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.

John Turner Clinic - Day 2

It seemed like we rode longer on day two than day one.  My group was right after the lunch break and all of us had gotten on about 10 minutes early to start warming up.  John came out and started talking to us and giving us exercises to do during warm up so I think we did get an extra bit of time.  He didn't have us do a lot of trot work, mostly walking with turns on the haunches and forehand and sidepassing.  We went almost straight into canter work, doing walk-canter-walk transitions then doing canter-halts. 

Moving right along John had us start jumping with a skinny brick wall set along the outside, with no standards.  The first time through Buddy veered left two strides out and we had to come again but we got the standards put up.  Not a problem then.  A few others had runouts as well, so we went back and forth over the wall a few times. 

The other fences were set up along the center line in a zig zag pattern.  John had us do a bunch of different bending lines, starting with some longer ones and ending with an incredibly short one. I got yelled at for using too much left rein and not enough right rein.  At one point as I went around all John was saying was "No left rein, no left rein!". 

Then we switched up the lines and did a short, hard line bending to left he turned to me and said "You can open your left rein here, but only here".  The line started off a short right hand turn from a skinny bending left in 4 to an oxer.  The first time I did it we totally missed the turn, but then so did almost everyone else.  Second time, we got the turn but Buddy was pretty tired and we pulled up at the oxer.  You can hear on the video John saying he was ok with that, then he had the oxer put down to a vertical and we got it (mom missed getting that on camera).

I never realized that I'm a lot stronger with my left rein before.  Buddy's gotten most of this week off, his lease girl did a flat hack with him today, but when I ride this weekend I want to set poles and practice the same lines, not using my left rein. John was a great clinician and I'm hoping they'll have him back down because I would love to ride with him again.

John Turner Clinic - Day 1

Friday afternoon getting ready for the clinic was a bit of a disaster.  My truck wouldn't start despite the fact that I took it in 3wks ago because it wasn't starting then and had supposedly been fixed.  That combined with the fact that I have been majorly overextending myself at work and the barn (12-14hr days/5 days a week for 3weeks combined with not being able to sleep more than 5hrs a night) led to a panic attack/sobbing phone call to my mom, the second one in a week.  I was all set to cancel the clinic and spend all weekend in bed until another boarder at my barn, who I don't know super well, said she'd lend me her truck.

Nice F250 diesel that hauled really smoothly

My mom ended up flying up to meet me Friday night and joined me at the clinic both days.  No one else from my barn went, even though auditing the clinic was free.  It was awesome to have her along to take videos and make sure I ate and drank and to spoil Buddy with apples and peppermints.

I was in the 2'6"-2'9" group and we started right after the lunch break.  There were 6 of us, one 17yr old junior and the rest of us were ammys. We started out by going back and forth from a two point to a deep seat at the walk, finding our balance and stretching down in our heels. In the trot John wanted us to flex our ankle and nudge the horse with our heels every time we sat.  We added some trot-halt transitions, making sure they stopped straight and didn't move once stopped.  A few of us (me included) had horses that stopped crooked, so we were instructed to halt with the haunches in the opposite direction they wanted to go.  Buddy likes to stop haunches left, so I had to make sure to stop him haunches right.

Introductions day 1

This led to turns on the haunches and turns on the forehand.  John said he does a lot of this with his horses, and that the key to successful lead changes is turn on the forehands. I got dinged for going to fast and trying to rush through them. He kept telling us over and over that nothing we do is a race, and to keep everything slow and in control.

We didn't do too much canter work at first, just a few transitions to lighten them up. Again he said "It's not a race, it's a departure. You prepare them, then ask for a canter departure." For jumping we started by trotting a small vertical with one side dropped and halting in a straight line. The jump was the first in a 4 stride line so that made it a bit more challenging. Buddy was offended by stopping and not going down the line and was pulling me forward. John had me take off my figure 8 noseband and martingale, saying that he thinks they are just decorations and he thought Buddy didn't like the flash. We then moved onto cantering a small vertical on a diagonal with a long approach and stopping on a straight line.  The first time sans noseband and martingale was pretty awful.  Bud was flipping his head so much I was afraid he'd rear.  Almost everyone in the group had problems so we did it a few times, and each time through got better.

Way to over jump Bud.

The jumps went up and we added the 4 stride outside line after the vertical.  It was a long four, and some people got 5, Buddy was feeling forward so I pushed for the four. Again we had to stop on a straight line and despite having to move him up, Buddy halted well.  John then had us reverse the exercise and go up the line to the diagonal, halting again.  A few of us were having issues following our horses mouths and relaxing our elbows so we finished the day by doing some canter work  and jump the single fence with our reins in a driving position.  As weird as it felt, I did notice I could follow easier and had to unlock my elbows.

It took me a while to figure out how to do this and hold a crop at the same time.

High Maintence

In true OTTB fashion Miss McKenna is hard to put weight on. Part of her problem is that she's not very interested in her food. She's a slow eater, and gets distracted easily and then will forget about her hay. She's better about not forgetting her grain but still eats it ridiculously slowly.  She had her teeth done almost a year ago, so maybe she's due again.

Gain weight now!!

I've started giving McKenna her hay in hay nets. We feed on the ground, and she'd pee and poop on her hay when she wasn't paying attention and ended up wasting about half of her hay. We have some metal wall feeders to install but my BO's are on vacation and I don't feel qualified to try and hang one by myself.  I just used the nets I have for the trailer and make sure to have her morning one filled so the AM feeder just has to swap out the nets. It is a pain in the butt to remember and set them up every night, but she is eating all of her hay now.

She did rip a huge hole in the side of this one...probably going to need to get a new hay net.

