Author: Amanda C

A few times a year my trainer’s barn hosts little jumper shows/open schooling days, where you can do jumper classes for $5 a round and/or XC school for $25. I try to always come to these and do a couple jumper rounds, because at $5 a pop, they’re super cheap miles. They start with poles on the ground and go up to Prelim, so the shows are great for green horses or green riders or just riders who can’t get their shit together in stadium and need all the practice they can get (ahem). Plus it’s really really laid back, so if you have a problem or want to jump something again, or even want to make up your own course – go for it. Clear rounds get a blue ribbon. You really can’t beat that. Two rounds plus the grounds fee bring my total up to a whopping $20. You REALLY can’t beat that.

I also talked Hillary into coming along with me. She hasn’t been to a show since way pre-baby, when she lived in Tennessee, and this was a perfect little outing to knock some rust off plus introduce her to all of my peeps. Hillary might dabble in the h/j on the side, but it’s clear that she’s an eventer at heart, and I feel that it’s my duty to reconnect her with Her People now that she’s moved to Texas. And she fit right in, as I knew she would.

I’m barnsitting at the moment, so I had to get up before 5 to get the horses fed and stalls cleaned, then I made the drive up to Henry’s barn to get him ready. Hillary picked us up just after sunrise and we made the 2 hour trip out to Sleuth Wood with Henry trying to figure out if her mare, Annie, was friend or foe. He settled for making some nasty mare faces at the solid divider between them, while Annie was blissfully unaware of her overly emotional co-passenger. It never fails that Henry is the most marish horse in any group, even when in the company of actual mares.

We got there with plenty of time for Hillary to get in a couple of Beginner Novice rounds and then a Novice round, while I took up my position as videographer and jump crew. Annie seemed thrilled to finally be back in the ring, and Annie and Hillary both gained some admirers among the crowd. Nice horse plus good rider? Yeah, she can sit with us.

After that I got on Henry, did a quick canter around part of the XC field, jumped a little 2′ vertical out in the pasture, and then went in the ring for a Training round as our warmup. Of course no one videoed this, because it was probably one of the best rounds we’ve done in a really long time. He was perfect, I was adequate… we looked competent. A nice, clear, smooth, steady, solid round that I have no actual proof of whatsoever.

After one more rider and a jump change (in which I swear I saw Trainer raise one of the oxers like THREE HOLES, what the hell are you playing at, woman???) we did a Prelim round. Henry was still actually really good for this one too, he just ticked the first jump not really realizing the height had gone up (we’d been sitting for a while between rounds), and I got quick with my shoulders coming out of the inside line, bringing down the front rail at the square oxer. Oopsy for both of us.

Either way, at Prelim height my goals are still just to go in and not make any huge mistakes, and not feel like the jumps look ginormous. The size didn’t worry me, so that’s good… my eyeballs are getting more and more accustomed to the height.  And I didn’t do anything spectacularly stupid (except get lost on the way to 4 before I remembered which one it was and weaved my way back to it). Henry felt good. I’m totally okay with that.

It was a warm and humid day, and I needed to get back to the barn, so I quit with that. We came, we put in two decent trips, and we got to jump some height. Mission accomplished, I think. We’ll be back for the next jumper round day to do it all again!

It’s not often that I review something super cheap that could be a useful tool for every single horseperson, but hold on to your britches, because that’s exactly what I’ve got today. This might actually be the cheapest thing I’ve ever reviewed…

I first heard of the Tiger’s Tongue horse groomer on COTH, where a bunch of people were raving about them. They weren’t very specific about the tool itself, mostly just saying all the things that it was useful for. I figured for $6 it was worth a shot, even if I just ended up using it as a sponge or bucket scrubber, and tossed one in with an order I had already built up at Big D’s.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised when it came in a flat little vacuum-sealed package.  When you open it, the thing springs to life, taking the size/shape of a sponge. It LOOKS a bit like a big pumice stone, but it’s got the texture of a pot scrubber, but it’s squishy like a sponge. Interesting combination.

