Launching

Per usual with my posting lately, this is a little bhind, but better late than never amirite?

Amy from Slow & Steady has essentially adopted me as a 4th child and puts up with me begging her to ride with me every weekend. Generally, this consists of me hauling to her house and using her land and her jumps and her time, so lets all praise Amy for a moment on her wonderfullness!

She even videos for me.

Such love. Many thanks. Very friend.

So last Saturday we hauled over to jump, now almost a week ago.

I only think of this song when anyone says "about a week ago"

B has been LOVELY to trailer lately and I'm not going to say "it" for fear of jinxing us, but its going well. We are keeping it under 5 minutes now and he is stepping off like a gentleman. So proud I could cry. My jaw still drops everytime he steps on up like a grown ass horse.

Having not jumped in a while we started off low, but he felt great, really in sync with me and moving forward and back when I asked in each gait.

Shiny OTTB

Sidenote really quick- you'll notice that girth is black. That is not mine. I lost my girths somehow. Yes, lost. I haven't found them since the show and I have zero clue where they could be. How did they get displaced from my other tack? Did someone steal them? Where did they go? Do they miss me? These are questions I ask.

Little upsetting considering my dressage girth was a TSF and they are NOT cheap, and I have no girth for my non-mono-flap saddles and my monoflap jump doesn't fit him. So I've been using my shitty spare dressage girth and dressage saddle to ride this week, but yeah, girths nowhere to be found and I'm fucking annoyed because I just bought Piper breeches as a treat to myself and now I have to replace TWO girths unexpectedly & the moneypit only can give so much. Fuck!

Anyways, he was great. I'm STILL, yes still, learning to ride his very awkward jump style and we are still learning how to jump together. Since we've only done it about a dozen times, I'm not too upset that we still look awkward AF together. A saddle that literally hasn't fit me for years does not assist.

Seriously what is happening all over in here

So we popped over a 3 jump course, switching up the turns and raising form x-rails to low verticals. Bacardi was doing really well. He refused a certain x-rail a few times which is always baffling to me, but whatever. He was being super honest for the most part.

This one, to be exact, when it was a X-rail

Mostly, I was just working on figuring him out. I noticed he prefers a forward ride. Leg on, sit down and push. I tried sitting there and letting him figure it out, I tried holding him back...and we got some real awkward distances...

What are horse doing?

OKay, shove hands shove hands stay out of face, whatever it is

This is awkward

I mean, he looks kinda good actually, minus the fact he took off ten bajillion feet away and he skimming over the jump with zero bascule.

Literally the flattest jumper on earth until you raise the fences to 3ft then he's like "oh, okay, I'll try now"

After a while, playing around with our course and raising the fences, I discovered he jumps best when we take the longer (not longEST) spot and I stay on the aids.

Typical OTTB really.

Yankee is the exact same way. But he jumps "smaller" if that makes sense.

How a flat jumper cracks his back SO much I will never know but he tosses me so often its dumb.

I wonder if I will ever look good on him.

Its fine. We're fine. Just two discombobulated try hards working towards....? Betterness. Yes. Be better.

I just got a promotion at work, so MAYBE I can afford to get a new saddle soon. Fingers crossed I can work out a deal with the Voltaire reps I spoke with at Rolex.  I've always considered the horse first and how the tack fits them before me, but seriously this saddle is 7 years too small for me. My femurs are just too long and my ass does not fit a 16.5. At some point its gotta give and its obviously affecting how I ride him and our growth together.

Completely justified purchase right?

Sadly, not made of money and the saddle it too sentimental to sell/wouldn't fetch much anyways.

Overall, a GREAT learning experience. We are going back this Saturday, obviously, because BFFridingbuddiesforever, & work on some gridwork hopefully to get his shoulders up a bit and that weight back on his haunches.

Sometimes we look great all around

Bonus Corgi

Champagne Run: Bacardi

I don't know how some of you do this. I really don't.

The only time I ever blogged was when I didn't have time to ride, and now that I'm riding all the time (yay) I never blog.

I only have so much time in the day. HOW DO YOU GUYS DO THIS.

The show for Bacardi was interesting. I went into it with  avery open mind, knowing hes never been off property before this.

