The Next Level

Tuesday I bit the bullet and finally went to the tack store to purchase a surcingle and side reins for Johnny. The surcingle is a tool with I have been meaning to pick up for some time now, but I just keep putting it off because, with this being winter and me not grooming at all, I just really haven't had the extra money to throw around. Finally, I did manage to get some extra cash, so after staring at the surcingles on the rack at Big Dees for 15 minutes I finally picked one out and bought it. I've been doing quite a bit of research on the different kind of side reins for some time now and although I really wanted some Vienna side reins (also known as "sliding side reins") Big Dees did not carry them and so I settled for my next choice which are simple leather side reins with and elastic end. I prefer these to all leather reins because a rein with no give can teach a horse to lean against it, and the kind with the rubber donut just seemed much too heavy to me.

Today I drove back up to school to take care of Emmy and Johnny. After turnout and stall cleaning, I set John up with the surcingle and lunged him for about 10 minutes. I first started off without the reins on so that he could loosen up a bit. I let him walk, trot and canter both directions before I put them on. Of coarse, I stared the side reins on the loosest setting so that Johnny wouldn't feel trapped by them. We only walked and trotted, but he went really, really well in them and I got a chance to work on some of the problems that we have when he comes on to the contact, such as him wanted to back out of my leg instead of reaching under himself with his hind end. After his short lung session, I switched his surcingle for my saddle and rode him around a bit. His back was up and he was moving really well! I think that he's ready for his training to be taken to the next level where I can push him a little further in what I ask of him. He is mentally and physically ready for it. I plan to continue working him with the surcingle at least two or three times a week for a short period of time (like our ten minute warm up today) so that he can start to learn to really give to the contact while maintaining his impulsion from behind.

After Johnny I rode Emmy and my friend D was my eyes on the ground while I worked on my equitation. Regionals is fast-approaching and I don't feel ready at all! Luckily, Emmy was being pushy today and wanted to pull me around the ring a bit (you would think that normally this is a BAD thing, but horses that pull and hang are the kind I am least successful riding so I was grateful for her bratty-ness!) We worked through a couple of Eq tests and then D called a flat class for me, including lead changes, dropping stirrups in trot and canter and lead changes without stirrups. There are definitely some things that I need to work on. I may be switching up who E rides this week so that I can get more practice time on Emmy.

Thinking about hauling Johnny to Chagrin Valley Farms this weekend for a horse show...not sure yet!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Minor Mishaps

After a lovely weekend in New York with my boyfriend I came home thinking that I was going to get down and dirty a) working out (yes...in a gym! GASP) and riding my butt off to get ready for IHSA Regionals on March 14 and b) whippping Johnny into shape for the ICTA schooling jumper show this weekend.

Of course, none of those things have happened. Over the weekend I had the feeling that I had a bit of a cold coming on and I unfortunately ran out of my Singulair medication which I take daily for asthma....not a very good combination but I thought "it will be fine...I'll be alright without the meds until this weekend when I see my parents.

Wrong.

I woke up this morning feeling a little like I got hit by a bus. My throat was tight and full of gunk and I simply just felt awful. I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep through both of my morning classes. A hot lunch of chicken noodle soup made me feel better and so I went to the school barn for my Hunter riding class and IHSA practice. Bad idea #2...I almost DIED in Hunters. We were working on some exercises at the canter and I seriously thought I was going to have an asthma attack. My lungs felt so swollen (you didn't even know you could feel like that did you?) that I couldn't get any air in at all. My friend L rode up to me to make sure I was alright. I told her no and excused myself early to walk my horse out. After class I told M that I was going to sit out on IHSA practice tonight and she responded that she though that was a good idea.

Afterward I went to the barn thinking that I would just lightly hack Johnny because I didn't want to ride again, but Johnny hadn't been ridden since Friday and desperately needed to be worked. I was brushing him while E brushed Emmy when suddenly she start yelling "Kate...Kate...KATE!" I walked halfway down the aisle and E was standing pointing at Emmy's left hock which was DRIPPING with blood. Back into the stall Johnny went and Emmy left a blood trail down the aisle as we walked her to the wash stall. At first, I could not get her hock to stop bleeding...wads and wads of gauze and paper towels were all over the floor covered in blood. Finally I got it cleaned out good and washed  up...I had to cut away a piece of her flapped open skin with scissors because it was literally handing off her leg by a thread of skin. By the time I got her cleaned up and bandaged up it was going on 9pm and too late to do anything with Johnny and I was so mentally and physically drained from the day that I just wanted a hot bath and a cup of tea. I did free lunge him around the arena for about 15 minutes, but it just let him get some yahoos out. *Sigh* hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll take some pictures of Emmy's leg. I have no idea how she cut it. There is nothing in her stall and the paddock is fenced with that flexible Ramm fencing which is basically like rubber...there is nothing to get caught on because you just bounce off it!

