Month: April 2016

I haven’t posted much about our dressage rides lately. Partly this is because I really don’t have any media, and blog posts are useless without relevant media. But mostly it’s because the day-to-day dressage stuff is pretty boring and I don’t want to kill anyone via boredom.

So, I will try to sum up the past couple months of dressage work as painlessly as possible. Be forewarned, the only dressage media I have to offer you is from when I set my phone in a jump cup, pointed it at one side of the ring, and proceeded to ride. That led to 45 minutes of footage, the vast majority of which was empty space, and the rest of which was tiny, dark, and boring. I condensed it to 5 minutes of video… if you really hate yourself and want to test your endurance, here it is. Knock yourself out. Otherwise I just popped out a few short GIFs to break the below text.

Anyway, getting to the point… I’ve had a much more rideable horse these past couple months than ever before. Instead of being the king of fake contact, I’ve actually been able to ride Henry into REAL honest to goodness contact. It’s still not automatic, but I’m able to get him there faster and faster. He still has moments of tension where he comes out of my hand and tightens his back, but I don’t really expect those to ever go away completely.

In general though, I can’t complain. Partly I think the change is due to Henry just naturally progressing in the work, but I also think that as I’ve started asking more from him, he’s stepping up and trying to deliver. Our rides aren’t simple and easy anymore, where I’m happy if he keeps his wits about him after some shoulder-in and a couple of canter transitions. Now we’re working HARD, doing things that are more difficult, doing them more often, and expecting better quality in the work we do. But he’s finally letting me do all of this without getting flustered or upset, for the most part. If he does get upset, it’s possible to get him back pretty quickly and move on, which is something that used to never happen. Not so very long ago I would completely lose all of his relaxation after we cantered.

We’ve had a couple dressage lessons where we’ve really tried to emphasize haunches-in, and I’ve carried that over to our regular work. This is incredibly hard for Henry and we still only get it successfully maybe 5-10% of the time. He’s trying though, so that’s what matters. His lengthenings have gotten better and so have our 15 meter circles. We also started playing around with how I ask for trot-to-canter departs, and those have gotten a bit steadier too. Not every time, but again, in general.

I feel like the quality of his trot has improved a lot, too. We’ve been working A TON on transitions within the gaits (“lots of different trots, constantly changing and adjusting” as Trainer says) and I’ve definitely noticed a difference in his balance. I’ve tried to step away from the idea of riding parts of the test and focus more on the whole point of dressage – gymnasticizing the horse. I want him stronger, more supple, and more rideable, and I figure the rest will fall into place as we go.

I don’t think that there’s enough improvement to really make a difference in our scores yet… there are still moments of tension and resistance that are going to cost us overall points. But I feel like he’s going WAY better lately, definitely more correct, and I like the path that we’re on. Him being more rideable makes it more fun for me too, and it means that maybe we can actually start making some noticeable progress.

I’m still majorly jonesing for a Devoucoux Loreak though… I just can’t get my position right in anything else and I’m permanently frustrated by it right now. I refuse to touch my Coco money though, so I’ll just have to deal with it for a while. Maybe once the fall season is over I can sell the Childeric and try to find a Loreak? One can dream.

Last week while chatting with one of the Riding Warehouse ladies (shoutout to my peeps!), she asked if I’d ever thought of making a wish list on Pinterest for things that I want/need. My answer was no… it had never crossed my mind. To be honest Pinterest scared me a little and all I had ever done with it to that point was collect a bunch of super nerdy Narnia/Harry Potter/Doctor Who quotes. I don’t want to put salad in a mason jar, or put glitter on my keys, or make a myriad of cupcakes that in no way will end up looking like Pinterest promises they will. Crafting is my own personal version of hell.

But then I put my irrational Pinterest fears aside and thought about the wish list, and realized that it was actually a really good idea. Some websites have their own wish list capabilities, but on Pinterest you can pin items from several different sites all in one place. Plus when you pin something, Pinterest adds the direct link, and you can edit a little note field to put whatever size/color you want. This could be super helpful for friends and family when it comes to buying gifts. I know that I’m a super difficult person to buy for, but I always have things that I either perpetually need, or want but can’t justify splurging on (yet). So I pulled up the Riding Warehouse website in one window, Pinterest in the other, and got to work.