Speed Racer

Had a lesson with Buddy yesterday morning, the first lesson on him in 2 months, I think?  I had been trying to get one in sooner, but my availability never meshed with my trainer's.  Since we haven't been jumping much lately (the last time I jumped him was on New Year's Day) I was bit worried how we would do.  With our clinic next weekend I been feeling like we aren't prepared.

 

Our lesson was first thing in the morning and usually Buddy can be crabby when I pull him away from his breakfast. I shouldn't have worried he was excited and forward, ready to go.  We worked on transitions and at one point I asked for a trot from the halt and he lifted into a beautiful round, soft canter.  Trainer said to just go with it as it was one of the nicest transitions she's seen him do. Even our trot warm up fences were good.  He was jumping them nicely and cantering away quietly.  Normally he either just trots the fence without jumping, or kinda hurls himself over.

 

Oregon State, fight fight fight!

We moved on to figure 8ing a couple diagonal fences and while he was forward and going, he was pretty stiff to the right. Had to do a few circles in front of the right-to-left fence to get him thinking right bend before jumping it. Once he was bending I could see our distance and the fence flowed easily.

 

Turning into speed racer here.

From there we added an outside line, a five going uphill. I tend to have to ride him more forward to these lines since he looses impulsion going up the hi. Not today!  I just had to make sure he was bending right and soft and it worked.  The third time thru, for whatever reason, he decided to turn into speed racer and completely blew through my hands.  Got way deep to the first fence, pulling the rail, and galloped down the line.  Also got way deep to the second fence, pulling not just the rail but one of the standards down too.  Trainer rolled out the ground lines in an attempt to back him off the fences and we tried again.  He learned his lesson and when I half halted he waited and did the line like a normal horse.

RIP Zipper

We finished off doing some rollback turns over the diagonal fences and an outside Swedish oxer.  Buddy was still going strong and I was starting to pick at him a bit so we worked on being soft and riding the forward pace.  It was such a change from how he normally is that it threw me a bit, but I liked it. 

About halfway thru the lesson I felt a pop on my calf then started hearing a flapping noise.  During a walk break I looked down and saw that my left boot (the one that lost it's zipper tab this summer) had split and my boot was wide open.  The only thing holding it on was the tab on the top.  Trainer asked if I wanted to stop but I said no, it would be a good calf exercise to try and hold it on!  Now I just have to decide if spending $100 on a new zipper for an 8yr old boot that only cost $200 to begin with is worth it or if I should just get new boots. 

The $100,000 Question

What would I spend my $100,000 on?  Most of it would go pretty fast.  Right now what I would love to get the most is a new truck and trailer.  For whatever reason, knowing that I can hook up the trailer and take my horses anywhere at a moments notice has been a relief.  I don't know if its because I hate asking people for help, or that I was dependant on others to haul for me for years.  Probably a bit of both. 

Truck:  I'd get a new Dodge one ton diesel dually.  I absolutely love my barn owner's, and I know if I need it they will let me use it, but having a big rig of my own is my dream.  $55,000

I would prefer it in a different color. White/grey is so boring!

Trailer: I'd keep my 2 horse, for local hauls or if I'm only taking one horse somewhere.  But for going to shows I'd want a GN 4 horse.  The GNs are so much safer than the BPs (from an auto accident perspective) and after hauling the 4 horse this summer I liked how it handled better than I thought I would.  $25,000

Saddles: I'd get custom saddles for each of the ponies.  It's not practical to get a 19yr old semi-retired horse a custom saddle, but damn it Phoenix deserves it!  I'm leaning towards County, as I rode in one a few years ago and loved it!  I've never ridden in a CWD so I'd like to try them out, and the Antares I've ridden in I didn't like.  Granted it was made for someone 6in taller than me and 10yrs old at that point so I'd do another test ride first before making up my mind. $5,000/horse for $15,000 total.

Clothes: Complete show clothes make over!  Custom boots, new helmets (one hunter ring approved and one fancier for the jumpers), shadbelly, white breeches, new shirts, new coats.....the works! $5,000.

The Rest of the Story

When we got McKenna my barn owner friended on Facebook the barn owner of the place where McKenna was.  That BO, and the western trainer who was working McKenna, then friended me to follow her progress.  I got a little info from them, mostly basics like what they were feeding her, when she was shod, got vaccines and dewormed. 

Yesterday I got a message on FB from the McKenna's old owner, the one who got her off the track and put her in training.  I was under the impression that she hadn't done much with her....had put her in training for 8 months without going to see her.  I was kinda worried at first, thinking that she wanted her back or wanted $$$ for her.  We never signed any paperwork for McKenna, and don't have papers on her, so legally we're a bit screwed.  But then a friend request popped up and I started to breath easy.

J, the former owner, just wanted to know how she was doing and gave me some more background on McKenna.  I guess she got her a week after she came off the track in April 2012.  I get the impression that she might have been at a feedlot, or on her way to one.  J said they spent about 4 months putting weight on her and letting her chill before staring to work with her.  Her vet said when they got McKenna she was 200lbs underweight, even for an OTTB.

The day she came to J's

McKenna was in work for a bit at J's barn, a nice H/J barn in Southern Oregon for a few months before going to the western trainers.  I didn't ask why she decided to send McKenna to a western barn, and J didn't offer.  She did say that if she had been able to train her, she would have kept her.  J has a mare that's rehabbing from a leg injury and is leasing a gelding and showing in the 2'3" hunters on the A circuit, so I don't think money is an issue.  I got some cute pics from her FB page of when McKenna was at her barn.

Three months off the track

I'm glad that, for whatever reason, J decided not to keep her and was willing to rescue her, pay for training, and then give her away.  I hope one day I'm financially able to do the same!