Cinder Progress Report: Good Baby Brain

 I've had two lesson in the last two days, on two different horses with two different trainers. I'm exhausted.  

 

Her neck feels so long

Tuesday I had my second lesson on Cinder. It was a great lesson, especially because of the circumstances. It's been really, really windy and dry here; so windy I couldn't hear Trainer A unless I was within 10ft of her. And the footing in the indoor at Cinder's barn was pulled out last weekend and they're working on the base before putting in new footing. So we had to ride outside in the wind.  Thankfully Cinder didn't seem bothered by the wind at all, or the dressage letters and standards that had blown over. 

 

We started off walking and chatting with A for bit, then got down to work. We mostly stayed at one end of the ring so I could hear A. We worked on spiraling in and out on our circle, and not letting her get fast, or rushy. I want to push Cinder past her balance at this point, so A had me think about having more a western jog than a working trot for right now. Instead of adding more leg, I was to think about adding more half halts and balance. 

Her canter is freaking amazing

We also did our first canter together! A had me pick it up out of a trot, which threw me because I usually pick up the canter out of a walk. Hunters vs dressage I guess. It took me a minute to organize myself, and for Cinder to figure out what the heck I was asking her to do, but we got it. And holy crap, her canter is so, so nice. She's got a great natural rhythm, it felt pretty dang balanced, and it was so easy and comfortable to ride. The way it feels just screams HUNTER. We did a couple circles before A had me go down the rail and I was so in awe of Cinder that I kinda forgot to steer and we almost left the arena, and then did a little drunken weave down the second long side. Oops. I have to remember that the power steering isn't installed yet. 

Baby's first big spook

We took a walk break then tried cantering the other direction. And then the guy working on the indoor decided it was a good time to fire up the tractor and dump some rock. As you can see from the pic above, Cinder had some feelings about it. She spooked twice, but other than a stride or two of flailing, they weren't that bad. I was able to stay on, and bring her back down to the walk both times within a circle. We did get a little more cantering in between the first and second spooks, but both A and I could tell her baby brain was thisclose to being fried so we ended by walking some circle and figure 8s at the far end of the arena.

I was so impressed with how well Cinder handled everything. When I had ridden Peebs the day before in the wind, he was good but obviously not happy about it. And since tractors are his biggest fear, I know he would have noped out the situation as fast as he could, and his brain would have been fried long before Cinder's was. I told A I was more worried about the tractor due to Peebs' trauma than Cinder was and kept anticipating her to be worse. She has such a good brain on her!

Team NW Bedrock Show August 2019: Full of Hot Air

Every year my town hosts a weekend Art and Air festival. They have hot air balloons that take off Friday and Saturday morning and night, as well as Sunday morning. There's also booths with local artists, food, and drink plus bands.  I've seen the hot air balloons flying many times, but for the first time this year some of them landed super close to us.  Like in the field next to my barn close. My BO said in the 10yrs they've been on that property the balloons have never landed there.

My friend took this from her house, but the multicolored balloon and the red/gray one were landing next to my barn

Saturday morning I was hauling Peebs up to a show.  I got to the barn just as the balloons were starting to deflate.  Peebs had a direct line of sight to the balloons from his paddock, and he thought the alien invasion was upon us.  The BO has just fed but for the first time in his life Peeb was too upset to eat. He was standing at the back corner of his paddock with a bite of hay hanging from his mouth staring at the alien invaders. He would sporadically run circles screaming warnings to the other horses who thankfully didn't seem as worried as he was.

I had loaded the trailer Friday night so all I had to do Saturday was hook up and load Peebs, but I decided to toss a longe line in the trailer.  Normally Peebs doesn't need to be longed at shows, but with as upset as he was about the balloons I figured it was a good idea to take the longe line just in case. When we got to the show Peebs happily tucked into his breakfast and I left him alone for while to chill.  The show ended up being huge so we had plenty of time before my classes.  I did decide to longe and as we were waiting for the tractor to finish dragging the longe area a horse also waiting got loose from his kid and took a tour of the jumper warm up arena before running back to us.  He aimed directly at Peebs and I and poor Peebs shot backwards and into the fence. Seriously, not Peebs' day.

When I got on to warm up for my hunter classes Peebs was still a tense, hot mess.  We spent a long time walking around the warm up ring before trotting.  He was looking at everything, trying to find alien invaders or loose horses.  I finally just picked up the canter, got in a half seat, and let him canter it out. It kinda worked.  He was still looky, but started paying attention to me. When he gets like this there is almost no working him down, I could have longed him again for an hour and it wouldn't have made a difference.  So I popped over a warm up jump once each way and called it good.