The resulting list is kind of amusing… I’ve got everything from horse treats to an equine heart rate monitor and a whole lot of stuff in between.

Weird? Absolutely. Useful? I think it will be. It’s a hell of a lot easier than trying to remember all the little things I want, and it’s easy for people to peruse it at their own leisure and pick from just about any price point. Plus it was super fun to make, so there’s that…

Does anyone else have a wish list type of thing like this?

Last week on my post about the Dover tent sale, someone commented about how they preferred to shop at Dover because of their open-ended return policy. The main example the commenter used was returning a 10 year old pair of $400 boots that had been outgrown and using that money to “upgrade” to Parlantis. This person noted that they hadn’t minded paying full price for the Parlantis because they knew that when the boots inevitably wore out they could be returned for a full refund and new boots could be obtained in their place, on and on down the line. They also mentioned doing the same thing when breeches get stained–return the old ones, buy a new pair. In their mind, since they are a loyal Dover customer for the majority of their purchases (namely non-returnable items such as fly spray and the like) the company is still profiting from them in the long run.

I’ve heard of people using Dover’s generous return policy this way, but I’ve never really known anyone that came out and said it so candidly. For that, props to the commenter for their honesty. It definitely provided a good talking point amongst friends and brought to light some things I hadn’t considered, which is why I’m bringing it up in it’s own post. But I have to admit, I personally had a hard time with it–moreso than I would have expected, especially considering I really don’t like Dover and have zero interest in their overall success. I know that their return policy technically does allow things like this: “At Dover Saddlery, we stand behind the quality of our products. If you find you are not satisfied with your purchase, simply return it at any time and we will refund, replace or exchange it for you. We guarantee your satisfaction.” so it’s within the scope of their policy.

But I guess to me personally, the difference is in the ethics. It’s not really about Dover, it’s about the principle of the thing. I think if I had a pair of boots for 10 years, obviously they were a satisfactory purchase. I would feel like I got my money’s worth, probably sell them for cheap on ETT or give them to a friend, and buy some new boots. To be honest it would never even occur to me to try to return something like that. Same thing if I bought a pair of boots that I knew were well-known for wearing out within a year or two, or stained a pair of my breeches. I’d have a hard time going back to the shop at that point and asking for my money back so I could buy another pair–at least not without feeling like a huge jerk. Then again, maybe I’m being overly sensitive about it.

On the flip side of the coin, there are definitely other things that would fall within a long-term return policy that I do understand. A blanket that gets totally destroyed in the first season. A show shirt that comes un-stitched after just a few washes. A tall boot zipper that breaks within one show season. Those, I totally agree with, and it could easily be many months before any of them come to light. In those situations a longer term, satisfaction guaranteed return policy like Dover’s is really fantastic.

I have a few friends that work at different Dover stores around the country, so I asked them for their input on this issue. All of them agreed that they definitely see people who take the return policy to an extreme, and that these people end up being well-known (not in a good way) in their stores. One of them also pointed at that Dover counter-acts the money lost through the generous return policy by having higher prices, offering fewer sales, and having more expensive shipping rates. After all, the impact on the bottom line of the company has to be balanced somehow. They end up losing money on the people who use the return policy to it’s extreme, and the rest of the customers are the ones that make up that gap in the end.

What are your thoughts on open-ended return policies like this? Do you see it as a good opportunity to stay loyal to one company and keep trading up your equipment as it wears out? Or do you think such actions are abusing what the return policy is really meant for? Do you think that the return policy iteslf is what gets the company so much loyal business in the first place, therefore it’s ok to use it to it’s fullest extent? Where do you draw the line on what is or is not a returnable item?

When Michelle texted me this weekend to tell me that the mares were getting bred on Monday and asked if I wanted to come watch, that was a no brainer. Repro stuff has always been my thing, and this time I actually have some personal involvement. Plus the vet they were using is a really successful repro specialist and I’m a giant nerd about anything breeding related… this was a kid-on-Christmas-morning situation for me.

I made the 2 hour trip down to the breeding farm and arrived just as Sadie was being inseminated. Sadie was quite displeased with these proceedings and not shy about making her opinion known, but it got done. They do P&E protocol when breeding with frozen so that they can pinpoint exactly when the mare will ovulate, and time the insemination just right. I won’t bore you with details but if you want to know more, click here.

