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.

The Horses Prayer

My brother sent this to me on a post card that he found in France. It was so beautiful and true that I thought I would share it! Of coarse, the original is in French, but this is what the translation reads:


The Horse's Prayer

You conquered me; may you know how to keep me:
I will serve you if you are fair and respectful, attentive to my mood;
if you know how to talk to me,
measuring my pain and caring for me like a brother,
never forgetting that the horse is more than half of the horseman.


Let us never forget this!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Locking Stifles

Wednesdays are always pretty hectic for me because my class schedule calls for 3 riding classes and 3 academic classes, four of which (riding class, academic class, IHSA practice and another riding class) are separated by a mere 15 minutes. It all makes for a very tiring day! I start at 9:15 in the morning and get back from my last dressage class around 6:45pm, eat a quick dinner and head out to my barn around 7:15pm to take care of Emmy and Johnny.

Today was one of those REALLY tiring days. The temperatures have dropped back down so it was really cold outside, not to mention that I was sore from working out at the gym last night and from riding 3 times already today. I just needed a day off, so I went to the barn, turned out the horses, cleaned stalls and decided not to ride anyone else tonight. Emmy needs the day off...she's an old lady now and she doesn't need to get ridden every day. She's perfectly happy to go out in the snow, roll, come back in and pass out in her shavings. Johnny on the other hand, is getting fit again after his month off and has had a bit of extra energy to burn recently. Instead of riding him, I decided to stick him on the lunge line for a bit to play. I would have preferred to just free lunge him, but A was working her new OTTB project in the the arena so that wasn't going to work.

Of course, Johnny had quite a bit of energy in him and so he was having a grand old time bucking and playing on the lunge. He was cantering around when all of the sudden his left hind leg snapped off the ground and he almost fell flat on his face. Instead of cantering he was suddenly bunny hopping behind with both hind legs as if he couldn't put the left one on the ground the right way. Next thing he stopped dead and parked out with a look on his face that seemed to say "OH MY GOD."

My first thought was that he had tied up. I have no idea why, but that was the first thing that came to my mind because it didn't seem like he could move his hind legs. I read once that you should never make a tied up horse move, so I stood there and waited to see if he would take another step on his own. He didn't, but after a minute his face softened and his ears perked back up. Tentatively I clucked to him and he took a step forward and walked normally. He walked halfway around the circle before he decided that he needed to take care of some unfinished business and out of no where exploded into an encore of leaps and bucks. He went another lap and then broke back to the trot. I let him trot a lap or two before I asked him to woah.

I checked over all of his legs, back and neck. There was no heat, swelling, tenderness or soreness anywhere. Clearly he wasn't injured and I was racking my brain to figure out what the problem might be. It wasn't until I turned him around to take him back to his stall that I heard his stifle click and it suddenly hit me. His stifle had locked! I had always suspected that he might have some sort of stifle problem just based on the way he moves and the fact that when you walk him, you can hear his left stifle clicking every time the leg swings forward. It had always been a minor concern on the back burner in my mind, but since it never seemed to bother him at all, it had slipped from my mind into something that was just deemed "normal" for him. Emmy, for example, has tendons in her hind legs that click with every step. Every person who rides her notices the sound except me. I've heard her tendons click for almost 8 years and it's become almost irrelevant information. Nothing ever bothers her or hinders her performance...its just the way she is.

I've never actually seen a stifle lock, although I know quite a few people who have dealt with it before. After doing some research tonight about the physical symptoms I'm 99% certain that is what happened to Johnny. The stifle "clicking" or "popping" is a common symptom associated with upward flexion of the patella (UFP) and his sudden inability to swing the leg forward combined with his sudden stop to stand stretched out are the classic signs of a locked stifle. I placed a phone call to my old trainer on the way home from the barn and described the situation to her. She agrees that Johnny's stifle definitely locked. She suggested some exercises (hill work is the best but it's winter in Ohio so that's pretty much out of the question) to help strengthen his quadriceps and help pull his patella back into place. Hopefully that will be enough to do the trick, but if it happens again I might have to actually call a vet out and maybe have it blistered...something I would really prefer not to do. I'll post updates as we go along.

