Time Well Spent

So I had half of this post written when my computer just randomly decided to freeze and I lost the entire thing....

I will try to re-write what I can of it, however, I'm sure it wont nearly be as good as it was the first time.

I've been absent for several reasons: first and foremost of which is because of log-in problems that I was having with Blogger. Hopefully this is resolved! The other reason though, is because its been a WHIRLWIND year for me.

We did get around to radiographing Cool in the spring, his x-rays showed navicular changes, low articulate ringbone and a possible splint bone fracture (the fracture was later ruled out by several other vets as just radiograph technique as it did not appear in any other photos.) It was a devastating time for both my husband and me. We spent the entire summer and several hundreds of dollars on standard "treatment," only to have mild success followed by a horse who eventually ended up more lame than he had ever been before treatment. We did inject him with Osphos, which at the time, was completely new to the market. It certainly did help him immensely, but I found that the shoeing corrections seems to make him worse. At the end of it all, I had a miserable, unrideable horse.

We pulled his shoes a few months ago and discontinued the daily anti-inflammatories. My endless research into these "diseases" has led me to consider a barefoot treatment plan for him. I'll go into it all in my next post, once everyone is up to speed with the details from the rest of the year.

So, in short, Cool spent the summer in relaxation. I think I rode him all of 5 times before I gave up and just focused on Gus. This winter will be all about growing a better hoof for him to help him cope with his problems, next year, we'll be back at it.

I spent my entire summer working with Gus, our main focus being the All American Quarter Horse Congress at the end of the year in October. I actually spent my 1 year wedding anniversary in Columbus at a horse show. Hubby has been extra lenient to me this year...I think partially he felt bad that my dreams of Congress with Cool would not become reality. Instead, we took Gus. Hubby and I hauled him there ourselves in our small, two horse trailer with our farm truck that has roughly 280,000 miles on it. We slept in a hotel (or hubby did at least....I spent all night riding because that's the only times the rings were open!) We waited until 10pm to show in my last class and then loaded up and drove 3 hours home so that we could go to work the next day. The overall experience was incredible...it was unlike any horse show I've ever attended.

Gus and I did not get called back in our classes, but we put in performances that were acceptable and respectable. My friends at work watched our jumping classes on the live feed, my parents stayed up all night to watch my flat class from the comfort of their living room. And all the while, there were hubby and I, standing in a class of 150 people and feeling like we actually belonged. It was something that I wouldn't have traded for the world.

Gus after our schooling ride out first night at the Congress in the new Buckeye Arena

How I spent my anniversary...

My best friend M giving Gus a pep talk. She was there for us at the EOQHA show and the Congress. I couldn't have done it without her!

 

Gus and I did our first combined test in June...we had SO much fun! Next year I'll be focusing on the jumpers with him!

 

Baby jumpers at South Farm

 

Cool at Maplebrook: one of our last rides before I pulled his shoes. He was dead lame.

We expanded our arena this summer!

...and we got a mini. Because who doesn't need one of those? Meet "MRF Voyager," we call him Gimli in the barn!

I haven't ridden Emmy much, this was us sporting our red/white/blue on the 4th of July. I hope to ride her more this winter, she's 28 now!

Gus is boarded at Maplebrook for the winter now, he's got a lease on him so I don't get to ride much...only once a week or so. But its better for him to stay in work! We are taking one or two dressage/jumping lessons a month with my childhood trainer.

 



I have tons more pictures from Congress that I will have to upload from my phone later! I'll go into details about our barefoot journey with Cool and I'll give you all some exciting news in my next post!

As always,

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Looking Back: A Year in Photographs

Can you believe it? Its actually been almost exactly a year since my last post...what a crazy, unthinkable, awful thing for me to have walked away from this blog for such a long time.

I was thinking about this blog today while cleaning my horses stalls, which is what made me come back to it to begin with. Scrolling through my hundreds of old posts, I realized something; there is history here. Not just mine, but the history of my horses, my life, my thoughts and my adventures. Its a timeline that I truly cherish.

Looking back through the hundreds of posts and photographs made me a little sad. Its like looking back through vacation pictures and wishing that you had spent more time appreciating the beach that you were sitting on, and yet all the while knowing that those moments are long gone and all that you have left of them are the memories, words and photographs that you used to document that time. I miss having no responsibilities really, living the "college" life that we all thought was so hard, until we hit the "real" world that actually was! The past year has been a whirl-wind, with my wedding and a few horse shows...trying to adjust to a new type of life being an adult and a wife!

