Out with a Bang

Peebs and I had another great weekend at A's this past weekend, with a breakthrough lesson and a couple good hacks.  But the real terror excitement happened when I was hauling Peebs home, about two minutes away from the barn.

To get to my barn, I take a little connecting road that goes between two main roads. It's maybe 2 miles long, if that.  In the direction I was heading, there's a S-curve going downhill and into the setting sun. Since I was hauling the trailer, I was going maybe 30 around the corners, which is the posted speed.  Once you drop out of the curves, there's about a 3/4th mile long straight stretch, ending in a four way stop.  One side of the road is grass seed fields, and the other has a couple houses, a hay field/cow pasture, a fruit and veggie farm, and a kid oriented boarding barn.

Apparently people were anxious to get home because a Jeep passed me, then a little blue sedan tried to pass me as we were on the straight stretch.  The Jeep gave me plenty of room but the sedan tried to pass me about a quarter mile from the stop sign.  I was worried because the sedan didn't step on it, and I knew there was no way they'd make it around me and be able to stop at the intersection without cutting me off and slamming on their breaks. So I started backing way off because I didn't want to rear end them.

As we passed the boarding barn, a silver car appeared in the driveway and I could see the driver look left to see if any cars were coming, then she started pulling out. She didn't look to the right, or else she would have seen the blue sedan trying to pass me. Blue car was at the front of my trailer, and had no where to go.  If they swerved, they'd go directly into the trailer. I was able to watch everything in my side view mirror. Blue car slammed on the breaks, but hit the silver car not quite head on. The crash was super loud and because it happened almost directly across from where Peebs was, and I had his window open, I could feel him spook and scramble in the trailer. I slowed down and stopped as quick as I could, debating weather to go back and check on the people, but I saw doors open and people get out of both cars so I continued on to the barn.

Peebs was super nervous when we unloaded and was calling to the other horses, something he usually doesn't do. I was super shaken and once I put Peebs in his stall I went and sat in my truck till I stopped shaking. All I could think about was what would have happened if the blue car had swerved on instinct to avoid the silver car. I'm sorry they hit the silver car, but thank the deity of your choice they didn't hit me. I drove past the accident site on my way home, and everyone only had minor injuries but both cars are probably totaled.

Cinder's Intro to Trail

I'm going to try and catch up a little bit with what's been going on for the past month.  The weekend after  Cinder's first show, she got to go on another adventure. Her breeder bought a boarding barn a little over an hour north of us, that has multiple rings, a nice big round pen, and a little trail course. They had decorated the trail course for Halloween and posted on Facebook.  I messaged KP and asked about hauling in to practice on the course, and she let me know that anytime I want to bring Cin up I'm more than welcome to.

She's also 15.2 now and officially taller than Peebs

Loading up to go, she hesitated for a minute and didn't jump right in like she normally does. I had stopped giving her cookies when loading and I think I need to go back to bribery to help encourage her. When we got to KP's she unloaded well and walked around pretty calmly.  She had lived at the barn for a month or so before I brought her home, so it wasn't totally unfamiliar. I let her play in the indoor arena for a few minutes while KP and I talked and KP and her husband oohed and awwed over her. KP had tried to breed her mom back for a full sibling before gelding her dad, but she didn't take and unfortunately KP had to put her down not too long ago. I had had hoped of getting a family photo, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Zero shits given about the bridge

KP did a little ground work with Cinder, giving me some tips on how to get her to move over and out of my space.  Cin doesn't understand personal space, and loves to get all up and personal on you.  Especially if she's spooked or excited. She's not trying to be bad, she's just super friendly but I need to put the kibosh on it now before she gets too much bigger.

Many shits given about this

 I then took Cin out to the trail course and started by walking her around everything. She didn't like the car wash thing with bones tied to it.  She went right over the poles and cavalletis, even the ones with fake spider webs on them. She went right over the bridge the first time, and was actually fine to stop and stand on it so I could take some pics. They have some large filled tires for the horses to walk over and she didn't understand what to, but tried jumping over them.  We then spent about five minutes working her through the car wash with many, many carrots for rewards.  She did go through it twice, but wasn't happy about it and would only do it for treats. I don't anticipate there ever being something like that on course at a hunter show, but I would like her to get more used to it.

Mare glare on point

 Loading up to go home is when Cinder's red headed maretude made an appearance. She was absolutely not going on the trailer, no way no how. KP had gone into the house to take a nap before work (she works nights) but her husband was around and he came to help.  I had him stand behind Cin with a whip but that almost backfired and she got even more stubborn about getting in. We tried carrots and cookies, but she was so upset she didn't want to eat. I think her brain was fried and she just shut down. We tried for maybe 15 minutes before KP's husband went to grab a boarder for help.  She has a hard to load horse so he was hoping she'd have a couple tricks up her sleeve.  And did she! She clipped a lunge line on Cinder and ran it up in the trailer, and out through the drop down bars in the window. She stood at Cin's hip, had a dressage whip in her hand and basically reeled her in. It still took a few minutes, but it worked. I'll definitely be practicing that at home, and taking a lunge line with us when we haul.

Golden

Yesterday would have been the perfect show day, if it had been 15* cooler. Showing in 90* weather isn't fun. 

Wasn't nearly as scary hauling this as I had thought.

