Over the course of 48 hours I managed to drive to Houston, work two full days at the Luxe EQ trailer, take two lessons on my horse, watch a hunter derby, catch snippets of the Carolina live feed on my phone, and attend a course design clinic. Now it’s 6:30am on Monday and I’d like a nap, please, instead of a regular work day.

After work on Friday I stopped at home to load up the corgi (aka tack shop dog extraordinaire) then swung by the barn to get Henry. Originally I was not planning on bringing Henry with me for the weekend, but my at-home jump schools have been a jumbo sized shit sandwich, deep fried on a shit stick. I was starting to panic about Texas Rose this upcoming weekend. Megan, the owner of Luxe EQ, is married to Mark, who I used to ride with when they lived in the Austin area. He has this way of simplifying things that has always worked really well for me, so I thought if anyone could quickly fix my situation, it was probably him.

I dropped Henry at his barn, did a quick 10 minute hack, and then jetted into Katy to get to the show. I pretty much just made it in time to help close up for the day, then take advantage of the free catering out by the hunter derby ring. I will give h/j shows some credit in that regard… they have some great food. I wanted to sit in on a course design clinic with Eric Hasbrouck so we went up to the clubhouse for a while before coming back down to watch the handy round of the hunter derby.

Then I passed out, because I’m an old lady and it was way past my bedtime.

On Saturday I was up early (well… late for me…) to go set up everything at the shop.

We stayed pretty busy all day, then had a wine and cheese party plus a raffle in the afternoon. There was some nice stuff in the raffle, and some good cheese. Winning combination. Word on the street is that it’s happening again this week, so if you’re at Pin Oak, don’t miss it.

I tried to catch snippets of the Carolina live feed throughout the day on my phone, but it had a hard time streaming. I don’t know if it was the wifi at the show grounds or a problem on their end, but it would play for a few minutes at a time and then freeze or drop and I’d have to reload and log in again. I gave up after a while, so I mostly just saw a few horses in the 2* and parts of a couple in the 3*. Not worth the $5 I paid for live stream access.

I ducked out of the wine and cheese party a little early to head out to Mark’s barn for a lesson. He pretty much nailed my problem right off the bat and gave me a simple solution, which worked 100% of the time when I actually executed it. Sometimes I reverted to Floundering Moron mode, but things definitely improved a whole lot overall. Less is more. Simpler is better. Stop trying to over-ride the horse, it doesn’t work.

By the time I got back to the RV it was almost 9, and I took a shower and pretty much immediately passed out. I was gonna head up to the Grand Prix ring to catch the jumpoff, but I was pretty spent by that point. I fell asleep so hard that I don’t think I even moved a muscle until I woke up the next morning.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat – up early, open shop, set up, work, then cut out in the late afternoon for another lesson. This one was shorter, no point in drilling the horse, and we did some gymnasticy (that’s a word) courses to drive home the points from the day before and work on technique. Basically my instructions are leg-maintain-jump-breathe-repeat. Let’s see if I can actually execute that on my own. I feel a lot better now than I did last week though. I knew I was overcomplicating things, I just couldn’t figure out how to stop it.

After my lesson I loaded everything up and we were on the road back home. By the time I dropped Henry off and unpacked, I was driving home in the dark, so it turned into yet another shower-and-flop-into-bed type of evening. Today it’s back to the grind.

Luckily it’s a short work week, we leave for Texas Rose on Thursday. And THEN, on our way home, we get to stop and pick up Presto! I think both horses will be considerably less thrilled about this than I am.

 

Spring is in full swing in Texas, and you know what that means: foaling season at Willow Tree Warmbloods!

The first 2018 foal was born this past Monday, a big gorgeous bay filly named Mari. This is the first of two Diarado foals expected this season, this one out of Laken, who is by Torino out of a Pikadero mare. Mari had a bit of elbow lock during the delivery but mom and filly recovered well and are doing great. Mari is bred to JUMP (Diarado – 1.50m GP horse, Torino – 1.50m GP horse, Pikadero – 1.60m GP horse) and loves to canter.

Of course, this means that the Baby Bets contest is now officially in full swing. There are only 2 foals this year, so it might end up being a neck and neck race that goes all the way down to the wire. Remarkably enough, one person managed to guess the correct foaling date AND time AND gender of Mari! Dang Amelia… that’s some crystal ball you’ve got there.

So far she’s got a 15 point lead on anyone else in the field. All of that could change dramatically with the next foal, though. Since we’re only halfway done, it’s still anybody’s game. Sadie is at 310 days today, “due” somewhere around 4/22 if you calculate to the average 340 day gestation. Her first two foals were born slightly before the 340 mark, so we’ll see what happens!

HORSE BABIES!

When I did the “New Year, New Giveaway” contest back in January, I asked everyone to leave a comment telling me a subject that they wanted me to write about this year. One of the most popular responses was people asking me to write about evaluating young horses, mostly by way of conformation or potential. I have a lot of opinions on that, and I’ve spent a long time honing my eye and reading books and studying pedigrees and going to clinics and looking at horses. I’ve made a hobby of it, and I absolutely LOVE to talk to people about it. Seriously, it’s my favorite subject.

