Vicissitudes

I know I've been quiet on the blog lately. It's partially because I'm not riding as mush as I'd like.

The Boy and I have a rental property and the past two months have been spent dealing with tenant drama, finding new tenants, doing repairs (and a major bathroom renovation) and painting every wall in the house. We did the walk through with the new tenants last night so hopefully I won't have to spend 2-4 evenings a week there anymore.

The past weeks have brought some great highs, and some real lows.

Highest High

Another clinic with Sandra Donnelly. Dee and I were in the 3'3"+ group and had a great time schooling 3'3"-3'6". The only moments of anxiety came from a bounce. They were the smallest fences in the last course at 3' while everything else was pushing 3'6" (including a triple and some angled oxers). Turns out I've never schooled a bounce at any height over 2'3". It was set up at the end of the course, it was the triple bar coming out of the corner, 4 (or 5) strides to the bounce.

I was very nervous but I managed to keep my shit together and while it was a little ugly the first time through, nobody died!

The only media I have from the clinic

It was an awesome weekend and I left it feeling like Dee and I were ready to tackle Training.

Low

After my ride on the first day of the clinic I was going to take off when my friend, K, noticed her mare was acting colicky. I decided to stick around to keep her company while she waited for the vet (her mare had colic surgery previously). While waiting we gave her a cold bath and a dose of Banamine as Calika was very dehydrated and was running a temp of 40.2°C. Vet drew blood, did a rectal and basically told us to check on her in a few hours as the Banamine had brought her temp down and she pooped.

Sunday her temp was back up so she got another dose of Banamine. We also put her in a stall to get her out of the sun (she lived in a small outdoor med pen as she was on stall rest for a hole in her check ligament). I checked on her at about 8pm (since I live super close and K doesn't). Calika hadn't ate, drank, or pooped. So the vet was called back out. I ended up hauling her to the clinic as the vet still had no idea why her temp was up as the blood results came back normal.

High

On Thursday Calika came home because she was doing much better, but still undiagnosed.

Low

We went cross country schooling on Thursday as well. It started out really good. And then Dee stopped. I didn't have the greatest pace so we approached again and it was fine. I didn't make much out of it.

Then she stopped at the next fence. And stopped again, and ran out, and ran out. With come help from a horse made wing and a bigger crop we got over it.

And then she stopped at the next fence, 3 strides out. A reapproach got us over it. At this point I was very concerned. The only XC penalties we've ever picked up were at Alhambra when the footing was really bad and she slipped right in front of the jump. This horse does not stop at XC fences, no matter how terrible I'm riding.

I decided to finish up on the small coffin as we've schooled it a ton and the cabin in is no more than 2'9" with the out fence being 2'6". And she stopped at that as well.

I called it quits then. I don't know what happened, but Dee was telling me that she didn't want to play.

Lowest of the Lows

Friday morning K asked me to bring the trailer to the barn. Over night her mare had taken a turn for the worse. She was septic, and obviously suffering. It was time to let her go.

I hauled her back to the clinic and K and I stayed with her until the vets needed to do a necropsy (for insurance).

It was rough. Calika was K's first horse, her partner for over 12 years. Thankfully, she felt relief after, knowing she had made the right decision. I was ok until they cut off her tail, then I was decidedly not ok.

I'm grateful that I had the day off work and was able to help K through it. No one should have to do that by themselves.

Goodbye Big Red. You will be missed

High/Low All At Once

We had the XC course booked for Wed and I really needed to ride Ritchie so it was decided he'd have his first outing.

A friend of mine who lives a few hours away contacted me the nigh before asking if I wanted to do dinner as she'd be in the area for work. Since XC schooling is way more fun than dinner I invited her to join us and ride Dee.

Dee proved her Best Pony status by packing Michelle around. Michelle is a very talented and competent rider. Michelle was content to play Japanese tourist, until her phone died, and stick to the smaller stuff (but she's braver than anyone else I know, she went to Ireland and hunted sidesaddle!). Dee just jumped around like it was no big deal. It made me so happy to see her go, and to see her happy to do it. I've never seen someone else jump her.