After the vet bred Sadie and Lissa, he also had some other stuff to do, so I hung around with Michelle and watched/learned. He did a 16 day pregnancy check on another mare and she had not one but THREE embryos, so he had to pinch two of them. It was really cool to watch him find them, compare them, and then pinch the two less viable ones.

Then he checked out a foal that had just been born the night before (by Quaterback), telling us what exactly he looks for with a newborn check. He said that cracked or broken ribs on newborn foals are one of the most undiagnosed issues that he sees, which I thought was interesting but makes sense. After he cleared the foal he laid out and examined the placenta. He pointed out some issues with the placenta itself and a couple of tears, which means that the mare could have retained some and therefore needed treatment.

Then we went in and looked at all the cool lab equipment: the frozen semen storage tank, the microscope, etc. They had the scope hooked up to a monitor, so we could easily see the sperm swimming around.

Then we went out and saw more BABIES! The chestnut colt is about a month old, by Fursten Look out of a Donnerhall mare.

The filly is less than a week old, a Holsteiner by Cancara out of a Cacique mare. She was super cute, but more shy than the colt.

Then we wandered out into the big mare pasture to give out cookies (a dangerous thing in a herd full of hormonal mares) and so I could say bye to Sadie. She gobbled up everything I had, then followed me all the way back to the gate. Sweet little Sadiebug, she’s a turd but I love her. I told her to do a few headstands to help those swimmers along but she just looked at me like I was stupid. Granted, both of my horses look at me like that all the time.

In 16 days the vet will check to see if she’s pregnant. She had two good follicles in there, so hopefully we at least get one viable embryo!

 

 

Yeah I know… Bobby on the blog on Friday, Bobby on the blog on Monday… gross. Way too much Bobby. Don’t worry, after this we’ll go back to trying to pretend like he doesn’t exist. This story is important, though.

Bobby’s birthday was Saturday and he chose to celebrate it by entering his first USEA recognized Training horse trial. I can’t remember how old he is, so I’ll just go with a safe guess and say 75… something in that ballpark anyway. I had to sit this show out for budget reasons, but since I’m such a good friend I drove out there to cheer him on and bring him his birthday present.

Most of you probably remember that his big birthday present was his custom saddle from his BF Dustin. The black and red looks really good, I have to admit, especially with his fancy helmet. So I decided he needed one more really nice coordinating accessory and bought him black and red Roeckl gloves. Light years better than the cheap fabric ones he had before. As usual, I’m doing my best to make him more fabulous.

As for the show, it went really well and Bobby finished 2nd. He had a solid dressage and Halo hopped around the XC like a champ, although I think he gave everyone a heart attack in stadium. Pretty sure they hit almost every jump but somehow didn’t actually knock any down. One even popped up out of the cups and then settled right back in them. I’ve never seen a luckier person in my life.

But the best part was what the announcer said when he finished his round… “He polished all the poles!”.

I mean…

Is there any comment more fitting for Bobby? I immediately fired off with “Those aren’t the only poles he polishes!” and Dustin said “How do you think he got that saddle?”. The crowd was delighted, but no one more than me. Bobby shall henceforth officially be known as The Pole Polisher.

I’ve tried a few different supplements with Henry throughout our 2 years together. When I first bought him and was bringing him back into work after having sat in the pasture for a year, I put him on DMG and MSM, since he had a lot of muscle soreness in the beginning. Eventually I tapered him off that and he remained supplement free until the magnesium experiment. Eventually I let him run out of that too, and since I didn’t notice an obvious difference, I never ordered more. Henry gets really good food, good hay, and pasture, so I don’t feel the need to give him extra stuff that he doesn’t really need. I’d rather not insert money into the horse’s mouth so that he can literally shit it out, at least not any more than I already am.