But at the same time, I don’t really feel comfortable writing about it. I think mostly because a lot of that stuff comes down to personal opinion. And mostly because I never ever want this blog to take on an “instructional” feel. I just really hate that. I’m a low level amateur rider that just so happens to have a major information in conformation, breeding, and young horses. Anyone could learn what I have, if they wanted to. I’m not a professional. I don’t feel comfortable acting like I am. I am not qualified to write about things like that.

A couple months ago the local Pony Club asked me to come do a lecture on sporthorse conformation, and I have to admit that my initial reaction was 100% total discomfort at the idea. Like I said, I just don’t feel qualified to do anything even remotely “instructional”. But I thought about it and a) I can’t say no to Pony Club, that seems like 1000 bad karma points, b) I kinda thought it might be fun to have a discussion like this with these smart, educated kids. I very hesitantly said yes, and spent some time really thinking about what I wanted to talk about and why.

When it came down to it, I thought to myself – how do you make a bunch of teenagers interested in something as boring as conformation? So I took the “functional conformation” approach, very much along the lines of what Judy Wardope teaches, where we’d really focus on certain aspects of the conformation and how they directly translate to performance. I picked a couple areas of confo that are really important for eventing that a lot of general texts rarely touch on – specifically the LS gap, the pillar of support, and the length/angle of the humerus. I got a lot of glazed eyes, as expected, but I also got a few kids that were as excited about learning a new approach as I originally had been. Honestly… it was kind of fun to share my MegaNerd enthusiasm on the subject. We had some great discussions. I hope a couple kids walked away with a new tool in their toolbox, or at least a re-kindled interest.

I was kind of energized by that experience, and thought about sharing the notes and printouts here. But that situation was a lot different from me sitting here and writing some kind of “here is how it should look” instructional. Writing a blog post just doesn’t have the same effect as an in-person group discussion. I won’t do that with conformation and breeding, I won’t do that with training, I won’t do that with riding… hell, I even feel uncomfortable doing basic DIY’s, or sharing my conditioning/care routine. There are a lot of different ways to do things, and a lot of them are correct. Plus, like I said.. I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. I’m happy to tell you what I personally do or think, but I’ll be the first to admit that my way isn’t the only way, and maybe not even the right way.

So really, it’s important to me that the tone of this blog remains conversational. If anyone ever wants to have private discussions about stuff, I’m totally on board with that. My blog’s facebook messenger is always open, as is the contact form here, for peer-to-peer conversations. I just don’t want to sit here on my silly internet platform and pretend like the fact that I have an audience means that I’m qualified to preach. Opinions on other, minor things, or current events? You’ll get those all day long. But a teaching situation on a grandiose subject… nah.

Since I’m not qualified to write about things like this, I’m more than happy to point you toward someone who is. To the people who asked me to discuss conformation or evaluating a young horse, I highly recommend investing in Judy Wardrope’s ebook, Equine Conformation for the Olympic Disciplines. It’s a little pricey, yes, but it’s 400+ pages of photos, diagrams, and new ways of looking at conformation that you probably haven’t seen before. To me, this is the sporthorse bible. In my experience, much of what she writes about holds true in practical application. If you’re at all interested in the subject, this is a must-own item.

If you’re not ready to invest in that, you can get an idea of her approach/concepts by reading through some of the free articles posted on this page.

 

I have a weird confession to make: I really really really like grooming a hairy horse during shedding season. I don’t know why, but there’s something extra satisfying about losing yourself in the simplicity of it, and seeing that big billowing pile of hair on the floor when you’re done. It’s satisfying work, with easily-seen results. I love body clipping for the same reasons. Okay, maybe I’m just really into hair removal. Either way, Henry doesn’t get a full body clip – lower maintenance when it comes to blanketing – so right now his super fuzzy back half (or as I like to call it, The Mullet) is in serious shed mode. I already own a SleekEZ, and someone else at the barn has a StripHair, so I decided it was time for a Shedder Showdown.

Before we start, I should say that StripHair has recently come out with a newer model of their tool, one that is more ergonomic and a bit… fancier looking (if it’s possible for a chunk of rubber to look fancier). From what I’ve seen of it, the material is the same, so I’m betting the performance is similar, but just a heads-up on that – to be totally fair, I tested their older model.

Neither of these tools is particularly ground-breaking as far as materials or design. The SleekEz is like a dulled mini saw blade set into a carved wooden block. The StripHair looks like a chunk of 1″ stall mat, it’s literally just a rectangle of rubber. But hey, simple tools often get the job done well. I have the large SleekEZ, which retails at $18.50. The StripHair retails at $39.00. So, how do they work?

I’ve been using both of them together, for the sake of comparison, for two weeks now. For “control” purposes I’ve also used a currycomb, a grooming stone, a Shed Flower, and the most basic of tools – my hands. When it comes to just the sheer amount of hair that each tool is able to remove, the SleekEZ is the winner. I can definitely get more hair off with it than with anything else. I also like that it sort of has a combing action to the coat, which helps it lift some of the dirt and dander to the surface. There’s definitely some cleaning action to it. The little teeth of the shedding blade itself seem to be good at getting down into the coat and picking up the hair from down there, too, not just the top layer.

