Month: August 2018

I don’t typically do book reviews here because I generally find them to be uninteresting, but this book… I just had to write about. Mostly because I need everyone else to read it too so that we can discuss. Who’s in for book club?

Tik Maynard’s new book, In the Middle are the Horsemen (on Amazon here or direct from Trafalgar Square Books here), is not your typical how-to equestrian book, the kind that tells us all what we should do and think and be when it comes to horses and horsemanship. Rather, it’s more of one man’s story about his journey – how he set about learning, what he learned, what he’s still learning, what he’s done right, and what he’s done wrong. In one word, the book is very relatable, especially to me.  I’m not going to write a summary of the book, you can read about it online if you want details like that, but rather I want to talk about the general undercurrents of the book and some of the main takeaways that I had.

I really bought it because a) it’s written by an eventer, and I will buy pretty much any book that supports a fellow eventer, b) it’s described as more of a memoir, and I have been on a hell of a memoir kick lately. Tik was at Chatt while I was, and even had a book signing, which I totally meant to go to, but I got distracted by ponies and somehow missed the whole thing. Whoops.

In the Middle are the Horsemen covers a period in Tik’s life where he set off to be a working student for a wide variety of different trainers – from a dressage trainer, to eventers, to showjumpers, and even a Texas cowboy to explore the worlds of “natural horsemanship” and colt starting. He worked for a lot of big names, and he even got fired a couple of times, which Tik openly talks about. From there it evolved to how Tik eventually struck out on his own, then together with fellow eventer (now his wife) Sinead Halpin.

What made his story so relatable for me is that Tik and I have had sort of similar backgrounds, albeit his on a much grander, far more intelligent, and dramatically more successful scale. I too was a working student, first for a h/j trainer and then an eventer, I too have met my fair share of failure along the way, and I too have had a lot of interest in learning about the “horsemanship” aspect of training – pouring over books and videos to try to understand how to communicate more effectively with horses. Like Tik, I have spent many hours thinking about (and probably way overthinking) all of it, trying to figure out how it all fits together. Clearly he has been markedly more successful at that than I have.

Obviously he’s also a writer, historically of magazine articles and now a book, whereas I also do magazine articles as well as this very amateurish blog. He talks a lot about being a writer, coming up with what to write about, hard topics that he’s tackled, and some criticism he’s faced as a result of what he’s written. He also talks about the importance of writing about his mistakes and misjudgments, something that I think a lot of fellow bloggers can identify with.

Aside from just being relatable, Tik’s writing style is fantastic. There are so many little quoteable gems in the book that I think half of it would be yellow if you tried to highlight them all.  The words flow easily, nothing feels forced or overworked, and most of all it seems very honest. He reflects on what went wrong as well as what went right, and what he learned from both. Learning really is the consistent theme of this book from start to finish – discussing everything from what he thinks it means to be a good student, a good teacher, a good rider, and most of all, a good horseman.

Tik manages to do all of this without coming across as though he’s preaching at or lecturing the reader; his humility is evident beneath his words. Tik’s thirst for knowledge and desire to find answers is contagious, and the book continuously left me reflecting on my own life and my own journey with horses. It’s the kind of book that you find yourself still thinking about in the shower, or in the barn while you’re grooming your horse, or while you’re out for a run, even weeks after you’ve finished it. It’s the kind of book you feel like you need to get everyone else to read so that you can all talk about it together.

When I started In the Middle are the Horsemen I was really just expecting a good story about how a professional eventer got to where he is today, but it ended up being so much more than that. Tik’s story is one that I feel like everyone can identify with, on some level, and I think that anyone who is interested in being a better rider, trainer, or horseman – regardless of discipline – should definitely give it a read. If nothing else, it will make you think. For me personally, it’s been a long time since a horse book has effected me this much, on a visceral level. It makes me want to do better, to be better, and to learn more. Any book that can leave you feeling that way, inspired, is worth buying.

P.S. Not gonna lie, one of the first things I did after finishing the book was go to Tik’s website and look up his colt starting rates. Presto, you wanna go to Florida in 2020?

These “what Presto is up to” posts (ie not show posts, just the day to day drudgery) seem to happen about once a week, even though I hadn’t planned it that way. I really thought there would be very little to say about Presto for quite a while, seeing as how he spends 99.99% of his time just eating and existing. And growing. Always growing.

Turns out that his life is kind of interesting, at least to me. I dunno if any of you actually care or are just totally bored to tears by it, but I like to write about it so here we are and you are my captive. Presto and I are always working on something, and everything with him is fresh and new and different. Seeing how he reacts to things and how he progresses and learns and builds on each experience is downright fascinating and, honestly, really rewarding. I friggin love babies. Even though they’re dumb as hell.