Next Post: Upward Flexion of the Patella (UFP) Described

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Packing, packing, PACKING

The latest weather report shows that our snow storm should be tapering off sometime late tomorrow morning. I didn't ride at all today in an attempt to get the horses packed and ready to go should the roads clear up by tomorrow afternoon.. Tentatively, our plan was to leave Sunday but if the weather turns out alright on Saturday I would really prefer to take the horses then. It would give me a day to make sure Emmy settles before I go back to class on Monday. Not that I don't think she will, she's got TONS of show mileage so she handles change pretty well, but I'm a worrisome mother and I like to make sure she's adjusting alright in her old age.

I got in a fight today with my clippers while body clipping Johnny and ended up having to drive all the way out to Big Dees to get a new blade. I still have the original blade on them and I've had these clippers for at least 3 years, so I figured it was time. Of course, that ended up taking WAY longer than anticipated and so I never did get to finish Johnny's clip. I guess he's just going to have to go back to school looking like he got in a fight with a blender.

I've still got SO MUCH to do to be ready in case we leave tomorrow...about a million pounds of horse laundry, still have to sort through Emmy's brushes and decided whats going and whats staying (do you really need 10 brushes between two horses? I think not...) I have my own people laundry to do, clean my saddles, clean out the car and try to cut down on what I'm taking back to school with me...because of Christmas and the second horse, I'm going back with waayyyy more then I anticipated taking...packing the car should be super interesting.

Did I mention that I have to pack up my fish too? Gosh I hate making that poor thing travel...

Pictures tomorrow if we make it up to school.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

A Snowy Ride

So I bit the bullet this morning and put front shoes back on Emmy. I can't say that I really wanted to spend the money just to have them on for 2 months, but he feet grow so terribly slow that there's no way I could ride her in a sand ring without them. She would have no feet left!!

The snow finally let up for a little bit this afternoon and so I took the opportunity to take Emmy out for a ride (tomorrow is Johnny's turn lol) It was SUPER deep and really fluffy from all of the cold lake effect we've been getting. Of course, Pumpkin the mini just had to tag along with us and so we plunged into the deep stuff on the back drive and went to go have some fun! Pumpkin, who could barely walk through it, stayed right behind Emmy in the tracks that she was making, and even then the snow was still up to his shoulders! He couldn't really walk through it and keep up, so he would walk a few steps, and then hop and canter a few more strides, then walk, hop and canter...it was so funny to watch! Once I got Emmy trotting he would wait until she got a little ways down the path and take off running and bucking to catch up...too cute! When I got Emmy warmed up a little bit and put her in canter he zoomed up right behind her and kept up! D was on the tractor out in the field watching and said it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. Both horses had such a good time! Emmy even did her happy little head shake, front leg flingy thing that she does instead of bucking (she's probably only bucked twice in the 7 years that I've owned her lol and I saw her rear once in the pasture when she just stood up for no reason...it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen) Anyway, they both had a BLAST in the snow...and Emmy must be feeling especially good with her new shoes because when I went to bring the horses all in from the field before dinner she was the first one to gallop down the hill...leaping in the air like a psycho (refer to older post...Emmy NEVER runs anymore) It was good to see them so happy!

Here are a few pictures that I took on my phone while riding Emmy:

Pumpkin following in the tracks...and swimming through the snow!

(yeah that big black looking thing is Emmy's tail...)

Pumpkin following behind us in our tracks!

