinic where the clinician was using a stand speaker which he parked at one end of the arena and then rode on the other half. So we rode with a giant speaker randomly emitting a man's voice, and Bailey mildly lost her shit for the first 10 minutes. The spook-rear-throw-self-sideways routine is lovely to witness, I'm sure. The thing is, after about 10 minutes, she picked up her shit, and while she was spooky in a "MUST LOOK AT THE SCARY SPEAKER" way, she went to work.

This is monumental, folks. 

We had a nice ride, and she didn't work herself up into a lather like Monday night. We worked on getting quiet, controllable gaits at the walk, trot and canter, did some walk-canter transitions and did a little compression-extension within the gaits. She was pretty good about not getting braced against my hand despite wanting to carry a lot of tension in her whole body - she alternated wanting to brace, softening and then trying to stretch down into stretchy trot because "oh, gosh, that was stressful". The walk canters are still rough to the left, but are prompt and GREAT to the right, so we have clear homework there.

Fanciest baby.

The compression-extension is another area that needs work. For a while there, BB was able to pull up through her withers and just power herself forward in this glorious trot with a little snap at the end of the stride that felt sooooo fancy. She showed a little in the canter too, and is so much more willing to condense her body and try than she has been before - but again, she's a little weak, and in the trot she doesn't quite get the lift she used to, and in the canter, she often pops her lead in the back.  So we have some strength to go after, too.

I put the baby in the Back on Track blanket to eat dinner and relax while I rode Fox. Fox was crabby, and totally had the zooooooms last night - this doesn't work well when we don't have the indoor to ourselves, so she was tense and just wanted to go forward forward forward (and possibly buck me off...). She did feel strong and was more supple by the end of the ride, so I was happy. Next time I'd like to stick her in a full BOT outfit beforehand to try to reduce any soreness on both ends of the ride, and hopefully will be able to let her go a bit to work off those zooms. She zoomed on the lunge the other night, too, so I think she's just enjoying the weather and needs a little time to play. Bailey has been playing hard this week - running and bucking and running some more, so she's taking care of herself. They both seem to enjoy or be lit up by the cooler weather. Bailey also sincerely enjoyed the BOT and was sleeping when I got back from riding Fox. 

This horse still has the best muscle tone ever, at 19.5!

I still need to do laundry, clip, and take care of a handful of errands - the days need to slow down! I've got too much to do. I also was reminded by an annoying boarder that I should clip legs down - her horse has scratches from pastern to hock, and she didn't know what they were. Come on, lady. You said you've owned horses for years, and you currently own two loud paints with lots of white leg. Scratches seems totally a thing around here; and I'd like to avoid it. I also want to look into ways to keep the girls' hind legs cleaner. Both look like they're splashed with pee - probably from the wind since we're on a hilltop and it gusts and changes a lot. Maybe baby wipes? I'll have to go looking. 

More work to do! 

Weekend Catch Up

Whale hello, Monday. You came a little too fast for my tastes.

After my #GOALS post, I was all filled up with motivation and was ready to rock and roll on my plans. Naturally, the plans went awry. I rode Thursday last week - Drew lunged Foxie while I worked with the #feralredhorse. We were cursed to the indoor arena due to a late start to the evening and the fact that the sun goes down before 6:30 now. It sucks. I hate the indoor.

At least someone had watered.

But still. It sucks. Mostly because BB does this super cute thing where she spooks at everything, all day, erry day. The doors were open, and so our usual circle turned into "spook at the crap in the corner, spook at the human door, STARE OUT THE HORSE DOOR INTO THE DARKNESS LIKE WERE IN A HORROR MOVIE". And this happened at every gait, and for basically the whole ride. Same/similar thing the other direction. Even when we're at the end of the arena with less doors, we still had the most crooked circle ever from spooking at the open door and then scooting away from it like the hounds of hell were waiting in the darkness.

