LOEC Summer is Here Show

Never say never kids.  Last weekend I did what I said I wouldn't do and went back to LOEC for their first summer show. I had been planning on going to a different show the weekend before, but ended up not being able to.  And A wanted to show once this summer before she left for Ecuador and the LOEC show worked best for her.

I honestly wasn't super jazzed about going.  But I've had a little voice in the back of my head whispering how it'd be fun to play in the jumpers so I figured why not. I changed my plans for showing this year and am not aiming for medal finals, or any year end awards, so why shouldn't we go in the jumper ring? And best of all, this show has their jumpers go first thing in the morning so I wouldn't have to wait around all day.

pics bought from Ella Chedester Photography

We hauled the boys up the day before and schooled.  Peebs was totally fine and we warmed up in the indoor where I'd be showing before going to the outdoor where A was showing.  After A was done I wanted to walk around the field where some of the XC jumps were set up.  I popped over a couple small coops and logs and walked up the big bank complex.  Looking down the drop, all I can say is eventers are crazy for wanting to do that.

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Schooled some cross country today. Guess we’re ready for LRK3DE now. #huntergoesxc #peebsdontcare #icare #icarealot

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Jun 22, 2019 at 6:38pm PDT

On show morning, the arena was open at 8 for schooling with a start time of 8:30.  I was on Peebs at 7:58 to make the most of our schooling slot.  They had a small mounting block set on the outdoor track that I used to get on and for the first time ever Peebs took of as I was midswing over his back. He put his head down, humped his back and trotted off. I yanked his head up and got him stopped while calling him bad names and got some terrified looks from a couple of pony kids. But once we were in the ring he calmed down and got to work.

We were doing the 0.70m jumpers and the courses was the exact same hunter courses we did at their April show, only with a jump off and they added more fill to the jumper fences. It was honestly kind of a let down.  We warmed up ok; the lines were a short five for us and one time I got in super awkwardly and tried to cram six in the line and it didn't go well.

Our first round was a little jazzed.  Peebs seemed to understand what the buzzer meant and pulled hard to the first fence. We had a little discussion about that which resulted in some drunken sailor weaving but whatever.  This was only our second time doing full courses with our new bit and there's bound to be a learning curve. He got a little strung out in the second outside line and pulled the back rail so no jump off for us.  In our second round I went in with the idea of having a quiet hunter pace to start, but forgot to keep my leg on to keep the impulsion. We got a super crappy distance to the first fence and took the rail.  The rest of the course was really nice. I was determined to not have first fenceitis in our last round and nailed it.  But we got crooked to the second fence and I circled. We did have a bending line in this round and I was really happy with how it rode.  It was a left bend going past the in gate (historically our bad direction and Peebs would have thrown his body to the right) but it rode really well and we got a nice even 8 strides in it.

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Peebs is forever my #mancrushmonday for saving my butt when I rode us to a 💩distance. Maybe someday I’ll learn that I need to keep my leg on 🤷🏼‍♀️ #peebsisasaint #goodboypeebers #thanksfornotstopping #alwaysmoreleg #amateurhour #firstfenceitis

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Jun 24, 2019 at 12:03pm PDT

We ended up 6th out of 9 in all of our rounds.  I'm happy with how we did.  There were definite bobbles, but I know what they were and how to fix them. Part of it was learning how to ride him in our new bit, especially at shows.  We're going to play in the jumper ring again in a couple of weeks and will hopefully be able to implement some of the fixes.

Bit of Evolution

Our last couple of lessons have been less than stellar.  At first I attributed it to not jumping a whole lot and Peebs being excited to jump. He was wiggly and forward, but would take much offense if I used too much hand.  And by too much hand, I mean pretty much any hand. When we jumped if I had more than just the barest amount of contact he'd flip his head and scoot sideways. It got to the point where it felt like I couldn't touch his mouth and had to keep my hands super low.

