Sigh.

Take the title as you will, I think I went through all of the meanings of it last night.

First of all, moving and discombobulating an Ashley means that she does stupid shit like forgetting her babyschnookumsprecious dressage saddle at the barn. In the cold. Since Sunday. And didn't realize she didn't have it heading to the barn, and hyperventilating the whole freaking way.

As you can tell, I'm a functional horse parent this week. Luckily, the saddle was still there (also, pathetic that my saddle being stolen is a THING) and I arrived with medium weight blankets to finally get the kids out of their heavys in this warm weather. Foxie is already shedding and while I like the concept of the fleece neck thingy on her new Weatherbeeta Orican heavy weight, it is also a freaking hair magnet. Both girls are now in their mediums (Bailey's finally is repaired!) and seemed quite pleased. I also got rides in on BOTH ponies.

Bailey's ride I kept short and sweet - I changed a few things and felt like the results were quite positive. First, I set her saddle back behind her shoulder blades, and angled the girth like hell to make it work. I also put on her running martingale. She was super sweet on the ground and was very affectionate, and her good mood translated to being pretty good under saddle - looky, but not spooky which was a nice change. She was prompt and forward in her transitions and I got some good halts out of her, so when I felt the saddle start to slip, I just got off and let her be with that. I feel like her head tossing was much less extreme than last time - and I'd like to think it's because she had room for her shoulders to come up and through, rather than going "OW" all the time with her brainpan in the stratosphere.

Foxie also got ridden - a quick and dirty since I spent so much time scraping mud off of her, despite the blanket. Fox was lovely, though I have been discovering that Bailey is training ME - another source of sigh. I throw my outside rein away like crazy, which is much easier to realize then I'm riding the horse who charges off with you if you don't have contact on the outside. She even did some lateral work for me - I love riding that horse! Its nice to feel capable for 5 minutes, because riding the baby horse lately has been a shit show. (Sigh).

So my priorities now are to

1. Get up the guts to buy a total saddle fit girth.
2. Hold myself really accountable for rein length and clear aids
3. Ride Foxie more.
4. Once I get my stuff together, THEN start holding the baby horse accountable for her inconsistencies.

Here.
We.
Go. 

Weekend Rides

I rode twice this weekend; I took advantage of the boyfriend being away to get some quality time in with my girls.

Friday's ride was all about prompt transitions, and while the red mare was a bit insulted when I'd ask for the trot and not get it (resulting in a good smack on the bottom with my whip to get the transition NOW, not in 5 strides) she improved quite a bit by the end of our ride. I still am confused and troubled by her spooking antics, but the ride itself was pretty satisfying, as rides tend to be when improvement can be seen. I also put my stirrups down a (half) hole for the first time in a long time, and was happy to realize that I am better balanced and stronger than I was - I used to feel so insecure without that extra quarter inch of stirrup leather!

Sunday's ride showed the marked improvement in her transitions from Friday's work - a nice reward to remind me the profits of consistent work! The spookiness was continued, however - and I also saw more of the other annoying behavior I've been seeing lately - head flipping.

Some of it, is, admittedly, playing. It's warm, she feels good, and she gets to really stretch her legs. I'm fine with a little playing. However, I find the head flipping in reaction to discipline, not wanting to do what I want or being pissy about the contact to be OBNOXIOUS. When she's playing she responds to the half halts and generally goes back to work with only a little leg and rein reminder. I feel like her naughty head toss/shaking is a giant red horse middle finger to what I am asking. If I escalate and lift my hands to stay in contact with her mouth, she fights, inverted, and then drops behind the contact and curls in on herself while sucking back behind the bit, and then alternates between being too strong, flipping her head or turning off her face and being sucked back behind my leg and the bit.

ANNOYING.