We took the horses up late Friday night and arrived at the Lake Oswego Hunt Club around 8ish.  It was still in the 80s and muggy but the arena was open so we decided to school.  The horses had hauled well (and I didn't crash the gooseneck!) and were all a little excited to be there.  We had the arena to ourselves and hacked around before popping over everything.  We got the horses tucked into their stalls and headed out to find our hotel and get dinner.

Saturday morning we got up at 6 to go feed then went back to the hotel to eat our breakfast and finish getting ready.  We made it back to the Hunt Club around 8am and the two girls doing the x-rail and 2ft started to get ready.  The show was supposed to start at 9 (but of course started at 9:30) and the arena was open for schooling but was incredibly crowded.  I had the girls use the sand arena to warm up and then we waited for the trot-a-pole classes to finish so they could ride.

Mae and Zoe and Miriam and Hunter

Mae and Zoe did pretty well, minus Mae not hearing that the judge called for a two point in their flat class and doing half a lap still posting.  Zoe did her normal hesitate and look at every jump in their first round but they pulled a 3rd out of about 8.  They did better in their second class and got 2nd.  Their 2' classes didn't go quite as well, Zoe was tired and hot and behind Mae's leg but they still came home with ribbons.  I'm so happy that Zoe has found a person and she and Mae seem to be a good the team.

Zoe was rocking a serious mohawk.  Must remember to braid her hair down!

After Mae and Miriam were done the other girl from the barn had her 2'6" classes.  I couldn't be there to coach her much as I had to get Buddy ready for my medal classes.  Mae went on a milkshake run and I gulped mine down during our warm up.  Buddy was pretty forward and excited and I was trying not to get in his mouth too much.  My plan for the first medal class was to add in the lines, as that was what we had done the night before but Buddy was actually getting the big boy strides. 

Our OHJA mini medal went ok, but not as polished as I would have hoped for. I couldn't make my mind up until half way down the lines if I was going to add or not so some of our distance were a little wonky.  The judge called all six of us back for "test" consisting of a few questions.  As this was my first time being called back for a work off I was somewhat disappointed. She asked for three types of martingales and then told me my standing was on backwards.  Apparently the buckle on the neck strap is supposed to go on the left and mine was on the right.  I've had that martingale for 13yrs and have never once been told that.  Oh well.  She also asked what type of bit I had (broken snaffle pelham).  We placed third, which I was very happy with considering our ride was somewhat erratic. 

The second medal I did was a memorial class for the former H/J trainer at this facility who died of breast cancer.  They have 3 medals, a 2'3", a 2'6" hunter, and 2'9" jumper, and all the proceeds from the classes go to the Portland Providence Cancer Center.  Every year in September they have a finals where the winners from the 2'6" and the 2'9" compete against each other in a work off for a custom County saddle. I felt that our ride was better than our first but we still placed 3rd out of 6.  I'm just hoping that the 3rd will give us enough points to qualify for the final in September.  I've ridden in a County and loved it but didn't have $4700 to spend on one.

We had just enough time between my medals and my jumper classes to gulp down some water, learn my courses, and switch bridles back to the figure 8.  By this point in the day (close to 5pm) the grass was super slick and I was very glad to have my studs.  Two horses had fallen down and many others had slipped.  Our first round was a speed class and went well.  Because of the footing and heat I didn't make the turns super tight and didn't push Buddy as much as I could have.  Again we ended up 3rd.  My friend was holding all my ribbons for me and was awash in yellow/gold. 

Buddy lost his engine waiting for our second jumper round.  We had some ugly distances and pulled two rails but he tried his heart out.  There was never a thought of him stopping or refusing which I am eternally grateful for.  As much as I love and trust Phoenix, I know if I had gotten him to those distances he would have stopped on me.  Our last round was better, no super ugly distances, but he did slip going around a turn.  His hind end went out and I was flung forward onto his neck but he pulled him self together and we kept going.  We did pull a rail in the jump off and ended up getting 5th for both of the rounds.

We lost a ribbon somewhere along the way.

All in all, I'm very happy with how the show went.  Buddy held himself together even though it was miserably hot and the footing was questionable.  He tries his little heart out and I couldn't ask for more!

Getting Ready

So we're showing on Saturday and my horse just had three days off in a row.  Way to be prepared!  He got Saturday off after our lesson on Friday.  I was planning on riding Sunday and Monday, but came down with a summer cold/flu and couldn't get out of bed Sunday.  I felt much better yesterday but not 100% so I didn't ride.

 I think Buddy enjoyed his 3 day weekend and was cranky about going back to work today.  He was barely moving when we started warming up. I think we might have even been too slow for western pleasure jog we were so slow.  There were some little crossrails set up so I jogged him over those to see if that would wake him up.  It did and then we were finally able to get on with our ride.  He was still a little tense and defensive about his mouth in our canter warm up but relaxed into it by the end of the ride. We got some nice counter canter work, a full lap each direction which is an improvement!  To cool down we worked on some leg yields and figure 8s.

Jen is out of town for the show and unfortunately I'm the only one going who knows how to haul. There's 4 of us going and I only have a 2 horse trailer, as do my BO so we've had to borrow a 4 horse from the people who own the barn where we go chase cows. I've only ever talked to them briefly but thru the magic of Facebook they offered their trailer.  Only problem, I've never hauled a goosneck.  Guess I have to learn at some point, righ?