And speaking of pictures, here is a photo of Johnny's new jumper boots for this weekends show. I got them on sale from Dover for $20!!

 

Nice huh?

Keep you all posted.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

A weekend at home

This weekend I elected to stay behind and not go down to OU for our last IHSA horse show of the regular season. Because I had already pointed out of Intermediate and was now in Open, I wasn't necessarily needed as a point rider and it was much easier for me to stay and take care of John and Em instead of trying to find someone to take care of them...plus LEC was hosting a hunter/jumper show this Saturday and Sunday and I needed to work the hunter day for my Management of EQ Activities class. Friday was a late night...I didn't get out to the barn until almost 9:00pm and then didn't get home until midnight. By the time I showered and got into bed it was almost 1:30am. Saturday, J and I worked the hunter show. There was a super low turnout because of the weather so the show was over by 2pm which was SUPER awesome. After that I went to the barn and rode both Emmy and Johnny. John and I worked through his dressage test on a light draw rein so that I could work his inside shoulder a little better through the corners. He was amazingly good :) Maybe we will be ready for either the ICTA schooling show or a South Farm combined test? After him I rode Emmy, who was also good :) Stiff in her old age, but she loosened up and stretched down into her fabulous little hunter frame that she was once so good with.

Today J, L, and I went back to up to the LEC barn to watch the jumper show and to take care of J and C's horses. The show was going really well until one rider missed a SUPER tight turn to an in and out and crashed through the fence. Her horse, in an attempt not to step on the poor girl, tried to jump over her but there were poles flying every where and there was just no place for him to put his feet. In a last attempt, he leaped and kicked out with his hind legs just as the rider was starting to move as if she was going to get out. The sound of his hoof colliding with her helmet was the most sickening sound I've ever heard in my life. His hoof nailed her helmet and the rider fell back down and didn't move. I remember thinking "oh my god, she's dead" as the entire arena seemed to gasp at once and jump to their feet. For a second everything was silent and then the girl started screaming.

There was so much commotion so quickly, people running into the ring, someone grabbing the horse and about 4 people on walkie-talkies calling for an EMT and another 4 on cell phones calling for 911. It was absolutely terrifying. L, J and I all ran down into the ring to let the ambulance come through. The poor girl was rushed away to the hospital on a back board. I have no idea what happened after that....but I'm praying that she's alright. please keep her and the family in your prayers!

I have since vowed to never ride with a naked head again...not that I do very often, but there are times when I get laxed and just jump aboard without one. Not anymore! Her helmet saved her life! I hope that other riders take this warning and pay heed to it...after watching such a thing like this I won't ever ride without one!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

A Long Weekend

This weekend was super long as we hosted our last IHSA show of the regular season. On Saturday I drew one of our really great equitation horses, a bit Level 5 jumper named Skye. He's a tough ride over fences but about as smooth as silk on the flat, plus he's really well schooled! I won my last Intermediate Equitation class and pointed out of my current division and into the Open Equitation (the highest level of IHSA) qualifying myself for our Region 1 Championships which our school will host on March 14 :)

Sunday I elected not to show to give our horses a little less work, and instead schooled jump horses in the morning and flat horses in the afternoon. One of our best IHSA jumpers threw one of my team mates into a jump in the early schooling and broke her hand, so M asked me to get on her. I was a little nervous because I didn't want to get hurt, but spooking is what I'm good with and as soon as I got her cantering I knew it would be alright. I rode her through the Open Eq. course with all of it's roll backs and bending lines and really had a good time. She never looked at anything. When it came time to school flat horses, M specifically asked me to jump on my favorite little horse Cruz and other then one minor little spin away from the wall he was an angel as well. Our team was Highpoint Champion on Saturday and Reserve Highpoint on Sunday! We are still currently leading the region in points :)

Emmy and Johnny didn't get worked a whole ton this weekend so last night they were both a little crazy to ride. I rode 6 horses in total yesterday and wrapped 32 legs! Today, all of my riding classes at the barn were canceled so I got a nice little (and well deserved!) break!

Here are some photos of my schooling Cruz :)

 

  

  

This is one of our Open riders schooling Rambell, he's my dressage horse for class and also one of my favorites:

 

Peace.Love.Ponies.

IHSA Update

I am officially ONE POINT away from being qualified for our IHSA Region 1 Championship! This past weekend at our show against OU I won my Saturday equitation class on a very lovely warmblood gelding named Pumba and Sunday I was 3rd after a slightly humiliating class where my draw suddenly stopped dead in the ring, pinned his ears back and refused to go forward. This was an antic he had pulled numerous times already that day...clearly he was cranky after being ridden so many different times by so many different people. Unfortunately, I was the designated point rider for our team (the rider who's placing counts towards team highpoint) and so our team only got 4 points from my placing (at least the other riders from my school, which were also in the same class, didn't place any better.) The third place also left me one point away from qualifying for Regionals. The good news is that we have 4 more days of showing (2 more 2 day shows for this season) in order for me to qualify, so I'm hoping that won't be a problem lol!

