Cutting My Losses

We all know horses are a money pit.  Unless you're wheeling and dealing at the upper levels, its hard to actually make money on horses or even break even. I'm obviously not at the upper levels and am probably spending way more money on my ponies than is wise. Which makes knowing when to cut your losses hard. 

At the end of June I took Tia in to see where she was in her cycle in hopes of breeding her again.  We still were waiting for the biopsy results, but the vet wasn't super worried about it.  When they scanned her, they found a decent sized cyst that hadn't been seen before.  Either it grew fast, or was never found in her earlier scans.  The vet and I discussed options, and decided to wait till after the Fourth to short cycle her and rebreed. I then got the biopsy results the next day and that brought everything to a screeching halt.  The vet originally didn't think she was as bad as she it, and seemed a bit shocked and apologetic when telling me.

Tia has a lot of scar tissue and some signs of long term, low grade inflammation. Even with a clean uterine culture, she probably has, and has had, a low grade infection.  The infection we can treat. The scar tissue we can't.  The vet gave her a 10-50% chance of the embryo being able to implant after fertilization. If we can clear up the infection, and treat her all winter, the higher the chances.  But then we're waiting another year, and she'll be even older which lowers our chances. But even so, we're looking at a less than 50% chance of implantation. 

Basically he told me, if it was his mare, he'd cut his losses. We could throw a ton of money at her, and still end up with nothing. I'm already about $2,000 into this, which isn't all that bad considering the price of going out and buying a foal at the level I'd hope this one would be. But do I want to double that and get nothing? Embryo transfer is an option, but it's not a magic bullet.  I'd be looking at around $5k with no guarantee. Not to mention the emotional cost.  I'm proud that I haven't cried in front of the vets, but there's been plenty of tears in the truck, at the barn, and at home.  The owners of the barn next to mine just had a mare foal and they were complaining that they wanted a bay tobiano colt and got a liver chestnut filly.  I wanted to punch them and scream that I just want a Tia baby.  I don't care gender or color. I understand a better now how women with fertility issues feel.

So for now, we're done.  I technically still have a breeding to Yorke but I don't have a mare. For a few days I was tempted to contact McKenna's new owner (who doesn't appear to be doing a whole lot with her from what I see) and ask for her back.  But the baby wouldn't be what I want, and Yorke wouldn't be as good of a cross with McKenna as he would be with Tia. And I don't ever want to breed just for the sake of breeding.  I'd like to think that someday I'll find another mare like Tia and be able to breed her.

Here, There, and Everywhere

I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but the past week has been a crazy roller coaster. Between hauling horses, the show, crazy weather swings, and being shorthanded at work I feel like all I do is run around.

 Last Thursday I took Tia in for a uterine exam. The clinic was a little over an hour away, but they're one of the top repro vets in the state.  It had been raining off and on all week and cooler, in the 60s, but the day I was to haul her up called for 30-50mph winds.  Not exactly what I want to haul in.  Luckily the wind wasn't too bad, except for the last five miles home.  The exam itself went well; Tia was the picture of perfect uterine health. No cysts, no edema, no visible scaring. I did opt to do a uterine biopsy and culture just to be safe.  The culture came back negative but we won't get the biopsy report back for another week or so.  The vet recommended rebreeding her (hopefully next week!) and putting her on Regumate to make sure her hormone levers are sufficient to maintain the pregnancy.

Mare is not amused

Originally my show was supposed to be on Saturday, but because of the rain, they moved it to Sunday.  It was a USHJA Outreach show held during a rated show and show management was moving some of the rated classes around to save the footing. I was fine with the show being moved back a day, gave me extra time to prep and I spent most of Saturday getting everything cleaned and ready instead of rushing around Friday night.

Gelding is not amused

 But of course Sunday dawned sunny and hot. It was over 20* hotter on Sunday than it had been earlier in the week.  And of course my classes didn't go till early afternoon.  We got to the show around 8 and I was glad I had gotten a day stall.  We threw Peebs in and went and watched some of the junior/AO hunters and the jumper ring. We also grabbed lunch of delicious grilled cheese sandwiches and the teen from our barn that I forced asked to be my groom/ground person found a $360 hunt coat marked down to $20 that fit her perfectly. She's mainly a western rider but is doing English pleasure and dressage in 4H and open shows so she needed a coat. I wish I could find deals like that!

Unfortunately Peebs was not in a horse show frame of mind.  He was super looky and spooky and tried to take off with me in the canter during our warm up.  We spent a lot of time walking around trying to get his head on.  I didn't even think to bring a lunge line, but he could have used a nice long lunge.  I will for sure be bringing one next time and doing an early morning lunge just to be on the safe side. I was debating trying to jump him in the warm up (would it wind him up more or calm him down?) when there was an open gate for our ring.  I said screw it, I'm hot and they're 18" jumps, and I think getting him in the ring and focusing on something will calm him down.  So we went in with no warm up jump.

