Spooky Season

Autumn has arrived in the past few weeks with a drop in temps and the start of rainy season. Cinder loves the colder weather and now that's she feeling much better after her abscess we have a very spicy, spooky mare on our hands. 

Halloween jump decoration is perfectly fine with her

She had an absolute meltdown in the outdoor arena a few weeks ago, when jumps that had been used at the horse show returned home for the winter and were stacked in the corner of the outdoor. She's jumped all these poles and the coop multiple times, but god forbid they hang out on the pole rack in the corner. Cinder is fine going past the spooky corner when we're jumping, but as soon as you're walking and not doing anything, she's trying to spin and rear. She got so bad during one of my lessons that Trainer M got on her and had a little discussion. 

Said scary poles and coop

She has thankfully gained all the weight back that she lost over summer so we cut her grain back and M has been making it a point to work her more outside, weather permitting. I haven't been able to ride outside since her big meltdown because by the time I get off work and get to the barn it's dark or and when I've ridden on the weekend its been raining. 

The mounting block was strategically placed there for a certain red mare

But we've also had our share of spooky things in the indoor. M has been setting a lot of gymnastic exercises with the poles/cavaletti/brush boxes and Cinder took a lot of offense at being asked to trot into the exercise above. She thought it would be much easier to go around the boxes than over them. How dare we ask her to use her body and sit on her hind end over two little bounces. I foresee a winter of skinnies and gymnastics in our future. 

The Queen is not Queening

Cinder is a drama queen. She is a redheaded mare after all. She let's you know her opinion on things, especially if its a negative opinion or if she's hurting. So it came as a total surprise when she blew an abscess last week. 

I didn't get my phone out quick enough for the full on mare glare, but I'm sure you can guess her opinion on having her foot soaked

The past few weeks Cinder has been feeling about 98% sound, with just an occasional off step on the right hind. No heat, no swelling, no reaction to palpation. We though it was just a remnant of her issues this summer, and maybe the joint injections were still not taking full effect. The off steps would go away once she warmed up and was really moving out, so we weren't too worried about it. Part of the reason we decided to show her was to work her more and see if the lameness got worse, but that didn't really happen. 

That lovely little line at the top of her hoof was the culprit 

Thursday while I was tacking up for my lesson I noticed she had a slightly puffy right hind. No heat, and no reaction to palpation, but she did have a fresh scrape on the leg. We figured she probably whacked herself in turnout and since she is one to swell at the drop of a hat, it wasn't anything major. Trainer M had me walk for 20mins and the swelling went down so we did a light lesson and she felt fine.

Cinder gets a trainer ride on Fridays, and when M pulled her out, she had a lot of gunk on that right hind hoof. M poked and prodded and "a big ass abscess" blew out the top of the hoof.  M told me with how big the abscess seemed to be, she would have expected Cinder to be way more dramatic and in pain than she was showing. When she had her fist abscess at two and half, she acted like her leg was falling off, so I agreed with M. The drama queen was not drama queening. 

I had to hold up a front leg so she would stand full in the water

Since Cin was still as sound as she had been, M had me ride in my Saturday lesson. We just walk-trotted, but Cinder felt the best she had in a long time. We think the abscess had been brewing for a while and that was what was causing the occasional off step. Hopefully that's the case and she continues to feel sounder. 

MDTE September 2024 Show

 Surprise! We went to a horse show. Cinder is finally feeling good enough that I asked my trainer her thoughts of doing a couple classes at the last MDTE show of year. We were in first place for the 2'3" hunters, and in third in the 2', for the circuit awards and as much as I hate being that person, I wanted to point chase. Trainer M thought a few classes would be doable, so off we went. 

Medal Finals participants got these nice glasses and having my morning coffee in them at work reminds me why I have to have a job to pay for these horse shows

To back things up, Cinder was cleared for jumping only two weeks ago. We had been doing a lot of pole work at the walk, and when we started trotting and cantering poles/cavaletti Cinder was quite enthused. Like, I was getting left behind and slightly run away with when we did a line of four trot poles and the first day we started cantering the 1' cavaletti I almost asked for a bigger bit. It was more funny and exciting that Cinder was so obviously happy to be back "jumping" than scary, but I did pull the ammy card and have Trainer M do the first official jumps back on her. But she was a perfect lady and jumped like she's been jumping all summer and didn't have a five month break. 

quick, pre-lesson power nap

Since I hadn't been planning on showing until the last minute, I had scheduled a dental for Peebs and agreed to feed dinner at his barn the day before the show. Trainer M had space in her trailer so she hauled Cinder and schooled her Friday at show without me. I know that's a fairly common occurrence in h/j land, but it felt so indulgent to me to just show up Saturday to the show and have my horse and tack all set up. I got a report that Cinder was foot perfect on Friday, and was even an emotional support horse to another of M's clients whose horse was melting down in the arena while schooling. 

hot mare morning walk

We decided to have Trainer M take Cin in a 2' class to see how she'd do, then have me do a 2'3" round. Cinder warmed up well. She was moving beautifully and hopped over the warm up fences with no problems. M's round went well, minus one corner when she went to rebalance and Cin tried to break to the trot, but they pulled out the win. M hopped off and Cin got a little break while I finished getting ready. 

