Friday Foto Catchup

Instead of trying to remember, and in some cases not wanting to remember, what happened over the last couple of months, let's just have some pics instead. 

Cinder has had feelings about the tarps (barley visible in the right side of the pic just above the arena fence) that the barn owner had over her burn pile and garden this winter. Cinder is pretty sure they are death tarps and was very exuberant in her refusal to go anywhere near them. We have slowly (somewhat) conquered our fear of tarps and that corner, but the battle wages on. 

Trainer M aboard

We attended another show in April, and Cinder was fantastic. My riding left a lot to be desired. Friday Trainer M used Cinder as the guinea pig to see how the jumper courses rode and Cinder happily bopped around like a pro. Saturday I was supposed to do a 2'3" hunter round as warm up, then two 2'6" rounds, but I completely forgot how to see a distance, panicked, started to doubt every single life choice I've ever made, and then went and cried in my truck. You know, your normal amateur things.

M and Cinder again

Sunday I told M I just wanted to trot some cross rails in the warm up ring, and that's exactly what we did. And then I cried in my truck again. We hadn't really jumped a whole lot in the month between the shows, and nothing really at height, and I think between that and Cinder's inability to function in the outdoor due to the tarps, I didn't feel prepared and got overwhelmed. Trainer M schedules quarterly goal check-ins with her clients and we talked and made a plan going forward so hopefully future shows will go better. 

We lesson with Lily, the gray mare poking her head over the wall, on Thursdays and she and Cinder have a love/hate relationship. This day they were very much in love

 

Cinder got her annual hock and stifle maintance a couple of weeks ago. Last year she got them done in July and August, but we're hoping to show more in those months this year so I talked to our vet and moved them up. Our vet's pretty conservative with her rehabs, so Cinder got a week of hand walking, a week of walking under saddle, and we started trotting this week. If all continues to go well we can canter and I think even jump next week. 

Our assistant trainer barrel races and had set up the barrels for some of the lesson kids and Cinder walked the hell out of the pattern during her rehab

We have a tentative show schedule planned for summer, but we're waitlisted for Tbird in August (and who knows what crossing the border/the tariff situation taking horses across will be like) and my work schedule has shifted so I'm working six days a week every other week so fingers crossed we can actually make it to some shows.  

A Tale of Two Days

Saturday I hauled out bright and early for a lesson over at A's. It was hovering right around freezing and I was cursing myself for saying yes to a 9am lesson. Peebs has been a little up lately, and spookier than he normally is. I figured I'd lunge him a little at A's if I needed to, but he'd been worked pretty hard all week so I though we'd be fine. We haven't jumped much in the past month, so my plan for the lesson was to get back into the groove and flow of jumping again.

Peebs was very up when I got on, not spooking and taking off, but stopping to stare at things in the distance or my trainer setting fences.  He also got mad when I asked him to trot away from A's horse Scottie, his BFF, which is not like him at all. I think I cantered two strides before I got off and put him on the lunge.  He did buck and leap and play and felt marginally better when I got back on.

"Me, be naughty? Never!"

Trainer started us off by trotting two single diagonal fences in a figure 8. One was a cross rail and the other a 18" vertical. He got a little fast to the vertical and tried to play and go sideways when I corrected, but we made it over. I started getting a little nervous and tense when he wanted to play but kept it together while we did those fences a few times. 

Then I was told to trot into the outside line, that was maybe 2ft. Cue massive panic attack. If he wanted to play to the single fence, how would we make it through a line?! I voiced some concern to trainer and she told me to stop him between the two fences if he felt bold. So that's what I did.  Only I used way more hand than I needed and Peebs got rightfully upset and popped up his front end with his head straight in the air. It honestly felt like he was going to go up with me, but I'm sure it looked much tamer. We tried the line again but same thing, only this time Peebs took more offense and flung his body sideways and backwards to show his displeasure at my heavy hands. Which only fed my panic and caused me to curl up the fetal position holding onto his face even more. Trainer talked me down, explained what was wrong, and what she wanted me to do instead.

We went back to one of the diagonal fences and my instruction was to pretend to be a beginner pony kid, hold my two point, and for the love of God, DO NOT TOUCH HIS FACE. "Commit to doing nothing" was what she kept saying. The first time trotting up to the 18" vertical felt awful, and landing and holding my two point while not doing anything honestly felt like I was going to die. Peebs landed and cantered away fine, a little fast and unbalanced in the corner, but in my panicked state I felt like we were going down. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. And then trainer made me do it again, then a third time. I hated every second of it. But it worked; Peebs was much softer and happier. When we went back for the fourth try and trainer said I could pick him up before the corner on the off side, I only had to use a tenth of hand I had used before. We quit with that since I still felt like puking and was mentally done.