Hope you all are enjoying the winter wonderland!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Oh, Mother Nature

My plans to begin body clipping Johnny have been delayed slightly because of the sudden turn in the weather. Over night we went from 30 some degrees plummeting down into the single digits with blizzarding snow. Yesterday was a brutally cold 14 degrees...and that was the days high! I booted the horses out for about an hour because they we all kicking around and making a fuss about being inside. They all ran around like hooligans for a bit (save for Emmy and Johnny...Emmy's too old for that kind of nonsense these days and Johnny just does whatever Emmy does lol) and then got a good roll in the snow. I've never really understood why horses like rolling in the snow so much...it's cold and wet, how could that possibly been enjoyable? Oh well, I supposed, as long as it makes them happy! An hour gave me enough time to clean a couple stalls, fill the water buckets, throw hay and eat lunch before I figured that the horses had probably had enough of the great outdoors. They were still way in the back of the field when I opened the back door to the barn, but at the sound of it sliding they all picked up their heads and came galloping down (again, save for Emmy and Johnny who mosied) Everyone had frozen whiskers and snow clumps on the sides of their heads from rolling. What a ridiculous looking bunch they were!

My best friend C and I also went up to the tack store yesterday. She needed to exchange a set of SMB Elites that she had gotten for Christmas and I wanted to spend a little of my Christmas money on a new lariat. I've been using an old practice rope and I'm about 60-70% on target (by that I mean actually catching something) with the practice one...I feel like its time to move on to a real rope now! In all actuality I was looking for a 32' soft lay heading rope but that was almost impossible to find without ordering one from a catalouge and quite frankly it just didn't matter enough to me that I wanted to spend $40 on the rope and another $15 on shipping. Big Dees had a 35' medium lay heeling rope in stock, so I just went with that. I figure that I'm not really planning on competeing in roping events anytime soon (or ever at all for that matter) I just want to learn how to rope so it doesn't really matter all that much. I don't plan on making a massive leap to western riding, I just want to learn something new!

The snow is blowing pretty bad today but I can't wait to go out to the barn and crack the wax off the new rope! I'll let you know how it goes :)

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.

Let the Process Begin....

My trainer came the other day for a lesson and we worked through our Intro B dressage test to pin-point the problem areas. Overall, the test itself was pretty decent...the spots where I thought we would run into trouble (turn onto/off of center line and the halt) weren't actually bad at all (Johnny wanted to step right a bit in the hault but he corrects himself quickly when you catch him with your leg) but the places that I knew we would have trouble (aka the free walk) definetly needed some improvement. Not only that, but Johnny still has a hard time keeping his consistant 4-beat walk and 2-beat trot because of his weak left hock. From just a normal perspective, he looks just fine, but when an experienced eye (like a  dressage judge) really breaks it down, you can see that he pushes harder with some legs than others. For example; his walk is more like a onetwo-THREE-four instead of a one-two-three-four because he swings his left leg in a bit when he brings it forward (to avoid having to fully use his hock.) There is no real "soundness" issue with him, just a weakness that hasn't been addressed prior to him becoming a riding horse...probably a little arthritis as well which I've been trying to manage with joint supplements and some yucca and devils claw. I'm also thinking about trying heat therapy on the area prior to work and seeing if that helps any...my own physical therapist reccomended it for me, and my problems arn't so different than Johnnys.

Anyway, in our lesson we worked on establishing the true gaits through some lengthening and shortening exercises to get his back up and his hind legs working underneith him. We also worked on his sitting trot, which is hard for him because he tenses his back muscles and makes it almost impossible to sit to. K had me work ona circle and move around on him, experimenting with a different way to move my hips to get him to break up his back tension. We found out that if you swing your hips more "side-to-side" for a while, he realeases then tension in his muscles and lets his back swing propery...and his sitting trot is actually quite comfortable!

At the end of our lesson, I rode the test again with a COMPLETELY different horse underneith me and we did really well...we even got a real free walk!