Peebs puts up a lot of my amateur mistakes, but there's some things he had to have his way.  One of those is bits.  After trying countless bits when I first got him, it was decided that Peebs goes in a pelham.  It was a smooth, single jointed short shanked pelham and he has been super happy in that bit. It was the bit his previous owners used on him and they said he went well in it.  They weren't wrong.

angry Peebers

But it's been almost 3.5 years since I got him.  His mouth physically is much better. Three years of dentals every six months will see to that.  He's a lot more educated in the contact now, and while I'd like to think I'm a better rider in general, I know I'm better at riding him. And what I was feeling when jumping was not a happy Peebers. 

and yes, I got keepers for it

So I put him in a plain full cheek snaffle. Same mouth piece as the pelham and I hoped the full cheek would help with some of our turning issues.  I had tried him in a plain eggbutt snaffle when I first got him, but had zero braking ability when jumping.  I'm glad to say that now we have brakes! The first ride in the full cheek was great.  I tried a rollback that we had really struggled with in my lesson two days before and it was night and day difference.

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Guys, my horse can go in a snaffle!! Peebs has been very picky about his bit but the last few rides in the pelham, it was clear we needed a change. Still need to work on recalibrating my hand and leg to a snaffle but it feels great to have my horse back! #goodboypeebers #plainsnaffleftw #nomoredoublereins #itsamiracle

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Jun 16, 2019 at 10:53am PDT

I had a lesson Sunday morning, and was hoping to get my trainer's approval of the full cheek. She did note that he was heavier in my hand during our flat warm up and said I need to be cognizant of not letting him hang on my hand.  But part of that is still me learning how much leg and hand I need with the snaffle vs the pelham. Over fences she was sold.  I could actually take a feel of his mouth and ride him toward the fences, as opposed to being super soft and trying to not piss him off.  I could hold in the short three stride and he didn't flip his head and get pissy.  I could sit and push him around the turns without him trying to fly sideways. It was such an awesome feeling to finally be able to really ride my horse again! There's definitely some kinks to work out as far how much feel I need, and how much is too much, but I'm glad to finally ditch the double reins of the pelham!

This or That

I'm slowly starting to look for a new horse trailer. Mine is 11 years old and in fairly good shape but Cinder is I'm starting to outgrow it. It's a standard 7' inside height, 2 horse slant load bumper pull with a decent sized tack room. At just over 2, Cinder is almost hitting her head, and once she fills out, squeezing both her and Peebs in it will be a challenge.

Giant baby horse is giant

I know kinda what I want in my next trailer but I'm not 100%.  It'll be a two horse extra tall, extra wide with a ramp for sure, but do I want a straight load or slant load?  If it's a slant, no rear tack rooms.  I think those are recipes for disaster. Bumper pull or goose neck? My truck can pull a smaller goose neck, I just have to have a hitch installed. I'm leaning towards goose neck because I feel they're more stable and less likely to flip if you get involved in an accident. But they're also more $$$, especially when you have to have the hitch put in. I'm also thinking of a straight load but those tend to be rarer up here. Ideally my next trailer would come with a water tank, but I can add that later if needed.   So blogosphere, what's your preferences?

Fits and Starts

It seems like this year my riding has gone in fits and starts.  Starting last fall Peebs had issues tracking/turning/jumping to the left, then we got his stifles done and that helped. We had really weird weather in Feb/March with snow and cold temp and I didn't feel much like riding. Then we worked through the left issue and just when things started to click I went on vacation for two weeks.

Peebs and his new turnout buddy Red

 When I came back I was hoping to get back to a more regular riding schedule.  But work got crazy and I was doing a lot more and was too drained to ride much.  Then my grandfather got sick and I took a long weekend to fly home and say goodbye, thankfully because he passed a week after I saw him.

It's in large part thanks to my grandfather's generosity and financial skills that I have these two, so thank you Grandpa.

But now both ponies are moved into A's barn, work is still crazy but should get better in a week or two, and I'm starting to feel more motivated. Other than flying down for my grandfather's service in late July/early August, I have all summer to dedicate to the ponies. I've had a couple really good rides with Peebs last week and I'm hopeful that we can end the fits and starts and finally really start working.