Peebs loves all of Scottie

Trainer said I need to jump more.  Both for my confidence and keep Peebs from getting bored and wanting to play. She suggested I haul him back Sunday to ride with A again and A said they have an empty stall and I could leave Peebs overnight. After untacking I ran back to my barn, got Peeb's blankies and grain and then went back to A's to tuck him in.

What a difference a day makes

A and I agreed to ride Sunday afternoon together.  She ended up being a bit late which worked for me as I was able to do my warm up alone and focus on not being too handsy.  Peebs felt much better than Saturday; not as distracted or playful and more focused on his job. We trotted over the fences we had jumped the day before with no issue so I got brave and cantered them. Other than picking and not having as much pace as I should have, we were fine.  I wasn't panicked and using way too much hand and Peebs was his normal la-de-da self. I then got really brave and decided to try the single oxer, set on a long approach as a single on the outside. The first couple of times I was picking as we came to it, but on the third try I sat up and put my leg on and moved him up. All three times he didn't care what I was doing and landed in the same canter as he had before. It was a complete 180 from the day before.

I'm going to make an effort to jump more, for both Peebs' and my sanity. Even if they're just crossrails I need to get out and get the reps in.  As long as the weather's good I'm going to haul to A's at least once a month to jump, probably leaving Peebs there on a weekend so I can use her arena both days. And I'm going to be more diligent in setting lessons with my trainer. Hopefully we've had our very bad no good lesson for a while and we'll start getting back to bigger and better jumps!

Such a Mare

"She's a one woman type of girl."

That basically sums up McKenna's trainer ride on Sunday.  She had a major tantrum that my trainer was riding her.  She wanted Mom up on her and no one else would do.  This is only the third time in a year that someone besides me has been on her (one friend rode her for 5mins and my trainer rode her once back in the spring) so I was expecting some initial confusion/hesitation on her part, but not a full blown meltdown.

"I don't know who you are and what you're doing to me"

McKenna was stiff and hollow, doing her best backwards giraffe impression for Jen.  For almost every upwards transition she would fling her head up and mini rear.  At one point she even struck out with a front leg.  She got growled at and put in her place, but she was NOT happy about it.  

Backwards giraffe wants Mom now!

But on the plus side, Jen said she feels much more consistent in her pace and rhythm, like a trained horse rather than a baby. She also loves her canter, and really thinks that she's going to be able to haul ass around the jumper ring someday.

Staring to give in

 We will be scheduling more trainer rides in the future to see if we can get ride of the I-want-Mom baby attitude.

"Ok, maybe this isn't so bad"

Burnout

Over the past 6+ weeks, I've slowly burnt myself out at the barn.  My barn owner's left for their yearly trip to southern California for part of the winter, leaving me in charge.  This is the third or fourth year they've gone, but there's always been at least two or three of us sharing in barn management duties.  This year was the first year that I was the only one managing the place.  I was doing some extra stalls and feeding, but I did that in past years as well.

I have so much more respect for barn owners and managers now, especially those that have real jobs outside the barn.  I was putting in 12+ hour days during the week; leaving my house by 6:15am and not getting home till 7pm every night.  And for the most part I wasn't riding or working my horses that much.  I was lunging McKenna, but just enough so she wouldn't go stir crazy in her stall.  With Buddy I would hop on bareback and cruise around for 10-15 minutes a couple times a week.

It got to the point where I was having weekly panic attacks/hysterical sobbing sessions.  I dreaded going out to the barn, especially during the busy afternoon hours where I would have to see/interact with everyone.  I'd pull up and see what whose cars were there and then plan how long I wanted/needed to stay and how best to work around who was there.  I did have to get after people, "No you can't ride that horse", "The fields are closed for winter riding/turnout", "Your board/lease payment is late",....you get the idea.  I hated doing so, it made me feel like a bitch, and I would get progressively madder as time went on.  Part of the reason I wasn't riding was because I know if I rode in a bad mood I'd take it out on my horse and that is in no way fair to them. 

Sassy pants on her birthday

But my barn owner's have been back for a week, and already I feel so much better.  I've managed to ride McKenna three times in the last week and Buddy twice.  I think I only rode McKenna twice while they were gone, sorry mare! 

She turned 6 on Valentine's Day and got a big hand full of peppermints.  She's surprised me with how good she's been under saddle for as little as I've done with her in the past 6wks. She had a lightbulb moment the other day when I was trying a baby leg yield to help soften and bend her.  Gave me a nice balanced trot, bending to the inside and holding a frame. 

3'6"ish

I free jumped McKenna again, and she was awesome.  Popped over everything, even up to 4'ish.  I had the fence up to the top of our standards, and she pretty much loped it.  She did kind of scare herself at that height and refused it the second time but once I put it back down to 3' she went over.  I just wish I had something better to take pics/videos than my phone.

Proving Me Wrong

For the past couple of weeks McKenna and I have had problems cantering.  She either gets hoppy in the trot and tries to canter when I don't want her to, or won't go when I ask.  When I can get her into it, especially to the left, she braces against my inside aids and twists her head to the outside.