At first I wasn’t so sure about it, but once I started using it, I realized that it is indeed an incredibly useful little tool. During the summer I used it mostly for bathing and removing cannon crud/elbow scurf/face funk. It’s awesome for both of those applications. The sponge-like quality means that it can soak up your water/soap, and the texture means it can really help scrub away all that ground in dirt and funk. For the cannon crud it’s just abrasive enough to help slough it off, but not so abrasive that it bothers the horses (and I have a super delicate flower, so I feel like his opinion is pretty solid).

Now that we’re into fall, I’m really appreciating it’s value as a shedder, sweat mark remover, and mud remover. It even works better than my beloved jelly scrubber, and Henry doesn’t make rude faces at me while I’m scrubbing away. I especially love that you can use on delicate areas like hocks, elbows, and the back of the pasterns. Works like a charm, with no discomfort for the horse.

 

Yeah I know, fantastic cinematography in that video. I’m as impressed as you are by the production quality.

Anyway…

I’ve also used it as the aforementioned bucket scrubber, to remove super sticky Magic Cushion residue from my hands, poultice from Henry’s legs, and even to scrub mud or poop off of the trailer walls. I feel like I’m still discovering all the possible uses of this thing.

Presto’s personal favorite application is for scratching all of his favorite itchy spots, a job at which is apparently really excels.

Of course, his favorite itchy area is inner thigh/sheath/tiny baby colt nuts, so… poor Tiger’s Tongue.

It really is an all around useful tool, with as many applications as you can think up. Totally worth the $6 and then some. It seems super durable too – mine still looks as good as the day it first sprung out of it’s packaging. Lot’s of stores carry these (except RW, sadly) so it’s easy to toss it in with another order to help meet the free shipping requirement or with your monthly Smartpak shipment. The Tiger’s Tongue is one of those staples that I think anyone would find to be very useful, and it definitely has a permanent place in my grooming bucket.

As I was setting up my stall area at Willow Draw last weekend, hanging my stall guard and saddle rack and tack hooks, then unloading all my stuff onto said racks and hooks, I had to chuckle a little at myself. Eventing is already a sport that involves a lot of CRAP. It’s 3 different sports, after all, rolled into one. You need stuff for dressage, stuff for stadium, and stuff for cross country. And if you’re a little… um.. extra… like me, you might take it to the extreme sometimes. Do I need different helmets and saddle pads for the different jumping phases? Prolly not.

I would also dare say that most people showjump and run XC in the same bridle. That certainly makes things easier, having only 2 bridles to deal with, and not having to worry about a quick change between phases if you have stadium and XC back to back. Of course, I showjump and run XC in very different bridles, both of which are also different from my dressage bridle, which necessitates me bringing a bridle for every phase and changing said bridle between each one. But it’s taken me a long time to arrive at the setups that Henry goes in now, and for where he’s at in his training, and where I’m at in my riding, I feel like each one fills a need.

My dressage bridle is, unsurprisingly, the most straightforward. It’s a monocrown flash bridle with a KK french link loose ring – really standard for dressage. Getting to that setup has still been an evolution over the years, though. Henry was so nervous about contact when I got him that after trying a few different bits, I took them away completely, and spent 6 months just riding him bitless in a side pull. Once he got used to being ridden more from seat and leg, I put him in a copper loose ring, and we started his reeducation on contact from there.

A dentist once recommend that I try a thinner bit, since he’s got a big tongue and low palate, which Henry protested to GREATLY. Eventually I tried a thicker KK on a whim, and that’s been his dressage bit ever since. For a while I couldn’t ride him in a flash, though, because he was so offended by it that he wouldn’t relax into the bit. These days I can ride him with or without, although I have a slight preference for with. I like all the padding that a crank noseband offers, but I have mine adjusted quite loose (2 fingers, inserted stacked, on the bridge of the nose), as is the flash. He does NOT like a tight noseband, and neither do I. He’s still a little bit tricky to ride into the contact sometimes, but he gets better and better, really really slowly, over time.