He led me into a false sense of security when he stepped off the trailer like a champ (this has been an issue, as well as loading) and settled right into his stall. Like, right in.

Give me cookiez

Yankee was notoriously not great at shows for years. Even back at the stalls, he wouldn't eat or drink and still goes off his feed a little when traveling. But Bacardi settled right in and ate like a racehorse (harhar) and even proved he can be left alone with a stall guard (looking at YOU Yankee, you trouble maker).

You'll note I said false sense of security, because I decided since we had nothing but time on Friday, why not head down to the dressage rings for a little hack-about. I tacked him up and down we went. If you're not familiar with the KYHP, this requires a long walk to the dressage rings from stabling, through other stables and past turnout for the KYHP horses, then down a little hill to the rings.

At first, he was wonderful, and I was like "FUCK YEAH my OTTB is not insane. I knew there was a reason I bought him, score score win win I win na na nananaananaaaa!"

There were probably about 35 horses between 6 rings and hardly any competing at the time. Good, gooood. I chose the ring farthest from anyone and decided to do a little trotwork. He was slightly tense, but otherwise gave me a really nice effort. There was a big grey schooling at the other end, but no one else.

Then it was like everyone at the show decided to come down to school all at once and suddenly there were 20 people in the ring. He was keeping his cool until someone blazed past us at the canter from behind and Bacardi lost his fucking mind. I don't blame him, ex-racehorse and all, but I mean truly list his mind. Like it fell out of his head.

For the next 15 minutes, I shit you not, he just backed up. Would not go forward. It was super fun, being THAT girl at the show. I was literally just sitting there. Doing nothing, and he was having a meltdown, just backing up and up and up.

I hope someone gets this

I was pretty sure the stewards were fixin' to ask me to leave. I kept getting "the glance". Mind you this is a HUGE area and there are like 6 arenas and I'm nowhere near the competition rings. I was like "way ahead of ya champ, but I can't seem to right this horse".

Eventually I was able to steer him, ass end first, towards the top of the rings and away from everyone and thought it woudl be a good idea to get off and let him just look at it and soak it all in.

Wrong.

So wrong.

The most wrong.

We ended up dancing around the bit check tent for another 20 min while he attempted to murder me with his feet. I was furious. This fucking horse knows ground manners, I literally drill them everyday into my animals or this reason, but he was completely ignoring all human attempts to ask him to please behave. All I wanted was for him to stand still for 4 fucking seconds and then we would walk to the barns.

It didnt really happen and I gave up and led a sweating, dancing, half rearing horse back to the barns.

Cool.

As I untacked and hosed him off (of course he was completely calm for this) I thought back to Aimee's post about why she doesn't event. I thought long and hard. Like, do I REALLY like this anymore? I had already sent one horse away to be ridden because I was too chicken shit to ride him myself...Do I really want to continue to be "that" girl at the show with the almost dangerous insane horse, while trying to do dressage tests with a horse that won't even go forward, and continuously fail and be in last place and hate every second?

No. No I do not.

There is much thinking to do. I know this was his FIRST time, I just don't know if I have the patience to do this again for years on end and throw away money at shows we will continuously fail doing. I appreciate money and how expensive the damn entry fees are, a lot more now that I spend 10 hours a day doing my commute/work adult thing instead of flaunting my tits over a bar and making $300/night.

I almost miss bartending.

I just can't commit to that level of intensity anymore. We might be better suited for jumpers where you get more chances, and ribbons and you don't have to be perfectly calm and on point every second to compete.

Anyways, I was a little dejected after that but still hopped on him 3 more times that weekend and led him around the grounds more than I care to do ever again. I rode alone usually, at a ring near the stadium jumping, but not too close. He could just see the commotion.

And he was brilliant.

Okay so what the fuck.

Like truly wonderful.

Loose rein, OK

S/O to my friend with the camera!

I even walked him up and down the path nearest to the stadium and he was unfazed. So, he hates dressage and is fine with jumping. Cool, sounds like most of us.

Mind you, the weather was HORRENDOUS the entire weekend. CRAZY storms and unrelenting rain. XC schooling got cancelled so we packed up early Sunday instead of staying and he got in the trailer in under 2 minutes. YES TWO minutes. I almost peed.

