Complete Hypocrisy

I have not had the best week in regards to mounted activities. February in  general is one of the worst months IMO. Looking back, I should have just taken the next 2 weeks off for reasons, mostly the ridiculous cold that has set in (it was ‐2 this morning, without windchill). It is a known fact that Bacardi is a wild thing the colder it gets, and I should have accepted it and let it be & taken the hit on my riding schedule/goals. But I’m feeling a ton of pressure with recent success to keep it going, show season coming up, etc etc

Searching for my sanity

Both times I’ve ridden this week have been flat sessions, and due to the cold snap, I *wanted* to keep it simple with halts, lateral movements and W/T transitions. That’s it.

Bacardi had other ideas and schemes though.

The first session he was lit about leg yields. The second day he lost his damn mind because the door was open. Holy Christ, his world was ending.

Bacardi

There is something about leg yields that he cannot wrap his brain around. I mean he literally crumbles in front of me when I ask for any type of sideways movement while mounted. Unmounted, its better, but he is still wildly offended regardless.

I’ve ruled out physical issues and tack fit because I’ve seen him do perfect leg yields in the field and I’ve even asked for them bareback, with no tack. He just literally cannot under saddle.

The best way I can describe it is that he gets “stuck”. Like he will freak out (no one can grasp how badly unless you see it in real life), tense up, toss his head repeatedly, prance, and hold his head high in the sky and then just jig in place. Or sideways. Or backwards. Continuously. As in, won’t stop for minutes at a time. I’ll just be sitting there while my horse is half rearing, running left or backwards and shaking my head. Once he finally stops moving, he flips his head up and down and side to side, and prances in place. Its literally like he  short circuiting. 

While this meltdown is occurring, GOD FORBID I touch him with any limb on my body. If I try and pet his neck to calm him down, that’s grounds for a full blown rear.  Which is the opposite of what I wanted. If I try and combat the rapid sideways running with a closed outside leg, he explodes up or forward.

There is no stopping or assuaging the meltdown. And it happens every.single.time., 60% of the time I ask for even just 2 steps sideways.

Other days, he will leg yield across the entire arena brilliantly.

It is most perplexing, as I change nothing about the way I am asking or tack used. Special, special OTTB.

Then theres the separate issue of the terrifying, horse eating open arena door.

For real, this is the special of the most special horse quirks.

B when I ask him to walk past the open arena door

Essentially, this issue boils down to spooking (in the rafters, bolt sideways) at said open door, taking 3‐17 laps at the other end to relax .5 levels, return to working semi‐normally and then go past it again just to repeat and never.get.over.it.

I make a point to stay relaxed and unreactive with this horse, but I sometimes reach a boiling point where I WANT to rip his face off with the bit because he is literally being the worst. Every movement, aid, sound is an excuse to fling his head so high it about smacks me in the forehead and then bolt. This is NOTHING to work with.

Generally, horses can “work through” issues with the rider asking them to move forward into contact. 

Forward is the key.

However, when B is having a fit, I can’t touch him. Like, cannot. If I ask him to move into the contact he does one of two things; jigs in place or backwards, or runs with his head higher than I physically thought possible.

After 45 minutes of this spooking dance and incredible tenseness through his entire body, feeling overwhelmed and entirely defeated, I threw my leg over, stomped back to the tack room and grabbed the first standing martingale I could find.

Going against everything I stand for, I slapped that bad boy on him so fast and threw him on the lunge line of discovery.

It took 25 minutes of reacting over nothing, hitting the standing, halting in confusion and being pushed forward again for him to learn that extreme head tossing is NOT an acceptable form of evasion.

Bacardi as JBeibs

And within that time frame I kept my cool. Never yanked on him, only asked him to move forward. It was a self‐correcting session & he learned QUICKLY that it is possible to move without ones head in the rafters.

Then, what do you know, he was a perfect angel for all transitions, gaits and halts on the lunge. Perfect, insanely, wonderfully perfect and fluid.

I still feel bad I reached the end of my patience, but I figure when the behavior is downright dangerous, something has to be done immediately to curb the behavior or it will only continue and get worse. I haven’t had him act this horribly in quite some time, and I was reaching the end of my comfortability. In the future, I simply will not try and ride when the temp is this cold, but for that day, I NEEDED the success as kindly & as quickly as of possible teaching him that I am not the devil or the cause of his anxiety, but here to support and teach him. But when he is so reactive to anything I do to mitigate his actions, nothing is learned. The first day, I left it alone and just got off once I got frustrated. The second day, I really just wanted to end on a positive note of some sort.