Molly is not amused

We trotted into everything and cantered down the lines, and the first class was a shit storm. He was spooky, tried to run across the diagonal line, and wouldn't come back to the trot after our last line.  So I stopped him hard, made him wait, then walked out of the ring. I think that knocked some sense into him because our second round was much better.  Still jumper-in-the-hunter-ring like, but we actually got the correct number of strides, and decent transitions without having a battle over it. 

While waiting for our third trip and flat class they brought a water truck and tractor into the warm up.  Peebs lost his shit at the water truck and went flying backward and spun.  I hopped off to hold him and every time the truck came at us or close to us he'd try to vacate stage left. At one point he backed into a trainer who wasn't paying attention.  Luckily she was fine and I apologized profusely. I was really hot and done at that point so I scratched the rest of my classes and took him back to the stall.  I figured he was an ass in warm up and the first round but we redeemed ourselves in the second round and while I was pissed at him for being THAT horse at a show, I was never scared or felt like I was going to die.  I didn't get mad at him, tried to keep my hands down, and release in the half halts.  And the 18" fences looked tiny. Big wins for me! He was just not his normal unflappable Peebers self, but we survived and got better, at least until the water truck.

I wasn't expecting to place at all considering most everybody else in the class cantered the fences and we exuberantly trotted everything. But I checked the results online when I got home and we somehow managed a 2nd for our second round, out of 8.  I was shocked! Not shockingly we did place 8th out of 8 for the first round.

We're going back to the same show ground for a two day Outreach show in July and I will for sure be lunging him and avoiding water trucks!  Hopefully he won't be as much of a nutcase!

To Good to be True

Tia went in for her 30 day check up on Friday afternoon, and they weren't able to find the embryo.  Sometime between day 16 and 31 she lost the pregnancy.  I had been thinking that everything had been too easy, going too well and I was right.  For an older mare, that has had reproductive issues in the past, I was shocked that she took on the first try and everything looked good at the first check.

I admit to crying the whole way home from the vet's. Which is about 5 minutes, but still. Once at the barn and after unloading Tia, I sat in the truck and cried some more while texting my mom and BO. The vet asked me if I wanted to try again, and I had said I didn't know.  My fear is that we'll rebreed her and it'll happen again. At that point I was too upset to even think about trying again. I don't recommend trying to back up and park your trailer while crying; I might have almost hit another trailer. Damn tears make it hard to see.

I spent most of Friday night/Saturday morning crying and trying to figure out what I want to do. I looked up repro specialists and after talking with my mom, BO, and another boarder I decided to take Tia into another vet about an hour away and get her opinion. If she thinks Tia could hold a pregnancy we'll try again.  If not, I  think we're going to try embryo transfer.  Our barn manager, LT, has offered her husband's trail mare up as a surrogate, pending vet approval.

 It's expensive, but as my mom put it, not that much more than going out and buying another horse.  And I don't want another horse, I want Tia's baby. I adore the mare and would love to have a piece of her for my own. If I could have bred Phoenix, Buddy, or Peebs I would have.  It's not about having a fancy, upper level horse for me.  It's about having a piece of a horse I love. I never plan to have human children; my horses are my kids and I didn't think I'd be so upset about losing Tia's foal. But it feels like I've lost part of my heart.

Coming April 2018

If you've been following my blog for a few years, you (hopefully) remember how much I love my BO's mare Tia. She's the ultimate hunter, loves her job, does it well, isn't marish, doesn't give a crap about anything except having her mane pulled, and anyone can ride her.  She does have some arthritis issues with her front end, but I believe a lot of that was due to being over jumped/showed as a baby. My BO got her for $1, and it was hands down the best dollar ever spent.

Tia with a former leaser

We were told when we got her that she had been bred in the past, but had had an issue getting pregnant. I've said for years how much I'd love to breed her and get a baby, but was worried that it would have to be an embryo transfer and that's expensive. My BO has always told me that if I want to breed her I can. When Yorke moved into the barn last fall, I really, really, REALLY wanted to breed them.  He's more refined and lighter built than Tia, which is what she needs. Both have awesome temperaments and are easy to work with and be around. And how awesome would it be to have mom and dad in the barn?

When I used to jumper bigger fences

I kinda hemmed and hawed this winter/spring until one of the other boarders at the barn gave me a kick in the ass.  I talked to the vet, and basically she said to have Tia ultrasounded to see what was going on in there, and if I really want to breed her, this is the year to do it; she'll be too old next year.  So in early May right before I left for San Diego I dropped Tia off to be bred to Yorke.  She was bred on the 8th, and they said everything looked good and she had a nice big follicle. Yorke has very good semen and has never had to rebreed a mare, so that was a good plus.  I took her back yesterday for her pregnancy check and there was the little black dot on the screen!!  Tia's officially 17 days in foal to Yorke for an April 2018 baby!! 

