Foto Friday

 Instead of trying to recap everything for the past few weeks, how about I just sum it up with some pictures?

Fall is here (despite the current heat wave yesterday and today) and it was time to sort through all my blankets. Cinder has already worn her sheet for a week or so during our first rain storm because she is a princess who hates getting wet. Peebs on the other hand is very happy to be a muddy mess.

Cinder got her own custom saddle! I stayed with the Voltaire Palm Beach, just with different panels and a larger seat size. Cinder had outgrown the used one I got last year, and since it never quite fit me right and finding a used saddle with a larger seat size with short flaps is almost impossible, we decided it was time to go fully custom. It's beautiful and so comfortable to ride in. 

I had a lesson last week where Cin and I weren't quite clicking, so we ended on a good note and then A hopped on to take Cin over the new course that had been set that morning. 

A bunch of jumps had just gotten repainted and Cinder had to stare down a few of them, because DIFFERENT, but she was so good and so game. The yellow gate used to be a light gray, and Cinder was very concerned that it was now bright yellow. She didn't seem to care that the jump was 1.0m, her first at that height. She did jump it, but pulled the rail. 

Second time was easy peasy

Cinder is currently in her once a quarter "I like boys" phase and thinks the new OTTB gelding Spin is the best thing ever. I give it a week till she hates him again. 

I fed at Cinder's barn a few times last week while the regular pm feeding was gone and A was at a horse trial. I've helped A feed before, but never done it all by myself, and let me tell you, feeding 56 horses is a lot. I much prefer feeding the four horses at Peebs barn. 

The Fun Stuff

 Last Friday I was happy to see a few fences set up in ring for my lesson. My brain was still fried from our dressage heavy lessons and jumping felt so much easier. Our warm-up was pretty short and sweet, focusing on getting Cinder forward with minimal effort on my part. We did some shortening and lengthening of her stride to check adjustability before we started to jump. 

Cin's nickname in the barn is Hotdog, so when I saw the Mane Jane hotdog spur straps, I had to get them. Now I'm on the hunt for a hotdog charm to clip into her braids. 

We started over fences with a cross rail on a diagonal going back and forth, stopping on a straight line. We then moved on to two brush boxes that were set up on the center line with no standards. I was slightly worried because Cin can sometimes get wiggly to jumps without standards and has run out before, but she was totally fine with these. 

There were two outside verticals set and we did those in a big circle. A wanted me to make the circle big enough that it wasn't a jumper turn to them, but not so big that I was cantering in space forever. The first time through them Cin was a bit behind my leg and I had to move her up a bit to both. They weren't bad jumps, but not super great ones either. During our second pass I thought I had her in front of my leg, but when I went to steady to both fences she broke to the trot. But third time was the charm. We did a circle before starting and I made sure to rev her up a bit and both fences flowed really well. We quit on that good note. 

The barn hosted a Muddy Princess mud run over the weekend and they parked in Cin's pasture and she was concerned about it

For my lesson on Monday, A asked if I wanted to jump or flat. The same few fences were set up, along with a mini jump chute. To both of our surprise, I said flat. The jump configuration was a little boring and why waste time and effort on them again. In the trot work we did some small circles, focusing on bringing the outside shoulder around and getting Cinder to really sit on her butt. A said she wanted to play around with baby walk pirouettes, something Cin's never done. It took me a few tries to understand how much I had to whoa with my hand, but go with my leg. 

After a few attempts each way, as I was coming out of a pirouette, A told me to canter and both Cinder and I were like WTF? I asked and she kinda scrambled into it. Poor Cin felt overwhelmed but she stayed with me and kept trying. A would have us canter a few circles, back to the walk, walk pirouette a time or two, then back to canter out of the pirouette. Our attempts were very rough and much more huntery than real dressagey, but I was proud of both of us for toughing it out.  Cinder said it was very hard work and that she was very tired. I told A that it was really fun and that I like this type of dressage. 