Ritchie, on the other hand, was the worst he's ever been. He would refuse to go forward, running sideways instead. He'd rear and spin. His inexperience combined with the fact he hadn't been ridden in over a week made for a challenging ride.

But there were also some lovely moments. He trotted circles all by himself in the field. He jumped his first little bitty log. He stood like a rock when I went to dismount and forgot to detach my air vets until I was half way down. I hung off the side while madly scrambling for the clip and he didn't bat an eyelash.

I had to get off and lead him over every single jump (and the ditch). But after I lead him over it he walked/jumped over it like it was no big deal.

I didn't set him up to be super successful and it resulted in a horse who could.not.brain.

Next time I'll do better buddy. Sorry.

Overall, the last weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster. I've got Dee booked to see the vet next week so we can rule out a physical reason for her stopping. She is a 19 yo sport horse, I wouldn't be surprised if some of her joints need some help.

Greenery Jelousy

I finished up with finals this week so I've got a few weeks off of school before the spring semester starts. I'm hoping to haul out for trail rides as much as possible during the down time.

For all of you posting pictures of riding outside I'm just going to leave this here:

This was on Tuesday. Almost no green grass to be seen.

I know we should be grateful that the snow is long gone but I'm seriously envious of the green grass I keep seeing on other people's blogs.

Fancy Dressage-Pony, right before he tripped on a tiny rock and nearly face-planted.

Studly Pants went on his first two real hacks this past week. Once with a lovely, mild mannered gelding. Other than a complete inability to figure out how to walk down a hill in a straight, balanced line, Ritchie was perfect.

Fast forward 3 days and we went out with Dee (a friend rode her for me) and another mare. I had a totally different horse. He was anxious, determined to be glued to Luna and a general pain in the ass. He got light in the front end every time I insisted that he really did have to listen to me. He forgot how to steer. He lost all his marbles when Luna got too far away. He didn't give a hoot about Dee, and we ride with Luna on a regular basis, without any theatrics so I think she may be coming into heat. The joys of riding a young stallion with minimal life experiences.

We managed to end on a really good note. He boldly led through the scary tree/fence line. He couldn't figure out how to step over a log(a really small log) but was game to follow Dee right over. We even managed some trot circles up and down a small hill.

We've set up a standing Tuesday night date for hauling out to hack in the hills. I feel like it will be much more enjoyable once it greens up!

Sandra Donnelly Clinic - Day 2

I'm a terrible blogger. I wrote this post, scheduled it and then went on my merry way. Blogger ate it and I couldn't summon the will to rewrite it. Every time a post disappears it kills my desire to blog. I may need to switch to a new platform.

Ritchie

Day 2 of the clinic started off with Ritchie. Shimmer-E was able to come and watch and get an education in jumper land (she is my favourite DQ).

Our flatwork started with going over the differences in full seat, light-seat, 2-point and driving seat. Sandra then put us through our paces, having us change our seat and demand a reaction from our horses. Turns out my light-seat has disappeared. 

Full seat? No problem. 2-point? Rock solid. Driving seat? Effective. Light-seat? Completely gone. I couldn't for the life of me allow my hips to move with him. Sandra told me that she's not surprised. Dee doesn't really let me practice light-seat without some fireworks. My homework is to keep working on it with Ritchie until I feel really solid in it. Then to work on it some more before I try and transition it to Dee.

Moving onto the over fences work, Ritchie really showcased the fact that Saturday's challenges were more of a test of my determination than fear or confusion. We jumped a skinny, brush boxes, a one-stride, a two-stride, planks and lattice. All which was new to him and he didn't say boo. We did have one drive by, the first time in the one-stride, but it was definitely a steering problem, not a jumping problem. 

It wasn't always pretty but we did everything successfully. And we did our first real courses!

My main goal for Ritchie during the clinic was just exposure. He stood quietly while others had their turn. He couldn't have cared less when the other riders forgot I was riding a young stallion and parked themselves quite close to us. I was super proud of him. For a young horse who's had very little exposure to new experiences and places he really couldn't have performed more admirably.