There is far too much to document in words, therefore, sit back and enjoy as I sum up my year in photographs. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Peace.Love.Ponies.

In the Holiday Spirit

More horse show updates since we last spoke:

Cool and Gus both showed at CVF in November, making it Gus's debut into the "hunter" world. Even though he just showed on the flat, it really gave me a chance to evaluate him and take perspective of where we are and where our training needs to go.

Cool showed in the Hopeful Hunters again. He is incredibly bored with the small heights of the jumps and has resorted to loosely cantering over them instead of actually jumping anymore, but he is doing well, making the numbers in the lines and is getting more confident about walking into the ring and doing his job. I did start to see a lack of fitness at this horse show, as the weather turns and I'm able to ride him less and less. By the third over fences class I literally had almost no horse left. He didn't get the lead changes this time (too tired and not forward enough) but he was excellently behaved (as usual) and he placed 3rd, 4th and 6th out of 14 horses!

After Gus's semi-poor showing at the last "pleasure" show that we went to back in October, I was pleased to see that he was back to his normal, amicable self at CVF. I really do believe that he just doesn't have super fond memories of the "pleasure horse" venue. He was quiet and perfect like he had been to CVF his entire life. We just showed on the flat, where he placed a VERY respectable 5th out of 14. Did I mention that he hadn't been ridden like...at all....prior to this show? After the class, I let two friends of mine ride him around the warm up to see how he handled other riders. D is a middle-aged amateur adult and S is a young adult college student. He was absolutely perfect for both of them....in fact, D is so in love with him now that she inquired about leasing and showing him. I'm sure that she would really love to buy him, but he's not for sale! S took him over a few small cross rails for me to watch. The G-man was ready to go! After a few awkward over-jumps he settled in and was jumping with his knees to his throat. Watching it really renewed in my spirit what had felt so crushed just a month before at the BL show. This horse has really got something, its just banged up and buried a little. Once we finally unlock it, I think that he's going to be stellar.

We are taking the month of December off from showing because of the holidays and such. Hopefully we can get back to it in January, although much of that is weather dependent :/ Ohio is not extremely conducive for outdoor riding in the winter months...which is my only option now that all three horses will be living at home for the winter while my fiance and I plan our wedding for next year.

Speaking of next year, its almost time to do a yearly look back and goal assessment! This will be soon to come in a following post! For now, it's horse show photo time!

 Gus in his under saddle class

 Getting rewarded for a job well done.

 S hacking Gus around in the warm up...look at him go!

Another shot of S and Gus

 S flatted Cool for me in the under saddle class so that I could ride Gus

 Coolio doing his thing...and barely jumping such little fences

 Lost my leg a little over the fence...Cool is barely even cantering over these

 I like this one, his ears make him look so happy!

Another not so stellar equitation show of me, but at least Cool is somewhat applying himself. I can't wait to see what his knees look like when he actually JUMPS. I have jumped him 2'3" and have yet to feel him actually put effort into it.

As always, more next time!

Peace.Love.Ponies

Horse Show and More

Just a quick update since I left you all hanging before the horse show.

Cool was AMAZING!! He was 3rd and 4th over fences out of 9 horses...got the lead changes and made the numbers! In the flat class he was 7th out of 9, which is a better performance than usual. Sunday I showed him again just in a flat class and he was STELLAR again. This time he was 5th out of 13 horses! Getting better every time. I was SO happy with him!

Last Sunday I took Gus to a horse show too, just a local pleasure show. A friend of ours showed him in halter and he was 2nd and then I was 2nd with him out of 5 in our Adult hunter under saddle class. He got run into in our equitation class though and then kind of wigged out a little. He was still well behaved but he was really nervous after that. Poor Gus! I promised him that I will never take him to a horse show like that again!

I'll do a more detailed post later with some pictures. It's very late now!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Gearing Up For the Horse Show

Gearing up for CVF this coming weekend with Coolio! Hoping to move him up to the 2'-2'3" division at this horse show. Hoping that the weather holds off so that I can school him over fences this weekend at home. K is working on a small outdoor sand ring for me so that I can ride in inclement weather instead of being totally bound by the weather while riding and jumping on the grass. The sand ring will be small but it will be very good enough for now!

