MDT Winter Show: Aka Ciner's Hunter Debut

 Cinder made her hunter and equitation ring debut last Saturday. The show series we did last fall added some hunter and medal classes to their prize list for this year, and since the facility is only about 15mins away from A's training barn, we figured it would be a good way to end Cinder's month up there. 

She was initially skeptical of people up there, but once she realized they wanted to pet her and tell her she's pretty, she was perfectly fine with them

 We signed up for the 2' hunters and the 2'3" medal class. Our classes were the last of the day, which was nice because I could sleep in. The show manager had sent out an email with class counts and approximate start times and when we pulled up to the show, they were on time. That's a first for a schooling h/j show!

All photos bought from Kayla Norene Photography

I hand walked Cinder around the indoor (where we would be showing) while the last of the jumpers schooled, then tacked her up. Unfortunately as we were walking to the outdoor to start warming up, they brought out the drag to drag the indoor. It made a huge grating sound along the ground behind us, and both Cinder and I spooked hard at it. I lost my nerve and asked A to get on to school Cinder first. She did (bless her) and said Cin was a little jazzed, but once she put her to work she settled down. Once the indoor was open for schooling A took her in, and other than a little gawking Cinder was fine. I got on to jump a few things and then it was show time. 

Our first round was our best. Cinder was a wiggly to the single diagonal off the right (the above fence) and tried to slowly duck out, but I pushed her forward and we got over it. The second round had a four stride bending line, that on paper looked doable, but in reality wasn't. We went first in both rounds so I got to be the guinea pig. I mean, if I had really angled the first fence and bent the hell out of the line, it was possibly doable. I did not do those things and ended up circling. At the end of the round the judge called down that the line was not ok and once they moved a fence out a bit, offered me a reride. We were able to make the line this time, but unfortunately had a rail down at another fence. 

The fences were a soft 2' and Cinder was less than impressed

 

There were six of us in the division and for the under saddle the judge had us all trot together, then split us for cantering. I was very happy with that decision, as there were two kids on ponies with questionable steering and the arena was small. Cinder was a little more up in the flat, not dropping her head as much I would have liked, but handled it like a champ. There were two very nice horses that I was sure would place above me, but we ended up second!
 

We went first in the medal and I could tell Cinder was tired. She held it together pretty well, except she pulled the wiggly/run out move again and this time I had to circle. It felt like an "I'm tired, do I have to?" stop, and once I re-approached and really put my leg on, she was fine. Once we were done I hopped off and since it had started to rain we untacked quickly and put Cinder back on the trailer. I figured I wasn't going to be called back for the test with a stop, and I was right, but when I went back to get ribbons, they were doing pictures and kept asking me if I wanted to bring Cinder out. We ended up fourth out of six for all our over fences classes. 

 

It was a great first outing and first hunter/eq ring experience. I'm so happy with how well both her and I handled everything and can't wait to get back out in the show ring.

SS Indoor Eventing February 2022

 If you follow me on social media, you probably saw that Cinder and I had our first show of the season over the weekend. Trainer A is hosting a series of three indoor eventing shows and the second one was this month. Since Cinder is living at the host barn, and has jumped some of the jumps already, I figured it was a good schooling opportunity for us. 

I had my regular Friday lesson and Cinder was a little wound up. Some people had started arriving for the show and were schooling, and a saddle fitter had driven down to the outdoor arena so he didn't have to carry saddles back and forth. What really set her off was the pile of jumps behind us in the above photo. She did kinda get over them, but the above moment was taken during her spooking at the saddle fitter starting his car, just out of frame near the pile of jumps. Cinder got really scared of that end of the arena after that, and after another spin spook, A suggested we head to the indoor and let her mind chill. 

The greenery was cut by A, the barn manager and myself Friday night. We took the gator up on the trails and whacked branches and ferns while consuming adult beverages and had a blast!

 Cinder was much happier inside and after a little flat work, A told me to do a gambler's choice and pick fences out as I went around the arena. We were showing in the Intro (18"-2') division, and even though I know A had set the courses soft, most of the fences looked tiny. Some of the BN fences looked doable to me. We schooled all the Intro jumps, except a pair of purple boxes and Cinder didn't care at all. I was feeling confident heading into Saturday.