A somewhat accurate portrayal of our set up

Dee

For the first time ever with Dee we completely mastered the flatwork and weren't the remedial child! Sandra had us turn down the center line and leg yield back to the wall, and then do it the other way. We started out walking and she had very little to say to Dee and I that wasn't super positive. Next came the trot, still super positive. 

We then started asking for a walk transition while continuing to leg yield. This turned out to be super helpful for me because Dee and I really struggle with downward transitions (Dee is convinced we should only ever go faster). It was critical to keep her body straight while doing this, no allowing her to fall in (or out) in her right shoulder. When we were straight we had some incredible transitions.

Same exercise at a canter. Dee and I haven't schooled canter leg yields but you'd never know it. It was the most magical flatwork. If it hadn't been a clinic I probably would have called it quits there and floated around on cloud nine for the rest of the day. That's how good it was.

I normally go first because I am really good at remembering courses. Except here. This is not the course I was supposed to do. For the first time in well over a year I forgot my course.

We moved right into jumping. It wasn't long before Sandra had the fences set at 3'3" (and even one that was sneakily 3'6").  We were able to jump around and successfully nail a pace and keep my nerves from interfering. I was super good about not looking down because I picked a spot really high on the wall and did not take my eyes off it (otherwise the fences started to freak me out a little, which is silly, we are both more than capable).

We even jumped a giant (think 3'3" with a 4'3" spread) triple bar. Considering I've been scared of oxers and petrified of triple's and hog's back's I was really happy with how it went.

Ritchie is a very physically demanding ride. So by the time I rode Dee I was a little tired and my legs were very sure I shouldn't be doing anything. I ended up running out of steam near the end. It really showed up coming into the triple on one of our final go's. I had a good pace but was nervous and Dee backed off as we came to the base. I just wasn't able to add enough leg and we came to a graceful, if abrupt halt in front of it. Sandra told me she thought we had it and that Dee could have helped me out a little. We got it done in a second try but it was becoming obvious that Dee was backing off and I just didn't have the gas to really get it done.

You can see how it's starting to fall apart here, but we still get it done

Because Sandra is awesome she lowered some of the fences so we could end on a better note (the second fence in both of the related distances stayed up, but the first fence got lowered). It was completely the right thing to do. It was also really nice to know that it wasn't anxiety or panic that necessitated the drop, just a lack of fitness on my part. I can work on that. #goalbreeches 

Overall it was a great clinic. I couldn't have been happier with both horses. I can't wait until it's show season.

Dressage Pony Has Skills.... Rider is Mediocre at Best

I only have dressage lessons every other week since my instructor's (let's call her IY) schedule is packed full. My plan is to continue to ride Dee in these lessons since Stressage dressage is our weakest phase. Anytime someone cancels, I have first dibs on their spot to have the occasional lesson with Ritchie.

For the first lesson back after the holiday break I ended up riding Ritchie. I've been struggling with sitting in his saddle and wanted some help. It's got big thigh blocks and my knees keep trying to creep over them. I also wanted to get an outside opinion on some of the crookedness I've been experiencing.

Kentaur Elektra. I find it less than ideal

Unfortunately IY confirmed my suspicions about Ritchie's fancy new saddle (Shimmer-E bought it for him a couple months ago). While it fits him well and is an 18" seat, it is actually too small for me. It's got a fairly deep seat and rides small. I'm obscenely long from my hip to my knee for someone who is only 5'6" (for reference, my jumping saddle is an 18" with a long forward flap and it fits me wonderfully).

For now I will be doing all my riding in my jump saddle (thank goodness it fits both horses). I may struggle to keep my upper body tall while doing dressage in it, at least I actually fit in it.

My other main concern was straightness. With Dee I struggle to ride straight becuase what feels like straight is actually crooked. We've been working on re-training my perceptions and I was concerned this would colour my perceptions of Ritchie.