I rode yesterday and Cool was pretty good, only one little bucking session but after some cantering he quieted down. We cantered over some single and bounce poles which was very good. Today it rained, but I am hoping to get back to riding Tuesday (as long as the ground dries out) and then Thursday I will haul Cool to a nearby arena to jump him around before hauling to the show Friday. We will be there all weekend this time, Friday thru Sunday...poor Coolie!

More updates when I can finally get back to riding.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Professional Photo

Got our professional pictures from the horse show, Gus looks fantastic!

Great photos from the photographer, she got a couple of good ones but this was my favorite. I think that my "Silver Lining" looks wonderful in our first outing together. Hoping for many more shows with him :)

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Dressage Day for Gus

What a beautiful fall day today! Perfect temperatures (low 70s) with just enough sunshine to warm your body but not enough to make you feel hot! My best friend C and I took our horses to a dressage show today. C has always loved dressage and her Canadian Thoroughbred George is just a wonderful dressage horse. While he's still young and green, he's part Fresian and an extravagant mover. I took Gus along to the show...even though he hasn't been ridden in almost a month since he popped a splint back in early September. I have the vet out to check him over last Thursday prior to the horse show. She found the splint to be good, cold and settled and gave me to ok to ride him. C and I both picked Intro Level tests for our horses. She rode all 3 tests, but I just picked one. I figured that it wasn't worth breaking Gus again and trotting in a couple circles for 2 minutes shouldn't kill him right? I rode him Saturday evening and that was it pretty much.

We arrived at the show early this morning, got the horses settled in their stalls and picked up our numbers. The show was outside at a venue which we have never been to before, but it ran nicely and we had a great time. Gus was phenomenal! So calm and quiet! He was a little stiff since he hasn't been worked much but over all I was super impressed with him! He's never seen dressage rings or judges stands and he just stood by the in gate watching the other horses go around, then walked into the ring like he'd done it his whole life. The footing was a little hard and so I was very conservative in my warm up, especially with all of the problems we've had with his feet and his latest splint catastrophe. While all of the other dressage horses trotted and cantered outside the ring waiting for the bell, Gus and I trotted one lap and then just walked around waiting for our que to enter the ring.It seemed like we walked around forever!

Gee, I hope he trots through that narrow opening into the dressage ring...

I thought as I walked him past the entrance at A and realizing that I had no idea how he would feel about suddenly turning and trotting through such a narrow opening into some scary small white ring with big black letters. Oh well I thought, at least this is a good experience for him. Whats the worst that could happen anyway right? He goes sideways and we try again.

When the bell sounded we picked up our trot, took a deep breath and entered at A.

I honestly expected....something. Anything really. I was ready for there to be a fire breathing dragon, weaving, snorting and jumping left-right-left-right as we trotted down center line. Based on what I had learned from Gus's previous owner/trainer, I was ready for a bomb to explode the second that I walked into that ring.

Instead, I got nothing.

He glanced slightly sideways upon entering the arena, and then trotted straight to X. I settled in the saddle and whispered "whoa." He stopped square and pricked his ears at the judge ahead of us who stood up to acknowledge our salute. When I closed my leg, he trotted off, continuing down center line. As we reached C, I was again ready for the bolt and spook that I assumed would come as we turned by the judges box.

Instead, he just turned.

We rode our entire test with no drama, no explosions, no fireworks. Not a single spook, snort or sideways step. This was the horse that I had been told to lunge for 40 minutes before showing. The horse that hadn't been ridden in close to 30 days prior to this horse show. The one that I took out of the field, cleaned up, and loaded into the trailer.

We scored a 61.093 on our test, the third highest score for our division.

I was so pleased with him, what a champ! And what a positive horse show experience for him. There was no lunging, no hard warm up. We literally showed up, trotted and cantered once each direction and then stepped into the show ring for 2 minutes and he was done. Just like that.

Easiest horse show ever.

My friend C put in stellar rides on her gelding George and after tieing for first place (tie broken only by the score of the collective remarks) came out with 2nd place ribbons in both of her classes under 2 different judges.

What a wonderful day!