Field Trip: Sherwood Forest

 Trainer A moved her program to a new facility, and last Friday I hauled up for a trainer ride/lesson. A has been looking to move for a while, wanting to expand her program, and while I had hoped she'd stay close to where she had been located, she moved farther north, to the outskirts of Portland. The facility is amazing with big indoor, huge outdoor, lots of paddocks and pastures, and 80 acres of xc fields and trails. I had been toying with the idea of moving Cinder, depending upon where A landed, but board at SF is about 3x what I'm currently paying and it's a little over an hour away with no traffic (and there's always traffic in this part of greater PDX) so hauling in will have to do. 

 SF has about 60? stalls and there was a big h/j program moving in, lessons going on in the outdoor, and a vet working on horses when we got there. Cinder was pretty wide eyed so A got on her first in the indoor. Cinder could see the walkway on the hill from the barn down to the arenas and whenever she saw a horse along the path she sang the song of her people. Not in a too obnoxious way, more of "Hey I'm here" way. Over all she was really well behaved, if not as quiet and relaxed as she has been on previous outings. 

There were a few fences set up, and after adjusting fence heights (I learned I HATE the stupid metal cups seen above that just rest on the standard) A started popping Cinder over a few things. Cin peaked at some of the filler, but never thought about stopping or running out. She did get a little excited on a bending line into the one stride, and almost ran into a standard, but she figured it out and saved herself. A's been working on getting her to add a stride and not just leave super long and she's really starting to get it. She doesn't like it, but she's doing it. 

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I then got on for my first off property ride and jump school. We trotted a vertical a few times including one where Cinder let out a lovely whinny and bulged sideways, but I kept my nerves under control so at least one of us wasn't freaking out. Then A said to do the one stride and my brain promptly left my head. Thankfully Cinder is a very good girl and put her brain back on track and hopped through it like no big deal. We quit with that since Cinder was getting tired but I was so happy with how she did and myself for not getting too nervous. I'm hoping we can haul up once a month or so for lessons/rides and I do want to take her out on the trails there. We'll just have to see how time/money/traffic works out.

My Rides

 I realized I haven't really talked about my rides on Cin lately. For the most part, she's been really really good. So good that I tend to forget she's only four. But then she'll have an ADD day and I remember. 

I've been luck in that we've had weekly lessons with J and I feel like each ride we've made progress. We started with just trotting a single fence, to being able to trot a course of cross rails. Baby steps, but still steps! 

Always pat your pony

We had a lesson last night and since fall is here, it was starting to get dark during our ride. Cinder was a little more up than she normally is and I let that get to me. I was nervous about riding down to the far end because Cinder was tense down there and when we did make our way down there I forgot to ride and sat there like a sack of potatoes. After a couple of circles Cinder relaxed and I remembered to actually ride her and then the far end was a non issue. 

Not from last night but back when daylight after 6:30 was still a thing

We ended the lesson by trotting a fence out of the scary corner towards home and again, the first time I sat there like a lump and let Cinder get crooked and take off early. Thankfully she doesn't hold grudges (well, not in these instances) and the second time I remembered to go deeper on the turn and use more left leg to keep her straight. We had a nice jump, landed on the correct lead, and had a soft canter after. What more could a girl want?

Just a Little Touch Up

Even though I'm not in Trainer A's barn anymore, she told me she still considers me "in her program". I even got to stay in the barn group chat about upcoming shows. So when A put it out to the group about going to a little jumper schooling show, I messaged her separately and asked if she wanted to show Cinder at it. She quickly responded, "Yes please!"

Cinder loves a long spot

I asked A if she wanted to ride Cinder at all before the show, and her response of "I probably should" made me laugh. So last week she came down and I handed the reins over for a little touch up ride. I've jumped trotted a few cross rails since bringing Cinder home, so she hadn't had a real jump school since the end of June. But you would have never know that by the way she happily hopped around. 

I told A she's such an event rider

A said she felt really good, more inclined to stretch into the contact, and like she rode her last week instead of 6 weeks ago. It felt very, very nice to hear that I haven't screwed her up too much since leaving full training! They warmed up over some cross rails before I put the fences up. They had a few baby horse bobbles, including a run out in a bending line in which Cinder didn't really focus on the second fence till the last second. But she came back around and did great on the second try.  

 

I'm excited to see them back in action together on Saturday! We're doing the show for mileage and experience, not ribbons and points, but I'm hoping we come home with some satin!