Spoiler alert

I got on and did a quick walk/trot/canter and jumped like three warm up fences. M had told me the outside lines rode well, but the diagonal line was a little long and that I needed to make sure she was in front of my leg and that I had enough pace to make the six. So of course in our round I saw the waiting, quiet distance to the in of the line and then proceeded to sit there like a sack of potatoes and not make a decision of moving her up or holding for the add. God bless this horse for making the decision for me and getting down the line in a long six. Other than that the round was really nice. She landed all of her leads, we nailed the other lines and found nice distances to the other fences. There were only two in the class and we won. 

With those two rounds we were able to win year end circuit champion in both the 2' and 2'3" hunter divisions. Cinder won two nice leather halters with engraved champion nameplates. Honestly though, the halters were just icing on the cake at that point. Just getting to jump and show my horse again was amazing, and that she felt so good and was so professional and perfect plus winning two championships made the last five months of vet bills and rehab hell worth it. 

OHJA Medal Finals: Day 2

 For the lower medals (the 2'3" and the 2'6") the third and final round is held on the flat. There were enough entries in the 2'6" to separate them out into a junior and adult divisions, so I hopped on about half way through the junior division while the adults were finishing their warm up. We were riding in the big hunter derby ring and the warm up for that ring was a bit small. It was chaotic with the 2'6" adults and the 13 in my class all trying to ride at the same time. There was a couple of ponies I was sure I was going to run over, and apparently no one knows how to pass left shoulder to left shoulder anymore. Thank god no one was jumping or there would have been accidents for sure. 

The judge was calling for a lot of sitting trot and transitions between trot and canter in the 2'6" classes, so Trainer M had me doing that in our warm up. Maya's trot is not the most comfortable, and my back wasn't super happy with all the sitting trot. But she was listening well and I felt as ready as possible heading into the ring. 

The derby ring has really nice new footing that makes the footing in the other hunter rings look like absolute shit in comparison. I hope they replace the other footing with this for next year. 

The flat ended up being one of the most brutal flat classes I've ever ridden. There was a lot of sitting trot, lengthening the trot, two canters each direction, and basically no walk except to change direction. Going right the judge had us lengthen the canter. I was just behind a group of about 4 horses that were on the rail going past the judge and my first thought was "This could be very bad". I turned on the quarter line to try and avoid the pile up but as I was passing a couple of horses, I see one tuck his butt and then explode. The announcer quickly called for us all to halt, and in doing so Maya turned away from the horse bucking. I heard the pop of the rider's air vest go off and Maya scooted forward, spooking slightly at the noise. 

Thankfully the kid was ok and the horse stopped once she was off, so no more mayhem was caused.  We went back out on the rail and the judge started calling some of us into the center while continuing to test the others. I was one of the first called in, which was fine by me. The judge called again for a lengthened canter, and I could see all the trainers at the rail flinch. Like dude, this is a 2'3" local medal and you already got one kid bucked off. 

First time winning a neck ribbon

I don't remember what my final score was, but I know I got a 60something in the flat. We ended up dropping to 6th overall, which I'm still super happy about. For only riding Maya once before showing her, I'd say we did pretty damn well. 

OHJA Medal Finals: Day 1

OHJA medal finals are held over two days, and have three phases. Phase one (a written knowledge test) and phase two (over fences) are held on Friday and phase three (a flat phase for the 2'3" and 2'6" medals, over fences for the higher medals) are on Saturday. The finals are held during a regular rated show, but I only did medal finals. The show was held about 20mins from the barn, and Maya has shown there a ton, so we decided to haul her in for those two days. 

We were supposed to take our written test between 7:30-9:30 Friday morning, and of course my round wasn't scheduled to go till 4:30pm. So I headed over to the show around 8, took the test, and watched a few short stirrup rounds go. There had been a study session held at the show on Wednesday night that I went to and was initially irritated by because it lasted all of 20mins, but the test was the exact questions they gave us at the session so it worked out. I got a perfect 10/10.

Everything was wet because it rained Thursday night and on and off on Friday

 I then went to the barn, hung out, cleaned, and organized my shit before we loaded Maya up around 2 to head over. Maya is a great traveler and was content to hang out in the trailer with a hay net while Trainer M and I watched the bigger medal classes and ate lunch. They opened up the course around 3 for a combined walk for the mini and foundation medals. We walked, made our plan then headed over to the trailer to start getting ready. 

All pro photos from McCool Photography. The show office charges each entry $35 for photos and you get digital downloads of all your pics. 

Trainer M hopped on Maya first, as she can sometimes be a bit spunky at the shows, and M would rather ride her through it instead of lunging her. Once I got on the nerves started to get to me a little. It didn't help that Maya was a little annoyed with me and tried to buck a couple of times. I was riding in her owner's saddle, that has a much deeper seat than mine, and I felt like I was sitting in a hole and slightly behind her motion. I was trying to be more in a half seat, but couldn't quite find my balance. We jumped a few fences, then went to watch a couple of rounds, planning on jumping one or two more right before going in. 