And now it's time for Gus to go back into the field and slowly step back up into a training program. For now, the next two weeks are focused on Cool as we get ready for our last hunter show of the season!

Gus and me (left) and C with George (right) Gus and I can't help it that we look like hunter riders!

What a gorgeous boy!

Sporting his dressage number with pride

Waiting to check out some professional pictures from the photographer...hopefully there are some good ones!

Until next time...

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Are you tired yet?

Are you people tired of me telling you that I am going to come back and then being silent for months at a time?

Yeah, me too.

I'm so sorry my friends. I promise to get this disappearing habit under control! Life was so much more simple when I was in college, semi-boyfriendless and having my whole life revolve around nothing but horses. Mainly, I used to also have the option of shutting myself in my bedroom or going to the library/student center/etc for some personal time to blog. When you suddenly find yourself ENGAGED :) and living with your fiance, these things become harder to do. Between working full time, cleaning the house, the dishes, the laundry and taking care of the horses, I barely even have time to take a shower at the end of the day...let alone blog :( I'm seriously trying to be better though...seriously.

So that is my big news for this month...I'M ENGAGED!!! We set a date for next September, so literally only a year away...ahhhh!

All of the horses have been good...ish. Cool has been dominating the hunter ring at horse shows, holding his own and getting very respectable ribbons. We have our last show for season in a couple of weeks on October 12th. He's been a super star lately.

Emmy is also doing well, although she's not doing much these days. Part of the reason is that a) I have no time and b) I have no where to ride. Now that the horses are back at home, we have lost all of the conveniences of a riding arena :( My fiance is working to get us a small sand ring by winter...I sure hope it pans out!

Our 5 months of owning Gus have been a journey of ups and downs. The poor horse has terrible feet and we have been working hard to get him put back together. Its amounted to months of not riding him, which is really a bummer. Not that I have anywhere to ride him anyway, but still lol. Hopefully we will actually be able to work him this winter once the sand ring goes in. Otherwise he has been a good boy and I can't wait to really start working him.

Here is a photo from Cool's latest horse show! Our friend is riding the bay horse and (obviously) Cool is the chestnut!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Cool's first horse show!

After a busy first week of work and not a whole lot of riding (sub-zero temperatures were to thank for that) we decided to just wing it and pack up Cool anyway for the little schooling horse show last weekend.

What a disaster that was...just getting to the horse show was a nightmare. Not only did it snow all day, but we also has some trouble with the truck and everything was so cold and frozen that it made digging out and hooking up the trailer a feat all in itself.

The best laid plans always go astray don't they? My goal was to get Cool to the horse show shortly after dinner time, leaving us plenty of time to school over jumps and let him see the show ring. False. With all of our troubles, we didn't roll into the show grounds until after 10:00pm. The show ring was already dark and it was so late that the bf and I just tucked Cool in for the night and got back in the car to make the hour drive home. We got in around midnight...cold, frustrated, hungry and tired.