Unfortunatly, since then I've managed to come down with a cold and haven't ridden Johnny in two days. I ran him around (free lunged) in the indoor today and wouldn't you know that he cantered just fine on that sticky right lead. Not only was he balanced, but he also held it all the way around the arena, making circles and such also! I am thoroughly convinced now that he really just doesn't understand the leg cue for it (long story behind that one, but long story short...I am not the cause of that problem...really, I'm not.) because he seems perfectly confortable to canter on it and K's theory about his hock weakness being the problem clearly isnt the problem without a rider on his back. I think it may be more of a balance and understanding issue than anything. I'm sure we'll find out soon at least.

First IHSA show is this weekend...I hope this cold clears up by then because I almost DIED in practice today. Two rounds of no-stirrups with a cold doesn't work so well when the crap in your nose and throat is preventing you from breathing properly. I know you all wanted that visual ;)

Til next time!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Getting Back to Basics

"There are a few basics that all hunters must be able to do." M told us, standing in the middle of a semi-circle of horses on the hunt field during our hunter class. "They must have woah, go, left and right. They must be able to hack out in a group, or leave the group and go off on their own. Everything else is show business in the middle. These are the basics."

It seems so simple when you think about it and if asked, most people would probably say "sure, my horse has all of those things..." but does he really? If your chips in to a jump because he was pulling down the line, then "woah" hasn't been properly established. If he gets lazy and leaves long, then there isn't enough "go." If he gets excited while cantering in a group, then he doesn't hack in company and if he pins his ears back and kicks out when asked to leave the group, then he isn't independent of the herd and listening to his rider. What if he bulges through your outside rein in a dressage test? Then you don't have lateral control of left and right.

Almost any "problem" with horses can be traced back to these 4 simple basics and we explored those basics on Thursday in my hunter class by taking the horses out to the hunt field and asking them to perform certain actions. We established reliability in the group by having a good forward canter out in a big circle around the field. Our objective was to keep our horses in a forward hack canter while still keeping them quiet. The goal was to maintain self carraige on a looped rein over varied terrain without our mounts getting excited. I rode a chestnut TB named Cruz again and he proved to be quite good in the company of other horses. After that, M took us over to the cross country hills and banks and had us start by walking our horses up the hill, then trotting up and trotting down, and finally cantering up one side and walking down the other before turning around to trot back up and down again. This tested our horses ability to leave the group and their responsiveness to our leg, seat and reins. Cruz was really great, except that he wanted to canter back down the hill instead of trot, which reflects his ring manner...his tendancy to get above the bit instead of breaking at the poll. After that we got to jump our horses down a little bank, which was SUPER fun and reminded me of my eventing days :) I've got some great pictures from the lesson...which I will post below. It was such a fun learning experience!!

I applied a lot of these basics to Johnny today. E rode him in the indoor for the first time and he was EXCELLENT. I hacked him yesterday in the outdoor ring and also had a fabulous ride on him. We worked on tempo (woah vs. go) over trot poles, followed by a small x rail with two placing poles (take off and landing rails rolled out 9ft from the fence) which worked on his straightness (left and right...he has a tendancy to duck out on the poles when he is unsure) However he finished off the jumping BEAUTIFULLY and got perfect striding between the poles and the jump. To finish off the lesson I had E work on his canter by just keeping him going to get a consitant tempo (we still drift between 3 and 4 beats sometimes) They had some really nice moments!

Here are the photos from my riding class on Cruz:



cantering around the field



cantering up the hill...


...and down the bank!

Hopefully getting some pictures of Johnny soon!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Home for the Weekend

First week of class didn't go bad at all...like I said in previous posts, I'm DYING for IHSA to start up again (tryouts next week!) and I LOVE my hunter class. I am soooo determined to do well this year and grow even more as a rider. I was 5th last year at Nationals and this year, I want that championship SO badly. If I could qualify in flat and fences that would be AMAZING (highly unlikely, but awesome none the less) and I want LEC to win our region so badly as well. This is just about all I can think about lately.

