Month: March 2019

Just a few odds and ends today to wrap up the week!

First of all, we finally got all of the paperwork done and the invoice paid for the Little Orphan Annex memorial award with Retired Racehorse Project. It is officially official! Britt designed the awesome logo above, which will go up on the RRP website soon. The sponsorship also came with different advertising options, and we picked a half page ad in Off Track Thoroughbred magazine… which we don’t really know how to create, so if anybody is good at designing ads, help would be appreciated. I think its due at the end of April.

We’re really excited to be able to do this award, and now we’re trying to spread the word, so please feel free to pass along the info… in short: there’s going to be a $500 cash prize awarded to the highest scoring chestnut mare at the 2019 RRP makeover.

Thanks again to everyone who came together and supported this award in Annie’s honor, I think it’s going to be really special.

For those keeping an eye on the Willow Tree mares, Lissa is VERY PREGNANT. She’s at 325 days now with her Catoki foal, so she’s probably got at least 10+ days to go. Sadie is being super creepy, as always. Is it because she’s obsessed with Lissa? Is it because she wants to steal the baby for her own? Maybe both.

You know who isn’t super creepy? Peyton. The TB mare that I possibly might have talked Willow Tree into buying last year. She looked really rough when Michelle picked her up, but boy has she blossomed into a gorgeous mare.

I feel like Thoroughbred mares of that quality are few and far between, so I’m excited to see what she produces for the eventing side of the breeding program. She’s going to be bred to Ramiro B this year, who was a Grand Prix showjumper in his own right, and has become a prolific producer of event horses, siring top horses such as Ballynoe Castle, Cooley Master Class, and Cooley SRS. He has a really impressive strike rate, so he seems like a sound choice for Peyton’s first foal to get an idea of what she will bring to the table.

Grace is also set to be bred to a top producer – Weston Justice. WJ son Templar Justice, ridden by amateur Katie Preston, was one of my favorites on the Burghley live stream last year. Really cool horse. Another offspring, Jesmond Justice, is on the entries list for Badminton this year too. There are exciting things happening in this breeding program, y’all. I can’t wait for these baby eventers.

Last breeding related thing (tis the season I guess) – the Usandro frozen is FINALLY stateside. After many paperwork issues and delays, mostly on the French side, and a year later than planned, but hey, it’s here. I know a few people had reached out to me interested in purchasing some, but now I definitely don’t remember who. If you’re still interested let me know and I’ll get you the info.

On an unrelated note, did y’all see the new dark brown Motionlite? Because I did. And now I can’t unsee it, in all of it’s chocolatey goodness.

Damn you Alessandro Albanese. I need this.

On another completely unrelated note (yes I’m ping-ponging today, it’s Friday, give me a break) has anyone been watching the Carolina International live feed? Yesterday’s dressage was interesting… apparently a trick that some dressage people use with a horse that likes to play with it’s tongue during a test is to put a marshmallow in it’s mouth before they go in the ring? I’ve never heard that before. But it was mentioned by the dressage rider commentator during a test where a horse had it’s tongue out like 90% of the time. She was also responsible for the best quote of the day: “She definitely signed a peace treaty at the end of that extended walk.”. It was great.

The live stream is on EQSportsNet, which isn’t free, but with code EQUSEA2019 it’s only $5 a month and you can cancel whenever you want. It’s a good stream, and there are two Mighty Magic’s at Carolina, one in the 3* and one in the 4*, so I’m in full stalker mode.

Last but not least for today, who has actually used the IKEA potties as rail raisers trick that’s been circulating the internet for years?

I’m mighty tempted, considering how cheap they are, but does the plastic hold up to being outside or will they just disintegrate in 6 months?

Over my years of having project horses and babies, I’ve come to notice that when you have a horse that is green or lacking confidence, but is also very willing, a simple “good boy” or a reassuring pat can be a very powerful thing. This has been especially true with Henry, who will turn himself inside out to find the right answer and is very sensitive to the idea that he might ever be in trouble. Like for real, even just trying to do transitions in semi-rapid succession made him think he’d done something wrong, and he would get upset.