The next morning I left for the horse show bright and early to make sure that Cool had adequate time to school before showing in the afternoon. I rode him early in the morning in the warm up ring with the jumpers and then a little later in the show ring between classes. The arena has a large viewing room with plexiglass windows across one entire end of the ring. Cool has seen them once before when we hauled him down last fall just to school him, but it was late at night that time and there were no people behind the windows. Today, the entire place was packed with faces staring back at him through the plastic. And among those faces? My new boss and the trainer that I have been grooming for. Neither of them had ever seen Cool, nor had they seen me ride, let alone jump anything, and they had come to watch. I was desperate to make a good impression, but Cool was having a mini meltdown about the windows, refusing to go near them entirely. It didn't help that there were plenty of other horses taking advantage of the few moments that the ring was open, they were schooling the jumps like mad, cantering across the end of  the ring one after another, making it literally impossible to let Cool just stand and look at the windows for a moment. I made the decision to just forget the windows and just start jumping him and getting his mind on something else. The first two jumps I trotted him to and he literally stopped at them and kind of awkwardly leaped over. Oh god... I thought, this is going to be such a disaster. I remembered back to Johnny's first show, where I made the mistake of stifling him so much (thinking that I needed control) that I took away his confidence and his natural ability to do his job. Was I doing that to Cool too? Was I thinking that he was going to be fresh and spooky because of everything that had already gone wrong this weekend? Was I helping to create this? And if not creating it, was I prolonging it? I'd never shown Cool before, so I didn't know how he would walk into the arena. I didn't know what it felt like when he was ready to go versus needing a little more prep. This was a learning experience for both of us and right then I decided that nothing else mattered but letting him have a good experience. The trainer and boss watching didn't matter, my parents and the bf and his mom who had also all driven out to watch, didn't matter. The check that I had written for his entry fees and all the time it took to get him here didn't matter, what did matter, was that he walked into that ring and did what I asked. The jumps for his division were 18"...he could step over them and I decided then that if we had to walk the entire course then so be it...this horse was going in that ring and he was going to do it, no matter how we had to get it done. My job was to let him do it, to let go of the control freak and the worries that were built up in my brain and just let him do it. I pointed him at another jump and kicked him forward into a canter and let the reins slip through my fingers. This time he actually jumped the fence, although he was still questioning me a little off the ground. We landed on the backside and I let him slip the reins through my fingers a little, then added more leg and kissed, asking him to march down the line to the jump at the end of the ring, headed right for the scary windows. He jumped it (with the help of my opening outside rein) landed, and I kissed and squeezed again, pushing him forward past the windows and to the next jump. His haunches were drifting in, and he was really wanting to run out past the jumps, but I kept my inside leg on, opening the outside rein over top of the jumps and just kept riding forward. George Morris always says, if you feel unsure, come at the jump with more than you think you need, you can always close your fingers and pull the reins a little, but no one wants to be kicking down to an oxer, hoping that it works out. Cool was jumping baby jumps today, but we were laying the foundation for his entire show career at this very moment. We changed directions and went around over the small jumps again. The more forward that I rode, the more that the distances started to smooth out. The forward ride is hard for me...it's not my natural "ride" on a horse. Cool and I were both learning today, and we needed each others support to do it.

I won't bore you all with the details of every trip, but I will tell you that we walked into that show ring and jumped every single jump when it came time to show. We botched some of the distances, took down a rail in the first class and had late lead changes every time, but we did it and he never once spooked or tried to stop. In the hack classes, he didn't try to race and catch up to the other horses. I maneuvered him through traffic and he didn't freak out about having horses close to him. He broke for a moment in the canter (he was soooo tired at that point) and threw a wrong lead once (he has trouble with the left lead when he's tired) but over all I couldn't have been happier with how he behaved. We got ribbons in everything...bottom of the pack for the most part, but it didn't even matter! I think the was 6th, 7th and 7th over fences and then 5th and 6th in the hacks. I fed him almost half a bag of cookies and gave him so many pats and rubs. I can't wait for the next horse show! Overall, it was a really successful day for us. This horse always continues to amaze me with how he handles changes in his life...almost 2 years ago we pulled him out of a field and stuffed him into a trailer. At 7 years old, he'd only been hauled once, never been in a barn, never been stalled, never walked on concrete, never been clipped, never had shoes, never had his teeth done or been blanketed. He'd never seen an arena. He'd barely even been ridden and had never been ridden with other horses. He had lived in that same muddy field with the same two horses for his entire life. We rocked his world when we bought him and, although we've had a few ups and downs, Cool has been so open and willing to cope with the changes that we've made to his life. Although he can be spicy at times, he's tried to give back to us all of the things that we have given to him. I thought that no horse would be able to take Johnny's place when he left. No other project would excite me like he had, but Cool is working his way into my heart in a way that I didn't think he could. He will never replace Johnny, but he sure is trying his best to fill the big shoes that J Dizzle left behind for him :)

Here are a few photos from the show...his knees aren't very good, but I have confidence that with some gymnastic work (and maybe a bigger jump lol) that they will get at least level

In the hack class. We purchased these photos.

 This is my favorite one (above)

Below are video stills from the videos my dad took:

 

Petting him afterwards! My mom and the bf are standing with me.

That's all for now!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Warmer Weather!

I've been away for a few days because of work, so sorry for the lack of updates. This past weekend (thurs-sun) I was grooming at a horse show. Every horse in our barn (except one) was either champion of reserve champion this weekend!