Peebs (and Cinder) go to Summer Camp: 2019 Edition

Last summer when I first started hauling Peebs over to A's place for lessons, he spent a few days there and gave her cousins pony rides.  I've been hauling over to A's somewhat regularly for lessons and to ride with her since.  I love A's barn and have lamented over the fact that she doesn't have enough stalls for my two ponies. They have one extra stall, but I have two horses.

Peebs hanging out in one of A's stalls

A is going to be gone this summer for a 10 week internship in Ecuador. Her parents were planning on taking care of the horses, since they all typically live outside 24/7 in the summer and come in once a day for grain/fly spray/feet picking. But one of the boarded horses broke a hind coffin bone and is on stall rest indefinitely. He also has some other medical issues, and combined with the injury and possible side effects, A's parents felt they weren't equipped to handle it.  I offered to help take care of the barn and they've graciously accepted and are letting me move my ponies in for the summer.

Peebs testing out his summer home this past weekend

If everything goes to plan, Peebs will live in the small pasture that's half dry lot half grass and has a run in shed. Being out on full pasture 24/7 isn't great for Peebs' delicate stomach (and his waistline) so this will hopefully be a good solution. I'm planning on chucking Cinder out in the big pasture with the three geldings.  A's gelding Scottie loves to play but the other two don't so I'm hoping he and Cinder will play together and wear each other out. At my current barn, the ponies only get about half day turnout in the summer in paddocks, so I'm excited to get them out more and let them be horses.

Meeting the other ponies

My trainer is also going to coming out to A's more this summer to help keep Scottie in shape.  I'm looking forward to getting more lessons in and having her help me start long lining Cinder.  I'll probably also ride Scottie a bit too, which will be good as he's a very different ride from Peebs. We haven't worked out exactly when I'm moving in yet, but probably within a few weeks.  A leaves in early July, but we're planning on going to a show the end of June together and I'd like to have Peebs over there to jump more before the show. I'm super excited for this summer but so sad that A will be gone. 

Terrible Twos

Cinder officially turned 2 last Thursday.  I had originally planned to do pics for her birthday, but since I got back from Africa life has been beyond crazy.  I caught a cold, then majorly tweaked my back; work has been incredibly busy and unfortunately the ponies kinda got put on the back burner for a bit.

 Right before I left for Africa Cinder's hives that had been off and on for weeks finally decided to stay on.  The vet came out two days before I left and we put her on steroids for 3wks and started the process of trying different bedding.  So far the sawdust the barn gets and one brand of bagged pine shavings don't agree with the princess.  We're trying pellets at the moment, and she comes off another round of steroids tomorrow so fingers crossed!

She was so mad

But there's progress!  Vet wanted me to try and rinse Cin off after each round of failed bedding to clean her up.  Only problem is she absolutely HATES the hose and getting wet.  I was able to sponge her off, but no time like the present to work on getting hosed off.   We had one major come to Jesus moment after she busted the crossties and jumped half way into a wheelbarrow during our first attempt at bath time. But with the help of a stud chain and cookies I've slowly been able to work our way up to a full bath.  She still hates getting her hind legs wet and will kick out (not at me, more stomping angrily) but she hasn't tried to vacate the wash rack or run me over again, so I'll take it.

So grown up!

We also started working on the longe more and revisited wearing tack.  She's totally fine being saddled and having the girth tightened.  She's fine walking with the saddle.  She's very not fine being asked to trot while saddled.  There was much rearing and head snaking involved. At one point she almost went over backwards but caught herself.  I was internally screaming as I had used my saddle instead of the crap Wintec on her.  We'll go back to using the Wintec until she's over her feelings about working under tack. I'm also internally screaming as she fits perfectly into Peeb's 48" girth.  Like, it was on the exact same holes as he uses. Just how big is she going to get?!

Lions, and Zebras, and Rhinos....Oh My!