I took off her flash noseband, and have been using the grackle on the same holes they've been on for a long time. She seems to like her bit and really foams up when wearing it. I'm strongly considering a change to her dressage girth, in part because I need a new girth (my old Ovation is getting some wear holes) and partially because I am not satisfied with how the girth pulls her saddle up onto her shoulders. I'm drooling over the Total Saddle Fit girths, and despite the reviews and such, it's hard to pull the trigger. Her jump saddle seems to stay back a bit better - the Tekna curved girth seems to really help. She seems better behaved doing dressage in her jump saddle, but it could be a thousand things; I usually ride with a running martingale in that saddle, I ride more out of the tack in that saddle. It sits on her back different, a lot of the time we work some dressage into her jump schools so we aren't doing as much work, and it's broken up... like I said, a thousand factors.

I can't justify riding my dressage tests in my extremely forward jump saddle when I have a dressage saddle. And I can't show with a running martingale on.

So my plan for this week is:

Tuesday:
Short and hopefully sweet ride in the dressage saddle with running martingale
Flat Foxie

Thursday:
Reactive ride from Tuesday to see what the red horse needs.  Fingers crossed, I'll have a better ride and can decide where to go from there!

A House, Not Riding

I'm feeling the need to blog today even though I don't have much to talk about. The course (give or take) from my last post got dragged out again on Sunday - this time with a scary, scary coat draped over our vertical and more width added to the oxer. Bailey, of course, was a delight. She is also extremely hairy, which is making me itch to get my clippers out and go after her before I spend an hour cooling her hot mess of a self out. Foxie is also a mess of hair, as well, but I'm more hesitant to take off her coat, in part, because I ride her so infrequently. She got brought out on Sunday as well, and I am floored again by how FUN she is to ride. Its so nice to ride a reliable, trustworthy horse who is also fantastically trained and BALANCED. Bailey, for all of her fantastic potential and lovely confirmation is still learning to balance, and usually is too lazy to really sit down and do the hard stuff. Spiraling her in is accompanied by the vague sensation that we're going to die; Foxie, for all that she basically has three functional legs, can still SIT and keeps all of the energy contained in her body when she spirals in. It's amazing and super fun to feel, especially when I'm so used to riding the babyface. 

I didn't ride yesterday; due to the past few days of BUSY, I am super tired, and freezing rain + idiots = I didn't want to die trying to get to the barn, especially when I really wasn't feeling awake enough to ride. 

Speaking of the last few days of busy;

Drew and I bought a house! 

Well, he bought it. But I have been firmly informed that it's our house and that I am to think of it as such. I'm absolutely thrilled with our choice, and it's going to be an adventurous few weeks as we paint the lower level, put down new laminate floors for the lower level and then,  ya know... move. Some horse stuff (blankets) has already been moved over to our new garage, so once I get some saddle racks set up I think it will be a perfect base of riding operations. Plus, we'll be much closer to the barn and feed store, which makes life much easier for me, and it will be fun to be closer to the horses once Drew gets further along in his horse-u-cation and starts learning to ride. 

Here's the tour:

Our front door is the one on the right - we also have a door next to our garage door for easy access from the back of the house, even for visitors.

Inside the door you have our open concept dining / living / kitchen. We also have a full bath on the main level, and a nifty closet. 

My kitchen, with view of the front door, dining area (marked by chandelier) and to the left, the living area which is wired for sound / home theater! What you don't see is the pantry (left, behind the photographer) and some awesome deep cabinets that I consider extensions of said pantry (right).

The living room :)

And upstairs we have:

The loft! I am so excited for the fireplace, let me tell you. 

Second bedroom - this is going to be an office for Mr. On Call On Weekends.

Master bath, with hall door and master bedroom door. I am excited for all that space!

Master bedroom - one of the TWO walk in closets for the master is to the right in this photo

And finally, my closet. This is behind you when you look at the above photo of the master. There is so much room for activities!

We've already begun painting and floors will go down next weekend. This weekend I'll be back in the tack for some pony time and doing some moving and shopping while Drew is at Drill. I'm hoping to get most of my stuff moved and leave not only a CLEAN room to present to the helpful friends of ours (male) at my parents, but also only a few things for them to lift that belong to me personally, because the biggest of them is my giant 11 drawer dresser... and it's big, And heavy. And they probably won't like me very much. 