The trial with the leaser for Johnny went well, but my conversation with his current owner told me that a lease was more of a temporary "time buyer" versus a solution to the problem, which is exactly what I was afraid of. In the meantime though, I did have an old college classmate of mine contact me about coming to try him for her mother in law. Her and her mother in law are coming later this afternoon to try him out, which means that, for the 5th day in a row, I have to drive ALL the way back to a barn right next to the show grounds where I was all weekend. Don't get me wrong, I love riding Johnny, but I haven't seen my own horses since Friday and this barn is over an hour from my house. Hopefully though, we can work something out with John. I don't know that he is going to be a quiet enough mover for the mother in law, but we can at least try right?The leaser is ALSO coming tonight at like 6pm to try Johnny again...ahhhh!

As for me, I'm headed to go run some errands and then go take care of Emmy and Cool. The weather here is so warm today...currently 55 degrees and its only 11am! Cool is getting body clipped today...I'm tired of walking him out forever after I ride him! guess I better get headed over there to do that...I'll take some photos of Johnny and Emmy and Cool tonight.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

A Little Johnny Update

Warning: This is a mildly depressing post.

Johnny got his shoes put back on this morning, so I was told. I am hoping that the potential leaser can come try him Sunday or Monday, but we will have to see. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we can figure out a way to work this out....I don't even know if the lease will really work. Still taking donations for the Johnny fund!

The good news is that I got called back for a second "work" interview at he vet clinic! Hopefully it goes well and I can pick that up as a part time job (at least it's something, right?) I know that if I had Johnny half leased with the leaser also taking lessons from me, that Johnny would actually cover his own boarding expenses...the problem comes in if I lose the lease. This is why I had to send him away to begin with :( I know that hind sight is always 20/20, but I wish I would have not been so freaked out about the finances and so hasty to find someone else to pay his bills. I would have never put myself in this situation where he keeps getting bounced around from person to person...and I'm far too attached to him to just let him go. Stupid me :(

I found this photo on my phone yesterday while going through my camera roll...I honestly can't believe that it was 2 years ago when I took Johnny to the CVPHA Classic and stabled him with the big hunter barn. This was the last summer that I got to call him mine :(

He's so freaking gorgeous. What did I do?


Peace.Love.Ponies.

P.S. Another little tid-bit of good news (because I really do try to be a "glass half full" kind of person, although I struggle sometimes) is that I did put Emmy back under saddle yesterday! She seemed happy to be groomed and not unhappy to be saddled, however she did clench her teeth a little for the bit. She was also sound! I didn't do much with her, just some light trotting interspersed with lots of walking and a canter each direction. Hopefully she is still sound today! I put her and Cool back on an MSM supplement, maybe it is helping? They are currently getting the loading dose, which is double the normal amount (20,000 mg versus 10,000 mg) Cool is also back on his Anihist. He hates it but if I mix it in beet pulp he eats it! It does seem to be helping with his breathing.

Big Dreams

As many of you may or may not know, the All American Quarter Horse Congress is currently underway here in Ohio. Saturday started the over fences events, which I have been watching like crazy on the live internet feed provided by the Ohio Quarter Horse Association. You can view the live feeds by clicking here.

Since purchasing Cool (who is actually a registered and well bred from halter horse bloodlines) I have transferred his AQHA registration into my name and joined the Association as well. While there are some aspects/practices within the Quarter Horse industry that I will never agree with or understand the exact logic behind, the over fences and equitation divisions really do interest me.

For a little while, I was wanting to show Cool western as that was the style that he was started (and by "started" I mean someone threw a western saddle on him and w/t/c around a round pen...kind of haha) but since I come from a hunter jumper background with a few years in 4-H as a child, the extent of my pleasure riding knowledge is a) outdated and b) not at the level needed to actually train a horse into a discipline. So, as usual, I went about learning all that I could. I watched videos, attended some clinics, took a couple lessons on a broke western pleasure horse and asked about the training techniques and opinions of people that I knew within the AQHA industry who showed western. I had two friends (one who shows western pleasure and one who shows in the trail classes) ride Cool a few times. I even took a job working part time for a local QH trainer so that I could see what all went into prepping a locally/nationally competitive horse. It has been a very interesting experience. There are plenty of different ways to train and prep a western pleasure horse, but the same basic principles seem to appear in just about everyone's training programs. There are just as many good trainers and good ways to do it, just as there are bad and I have been lucky enough to work for a trainer and have friends to give input who seem to do it more of the right way. In all honesty though, the more I learned about the western riding, the more I knew that it just wasn't for me. Not the western pleasure part anyway. The horsemanship (western equitation) classes are something that still interest me, but the rest of it is out as far as I am concerned. Not only do I think that Cool won't hold up to do western pleasure (he has a longish back making it really hard for him to collect and go slow at the lope) but I just don't think that his type A personality would tolerate what goes into making a competitive western pleasure horse, plus the prepping of these types of horses is just such a far deviation from the world that I know and what I've grown up doing that I don't know that I could bring myself to do it. Let's just say I'm like an old lady who's set in her ways!