I rode in dressage tack, and once we got warmed up, I was already ready to quit because I finally got her soft and somewhat listening. Luckily, the arena cleared out (another boarder finished her ride, Drew finished lunging the McSassyPants Von Fox) and we did some walk canter work, and some counter canter. The left was really, really rough - she shut down on one end of the arena and just would not make a clean upwards transition for love or money. Mostly because every time she tried, she ended up on the wrong lead, or threw her front half up in the air or otherwise just put in crappy work and I kept shutting her down to re-balance at the trot. I moved her away from the door to the middle of the arena and was able to get it (finally) though it wasn't pretty. The right was pretty good - she gave me a handful of decent walk-canters with good leap and a nice counter canter loop. We did some lateral work (which was surprisingly straight and obedient for not having practiced... basically all summer) as well on both sides and the left is definitely a problem, as is the spooking.

I'm not sure what it is about our arena that makes the red horse insane; is she bored? Is she actually scared? It's pretty much crap regardless of the junk in the corners, the door being open or closed or the presence of a calm horse. A hot horse will set her off, as will people doing abrupt weird stuff like flagging a horse back and forth in the indoor. Last time, a whip helped. She loses momentum inside - and loses it further when spooking. My spurs are pretty much a daily wear item and she honestly doesn't seem to really care unless I'm doing something weird with them. Without spurs, she's lazy and obnoxious. I'd like to transition to smaller ones (I've already transitioned back from the smaller/slightly "sharper" spurs I had been wearing all summer to my longer, but very round/soft nubs) or maybe try something with plastic rollers. The loss of momentum is in part because of the weird uneven footing in the indoor, and probably encouraged by me putting SMBs on her to try to protect her legs in the weird ass footing. 

I think, if I am not able to have a decent ride tonight, I am going to look into doing something about the spooking and the crap. Ear plugs, maybe? Calming supplement? I am going to do my very best to remember to carry my whip, though I'd love to replace it with one that is a little bouncier and has a better handle. My current whip has a narrow handle with a fancy silver end cap. Pretty - but hard to hold on to. It's also got a stiff lash, and is very stiff in general. It's great for ground work but my hands already suck and they suck further when I'm trying to figure out how to make a whip lay nicely against my hip and do more than twang my horse in the face when I try to use it. The martingale is essential supplies until next spring - I've got them on clips now which is super handy, and I might as well protect my face from the idiot's head tossing. .

Tonight's ride will be pretty quick as I have some other things I'd like to do with my evening, but I'll be more in depth come Wednesday and Friday evenings. The horsey docket also includes doing the last of the laundry I need, hopefully finally clipping bridle paths and a jump school on Sunday morning. The Fox will also get some love and attention. She is sound and sassy post trim (which is a miracle, seeing as her feet SUCK). I'm considering a particular brand of hoof oil as a possible purchase for her, and will be doing the good work to continue rebuilding and maintaining her topline muscle. I'm happy to get her back into work and feel badly that she fell off the schedule as my other priority - the show horse - took up all of my time. No more! Fox will hopefully take Drew on a trail ride yet this year and will play all winter with riding and lunging. 

We'll see you later on this week. 

#GOALS

Yep, I'm a hashtag girl. The #feralredhorse and I have lots of things to work on now that fall is upon us and show season has officially ended.

Here's my wishlist:

1. Confirmed walk-canter transition, both leads. 

2. Flying lead changes

3. 3 speeds within each gait - we have 2 at the trot, and are just now discovering two at the canter...

4. Fix issue where Bailey likes to bury herself at the base of the fence. 

5. As always, my strength, position, annoying need to over release/jump ahead, inability to stay back where I need too... etc.

Basically I have a lot to do before we thaw out next spring, and I really aim to do it. Because once we thaw out, Bailey needs to go out on every XC course I can find locally. She needs to jump the solid fences and the XC questions until she is confident. 

Bailey really loves going to the base, as you can see here: 

  

So that's really something we need to work on. Not all XC fences are that friendly!