Last summer my mom texted me asking how much vacation time I had, and how much could I use at one time. I replied with how much I thought I could use at once, and asked why.  Her response was, and I quote, "We're going to Africa and taking you with us. Dad and I want to do it before we're older and more decrepit that we already are." 

We booked our trip through a travel agent for eight days in Tanzania in April. We were on a guided tour, with a driver. The vehicles can accommodate up to 7 customers plus the driver, but there only ended up being one other person besides the three of us.  The trip ended up happening over my birthday, even though it really wasn't planned that way.  But it was one of the best birthday presents ever; maybe second only to Chancie, my first horse that was my 14th birthday present.

Any birthday presents including equines is a good birthday present

Our trip started by flying from the west coast to DC, spending the night in DC, getting woken up in the middle of the night by emergency alerts on our phones of tornadoes in the area, then getting on a plane for 13hr to fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had a two hour lay over, then another two hour flight into Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Unfortunately there were clouds blocking Mt. Kilimanjaro when we flew in and out so we never got to see the mountain. By the time we got through customs and to our hotel I had been awake for over 24 hours, had no idea what day or time it was, and was so happy to see a bed. We spent our first night in Arusha, a fairly large city, but we didn't venture away from the hotel.

Not your normal, everyday sight

Our first full day in Tanzania was spent driving to and through Tarangire National Park. We saw elephants, zebras, cape buffalos, vervet monkeys, baboons, giraffes, impala, gazelles, and probably more that I'm forgetting.  It honestly didn't feel real. I kept expecting to see fences, or zoo keepers. Like, is this real life? Our hotel was in the middle of the park and at night we had to be escorted from the main reception/dining room of the hotel to our rooms in separate building because the wildlife can wander in.  We did see monkeys and warthogs on the grounds of the hotel. 

The third day was supposed to be a 6-7 hour to the Serengeti National Park, but ended up being almost 12 hours due to stops and wildlife sightings.  Almost as soon as we entered the park we saw a cheetah just chilling on the side of the rode, not 15 feet from us. Dude totally didn't care that we were there snapping pic after pic. Our hotel in Serengeti was once again in the middle of the park with no fences and we had to be escorted back and forth to our rooms.

Pride rock

The fourth day was my birthday and it started off with seeing these guys above. From what we could count, there was about a dozen or so lions here. Again, it was like something out of a zoo, or Disney, not real life. We spent the day driving around the park and came across a huge herd of zebras. There were probably 200-300 of them. And we drove right through and they didn't care at all.  Right before we stopped for lunch we saw another two lions sleeping on a river bank.  We were able to get pretty close to them.  Later in the afternoon we came across a different pride of lions that had just brought down a wildebeest and was having dinner.  The older lions had already eaten and the cubs were staring to eat. We probably spent 45 mins just watching. It was like National Geographic come to life. We also saw more elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, and Nile crocodiles.

Younger male lion by the river bank

Our second full day in Serengeti was spent driving to the western edge of the park. We drove through the wildebeest migration and saw upwards of 200,000 of them.  It was incredible. The morning of our sixth day we woke up early to try and spot a leopard.  We were able to see one asleep in a tree, and another crouching in the brush.  I tried to take pics, but they didn't turn out very well.  We also saw another three cheetahs.  We then drove out of the park and into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, home to the Ngorongoro Crater.  Our hotel was on the edge of the crater.

Our last full day in Tanzania was spent driving down into the crater.  Here we were able to cross the last of the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, Cape buffalo) off the list. We were able to see two black rhinos.  We weren't able to get close to them but I was amazed at how big the older one's horn was.  Much, much bigger than anything I've seen in a zoo. We ended the day by having a pregnant lioness walk up to our truck, lie down next to us and take a nap.  She was so close my dad could have reached his hand out of the window and pet her. 

Just using the running board as an arm rest

The whole trip didn't seem real, and being back home for a couple of weeks now makes it seem even more unreal. I've had to ask myself if that really happened, if we really did that.  It was an amazingly incredible trip that I can't thank my parents enough for. I only hope I can go back one day.