Basically, I took into account Cool's strengths and weaknesses (mentally and physically) and my strengths and weaknesses and decided that the western pleasure events wasn't the route that would showcase either of our talents properly. Why try to smash a round peg into a square hole right?

So one night just recently, I had turned out Emmy and Cool into the field and was organizing some things in the horse trailer when I heard farting and pounding of hooves. I looked over to see Cool galloping around the pasture, leaping into the air and bucking. Holy crap does that horse get air...thank goodness he doesn't buck like that when I ride him (knock on wood) because I would be TOAST. I mean, that horse gets vertical! Anyway, after a few galloping laps, he slowed down and and was actually loping roll backs and figure 8s in the pasture...complete with lead changes and sliding stops at the gate when he felt it necessary...then he would wheel around on his haunches and take off galloping up the fence line again, only to slow in the corner, do an lead change and come back the direction that he just came. It was breath-taking and beautiful. (Emmy this whole time was standing in the middle of the field grazing...completely oblivious to Cool...I think she's getting selectively blind and deaf in her old age ha!) And right there I made the decision to never make him do anything that stifled his natural movement. He's not a very graceful or fancy horse like Emmy...he doesn't flick his toes or seem to float in mid-air when he gets that big trot and he doesn't snap his knees to his eyeballs over jumps, but what he does have is consistent control of his body all the time, something that, despite all of Emmy's fanciness, she always had a hard time maintaining. Despite her AMAZING jump and her gorgeous movement, I had to hold her hand all the time in the show ring. And maybe part of that is just their personalities as horses? Emmy absolutely NEEDS me to survive...when I first went to college she worked herself into such a fit that she colicked once a week until I finally took her to school with me. You can look at her the wrong way and she flattens herself into the corner of her stall because she knows she's in trouble. Cool doesn't really need anyone. He's independent, he couldn't give a crap if you brushed him or petted him. When we first got him I had to carry a crop all the time when I went into his stall or was walking him because he was just so pushy and rude. A slap of your hand when he was bad or dragging you around got you no where with him. He barely even blinked. He and Emmy were raised so differently and in such different environments and I think that it really shows in their personalities and interactions with people. It is both a good and a bad thing respectively. While Cool can be an absolute PITA on the ground, I can sit on his back and canter him around with no reins and he just never changes. He doesn't need me to ride him. He just needs me to sit on him.

This is the reason that I think his forte is going to be in the equitation (flat and fences) and maybe the hunter hack. I took him to a local A circuit trainer last winter for a lesson and she had some really good things to say about him, including the fact that she thought he would be competitive on the local A circuit in the low hunters, mainly because he's so bold and just so consistent, and let's face it, the hunters are all about consistency. I think that the equitation divisions will let him shine since he doesn't jump ultra round. His longish back actually is an asset there because it makes for an incredibly smooth ride on him. I mean, you just can't look bad on that horse. Plus, equitation is my forte too. Remember what I said about combining our strengths? I was placed in the top 5 nationally in intercollegiate equitation as a freshman at my college...something that hadn't been done in 13 years. And so, with all of this in mind, my goal is to get him to the Congress in two years. It's going to be a long road with plenty of set backs I'm sure. But if I can maintain his soundness and his breathing, I don't see any reason why he can't do it.

If you're free tonight check out that live feed from the Congress, the hunter hack classes (2 fences + a flat class) are going on tonight. Someday, we will be in them!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

CVPHA Horse Show

We did it!!! Johnny and I had a wonderful time at the horse show! Friday I hauled him down to spend the night with the barn I work for because they had an extra stall (I was originally planning on just hauling in Saturday morning) Friday night I schooled him in the show ring and he was a PSYCHO...his trot was great but the second I asked him for canter it was like the Kentucky Derby had let loose! He was running around like an idiot, careening around turns and over jumping everything so much that he was literally jumping me off his back (which, let me tell you, doesn't happen very often with how flat he jumps) I took him back to the barn feeling deflated...how were we going to show if he was like this? I planned on an early lunge and a hack the next morning.