She did have a bit more edema in her uterus than normal, so she goes back in for another ultrasound in two weeks, but they didn't seem too worried by it.  I have a list of dates for her pneumabort shots as well as updating her vaccinations and deworming. But hopefully, if all goes well, we'll have a baby around April 13th of next year!!

Ride Like a Hunter

Last weekend when Peebs couldn't horse because reasons, I still wanted to ride so I commandeered Tia.  Her leasee had already ridden her that morning, but she rides her pretty lightly and I figured it wouldn't hurt to pull her out again.

We both enjoyed it

It was a bit painful when I first got on to feel how old and stiff Tia's gotten. Her trot used to be big and bouncy but now it starts out as more of a shuffle. She did warm up out of it and her canter still felt great as ever.  There's just something about being able to get up in two point and cantering around with a loop in your reins. It's so much fun to play with her; all I have to do to bring her back is close my fingers and sit up a bit. We ended up popping over a couple of cross rails and big mama still loves her job.   I contemplated doing the boxes or a vertical, but didn't want to push it. I'm sure she would have been super excited for "big" fences but I didn't want to make her sore or lame.

It got me thinking about how I ride her vs Peebs so differently.  I ride her like a hunter but I ride Peebs more in a dressagey frame.  Part of that is Peebs is still learning how to use his body correctly and Tia naturally goes like a hunter while he doesn't.  While I want to show Peebs in the jumpers I think I need to try to ride him more like a hunter and not focus on packaging him up as much when we're jumping.  I realized that I'm hyper focusing on getting him round and packaged instead letting him flow to the fences. Obviously getting him working in a frame is a good thing but I'm afraid of over doing it, more for me mentally then for him. Long term goal wise I want to a National Hunter Derby as well as some AA eq/hunter classes, and I kinda sorta have a plan in the works for that. I need to not forget how to ride a hunter now, so if/when I have my hunter pony I know how to ride it.

Horses I'd Steal

I'm joining in on the $900 FB Pony's blog hop on horses I'd steal. There's two in the barn is take in a heartbeat.

She's also the best a trail riding.  I've had horses spook, spin and crash into us and mare don't care.

First is my BO's mare Tia. Holsteiner/TB cross, 17 hands and 18yrs old but one of the funniest horses in the barn, she's now semiretired. But she's still that awesome push button Hunter and I've been know to pull her out every couple months for funsies. What's not to love about a awesome rocking horse canter, auto lead changes, and a horse that will jump anything no matter how badly you screw up the distance?!?

The other horse is Yorke, an Oldenburg stallion. He's shown at 4th level dressage, and schooled higher. He was in the barn a few years ago and just moved back a couple weeks ago. He's the quietest stud ever. I've seen his owner ride him bareback with just a halter and lead rope with other horses and he never batted an eye. I think it would be a blast to ride him just to play around with all his buttons. 

Skeptical of paparazzi

My not so secret plan is to breed Tia and Yorke. He's a bit smaller and more refined than Tia, which I like. They both have amazing temperaments, are super quiet, and beautiful movers. And, more than likely, I'd get a dark baby with minimal white. The only problem? Tia's 18 and we were told that she's had fertility issues. If I had the $$$ I'd do embryo transfer, if the vet though it was possible. Alas, I have yet to find my money tree so my theoretical baby will have to stay a dream. 

Two for Two

The vet was out Wednesday to check on the lame mares and, surprise surprise, both of them weren't lame anymore.  Damn it girls!  But on the plus side my home diagnosis for both of them were confirmed by the vet.

We started with Tia who was walking normally but still had some sensitivity on her suspensory.  Both the vet and I thought that she probably got worked up in her paddock last weekend when we had some thunderstorms roll in and re injured herself.  So she's on stall rest with hand walking for another couple weeks then recheck.

If you look close you can see it

With McKenna I told the vet about the on and off lameness and the slit on her coronary band.  When we pulled her out of her stall she had a very obvious spot of blood on it and when the vet pushed more blood/pus mix came out.  He did put the hoot testers to her and she wasn't reactive.  He recommended a few days of Epsom salt soaking to draw anything else out then switching to an iodine spray to dry it out.

We did her first soak later that night and she was surprisingly good for it.  She didn't want to stand still for very long but happily put her foot in soak.  She likes to put both her front feet in her water trough in the pasture and splash around so I was expecting some that to happen but she didn't. 

At least she's cute!

What Plan?

I'm pretty sure I should just give up trying to plan anything equine related. McKenna is still still off and on lame and Tia, who was doing better, lost a chunk of hoof, had to go barefoot for a cycle because she doesn't have enough of a right foot to put a shoe back onto, is now three legged lame. Of course she lost the chunk of hoof on her good front leg but somehow is three legged on the bad front leg.  The vet's coming back out tomorrow and at this point I'm just like whatever and am perusing DreamHorse and FB groups for sales horse.  

Hi There!