Finding something that works for him in stadium has been a lot trickier. He’s a horse that needs to be supported a lot (downhill problems), but he’s also a horse that doesn’t like contact to the fences. For a long time I just showjumped him in the copper loose ring, and experimented with different nosebands. In that bit he got a little heavy in a regular noseband, but I felt like he backed off my hand a little too much in a flash or figure 8. (Have I ever mentioned he’s really sensitive?) Henry is a little bit harder to ride in stadium, just because he gets behind the leg REALLY easily. The natural forward that he has on XC isn’t present, you have to manufacture it. In his early days I showed him in the jumpers in a side pull, and then a regular mechanical hackamore. The side pull wasn’t enough, but the mechanical hackamore was too much. There was too much leverage, and I had to set the chain REALLY loose or he got quite offended.

Last winter I started experimenting with his stadium bit/bridle again and decided to try the PS of Sweden hackamore. It appealed to me mostly because of the design – I love their crownpiece, but also the unique shape of their shank makes it have considerably less leverage than your regular mechanical hackamore. The arms are swept back quite a bit, and the slots that the noseband, chin strap, and reins sit in are a bit “open”, allowing the metal arm to slide more before it actually causes any action on the straps. It’s also got a nice leather curb strap – no chain. It took me a few days of playing with the adjustments on this to get it where I liked the feel… and everything is quite loose. Like a stacked 2 fingers under the noseband and the chin strap. As it’s set up now, the thing is a glorified halter, with a smidge of leverage. Turns out this is exactly what we needed, though, the perfect middle ground between a side pull and a regular mechanical hackamore. I can push him up into the contact, and he goes there happily, looking for some support, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to balance him and ride him up into the hand without him wanting to back off the contact and get behind the leg. It does make quick adjustments and steering slightly more difficult, but with correct use of seat and leg (which, uh, sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t…) it’s not an issue. For now, this setup is golden for us.

Cross country has actually been the easy part. He’s easiest to ride in this phase, mostly because he’s so freaking happy to do it that all of his typical over-sensitivity kind of falls to the wayside. He started out doing XC in the copper loose ring with a flash, but as soon as he decided that XC was the bestest thing ever and he was the greatest at it that ever lived, I needed a little more whoa. My trainer suggested a Dr Bristol full cheek (Dr Bristol to discourage him from pulling on me, and full cheek to stabilize/keep the Dr Bristol’s plate in the right position and to aid in steering). It’s worked great for him from Day 1 – enough whoa to get his attention, but not so much that he’s backed off the bit.

We’ve experimented a little with a running martingale and different nosebands. I used the flash for a while, but as the speeds have gotten higher and the distances longer, I moved him to a figure 8. It might not make a difference, but then again the horse already has respiratory issues, so if it helps liberate those airways even a tiny bit, it’s worth it. I didn’t feel like the running martingale ever actually came into play or was needed, so we ditched that a while ago.

Maybe someday we will need more, or less, or different. Horses and their training are a constant evolution, just like riders and their skill sets. It makes sense that the equipment might change a bit over time. For now though, we lug around three bridles.

Bitting and equipment are always super fascinating to me… so many options, so many different wants and needs depending on horse and rider. What do you ride your horse in, and why? Has it evolved over time?

After FEH Championships, my plan for Presto was to give him some time “off”. Since he came to live here in April, he’s had something done with him almost every day. Tying lessons, ground work, ponying, grooming, the basics of roundpenning, in-hand practice, trailering, and so on and so on. He’s always seemed interested and engaged in his lessons, but still, he’s been pretty busy for a baby, so I wanted to give him a few weeks to just go be a horse (except for hoof picking and fly spray, those are daily objectives).

He hated that idea.

For the first couple days he didn’t seem to think anything of the fact that he was being ignored, but as more days passed, he quickly caught on. One afternoon when I went out to his pasture to fly spray him, he wouldn’t let me leave. Every time I went to step away, he tried to block my path and climb in my lap. Rude AF. Also pathetic. The next day he was in the barn eating his dinner when I arrived, and as soon as he saw me he left his food to come bang on the door with his foot, while staring right at me. If horses are capable of staring at someone accusingly, he certainly was. And he was definitely pouting when I went to Henry instead of him.