Here are a few photo of me winning on Pumba from the show:

 

 

 

He was a great ride! A little lazy off the leg but he was quite a gentlemen once he realized that I was serious about him getting his hind quarters engaged.

In other news, Emmy and Johnny have been very good. They both got the entire weekend off because of the horse show and were happy to get back to work. Johnny had a few good leaps in him but about 10 minutes on the lunge line took care of that pretty quick yesterday. Today he was still pretty fresh and probably should have gotten to play on the line a bit more tonight. His trot and canter are getting sooo much better though! Today he cantered all the way around the ring (balanced!!) on his right lead and he did some bounce poles off the left lead and a set of raised trot poles from both directions. He's finally learning to stretch down and be round, but his stride is still kind of short. Wondering how I might be able to fix that? I think part of it is his conformation...his chest is a little narrow.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

A short update

Back at school after a weekend spent at home with the boyfriend :) N and E rode the horses while I was gone...N really liked both Emmy and Johnny. I survived the first week of classes for the new semester, but it sure seems like I'm not going to be able to show my horses at all this winter. Not only do I have a heavy schedule of IHSA shows, but for one of my equine classes we are required to wok almost every single horse show here at the college...essentially leaving me with no free weekends for horse shows :( I'm still trying to work out a spring/summer show schedule.

P.S. for any STB lovers/owners out there...there is not a YouTube blog for us to share our experiences! Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/STBblog 

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Back to School

Just time for a short update before I run off the school barn for my hunter class, dressage class and IHSA practice. Emmy and Johnny both made it up to school safe and sound despite the weather and they both seem to be settling well. Johnny jumped right back into the swing of things up here but it's taking Emmy a little more time to adjust in her old age. She's not a huge fan of change so much anymore, but she sure does like being ridden again! She's sound and crazy happy to be back under saddle!

I worked some more on Johnny's clip yesterday...my new clipper blades are a champ! Should be able to finish up the clip in the next two days. I just dont have the time to sit there and work on it!

Here is a picture of Johnny's first day back:

Goofy boy!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Goal Setting

Sunday night I finally sat down to renew my USEF/USHJA membership (seeing as how the new competition year begins...oh...TODAY) and while doing so, decided that now would be a pretty good time to set some showing and training goals for this year. This has always been a little hard for me to do because of the job I work in the summer. I'm an "A" Circuit groom for a hunter barn and therefore spend a lot of the summer traveling and not very much of it riding...last year while working the Cleveland show I had a days that went from 4am to midnight...4am-6 or 7pm at the horse show, then home ride 2-3 horses before dark (usually I was on them until long after dark...we have a single light on the back of the barn that makes a good 25 meter circle work able after dark) then clean them up, turn them out (nght turn out) and then clean 4 stalls. I usually got home around 11 or 11:30, ate, showered and went to bed only to do it all again the next day. Not that I'm complaining...I LOVE my job because I get to meet so many great people and work with so many great horses, plus I've learned a ton just by watching the horses go in the ring, but all of that plus traveling to away shows makes it hard to keep up with my own riding, training and showing goals. Since I pay for my horses myself and my parents decided to have 4 children who were pretty bright and therefore went to expensive private colleges, just paying for tuition is hard, which is another reason why I have to work as much as I can. In years past it's been a hard balance for me to find, but this year, I'm pretty determined to make it work.

After getting Johnny, I joined the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of Ohio (SPHO Ohio) and started looking into some of their shows. Since I joined at the end of the year, most of the shows had already passed. I looked back into them this year when the new show list came out, and unfortunatly the closest one for me is over 2 hours away, so I picked one show (The Grand Circuit Classic) within the association that I might like to try and go to, one rated show locally that is my favorite (The Chagrin Valley Classic, better known formerly as the Cleveland horse show or the Merrill Lynch show) and one BIG HONKING goal that is really going to be a challenge, The Standardbred National Horse Show. I spent all night paging through the online prize list from last year, jotting down notes and numbers. There are a zillion divisions that I would want to enter but because the show is about 7 hours from here, I can probably only afford to show in one or two (I also figured that if I'm going to haul Johnny 7 hours I should also make it worth our time to go there...) because of the costs. I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to start by setting aside tip money from every show that I work this summer and see where we end up come time for the National. If I can afford it, then were off!!

Goals for Johnny this year include:
 - Firmly establishing a right lead canter (which he suddenly seems to have remembered how to do...we've been getting it right away all week!)
- Improving both canters on the flat (stretching down and coming rounder) and to and away from jumps (holding a consistant rhythm)
- Further improvements to the trot (again, stretching down and lifting his back as well as establishing a more forward and reaching "hunter trot")
- Once all of the above is accomplished, competing over fences and staying in the canter for the whole coarse with simple changes if needed.