I’ve always been pretty quick with a pat and a Good Boy when we’re jumping. He does a lot of ass-saving, after all. When he was but a wee baby event horse going around his first BN and N XC’s, and even his first T, you could even feel the effect that a “Good Boy” had on him. He might be a little unsure about a jump or about the woods or whatever, but you’d sit and put your leg on and he would go, and he’d get a big “Good Boy!” on the other side. You could practically SEE his little brain going “Oh my gosh she’s right, I am a GOOD BOY!”. His confidence would grow and grow as he went along.

Henry’s first ever helmet cam video is a good example. Gah he was cute at BN. So many feels.

 

He’s still very much the same now. The jumps are bigger, he’s way more seasoned, and he’s got a pretty high amount of self-confidence about jumping, but still if I feel him take a bit of a peek at something, or if he makes a good decision, I always try to be quick with a “Good Boy”. I don’t have to say it as much as I used to, where it was more a reassurance to him – now it’s more of a confirmation to him that he did the right thing. It’s important to Henry, because he’s THAT sensitive.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as good or quick with praise for the flatwork as I have for the jumps. In the past I mostly just took the pressure off and went back to something easier, so his praise came in the release or the rest. Which is a totally valid training method, and one he also understands. But when the flatwork gets more complicated, and things start coming at him more rapid-fire, sometimes the pressure has to stay on for a little while before he gets to rest. The “reward”, in that format anyway, isn’t as immediate as it used to be.

In the flatwork, when he doesn’t get a quick reward, he starts to think he’s done something wrong. If you repeat a transition several times in rapid fire, he becomes increasingly convinced that he was bad. That means he gets more and more tense, more and more over-sensitive to what’s happening. But we also can’t just avoid rapid fire forever. It’s time to step it up a bit. The key to this seems to be twofold: 1) immediately put him to work after a transition, be it shoulder fore, or a leg yield, or anything that gets him using his brain to move his feet rather than using it to get worried. 2) Praise. Immediate reassurance that he’s done the right thing.

That might be in the form of a “Good Boy”, or it might just be a quick touch to his neck with my inside hand. Something, anything, so that he knows he’s fine. I’ve learned in the past few weeks that while we’re stretching his comfort zone and increasing the pressure, I have to be very quick and obvious with the praise. It’s almost like BN XC Henry again, but on the flat. He needs the reassurance, and his confidence grows a little bit with every Good Boy. In retrospect, I’d gotten too slow and stingy with the praise when we weren’t jumping. In the flatwork I think it’s easy to demand a little more and a little better, without always recognizing the effort that he did give. He’s not the kind of horse that can take that. I don’t need to take the pressure off, I just need to do more to reassure him that he can exist under said pressure and still be ok.

Yesterday we were able to execute a string of trot/canter/trot/canter transitions in rapid succession without him getting worked up or worried, so that’s a big step. They aren’t necessarily always good transitions, but as long as he’s responsive, I’m giving him some kind of praise. If he’s trying, I’m rewarding. So far it seems to be helping. There’s still pressure on him to do more/better, but he’s relaxing into it and learning to accept it a bit more.

I am 5+ years into this horse and he’s still teaching me something and making me better every day.

Show season is officially upon us, with our first show only 2 1/2 weeks away! Okay, yeah you’re right, we showed in December and February, but I mean like… recognized shows. Not off season. And now there’s one like every two weeks, so it’s more exciting. But anyway.

In the off season I always do a little bit of an inventory of what I have and what I might need, as far as equipment and supplies. What things need replacing, which things did I really like last season, which things did I not like and need to switch up, and is there anything I want to upgrade. That’s mostly a “wants” list, which means I may or may not actually get anything on that said list, but it also includes basics like stud-related stuff, poultice, hoof pack, etc. I did have a bit of a splurge moment after Christmas with my Riding Warehouse gift cards, ordering a couple of my standout favorite items from 2018: another AA Motionlite coat (this time in green) and another pair of white Horze Grand Prix breeches. I love them and regret nothing.

I also already restocked my essentials, buying a buttload of stud plugs when we were in Ocala because I found them cheap, and then of course I had already tossed in more Magic Cushion and poultice with my Black Friday order. Over the past 6 months I’ve got a great bit for Henry, a really nice skull cap, and a new XC vest. I’m good to go on necessities, I think, and all of the real essentials or more important items are taken care of.