The good news is that it's been reflecting positively in my riding. I have determination to get things right on the first try...I want M to see that I am clearly making the changes to my riding. The only bad news is that I haven't had a single lesson all summer (ok, one but that was to work on Johnny not me and therefore doesn't count) and I think my equitation has suffered a bit. Last year, going into tryouts I was riding all the time with my trainer on a 3ft school master basically. All winter I worked on myself, and now I'm going into the first part of my season feeling totally unprepared. Although working with John has been amazing and a super awesome learning experience, I've barely jumped over 2ft this summer, but oh well I guess. I'm just going to ride my best and whatever happens will happen.

ANYWAY, as I said, I came home this weekend to pack up Johnny's stuff (he is offically shipping out Tuesday night) and because there was really nothing for me to do at school. I went to the tack shop this afternoon and got some more hoof oil, another tail wrap (because I seemed to have lost my spare...) and a really cute white baby pad with blue trim. I really wanted one of those while square jumper pads with the blue trim, but they were pretty expensive (over $50!) so I settled for the baby pad instead. It's the thicker kind, so I can still use it for a jumper schooling show or combined test. There's no rule against them...hehehe. After shopping, I went to the barn and got greeted by an especially happy Emmy and a decently happy Johnny (we don't have that relationship yet lol). Emmy got to go out first, so I groomed her and saddled her up. She was quite happy to see me and even happier to go out for a hack. After a short walk to warm up, we trotted and cantered down the street to the park (about a mile and a half) and took the loop around the dog park. The trail is nicely mowed grass and so I let her have a short little gallop up one of the small slopes. After that it was into the woods, down the ravine and across a wooden bridge, up another hill and back along the road to go home. Emmy was so happy! She cantered along with her ears flopping back and forth all the way home.

After I walked her out and took her tack off, I sent her out for grass while I got Johnny ready. The weather was perfect for riding...sunny yet cool and breezy so that the horses barely even sweated. Johnny and I did a shorter version of Emmy's dog park loop and when we got back to the barn we did some canter work in the front yard. He threw both leads easily and the canters each direction were smooth! He's getting shoes put on Tuesday afternoon...I'm super excited to see how much better he will move with more support!

Thats about it for today...more tomorrow!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Lazy Week

Johnny and I have been taking it easy since the horse show. Monday and Tuesday he had off to just play and relax and then Wednesday I took him out for a little ride. He didn't quite seem himself...happy to be groomed and such, but he didn't really seem to want to be ridden. I didn't do much with him, just a little trotting and cantering to loosen him up. He wouldn't throw his right lead that day, which only furthered my suspicision that he was either a) still tired b) sore or c) a little bored and maybe sour from ring work. I took him for a little walk around the property to finish up.

Yesterday was a little bit of the same thing. T came up to ride Emmy and we decided to just forget ring work and take the horses for a nice long trail ride. We crossed the road and rode down a bit ot catch the trail up into the woods. It's my favorite ride...a nice wide trail that winds up the hill through the trees and comes out in an old corn field, which is now quite over grown. The path then winds back down the field to the road again where it catches a gravel path up the east side of the field and along the tree line. The whole thing makes one big loop and the majority of the trail is quite flat and grassy, with good footing. There are even a few logs set like in-and-outs to canter over. T and I just walked the horses for the most part, but we let then trot back through the grassy path, which excited both of them! Emmy was reliving her event horse days and was pretty convinced (despite the western saddle and bridle) that any moment now a coop would appear over the ridge. I could tell what she was thinking by the "big horse trot" that she was giving T. Johnny seemed to be thinking the same thing, and I had to frame him up considerably to keep him from getting too full of himself. I think that he definetly has a weakness either in his back, stifles, or hocks, because when he came onto the bit in his big trail trot he started to feel a little funny behind. After a walk break back to the barn, I trotted him up the grass in the side yard and he felt just fine. He threw both leads as well.

Just to see, I iced both his front legs (which I often do anyway) and then slapped a little poultice on all four, concentrating on his back ankles. I know all of his "normal" lumps and bumps from racing, but his left hind ankle seemed a little puffier to me after our ride. We'll see today if anything changes. I like to weed out problems, so that at least I might know whats NOT bothering him in order to find what is.