Thankfully my thoughts about when we were straight and when we were crooked were spot on. Ritchie is stiff to the left, wanting to bulge his ribcage in and drift through the left shoulder (completely opposite of Dee). To the right he's super bendy and I have to be careful to keep solid outside aids to ensure he's maintaining the correct bend.

Random smile photo to break up the text monologue.

IY really liked him though. She told me that he is going to make me a very quiet and effective rider since he is easily offended. She also laid into me harder than she ever has before (and I've been riding with her off-an-on for something like 7 years). She saw me bump him with my inside leg 3 times without getting any response. I know this is how to deaden a horse and I still do it. So she stopped me and had a frank discussion about how I need to be more assertive, ask once and then correct with spur or whip. Basically, I need to rise to the level this guy is capable of, not him sinking to mine.

Every lesson I have with her ends up with me having sore abs. Every. Single. One. Apparently I am lazy about my core without someone reminding me 8-million-times. Now you add in super bouncy, swingy fancy-pants-warmblood and my ab muscles were crying. But he's so sensitive it was really cool to see how much my core control affected his movement.

Basically by better engaging my core I was able to help him achieve more loft and swing in his gaits. It only lasted a few strides before both of our muscles would get tired and wimp out, but those strides were beautiful!!

Also, if anyone is looking for a pretty cool young horse, one of Ritchie's babies is for sale. She's super cute, scored well at her inspection (including an 8 for movement) and super personable. So pass it along if you know anyone looking, the weak Canadian dollar could make her someone's pretty cool bargain. (Also, when she sells, Ritchie and I get a bigger show budget)

Because when you're born on May 4th, you must be Leia

Ritchie's Visit With the Osteopath

Last night I had my osteopath out to work on Mr.Studly Pants. As a 4-year-old  Ritchie was strong, muscled and had a topline that was drool-worthy. In the last year, all of that has disappeared.

Now, obviously, a large part of re-developing this is just hard work and miles, but i wanted to ensure that Ritchie had the best possible base to start with. So enter the osteopath.

I fully believe in osteopathy but truthfully I mostly zone out as they discuss what's wrong and how to improve the movement. But Ritchie really seemed to enjoy his treatment. He was yawning and chewing right away.

He moved out of the frame as he yawned, but you get the picture

After the initial treatment, they had me saddle and mount. Then they worked on Ritchie under saddle. No matter how many times I see it, it's always fascinating to immediately see the differences. All of a sudden Ritchie was able to just step into a canter, rather than the rushing and falling he was doing before.

The same difference in his trot. All of a sudden we could get the big, powerful trot without me having to drive him into it. He can only hold it for about 3 strides, but as his muscles develop that will also improve.

Oh god, why can't I seem to look up

One of the biggest take-aways was that they felt Ritchie really needed his teeth done. When he yawns, chews or generally shifts his jaw it sounds like he is grinding his teeth. They also think his teeth are uneven, which is putting his jaw out of alignment, and they can't fix it until his teeth are done. He also has a sarcoid we need to get removed so it looks like I'll be hauling to my vet at the end of the month.


Then I got a mini-treatment, while in the saddle. I love these treatments (my osteopath was a human chiropactor for 20 years before transitioning into Equine Osteopathy). I could suddenly use my left seatbone without having to struggle.

Both Ritchie and I are set up to be able to succeed now. Bring on Friday's dressage lesson :)

Seriously, Who Can Have Just One?

So just before the holidays, Britt likened horse to potato chips, asking if it possible to have just one?

For me that answer is apparently no. I've had 2 horses since Sullivan was born. I figured that one senior performance horse and one young horse was the perfect combination.

Then we bought the acreage and in order to bring Sullivan home (and keep Dee boarded at an indoor for the winter) I needed to find a companion horse. I initially had intended to borrow one of my mom's 3 (apparently equine collecting is genetic), but when Mom let me know that Chase was looking for a job after his family had grown up and moved on, I couldn't pass up bringing my old man home.

