OHC Indoor Eventing: Show Day

When Trainer A suggested we take Cinder to the indoor eventing show, I knew it was a mix of stadium and xc fences inside, and I also thought there would be a dressage test. But nope, just jumping. The show required all entries to do at least 2 rounds, at either the same level or different levels. If you were showing more than once at the same level on the same day (we only showed on Saturday) only the first round would count for placings.  So Cinder was signed up for two intro (2') rounds.

Fence 1, the only stadium fence. All photos bought from Steve Storm Photography

After feeding the horses Saturday morning A, the kids, and I set out to walk the course. Two of the kids were doing intro and the third was doing an intro and a beginner novice round and the course was the same for both with the BN fences being next to the intro ones. The course was a lot of singles with long lines between them, with only one awkward bending line. Scoring was based on optimum time which we didn't even bother to look at. 

The stroller approached the fence as Cinder was cantering up to it and A said she thought Cinder would spook at it, but nope she didn't care

We had posted ride times, but the ring crew didn't stick to it. Two of the girls went early and A was supposed to do her rounds with Cinder later in the order, and the third girl was supposed to do her intro round right after. A talked with the ring steward and got the ok to move Cinder up so that way she could focus on her, and then put her away and focus on warming up the girl. Luckily there was a bit of a lull when we pulled Cinder out and there was only two other horses warming up. Cinder warmed up well, only having one bobble when A had me put a vertical up two holes. Cinder didn't pay attention and hit the pole pretty hard. But when they came back around she cleared it easily. 

Cinder's first round was really, really nice. She got a funny distance to fence three, a tiny log. I think she just didn't really see/focus on it and had to hop awkwardly over it. It was the in fence of the bending line, and the coop above was the out. It obviously didn't affect the out fence at all. She did tend to get a little off balance and swap leads, but A just kept riding her forward through it and the cross canter didn't seem to affect the round at all. 

      

 

The second round wasn't as smooth. Cinder started locking onto the BN fences. A said it felt like she was saying "We did the small stuff, now we do the big stuff." She got a little wiggly to a couple fences but, at least from watching, it never looked like she was going to refuse. She did get an awkward distance to the little coop in the bending line, but she's able to figure out what to do with her feet pretty well. 

The photographer sent me this one for free

Cinder ended up with a 1.06 time for her first round and a 2nd place in the senior intro division, out of 16. Optimum time ended up being 1.12 so she was six seconds fast. Her round didn't look fast to me, and A didn't make any super tight turns.  We had left before scores were announced but one of A's friends works nearby and is going to pick up ribbons for us.  I'm really, really happy with how the show went, and how Cinder handled everything. She was a total champ and behaved better than some of the more seasoned horses. A is giving her an easy week this week, and sent me pics of Cinder hacking down the road while A's dogs run around her.

OHC Indoor Eventing: Warm-Up Day

 Holy shit you guys, I’m so impressed with how Cinder handled her first show under saddle. She was a complete rockstar all weekend and acted like she’s been showing and jumping for years. She’s about 10 weeks under saddle, has been jumped maybe 5 times before the show (the last time being a month ago) and has never seen solid fences, let alone jumped any. I’m completely blown away with what an amazing horse she is, and Trainer A’s work with her. 

Who’s the best baby horse ever?

Four horses from Trainer A’s program were going to the show. The other three were all older with junior riders. Trainer A was hauling the three down in her trailer and I was taking Cinder down in my trailer. We left WCS about 4:30 on Friday afternoon and got to the show a little over an hour later. Cinder was not happy about being hauled solo and a few times my trailer was rocking and bouncing around but she arrived in one piece. All the ponies unloaded and settled into their stalls well. 

Wide eyes was the extent of how Cinder showed her nerves all weekend 

The course was open for schooling so everyone tacked up and got on. Trainer A wanted to see how Cinder was, and if she was too wound up, she’d get off and ride her after schooling the kids. But Cinder ended up being perfect. A warmed her up while having the kids walk and settle their nerves then pointed Cinder at a baby log. She hopped right over it, no hesitation or anything. They then schooled most of the intro logs (the arena was set up with intro and BN fences) before pointing her at a table shared between divisions. Again, no hesitation, Cinder just hopped right over like she’s done it before. 