Saturday morning D and I got to the show around 6:30 a.m. and Johnny was on the lunge line by 6:45. He was still snorting and looking all around him...complete A.D.D. He couldn't focus to save his life! I tried to get him to canter on the lunge and maybe get some bucks out, but instead his head just went straight up in the air and he went into his crazy running STB trot which I hate so much. I think the entire time he cantered maybe 5 strides total both directions. "This is going to be a disaster" I told D.

A little later in the afternoon when the schooling ring was a little quiet I tacked him up and D set some fences for me. He started off crazy AGAIN...his canter was quick and unbalanced and he was trying to just grab the bit and go. I had D set a cross rail, a vertical and an oxer across the ring. Starting off over the cross rail, he was dragging me and jumping long, dragging me then chipping, dragging me, dragging me, dragging me. I suddenly remembered last year how, at this show, he had stopped at every single jump in the show ring and never even made it around the course. I remembered K's words when we schooled him again after our disastrous rounds: "Stop getting in his way...you're pissing him off and making him nervous. He's not like Emmy, he doesn't want you there with him, holding on to his mouth, micro-managing his every step. He wants you to just sit still and steer with your legs."

I thought of that as he dragged me towards a tiny cross-rail in the schooling area and literally jumped three feet over it. At the top of the ring, I stopped and thought about what K would have told me, to just sit back and let go. The next time around, I did just that. He ran again at the cross rail, but I didn't correct him. On the other side he landed with better balance and a rounder back. We trotted like that a few more times before I we finally jumped, landed and I felt him take a deep breath on the back side as if to say "Thank you! I can do it if you'll just let me." After that it all started to fall into place. I forgot about all of the AA circuit trainers and clients from work who were sitting along the rail watching me ride him, I forgot about the show ring which had been making butterflies churn in my stomach all morning, I forgot about the other horses in the ring that were worth 5 and 6 figures, who did perfect flying changes and jumped like little freaks. For a little while it was just me and my horse and a fence. I sat in the saddle, felt the rhythm and rode it. He was jumping beautifully now, quiet and round and balanced. We schooled the vertical and the oxer off both leads and the distances where suddenly all there. We went back to the barn being a team again.

When it was time to show, D and I talked strategy. After our schooling session earlier, we decided that he only needed a few jumps to be ready for the ring. We jumped a vertical and an oxer off both leads and then went to the ring.

As soon as we walked into the show ring I knew the first trip was going to be a schooling round for him. Trotting down the quarter line, he shied away from a 4 stride with yellow flowers and then spooked again at a jump with red ones. we got our canter at the top of the ring and cantered maybe 5 strides before he spooked at the slanted roll top on the diagonal line and then weaved like a drunken sailor to the single on the quarter line coming home. If he could talk, he would have been saying "I can't do this! I can't do this!" and for a second I thought he wasn't going to. I remembered last year again, and how I had left my stick at the in gate with D, thinking that carrying it would just light him up. "If he refuses," I thought suddenly "I'll have no way to punish him." At the last second I closed my leg hard and clucked. He sailed over the jump and we were off! Our first trip was a lot of repeats of that same scenario, but he jumped every jump! When we came out of the ring, D suggested that I try to canter the entire second trip. "He seems less spooky out of the canter" she observed. I thanked her for her opinion and told her that I would try.

Our second trip was SO GOOD! (Alright, well, good is a relative term...in reality it was terrible but for Johnny it was AMAZING so that's all that matters! He cantered almost the entire thing, made the numbers in the lines and even landed his leads! I couldn't have been happier! Of course, we still broke gait a few times and therefore there was no way we would be in the ribbons at a show like this, but it didn't matter! My $80 entry fees were totally worth it!

Here are some video stills and professional pictures from the show. All rights for the professional photos belong to Anne Gittins and I claim no right to them. They are her rightful property. No copyright infringement is intended.

He spooked at the shadow on this jump and over jumped it by like 2 feet!

Good boy!

Video link coming soon!

Peace.Love.Ponies.