But of course that hasn’t stopped me from perusing RW (embarrassingly often, honestly), adding things to my Wish List (whichever one of you evil temptresses at RW came up with that Wish List feature, I am giving you the stink eye!). So what’s on my Wish List right now, at the cusp of show season? Let’s start small and work our way up, so that I look perhaps slightly less crazy.

RW started carrying Dreamers and Schemers socks last year, which is both dangerous and amazing. Dangerous because boy do I ever love to collect socks, and D&S are my favorite, but also amazing because they are way cheaper at RW than they are elsewhere. Those purple unicorn ones have come dangerously close to ending up my cart a couple times already. It’ll probably happen sooner or later, let’s be real. I’ve already got a pair of socks that I wear for XC every time, but maybe they could be my new dressage day socks?

I am kind of a bridle-number hater, to be honest, but I also hate tearing off or trying to smoosh down the little metal hook and pin the number to the pad. It looks kinda ghetto, at least when I do it. So this set of number holders from Eskadron is appealing, where you can either sew or pin the backing to your pad and swap the numbers out. It comes in a set of two, so you could put one on each side if you wanted, or just have an extra (one for your dressage pad, one for your SJ pad?), and it’s only $15. Then the bridle number could just live on your halter and the need for a duct tape number is gone, too. Interesting… very interesting…

I have been a Roeckl devotee for a long time, rarely straying outside of the box. Well okay I tried to stray into cheaper SSG-land a couple times and quickly came running back. I haven’t yet felt rich enough to stray into Samshield-land. But I’m really loving the Heritage Pro-Flow gloves that I picked up totally on a whim in Ocala – they’re SO breathable, which is good when you have super sweaty gross hands like I do. For half the price of Roeckl’s, I’m quite pleased. Is it actually possible that I can like other brands? So now I’m eyeballing this new brand that RW added recently, Haukeschmidt. They look really similar to my beloved Roeckl’s, have lots of colors, and are cheaper. Maybe when it’s time to replace my brown pair I’ll branch out and compare?

Kool Coat‘s are definitely the most popular thing around here for keeping a horse clean while it’s in the stall at shows. Lots of coverage, but really lightweight and breathable. It also has UV protection, if you lived in a place that was not as hot as the surface of the sun, thus requiring them to be inside during the day in the summer. Henry has a lot of clothes, but he doesn’t have one of these. It’s basically a scrim sheet on steroids. I have to admit, it would kind of be nice to have something to throw on him at shows between phases so he didn’t get covered in dust or shavings or pee (especially his mane, HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE to get bits of shavings and hay stuck in his braids just from standing in his stall???), and I know these have good airflow and are good quality.

Side note, have y’all seen the new rubber ducky fly sheet from Weatherbeeta? God I wish horses could wear fly sheets here, Presto would own that thing in a HOT MINUTE.

I managed to lose my container of Fiebing’s hoof dressing at one of Presto’s shows last year. That container had to be at least 10 years old, so I guess I was overdue for an upgrade. The Kevin Bacon line is another relatively new addition to the RW lineup, but the barn I worked at forever ago used this brand a lot, and I loved it, but it can be really hard to find, especially for a good price. Maybe I’m an irresponsible human that accidentally lost my Fiebing’s for a reason? I think it might be time for a new replacement.

Doing pretty well so far right? Look at all these relatively low-ticket items! Yeah well…

Don’t act surprised, you knew it wasn’t going to last.

Look, I’m a unabashed bridle lover. Pretty strapgoods make my heart go pitter-patter, it’s just the way I’m wired. It doesn’t matter if I need it or not, make a pretty bridle and I will want it. Period. Full stop. And I’ve been trying real hard to resist the charms of the Schockemohle Equitus bridle for weeks now, when yesterday I was scrolling down through the new items and it slapped me right in the face. Really, RW, why you gotta do this to me? I have a perfectly fine Eponia bridle that is holding up great and is pretty enough in it’s own right. Maybe not this pretty. Maybe I do love the Schockemohle strapgoods in general. But I do NOT need another dressage bridle. At all.