Being a good teaching couch

At this point A took a walk break with Cinder and coached the kids through their first few fences. One of the geldings started having a bucking fit and his kid was close to melting down so A handed me Cinder and got on to school Boomer. Cinder stood calmly in the middle of the arena with horses going past us, and jumping the fence next to us, without a care in the world. When A was done with Boomer she got back on Cinder, and Cinder picked right up where they left off, like she hadn’t just stood around for 10 minutes. 

A finished the ride by putting a string of fences together, including most of the BN jumps. Cinder was so not impressed  about the jumps that she hit a hind hoof on the BN coop. I was a little worried she’d land and get mad, but all she did was shake her head a bit and carried on like nothing happened. They came back around and jumped it clean and finished with that. I hand walked Cinder and put her away while A finished coaching the kids. 

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To finish the night, one of the moms went a got pizza so once all the horses were tucked into their stalls we had a team dinner in the barn aisle and made a plan for show day. The show moms were planning breakfast and coffee for everyone, including me, even though I had just met one of them that day. It felt really good to be included in the group. The whole day made me super happy I had found my way to Trainer A. I was exhausted going to bed but couldn’t wait for show day!

Spring Sillies Came Early

 Since my last post on Peebs over a month ago (whoops bad blogger) he had continued his upward trend on remembering how to horse after a fall/early winter of rehabbing. We were jumping small fences, working on the connection, and building up his muscle and stamina. Then I decided that he could be moved into the big pasture with fresher grass (not that the grass is really good right now, but this pasture hasn't had horses on it since June of last year) instead of his regular, grazed down pasture. 

Big mistake. 

"Me, be naughty? Fake news."-Peebs, most definitely

Peebs went from his normal fairly lazy, mostly unflappable, friendly self to a cracked out, spooky rage monster bully. He played hard to catch in the pasture when normally he's first in line at the gate at dinner time. He was spooking at everything, humans walking down the driveway, the neighbors dog, ghosts only he could see. He was belligerent under saddle, throwing his head around, pushing against all my aids, and just generally not fun to ride. Even longing him didn't seem to help; he was tired, but still felt wired and frazzled. 

It took me a few days of panicking that he was ulcery to realize that the change coincided with his move to the new pasture. He is on a really good GI supplement, Purina Outlast, has 24/7 access to turnout/pasture (even if it mostly grazed down), fed nice quality Timothy hay and hay pellets. He'd also gained weight. So ulcers didn't seem super likely. The most likely culprit was the fresh pasture. Apparently Peebs turns into a toddler who just ate an entire birthday cake with a gallon of Mountain Dew when he's on fresh pasture. 

So he got his big pasture privileges rescinded and is back in the smaller, grazed down one.  And not even a week off pasture he's feeling much more like himself. He's still a little buzzy, but is able to focus, and put in some good work. We've even been able to return to jumping and his brain hasn't leaked out of his ears. So note to self: no fresh pasture for Peebs. Only grazed down, older grass for him from now on.

Winter Storm 2021

 We had a winter storm roll through starting last Thursday.  My house (and Peebs) were at the southern edge of the storm, and we got a little ice Thursday night, rain Friday which froze that night, plus a little more ice Friday night. There were some downed trees, and some people without power but all in all it wasn't that bad compared to the rest of the state that got hit. 

Limbs and branches in the winter pasture

TCF has a bunch of downed trees, and the summer pasture fence got almost completely taken out on the north and west sides. Thankfully, the winter pasture only had a few downed branches in the middle of the field and the fences were fine. Sunday the BOs, friend A, and I spent the morning chopping branches and hauling them out of the field. 

Half a tree in Cinder's pasture. There's another tree this size that's completely fallen over as well

 

Cinder's barn wasn't so lucky and got hit much harder than I did. They lost power on Friday, and still didn't have it back when I when up on Tuesday. I'm not sure how much ice they ended up with, but it was a lot. They had a lot of downed trees, and limbs. The BM sent out a text Saturday asking people to not come out to the barn. Between the ice, downed trees and power lines on the roads, and no power at the barn, she said it wasn't worth it and that all the ponies were fine and tucked in their stalls with extra hay. 

The first of many burn piles at WCS

 

Needless to say, we scratched from the show on Sunday. Trainer A called it Friday night when she went to start loading the trailer and the tack room door was completely frozen shut. A little schooling show isn't worth trying to haul in ice. 

