Henry had his second Trainer XC ride yesterday and it was, in a word, freakinawesome. There’s video at the bottom, but I pulled screencaps for those who don’t want to dedicate 51 seconds to watching a video.

It rained all night Tuesday at my house, so when I woke up and checked the radar and saw the huge blob of rain headed toward the XC venue, I was sad. But magically, the closer it got, the more it dissipated, and before you knew it everything was clear and good to go. The cross country gods win again. I packed in half a day of work by 10:30 and then headed out, loaded up, and away we went.

It was so hot and humid… like 90 and sticky. I brought some ice water for Henry so that I could sponge him during the ride to help him stay cool, but turns out he handled it pretty well anyway.

The main objective of the day was for Trainer to jump Henry off the Training level Irish Bank, which freaks me out a little. Mostly because it’s giant and Henry still tends to launch off the banks (I’m pretty convinced he’s never going to just drop down them like a normal horse), so I have visions of being left in the ditch on the back side of the bank as he goes gallivanting around the forest without me. She also wanted to jump some of the Training combos, hoping to build his confidence a bit for his move-up.

Turns out, they did both of those things. Henry was a total rockstar! He jumped everything first try and totally gobbled it up. The more he did, the more he strutted. You could practically see his ego inflating as we went along. That’s perfect, exactly what we want!

He definitely did take a flying leap off the Irish bank with a big peek down into the ditch on the way down, and it was not beautiful, but Trainer did a great job of slipping him all the rein he needed, staying balanced over the back, and sticking out the awkward leap. Definitely glad it was her riding him off of that thing for the first time and not me! Really happy that he was so game about it though, there was never any question about whether he was gonna go or not.

He also jumped the Training double up bank to skinny combo, the T water, the T offset feeders, the giant brushy T ramp that gives me slight heart palpitations, PLUS the Prelim coffin and a Prelim box. I was SO happy to see him handle everything so easily! Trainer does such a good job of sitting up, waiting, closing her leg, and letting him figure things out; it’s educational to watch. Someday I’ll get better at that.

He cooled out quickly and was even a little wild when we got home – also good to see that his fitness level still holds up well in the heat.

If anyone needs Henry, he’ll be pimp-walking his way around the barn for the next few days, telling all his friends how great he is. I can’t disagree.

Last Saturday I finally had the magical combination of time, good weather, and an empty ring, so I seized the opportunity to set up some fences and have a little jump school. We hadn’t jumped more than 2 fences since Holly Hill two weeks before and I couldn’t really decide which thing out of my “bag of tricks” to work on, so I ended up setting up a random mish-mash of stuff.

For me – a low wide oxer and a triple bar, to force me to ride all the way to the base but still support with my leg off the ground. For Henry – a big cross rail to help tighten up his sometimes drapey legs and a vertical with placing poles on the approach and landing to get him rocking back on his hind end a bit better. For both of us – a skinny box that was set in a place where we could either ride it as the “in” or “out” of a bending line, or as a very tight rollback from the vertical next to it. Straightness, it matters.

We warmed up, I got Henry out in front of my leg, practiced a lot of adjustability in the canter, and then hopped over a little vertical a few times each way. He was feeling good and happy and attentive, so I went right into our Weirdo Exercise of Random Crap (ha, WERC). I started with the vertical with placing poles, then over to the low wide oxer, the big crossrail, triple bar, and ended with the vertical to skinny box rollback. All no big deal, he gobbled it up happily and landed from the skinny box with a tiny squeal and a few little dolphin-leaps to celebrate his badassery.

At that point I just laughed at him and grinned ear to ear – a grin that stayed in place for the rest of the ride. We hopped through everything a few more times in different configurations, Henry listening and understanding each question as we came upon it, ears up and looking for the next fence. I’m not perfect, he’s not perfect, but we were both having a lot of fun together, and that alone made it the perfect moment. It brings me so much joy to ride a horse like Henry, and it’s so rewarding to have him enjoy his work too. Fun is what it’s all about.

I’ve made a few lists over the past couple years of my own favorite things, but Henry has never made a list of his own. Granted, his very favorite things in the world are eating, sleeping in his own pee, and cross country, so I had to really work at it to find tangible items that made his list. But we finally did it, so here are Henry’s top 5 best things evarrrr.

Himalayan salt block

Henry has his salt down to a science. He likes to eat his dinner, get a drink of water, lick his salt, drink more water, lick his salt some more, and drink more water. He closes his eyes as he methodically and rhythmically licks his salt, to the point where he looks high as a kite. Dude loves the thing, and it seems to encourage him to drink more, so he always has one hanging in his stall.