I also forgot to mention that I went to the doctor on wednesday and had my back FINALLY looked at (a year and a half after the fact...) I definetly have a vertibre that is sliding out of place and I have an order for at least 6 sessions of physical therapy before I go back to school (which is in 2 weeks...) They took 8 x-rays of my mid and lower back also...I should have the results of those by today. I will let you all know what I find out.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Rainy Riding

I woke up before the alarm this morning to a familiar drumming on the roof and pushed aside the curtains to reveal mother nature's tears, which had been steadily falling all night. "Great" I thought, rolling out of bed and into a pair of clean jeans, "soggy ponies." A t-shirt, rain boots and a jacket later, I was scribbling out a tuition check and climbing into the car.

The rain was still falling when I got to the barn and I was not at all surprised to see the horses clumped together on the back hill of the pasture, dotted among the trees. I started water and threw down hay without so much as a knock at the back door (yes, the donkey knocks to come in). It wasnt until I was getting ready to mix feed that Emmy's face suddenly came through the window. She looked around and when she caught sight of me her eyes widdened and she let out a low throaty whinny. Of coarse I couldn't leave her like that, so in they came...a wet Emmy, Hokey and Johnny followed by the hoodlems Mike, Doug and Mandie. Breakfast was dished and I made sure that everyone had clean, dry stalls before I got back in the car, stripped my rain gear and headed out to look at a barn for Johnny to live at during the school year.

The barn was close to school, and after my tour I stopped by the college to pay my tuition, and then decided to head over to the school barn to see if anyone was hanging around. There were a few cars parked in the lot when I got there and I slipped into the arena to find A having a lunge lesson with C and my good friend S hacking around a pretty grey Oldenburg. "KATE!!!" they all yelled, and so it was hugs and hellos for a while. Needless to say, S's ride ended right about then hehe. I went with her back to the barn to untack Winny and poked my head into the tack room to find our school horse manager checking off and arranging school saddles. "Did you miss me?" I asked, to which she responded "Hey!!!" There was a really nasty training saddle sitting out, covered with mold and sporting just about the highest cantle I had ever seen. "Ooooo Camille..." I said pointing to it "where did you find that masterpiece?" "Burried in a trunk somewhere" She laughed. "It's supposed to be for saddlebreaking the training babies, but I think that I should maybe assign it to you for the semester." "Only under one condition" I told her, "I want the mold too!"

And so we all laughed and talked and caught up until M arrived to teach S's lesson on Skye, and which point we set up a gymnastic line and the whole talk, catch up, laugh thing stated again. We discussed some IHSA things, which makes me giddy a bit just thinking about it :)

And then I drove home in a monsoon.

When I finally got home I went back to the barn and saddled Johnny for a ride. It had stopped raining and so we headed out for a hack on the trails. He was quite fresh after having the day off yesterday and I had him in Emmy's old show bit (just to see how he went in it) so he was lifting his back and actually being quite responsive. After our little hack we went into the field (the footing was surprisingly good) and worked on some flat work, like straightness and lifting his shoulder going to the right. I was being a little more demanding of him today, asking him to focus to my body cues and not just try to PREDICT what we were going to do (which he loves...) He got a little frustrated sometimes, but we ended with some beautiful canters and some really nice transitions. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be dry enough to jump a bit more.

Thats all for now :)

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Progress

Just a quick update because it's quite late and I have to be up early in the morning to feed the horses.