So that makes 3. One performance horse, one youngster and one senior babysitter who can pack The Boy around. Perfect, right?

Of course, just when you think something is perfect life will throw you a curveball. (This is the absolute best kind though. It's basically a rainbow, glitter covered curveball)

Not long after we moved into our new place conversations were had between me and one of my best friends about her young stallion, LaBamba SE (Ritchie). Ritchie was being leased by a local trainer and Shimmer-E's life is currently in flux. She just started a new job, has a young daughter, her husband is working out of town during the week and it looks like they will be moving sometime this summer (closer to me!!!). With the lease on Ritchie about to expire, it was decided that since I now had a place that could work for a stallion, I would take over the ride on him.

After figuring out some logistical difficulties (I only have one water trough, one round bale slow-feeder net and the stallion pen won't be built until the spring), Ritchie arrived last Sunday.

He's a 2010 16.1 RPSI Stallion, with the sweetest and most cuddly personality.

I've ridden Ritchie a handful of times before he went to his lease, taking him to his very first show when we was a late 3-year-old. I absolutely love this horse. He has the most incredible mind and work ethic. I loved him so much that I bought one of his first foals within hours of him hitting the ground. Yup, Ritchie is Sullivan's sire. Having them both on the property really showcases how much Sullivan looks like his Daddy. I have hope he will eventually outgrow this ugly stage!

His first show, and the terrifying judges table

Ritchie's life so far has been almost exclusively dressage. He's coming 6, has sucessfully shown First level and was starting to school Third at the end of his 4-year-old year. In the last year he hasn't been out and about at all, so that is one of my biggest priorities for him. He's well schooled, but still very green about life outside of his little sandbox.

First time over fences with me.

In the past week he's hauled to the arena 6 times, has jumped x-rails twice and gone on his first trail ride with me (he's been on one or two walks down the road before). I'm really excited to see how he will take to jumping and eventing. Plus, it's really fun to ride a horse who doesn't struggle with dressage.

Brave enough to lead!

Sullivan's First Road Trip

I've had a ton of things happen I need to catch up on.

Sullivan is officially inspected and registered RPSI.  We took him, Jasper, their mamas and Ritchie down to Okotoks for their inspection.  I  hauled the mare and foal pairs (I LOVE MY TRAILER!) and Shimmer-E followed in her rig with the stallion.

Considering the boys aren't halter broke and neither mare has been on a trailer in years it went surprisingly well.  Mares loaded like champs and we basically just lifted the boys in.  All 4 hauled and unloaded beautifully.

Fresh off our first trailer ride (which was 5 hours)

We got everyone settled in and ran into town to have dinner with my friend DM.  It was lovely to see her and the food was awesome.  The menu had 7(!!) pages of hamburgers.  Talk about hard to choose.

The weather forecast was calling for light snow but we weren't too concerned, in the first week of September it is very unusual for the temps to be low enough to be concerned about ice.  Well Mother Nature apparently likes to mix things up, just for shits and giggles.

The driveway at the barn.  The poor trees were crippled by the weight of leaves and snow.

We woke up to well over 8 inches of heavy, wet snow, no power and terrible roads.  Thankfully I had my winter riding boots and a scarf with me, but we definitely were not prepared for winter conditions.  The trip to the barn took twice as long as the evening before and once we got there we were slogging through over a foot of the white stuff.  Poor horses (who had overnighted in big beautiful paddocks) were wet and shivering.  There was also no power at the barn, which meant no heat or power doors.  Thankfully they had a small generator that powered the lights.


The inspection was a little smaller than planned, due to the poor road conditions, but went very well. Sullivan scored a Silver Premium!  I'm very happy with my little half Arab colt.  I think if he had been a little older (and warmer) he likely could have even scored better but he was still within striking distance of the top scoring colt.

Silver Premium

The plan was to brand him but since he was so wet we had to microchip instead.  He can be branded next year if I want to take him back.  I'm not sure what I'll do.  I think I will re-assess when it's closer since it's a long way to go (5 hours).