Not much as has happened in the month or more that I haven't been blogging.  Some really good rides on the mare, some not so good rides.  We were sticking with our once a week jumping lesson for a solid month but have gotten off the rails for the past couple weeks.  First it was super hot, like 108* hot, then the mare was sore, then she got better and I took dressage lesson, and now she's sore again.  But it looks like she blew an abscess in her right front and the farrier will be out tomorrow to take a look at her.

New fav pic of McKenna

I have had two teen girls out to look at her.  One really liked her, but I was worried that she was too inexperienced of a rider for McKenna, but I haven't heard from her in a couple weeks so..... I have really lowered her price because I'm at the point where I want her gone now.  I don't want to have to keep pouring money into her, I'm going on vacation and I feel guilty having her sit and asking a friend to take care of her, and most importantly I'm starting a new job on the 14th (the day after getting back from NY) with increased hours so I'm not sure what my new schedule will be.  It feels like this will be a good time for a whole new start.

The plus side is that I'm super, super, super happy about the new job and can.not.wait! to leave my current one.  I know a lot of my lack of riding/blogging/general unhappiness is due to stress from my job.  I fully expect stress and issues at the new one but it can't be as bad as where I am now.  And it's going to shave 30mins of my commute each way so that almost equals out the extra hours.

A good 95% of our field rides look like this.  Whoa crazy mare!

I was starting to do some ride on Tia, including three or four really nice and relaxing field rides with friends, until she came up lame and wouldn't work out of it.  We had the vet out and she was very reactive on her suspensory.  Our vet doesn't have a mobile ultrasound so we didn't see what was going on but he felt like it wasn't something major, probably a strain.  She never had any heat or swelling in the leg and was only slightly more lame then she normally is when she first starts out.  She's on 15mins of walking with twice daily Surpass for another week and then we'll recheck.  If she's not better we'll take her in for the ultrasound.  The plan was after I sell McKenna to lease Tia thru the winter but we all know how the best laid plans with horses usually turn out.

Grid Work Round 2

On Wednesday I was way too motivated and rode both Tia and McKenna after work.  I did Tia first and let McKenna get her crazies out in one of the outdoor paddocks.  Before I got on I added another fence to the one stride from last time.  I had it set as a crossrail, one stride, crossrail, one stride pole to begin so I didn't overwhelm the big mare.

Switching the stirrups on Tia's new saddle really helped.  My ankles weren't dying, I was able to keep my leg quieter and underneath me better. When we first started over the grid I wasn't staying up in two point long enough after the fence, kept sitting down too soon but that got better as we went along.   We did the two crossrails a couple times to make sure she was good and I had the distances set right.



This is her staring at the photographer and trying to land and go sideways

I got off and put the last fence up to vertical.  Coming to it the first time I felt Tia look at it and hesitate and we lost our impulsion to the first fence. I legged her on and held mane.  One of the bet things about Tia is that she might not know what you're asking, but she'll try.  She'll look at something and hesitate if she's not sure, but as long as her rider is confident and supporting she'll go for it.  We had a bit of a leap to the last fence, but coming around to it a second time she figured it out and adjusted herself.  We did the whole thing probably 5 times and each go was better than before. 




She's just so darn cute!  I however need to fix my chicken wing elbow.

At least until I asked my friend to video.  She stood pretty much directly in front of the line, along the back rail of the ring and Tia looked at her hard coming into the line. She backed off, and ended up rubbing all three fences.  When we landed she took about a stride then ducked around the turn to make sure we didn't run over the photographer. I made her come back a second time and we ironed everything out.

2015 Q1 Goal Review and Q2 Goals

My goals for the first quarter of the year were:

For McKenna:

• work at least 4x/week.  Have one lunge in vienna reins day and one "jump" (poles, cross rails, etc) day a week. Pretty much stuck to it.  The only real "time off" she had was after her chiro adjustment and that was per the vet.  I wasn't great about one "jump" day per week but we'll get there.
• Continue working on our canter. Success!  We were complimented on our canter improvement at our last lesson with TS and she gave us homework (shallow serpentines to introduce counter canter) that we've been working on.
• Get her out and go places!  I haven't taken her anywhere in the year that I've had her and I want to start exposing her to new places before hitting our first show. Complete and utter FAIL. Partly due to my truck dieing and me not trusting it hauling and partly due to time/availability of someone to go with us. 

For Phoenix:

• Stay a happy, somewhat sound, old man. Win!  Phoenix moved to his new retirement home and seems pretty happy out there.  He looks sounder less lame and isn't stocking up in his hind end anymore.

 Since I started riding Tia and hope to show her my Q2 goals are going to include her.

For McKenna:

• Get her out and go places!  My plan is if/when I show Tia to get a stall for McKenna and park her in it at the shows.  And time/space/energy permitting I'll hand walk/lunge/ride her around the show grounds as well.
• "Jump" more.  She gets so excited over the little crossrails that it makes me nervous doing them outside of a lesson.  I guess that just means I need to lesson more!  
• Work on clipping her ears.  