Absolute fav

Person, do you have food? (my mother)

All in all, a GREAT experience. Just not sure how this will pan out. August and September have a schooling show every weekend & I might try to hit up a few before summer slips away. Hes been stunning at home the last 2 weeks. Completely brilliant. I want to try our hand at eventing, but if he's going to be better suited as a jumper, so be it!

Champagne Run: Yankee

Wow, in terms of blogging "horse show hangover", this is an epic delay in updates.

Life happens, sorry y'all.

I remember like it was yesterday though, still.

What a weekend. I'm going to update separately because I hate overly long posts that drag on and on, so I won't do that to any of you. I also am not a largely eloquent or interesting writer, so theres that as well. What I'm trying to say is, I'm keeping this update to Yankee only.

I didn't even have a cookie #mommasboy

GOD DAMMIT I MISSED THAT FACE

He was looking dapper as always, even with the long drive they had and the show environment. I'm always impressed with this horse and the amount of chill he has acquired with age.

I remember back in the day when I was "that girl" at the show with the psychotic beast that couldn't keep at least two feet on the ground. Now, he's every girl's dreamboat at shows. The epitome of calm.

So there's a testament to everyone who thinks their OTTBs will never calm down. Some can!

My boys

In terms of the weekend itself, it was pretty wild. Within 30 minutes of arriving on Friday we already had a tornado warning and the weather was coming in hard and fast.

If you know me at all, you know I do NOT do storms.

So that was an anxiety train that was not welcomed, and continued all.fucking.weekend. LITERALLY

I have never in my life changed T shirts more than I did at this show because of getting caught in epic, steadfast and sideways downpours.

All of that being said, Yankee was a champ for dressage on Friday.

I haven't seen him go in almost 2 years, considering USDF Champs was the last time I competed him, so I was anxious to see him be ridden by SOMEONE else. GAH.

He warmed up really well (and quickly, inbetween storms) and I couldn't pick my jaw up off the floor long enough to tell Lauren how amazing he looked before she went in the ring.

Their test was...inconsistent.

I'm not 100% sure if Lauren was tense, or he got tense but there were some tense moments.

One of the trot lengthenings was nonexistent and one of the canter circles he was overflexed. However. I thought he looked brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. His trot work has improved so much and I am constantly impressed with how nicely relaxed he stays over his back. (The link is HERE for the shitty video I took of the test.) AS an owner, I was exceptionally happy with how Lauren rode my horse. He's not an easy ride in the ring. He can be wiggily, and I was floored by how straight he stayed. No head tilting! She has also been working exceptionally hard on his canter, getting it more uphill and collected and I can really tell!

I wish judges thought the same.

He got a 37, which isn't horrible (we used to get low 40's on the reg) but his low score with me is a 32 and a 31 with Lauren...and she said his last test looked and felt better and that was the 32.

Judges are weird. They have NEVER liked him.

Talking about the test on the way back to the barns

Moving on.

Stadium was scheduled to begin 4 hours later aroudn 5PM, but it kept getting pushed back..and back...and back because of the torrential downpours and insane thunderstorms.

It was hard to take it all in...We were soaking wet, in the midst of another tornado warning and I couldn't help but think

Quite literally.

The third time I scrambled to get saddles in my stall and sat there on the floor with my horse staring at me like  I was offending him I just thought "wow, I am the crazy horse lady with a pile of saddles in my lap, in the middle of a tornado, with my horses, and dog, soaking wet, at a horse show...WILLINGLY here ...what the fuck"

Anyways, stadium ended up getting cancelled for the day and rescheduled for the morning...awesome. Wonder how they were going to do all of Training level stadium and mash that in twith BN and N, PLUS XC for 3 levels.

The next day dawned and stadium began and I almost peed myself with anxiety.

Stadium has always been my weakest phase. Therefore, we almost always had rails. If I didn't think too much about it, we always went double clear because Yankee is an animal, but that was rarely because I am crazy.

Lauren blew me away with her ride. It was phenomenal.

This is not just me being a "mom", but Yankee's round truly was the best one I saw that day. All day I had been wincing through rounds I witnessed. He was ON though. Every turn, every jump, fantastic.Even through the triple, I barely held my breath he was so flawless.

