Back In the (Blogging) Saddle

So I'm the world's worst blogger. Unfortunately for my writing, grown up life doesn't have a lot of time for blogging! I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, so I'm hoping I can find a bit of time each day to do the 30 day challenge I so admired over on TBA's blog, so here we go!

1. A photo of you and your horse

I have two horses, so let's do two pictures, because they're freaking cute.

Foxie - '96, 15.3hh plain bay OTTB
Semi retired from riding, retired from eventing and 110% adorable

Bailey - '09 16.1 and growing chestnut American Warmblood (TB/TB/Holsteiner) 

My up and coming eventer and the queen of the herp derp horses

Here's to more posts!

A, BB and Fox

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

A New Year

Well, a fall has come and gone and winter has arrived.

Admittedly, I am not a good blogger, and I hope to change that in the new year. I'm also not so good at planning my rides right now, and am kind of in a rut. Obnoxiously, it's freezing right now - not like... below freezing. I mean negative double digits. I plan to head out and check the horses tomorrow - carefully. It's going to be so cold and windy I have to worry about damaging any exposed skin after about 5 minutes outside. I already have some frostbite damage from previous years riding outside, so I have to be extra careful. However, this doesn't bode well for my training plans (or lack thereof?).

Bailey thinks coats are pretty rad.

Right now, Bailey is getting worked pretty regularly. Her flatwork is so-so - moments of nice hock action and giving in the base of her neck followed by spooking and satellite ears.Her jumping is also so-so - sometimes she gives 100% and is brilliant and other times she turns out and schlumps over the fence like so:

My plan for her (once we thaw out) is to continue to hit the dressage work hard, emphasizing lateral work and transitions to engage her brain and her body, and also making sure she's booted up in front of my leg, as she tends to like to sit back against my aids like a hammock and just swing along not working very hard at all. I also plan to get her working over fences more - while the barn's gymnastic and course days have gotten off to a rough start, I am aiming for 3 or so jumping lessons a month. With the ice and snow making it hard to get off the farm or even trail ride safely, we have to build up our trust (and her knowledge and body) in anticipation of an activity-packed spring and summer. 

Foxie is also not working very hard - it's hard to take off her blanket when she's been struggling to stay warm so much this winter! We have also been struggling with her soundness in her feet, and general stiffness in her body. My plans for her are to slowly get her back into work. Watching old videos of her from last winter, I am guessing that some of her discomfort is coming from not being worked, and I am to blame for that. Its time to get some muscle back and work off some of that fat (which is probably not helping, either) and I'm tentatively planning to do some walk/trot work later this week once things warm up. 

Fox on a good day earlier in the fall

It's hard to ride her as the footing in the indoor is quite deep and outside is quite icy - neither of which is good footing for a sore horse and a bad suspensory. I think walk and less that 5 minutes of trot will be our new game plan, even though she prefers to canter and canter and canter. I also plan to start using both her Back on Track sheet and her hock boots as prep and cool down from our rides as a way to support her comfort. If she is still uncomfortable, I may start looking at joint supplements or a course of Adequan to give her a chance at getting back to being her old self. It's hard to watch her age! 

So here is to blogging, a new year, and a lot of work to do!

Ash, Fox & Bays

Christmas in July

Christmas came early this year - not only in my event colors, but in the pasture as well.

Bailey, a TBxHolsteiner mare bred by the lovely Edee Lee of Wake Robin Farm came home almost two weeks ago. She is greener-than-green and full of try and potential - I'm excited to bring her along! When Bailey came home, she had been ridden 6 times, and vaguely turned, stopped and had an inkling of what you wanted when  you ask for a walk, trot, or canter. Since she has come to me, we have made some big strides - she lunges almost in a circle, is much more confident cantering and is beginning to understand giving to the bit and moving parts of her body independently.

Whereas Foxie is a  tough ride who is hard to talk in to doing work, Bailey is easy easy easy, but comes with her own challenges. Because she is so athletic and learning so fast, we have to be sure she has positive, productive experiences every time she is handled. While she is young and silly and a total spitfire, I'm excited for her future.

A Foxy Foxie Update

Don't ask my why this is a foxy update about the bestest, most wonderful Fox, but it is!

Foxie is a superstar, even as she settles in (pretty happily I might add) in to semi-retirement. We still ride, and we still manage her suspensory injury with MSM and Previcox. Under saddle we work on maintaining suppleness through her back and her neck, which tends to be a problem area. I'm big on maintaining her topline, and what dressage training she has. I fight between wanting to drill and go for perfection (even if I'm pretty sure she can't do what I'm asking perfectly anymore) and wanting to make her rideable. Lately rideable has won - I want her to have a purpose, even if it's babysitting family and friends like the solid citizen she is.

I value her greatly now that I'm also riding a four-year-old whose turning and brakes are not always a sure thing - she is still a powerhouse under saddle, and is and always will be a fun ride. She loves challenges and games with a vengeance and the "transition game" where I throw different transitions at her in a crazy sequence makes her brain happy, and helps keep her body in shape. She jumps, occasionally, and gets a few days off after she does to try and counteract the soreness I know it causes her. She loves it and gets so excited to be back doing her job again that I cannot deny her.


Finally, Foxie has also become a trick pony, learning to stop and back on the bridge, and pushing gates open and closed when I unlatch them from the saddle (enjoy our silly video).

Much Love,
Ashley and Fox

Long Time, No Post

Well, Blogisphere, things got busy. In the span between my last post, I completed my final semester at St. Olaf College, graduated, found a job and, most excitingly, brought home a second horse (you'll meet her in the next post, promise!).

Time slips away, and I've lost a lot of the time I used to maintain and write both on this blog and on my horse care blog, Keep Calm Horsecare. I feel like, a lot of the time, I'm living two separate lives - one at work, and one in the saddle. While I'm not working my dream job I'm able to make ends meet and most importantly, keep doing what I love.

I'm working hard to maintain balance in my life, so today I'm updating a blog from work. Naughty me :)

My workplace believes in a work/life balance - part of the reason I was willing to take a job that wasn't a perfect fit for what I wanted to do with my life. While evening comes too quickly, I'm slowly learning to balance keeping two horses in work and happy. It' a game of wins and losses - it is, at times, incredibly frustrating but the moment I swing my leg over the saddle, I know I'm making the right choice.

So I'll make this soliloquy a short one and get on to more exciting things.

Watch this space!
Ashley