For Tia:

• Continue grid work, adding in bounces.
• Work on more eq/jumper style courses 
• All the counter canter!
• Show in the 2'6", either hunter, eq, or jumpers.  I'm not picky

For Phoenix:

• Stay happy, fat, and adorable!

As the Withers Turn

Tia is very hard to fit saddle wise; she has those shark fin TB withers. I was riding her for a while a few years ago, and borrowed her for a medal final, and had a hell of time trying to get a saddle to work for her.  The only saddle in the barn that fits her really well is a Wintec all purpose that I hate.  I can't get my calf on her and I can't get out of the saddle over the fences. My saddle fits ok with a large Beval wither relief pad but after our last ride I noticed it was rubbing her.

Today after our warm up, when I started asking for more bend and for her to come on the bit, she stopped.  We were trotting along and she just petered out and halted.  When I got after her she got pissy and hopped up on her front end.  I've been through enough saddle fit issues with her to know that's her way of saying "Ow" so I got off and took her back to the crossties.  I pulled my saddle and was staring at my BO's saddles trying to remember what I've tried on her in the past. My BO has 2 dressage (one fits Tia, but obviously not going to jump in it), 1 all purpose (hate), 1 jumping Wintec (doesn't fit), and 1 Dover Circuit jumping saddle.  The last time we went through this with Tia she didn't have the Dover so as a last ditch effort into not having to use the all purpose I tried it.

Dover Circuit

Surprisingly it fit pretty well.  It's maybe a touch narrow but gives really nice wither clearance.  I used the same Beval pad with it and did some easy w-t-c and jumped a small crossrail and the mare was happy with it.  I however, felt like a fish out of water.  It's narrower than my saddle, and while it's stamped the same size as mine it felt smaller. The knee rolls/pads are kinda weird and my leg goes over them a bit but I think it will just take some getting used to. 

Close up of the odd knee rolls

The Sprenger offset jointed stirrups just about killed my ankles and I think I'm going to need to punch some half holes in the leathers. The saddle came with a horse my BO's got last year, which it actually doesn't fit very well, so it's not used much and my BO said I can use it as much as I want and I can switch the stirrups. I gave it a good conditioning and swapped out the stirrups for my regular jointed ones and put my composite stirrups back on my saddle. I had taken the composites off because I can't show in the eq in them, but since I won't be using my saddle to show Tia in, I can have them back on mine.

Back to Basics

I didn't ride Tia in over a week so when I pulled her out on Tuesday I thought it would be good to revisit some of our issues from our last ride, our horrible trot pole lesson. I set up an easy one stride, x-rail to ground pole with the intent to turn it into an x-rail. I've never taken Tia through a grid, and I seem to remember one of her past lesson girls trying and it not going well.  I'm of the feeling that because she is such a natural hunter that whoever started her just went right to course work, didn't do some (to me) basics. Luckily I really like grids so Tia will have many of them in her future.

Doing baby basic grids is hard work

When we first approached the mini-gird I could feel Tia question it.  It was the same "I have no idea what to do" feeling she had during the lesson.  Like she couldn't figure where to put her feet or how to jump.  She backed way off and almost jumped the x-rail from a standstill.  She did what I call the splits over it; front feet on the off side while the back feet were still on the takeoff side. She did a tiny little canter step then realized she didn't have enough room to fit a second one it and supermaned it over the pole.  She's a horse that can't split her stride over a ground pole, she'll either chip in or leave long.   I just tried to stay out of her way and support with my hand and leg to keep her going.  I did laugh a bit though.

Scary stuff man

It took about four times through the "grid" for her to really get it and to smooth things out.  The one stride became easy and she was relaxing so I put the ground pole up to an x-rail.  Coming to it she wanted to back off, but didn't feel as confused as when we first started.  She looked at the grid but went right through pretty well.  I only did the x-rail to x-rail another couple times since she was getting it.  It wasn't hard physically, but it was a big mental challenge to her.  I was just about done when my BO (Tia's owner) came out and I was able to get her to video us. I have no idea what my outside hand is doing, kindly ignore it.

Death by Trot Poles

In a continuation of the simple-but-oh-so-hard exercises I had a lesson on Tia Sunday that kicked both of our asses. I had been talking with my trainer at the beginning of the lesson about the clinic and joked that she'd have me do an all trot fence/pole lesson and while she laughed and said no, I managed to jinx us.

Tia is not a super fan of trot fences.  She likes to either loose all forward impulsion and then kinda collapse over them or canter the last stride before the jump.  It's a balancing act between enough leg to keep her forward but not get her cantering, and supporting with your hand but not holding her. Since she's such a schoolmaster she knows we do a couple trot fences then move on to the funner, bigger stuff so she kinda checks out during warmup.