Purple boxes of doom

 I longed Cinder Saturday morning, just in case, and then got on for the open schooling before the show started. Cinder was looky, she didn't like the horses standing outside the open side of the arena, and since the ring was a little hectic at times I mostly just walked and let her see everything. I did pop over a few fences, but not the purple boxes. I should have done more in warm up, including jumping every jump in our course, but next show I'll know better. Nicole came by to watch, video, and gave me some delicious cookies. Our second round video is below. Thanks Nicole!

Cinder was distracted in our first round, spooking at the door on the side of the arena, and then very politely ducking out to the left of the purple boxes. It was like she figured out it was easier to go around then over them. I brought her back around and she kind jumped/ran out the side again and instead of trying a third time, I continued on with the course. At the end of our round A ran out and made herself a human standard and had me do the boxes a couple of times. We took a quick walk break then stayed in the ring for our second round. It went much better as Cinder was more focused and didn't try to run out on the boxes. 

bought from KL Pet Prints

I had a lot of fun, and the show as a great low key learning environment. And while the Intro fences didn't look scary at all, I don't think I'll be switching to eventing any time soon.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

About a month ago Peebs decided that trotting for 10mins a day was too much work, and decided to injure himself again. I came out one day to a scraped and swollen left knee, aka his injured suspensory leg. He walked out of his stall sound so I hand walked him for 15ish minutes, cold hosed and cleaned the scrape, and gave him some bute. The next day the swelling was about 95% gone, just a little around the scrape, so I figured I'd hop on and see how he felt. He took maybe a couple of off steps at first, but didn't feel noticeably lame.  Till a few days later. Then he was definitely lame.

 I took him into the vet the next week and after seeing him trot my vet asked what I wanted to do. We could block, ultrasound the suspensory, x-ray the knee, or any combo of the above. She had lightly palpated the knee, but not a full flexion, and said it felt slightly arthritic, but considering his age, job, and lack of straight legs, nothing overly concerning. I did want to check the supsenory so we started there. The ultrasound showed some slight fluid build up, and some irritated fibers, but no new tears. 

My saddle is up with Cinder, so we're back to sans saddle rides

When we did his ProStride injection last fall, my vet had a vet tech student doing some of her clinical rounds with her that week. My vet knows Peebs is a Very Good Boy™ and asked if they could use him as the student's guinea pig. She had to do a few procedures, including helping with x-rays, and my vet said we could x-ray the knee he had fallen on when he tripped, aka his right knee, and she wouldn't charge me for them. I obviously said yes, because who's going to turn down free x-rays, and they showed some arthritis and irritation from the fall. We talked then about injecting the knee at a later point when he's closer to being back in full work, and now that we know there's some arthritis going on in the left knee as well, we'll just inject both sooner rather than later. 

As for his rehab, my vet said to play it by how he feels. We did a few weeks of just walking under saddle and I started trotting again this week. He felt a little stiff at first but not lame so we'll continue to slowly build up our trot work. If he still feels lame, we'll take him in and do a more thorough work up on the left knee. But fingers crossed that when he did whatever to his knee, he just bruised it and irritated the suspensory and nothing worse.

Being Brave

 The theme for Cinder's second week back in training was bravery. The barn is home to a very big h/j program (way above my budget, unfortunately) and they routinely reset the jumps and have a bunch of different fillers. A is able to use the jumps, and once I saw that a liverpool had been drug out, I asked A to take Cinder over it, if she felt like Cin was ready. Cinder had been flatted in the ring with the liverpool, and A had walked her up to it and let her see and sniff it, so when A jumped her on Wednesday, they attempted it. And in true Cinder fashion, she didn't care at all. A said that she was more worried about the jump than Cinder was. 

blurry screenshot ftw

When I went up Friday for my lesson, two loads of footing for the indoor had been delivered so we were relegated to the outdoor. Thankfully it was gorgeous and in the 60s, so a perfect day. When I got on A was finishing a light ride on Metro and as we talked we decided to do a short flat lesson, then hit the trails. We focused on the canter transitions in my lesson. The walk-canters are really coming along going left, but the right lead is still sticky. I think I just need to get a little firmer with Cin; I tend to give up to quickly. 