I'm getting lucky, too, because my favorite local XC course has TWO schooling shows next year. And two dressage shows. Plus the usual line up, which includes super reasonable schooling fees. I need to start saving now, because I'd like a nice nest egg to spend on developing my horse next spring-summer-fall.

Here's the plan for next spring, in an extremely preliminary form:

May 7 - Roebkes Schooling Show, BN

May 21-22 Otter Creek Spring HT, BN

June 5 - Carriage House Combined, BN and N (Dressage and SJ only)

*June 25 - RRHT Dressage Show*

July 8-10 - Roebke's Run HT

August 12-14 - Otter Creek Summer HT

September 3-4 - Roebkes Dressage and Schooling Show, BN

September 16-18 - Otter Creek Fall HT

I may scratch both dressage shows depending on fees, but I definitely want to do what's highlighted. Its hard to know where we will be next spring, but I'm looking forward to more time on XC, and getting more confidence under our belts!

Feral. Red. Horse

I iz most pretty

My Feral Red Horse, Bailey, has Feral Red Horse in her blood. Bailey, now 6, is an "OOPs!" baby, conceived when her Mama was 3 and born when she was 4. Mama herself was a bit of a Feral Red Horse, and had her training and early horse education put off because of the baby on the way.

Bailey herself was left basically untouched until she turned 4. I picked her out from a picture and a brief meeting while visiting Wake Robin Farm to attend a Lucinda Green clinic. She came running when called, and was interested and inquisitive with people, affectionate, and willing to yield her body to pressure.  A sales video showed her to be a lovely mover, athletic and playful.

The feral red horse, the week she came home

I was hooked! I brought Bailey home in late August of 2013 with 6 rides on her. She was "kind of" broke, and "kind of" steered, stopped and responded to leg cues. Two years later she has two years of showing under her belt and we're prepping for another confidence building year at Beginner Novice. Bailey has blossomed, and grown up, and has really become her own person. I still call her my Feral Red Horse because she continues to be quirky and wild and, well... feral, occasionally. 





The Rider
My name is Ashley. I hang out on the internet under a variety of usernames, but usually am known as TheFoxRider, in homage to my beloved first horse, an OTTB named Foxie. I'm a young professional, and spent my first real paychecks after college on the Feral Red Horse. Foxie, who is now going on 20, is mostly retired with a blown suspensory ligament in a hind leg and is generally enjoying being a curmudgeonly older lady. I have aspirations to do a T3D before I get too old, and find that riding is a much needed light in corporate life. I have been out of the blog sphere lately, and have missed it. I'm not sure how this whole job + blogging thing will work, but I'm going to give it a go.

The Horse:
Bailey, known in USEA Area IV as "WRF Come Along Pond" and around the barn as "BB" is a 16.1h Thoroughbred cross born in 2009. She is 3/4 TB, 1/4 Zangrischeide (Holsteiner x Hanovarian) and 100% sassy redhead. Bailey is very friendly and inquisitive, and is often referred to as being like a giant golden retriever. She loves treats, food and running around "like an idiot". She feels that praise is her human confirming her Bad Ass status and has a slightly bucky, head-shaky happy dance that she enjoys doing after any Bad Ass action, like jumping a jump (regardless of whether there is another one coming up that she's not paying attention to). She considers her mom to be a dispenser of treats, slave to her glorious looks and lately, the fun police. 

BB would also like to note that she is a badass.

** Note: As of 4/13/16, I've loaded an older blog into the back end of this one, which means you now get to see the story of Bailey unfold a little bit more. I wasn't a great blogger getting back into it with a new horse, but hey, History! We have it. 

Working On It

So after a nice soft end to our Saturday ride, the red horse was a giant ass on Monday. I made the mistake of trying to not freeze my ass off be nice and ride in the indoor.

Bailey is the devil in the indoor.

I hate her in the indoor.

We had no canter transitions, no relaxation except for 2 steps at the same point in the circle where she was furthest from the doors and not looking directly at them and honestly, I felt like I was sitting on a time bomb. She was forward without being responsive, she was hanging on my hands while also being super sensitive and throwing said face in my face, and was generally... an asshole.