Your Monthly Update

I didn't really mean to go almost a month with out blogging, oops!  Not a whole lot has happened, good rides and bad rides, some good lessons and some not so good lessons, some very grown-up big kid work out the mare, some complete baby moments where she lost her mind. 

I'm a big kid now...maybe

We had one lesson where my fear and insecurity took control.  Mare felt spooky and was convinced she had to run in one particular spot in the ring.  It was tracking left, as we came around a corner and went on the rail between a jump on the quarter line and the arena fence.  Every single time she'd drop her butt, throw her head, and try to leap forward.  I regressed to a complete beginner, including curling up in the fetal position while grabbing her mouth, thinking we were going to die.  My trainer ended up hand walking us around the ring till I was completely mortified and calmed down.  We did eventually manage to trot twice around the arena without any hysterics on both the mare's and my part before calling it a day.  The big thing that helped, when I remembered, was to breathe and not grab her face when she wanted to explode.  If I let her go a stride or two without getting on her case, she would stop on her own.  It's just so very hard to break that instinct to hold on for dear life.

Soon after that lesson her favorite spot to spook became next to the tree of doom!!!

But since then, minus the spooking at the tree of doom, we've had a couple good lessons.  We've set up placing poles before and after the jumps to help slow the mare down and make her think instead of just hauling ass to and away from the jumps. I'm splitting my rides between the jump and dressage saddles but I think McKenna's learned that the jump tack = jumping = fun! so I'm going to do more flat work/non jumping rides in the jump saddle.  Have to mix it up and keep her on her toes.  We've had some nice dressage work and got our first steps of actual leg yield in the trot going left.  Hopefully in the next month we'll be able to have a lesson with TS and continue on.

It always makes me laugh looking at his big belly and super long stick legs. He really should be hand shorter than he is.

Phoenix is very fat and very happy. I've been out to see him a few times but hadn't run into PO for awhile till this weekend.  She apologized for getting my horse fat but I'd rather him be that way than skinny, especially at 20. I talked with her about cutting back his feed and poor pony is only going to be getting half the alfalfa he was getting before.  I'm such a mean mommy.

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.

We Do Stuff & Things

It's been hard scheduling lessons with my regular trainer for the past few weeks, and I've been feeling like I'm spinning my wheels with what to do with McKenna.  We walk-trot-canter, try not to have expoldy baby moments, maybe add some pole work in but generally its the same day to day.

On Saturday I had the barn to myself and decided to go for it and set up a cross rail and a set of trot poles in the indoor.  Our indoor is too small to have both set up if I have to share the arena, and since most of the other boarders don't jump I feel it's not fair to them if I take over the space with jumps.   We worked back and forth over the poles to warm up, stopping on a straight line and doing turns on the forehand or haunches to reverse.  McKenna was great, kept a nice rhythm and pace over the poles and didn't get rushy.

Queens of awkward trot fences

I then added trotting the cross rail and stopping on a straight line.  Again, she started out great before the fence, but was dragging on my hand in the stop.  I finally let her hit the wall with her nose and then she seemed to get to the point. McKenna did start getting bold going to the fence after a few times, but a couple small circles with random halting fixed that. My friend showed up towards the end of our ride and was kind enough to snap a couple pics. 

Sunday we had a lesson scheduled with our chiropractor/dressage instructor.  She watched us warm up, then readjusted the German martingale, lowering it on McKenna's neck so it sat more like draw reins coming from the girth, and moved the clip from the first d-ring on the reins to the second, giving me more leverage.  McKenna was not amused.

The main focus of the lesson was getting McKenna to over bend and work deep in a frame.  She wanted to be stuck behind my leg so Tina had me post on the wrong diagonal to help encourage her inside hind to step up. It took a good 10-15 minutes of trotting to really get her to where she needed to be. Tina told me to think about getting my inside seat bone on her stifle to help push her into my outside rein.  I'd never heard that before, but it helped. We did lots of walk breaks and changes of direction and except for one mini spook she was really well behaved. We also schooled some turns on the forehand, trying to keep a forward feel.

Love

Our canter work followed the trot work, only less of it.  The over bending and deep work really tired her out quick in the canter so if we got a couple good circles we called it good. We only rode for a half hour but both mine and McKenna's butts were kicked! We're going to try and have Tina back in a month or so for another lesson.