We were to start warming up over three small verticals, at the trot, a single outside, singe diagonal, then an inside rollback to an outside. The first fence actually was pretty decent but she wasn't convinced she had to come back to the trot for the other fences.  She did canter before the diagonal and our rollback left a lot to be desired.  Trainer then had us just focus on the rollback, making sure I was looking early and asking for the left lead to make the turn easier.  Tia then decided to get twisted and drift sideways to the last fence so we got a placing pole to help keep us straight.

Accurate representation of us

While the turn and approach to the last fence got easier, the mare kept rocket launching the tiny jumps.  So trainer put out a placing pole before the jumps. Didn't faze Tia any, she just launched from farther away or did a super short canter stride between the pole and the jump. At this point both my trainer and I were laughing that the point-and-shoot horse was having a fit over such a simple exercise and I repeated that we were going to spend the whole lesson on trot fences.

We got more placing poles before the jumps and Tia completely lost it.  She stopped and (very slowly) ran out of our line of 3 placing poles. It felt like she had no idea what to do or where to put her feet. Coming back around to the diagonal I really had to hold her hand and support  her, hands up and plenty of contact and a supporting leg. It took her many, many tries with some, as my trainer said, truly terrible jumps.  A few times it felt like she straddled the fence with her front feet on one side and her back end on the other. I've never had so many bad distances in one lesson.  Once she finally she figured out the trot poles and we could trot the two fences nicely we quit. We had spent almost a full hour on those two, seemingly simple fences.  The poor mare was super sweaty and look exhausted so she got a nice warm bath and turned out into our all weather paddocks for the rest of the day.

Lesson 2 of 2: Motion is Lotion

For my second lesson on Sunday we only did a half hour with our dressage instructor since Tia has already gone once.  Tia's usually a pretty easy going mare, not super demonstrative or emotional, but man the look she gave me when I went to tack her up again was pure evil.  She was not a happy camper.  It was very close to the look she gives when you try to pull her mane.

Pic from before my jump lesson, forgot to put with the other post

TS, our dressage instructor/chiro, has adjusted Tia before but never seen her ridden.  As I warmed up at the walk, she talked about how a lot of hunters tend to be very stiff and locked in their neck.  They go in that hunter frame, but don't use their neck correctly and their neck muscles tend to be very ropy and stiff.  And unfortunately Tia is a good example of that. She's happy to go along in a hunter frame, but if you ask her to really round up and go in a more dressagey way she actually comes up lame.  TS said that's because she's trying to use muscles that she hasn't in a very long time and has to change her way of going.  TS said that the only way to get her to change and get through it was to get her to move correctly. Our plan for the lesson was to work on unlocking Tia's neck and trying to develop a deeper, dressagey frame.

My trainer said that with her long whiskers Tia looked like a goat, so we started calling her goat mare.  I did take the not so subtle hint and clip her.

TS had me go into the trot, and do a lot of the same exercises she had me do with McKenna last time.  Post on the inside diagonal, push Tia out, exaggerate the bend.  To the right Tia was lot better than the left and after a couple times around the ring she really started to soften and give.  It was like once we worked through the "scar tissue" as TS put it, she unlocked this gorgeous flowy stride.  She was super light in my hand and I could feel her back come up and start swinging. I'm really sad we didn't get pics or video of it.  The canter was the same, I could feel her come up to me and she had (at least it felt like) this ground eating, hack winning stride. TS checked her neck again after the end of the lesson and said she could feel a difference in her neck muscles even after that short of a ride.  Made me feel pretty happy!

Lesson 1 of 2

I wasn't really thinking earlier this week when I scheduled a jumping lesson with my trainer on Tia for this morning that I was riding in a dressage lesson with McKenna this afternoon.  But once I realized I figured, what the hell, it'd be good for me and I really don't need to be able to walk tomorrow. Unfortunately when I had our dressage instructor/chiro check McKenna before the lesson she declared the mare very out in her back and poll so I didn't ride her and she got an adjustment instead.  My BO, who owns Tia, said she'd pay for part of my lesson if I wanted to use Tia.  So I did. But that's a post for tomorrow.

Tia's opinion about having to go twice in one day

My jump lesson in the morning started with a stiff Tia, but after a good long and loose trot warm up she felt pretty good and was raring to go.  It was bright and sunny, but windy and only around 40* so it felt pretty cold. We started by attempting to trot a crossrail but the big mare kept trying to canter it. I had to really focus on keeping my posting rhythm the same and not giving my hand away to keep her with me. 

The jump then went up to a 2'ish vertical that we cantered.  My job was to have a good pace and impulsion coming in, bend and balance in the corner, then let her go and support her to the fence.  It was a bit rough at first, my micromanagement tendencies were in full force, but we had a couple pretty nice fences.  Changed directions and did the same thing to the right and had a bit more of struggle since Tia tends to overbend going right and I had to work a bit harder.  But once we got it it felt really nice. 