Yeah so let’s take bets on how long I can actually resist this one because I’m dangerously in love.

I briefly got lost in the Montar line, too. Their breeches have fun colors and embellishments (um, all you teal-loving weirdos, how do you NOT own these yet???) and I love the polo shirt and the lace shirt, which would be great for smaller shows or schooling days. The line has a similar feel to the higher end stuff, but not nearly as expensive.

OH and props to Romfh – I’ve been waiting for a decent brand to come out with a really good, deep, dark purple breech and it’s actually happened. There’s nothing about these that are show season related but I just really love the color and it might finally convince me to try a pair of Sarafinas. I’m no Meg, but I can still appreciate a super dark, classy, subtle purple.

If I may say so myself, I’ve done a really admirable job resisting this LeMieux trend that’s been raging for a while now. Mostly it’s because I don’t like the matchy-matchy thing, or all those colors, and I’m kinda cheap when it comes to saddle pads. But holy moly this thing stopped me in my tracks. If I had a gray horse I would own it already, I’m just not sure how I feel about showing my plain bay in a navy pad. It comes in gray too, but navy is an easier sell to me. It’s pretty. It’s real pretty. Those leather details. That wither contour. Oh man. It’s delicious.

So, ya know… that’s all. The wish list has definitely been worse. I do have a 20% coupon code burning a hole in my pocket though, and Henry is out of his fungus shampoo anyway, so an order already has to happen. This could be a really slippery slope.

What do y’all have your eye on right now? And who’s buying the damn bridle?

If you were feeling sorry for Henry after yesterday’s post where he had to do dressage and then pony his kid brother around, fear not: Saturday was an exponentially more exciting day by Henny standards. We stayed on grounds overnight on Friday, and were set to go in the first XC schooling group at 8am on Saturday.

As soon as I swung aboard, Henry knew what we were doing (I swear he knows the difference in what all his different tack/bridles mean because he sure as shit never marches out to a dressage ride) and he was READY TO GO in warmup. We hopped over some warmup fences and then just headed around the course with the group, jumping a few things here and there along the way. The main goal for the day really was to take him back to the Irish Bank where he had such a big come-apart a couple years ago. He has jumped it since then – it was on the course for both of our Prelims – but in the opposite direction as the way that caused all the problems back then. It looks a little different from the other way so we wanted to see what he thought and make sure it was officially and thoroughly conquered.

For those who don’t remember, that bank confused him so much back then that it kind of broke him about banks for a while. I don’t know what it was, but he just didn’t get it and couldn’t figure it out, and it completely short-circuited his brain. We took a few steps back and rebuilt his confidence, but just haven’t re-presented it to him from that direction since.

He’s a more educated horse now, though. First we hopped over it from the direction he’s been doing, the way that it’s currently set on the course. Then we turned around and came back over it from the “bad” direction and he hopped right through it just fine. No hesitation, no confusion. We even added the corner a few strides away and he was super.

We quit after that, mission accomplished and no need to jump Henry’s legs off.

I went back up to put Henry away and then it was Presto’s turn! The plan was to pony him on day 1, and then take him around in-hand on day 2.

We got down there as my XC group was finishing up, so he hung out and walked back and forth over a bridge while they finished.

Then the group left, and he started neighing a little, so I put him to “work” to keep him occupied. He walked up and down the little bank, walked over some logs, and then I sent him trotting over a couple of little things. As soon as I gave him something to do he settled down and got right to task, even having been “abandoned” in the big field by himself. I was really pleased with him for that.

Then he stood quietly in warmup while all the next group of horses bustled around, and we walked around the course with them on foot as they schooled. He seemed to be enjoying his little walk through the woods, ears flopping as he went. He stood patiently at the stops, and never got worried or spooky. I sent him back and forth over a real ditch a few times too, which he plopped right over. He’s naturally so brave and seems to really enjoy the challenge of figuring out new things.

By the end I was sitting on a Prelim rolltop holding his lead rope, and he literally tried to put his feet on it to climb up there too. There were a couple humans and a dog already up there (which he was intent on playing with), so he figured why not him? This is how I found myself saying “Presto, do not climb on the jumps”. Do I own an oversize Labrador or a baby horse? I’m not sure.