Leistner Prinz brush

I love the Prinz brush because it works so well, but Henry actually loves it too. And that’s a pretty high compliment coming from a horse that really doesn’t like to be groomed. This brush is really good at getting the dirt off while also leaving a good shine, so I think of it as kind of a 2-in-1. Anything that is super soft and equals less grooming time gets two ears up from Henny.

Ogilvy half pads

Simply put, this horse is a Princess. He also is not shy about his opinions. So if Henny doesn’t like something, you know immediately. Likewise, if Henny does like something, you also know immediately (due to a lack of pinned ears and swishy tail trying to lash your eyeballs out). He’s been super happy in his Ogilvy half pads since day 1, and when I tried to go without it one day as a mini-experiment, he told me that was a no-go. Well, what he really said included a lot of expletives and was quite rude, but let’s just say it equaled “no”.

Back on Track mesh sheet

I’m still not totally convinced that the Back on Track voodoo is real, but I can’t deny the fact that Henry feels really good every time I get on him after he’s worn his mesh sheet. He’s too much of a blanket shredder to wear it unattended, but I’ve put it on him for a couple of hours before dressage at most of our shows this year and he does seem more limber right from the start. Plus he’s never once pinned his ears at it, so there’s that?

Uncle Jimmy’s 

As far as treats go, Henry isn’t that picky, but he does seem to really like the Uncle Jimmy’s Squeezy Buns. I think part of it is the excitement and anticipation that comes with the crinkling of the wrapper as I open each one; he’s like a kid on Christmas. Plus they’re nice and soft and apparently really delicious. He also likes the Uncle Jimmy’s Licky Thing, a treat that is reserved for horse shows. Weirdo horse has a crazy strong oral fixation and will stand in his stall just licking the wall or the bars when he’s bored. When I put the Licky Thing in there he’s at least got something to lick besides the wall. The Licky Things also last him a lot longer than a Likit (he gets about 2-3 days out of a Licky Thing vs a matter of hours out of a Likit, so they’re perfect for shows).

And Henry’s slave owner also appreciates that if you’re a fan of Riding Warehouse on facebook, you can always get 10% off your order with the code FB10. Money saved = more Henny treats.

 

Anyone who has read this blog regularly or looked really closely at our show pictures has probably picked up on the fact that Henry goes au naturale – he gets to keep his ear hair and whiskers.

Basically, Henry keeps his ear hair and whiskers because I can’t think of a single good logical reason to remove it, but I can think of a lot of good logical reasons to keep it.

He keeps his ear hair because he has some aural plaque in one ear, and while he’s not at all ear-shy, he gets VERY fussy about wind/bugs/rain in his ears. The hair gives him some protection from the elements, so I won’t clip it out. Even if he didn’t have the aural plaque he’d still keep his ear hair… over the years I’ve really come to feel like horses genuinely need it, so while I used to clip the ears with some of my past horses, I won’t do it anymore. The hair prevents dirt and insects from getting in, and since Henry spends the majority of his time outside when the weather is good, I don’t think it would be fair to take his ear hair away. Plus Henry’s little squirrel ears really match his personality, I get a kick out of them. I just trim the little dingleberries before we go out in public.

The whiskers, I feel a little bit less strongly about. Henry keeps his because he manages to scrape and bang his face enough as it is, I’m not going to cut his whiskers off and make it even easier. Plus I do believe that there’s something to the fact that the whiskers have so many nerve endings and are actually sensory organs that link to the brain… I think they’re more important than we realize. I wouldn’t clip the whiskers off a cat or dog, so I can’t think of a good reason to clip them off my horse either. I’m not one of those that thinks trimming whiskers is cruel, but it makes me happy to see horses that get to keep them.

In Germany and Switzerland (and I think Belgium and Sweden, at least) it’s illegal to clip the whiskers off, plus I know the Brits discussed a rule change proposal a couple years ago as well. Go to a show in Europe and whiskers are the norm. I figure if they can do it, so can I, and no one has ever commented negatively on Henry’s whiskers. Probably because you really can’t even see them unless you get very close.

What’s your opinion on trimming whiskers and ear hair? Is your horse clean shaven, or au naturale? Why?

 

Because sometimes you just need a bunch of baby horse pictures to brighten up your life, I’m gonna do everyone a favor and post very few words today. These pictures were all taken at First Flight Farm in Boerne, TX (the farm where Sadie is currently residing for breeding). Happy #foalfriday!

Quinton by Quaterback out of V.Pr.St.Donnabelle (Donnerhall-Plaisir d’Amour)

Fyodor FFF by Fursten-Look out of out of Donnerball (Donnerhall – Akzent II)

 

Isadora FFF is by Cancara, out of Wynona (Cacique – Calvadur)