Month: October 2017

I simply cannot resist TAAHH’s blog hop asking us to showcase our first horses!

I was a certified barn rat when I was a kid, spending as much time as possible at the barn, working off lessons, grooming at shows, and sitting on as many horses as my trainer would allow me to toss a leg over. Old, young, crazy, quiet… whatever. If it had 4 hooves and a tail, I was happy. In those days I rode at an A show hunter/jumper barn, and as the years went on it seemed like all of my peers got their own horses. I had a couple lease horses for a while, but mostly I just rode whatever sale horses we had in the barn at the moment. I fell in love with one in particular, and when he was sold to another girl in the barn I was pretty devastated. Enter Charlie.

Although that wasn’t his name to start with. This tall, scrawny, neurotic TB had come from one of the horse trader guys that my trainer got a lot of his sale horses from. Who the heck knows what the horse’s backstory was, or how he ended up with a horse trader. He was bodyclipped (really badly) when he arrived but he came with no name, so he was called T-4. The horse trader’s name started with a T, and whichever ones came without names usually got a number added on to the end. Except my trainer forgot that we’d already had a T-4, so really Charlie was T-4-II. Instead my trainer started referring to him as “the brown horse” which I morphed into Charlie Brown… thus Charlie. I started riding him right off the bat, and he proved to be quite the interesting horse. He was older, probably early to mid-teens, yet he acted like a horse that hadn’t been off the track for long. He weaved, he roared, he rushed the jumps, he ran off with me at least once per ride, and sometimes for funsies he’d go flying backwards when you put your foot in the stirrup to mount. He was quirky as hell.

But the horse could also jump, and he loved the job. Granted, getting him stopped at the end of the course usually required running him into something, but he would jump anything from anywhere and never touch a rail. This barn rat was smitten. The best part? Nobody else really wanted to ride him. I had him all to myself.

Eventually the pressure ramped up for us to either buy him or he was going to be shown to prospective buyers, and my parents agreed. He may have had more than a few screws loose, but he was mine, and that’s what really mattered to 16 year old me.

My trainer made me show him in the hunters and eq a few times (I can only assume this was for his own entertainment, because lord have mercy) before we switched over to the jumper ring. I preferred the jumpers anyway, so I was super happy with that, and Charlie brought home more than his fair share of tricolors.

After high school I moved to Maryland to be a working student, and Charlie came with me. I’m pretty sure he weaved for all 1500 of those miles on the Equine Express semi, because he unloaded looking absolutely skeletal and more than half-crazed. But he settled into pasture life in Maryland pretty well, and together we started learning the ropes of eventing. We went to Full Moon, and Jenny Camp, and Elysian Hills, starting at BN and then moving to N. I only had a jump saddle and all of my hunter show clothes, so we stuck out like a sore thumb, but we did it. Eventually we moved back home and tackled our first Training, where I literally fell off at jump #3 (a big table that he for some reason decided to bank, throwing me over his shoulder). In those days Training riders could get back on after a fall, so once someone caught my horse for me, I got back on and we finished the course. It was only when I got off afterward that I realized he’d stepped on me and I had cracked a couple of ribs.

Our dressage was always borderline hideous, and he legit had THE BOUNCIEST TROT of any horse I’ve ever encountered in my life, but that horse was nothing if not tryer. He taught me how to be brave, humble, patient, and persistent, but most of all he taught me what it was really like to love and appreciate a horse. He might not have looked like much to an outside observer, but he meant the world to me.

Over the years he mellowed a lot and seemed more settled with his life. Eventually Charlie went to the retirement farm when his hocks could no longer hold up to the job, and he got to live out his days with his best TB friend, eating all the grass he could possibly desire. One day he was found dead out in the field, likely of a heart attack or aneurysm, and seemed to have passed quickly and peacefully. He was buried beneath his favorite tree.

I always wonder where Charlie came from, what his story was, and what happened to him along the way, but mostly I’m just glad that he found me. Nothing would have been the same without that crazy old nut of a horse.

Yep, it’s true. Because riding is so easy, and clearly I have mastered it.

For those who would like to see that picture a little bit bigger:

That’s the fat green ass of talent, right there, y’all.

Or really that’s what happens when you pick all the way to the base and lean up the neck and your saintly horse is like “omg for real stop it”. Somehow I didn’t fall off, I think only because Henry decided to wheel around left instead of right. I still ended up sitting on my right stirrup somehow. It was graceful.

So, uh… as you can see, we had a jump lesson this weekend. And despite that truly brilliant moment, it was actually a good lesson.

I’m still working on getting (and keeping) that good uphill canter all the way to the base, which I’m fairly certain is something I will be working on forever and ever and ever. With Henry it really requires riding every single step, working on getting the hind end to take a slightly longer step than the front, and thinking about slight haunches-in around every turn to always keep the inside hind under him. It’s hard. It’s exhausting. It requires every brain cell I have. It was a lot easier to just lope around smaller fences on the forehand. But every once in a while we get it right and it’s like OOOOHHHH THERE IT IS.

And then, ya know… it’s usually gone again by the next jump. Baby steps.

Trainer put the jumps up a bit bigger for this lesson, since it’s our last jump lesson before Texas Rose in a couple weeks. We jumped a bit over Training height, which is what I always need. Gotta get to the show and think the jumps look small. I’m glad that these days Training does always look small, and Prelim doesn’t look particularly huge either, which is good for my confidence. I make less stupid mistakes when I’m confident.

I said LESS.  Let’s be realistic here.

I’m really happy with some of the lesson video, and not at all happy with other parts of the video. I still see a whole lot to work on, and I’m kind of hit or miss with my efforts at this point. But I guess that’s to be expected when you make changes… there’s a strugglebus of a learning curve. Sometimes you’re inside the bus, sometimes you’re underneath it.