Its like once I forcibly & hypocritically removed the evasion technique, he stopped worrying about things in general and settled into the simple freaking tasks I was asking of him (WTC on the lunge). No sidereins, no collection, no fancy shit, just GO FORWARD.

I am fully convinced that all brain activity halts when his head is higher than his withers. More research to come. 

Not that I need to justify my actions with my own horse to anyone, I simply wanted to share and compare with others. What do you all do when a horse has reached his “brain limit”? Do you try and fix the issue and end positively, or do you leave it alone and hope its better the next day? Why?

What Do Wednesday: Bit Warmers

Another Wednesday, another day of me asking my readers What Do!

This will be an incredibly short post, since I apparently cannot human today. I had several ideas for other topics, but never got around to typing the posts, so this one will do.

For me, here in the "north", in Ohio, it can get pretttty cold. Like so cold. Not Canada cold, but still freeze your face, hurt your lungs, destroy your toes, cold. Last night the windchill was about 8*, but in the barn it was a balmy 23*. STILL COLD, but doable in the ways of riding. Even when I lived in MO, sometimes it got even colder, which is perplexing.

Be it that its the friggin arctic, I've constantly run into the problem of frozen bits.

And cold saddle. But thats another topic.

It has been a constant battle for me on how to warm the bit so it doesn't burn the shit out of my horses' mouths, but I had never really found a great way to do that until now.

I had tried everything. Putting the bridle in my jacket, setting it in warm water (if you can even find warm water), warming it up with my hands and breath (NO), and setting it on the tack room heater (the opposite of cold- BURNING hot), to name a few.

Nothing has really worked for me until I saw this handy little guy on Riding Warehouse over Christmas. 

Sorry such shitty quality

Essentially, it's a little pouch that wraps around your bit & is insulated. 

I've used it a few times now and I've decided I REALLY like this guy. The catch is that you have to "power" it with hand warmers, and if you forget to open them about 15 minutes before you need to warm the bit, this product doesn't work.

However, I've taken to leaving the hand warmers in my car, opening them on my drive to the barn, and by the time I get there, its nice and toasty. Then, you just stick it in the Bitten pouch and velcro it around your bit. BOOM. Perfectly warm in ten minutes.

Then, I take the hand warmer out and put it in my hoodie pocket while I'm riding for emergency hand warming. It amazing. 

Its like a two-in-one type deal and I'm in love. A few more steps/hassle than most people might like, but it gets the bit the PERFECT temp and then I use the hand warmer to keep  my hands toasty during my ride/untacking. I'm sold. 

So, this brings me to my question (for those of you that deal with it), how do you warm up your bits? What do?! Feed me your secrets, I must know.

Also sidenote, I got "bridle tags" (wine glass tags really) off etsy for my bridles and breastplates and for less than $5/tag, I think they're ADORABLE and perfect. Bonus deal. 

WTF Happened

This weekend was incredibly weird. For one, it was super warm, that even riding in a vest had me sweating (is it Feb?). For two, we simultaneously had the worst jump school of our career and the best dressage school of our career. It was odd and I'm still processing what happened. The will not be the most eloquent blogpost, typed at 6AM on a Monday morning, sorry.

Friday, I had a friend trailer over to my barn and we fully intended for some excellent jump schooling over our mini indoor XC course we had at my barn.

Fully intended.

Instead, I literally almost died on the way there in a car accident (like I don't understand how I'm still alive actually) and therefore I was incredibly rattled when I actually showed up to ride and it was a disaster. I'm pretty sure B was feeding off my anxiety and wouldn't even jump a crossrail. Cool.

So that was frustrating and non-productive, but completely my fault. I should not have even attempted to ride after my near death miss, and I really feel bad about that ride. Putting that behind us.

Saturday was magical and even though I had an all-staff meeting and a baby shower to attend, & my jump lesson was cancelled due to Supertrainer calling it off, I still wanted to get outside and ride, because beautiful in February.

Luckily too, there were barn friends there and barn friends that were willing to video...SCORE

I avoided jumping, because of the disaster the day before, and decided some light dressage work and a hack would be enough for the day.

It was slightly windy, and they had begun bringing horses in, so he was slightly distracted, but that really didn't affect him much.

For the first time ever, we schooled in a dressage ring and I thought he would be spooking left and right at the white rails. However, he was completely sane and perfect, like nothing had happened the day before.

I felt like I had the most incredible horse underneath me. He was responsive, light, forward and active behind. Kind of tense here and there, but for the most part, incredible.

Despite my horrible eq, due to the fact that I was exceptionally sore, he performed brilliantly. Nailing his changes (see video) and almost getting smoothe transitions everytime.

Also, never wearing that goofy vest again. Not only does it add 10lbs, it also makes me look like a hunchback....my eq isn't THAT bad. So try to ignore it.