I’ve started doing a little bit of round pen work with him once or twice a week. I don’t believe in running growing babies in circles, thus we keep everything at a walk and quiet trot and limit it to under 10 minutes. Just enough to get us communicating, get his ear on me, and remind him to look to me for leadership. By now he’s getting pretty good at yielding to pressure, going where I point, lowering his head when you press his poll, etc. Really the biggest challenge is keeping his attention, since he’s so easily distracted.

The thing that continues to be a real ongoing work in progress is patience. I mean… he’s a yearling colt. His quarter runs out real quick. But I don’t approve of pawing or dancing around in the crossties whenever he’s not getting attention, or getting super preoccupied with what other horses are doing and forgetting his manners. He’s been spending time out on his patience pole again, and I often leave him in the crossties and completely ignore him while I groom and tack up Henry. Some days he just stands there and sulks quietly, other days he is Very Offended and does his patented, very pathetic method of pawing that is really just 2-3 BIG DRAMATIC smacks on the ground followed by a lot of pouting.

For the most part he’s pretty darn good for a yearling, and he’s certainly much less dramatic than his mother was. I’ve been trying to go out of my way to expose him to things that he might have to deal with later in life, too. Like going and standing in the back of the field to watch the construction workers build houses just across the fence. Or walking past blowing, billowing tarps or the pasture of galloping mares. Or keeping his cool while other horses ride up his butt or zoom past him.

Or wearing boots and bell boots. It sounds like such a small thing, and he’s been wearing boots on and off for months now. They were never a big deal, so I didn’t think much about it when I put his new bell boots on while he was in the crossties the other day. He had ever so slightly overreached one day while we were ponying, so I picked up a pair of cheap bell boots for him to wear for our powerwalking hacks. I put his boots on as usual, put the bell boots on, and then went back to tacking up Henry. I turned back around to see this:

He was like WOOOOW WHAT ARE DEES TINGS ON MY LEGS DID YOU SEE DEES MOM WHAT IN THE WORLD HOW DID DEES GET HERE WOOOOW. He wasn’t scared of them, he was completely and utterly fascinated. He kept throwing a leg out and staring intently at his feet. I was dying. Couldn’t even breathe I was laughing so hard. Go figure that he handles all this other stuff like it’s the most boring thing in the world and I’m wasting his time, but I totally blew his mind with bell boots. Weirdo.

I also sent in Presto’s entry for FEH Champs the other day. I know a lot of the people that are bringing horses so it should be a fun time in the barns, albeit probably loud with a big collection of screaming babies all in one place. There’s also an in-hand/freejumping clinic the day before that I signed up for as well. An in-hand lesson from Willy Arts? Um, yah. Can’t pass that one up. It’s nice to go into Champs just for fun of it, with no expectations and no pressure. Hopefully we can get some good pics, because that’s what it’s really about right?

My history of buying saddles from overseas (England, France, and Germany to date) has led me to be a member of some pretty damn random facebook groups. Mainly tack groups based in France, where all the good fancy stuff comes from. Sometimes I see interesting things in these groups… things that are new and different, or haven’t caught on in the US yet. We tend to be a few seasons behind them, and way more conservative in general.

This thing I saw last week though… it had me doing a serious WHAT THE all over the internet, trying to figure out what it was all about. Behold the K’Vall stirrup.

Apparently I am super late to the game on this and these have been around for a long time, because in my research I found people (Europeans, natch) talking about them as long ago as 2009. They seem to have never really gained any traction here aside from a handful of endurance riders, which I guess makes sense.

My first thought was that these things look unsafe, although further research revealed that they do have release mechanisms built in at the heel area similar to a peacock stirrup iron. And then I thought it must feel like you’re standing on an elliptical on a pair of skis. And then I was trying to figure out the biomechanics, and how they would actually work in different scenarios, especially in eventing where we need to be able move around so much. I can see them being more stable in general, but I don’t see how you’d be able to get your heel down for added stability in sports like jumping. Granted, if you’re essentially standing on a big ass platform under your entire foot, maybe you don’t need to?

Most of the reviews you see for them are pretty positive, but then again there aren’t really that many to begin with. I can’t get over how weird the whole thing looks. Guessing it’s next to freaking impossible to lose a stirrup, since you’re strapped in and buttoned down. How easy are they to get out of, if you need to dismount quickly? I have a hard time thinking these would be competition legal?

I think I’ll stick to my “regular” weird irons, Lorenzini and Royal Rider.