boss mare in the lead

Two adult ammys from the h/j program came out towards the end of my lesson, and said they were heading out on the trails as well (you have to walk through the outdoor arena to get to the trails) so A invited them to join us. They happily agreed, as they didn't know the trails that well and one was on a young green horse on his first trail adventure. A took the lead with me and Cin behind her with the other youngster behind me. Most of the trail was just wide enough for two horses, and when we started going up the hill Cinder started power walking and passed Metro. She was happy to lead for a few minutes, until there was a small branch in the trail. She stopped to look at it, but once Metro walked over it with no problem she followed him. 

The trail then opened up into a field and Cinder was so buys looking around everyone else passed us and she was at the end of the group. She didn't seem to mind, which I was very thankful for as a rouge pigeon came flying out of the trees and almost hit A and the second horse in line. Thankfully I had time to pull Cinder out of the path of kamikaze bird as it didn't seem to care that it was flying directly at horses. We walked to the end of the field before the other two ladies asked to turn around.

Going back Cin was a little more amped up, and once we were out of the field and back in the trees she started trying to spin around and look behind her. We were at the end of the group, so I have no idea what she was looking at. I sat through a couple of spins before deciding my bravery bank was empty and hopped off to hand walk her home. We were on a downhill slope, with a drop off one side, and I'd don't fully trust her to keep her footing while trying to spin around. She did try to spin into me once, but a quick reminder with my whip ended that. We did make it back to the barn in one piece and even though I had to get off, I'm happy with how our first trail ride went. 

I went up to ride on Sunday and Cinder was having a baby brain day. Eighteen horses from the h/j program had left early that morning for five weeks in Thermal and I think all the early morning activity had wound her up. I lunged her before getting on, including over some of the cavalettis and boxes set up in the outdoor (indoor was still getting worked on). For our ride, I focused on trying to keep her attention on me with lot of transitions and changes of direction. I did pop over a few of the cavalettis, just picking some at random when she was focusing. The the minis came out. The h/j barn has two minis that usually live at the assistant trainer's house, but since she's going to be gone for five weeks, they moved into the barn. Cinder was enthralled with them. She puffed up and would not look away from them. I did a little bit at the walk to try and get her brain back, but it was a lost cause. I got off and did a little ground work till she relaxed and called it a day. 

Back to School Week 1

 I took Cinder up to SF last Sunday. She settled into her stall pretty easily and happily munched on hay and used the auto waterer without any issues. A let her have Monday off to get turned out and get settled, and apparently Cin and A’s gelding Metro hit it off. They played “balls to the wall” and Cinder lost both of her bell boots but did keep all four shoes on .

Friends that play together drink together 

A rode Cinder on Tuesday and said Cinder picked up right where she left off. She’s a little out of shape, and got a little quick in her first canter, but was very well behaved and remembered everything A asked of her. They rode in the indoor and finished the cooling out on one of the trails. Apparently Cinder was very interested in the scenery but didn’t spook at anything. 

The property is built on the side of a hill so  Cin will get some good booty workouts

I went up Friday for my lesson and had a great one. Both Cin and I are out of shape so we mostly trotted with plenty of walk breaks. We got some good stretchy trot work and attempted our first walk-canter transitions. We definitely need work on that but our trot-canters are getting much better. 

We finished up by working through a trot pole grid. There was an outside line set up with a 6” cavaletti set up in the middle. A took the fences down and set trot poles, so it was trot poles, cavaletti, trot poles. My instructions were to steer and keep my leg on. A said we need to let Cin make mistakes so she can learn from them and not hold her hand. Going to the left Cinder wants to drift to the inside and I needed more left leg to keep her straight. Tracking right was easier, until Cinder was surprised by the second set of trot poles and almost stopped. I clucked at her so she only paused and managed to navigate the poles without issue. We went back and forth a few times till we smoothed it and quit with that.

I’m trying to find a way to steal this giant mountain block from the h/j program at SF. 