Throwback to summer 2013 when Tia and I were jumping big sticks

We finished by putting a small 2' course together, just an outside line, diagonal, single outside, other diagonal but considering it's the most both Tia and I have jumped since last summer it was pretty exciting.  We accidentally added in the line, but it was a well done add and my trainer was fine with it since both of us are rusty. Tia did get a bit strong going downhill to one of the diagonals and I had to hold her a bit, which pissed her off, but oh well mare. When we went back to fix it she got over herself and it flowed really well.  I was super happy even though we were jumping tiny that I could go out and put together a fairly nice round after so much time off.  And I talked with my BO and trainer and hopefully I can take her to a show next month.

Jump On It

At my lesson last week my trainer and I were talking about a clinic coming up at one of the big H/J barns in the area.  It's with Melanie Smith Taylor, an Olympic gold medalist and World Cup winner.  Trainer really wants to me to do it, but since there's no way McKenna would be ready for even the 2' group in a month trainer suggested Tia.  I hadn't even thought about riding/taking another horse, and while I'd still like to do it I don't have the $$.  But I am planning on going for one of the days to audit.

Trainer and I then talked about me just riding Tia a little, maybe doing a lesson or two on her to get my jumping legs (or should I say eye) back.  The really nice thing about working with the same trainer for 10 years now (holy crap makes me feel old!) is that she knows I need to jump a height consistently or else it gets big and terrifying.

So on Thursday I grabbed Tia and off we went.  She had run around like a crazy mare in turnout, which is very odd for her, and was nice and forward when I got on.  She only has one person riding her 3-4 days a week currently, but its an older ammy who just plunks around over some cross rails and showers Tia with treats, so she's a little out of shape. Tia is a completely different ride than McKenna and I felt a bit like a fish out water for a good chunk of the ride. But we managed to do a halfway respectable w-t-c. 

That's a big scary fence....really

Saturday in between the rain showers I was able to do a quick jump school.  I had a cross rail, a 2' and a 2'6" vertical set up.  But as we were warming up that 2'6" started to look very big and scary so I lowered it to 2'3".  We were a little more in sync for flatting and trotting the cross rail and then moved to cantering the verticals.  I was actually really surprised and happy that I was able to just let Tia go and find the distance herself and stay out of her way.  We had a few fences (especially a tightish turn to the diagonal fence where someone wanted to bulge her shoulder out and get very crooked) that I had to micromanage but we were able to get some pretty nice distances and flow.  I still felt a bit like a sack of potatoes on Tia, but for not jumping anything more than cross rails for 7 months I was really happy.

One Small Circle for Me, One Large Circle for the Win

While the show didn't go exactly as planned, I'm still very happy with it.  Tia was awesome, did everything I asked even when she wasn't sure.  I had one moment of panic while on course and if not for that we probably would have won. 

We got to the show a little before one, checked in and got Tia settled in her stall.  They opened the course up at 1 to walk, and I wasn't scheduled to do my flat class until 2:15.  The plan was to walk, change my clothes, get tacked up, then warm up on the flat.  The walk went pretty well, minus that both Jen and I  had trouble figuring out strides.  No distances between fences were posted on the course (the course pic is posted below) and we had to walk a couple lines twice.  Overall it was a pretty technical course considering it's a local medal final.  There were 2-3 make-it-or-break it fences and our plan was to just ride everything forward and go for it.

It started raining while I was changing.  The classes were being held inside but warm up was outside.  It was warm, around 70* and humid. I was dying in my hunt coat. We somehow got behind tacking up and I got on with about 15mins to warm up. Oops.  It stopped raining, yay!, and we went outside.  The outdoor ring was pretty deep and Tia was having a little trouble working in.  We schooled transitions, trying to make them as crisp and clean as possible. We headed over to the indoor a couple minutes before to relax and breath.

There ended up being 7 in my class, a few ponies, one somewhat wild TB who kept screaming, and a couple other horses.  I tried as hard as I could to find us a spot on the rail but kept getting behind the small ponies.  Tia was largest horse there, with the biggest stride, and I felt like we were lapping everyone.  We had to do a couple laps one direction and another lap the other way of sitting trot.  My leg hadn't really been bothering me until that point. When the judge called for the second sitting trot I thought I was going to cry.  I'm sure I made some lovely faces.

Jen said we looked pretty good, the only major thing was my hands.  I tend to have piano hands.  When we were just trotting or cantering around I could think about having my thumbs up, but during the sitting trot I was more concerned with the pain and not looking like a sack of potatoes and my hands reverted back.  We ended the flat class with a 4th, which I was surprised with.  As long as it looked better than it felt I'm happy!

We had about 45mins to wait till the over fences round, and I was scheduled to go 6th in the order.  I got off, grabbed a snack and some water, and let Tia graze for a bit.  Then it was time to get back on and school over fences.  We didn't do too much, a couple x's to warm up, then we worked on doing square turns to vertical on the center line.  Tia was pretty balanced, I just needed to ride her forward more.  We went back to ring to watch a few rounds before I went.