It was such a good learning weekend for both boys, and I love having Presto tag along with us. They’re so different in age and personality, it makes for a fun contrast. I feel pretty darn lucky to have them both.

After our barn decided not to enter the first event of the season at MeadowCreek, we planned a schooling weekend at Willow Draw instead. And then Willow Draw got slammed with rain a few days before, and we quickly resorted to Plan C: a weekend at Pine Hill. Yeah, we’ve been there a lot, but there’s always something more to work on. Plus this time I was bringing Presto, and he’d never been there. He hasn’t been off the property since FEH Championships last September, so I figured it was time. He seemed so happy to finally be included, he practically BOUNDED onto the trailer.

Due to some scheduling conflicts, we made the weekend a Friday/Saturday thing. I have a stupid amount of PTO, so you’ll never have to twist my arm too hard to get me to play hooky on a Friday to go play with ponies. We opted to do a dressage lesson with Henry on Friday, as a follow-up to the one we had a couple weeks ago. I’ve spent that time working on the couple of big homework items that we got, so I was interested to see what progress we’d made, and hopefully build on it a bit.

Last dressage lesson Trainer revealed that a lot (ok, all) of my issues with getting Henry into the right rein were because he was carrying his haunches to the right. I’ve been laser focused on fixing that, and Trainer declared that he was, in fact, straight now. Hallelujah. Miracles. I mean… the fact that I actually had a horse in my right rein was evidence enough for me, but the formal declaration matters too. Since we typically don’t get lessons this often, I take the homework seriously. Sometimes we actually make improvements, and sometimes we don’t. It sure is nice when we do.

Now we’re at the point where we get to start asking him for more. More impulsion, more uphill, more balance, more sit, more push. His conformation and way of going kind of work against him there, being downhill and croup-high, so it requires a lot of work from both of us to accomplish any of those things. We also need to start doing more transitions and in faster succession, something that has always upset Henry.

But whereas the Henry I used to have would get upset and then have a meltdown and be irretrievably fried for days, the Henry I have now can get upset but I can still ride him through it to the other side and he gets over it. So it’s time to start putting a little more pressure on him. He’s kind of trained me along the way to not push the envelope too much in the flatwork, but the horse has evolved now and I’ve got to be a little bolder about it.

We practiced some bits of the Prelim B test, which really just showed that we REALLY need to work on those bits of the Prelim B test, but Henry is feeling stronger and stronger. I can’t complain about that. He’s come a long way, especially in the last year.

 

 

After Henry and I were done getting tortured, we went back up to the barn and I grabbed Presto. I wanted to pony him out with one of the XC schooling groups, so he could be in a big group of horses with lots going on, and have to stand around and be patient.

And that kid, y’all, he was just super. We stood in warmup while the other horses were galloping around, and he gave precisely zero shits. He watched them jump, he tagged along through the scary woods without a care in the world (well, aside from trying to eat every single bush and tree), and he stood pretty patiently. We walked through the water and he didn’t even so much as hesitate, just plowed right in there like it was the most natural thing in the world. In fact, he planted his feet and refused to come OUT of the water at one point, and I had to get after him. He walked over a ditch with Henry, and walked over a couple of teeny tiny logs. Even when other horses were getting upset around him for various reasons, he didn’t care. Considering how little he’s seen and that he’d never been to that venue before, I couldn’t have been more pleased with him. He’s so brave and curious, soaking everything up like a little sponge. He’s the same no matter what environment he’s in.

I was mostly worried about how he’d react to Henry and/or Dobby leaving him behind at the stalls, but when I left for my lesson he neighed a few times and then settled down. When Hillary left with Dobby for her lesson later, same thing. He’s definitely got a loud scream in him, but he doesn’t get belligerent. I can live with that. Once he gets a little older and more secure in himself, the neighing will lessen. Hopefully.

It was a great first day of adventures for both boys. Well, Henry may not have agreed, but… day 2 was cross country for him, so don’t worry, he got happier. To be continued tomorrow!