When I finally cut my losses and went outside, we magikally had canter transitions again and even got some dressage moments I'd actually want in my test at shows. That's it, I am moving to somewhere where I can ride outside year round so Bailey doesn't kill me. That, or she's going on Smartcalm Ultra next year. CHILL OUT, WOMAN.

I didn't ride yesterday. I should have, but it's been a stressful week, and my fiance (that doesn't get old) was taking a break from the weeks of studying he's been doing and I decided that sitting on the couch and watching Doctor Who with the man I love is better than going to the barn. I'll ride tonight, and hopefully set something fun up this weekend for jumping purposes.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to try a new bit; the snaffle has been ok (minus the blisters from Saturday) but I still feel like I need something new. Different. Something. It would be nice to have a legit emergency brake on that horse, but alas. Bits are what we get instead. I'm a little mad that I want to solve my problems with metal, but it's so crazy frustrating to feel her turn off her mouth and ignore me. Especially when yanking doesn't do much of anything except make her lighter in the front end while also continuing to be basically impossible to stop or steer. With Foxie, it was easy - she liked heavy things, and went in a pelham until I got her light enough to go in the cheltenham, which was a great compromise. We had some steering issues (why didn't I realize they make a full cheek version?) but once those were resolved, I had brakes, I had power to pull her back onto her haunches and it wasn't so much she mentally pissed herself.

I guess I have options:

- Try new cheeks(full cheek or dee)
- Try a new mouthpiece (stabilized waterford, slow twist)
- Try leverage.

I don't think I like leverage on this horse; she's already too light in the front and tends to go up. Her face is also really good at nearly breaking my nose. I could add a new option instead of leverage called "try a new noseband" but so far, I either want a PS of Sweden High Jump Revolution (so cool) or Micklem, or I have been thinking about a lever noseband or kineton.

But all of these options involve spending money... and I just don't know if I can bring myself to do it.

In other news, Amazon Prime has bits.Wonder of wonders.

Anyone want to loan me their bit collection?

Epiphanies

I got some unconventional help this weekend; from a cowboy who stood and watched me try to handle my red diva in a full on diva rage while hand grazing his beloved, well polished quarter horse.

You see, I seem to have forgotten how to jump properly. Our first few rounds were awful, legitimately. And then J commented that B looked like she needed more in her mouth. I've been toying with more bit, and have been putting a martingale on for damage control, but I still didn't have control up to the fence, and had a horse who was shoving her face down between her knees and toodling off in a "are you bucking or celebrating?" questionable way. AKA going on to the next fence was... less than successful.

And seeing as we have to jump a course in a little over 4 weeks, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

But I actually listened to the rail coaching cowboy, and worked on getting my horse soft in my hands. we did lots of circles before and after fences, and we didn't get to jump until she was soft and focused.

And boom, my leg was back on track. BOOM my releases made a lot more sense (instead of throwing one's body after a horse who is taking a "what the hell" distance) BOOM my horse was jumping with a tight, pleasant form and WASNT TAKING OFF WITH ME AFTER.

Guys, it was awesome. I mean, I rubbed two lovely blisters into my ring fingers because I forgot my gloves, but Bailey jumped like a normal, quiet hunter pony... and it was great.

Project for the next week (pending rain):

- Ask for soft in the bridle all the time. Ask and ask and ask and let her know what is good.
- Work on soft in the bridle at the canter, which was the trickiest gait on Saturday.
- Jump more, soft in the bridle, and work on focus and softness on approach at the canter.

and since the weather looks like wind and rain and cold sadness, I am probably sticking the horses back in their sheets. Blech.

Speaking of that... I probably need to have a clean sheet for the horse trial. I have to pack for the horse trial. OMG!

