On Tuesday we had our last pre-horse show lesson. I opted for a private since I’ve had so few lessons lately and was thinking a little one-on-one would be beneficial. The only slot available for a private was 6pm, and I usually get to the barn around 4:15pm to avoid traffic, so I had time to kill. I cleaned some tack, put my new charms on Henry’s bonnets, tidied up his mane a bit, curried him a few times, and clipped him up. I was really itching to clip his legs to the knee/hock but he’s super ticklish about them and I was afraid I’d get halfway done and be screwed, so I restrained myself to just some coronary band and fetlock clean-up.

Bonnet charm and no more whiskers

I finally succeeded in wasting enough time and dragged Henry to the ring (“Mom, it’s hot, let’s just stay in here and eat cookies.”) and warmed up. Then we did a few quick and easy warm-up fences, a little warm-up course, then the jumps went up to 3′ and we did a few harder courses. One with hard turns, one with longer slightly downhill approaches (stay at one pace, whaddyamean?), etc.

There were a few main themes that emerged:

1) I really should make a decision and stick to it. Any decision. Just don’t sit there in fetal position and constantly change my mind and confuse the hell out of both of us.

2) My horse, although only 7 and pretty green, is well on his way to being a saint.

3) When I sit up and focus, it’s amazing how well things work out.

To the first point – most of the time I see a spot. Maybe not a great spot, but usually I can at least see whether I’m going to die or not. But when I don’t see anything, I have one of two standard responses: deer in the headlights or constantly changing my mind trying to make something happen. Way to go self, those are helpful. I can practically feel poor Henry down there rolling his eyes at me, wondering how he drew the short straw and got a speshul owner.

Which leads me to the next point… he is SUCH a good boy. He’s so content to do whatever you tell him to do – long, deep, angled, short approach, it doesn’t matter – he does it happily and without question. He never complains and never gets mad or upset when I’m wrong. He might not leave the rails up every time, but I’m glad he doesn’t because it makes me have to ride better. As long as you give him some kind of a reasonable chance to make it, he will at least try. His attitude toward it all is “Meh, it’s cool. You’re kind of stupid, but I’m used to it so no worries.”, which is such an awesome trait in an amateur horse. Unflappable is a great word for him. He keeps earning those halo points, and to thank him I just keep stuffing him full of an obscene amount of cookies. Seems like a win-win. I appreciate him a lot and hope I never mess up his innate desire to please.

As for the last point – one of these days I’ll make it through a whole lesson without forgetting a course or having a complete derp moment. One of these days.

He gets a light hack tonight then tomorrow morning we’re off to San Antonio!

In the midst of a fairly boring pre-horse show week, the latest Blog Hop from Viva Carlos came at the perfect time! Plus it’s a great topic for Henry… what bit do you ride your current beastie in and why?

For as easy as Henry is about everything else in life, he is picky about bits. Picky picky picky. He chomps obsessively on bits and has a tendency to want to escape behind the vertical with any kind of sustained contact on his mouth. I don’t know what his history is in that regard but he’s got some issues.

We went through lots of bits before finally settling on a hackamore.

We tried this

And this

And this

And this

And this

And this

so on and so on, repeat ad nauseum. There were a lot.

Finally I gave up on all things bit and tried the mechanical hackamore, which he liked a lot, and so began his journey as Bitless Henry. There was a learning curve at the beginning since it’s so much harder to steer in a hack but as he got more tuned in to my seat and leg it became easy.

But eventually even the mechanical hackamore got to be a little bit too much leverage, so I tried a plain leather sidepull hackamore (which I like to call The Haltermore since it’s essentially like riding in a halter) and voila – magic. Sometimes I could use a little bit more oomph when he gets heavy or I have to make a quick adjustment, but for the most part this thing works like a charm. He is much less likely to curl up behind the bit – still does sometimes, but not nearly as much or as badly. It looks a little goofy, and to my great annoyance it does not quite match any of my bridles (and adamantly refuses to darken), but he loves it so I try really hard to just not look at it.

Every once in a while I’ll ride him in a loose ring french link, on the days where we just do a lot of intense flatwork (ie Henry Torture).

His “derby bit”, since he can’t wear a hackamore in the hunter ring, is a twisted D. He only wears it in the ring, in the one class, because any more than that and he starts to get fussy again. But of all the hunter appropriate bits we tried, that was the only one he didn’t raise serious objection with. I have no idea why, other than the simple fact that he’s a complete and total weirdo who makes no sense.

As I’ve mentioned a few thousand times by now, Henry and I are doing our first hunter derby this weekend. I’m pretty certain that I’m going to do something really stupid, like walk in the ring and pick up the wrong lead. Or totally eat the first fence. Or fall off. Or forget my course. Or chip every single one. But I’m hoping, really really hoping, that at least we get some good pictures before any of that happens.

Therefore I’m going to try to make Henry and I look as good as possible. I’m bribing (forcing?) Lauren from shemovedtotexas.com to braid him, he’ll be brushed and polished to a shine, I’m re-dying his tail, I got a new blindingly white saddle pad, and I acquired a shadbelly (for $50 it was a deal I couldn’t pass up). But once I had the shad I knew I had to have custom points. Enter: my mother. Well sort of. My mom has been a lifelong quilter, although she will give you a very solid “I AM NOT A SEAMSTRESS” at the mere suggestion of her sewing anything apparel related. Luckily she has lots of friends who also sew, including some who enjoy a challenge. One of those such friends was kind enough to take on my custom points project and she did a great job (thanks Dana!). So now I have a blue diamond pattern on the front side and a burgundy flowery pattern on the back.

Excuse my uneven buttoning that makes it look wonky.

So cross all your crossables that I am able to at least not make a fool of myself this weekend. It’d be a real shame to get the shad dirty.

I also have some exciting stuff coming in the next few days – perhaps a giveaway? You’ll have to keep tuning in to find out. 😉

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m the queen of overdoing. If something can be done, it can be overdone, especially by me. Navy looks good on Henry, lets buy navy EVERYTHING. I love the helmet monogram, lets monogram EVERYTHING.  Ooo, bonnet charm… lets add that too! You get the idea. I love lots of cool little details. I also love anything from the “days of yore” – brown tall boots, rust breeches, etc.

So when I saw pictures of a few horses sporting a checkerboard quarter mark on their rumps in a derby, I geeked out. Two of my favorite things combined – old school and details! And when I found a quarter mark stencil online in the clearance section for $2, I just figured it was my destiny. Yesterday I finally had the chance to try it out on Henry and see what it looked like.

Close up

A little farther away

The one I got is called a triangle pattern, which I liked because it was a little different from your standard checkerboard but not too “out there”. It almost has a flowery or pinwheel look to the pattern.

Mine is the bottom left stencil.

What do you think of quarter marks in the derby classes? A nice finishing touch, or tacky?