Fingers crossed that's the worst of it for this winter, but who knows!

Second Verse Worse than the First

 I got my second COVID vaccine a little over a week ago. And oh boy is the second dose worse than the first. About  4-5 hours after getting the second dose, I started feeling sick. Fever, chills, body aches...the basic flu symptoms. 

My supervisor got her shot 5mins before me and took this super flattering photo

Thankfully I had gotten my shot on a Saturday afternoon, because I was pretty much bed bound for 24hrs. Getting up to go to the bathroom was exhausting, but I was so hot I couldn't sleep. Even taking the max amount of nsaids, my fever peaked at 100. Luckily I didn't have any nausea or vomiting, so I was able to stay hydrated and eat a little bit with my nsaids. Two of my coworkers spent the night vomiting, and my supervisor wasn't able to keep anything down for over 24hrs. 

My fever broke almost exactly 24hrs after it started, and I was able to sleep that second night. I did go into work Monday morning, but just did the essentials and went home after four hours because I was exhausted. By Tuesday, three days post vaccine, I felt fine. 

Obviously having 24hrs of symptoms is way, way better than getting COVID. I do recommend that you take the day off work after getting the second dose, and if you have pets/horses to care for, have someone around to help.

Cinder Progress Report: Maybe Baby

I got the video below from Trainer A over the weekend and I'm still amazed that that's my horse in the video. I hate to sound like a broken record, but Cinder is so awesome. A called her a natural, and says she has a blast riding her. 

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We also may or may not be taking Cinder to her first show under saddle this weekend. There's a little h/j schooling show about an hour south of me that A is taking a couple of students to and Cinder will go along. The only issue is a threat of snow/ice between now and Sunday. Where I live, and where the show is, is supposed to just get rain, but Cinder's barn is a little farther north and could see a wintry mix. If the weather/roads are bad, it's not worth it to try and haul out.  Fingers crossed for rain only and a happy first show!!

Cinder Progress Report: Keep On Keepin' On

 I got off of work early on Friday to go up and watch Cinder again. Trainer A had said she had been a bit wild earlier in the week, but didn't seem to concerned by it. We had had some really weird weather with some unexpected snow on Tuesday (3" at work, but just a trace amount at my house and at Cinder's barn) and Cinder had moved into a new pasture. A chalked up Cinder's wildness to winter sillies. 

sheeps!

 

The great romance of Cinder and Kiwi has come to an end. The two of them were starting to get annoyingly attached to each other so Kiwi was moved to a different stall and Cinder to a different turnout group. Cinder's new turnout includes some older mares and sheep. Apparently she spent the first day trying to befriend the sheep but they weren't having it. The pasture she's in also has the barn's cross country jumps in it so she's seen them and hopefully once the pasture is dry A can take her over them. 

Cinder was all business under saddle on Friday. Since it was dry the barn had opened up the outdoor dressage court and A rode her out there. She's been ridden out there a handful of times and only once thought about jumping out of the court. Someone slammed a gate and she spooked sideways but kept herself from going over the rails. A has also taken her on her first road hack, walking up and down the gravel road and said she was really good. Cinder had to stop and stare at the neighbors cows, and the water coming out of a culvert into the ditch along the road, but didn't spook at anything and was able to do most of it on a loose rein. 

Cinder keeps looking more and more grown up and I can't believe the difference in her in just a couple of weeks. She's still obviously green, but she's staring to develop some nice rhythm and stretch in her trot. Her canter is still big and ungainly, but she's getting more and more comfortable in it, and her steering at the canter is much more improved. There was one spot in the arena that was a little too wet for her liking and whenever they passed by it she would giraffe her head up and get quick, but a couple of strides later would settle down again. I told her to stop being a princess and that she lives in western Oregon and is going to have learn to deal with wet footing.

In the dressage court. On the other side is the jump arena that gets opened in the spring and a course is set up all spring/summer/fall

 A and I are tentatively planning her first outing in March. A is taking some of her students to an indoor eventing show and Cinder is going to go. Right now A is still deciding weather she wants to actually show her, or just take her to school. A thinks she'll be ready to handle the intro division by then. We'll probably enter the intro, and then see how she handles the atmosphere and schooling. If we have to scratch the actual show, oh well. Just going will be good exposure for her.