Peebs was still looky and distracted once we were in the ring but I tried to stay zen about it.  Coming around to the first diagonal line, we had to go past the in gate and Peebs broke to the trot.  I knew kicking him back into the cater would lead to a disorganized zoomy Peebers so I decided to just trot into the line. Peebs apparently thought the aliens were hiding behind the first fence in the line and  got super wiggly and stopped.  I took a deep breath, circled and made it over on the second try.  In our second round I did a better job of anticipating where Peebs was likely to break and kept my leg on.  But our last line was down the long side towards the in gate and Peebs really wanted to be done.  He took a flyer at the first fence, started to charge down the line, and I pulley rein stopped him. I had already written off this day and I figured it was better to school my horse than worry about proper ring etiquette. We once again circled and jumped the fence fine on the second attempt.  I did make Peebs do a big courtesy circle at the end and walk quietly out of the ring.  We did place fifth and fourth in our rounds, out of five.

Originally the plan for the show was to do the hunters on Saturday as I was showing by myself and then do the jumpers Sunday when my trainer was available to school me. I called her Saturday as I was driving to the hotel and explained the day and how I wanted to scratch our jumper classes and do the eq on Sunday instead. She agreed with my new plan and we also decided that Peebs could go for another longe Sunday morning. I had felt pretty upset after my rounds Saturday, but once I had eaten dinner and talked it over with trainer I felt a lot better.  It just wasn't our day but I was happy with how I handled it and we had a plan for  Sunday.

OSU Event Team Jumper Schooling Show

"How to Show in 15* Weather"

On Saturday we ventured out into the frozen tundra for our first show of the year and our first time in the jumper ring together.  We had had below freezing temps with snow and ice for what feels life forever, and while it was sunny Saturday my truck said it was 24* and the feel like temp was 15*.  I questioned my sanity for signing up for this show way more than once. 

When you have to try on your show clothes to make sure they fit over a bazillion layers.  I ended up wearing 3 shirts, a vest, fleece tights, breeches, a pair of regular socks, boots socks, and my heavy barn coat.

Because of the freezing temps we haven't gotten to ride outside for like two weeks, and I've been lazy and not wanting to set fences inside, so we've been doing lot of trot and canter poles. I had entered us in two crossrail and two 2' classes, with the plan of trotting in and cantering through the lines. I figured even with not a lot of schooling Peebs could handle that. And if it was too much, I'd always scratch.

My BO went with me as my ground person/emergency helper.  Trainer's daughter had a gymnastics meet that weekend so I was on my own. There was some confusion when we got there about stalls, and my stall was still locked.  And when they opened it for me, I discovered that bedding wasn't included in the price of the stall.  I apparently had to buy bedding from the facility.  So Peebs didn't get any bedding.  He was only in his stall for me to tack up, untack, check our placings, and repack the trailer, and he didn't pee or poop, so it wasn't the end of the world. But it was still annoying.

There was a photographer and I'm waiting on pics, but for now you get blurry screenshots

It was a pretty small show, so I tacked up right away and got on.  Peebs was pretty impressed with the facility and spooked more than a few times during warm up. Going in for our first round, he spooked hard going to and at the first fence.  I actually had to circle him away just in front of the start timers to try and get him forward and we kinda jumped the first fence from a standstill.  He then spooked at the far side of the ring at some jump filler (boxes, brush) that they weren't using that was behind the fence and spun sideways.  I circled again, and talked to him. I ended up trotting everything.  No way was I going to attempt a canter fence when he was that rattled. About 2/3rd of the way through the course he started to settle, but still gave the filler the hairy eyeball when we went past going the other direction. 

I kept him walking while we waited for our second round and had serious thoughts about scratching the 2'.  Peebs has never been that looky or distracted before. Our second round was better, he wasn't as spooky and I was able to canter out of some of the lines and around the ring.  He did have a bit spook at the far side arena wall.  I don't know at what, maybe our shadow on it?

Jumper pony mode activated

I figured that since he was a better for the second round, that I'd attempt our first 2' round and go from there.  It went well; he was more focused on the fences, I could sit and add leg to move him up in the lines, and he didn't spook at anything. I did have a moment when I realized the first fence in the judges line was an oxer (the red oxer in the pic above) and I was trotting it. I hate trotting oxers.  But Peebs don't care. We did have one oops moments when I had to move him up in a diagonal line then try and bring him back for a tight turn to a fence on the short side of the ring.  We way overshot the turn and looked like drunken sailors going to it.   We did our second 2' round and other than seeing a 4.5 stride distance in the 4 stride diagonal line, it was our best round.  He felt like his normal, solid Peebers self. 