He’s been playing with (and chasing) his donkeys plenty, and he still gets to come inside twice a day to eat. It’s not like he’s been abandoned in the wild to fend for himself. Far from it. He seems to think that’s exactly what’s happened, though.

It turns out that I don’t think Presto wants a break from school. He’s become more and more of a pest every day (those poor donkeys), and finally on Monday I broke down and took him out for a pony with Henry. Yes, that’s correct… it barely lasted a week. He seemed happier immediately, though.

On one hand, I’m glad that he likes his “work” this much. I’ve tried to keep his lessons light and easy and varied, so that he never feels too much pressure or finds reason to become sour or resentful. I mean, he’s only a yearling, there’s not a lot we can do anyway. I guess he must like them, if he objected so much to having them temporarily stopped. On the other hand, his brain is so busy, and so eager, I’m not sure how the heck I’m supposed to keep him occupied for the next year and half. I’m already running out of ideas for stuff I can do with him.

For now he’s on semi-vacay… I’ll get him out to groom him and he can come pony with us a couple times a week. Maybe that will placate him for a little while. Such a demanding little turd. Any ideas for what else Presto can be learning over the winter? We’ll start revisiting ground driving again soon, but after that I’m running short on creativity when it comes to this little monster.

Although Henry and I have been running Training for a year and a half now, this was our first time showing at Willow Draw. I had avoided it on purpose, really. Although considering we only have four venues in the entire state of Texas that host recognized shows, you can’t actually succeed in avoiding any venue for very long. Willow Draw is known for having tougher courses, and it’s not generally the type of course that my horse is best suited to. Henry likes wide open spaces with lots of room to gallop, and not a lot of trees and bushes and shadows to spook at. More than half of this course is a bit twisty and turny, going up and down steep hills and through woods. And it’s a one day show, which isn’t really my favorite format for him either, especially with a 4 hour haul each way. Willow Draw has always been just kind of intimidating to me. So yes, I specifically avoided it until we were at the point where I felt like we could easily handle the extra challenges.

I didn’t do a formal Course Walk with my app, so I don’t have good pictures of all the individual fences. The first time I walked I wasn’t sure of where the hell I was going, and the second time I was with Trainer and we were in a hurry. By then I was done walking up that stupid ass hill between 5 and 6, so… whatever. I wasn’t too concerned about figuring out my minute markers, since the speed was 450mpm and I have a really good feel for that by now (I might not be good at very many things, but I’m really good at pace). Plus since it was still pretty hot, I was just going to let Henry tell me how fast he wanted to go. I knew where I could push it a bit if he felt good, and I knew where I would have to whoa more for combos or terrain, so I just wasn’t worried about it enough to walk the course a 3rd time.

The first fence was at a really weird angle out of the startbox. You had to come out angled to the right and then basically make a bending line left to get straight. Henry was busy looking at the tents and horses and the stadium ring just beyond the ropes, so we got there a little bit weak. I landed clucking and kicking him forward, and he seemed to go “oh right, sorry!” and shot off, clicking into gear. The table at 2 came up nicely out of stride (I love the picnic decorations on the tables)

then things got serious pretty quickly, with a Trakehner as fence 3. Which means that, naturally, this is where I made my big biff of the day by completely missing the distance and leaving Henry no choice but to take a flyer, pinging straight up in the air to clear the thing while I was back there hailing a cab. Bless him. I was really of zero assistance there at all. He seemed undeterred though, just flicking an ear back at me like “really, lady?” while I recomposed myself and gave him a well-deserved “GOOD BOY!”. Sorry Henny. Geez.