But I did just order him a new supplement, which he started last week. Anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows that Henry has a hard time breathing in really hot/humid weather. We’ve run a million tests and he’s been looked at by 2 vets… the most we’ve found is scar tissue in his lungs that can inhibit his ability to take in enough air when he’s truly taxed. One vet thought it might be worthwhile to try putting him on Tri-Hist, thinking part of his problem might be allergy-related, but since that stuff is notorious for causing anhidrosis (and the one thing that keeps Henry from dying in the summer is the fact that he’s an excellent sweater) I’m terrified to get anywhere near it. If he stopped sweating we’d be in major trouble.

So after a lot of internet scouring and research to find something that might work similarly, I opted to try Lung EQ from Uckele. It came down to: had to be show legal, had to have a lot of good reviews, had to be fairly affordable. There’s really not much to it: spirulina (blue-green algae), vitamin C, MSM, Flaxseed, and jiaogulan. Will it help? No idea. The allergens thing is really just as guess as to what might be exacerbating his problem, since we never could find a really clear-cut answer.

Uckele recommends starting the supplement about a month before the horse typically starts experiencing symptoms, so I started it a week ago. Usually Henry starts getting bad in May. So far he hasn’t had any issues, but it’s only been around 80 degrees with 40-50% humidity… not that hot yet, compared to what’s coming, so not that taxing on his respiratory system. Even after our long conditioning ride on Tuesday he was cooled out and back to a normal respiratory rate by the time we had walked back to the barn.

So as reluctant as I am to hop back into the supplement game, I figured it’s worth a try. I’m always hopeful that something will work, because I do have to be really careful about what we do in the summer. It’s really the whole reason we’re going to spend 2 weeks in the high desert, where the average high temp in July is 75 and there’s really low humidity. I didn’t think any of the other 3 Days would work for him.

I will say, he really hated the supplement the first time he had it. He would take a bite, toss his head around, glare at me, paw at his bucket, etc. By the next day he had come to accept his fate, though, and now eats it just fine. I’m trying to help you Henny, I promise!

One of the best things about 2015 with Henry was the fact that we were able to maintain good momentum throughout the year. I’m a firm believer in the idea of Just Doing It. You see this in h/j land a lot when they’re bringing along a young horse or trying to give a rider experience – they show often, washing and rinsing and repeating ad nauseaum, until everything becomes old hat, often tweaking things and/or learning as they go along.

In 2015 Henry was new to eventing, and I’d been out of it for so long that my meager previous experience didn’t really even count anymore. So we did as many recognized events as I could afford, the idea being to give Henry more miles and to make it all feel familiar to me again at the recognized level. We made mistakes, we learned, we adapted, and we grew. The horse I had at the end of the season was quite different from the one I had at the beginning. I felt a whole lot more confident too.

This year things are a little bit different. First of all my mindset has changed. We aren’t sticking our toe in the water to see how eventing works out – we’re all in. This is what we’re meant to be doing, we’re going to do it, and we’re going to do it like we mean it. Of course, most of my recognized show budget is being funneled toward spending two weeks in Arizona in the summer, so I’m not able to hit every recognized event in the Area this spring. But – I also have a trailer now. Just because I can’t hit a bunch of events doesn’t mean we can’t still rack up experience in other ways. I want to keep the momentum, so I’m filling up our time with as much constructive stuff as I can. What’s considered “constructive”? Just about anything that could possibly help make us better, really.

For instance – already this year we’ve done 4 shows, 3 XC schoolings, and a lot of traveling to lessons. If it seems like we’re constantly on the road and doing something, it’s because we are. We’re logging a lot of miles, literally and figuratively (for real, I’ve put 5300 miles on my truck in 3 months), but I think it’s really good for both of us. Not only is Henry learning how to be a better and more relaxed show horse, I’m learning how to be a calmer and more focused rider in any circumstance. Most of the shows we’re doing aren’t about showing; not for us. They’re about keeping our momentum and building on what we’ve already started, brick by brick. I’m hungry for it, I want to be better, and I’m willing to put in the time and effort to keep us moving forward.

The real goal this year: make it all feel like old hat to both of us. I want to trot up centerline with the confidence of Buck Davidson. I want to be able to make good decisions in the heat of the moment. I want to have all the right instincts. I want to be a competitor, not a participant. I want to roll into a horse show feeling like “Hey y’all, HENNY in da house, roll out the red carpet!”. Ok, that one might be a little far-fetched…

But the more we do, the more we learn, and the more we learn, the better we get. So this is the year of Yes. The year of Let’s Do It. As long as we’re both still willing and able, we’ll keep moving.