There was a posted order of go, but as the way of hunter ring, there was an open gate for about five minutes. I asked Trainer M if I could just go and get it over with, instead of sitting there letting my anxiety increase. She agreed, the back gate guy gave his blessing and off we went. I felt Maya perk up a bit, and once we picked up our canter she became all business. She really listened to me and was right with me every stride. I liked that the course was twisty as it gave me more to focus on instead of a lot of long straight lines. We landed every lead, and most of the distances came up well. I know I half halted a bit too strongly coming around the corner to fence 3, but otherwise everything else rode really, really well. It was honestly one of the best rounds I've ever ridden. I had given my phone to a friend to video, but it unfortunately died just after my round started so no video. 

We ended up with a 76, so combined with my 10 from the written test, we had an 86 earning us second out of thirteen. I was so beyond happy with our round and honestly don't think I could have done any better on Cinder, or if I had ridden Maya more. Maya got a lot of cookies while we untacked and cleaned her up, and then we headed home ready for round three the next day. 
 

Horse of a Different Color

Its slow going in rehab land. Cinder is feeling much better after her stifle injections, but we underestimated how much muscle and fitness she's lost being off since the end of April. We also forgot that we cut her grain while she was on stall rest and didn't up it once she was back in work, so she lost a bit of weight. For a few days she was looking like the before pic in a rescue before and after. But we've tweaked her diet and she's already looking a lot better. 

Peebs got pulled out again for some walkies, and we actually trotted a circle! He was not amused that I contemplated putting him back into work  

Unfortunately, she's not going to be ready for next week's Oregon Hunter Jumper Association Medal Finals. That was my big goal for the year, to qualify and compete. I also received a $500 grant from OHJA to help cover costs, and a $100 early qualifier voucher, which basically covers my show entry fees. When I realized Cin wasn't going to be ready in time, I cried. A lot. Over the course of many days. I know that's how horses go, you work your ass off and shit goes south, but it still hurts. 

So I texted Trainer M and asked if there was any possibility of getting a catch ride. An hour later she had one for me. One of her other clients is letting me use her mare, a 17yr old Holsteiner named Maya. She's a been there, done that three ring schoolmaster and took her owner to 6th at the same medal finals a few years ago. She can be a little sassy, and likes to test new riders a bit by going slower than a snail and pretend spooking at things, but jumps anything put in front of her. 

Bay ears view!

I had a lesson last night with Maya and she was way more fun than I thought she'd be. She's about the same height as Cinder, 16.3-17.0 hands, but thicker and longer, but she didn't ride as big as I expected. She was also more forward and responsive to my leg than we expected her to be, so much so that Trainer M took my spurs off halfway through the lesson. Maya wants you to establish the pace, then leave her alone and she'll maintain it, while Cinder needs more help maintaining her pace. We ended up jumping a full course and only had one slightly iffy distance. I saw the long one into a line so we kinda cannonballed it and I really had to sit back and get her together to get the five, but we did it. Not bad, considering I've barely cantered and haven't jumped since the end of April and this was my first time riding her. 

Riding the Spiral

 When we last left off Cinder had just gotten a much needed chiro adjustment and we were hopeful that would fix her slightly unevenness. Unfortunately, it didn't. She still felt off, and after a few days of easy work was actually lame. Assistant Trainer M was teaching lessons that day, and videoed us to send to both Trainer M and Doc. Both AT M and I thought it was in the front, possibly left front. And at least Cin picked a good time to be lame, as we had four days of 100+ temps during this lameness spell so I wasn't like I was missing out on much riding time. 

Might have spiraled a bit and briefly thought about pulling Peebs out of retirement. I'm sure you can tell by his ears how enthused he was about this idea

I had been having visions of torn tendons and ligaments during the week between her coming up actually lame and the vet visit, despite no heat or swelling in any limbs. I was making plans of how I could scrounge up money/ a horse to use for medal finals at the end of August, and if I could afford to move Cin home to rehab since a stall at Peebs barn is opening up next month and then part lease something at Trainer M's. As mentioned above, I thought about seeing how sound Peebs was and if he could come back into work. I did hop on him for the first time in over a year and we took two steps from the mounting block before he stopped, put his head up, and let me know that was as much work as he was wiling to do.  

He is down for showers on hot summer days tho

Doc put us on the list for a lameness exam last Wednesday, which is her normal day to come out to the barn. I wasn't going to be able to make the appointment as we had an accreditation inspection at work Wed-Fri last week, but Doc ended up having two different emergencies to go to so Cinder got bumped to Saturday which I was able to be there for. 

As soon as the lameness exam started, Doc clocked the issue as being in the hind not the front, and more in the right hind. We flexed the fronts just to be thorough, but nothing popped up. Cin's hocks were slightly positive to flexion, but the stifles were the real culprits. Cin does have a small bone spur in her left stifle, and we injected both about a year and a half ago, so it wasn't surprising that it's time to inject them again. Doc prefers PRP, so Cinder will be getting injected this week with that in both stifles. Doc is hopeful that we can get her sound and fit enough for medal finals, so fingers crossed the PRP does the job.