Dressagin'

I'm starting to get pretty solidly into Otter Creek prep, and last night was no exception. We toodled out right after dinner and went right to work. Bailey put in some lovely trot work and was very willing and even when she lifted her head to look, obediently dropped down into the bridle with only a small reminder. I worked hard on keeping my hands up, my reins short and my contact solid, and (shocker!) if I hold up my end of the deal, she does pretty darn well with hers.

Lets not do this at a show again, hmm?

Canter work was less forward than I would like, and she did come up through the transitions down, so that's something to work on. Halts were so-so - it takes a few reminders to get her to not use my hands as an emergency brake. She didn't attempt to back, which was nice since I totally taught her to do that without thinking this winter. Whoops.

We got a lot better at dressage by the end of last season.

We schooled the short canter transitions in the Starter Intro C test and I continue to cement my hatred of that test - I'm actually excited to move up! The canter transitions are after A, through the corner, since you are supposed to begin a circle at A, and through the first 1/4 of the circle, develop your canter. And before A again, you should be working trot, rising. For Bailey, that means we get like... 5-6 strides of canter before we have a downward again.

So dressagewise, goals are:

1. Prompt canter transitions
2. Continue to work on quality canter
3. Continue to work on keeping the brain in the box, especially at the trot.
4. Downward transitions that don't suck/involve flinging oneself around
5. Steady halts with no backing.

I need to:

1. Keep fixing my hands until they stay fixed.
2. Not let my leg get too far back
3. Half halt through every corner and ramp up > half halt > transition for successful upwards transitions
4. Memorize my dang test.

(Another) Monday Morning Catch-Up

Another week has come and past, and once again, I sucked at keeping things updated.

A lot of things have happened this week:

1. Andrew and I have decided to look at buying a (cheap) truck to use for hauling. YEE!

Due to the majorly disappointing response from both Facebook and TCCT (so much for Minnesota Nice / Generosity) I don't currently have a ride to Otter Creek, which is now a little over 4 weeks away. I'd like to change that, and also regain the independence that I so love having - having to deal with another (usually disorganized) person's timelines, plus loading B into an unfamiliar trailer seems to me to be more stress than it would ever be worth.

2. Bailey and I did lots of dressage.

Much to BB's delight (sarcasm) we had a meh dressage ride in the indoor on Wednesday which involved better work but still hating her for the misbehavior due to the indoor. Friday, we had a surprisingly lovely ride after Princess B decided that the door blowing open and closed on the barn was suddenly VERY SCARY and sat back, repeatedly and hard. She broke the chin buckle on her halter, so she didn't learn she could break halters, but she did bang herself up a bit thrashing side to side trying to break the damn thing and even banged her right front up enough that I looked down mid ride and noticed some blood. Our ride, in contrast, involved some buckling down and she did some good work - prompt transitions, insisting on straight, focused work and not getting soft and throwing my reins away when she gets fussy.

3. We jumped on Saturday!

Bailey was pretty toned down on Saturday, but perked up nicely under saddle. She stood very still (especially for her) to be groomed and tacked - all while tied exactly where she was the previous day. We had a nice warm up and popped over a baby Xrail a few times. Seeing that she was sound and agreeable, I set up a version of the Lucinda Green run-and-jump, with 2 3' fences off the rail midway down the long sides of the arena. Bailey finally got on her game after a few awkward, looky fences, and took some awesome long distances to these fences to gallop them out of stride with plenty of forward. I tried to focus on my leg, but I think it still needs some major work. After our short jump school, we cantered down the road and I was very happy that she had ceased to be crazy looky and let me kick her on when she started to fixate/blow at "scary" grass/mailboxes/etc.

4. The Foxmonster got ridden on Saturday, too.

Fox was a good girl for me and was nice and soft - I kept my curb nice and loopy, and was very happy with her. She actually got an almost real buck or two in (which I take as feeling pretty darn good for an old lady) before settling down. Her canter work, as always, was lovely (though she was very convinced I wanted to do lots of flying changes) and she stayed soft in the trot, though it's hard to enjoy her lack luster trot when you just got off the flying redhead.