The StripHair mostly just seems to gather that top-most layer of loose hair, which makes sense given the design. The rubber grips the loose hairs and pulls them away. If your horse has already fully blown it’s coat, then it’s great, but if it’s still in the process, the StripHair isn’t really going to get down in there and expedite things. I DO think that when it comes to legs or delicate areas, the Strip Hair is more useful. It bends and flexes around the contours pretty well, and obviously it’s a softer material.

That said, I think that I can get just as much hair off the legs simply by using my hands as I do from using the StripHair. Maybe even more. Those big long double jointed fingers of mine are finally useful for something.

If you really want a complete shedding arsenal, both tools are useful in their own way. But when it comes to sheer performance, the SleekEZ is the winner, hands down. If you have an extremely delicate flower of a horse then maaaaybe the StripHair could edge it’s way to the forefront, but honestly Henry is one of the most delicate flowers I know and he has no objections to the SleekEZ. You can’t really beat the bang for your buck, either… at less than half the price it outperforms the basic shedding capabilities of the StripHair, for sure. My favorite combination is currycomb + SleekEz.

As for the other grooming tools, get outta here with those Shed Flowers and grooming stones. Garbage. Yeah I said it. GARBAGE. Well, ok, Sadie really loves the Shed Flower to scratch her perpetually itchy elephant stomach. Other than that, though…

Like any self-respecting nerd, I’m am really really into metrics. I also have a huge interest in equestrian-related technology. So when Seaver had a Kickstarter for their smart girths and girth sleeves in summer 2016, I was all aboard that train. Equisense was pretty much already complete and on the market by that point, but it didn’t have heart rate monitor capabilities, whereas Seaver did. Being an eventer, heart rate data is pretty huge to me, so I opted to invest in the Seaver, knowing that it could be a year or so before it came. Yeah well… it’s been almost 2. They did recently confirm my shipping address though, so maybe I’ll get it before summer. Who knows. Honestly as long as all the functionality works correctly and it’s well-made, I’m cool with the wait. That’s my official stance anyway.

Lots of other bloggers have the Equisense, and I always stare a little too intently at their data. It’s really interesting to me. Eventers… we love times and speed and symmetry and all that stuff. And then last week Leah posted about a free app called Equilab, which boasts some of the same features. I downloaded it pretty much immediately. Because toys.

Basically the app uses the sensors on your phone to calculate and track your ride, so you have to either wear it on your arm or put it in a pocket. My phone is usually shoved in my pocket when I ride anyway (since I ride out, and I ride alone), so it’s just a matter of turning the app on and hitting “start riding” when I mount. The app has metrics for total ride time, time in each gait, turn direction, beats per minute, total distance, speed, elevation, energy consumption, and stride. It also paints a fun little GPS map for you that looks pretty damn artistic. Over time it gathers and accumulates the ride data to show “trends” or comparative metrics.

Naturally my first thought was that there’s no way it’s capturing all of that data accurately just from using the phone’s sensors and GPS. And from my observations so far (I’ve used it for 4 rides, of varying type), that’s true. I’ve kinda just tossed out the beats per minute and stride data. It’s definitely not accurate. I’ve also noticed that it has a really hard time picking up on quick transitions. For instance, my dressage ride yesterday included a whole bunch of quick-succession trot/walk/trot transitions and it picked up none of them. I think when it’s less than 15 to 20 seconds, it’s not capable of catching it. Or maybe it just thinks my transitions are shit. That’s possible too.

So the gait graphic in general also isn’t super useful to me for rides like that. For conditioning rides, however, where I’m not swapping back and forth between gaits a lot, it seems to do a respectable job of measuring the big chunks.

What it struggles with in those rides, though, is the “turn direction” data. I think because I ride in such a huge space, it’s just not registering the turns. When I ride in a smaller space it picks them up fine (although it also measures the turn data by way of cumulative time, which I don’t like and find kinda useless). I pretty much have to throw that data out, too. It’s interesting, but I definitely wouldn’t hang my hat on it. I always do the exact same thing both directions for conditioning rides anyway, so I don’t really need it.

What I DO really like Equilab for is total time, and time spent in each gait, especially for those conditioning rides. I mean… I do those rides with a specific plan in mind for how long my sets are, but it’s nice to have the metrics to back it up, and to be able to store them over time and look back on exactly what you’ve done. For logging purposes, especially tracking the length of rides for the purposes of fitness, the app is great (should also say, I’m in an area that has excellent GPS coverage – your experience may vary if you are not in such an area). I like that you can also input things at the end of the ride like how the ground was, how you and the horse performed, and what type of ride it was.

I did notice that the Android version looks different than my iPhone version. How different, I’m not really sure, but Leah had a few different things on her version than I do on mine. I kinda like hers better.

So is this thing a good replacement for something like an Equisense or Seaver? Definitely not. It’s capabilities are pretty limited. Then again, it’s totally free. It’s definitely at least worth the download to play with it or to use as a data logging system for your rides.