Anyone seen these before?

 

 

 

I turned the big 3-5 on Sunday. Which means that, naturally, I woke up on Saturday with a seriously messed up back and couldn’t even stand up straight all day. So this is how it’s gonna be, is it? Apparently I’m at the stage where the simple act of sleeping can wreck my body.

Which, ya know, my spine isn’t straight, so back pain isn’t exactly a rarity for me. It was relatively liveable for riding, ponying, mucking, and all my other activities of the weekend, right up until the part where I had to figure out how to move 10 bales of hay around. Pro tip: use your leg as a ramp and just drag it up until you can rest it on your knee, then waddle around with it that way. Totally works. (my life is every bit as glamorous as it sounds)

Since I was still barnsitting I was able to get away with a pretty low key birthday, which is my preference. The SO came out on Saturday night and made dinner. He bought me those fancy Saddle Boss saddle racks for my birthday, for the trailer that I bought myself for my birthday. Last year I got myself a saddle… I give myself the best presents. The SO kept asking me what else I wanted, but all I could come up with was macarons from Ma-ka-rohn (it’s possible that I said “if you don’t get a couple of the Galaxy ones, don’t even bother coming.”). They were beautiful and delicious and I regret nothing. Life is short, eat beautiful cookies.

On Sunday morning I got up and fed/turned out, then we went to breakfast at this awesome restaurant in the next town. I love that place… it’s one of those little old-school restaurants where the big breakfast is $6 and they make a shit ton of pies and cakes in house. Those places are never bad.

After breakfast I went out to my barn to play with my own ponies. It was to be Henry’s first “real” ride back since Chatt – ie one where the intention was actually to work, and wherein he was wearing both a saddle and a real bridle with an actual bit. He’s been living that bareback-and-in-a-sidepull life for all our walk hacks. It was a nice cool morning for Texas in August, with a chance of rain. We hadn’t had any rain in over a month, so I was hopeful that we’d get some later that afternoon like they were predicting. Of course, as I was putting my helmet on, the sky opened up and it poured buckets for about 10 minutes. Henry was looking at me like “don’t you dare”, because he’s a princess that melts in the rain.

It was just a small blob on the radar so I let the rain pass before swinging aboard. Besides being our first “real” ride since Chatt, it was also our first solo one since then – no Presto for Henry to babysit. It was nice to be back aboard my best buddy, just me and him wandering through the field on a lovely morning. It started sprinkling again when we picked up the trot, which elicited some angry dolphining from Henry, but it stopped and he settled and we had a nice, albeit quick ride. He picked right up where we left off after our Georgia adventure and he feels really good right now – I think all the long walks during his downtime helped keep him strong and fit, and the time off from the demands of his normal work schedule, mentally and physically, served as a nice refresher.

After I was finished at the barn I went back to where I’m barnsitting to do stalls, and pulled up the radar to see a big storm taking shape to the south. I knew I would be cutting it close so I rushed to get the stalls done and buckets dumped/filled and hay in the hay nets. I was opening my last bag of shavings when it started raining. And it didn’t just start raining, it went from nothing to absolutely pouring in 2 seconds flat. I quickly tossed the empty shavings bags in the trash and ran out to get the horses. Except I leaped right into the part of the courtyard where most of the water drains off the roof and promptly went SPLAT on my ass in the mud. It’s a good thing I have a lot of padding back there because I hit hard enough for my whole body to pop. Unexpected perk: it seems to have helped my back.

This of course scared one of the horses, who bolted to the back of the pasture and proceeded to gallop around in the rain like an idiot while I wrangled the rest of them one at a time and brought them in. By the time they were all inside I was soaked to the bone. There wasn’t a single spec of dry clothing on me. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself as I was standing there in the barn aisle, dripping a puddle onto the rubber mat. Horse people – we are insane. I’m fairly certain that this isn’t how normal people choose to spend their birthdays. I’m also fairly certain that normal people are missing out.

I stood in Toni’s stall and watched the rain come down for a while, until I felt like the horses were settled and it slacked off enough to retreat to the house. After a change of clothes I poured myself a bowl of cereal for lunch and started going back through the book I just finished, In the Middle are the Horsemen, taking notes of some things that stood out to me so I can write a book review.

I feel like this is probably not typical of how most 35 year olds spend their birthday. It’s definitely an odd life that I’ve chosen, and while it wouldn’t appeal to everyone, it suits me pretty perfectly. I might be sporting a big bruise on my hip today, and I might be sore from head to toe and unable to identify exactly which ache came from exactly which activity, but I don’t regret a thing.