Goals for myself for this year are pretty much centered around IHSA shows for right now...there are a few position things that I would like to tweak as well:
- Making it to Regionals (already almost qualified!) and qualifying again for Zones
- Making it through Zones and qualifying for Nationals
- Winning at Nationals. I was 4th last year and this year I REALLY want to be champion or reserve...preferably champion! lol
I also want to work on some position things for myself to improve my rides:
- Landing better in the heel over fences...I've been working on it and its getting better
- Keeping the eyes up and looking to the next fence...this will in turn help my shoulder from getting ahead
- Riding FORWARD to decisions.

We will see how this all goes...riding class today (hopefully riding my little buddy Cruz again!) and then a lesson with Kris on Thursday where I will go over these goals with her :)

Til next time,

Peace.Love.Ponies.

One good exercise, two good rides

Last week after our IHSA show we took a break from riding for a couple days to let the school horses have a rest. Instead of our normal riding Hunter class, we spent an hour in a "theory" class, watching videos of lots of different hunters and comparing why we thought some were better than others. For anyone who follows the hunter ring at all, you know that Rumba, ridden by John French just won the Hunter Derby Finals with three STELLAR rounds over some really cool jumps. To see the video, CLICK HERE

Anyway, along with that, we also watched some of the 1998 (?) Maclay Finals. We picked apart the course and analyzed how some riders set their horses up correctly or incorrectly for the questions being asked. Last Thursday, we decided to tackle some of those same questions in our class, and M set up a course of ground poles and flower boxes to see where we all were. Let's just say that lots of people had trouble...including myself, although M admitted after the class that she had been the most proud of the way I handled the very spooky horse that I was riding. We decided to ride the same horses again today and work out some more of the kinks. Todays course was a course of jumps that asked many of the same questions. Here is a diagram below (don't make fun of my awesome Paint drawing LOL)

We started in a two point or half seat at 1) over a single trot pole and then made a left hand turn to 2) three 9ft trot poles. This was to set up our horses tempo and pace and see if they were behind our leg or not. From the 9ft rails we made a LEFT hand turn around fence 5 and continued down center line to fence 3) a single white plank vertical with a 7ft take off and landing rail, which required a more collected trot then the 9ft trot poles. After landing fence 3, we turned inside fence 7 and trotted up to fence 4) a single yellow flower box flanked by two white plank standards. After 4 we were to canter halfway down the line and then bring our horses back to trot to jump fence 5) a brown riviera box with a rail on top. Landing in canter, we continued over pole 1 again and then turned to fence 6) a single white plank vertical. We jumped that and then rode a bending line back over fence 4 in the opposite direction before continuing for fence 7) which was a single red flower box set right against the rail. After that, we cantered down the long side to fence 8) a white oxer with a yellow flower box and then continued back around to jump fence 5 from the opposite direction and rode a bending line to fence 9) another single flower box. To finish we were to canter down the rest of the diaganol and halt on a straight line.

Again I rode Cruz, the spooky little Thoroughbred whom I have become really fond of. We seriously rocked this exercise...he didn't spook or stop at a single jump and our oxer fence was BEAUTIFUL! I was so happy with my ride and so proud of him! I want to set this same kind of thing up for Johnny and see how he does with it :)

Speaking of Johnny, after class I went out to ride him and worked him in draw reins for about 15-20 minutes, just walk/trot/canter so that he could feel them and figure them out a bit. I didn't want him to get sore, so I didn't ride a whole ton off them (not that I ever really do...) but I just wanted to kind of set a "perimeter" for a frame and then softly encourage him to stay with in that perimeter. I will tell you this though...for the first time ever he really kept his back up and underneith him, and his canter had moments of super round brilliance where he actually got BOUNCY. Not only that, but we also got our right lead canter on the first try :)

I'm home now for Thanksgiving break so I wont get to see Johnny again until Thursday (I'm driving up Thurs, Sat and then going Sunday to see him when I go back to school for the week...we are doing our Thanksgiving on Friday because Mom has to work) but I think I'm definetly going to set up some exercises to work through with him. I think that it's time now in his training to start asking him some harder questions. Clearly, since he did so well at the show, trotting over some small verticals is something that he's got under control and it's time to start teaching him some more things. What an adventure this all is!

More tomorrow...I stopped in to see Emmy, who is super fat and super filthy from living out in the field. I think she's getting bored with retirement though...Dad says she's cribbing all the time (she's always cribbed...just never obsessively) and on everything she can. Not a good sign :( Pookie pony wants to be ridden again? I will have to get down and dirty tomorrow to get all of the ten layers of mud off her and take her out for a hack :)

Peace.Love.Ponies.