I rode Johnny today and he was really good! Dad video taped me so that I can send some footage to E for her to see how he moves and such. More video coming from the horse show next sunday. As I expected, John was a little high after not being ridden all week, but his playful energy actually helped because he was more willing to throw his right lead :D Set up a few jumps, a cross rail flanked by flowers and then a simple four stride line of verticals. First few jumpers were alright...had a couple of stops simple out of my own poor riding, but once I just help my leg on then Johnny was jumping just fine. We cantered the 4 stride and actually got 4 strides which was really awesome, and the best part is that on video Johnny doesn't look half as bad as I thought he did. He wasn't stretching down as much as usual, but his jumps were decent (althought my eye was a little off and we had some missed distances...I just slip him the reins now when my release is off so that I never catch him in the face) and his knees were up and even. I will post the pictures (well, some blurry video stills) tomorrow and once I add the video to youtube I will be sure to post the link!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

An Adirondack Adventure

I've been out of town for the past week in the mountains of New York without internet, hence the reason for my lack of updating. I didn't forget about you guys don't worry!

After a 12 hour drive home, I still managed to make it up to the barn around 9:30pm to clean out Emmy and Johnny's stalls and sneak out into the pasture for a quick visit. T has been taking care of the horses all week for me, but other than a bit of a hack in the park on wednesday, I don't think that the weather has allowed for much riding. I'm counting on the fact that Johnny most likely will need to be lunged tomorrow to calm his brain down a bit before I can accomplish any real work with him. To be perfectly honest, I like him a little bit "high" to lunge because he tend to throw his right lead more consistantly.

Next sunday is the Kiwanis Horse Show, and Johnny and I have only a short amount of time to prep for it. Most of our work is going to be on the flat, working more on his lead, but I plan on jumping him at the beginning of the week so that he is fresh for the weekend. I don't like to jump horses a lot before a horse show. I think overworking them makes them sore and sour and just imposes a dislike for shows. I learned my lesson with the Chagrin Classic though. I am DEFINETLY going to ride better this time and John is DEFINETLY getting braided the morning of. Haha. I am NOT redoing the middle section of his mane four times in the morning because he rubbed between getting his hay and getting his grain. Grrr.... haha.

Speaking of braiding, I also managed to pick up some extra work this week braiding for an old friend who is taking her horse to the County Fair. I'm definetly not saying no to any extra jobs for the rest of the summer. I need to make as much money as possible if I want to take Johnny to school in August. My friend from California leased Emmy last year and this year is looking for something a little younger and a little "fresher." She saw Johnny's pictures on my facebook and asked if he was available. I told her that, of coarse he was available, but also warned that he is a Standardbred and is still green as a riding horse. She didn't seem to mind. The only problem is that she won't be back in Ohio until right before school starts, which of coarse is too late for me to book a stall anywhere if she likes him. Last year she leased Emmy almost sight unseen, and the pair ended up being a perfect match. She jumped her once around a course and signed the contract the next day, but Johnny is not as well trained, as broke, or as experienced as Emmy was. We came to the agreement that I would start shopping for a boarding barn (board at the school is much too expensive this year, even to split for a half lease) and then video Johnny next weekend at the horse show and send her the video, which of coarse, makes Johnny's and my performance even more crucial. We cannot have a repeat of the Classic.

But for now, I am heading off to bed after a long day of traveling. More tomorrow.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Early mornings

The air was luxeriously cooler this morning when I went out to feed the horses. I believe we are hovering somewhere around 60 degrees, which I think is a perfect temperature for riding. There is very little bug activity to bother the horses and neither one of us end up covered in sweat. I've started Johny an 1/2 gram of bute in preparation for the upcoming horse show this weekend. The day we are showing is unrated, so having a little bute in his system wont be a problem. He's going to be doing quite a bit of jumping at the horse show, so early management of his front legs is essential to keeping him comfortable.