1st in our second 2', second in the first 2', third in the second xrail, and fifth in the first xrail

I'm super happy with how we ended, and that I made myself do the 2' classes even though I didn't want to.  I had a blast (minus our first round) being back in the jumper ring and can't wait till we're ready to show in them at a regular show. It was beyond gratifying to see how Peebs settled and improved over the four rounds, and that I could get that improvement without my trainer to talk me down. I just hope our next show is slightly warmer!

Brought to You by the Letter D

Vitamin D is something we here in the PNW are normally lacking this time of year.  Usually it's gray, rainy, gray, cold, wet, and gray.  This year it's been fairly dry with a mix of foggy/gray days and sunny days.  And now that its staying lighter later (and thank goodness for the time change this weekend) I've decided to take advantage and ride McKenna outside more.

I think part of the mare's resistance going right is that we're riding in the indoor, where the footing can be a bit slick if it's wet.  The few times it's rained this winter it's poured pretty hard and unfortunately a few spots in the indoor flood.  The gutters can't handle it and some water seeps in. I've seen McKenna slip while being turned out in the indoor, and I'm wondering if this A) caused her back injury; and B) makes her more nervous and unwilling to go forward inside.  I rode outside Sunday and yesterday and lunged her outside Monday and she was a lot more willing and seemed happier. 

Photographic proof that we ride outside.

Brief barn tour: My barn has two aisles, the upper and lower, with the indoor arena between them. The long side of the indoor arena run east-west.  Our outdoor area is directly off of the indoor, and it's long sides run north-south.

Marvel at my awesome paint representation of the barn

About 10 minutes into our ride yesterday as we were coming around the lower corner of the arena heading up the long side the big sliding door from the indoor to the outdoor started opening. McKenna spooked hard, jumping backwards and sideways at the same time. Thankfully she didn't do more than that; I had visions of my ass ending up in the dirt. I yelled at the boarder (very sweet but utterly clueless woman) who was sticking her head out of the opening and I'm pretty sure I dropped a few f-bombs at her.  She was very apologetic, saying she didn't know anyone was outside.   Once the door was all the way open I walked McKenna past it and she tried to run sideways again.  Since my heart was still in my throat and McKenna's whole body was vibrating, I figured we needed a break so I got off and put her on the lunge line.

One of my fav pics of Phoenix and Buddy standing at the offending door.

Once I was able to breath without shaking and McKenna was lunging past the door quietly I got back on.  My plan for the day was to work over some ground poles but I scrapped that and settled for some nice w-t-c. She was still a little sticky going right, but I didn't push it since she was being so much better than she was in the indoor. The weather is supposed to stay sunny and nice for the next week so we'll be able to get some hopefully good rides outside.

I can haz stretchy trotz?

Turning a Fail into a Win

We've had a pretty mild winter this year, drier, warmer, and sunnier than normal.  The weather was foggy in the morning all last week, but would burn off in the afternoons.  I rode McKenna on Thursday, starting inside because she had had a few days off.  She was good, a little excited but listened to me and offered no baby moments.  It was sunny and I hadn't worked her outside for a few weeks so outside we went.

I had heard the neighbor's lawn mower going, but McKenna has to grow up and deal with distractions at some point.  Right as we walked outside one boarder pulled up and then one of the 4H girls' dad drove up in his work rig, a big excavating truck.  The boarder tends to leaver her border collie in the cab of the truck when she's at the barn and McKenna's spooked pretty hard at him barking and running around the cab before.  Then the neighbors started their tractor and were grateing new gravel for their driveway. 

I decided to hand walk McKenna around the ring a few times till she stopped looking like a deer in the headlights then got on.  She was so tense and obviously distracted but she couldn't decide what was scariest. We did another two laps at the walk then I got off and told her she was good pony for not freaking out or trying to kill me.

She says "I wasn't scared". Don't believe her.

Friday I was able to get off work early and get out to the barn to ride in the sun again.  She seemed to be calm so instead of starting inside then going out, we just headed to the outdoor.  But again, right when we walked down the barn aisle one boarder's horse (the same one with the barking dog) ran out of its stall.  Luckily she was right there and caught the horse but her other horse, in the stall next to the escapee, started rearing and freaking out.  So of course McKenna freaked out and bye, bye cool and calm pony.

I threw her on the lunge and she spent  about five minutes being a complete spaz and running till she was blowing.  Once she came back to reality she was pretty lazy and just loped along so I stopped her, got on, and put her right to work.  Lots of circles, figure 8s, transitions to get her baby brain focused.  She was still tense, but didn't really pull anything naughty.  We finished by trotting over a little pile of poles and a small cavaletti.

