Baby's First Clinic

I'm getting ready to drop our entry in the mail for Cinder's first clinic.  There's a Young Horse Show Series show next month and the day before they're hosting a jump chute clinic.  I'd love to show Cin in the YHS, but they have to registered with a warmblood/sporthorse registry and she is not, yet. I have filled out the membership application and paid my fees for the American Warmblood Society and Sporthorse Registry.  Cinder should be able to be registered with them but the process will take longer than a month.  So no show for us this year, but we can still do the clinic.

It kills me how grown up she is now

Per YHS rules, horses two and over must be show in hand in a bridle.  I had Cinder's wolf teeth out and her first dental done last month so she's been starting to practice with a bit and bridle. Getting it on is still challenging, but she's fine once it's on.  Her head is in a very awkward stage; the length is very cob sized with the widths is horse. I have her in a cob with the throat latch and noseband on the last holes and might have to cobble a frankenbridle together for her soon. I do need to get clips or something for her bridle.  The YHS says to have reins that are easy to clip on and off.  Anyone have suggestions?

Practicing our whoa and stand skill

I was supposed to have a lesson with Peebs this week but he halfway pulled his right front shoe off. So I asked my trainer if we could a jump chute lesson with Cinder instead. I set the chute to what the YHS does and we started with a single crossrail and worked up to a row of three.  It  wasn't about the height, just getting Cin used to it.  Once she figured out she did really have to jump and go through the chute (and that I gave her cookies afterwards) she was great.  She willing went back and forth and one time even bounced the first one stride.

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Practicing for the jump chute clinic next month #goodgirlcinder #babywarmblood #jumpchutetraining

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Aug 8, 2019 at 6:55pm PDT

Change of Plans

Saturday morning I get a call from my friend a few hours before we were to meet to do the trail course saying she couldn't find a trailer and isn't coming. My first thought was why do you agree to go school someplace 2hrs away with two days notice without arranging trailering? I thought she had her own trailer, but I guess she had been borrowing/renting one and can't use it anymore. I was supremely ticked, and considered just taking Buddy and going by myself but couldn't work up the enthusiasm.

So instead of going somewhere new for the first time, McKenna got a trace clip. She was surprising good, didn't care at all when I turned on the big clippers. She didn't like them up along her neck so I switched to my small ones. I only did her neck and chest for now, I might do more later depending on how much she sweats. 

Before:

Her head looks huge, but I promise it's actually pretty petite.

After:

I also decided to free jump her. If there's a possibility that she could be my next show horse I want to know what she looks like over fences and how high she could go. If her form o/f was horrible, the. I'd sell her as a dressage prospect. Her first few tries over a crossrail and small vertical were meh, but once I put the jump up she was great.  Apologies for blurry phone video.

 

She was having so much fun as well, she kept going and jumping until I told her to stop. I think I'll try to free jump her a bit more with grids to see what she does. 

 

 

The Week in Review

Not much has happened since the show two weeks ago.  It's been raining and cold until today and I've lacked motivation to do too much.  Buddy's gotten some needed down time, with both Amy and I doing light hacks during the past week. 

I did have a lesson today and we worked on gymnastics.  We started by cantering some single fences, getting warmed up, then moved on to a canter in bounce.  Jen had us start with a conservative 9ft bounce but then moved it out.  We kept adding fences as we went so by the end we had four fences in a row, with a bounce in between each.

 They weren't high, maybe 2ft, but we were working on nailing the first fence then just supporting him down the line.  It was fairly easy to find a nice rhythm coming in, but I had trouble doing nothing as the line approached.  You would think that it would be so easy to sit there and let them go, but nope, hardest thing ever!  I screwed him up royally once, but slipped him the reins and legged him through it.  We only did about 45mins as it was hard for Bud to stay packaged through the line.  I think we are going to start making gymnastics a bigger part of our lessons, especially if we want to show in the jumpers and do combinations.

On Wednesday Jen and I set up a mini jump chute in the indoor for Zoe and Leo to work through.  We want to see how high each could do without a rider and how they handled the fences.  Surprisingly Leo was better about his pace and rhythm through the chute and did 3' without too much problem.


He was very proud of himself

Zoe was being very lazy and would canter up to the fence then loose steam about a stride away.  She'd pop over them from almost a stand still, but made it over every time.  She's adorable and way more huntery than Leo was.  I think we got her up to 3'3"ish.  I'm having dreams of making her my 3' hunter again.  I rode her today after Buddy since her two leases are both busy and couldn't get out for a couple days.  She was great.  The jumps had been reset from my lesson and were 2'-2'6".  She was game for everything and even got the correct strides in the line instead of the pony strides!  

Little Miss Diva only wanted to do it off the right, even though it was set to go off the left.