You can see her mini buck/tail swish about half way through the video, as we are cantering along the far wall. It feels bigger than it looks.

Bringing Up Baby

I've had McKenna just over a year, September 30th was our anniversary. We can currently walk, trot, and canter fairly nicely, with most of our trot work on the bit and moving forward.  We've started trotting cross rails and small verticals. I feel comfortable enough to start dropping my stirrups on her. I had hoped that we would a lot farther along after a year...cantering courses, showing, etc.  I haven't taken her off the property, but hopefully that will change soon.  I am proud that my trainer has only gotten on her once, and only rode her for about 20 minutes before having me get on.  I do have another trainer ride scheduled for her on Sunday, mainly because I've only seen someone else ride her twice and want to see how she goes.




First Ride

Obviously from the time I got her to the end of June I had Buddy and was having a very hard time trying to work both of them.  It didn't help that McKenna was very babyish, needed lots of turn out/lunging before I got on, and was prone to some not so fun antics.  She liked to come up with her front end and spin, and on one occasion she stood straight up with me.  I'm not sure how I managed to stay on, all I remember is grabbing mane and my martingale strap and praying. Now however, she's much more mature and while she still spooks, she doesn't try to rear and spin and can go back to work without loosing her mind.

"Me spook? Never."

My plan after Buddy sold was to put McKenna into boot camp and be able to hit a schooling show or two in the fall.  Mother Nature and McKenna had other plans.  It was one of the hottest summers here, almost two moths of 90+ degree weather.  While I grew up in that weather in SoCal, I've adjusted to Oregon's much more moderate climate and was dying.  I'd ride on weekend in the mornings, and in the afternoons during the week when we had cooler days. 


Oops

McKenna lost four shoes in three moths, always the left front.  One was 36hrs after our farrier put it back on.  My farrier kept saying that her feet are pretty nice for a TB, and that she shouldn't be loosing that many shoes.  I put bell boots on her 24/7 and she ripped the first pair off within two days.  But the second pair lasted a month and we didn't have any lost shoes during that time. She currently has clips on the front and that has seemed to help.

Our current plan, to be discussed with trainer on Sunday, will hopefully be to continue trotting fences, start cantering fences, and introduce lines.  I'd really like to be able to a schooling show in December and at least do cross rails, if not the 2'.  She's very much a jumper, but not many shows around here have lower level jumpers.  Most start at 2'6" and I'd like to give her some experience at the smaller heights first.

My current favorite pic of us.

Christmas Catch Up

I have been such a bad blogger!! The week before Christmas was super busy at work, then I left for five days to visit family, then had to immediately jump back into work. And my phone didn't want to play nice with out hotel's wifi so I couldn't update on the road.

Right before I left I got my Blogger Gift Exchange from Amber at TB adventures. It was awesome to get the package and rip into it. I had asked for anything pink for Miss McKenna, and we got a new pink brush, pink vet wrap, the trial pack of show sheen, and a bunch of horse treats. Thanks Amber, Jetta, and Misty!!

For Christmas I didn't get too much horsey stuff, other than the money to pay for the John Turner clinic next month. All of my families animals (my three ponies, my two cats, and my parent's dog and cat) gave me a new iPhone cover with horses on it.  I found at 25lb bag of carrots at the grocery store so the ponies are getting a holiday treat!

Since I've been so busy I haven't done much with McKenna and Buddy.  I did manage to sneak in a couple rides on Bud, and had a little jump school in which he was great.  We only worked over a vertical and oxer a few times each but he pretty much nailed it so I didn't push it. McKenna's been getting lunged and I did light ride yesterday.  My trainer was giving a lesson to a couple pony kids and basically told me to hop on McKenna and just work her around the ponies.  We did a little walk/trot and mostly just hung out in the center of the ring while they played Simon Says.  McKenna held it together pretty well, considering the girls were excited and lacked some steering skills.  At one point Jen was standing right next to us and started clapping her hand to help one of the girls who was having trouble getting her pony to trot.  McKenna jumped back and snorted at the clapping, but calmed down and was ok when Jen walked around us clapping.  I'm hoping to have more time to work her this week.