Presto officially has three horse shows under his girth now! Wait, can I even say “under his girth” when he’s never actually worn a girth? His figurative girth, I guess. I took the day off work on Friday because I’m still barnsitting, and there’s just no way that I could do all my barnsitting chores, go to work, and get the baby horse cleaned up and to a horse show in the afternoon. Just no. Also I’ve worked there for like 100 years and have way more PTO than one person could ever actually use, so why not. What BETTER reason to take a day off work than “omg I just have so much horse stuff to get done”?

The show office called me in the morning while I was mucking stalls, asking if I was still planning on coming. Apparently there was only one other horse, a 3yo, entered in the hunter breeding, so if I wasn’t coming they weren’t going to have it. I assured them that yes I was still coming, and that whoever owned the 3yo was welcome in advance for making the division and giving them the Best Young Horse title. Ha. Just Kidding. But not really, because Presto = Not Hunter. Also yearlings basically never beat 3yo’s, because have you ever seen a yearling? Especially next to a 3yo?

Anyway… they were able to give me an estimated start time for the class at least, and I worked my plan backwards from there. Luckily that particular show is only about a 20 minute haul, so I could take my time and get to the barn, bathe Presto, chop some mane off, clean his bridle, etc and not be rushed. His pretty new cob size Lund bridle came just in time, and in my as-always totally unbiased opinion, he looks adorable in it. Although he’s already pushing the boundaries of the cob crownpiece and browband… I doubt we can get more than 6 more months out of those parts. The noseband and cheekpieces have plenty more room though!

Presto was not that enthused about his mini spa day, but I had him as spiffed up as he was gonna get. Every day he looks a teeny bit better, but he’s still mega-faded and in need of a topline. Oh well. Yearlings. I loaded him in the trailer 10 minutes ahead of schedule and made the trip with no problem (maiden voyage for the new trailer with a horse inside!). I checked in, got my number, put his bridle on, unloaded him, and then took him over to the big main arena so he could take in the atmosphere and watch the last of the o/f classes.

We hung out for a while, just watching the other horses, until it was time for the breeding class. He neighed a little, but otherwise was very well behaved. Since I was the only yearling we were the winners by default (wow, go us) which bumped us on to the Championship class, which of course the 3yo (who was big and fancy and huntery and CUTE) won. We weren’t there for that part, I know Presto is not really what the hunter crowd is looking for. We were there for the commotion and the ring time. Presto stood pretty well for judging and then walked and trotted quite politely in hand. I have no complaints about his performance or manners in the ring, although outside of the ring he was definitely more anxious in general than he had been for his FEH class a couple months ago. It was subtle, but I could see a difference in his general demeanor. He still got many compliments on his excellent behavior, which is a testament to what a good boy he really is.

After the class when we all dispersed, Presto got a little upset about where his new BFF was going and why I was taking him back to the trailer (the only trailer in the area, no less) alone. He was distracted, a bit pushy, and slightly reluctant to load. It probably took me a minute and a half, whereas usually he walks right in. I just waited him out, and we were on the road and back home in no time at all, although Presto stayed a bit unsettled and keyed up, pawing off-and-on during the trip back.

From Presto’s side of things, I have no complaints about how the outing went. However, I feel like I could have done a better job of getting his mind more focused and making it less stressful for him. I think I get so used to how easy Presto is to deal with on a daily basis that I tend to forget he IS just a yearling, and horse shows are still new and different. He’s also still a colt, and while he’s never in his life acted even a hint studdish, those hormones are still there and could possibly affect his behavior, even if only in more subtle ways (like more anxiety). I need to always be hyper-vigilant about setting him up for success as best I can – especially away from home. Next time instead of getting him out and taking him straight for a bath, I’ll do a little bit of groundwork with him, let him move his feet and relax his brain, get him thinking and focused on me as his leader and companion, and then tackle the show prep. Also, when we got to the show grounds, same thing – I should have worked him a bit more in hand to keep his brain occupied and get him more focused. That always helps the babies relax and look to the human for guidance, I know that, and I feel like I didn’t do my part this time as well as I should have.

So, I’m really really glad we did this. I think now I have a good idea of what we need to work on before FEH Championships, and what I need to do better to prepare him properly both before we leave and while we’re at the show. Granted, FEH Champs will be his first overnight show, so things might be a little different, but I’m going to take what we learned here and keep it in mind as we move forward. He’s really a super good kid, I just need to make sure I’m doing everything I can to keep him that way! He’s also building quite the resume for himself now… in-hand trail: check, future event horse: check, hunter breeding: check!