I was throwing hay in the stalls this morning when I saw two little ears prick up over the window of Emmy's stall. It was, of coarse, Emmy and her little fox ears peeking in the window to say good morning. When I told her hello she lifted her face and nickered her usual greeting. The horses spend the night outside in the summer because the night air is always so much cooler, so when I finally opened the back doors, seven sleepy horses ambled inside. Johnny was surprisingly among the first to come in. Him and Emmy usually hang around near the back of the group and wait their turns, but this time only Emmy was left standing outside. When I went to get her, she was turned facing up the hill and watching the trees at the far end of the pasture. I called her name and she shook her head and trotted in. Breakfast was its usual chaos (usually caused by Emmy) with the banging of buckets and the excitement of hungry horses. Each horse has their own little quirk when they are hungry. Johnny turns his head sideways and slaps his lips together, Mandie the haflinger just stands and stares, still as a stone at the feed room, Emmy looks like she's having a seizure with her ears...they flick forwards and backwards then forwards and backwards until she sees her breakfast coming, at which point they stick straight forward and she starts to drool and nicker a low "ho ho ho" until you open her stall door. Mike the pony wiggles his lips back and forth and pretends like he's chewing, the donkey sticks his tongue out and Doug, the other standardbred, tries to whinny and just ends up sounding like he's blowing air out of his throat. It's very funny to watch them all...like being at a circus of one-trick ponies.

The horses will sleep until about noon, at which point I will probably head off to go ride Johnny. We are working on his right lead canter some more today. I will let everyone know how that goes.

Peace.Love.Ponies

Introductions

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my equestrian blog which will be documenting all things associated with the training, riding and showing of my own two horses, as well as my competitive equitation season as a part of the Lake Erie College equestrian team. A little background of my own riding is that I starting taking lessons at age ten with a woman named "K" who I still call "my trainer," despite the fact that I only ride with her once every 6 months or so. I started being trained as an eventer, but after a few scary stadium jumping trips, I decided that my OTTB mare and I were no longer having fun fighting each other around a show jumping coarse. After a year of doing dressage and flat work, I came back to jumping as a hunter rider and my mare and I excelled. Unfortunatly, a bad fall through a 3'3" oxer ended my mares career as a three-foot horse, and severely shook my confidence for the second time. I rode a steady school horse for a summer to re-gain some of what I had lost, and then packed up my mare and myself and headed to college. At school, I compete in the Intermediate Division of our Intercollegiate Horse Show Association team. I entered college in the Novice divison under the guidence of my new trainer and coach "M." My first year was fabulous and I excelled, being crowned champion at our Regional Qualifiyer, Reserve Champion at Zone 6 Finals and finally riding to 5th place at the National Championships in Nashville, Tennessee. Summer brought about a whole slew of new horses to play with, and after my mare damaged her tendon sheath playing in the pasture, I focused my attention on a new gelding; an off the track Standardbred named Johnny. You can follow his training and my riding here in this blog! Look below to read each horses bio!

In Vogue "Emmy"

"Emmy" is my 22 year old Thoroughbred mare. I got her for my thirteenth birthday when Emmy was already 16 years old. She had little training, and a long history of abuse and negelct behind her. We've spent 7 fabulous years together and have just about been through everything together. She finally retired from jumping this summer (09) after tearing her tendon sheath playing in the pasture. Until then, she was jumping 2'3" at C rated hunter shows still! This picture was taken just this spring...she looks good for 22 huh? She's my baby and my sanity during the tough times. I still ride her on the flat and do some dressage with her.

Walk The Line "Johnny"

"Johnny" is my new project this summer! He is a 16 year old Standardbred gelding who had a very successful racing career as a trotter. An injury to his front legs ended his career on the track, and when I met Johnny last spring, he had been sitting in a pasture for five years. He was unbroke and lame, but had the sweetest puppy dog eyes and a personailty to match. We took care of his feet, got him fit and manage his old injury daily with liniments. Today, he is fit, healthy and sound...not to mention happy! He canters and LOVES to jump. At his first undersaddle horse show, he won a first and two seconds, and has continued to keep amazing me everyday.

Tantrum Force "Tantrum"

This is one of K's sale ponies. She is a 6 year old Sport Pony with a medium measurement card. I've been riding her a bit for K and am currently in the process of producing a sale video for her. She's a fabulous little hunter pony, and she's for sale if anyone is interested :)

Keep checking back to follow the story of these horses and our adventures in the schooling and show rings!