I wish the pictures I ordered were in, but they aren't.

Lauren also hasn't uploaded the video yet either.

He moved into 8th place after stadium which was a huge positive note in the Open Training..against pro's.

So as they prepped for XC, I felt like my bladder was going to disintegrate and I was biting my nails with anxiety.

XC truly has been our downfall over the years. I had a fall 3 years ago and never really got over it, and before then his OTTB quirks and inexperience led to refusals here and there. He really hates mud...and jump judges. Also, XC is the hardest thing to practice with course few and far between.

Did I mention he hates mud?

And guess what was everywhere? Mud. Because it was still raining and had been for 2 days.

Lauren even bought bigger, badder studs and I was just sitting there like ohmygodiwouldntevenrideinthispleasescratch because I have literally no lady balls when it comes to giant training fences even in good footing.

Which is crazy, because Yankee is an amazing jumper. I just have confidence issues and as we all know when ya quit ridin the horse quits tryin.

So here I am, peeing myself, watching them tackle warm up. He had several refusals and as an owner I just had this "feeling". Like I REALLY wanted  her to scratch and chalk it up to a loss. But I still just reminded her to really sit back and ride the fences and it was like a switch turned on for him and he ate it up after that.

Lauren said if she had 2 refusals or really felt he was backed off because of the footing, she would pull him and call it quits and I agreed that was fair. I prayed she would ride him safely and no injuries would incur.

Most if their ride went well. I didn't see anything until the end but the last 5 fences were in view.

Coming up to a downhill vertical log with some hay bales in front, I could see it even hundreds of feet away. He was gonna refuse this one. Silently willing Lauren to sit back and really put her leg on I watched him slide right into it. I knew it. The footing prolly freaked him out because in no way should he have refused that fence. It was too simple. Though, we had a refusal over a fence almost the exact same as this one, almost 4 years ago at a show in MO, so I have no idea. But really, it was downhill, near the end of the course and I just saw it it 4 strides out.

Yeah, extreme fail

He then jumped the ditch right after it and galloped through the water and up over the GIANT fucking table after it. He looked a little tired to me, but I  brushed it off.

Then I saw her pull him up.

Later I learned in the bobble he had torn his shoe off, in turn really ripped his foot to shreds. Lauren also broke her thumb when he refused, somehow, and made the decision to retire on course a few fences from home.

I was actually really relieved. He looked seriously backed off after that refusal and the last few fences were massive, IMO. Props to Lauren for a solid decision.

So thats how that ended.

Not the storybook ending, but a happy one. No injured beasts, one minor broken thumb and no tornados swept us away. My feet took a few days to recover from all the walking and swampy mess that was the KYHP, but I was proud of my team either way!

Sidenote, I do not know how you mothers watch/allow your children to compete. How did my mother ever do this? How did she not de of a heart attack?? Just watching my own horse go without me was wild enough. I don't think I could ever watch a human child of mine go around.

Waiting Game

This last weekend at the show was crazy. This week has been even crazier. Horse show hangover combined with another four day work week (wedding on Friday to attend) has left me with zero time to blog....or do anything else for that nature. Like laundry. And ride. And other adult things. 

I promise I'm getting to it...I'm also waiting on pictures. Because pictures. 

Here's a sneak peak though...

Onward Bound

I will try and give updates throughout the weekend here! 

Quick Update

Quick mobile phone update for ye followers

 

(Dog tax)

This week has been rough. 

Minus being exceptionally stressed out about show (school) planning & juggling work...

...(and I'm not even actually showing).

...forgetting until last minute I need a Health Certificate (bye money)...

...Stressing about my horses' performance because I would really love him to qualify for AECs...

...(though he seems to be doing well)

...stressing about my other horse getting in the trailer & traveling well...

 

...(he's been great this week though)

...figuring out where I will sleep...

...and stressing about the weather 

....(looks super promising)

...I've also had the stomach flu ALL WEEK and I feel like ASS and I'm so hungry and just want to eat without throwing up and stand up without feeling weak. 

So this will be fun. 

Hopefully I don't die of extreme dehydration or from a tornado killing me.

Why does this happen everytime I try to do anything? ANYTHING.  

Otherwise I'm looking forward to this weekend. 

Halp.