Yesterday our ride was one of our worst yet.  I had lunged her for a while, then set out some trot poles.  When I got on she was distracted and antsy.  We started with some walk trot transitions and every time I would ask for the trot she'd flip her head up and jump forward.  So we did many, many transitions.  Once she would go forward nicely we went back to the 10 posting 10 sitting exercise we did in our last lesson. When I went to sit, she'd get hoppy and try to jump into the canter.  I also did lots of circles and changes of direction to keep her guessing but she never really settled.

We took a walk break and as we came around a corner she took off across the diagonal bucking.  She's given me some mini bucks before, but this was way different.  I thought I was coming off, but managed to yank her head up and get her stopped.  I immediately asked her to back and I could tell that she knew she was in trouble.  I walked her forward until she kind of relaxed then got off and lunged her.  She ran, and bucked, and ran some more.  Once she finally was dragging her head I got back on her.  We finished with more trot transitions and some sitting trot.

I sent a somewhat desperate text to my trainer last night asking for a lesson this week as well as making a chiropractic appointment for both McKenna and Buddy for Tuesday.   I want to make sure that she's not acting out because she's in pain.

Today when I rode, after a lot of lunging, I had no expectations.  There was a horse being lunged at one end of the ring and another being ridden.  A lot of activity for the baby horse to deal with, but I figured we would just do some walk trot and keep it low key.  McKenna was a rock star. Almost no fussing in our sitting trot, coming on the bit, bending well, and best of all, not caring about the other horses.  Once the one horse was done lunging I even braved the canter.  She picked it up well, and was almost balanced.  She still wants to brace against me but not nearly as bad as before.  We were even able to canter while the other horse being ridden was cantering!  I think my new plan for our rides is to not have any expectations and assume the worst.

Warning: Long Ranting Post

Anna had a 4H pre fair show this weekend, and it wasn't pretty.  Friday they had another lesson with Jen and it ended great!  They were able to do a line at 2', trotting in and trotting out with any drama.  I had high hopes for Saturday.

I had to hold Buddy for the farrier Saturday morning and I missed Anna's showmanship class. I heard they did well and they got a red.  Anna had a big break before her English eq class while the other two girls from our club did their western eq.  When Anna got on to warm up she was nervous but did ok.  I had her run through the pattern a couple times.  It was pretty easy, posting trot on a straight line, a sitting trot circle, a right lead canter circle, then posting trot with a halt and back. Somehow in the two minutes it took to do the pattern she freaked herself out.  She kept saying she couldn't do it (even though she just did) and was almost shaking.  She asked if I could lead her around. I told her no; if I had to lead her around like a beginner I wasn't going to let her show.  She got over it and we headed out to the ring.

They had to do rail work (walk trot canter each way) before they did their pattern  Anna's rail worked look fine.  Phoenix was a little disjointed and slow but looked fine.  Anna was first to do the pattern and didn't canter in the pattern.  After she said he felt high.  I told her that he looked like half asleep.  At that point she said she didn't want to do hunter hack, even if it meant that she couldn't show over fences at fair.

The other girl from our club convinced Anna to do hunter hack with her.  They had a quick warm up, with a 4 stride cross rail line set up.   Anna and Phoenix were great!  Trotted over both with no fuss or any problems.  Anna was hunched and obviously nervous but I told her as they walked past that Phoenix was the only horse out of the 6 that didn't refuse the jumps. She seemed happy and I figured everything would be ok.

Again, they had to do rail work before jumping. She was fine till the judge asked for a hand gallop.  She freaked and brought him back to trot and refused to even do a regular canter.  She lined up to go last over fences and that wasn't a good idea.  By the time she went she was picking on Phoenix, causing him to fidget and not stand still. They trotted around to the line and about 10 strides out Anna locked up and pulled Phoenix to stop.  She was shaking her head and backing him as I motioned to her to circle around and come back.  She looked at the judge then walked back to the line up.  I was livid.

Once she came out of the ring I told her to get off and proceeded to tear into her a bit.  I asked if she knew what she had just taught Phoenix.  She said no, and I told her that it not acceptable to take a horse up the jump then back them away from it and not jump it.  That it taugh them its ok not to jump.  Obviously I know that in some circumstances it ok, but I had to get through to Anna that it wasn't.  I told her that she was completely fine in warm up, and that I was disappointed in her for not even trying.

I felt bad after for getting on Anna, but I feel like we've been coddling her and Phoenix has been great since he bucked her off. It's hard to know when to support them and when to push. When we got back to the barn she looked like she had cried a bit and asked when she should ride and jump again and I told her Monday so we'll see what happens.  Her mom and I talked today and she agreed with me about trying to push her.  Her mom doesn't know what happened either but wants her to push through.