All in all, we had a decent few rides. Tonight Bailey and I will do more dressage and hopefully will ride through our dressage test to see what we need to be focusing on, and before then, I need to call some truck dealerships!

Happy Easter!

Double posting? Yes I am. But I have news, of a non pony sort.


I got engaged this weekend!

Look what was waiting for me at the bottom of my Easter basket! Chocolate and diamonds... he knows me so well :)

So happy!

Monday Morning Catch Up

Catch up time, bloglings!

Last post was over a fortnight ago... and now I have to remember everything we've been up to! I'm not maintaining my training calendar like I should, and alas, it is biting me in the butt. It snowed, again, at the end of March, and the ponykins had one awful ride while snow was falling off the roof and we tried to do dressage with limited success.

Luckily, Saturday rolled around and I got in a lovely jump school in the snow. Bailey reminded me that she's quite clever (jumping holes in the snow where poles had been, reminding me that she has scope for dayz) and also reminded me that she doesn't have flying changes yet.

Much smart, jump hole in snow. 

And pinging! Cuteness. 

I worked on getting flying changes over the fences which is always a challenge since Bailey likes to look at all of the things and not pay attention to me.

Paying attention to Mahm is the worst

She was a total star over the big gate (other than taking THE closest and most conservative distances ever, which I HATE):

Hops.

On point despite being up the base's ass.

But even when she was jumping well (despite blatantly ignoring my push for the longer distances, which I mean I can be ok with in the snow, and hardly able to see because it's bright.

BIKER ALERT

 There were also SCARY SCARY PEOPLE ON BIKES OMG who were distracting us)... Moral of the story, she was a shit.

Much jump, very booty. 

Landing.

NO I MUST DANCE

TANTRUM TIME (also, bless running martingales. Bless them.)

Moral of the story: my horse is kind of an asshole about taking direction. She's been showing me a lot of disrespect lately and I feel like it's probably time for a Come To Jesus discussion of her manners. Because I shouldn't have to drag her, be dragged by her, get run over, pushed, pulled, stepped on and ignored on the ground. And all of these photos were in her loose ring snaffle - I found and swapped her up to the boucher on the flat and over fences this last week, and honestly... it's not much different.

She's still an asshole, and is still using my hands as a handbrake because leaning is easier than working. She's still flinging herself in the air and having tantrums and pulls through my half halts and is, in general, a big 'ol brat. While jumping is fun, I shouldn't have to thump her with my spurs and do this herk-jerk kick and pull stuff to get her to move forward on the bit and be an orderly, obedient pony.

I'm not saying she's not allowed to celebrate and feel good, but she also needs to remember that, you know, there are other jumps in a course and maybe she should pull her head out of her butt and go to work. If only I could tell her that we wouldn't endlessly school dressage if she would just do it right the first time.

Monday and Wednesday were dressage days, again with limited success, even in the Dr. Bristol. Saturday BB jumped again, and was lovely and forward in her warm up (we got some hand gallop!) but was laggy off my leg when I tried a leg yield for kicks, and we felt out of sync over fences. She was handy, but so distracted by horses screaming for their pasture mates (it was vet day) that I got some decent, obedient fences, and called it a day. For vet day, both mares were pretty good for the vet (minus BB's opinion of the vet getting a fecal sample the only way she could: with a glove) but Bailey WOULD.NOT.STAND to be tacked, so I walked her out of the barn, and handed her to the boyfriend. She pushed him (apparently) and he pushed back... and she stood like a freaking statue.

So I think tonight is the start of something new. For a while, I am going to have to be the bad cop and push her back and make her stand and demand that she stands at the mounting block until I say so, and that she behaves and remembers to be a polite riding horse so we can enjoy riding more and pull on each other less. I'm not a good disciplinarian, but when it came to that point with Foxie, I rode through it. I worked her booty off until she was strong and supple and rideable.

Why can't I do the same with my big red butthead?

I iz such good pon. Totes gud.