More updates to come - on both the house and the ponies!

Beastin'

So after getting quite frustrated with my red animal on the flat, as the constant spooking, sucking behind the bit / behind my leg, and general lack of cares at what I'm trying to do, I decided we were both in need of a good old fashioned jump school.

I set up the following:

Yeah, MS Paint.

The following is a barrel skinny (2 barrels on their side, our warm up fence) and then a 2'9 square oxer and a 2'11 airy vertical. 

And let me tell you, that jump school was the best part of my week thus far; Bailey was cute on the ground and followed me around while I hunted down jump standards and cups (and pins, omg where did all the pins GO?) and all business under saddle. She really is a fantastic little jumper - catty and willing and brave. We started off with some easy trotting and cantering over the barrels, and then, having failed to walk the distance between the barrels and oxer... went "oh, what the hell" and rode them as a connected line. Somehow I am a genius because I set them as a perfect, forward 4 stride, and she rocked over them. The vertical was a bit more challenging - I set it on an angle that allowed for 2 strides  out of a deep corner (which happens to be the door corner, aka spook city) and vaguely on an extreme bent line to the barrels. She flubbed the vertical twice, and the oxer going towards the barrels once, but left all the poles in the cups regardless. And between the flubs, she was brilliant. Forward, rateable, and once I got her on the line, I was able to just sit and wait for the jump to come to us. We got a few bad distances, but 80% of the time (minus flubs and short spots) she was 110% on point, which is super exciting. 

We also did a lot of crazy careening around and hit everything on angles inspired by Lucinda Green, and boy did the red horse step up! 2'9 oxer on an angle? Lets hit the perfect spot and rock it like a hunter. Vertical to skinny barrels on an angle? No problem, Lets roll back to the oxer, too. She took everything confidently, and was definitely a thinking girl last night. I couldn't be prouder! 

Maybe I should just give up and become a jumper... too bad she's too damn talented at dressage (even if it's bo-oring) to not event. Plus, I love my sport. Besides, as of our last dressage ride she had square stops figured out, which would be a waste not to show off. 

Ah, the ups and downs of young red mare ownership!

Sigh.

So we had our last lesson with Edee before she fled left for Florida. Unfortunately, she forgot her Micklem bridle so BB and I didn't get to try it. It has been terribly, awfully cold, as it has been lately (I'm riding during the negative temps, as per usual...) and we've had some good moments mixed in with the usual naughty red mare behavior.

In our last lesson, we worked on Bailey's trot work (medium > collected) and her lateral work (leg yielding) and as Edee said, she's confirmed with the skill set for both, she just needs more strength and practice. The canter was a little less fun, as Edee think's Bailey is growing again (meaning it feels like I am sitting on a giant splatter octopus pony of "I really don't want to try, thanks") which is contributing to her crap less than satisfactory canter work. We did, however, get assigned to work on that canter and add counter canter to her regimen, so I am hopeful she will, at one point, improve and stop splatting.

Bailey is confusing to own, in that I LOVE that horse - she's talented, beautiful, personable - everything that I wanted, but she is hell on four hooves to ride with the spooking and lack of work ethic, and also makes me hate myself on a regular basis. Bailey inherited her sister's old heavy weight blanket this year, and I was very happy that she had two nice blankets to start the year off with. Unfortunately someone in her paddock is fond of not only tearing that blanket (which makes me hate the red mare, because I know it's in part because she WILL NOT defend herself, or run away any faster than a saunter) but also takes part of the "flap" of the tear, meaning that I can't glue the seams to repair them. You can imagine my annoyance, as I now have a neck cover that needs sewing (thank god we can sew it), a bum tear that needs glue and a flank tear in her medium that I am honestly not sure we will be able to repair.