I’m looking forward to capping off our season (as paltry as it may have been) at Texas Rose, then spending a few months trying to keep polishing everything up. This year was about moving up and not killing myself in the process, and it required a lot of “next level” finesse and work when it comes to my riding. Next year I’d like to… ya know… be at least a little competitive at the recognized shows.

Or at least not almost go flying over my horse’s head. That’d work too.

Yesterday was lesson #2 of our new, buckled-down, every-other-week dressage lesson schedule. It might not seem like much to most people, but a dressage lesson every other week is by far the most we’ve had, like…ever. Usually it’s more like once every few months. Which is probably obvious to literally anyone that has ever watched us dressage.

Henry was not particularly enthused about me throwing him on the trailer mere minutes before dinner time, and he was even less enthused when we arrived and he saw where we were. He knows by now that nothing fun ever happens at the fancy place with the wall of mirrors. This week’s lesson started much the same as last week’s (because does anything that exciting ever happen in dressage? No.) and then quickly progressed to a lot of haunches-in work. My dressage trainer is a protege of Charles de Kunffy, thus is big into using particular exercises to “gymnasticize” or strengthen parts of the horse that might be weak. For Henry that’s his lower lumbar/SI area, and Dressage Trainer likes to use haunches-in work to help strengthen that area. Of course, Henry is weak there, so it’s hard work for him, especially to the right. It’s like bodybuilding for him (we won’t talk about how much my own abs and thighs hurt today).

We did haunches-in on a circle, then on the long sides, and eventually graduated to doing some baby half pass. I have toyed with the concept a few times with Henry before, but not much. This is the first time we’ve worked on it for real. The trot was a struggle at first but he finally “got it” a bit after a few tries. At the canter it was much easier (this is always the theme with Henry), with Dressage Trainer even saying he has some talent for the canter half pass. Granted, it was all very very very rudimentary attempts at half pass, with varying levels of success.

I have to say though, I’m ready for this supposed cold front to hit Texas already, because I had sweat flowing freely down my face and directly into my right eye by the end of the lesson. Not that my riding is any worse when I’m essentially blind. It’s just uncomfortable. And our one-handed lengthenings, as I’m trying desperately to clear the sweat from my eye, are not so good.

I also did a thing and entered the event that I swore up and down I wouldn’t, because their XC is on steroids. I’m just gonna jump everything with my eyes closed, I think. That should be fine. $20 and my eternal gratitude to anyone who goes out and burns this thing down before November 11.

Oh, and guess what came in the mail from Germany? Sadie’s official, newly re-issued, upgraded, COMPLETE papers/passport! She’s 100% legit now!

Many thanks to the folks at RPSI/Westfalen and The Jockey Club for helping me get everything sorted out, DNA uncovered, and pedigree fixed! Her papers being incomplete has been the source of much stress, anger, and disappointment over the last 10 years (yes TEN), so to finally have them look the way they should have all along really makes me happy.

I’ve been asked a few times to share my post-XC leg care routine, but I’ve been kind of hesitant to do that. Mostly because every horse and every situation is different… a horse with previous issues might need more than a horse with none, a horse running Novice won’t need the same intense care as one running Intermediate, and you might be inclined to do a bit less if the ground is good instead of bad. So consider all of that stuff to be the disclaimer here. The aftercare for my thoroughbred with a little bit of wear and tear that is running Training is far from a one size fits all.

A lot of times here in Texas, the ground is hard. Ice becomes a necessity once you’re at T and above, IMO, although some people don’t start doing it until Prelim. My little horse has crooked front legs, so if he’s spending 5 minutes at 470mpm pounding on hard ground, I’d rather be overly cautious. I’ve had a few different kinds of ice boots, but the ones I’ve liked best for my horse are the supremely dorky, good old fashioned suspender style boots (we have these). He absolutely will not, under any circumstance nor threat of death, stand in a muck tub full of ice water. Will not. I’ve tried several times. It never ends well. Although these boots don’t include the foot, they’re the best I’ve found for actually getting the legs uniformly cold, and ice can go up over the knee. I just dump ice in them and leave Henry with his hay for a little while. Henry absolutely hates them because there’s no escape. Take that with a grain of salt, he hates everything.

For overnight, I like to put poultice under the wraps. Specifically SoreNoMore poultice, because nothing has ever worked as well for me as that stuff. Legs are always tight and beautiful the next day. Plus its easy – slather on some poultice, slap some wet paper on top (I broke down and bought the roll of “poultice paper” because it was just easier to tear off correctly sized sheets rather than deal with anything else, and I don’t regret it because I’m lazy), wrap, and you’re done.

The last thing I do, if the ground was hard, is pack the feet with Magic Cushion. I’ve used it forever and it’s always done a great job at soothing sore feet. I just wet my hand (in theory I would use a glove, but I can never find one at the exact moment I need it), scoop out a small handful, spread it in the foot, grab a handful of smaller/dustier shavings to pat down on top of it, and done. I don’t put this in until after all the handwalking and stuff is done for the night. It stays in well if the horse is just standing in the stall, but not so much if you’re moving around a lot over different footing or terrain. You can always wrap the hoof to ensure it stays in, of course, but I’ve never felt the need when the horse is in a stall.

I also think the boots you use are super super important, but that’s more of a pre- than a post- leg care. I don’t do neoprene at all, and XC boots must have shatterproof tendon/cannon guards. I love my Majyk Equipe boots for that – they’ve saved Henry from an overreach or contact injury on more than one occasion, and his legs don’t get hot. It makes our post-XC care much easier.

As far as the legs go, that’s really it. What do y’all do for post XC (or post horse show) leg care? Favorite products?