That seemed to be the jolt I needed though, because I actually got my shit together after that and decided maybe I should, like… ride. I opened him up a bit on the stretch after 3, over a bridge and past the water to our first combo at 4AB. This walked a fairly tight 3 strides, so I came in with a showjump canter, but still had to whoa a bit. After that we were off and running again, down the hill, across the road, then back up the hill to a rolltop at 5 (a fence you couldn’t get a very straight approach to, with a tree in the way), around the corner to another rolltop at 6, with a downhill landing. Once we went down that hill we came to the base of the big, steep hill that – on foot – seemed like a mountain. I was a little concerned that a hill this big, this early in the course, might take away a lot of his wind. It was still a pretty hot day for Henry, and heat is his nemesis. We had a table at the top of the hill though, so we had no choice but to power up it.

Right after the table we swung a hard right, turning back to a sunken-road-to-rails combo. Down bank, two strides, up bank, 5 strides to a skinny-ish vertical rail. All of the elements were small, but the hardest part about this question was the fact that we’d just blasted up a big ass hill and over a table, then had very little time to compress the canter and turn sharply back to a very different type of question. Henry was super clever here though – he came back immediately, and once we were straight I just put my eyes on the vertical, kept my leg on, and he skipped right through like it was a gymnastic. Easy peasy.

After that we had a little bit of a breather, so I checked in with Henry to see how he was feeling. He still seemed full of run so I just bridged my reins and let him cruise, hopping over the next brushy rolltop out of stride. Then we crossed the road again, then another bridge, and we were on to the fence that I was a little worried about. We galloped down a little wooded path and popped out just a few strides from a big brush fence, set on an angle. As soon as I had my eye on the fence I checked in with Henry and felt him lock onto it. I sat, widened my hands a bit, and waited, and it came up just fine – no problem.

After that we weaved our way over to the water. The jumps themselves weren’t complicated here – it was just a ramp (albeit a wide one), with a bending line to a log set in the water. However, the course designer was sneaky about how she laid this out. The ramp was set kind of behind another unused jump, in such a way that you could not get a nice straight approach to it. You had to come in a bit angled, and then the landing was downhill, pulling you quickly toward the water. To get a good line to the ramp you had to come really close to the unused jump, which I was a bit concerned Henry might lock onto. And he did, but I was able to quickly divert his attention to our actual line.

After that we had another combo, a bending line of small houses down in the shade, before coming back out into the big field. After the houses I opened him back up a bit, since he was still galloping well, and tried to save some ground as we hopped over another little rolltop by the mounds. From there we had one more combination – a coffin consisting of a ramp to a ditch to a corner. I had seen a couple people jump through there earlier and the distance from the ditch to the corner seemed to be riding long. One person added a stride and another really had to kick to make the 4.

So as we turned to line up with the coffin, I rocked him back, but kept the canter coming more forward. He jumped the ramp fine, and I landed clucking and giving him a little tap with whip, since he can be spooky at open ditches. That ended up not being necessary though, he was locked and loaded and had zero hesitation. The 4 strides to the corner actually ended up riding tight for us. Once I saw that it was going to be snug I nudged him slightly left to give him more space, but he was quick with his feet and worked it out just fine.

I checked my watch here and saw that we were going to be pretty close on time, so I let him cruise over the last rolltop. We ended up 4 seconds under OT.

The double clear kept us in 2nd place, behind a pro, for our best finish yet at a recognized Training. I always feel like it’s totally my fault anytime this horse doesn’t finish an event on his dressage score, so to finish on it – and a good one at that – seems like I finally did him some justice. That 32.1 feels like it’s been a long time coming. The placing means we’re already qualified for AEC’s next year too, if we feel like that’s a thing we want to do. I doubt it, I’ve got other goals in mind, but it’s an option at least.

While I was not happy with my riding in a couple places (especially at 3, I mean REALLY wtf) I was super happy with Henry. He just gets more and solid with every show, and feels really content and confident in his job. My mistakes don’t deter him, he just looks for the jumps and goes to them, end of story. The level feels very comfortable for both of us now. Can’t complain about that.

Full helmet cam footage is here:

We’ve got a little jumper show this weekend, then I’m volunteering at Pine Hill again, then we have our last recognized of the season at Holly Hill. It’s another Training course that we haven’t run yet, so I’m hoping that one will be just as fun!