I alternate between overwhelming anxiety that BB will be left blanketless, and quietly muttering "serves her right". I never had much of a tearing problem with Foxie - we had one spring where I had to repair 3 blankets, but that's IT, in almost 10 years of ownership. I guess I need to stand up to myself and say unless she DEMOLISHES a blanket - IE beyond the point of repair, she gets to keep her patched, sad blankets. One is old enough that if it goes, it's given me 6 years of service. The other... I am less than fond of the fit, front buckles, lack of rockin' tail flap, etc so it will eventually be replaced with a Weatherbeeta Orican. Until then, I guess I get to deal with it also being patched. SIGH.

I feel like I am all kinds of negative right now... but alas, that is how I feel.

I think I need to plan a jump school sometime soon - I need some fun!

Already, Progress

I've had one ride with the BBMonster in the new year, late last Friday night. I keep having good luck (knock wood) and get out to the barn to find the indoor empty and dark - YAY! I hate sharing the arena and I think BB does, too. We made some changes in "back" in 2014 - aka my long dressage whip came out of storage for Miss Anti-Impulsion Von Piss At Your Spurs and for this ride, I added my running martingale (to help keep the "I'm A Wild Horse" Head tossing at bay / from breaking my nose) and swapped her back to the grackle noseband.

I was surprised, because even with the radio on (I can't decide if this helps her keep her brain in the arena or not) she was quite good. I went out of my way to handle her spooks effectively (barrels, door, human door, poles on the ground) with circling back and a good boot in the ribs/tap with the whip to keep her going forward, and then catching her popping inside shoulder. This seemed to keep her from down spiraling into Spookzilla, so I am happy with her.

We did our normal WTC warm up (focusing on going forward and forward motion keeping Miss B from being over bent from too far back on her neck) and got some good canter work, along with some on point collection >  extension at the trot (and slightly at the canter) as well as some spiral work, shoulder in and leg yield.  She's getting better about coming through and "keeping up" with her hind end when we leg yield and has really started to get the concept of shoulder in vs. constantly trying to "go straight" out from the rail on an angle.  It was really just 45 minutes of quick work, with a long (for us) stretching walk break about 1/3 of the way in, and handful of stretchy trots, but it felt really productive and like her brain was screwed on (at least partially) throughout the ride.

What I did notice was that she seemed much more relaxed through her jaw and less tense through her mouth in the grackle - I didn't loose my "power steering" hardly at all through the spooks and while we have been working on not tucking behind the bit, I feel like the noseband helped encourage her to reach forward rather than clench her teeth and hold/hide from the bit. Of course, my brain being what it is, I'm wondering now if a Micklem bridle or a drop noseband would work well for her... happy mare happy ride, right?

I guess we shall see. 

2015 Goals

I feel like my goals go to crap, and starting off the year with an oncoming cold spell is doing little to help my motivation. But alas, here we go:

No more giraffing on the center line, plz

Competition Goals:
- Have a strong (educational, learning from previous experience, improving, who cares about ribbons) year at BN
- Become member(s) of the USEA - this didn't make sense last year, but I'd like to have the membership and the magazines again. Area IV Adult Riders may be a thing, once I check if the clinics that they list (and offer 25$ paybacks for) are ones I would attend.
-  Continue to lower dressage scores.

BB: I spook when I am bored. And for fun. 

At Home Goals:
- Go on a trail ride with Bailey.
- Continue to work on ground manners, standing, lunging and other solid-citizen skills with the red horse.
- Ride or lunge Foxie once a week or more.
- Jump BB at least once a week, and jump creatively (arena XC, grids, mini courses, etc)
- School XC and trailer out for lessons more regularly / become more confident hauling the trailer.

Flat work is too hard, mom. Standing is better. 

In the Arena Goals: (for BB)
- Cement shoulder in, haunches in and leg yields at the walk and trot.
- Improve strength and consistency at the canter as reflected in collection / extension exercises. If she is strong enough, begin teaching flying changes.
- While the canter is brewing, work on prompt and correct simple changes.
- Insist on quality, forward work every time. No more head tossing / getting away with being a sassy pants / giving up. Pony needs to learn to try.

Some of these goals seem pretty lofty... but I guess I'll check in  after a few months and see how we're doing (seeing as I suck at blogging, this doesn't seem too lofty of a goal...)

Happy New Year, Guys.