The first line was a flowing 4 strides.  I had to make sure we had a forward, flowing canter to make the first line.  Coming to it, I was slightly behind but she moved up perfectly thru the line.  The original plan was to ride fence 3 square, but after watching everyone before me try to do the same thing and screw it up, Jen decided to have me angle the fence.  Tia was slightly over bent coming to it, and wasn't too sure about the jumping on an angle thing, but we nailed the distance.  I had to collect her a bit in the turn to 4 then moved up to it but it flowed well. A lot of people had trouble in the rollback from 5 to 6; their horses loosing impulsion and chipping into 6.  I lost Tia a bit in the turn, but sat deep and pushed her forward to oxer.  It was a bit long, but much nicer than everyone elses!

Fence 7 is where disaster struck.  Tia was over bent again in the turn and didn't want to land and turn to 8.  It was a forward 5 or a tight 6 strides to fence 8, then a tight 3 strides to fence 9. Since she landed a bit disorganized off 7 I asked her to come back to me to regroup.  She took offense, flipped her head, and did her bunny hop short stride thing.  We ended up at five and half strides to fence 8 and I panicked.  I circled her off the fence, and came back to it.  I know if I had just sat up and kicked her forward she would have gotten out of it. The three might have turned into 4, but she would have figured it out. 

Coming back to fence 8 we found a distance and the three to 9 flowed fine.  Fence 10 was the hardest fence on course.  It was angled funny, and you had to ride past the turn to it to have a nice landing turning right. Almost everyone else got an awkward 3 strides to it off the rail with a wide right turn after.  Our plan was to almost hand gallop it in a two.  We nailed it.  The two was almost short and Tia was even pooping as we cantered up to it. I was looking right, opening my right rein, and she landed perfectly balanced and on the right lead.  We were able to shave off a few strides from where everyone else was landing and turning. Coming to the last fence I had to collect her a bit and we got a short stride to fence 11. 

We ended up 6th out of 7 (the 7th rider was actually eliminated for refusals).   A lot of people who were watching told me I would have won if not for the circle.  We had the most polished round and were able to ride the make-it-or-break-it fences (# 3 and 10) the best.  I am kicking myself for that damn circle, but I'm really happy we were able to make the hard fences look good.  For Tia, the point and shoot hunter who doesn't do turns, to be able to do fences like that is huge.  I could tell she wasn't sure or happy with some of them, but she did it, and did it well.  I am disappointed that we could have won, but there's always next year.  I'd say for my first medal finals I did pretty well.

Thank you Tia for being the best horse I could have asked for and for putting up with me!

Mineral Ice FTW!

My leg is getting much better but is still sore.  As I was getting things packed in my tack trunk last night I came across my tub of Mineral Ice.  I've used it on the horses and a little voice in my head said to try it on my leg. I put it on this morning before work and within a half hour my leg felt great. It was cool and tingly; felt like I had an ice pack on it.  It lasted about an hour or so and really helped me get through the day.

Love Love Love!

I put another coat on my leg before heading out to the barn.  I got Tia ready as I felt it kick in.  We had a short ride, but I as able to hold the canter (part of that could have been my spurs) and we did a quick jump school over a few fences.  I'm still not 100% but hopefully by Saturday I will be! 

My friend's braiding Tia in the morning, and apparently the "thing" is to have a charm braided into one of the braids.  Since the show's a cancer fundraiser, I found a small pink ribbon charm that hopefully Corie and work into the braid.  I also got a pink ribbon pin to wear instead of a traditional stock pin.

Slow Progress

I managed to not only make it out to the barn but also ride last night. I was worried that getting out would be a problem, since lifting my right leg high was painful and Tia's 16.3h.  It turned out to be a non issue and we proceeded to do a long walk warm up.  When I felt secure enough, I bumped her up to the trot.

Trotting and posting were not painful in the least. We did a few walk-trot transitions trying to get her to focus.  She was distracted, was sure that there was something in the bushes along the far side of the arena that was going to get her. I wasn't wearing spurs and that didn't help matters at all. At one point Tia actually spooked.  She did the legs splayed out thing, but tripped and ruined the whole thing.  I think that's first time I've know her to spook.

We took a walk break and tried to canter.  Going to right, I automatically wanted to put my inside right leg on the hold her shoulder up and support her.  Bad decision.  Hurt like a mother and I could only do about 5 strides before taking my leg off and she would break to the trot. We tried a couple times before I gave up.  We walked a bit more then I decided to go left to see if it was any better.  It didn't hurt nearly as much and we were able to do a full lap before I gave in.  I decided to quit with that and not push my luck.

To get off I had to walk Tia up to the 3-step mounting block and dismount onto that.  I didn't want to try getting off onto the ground with a bad leg from that high up.

Today I had to go back to work, so I opted not to ride. My tailbone was pretty sore after work but I plan to ride tomorrow and Friday.  Instead tonight I cleaned my leather open fronts and tall boots.

Before