I probably should apologize to the hunter/jumper community for how nonchalant I was about going to this show. I decided to do it the day before entries were due, I signed up for just two classes on one of the days, and did absolutely zero prep. Well ok, I did wipe the dirt off my breastplate and brush my horse’s tail, if that counts.

The show was at a venue that is literally 15 minutes from my barn, and the jumper classes were the last of the day on Saturday. So like any not-all-that-dedicated-to-this person, I texted a friend around noon and asked how things were running. After a few more episodes of Parks and Rec on Netflix I peeled the corgi off my lap, peeled myself off the couch, found a clean pair of breeches and a sunshirt, and drove to the barn. Side note: I only own one pair of tan breeches now, yet THREE pairs of whites. And I really would have rather worn the whites than the tan, if not for the whole white-is-way-overdressed-for-a-schooling-h/j-show thing. Damn, I think I’ve been fully assimilated into eventerdom.

After tossing all my stuff (only one set of tack and boots? awesome.) in my truck and Henry in my trailer, we were off. I got to the show, went and picked up my number, and stopped by the ring to check out the courses. I was using this show as a bit of a test for us. The idea was to show up, go into the 3’3″, not feel intimidated by the height, and have a rideable horse. No warm-up class of lower fences to ease into it, no hanging out at the venue ahead of time to get acclimated, just straight into the 3’3″. I think Henry is pretty used to not having those luxuries anymore since we’ve been eventing, but sometimes I tend to ride like an idiot and make bad decisions. This whole thing was really more for my sake than Henry’s, let’s be honest.

I thought he might be a little spooky at the first few fences, but no. Henny’s starting to qualify for Pro status. We had one rail in the first class (totally my fault) but none in the second class. He was rideable, he was steady, and while my riding wasn’t perfect, nothing about the day seemed like a struggle and the jumps didn’t look big to me. That’s exactly what I was hoping for. There was even some satin, although I didn’t pick it up. Sorry abandoned satin, I wanted to go home. Also, thank you to whoever the kind stranger was from SOF that videoed my first round for me! Having no entourage for such things is the downside to showing alone.

It was a good confidence booster for both of us and a fun way to test ourselves a bit. While I still hate the crap out of the hurry-up-and-wait thing at the h/j shows, there’s a lot of value in being able to get some laid-back, casual miles without spending much money or driving too far. Maybe we’ll come visit you again in May, Jumperland.

I only live about 10 minutes from a Dover. This would be a lot cooler if I actually liked Dover. I pretty much only step foot in there if I need something essential and last minute – typically fly spray – since it’s on my way to the barn. Their Tent Sale in particular drives me nuts… taking $1-2 off about 5% of your inventory isn’t really worth putting up a tent and sending out a crapton of flyers, IMO. But I had a $20 gift certificate and figured, if nothing else, I could stock up on fly spray. But my fly spray wasn’t one of the things on sale, so instead I got this:

Yep, a real “big girl” grooming tote. It was actually one of the few items on legit sale – $13 instead of the $24 on the price tag. I figured it was time to buy my beloved Leistner brushes a residence upgrade from the little bucket they were living in before. So I got that, and a few of those annoying $1-2 off items like liniment and bucket hooks that I needed to re-stock anyway. And I paid for the majority of it with my gift certificate, plus I got to make fun of Bobby the whole time, so I suppose it’s okay. Mostly I just found myself irritated with their version of a Tent Sale all over again. Why, Dover? Why? What a boring “sale haul”.

But I did totally jump all over the 20% off Back on Track sale at Riding Warehouse on Friday too, so that made me way happier. Riding Warehouse for the win.

The most exciting part of the “tent sale” is what happened after:

Yes that’s a doughnut with mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and cream corn on top. Duh. I met friend/fellow blogger Karen and our friend Stacy for happy hour at this place where everything involves a doughnut. Therefore everything is awesome.

Like that ^. That’s a doughnut covered with chocolate glaze, topped with a bunch of brownies, chocolate sauce, and chocolate chips.

My digestive system is still recovering and I’m pretty sure I’m diabetic now, but it was totally worth it.