I got lucky Saturday and other than my BO doing some spring cleaning of tack and blankets I had the barn to myself.  A quick lunge and I got on outside.  She was much more relaxed and willing so we did a quick walk-trot including the pole piles and cavaletti before cantering.  We did a few circles then added cantering the pile of poles.  This is only the second or third time cantering poles and every time before she would be strong/rushy/nervous/a baby.  But yesterday she was quiet and calm about it.  Even when I couldn't find a distance and sat there like a lump she just quietly figured it out and kept going.  My BO said she was looking great and I was able to convince her to video us with my phone.

She still needs some strengthening in the canter, especially going left, but that will come.  I'm just so happy we went from beyond freaked out baby on Thursday to quiet, calm pony on Saturday.

Corner of Shame

So last time we had the sleazy of shame, now we have the corner of shame!  It's been a rough week for the poor mare.

Being cute won't get you anywhere....sometimes

McKenna's consistently spooky in two corner of the indoor.  Tracking left she likes to drop her butt and take off going past the corner that has our mounting block.  Tracking right she likes to take off in the opposite corner, which just happens to be next to her stall.  We've tried doing downward transitions, halting, tons of halt halts, but nothing really works for long to keep her little brain in her head in these two corners. 

On Friday we had cantered left, trotted across the diagonal and were getting ready to pick up the right lead when she took off bucking.  Granted, probably not my best idea to do that transition in the scary corner. Got her walking in the center of the ring, then she started crow hopping.  I was so pissed that I took her over to the scary corner and made her stand in it for a good five minutes.   We then did a turn on the haunches and stood facing down the long side for another few minutes.  Once she gave me a big sigh and relaxed a bit I let her walk off.  Did some walk-trot transitions on a circle at that end of the arena before going back to a canter.

All we need is a dunce cap

I was playing it safe and cantered at the other end of the arena, one bucking/crow hopping fit a day is enough thank you, but my friend pushed me into doing at least one canter through the scary corner.  I took a deep breath, tried to stay relaxed and pushed on.  McKenna got tense, but was good so we quit with that.  Times like that that I both love and hate friends that push me out of my comfort zones!

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.

My Own Redneck Neighbors

I know some of the other blogs out there have talked about their redneck hell neighbors, so I'm going to share a story about mine.

Next to our barn is another boarding barn.  The barn is a bit rundown, doesn't have as many amenities as ours, but the board is cheaper. You can see where this is going, right?  I've been at my barn for almost 8yrs, and while I don't know every boarder next door, I think the longest one there was maybe 3yrs?  They have a high turnover rate, either boarders getting fed up with care/management/lack of amenities or the BO getting fed up with the boarders and asking them to leave.

Our outdoor arena is along side some small paddocks at the other barn.  Over the years I've had countless horses come charging at the fence when I've ridden past.  Buddy and Phoenix didn't care but McKenna sure does.  Currently there is a buckskin half Arab in one of the paddocks that likes to charge us, ears flat back and teeth bared, then turn around and kicks at us with both hind feet. Last week we were riding around and the owner of the horse was out bringing them in. I was trotting past, and the Arab came flying at us, spun and kicked, and McKenna shot forward like she was coming out of the starting gate.  The owner just laughed. McKenna was so worried every time we went past that part of the ring, even after the horse was gone, she would tense up and spring forward.  If I thought McKenna wouldn't freak out, I'd take a dressage whip and smack the crap out of the other horse if she charged us when no one was around.

I think the other horse is jealous of McKenna's cuteness

Last night a different boarder and her 8yr oldish daughter were out riding in their "grass ring", or otherwise know as the BO's front lawn.  When you ride along the top rail of our outdoor you can see their grass ring.  It's small, but they have some poles/trail obstacles set up.  The other boarder decided to put her younger (maybe 5ish) son on the horse, but had him sit behind her on the horse's loin and grab the back of her western saddle.  Said horse looked fine to me, but about 2mins into the ride I hear her start yelling "Whoa" over and over.  I was approaching the top of the ring and stopped McKenna so she could take a good look and hopefully not freak out.

Mom gets her horse stopped then yells at her daughter to stop her horse and get off.  Daughter does and Mom tells her to take the reins of both horses while she tries to get the son off, because the horse was going to buck.  Mom starts yelling at the son to get off, but he's little and can't.  She reaches around and pulls him sideways, telling him to jump, and he ends up falling to the ground and rolled out of the way.  Cue immediate crying/screaming.  At this point McKenna shoots her head up and starts getting tense.  Mom starts yelling louder for the son not to cry and to get off the ground because the horse was going to step on him.  Horse hadn't moved an inch, and didn't look likely to but what do I know?  Mom gets off the horse and while continuing to yell "Would you rather fall off or get bucked off," tries to get the son to stop crying.  They walked away and I tried to get McKenna's brain back online but she started spinning and running sideways, so we lunged instead. 

Thanks neighbors for ruining my ride.  But at least all three of them had helmets on.