Julie Winkel Clinic

 Last weekend one of the other training programs at Trainer A's barn was hosting a Julie Winkel clinic. Auditing was free, so I went up on Sunday (day 2 of the clinic) to watch. I knew Julie's name, knew she ran a big program out of Reno, was a rider, trainer, breeder, judge, and author, but really didn't know much else about her. I didn't have much expectations going into the day; I mainly wanted to watch ponies jump sticks and get a better feel of the barn before bringing Cinder up there next weekend. 

I absolutely loved Julie's teaching style. I gained so much from watching the clinic, I'm kinda pissed I didn't watch both days of it. There were two groups, a 3' hunter/eq group and and a 3'6" jumper group. The 3' group went first and Julie explained so much about how the hunters and eq are judged, and how to ride them differently. Some of which I know (ride in a light seat at the canter in an under saddle vs a deep seat for an eq on the flat) and some that I didn't (why a two stride is numbered as separate fences in the hunters vs numbered as an A-B combo in the eq/jumpers. It's because a two stride is meant to represent jumping out of one field, cantering across a road, and jumping into another field out on a hunt. If your horse refused the second jump you wouldn't jump back into the first field and jump out again you would just re-approach the second jump). 

I failed at getting media from the clinic so have some random shots of Peebs

Julie had the hunter/eq group do an eq course, complete with a test at the end including answering questions from the judge, and explained what she as a judge was looking for, what score she would give them and why she'd place one person over another. There were a couple jumpers in this group, and their horses wanted to get a bit hot and quick, but Julie was very complimentary on how the riders rode them and handled the horses. I was proud of myself for being able to answer most of the questions she asked, and being the only one to know where the wolf teeth are and why they should be removed.

The jumper group ended up doing the same course as the eq group, but with the addition of a triple bar and one of the ramped oxers became a Swedish. For their warmup, Julie explained the different types of fences (vertical, ramped oxer, square oxer, Swedish) and how it affects the horses jump. I learned to not jump a Swedish square, but to jump it off center from the low end of the front rail so it becomes a ramped oxer. 

My favorite part of the clinic though, was how Julie handled riders making mistakes. In the jumper group, the first fence of the course was the triple bar and one of the junior riders didn't make a decision cantering up to it and her horse stopped. Julie didn't get upset at the girl, just calmly explained that at 3'6"+  you can't be a passive rider and hope that your horse gets you out of a bad situation. You have to be an active rider, and make the decision, even if it's a bad one. Julie said she's much rather see a rider make a bad decision over sitting there like a sack of potatoes because it means they're thinking and trying to help the horse. That resonated with me. 

Julie does clinic at some other barns in the Portland area and next time she's around I'm going to make it a priority to audit again. And maybe someday Cinder and I will take part in one.

Back to Work

The ponies' winter vacation is coming to an end. Peebs' ended a couple of weeks ago when he got cleared to start trotting again, but considering we started with 5 minutes on straight lines only and just bumped up to 10 minutes yesterday, it's not much more work for him. 

He is such a fluff ball right now

Cinder, on the other hand, has been getting free lunged to let her get her excess energy out before someone climbs back in the saddle. I'm debating getting back on her Friday/Saturday, but might just wait because Sunday she's going back into training. I'm getting a pandemic bonus at work and am being fiscally responsible using it to pay for a month with Trainer A. I honestly think Cin will be fine for me to bring back into work, but I made the decision during the weeks of rain/snow/rain when I was desperately wishing my barn had an indoor arena. February can be brutal weather wise, so having a giant indoor at A's new barn will be a blessing. 

The assignment: fill out during her winter break
Cinder: understood

 The plan is for A to ride her twice a week, and then I'll make the hour plus drive up there twice a week, once for a lesson and one ride on my own. Four days of work, plus daily turnout, is a good schedule for her. I'm hoping by the end of the month I'll be brave enough to ride her out on the trails on the property and leave the comfort of the arenas. We're also tentatively planning our first show of the season, and Cinder's hunter ring debut, at the end of February. I'm excited to get back to regular work with her and start prepping for show season!