I had to leave as soon as we were done because I couldn't take anymore time off work. Both colts jumped right in the trailer.  Here's hoping this is a life-long skill. I checked the road reports and it was looking like it was completely fine after the first 45 min.  Thankfully the plows had been out, so once I was off the back roads it was smooth sailing.  I made it home, to where there was no snow, in decent time and proceeded to go school XC in a T-Shirt.  Gotta love Alberta weather.

All The Cuteness!!

So I have become quite apathetic about blogging due to continued issues with the red mare.  At some point I will update on her but today I'd rather focus on the happy.  So without further ado I introduce to you Le Premieur SE (Sullivan), a 2014 RPSI colt out of La Bamba SE (Ritchie)

About 4 hours old!

 Sullivan is one of the first foals from Shimmer-E's lovely 4 year old stallion out of an Arab mare.  I'm very excited to announce he's all mine!  I was there shortly after his birth and signed the papers then and there.

He's going to the RPSI inspection on Sept 10th and there he will be fully branded.  He will also be dual registered half Arab.  I'm not sure I have any interest in showing on the Arab circuit but you can win blankets of roses so I'm not ruling it out yet!

My hopes are that he will prove to have the same attitude and work ethic of his sire.  The talent would be awesome as well!  For now he's just going to have to get used to being loved (read: pestered).

3 weeks old

3 weeks old

All the sleepies.

Pony Filled Weekend

Friday was my day off so I headed down to Red Deer for the Gold Dressage show where Shimmer-E was showing her lovely 4-year-old RPSI stallion in their first Gold show.

I'm a braiding machine! (And Ritchie was convinced his water belonged on the floor, hence the Captain Jack pose)

Her weekend started off with a bumpy start, her Thursday hack was tense, distracted and Ritchie threw in a buck. Friday morning she was feeling nervous and discouraged and like she may have over-faced her horse.  After another tense warm up she elected to dismount because she was not feeling confident or safe.  After a quick discussion with the steward it was decided that I could in fact warm him up.  So I grabbed my boots and breeches out of the car, borrowed her helmet and mounted up. Studly Pants was a little behind my leg, and a lot tense but I said "go forward, and go forward NOW" and since Shimmer-E has installed all the right buttons he responded with "Yes, Ma'am".  We went on to have a solid warm up.  He was no where near as relaxed as he can be, nor as forward but he was willing and obedient.  For a baby stallion at his first really big atmosphere I think we can call that a win.  They went in to take a 67.7% in First Level-1, good enough for a first!

Saturday I got up early to go and ride Ritchie again since Shimmer-E was teaching a first-aid course.  He schooled just lovely and then I settled him in for the day and booked it home.  I loaded up my mare, went and grabbed a couple of friends and their horses and made the trek to Minds Eye Ranch for our first cross-country school of the year.  It deserves a post of it's own, so stay tuned!

Most handsomest baby pony

Sunday I headed back to Red Deer to help out Shimmer-E again.  I got him braided and all groomed up (she had let him roll in the arena-this is me publicly shaming her for not bathing him after!) and hoped on to warm him up again.  He warmed up fabulously!!!!  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  There was a small jump set up (read 12", maybe) and he even got his first experience going over a fence with a rider.  Once those massive joints of his fuse I'm totally stealing him and he's going to make a fabulous jumper.

Amanda got on and was having a great warm up until a gelding walked by in a scrim sheet.  The sheet for some reason caused a baby meltdown.  They had to go in and ride their test and Shimmer-E kept it together and rode the very distracted and tense horse that showed up and managed to pull off a ride that was good enough for 3rd.  We just couldn't get his brain back so after a few 'discussions' about acceptable behaviour we ended on a decent note and put him back in his stall to hopefully let him settle.

We pulled him out for his last test of the day and he was back to being a very good boy.  A few bobbles left them slightly behind their first First Level score but it was still good enough to win the class.  It was a really good place to end his show weekend (after a brief photo shoot with his handsome ribbons).

Thanks to Natural Expressions Photography for this lovely photo of a most handsome boy.