The girl videoing for me kept saying, wow he look really good and I kept saying, "yeah I have no idea whats happening right now", hahaha.

Generally, he's a very good boy lately, but he never feels THAT great. Its like he was really strutting his stuff. I don't even know what else to say really because my mind is so blown, so here's some more pictures of the nugget.

Happy monday all!

Love Is In The Air

Valentine's day is just around the corner, in case you didn't know. Personally, I find it an incredibly dumb holiday and Bangor and I plan on making dinner at home, watching a movie and avoiding everyone else like true hermits. I'm excited.

All the advertising and valentine fervor got me thinking about things though.

You know, stuff, and things.

Everyday, I write down something that is meaningful, or something that I appreciate. Yesterday I wrote down simply, "Bacardi".

And no not the alcohol.

I mean my horse.

And then I thought back to a year ago today and how much I truly DISLIKED my horse.

Gasp.

I  don't think I have admitted this openly before, but I now realize I didn't enjoy him a year ago, when I'm honest with myself.

Fake smile (he almost killed me on this ride, literally)

I dreaded the thought of riding him and absolutely hated it, he was awful on the ground, shredded his blankets (still does), destroyed his hay and bedding every night, broke through fences, wouldn't load, wouldn't let me halter him, hated things on his legs, hated being brushed, hated being touched in general, I hated the thought of dealing with his attitude, spooks, bucks, bolts, rearing and general sass, and he was a giant pain in my ass. I didn't enjoy any of it. None.

Was not fun

I kept telling myself to just be patient and wait it out, but I rode him with tears in my eyes, everytime and I began to question if it was worth it. Over and over I questioned my ability as a caretaker, owner and rider and why this horse simply was not connecting with me. It was tragic and I hated it.

Perhaps it wasn't meant to be like I had hoped.

I knew it wouldn't be as magical or as easy as my love and connection with Yankee, but I have never met a horse I DREADED riding and almost hated. It was truly horrendous and I questioned everything I knew about everything. It was a relatively dark time.

Fast forward to a approx 6 months ago.

For the first time in almost 2 years, Bacardi nickered to me as I walked in the door.

My heart literally exploded with joy. He was recognizing me as HIS person. This was amazing. This incredibly hard headed, nervous, delicate, talented, wonderful gelding was calling out to me and it melted my heart.

I started to feel something for him. He wasn't just another pretty face in the barn he was MINE.

Then, he really started to improve under saddle.

Nothing magical happened, I simply moved to a different barn with an indoor arena.

Who knows if this was the answer, but it worked. Nothing changed besides the location. Same grain, same hay, same supps, same level of care.

I tried not to focus too hard on the fact that he was doing so well outside of my barn walls and let it be a positive thing.

Whatever flipped his switch, I didn't care. He was connecting with me, slowly but surely.

I no longer completely dreaded riding him and actually looked forward to it! I was happy in the saddle and not as frustrated. He was improving every ride and acting more like a real, adult horse.

And here we are today.

I wouldn't say that he is my heart horse, that will always be Yankee. But I absolutely have love for this big boy now and am HAPPY  & proud to own him, not bitter and embarrassed by it.

I literally never thought I had the capacity to love another horse like I love my Yankee, but its possible!  Now, I go to the barn on days when I don't even plan on riding or don't feel well, just to see his cute face and stuff him full of peppermints. I love visiting him and hearing that soft wuffing nicker he gives me when he sees my face...literally one of the best feelings in the world. The joy I feel on his back now is incredible, simply because I didn't think I would ever get to this place. I adore this horse completely and I can't believe it.

B is my valentine, who's yours?

(PS Bangor as my human Valentine)

What Do Wednesday: Loyalty

Another Wednesday another lovely What Do. Hopefully I don’t drive off anyone this week ;)

I don’t know about you, but I take care of a lot of my to do list driving to and from work in the car, on the phone, making and confirming appts, checking status of accounts and fixing things. Its really the worst.

However, while on the phone today with Smartpak, trying to coordinate payment and shipping for two different horses in two different states, I began to appreciate the cheerful and helpful woman I was speaking to on the other line.

This got me thinking about customer service and how much thankful I am for good customer service when I run across it (not often). I’ve been in the industry for years now, first as a server, then with my old job and part of my duties at my current job. Customer service is key and a lot goes into it.

For me, I appreciate a cheerful voice and a can-do attitude. Smartpak has ALWAYS been that company whenever I have problems (generally billing, getting it to sync up, etc), no matter how slight, they are open 24/7 and always so willing to help.

I have been a loyal customer for years. So many years, it began before  I had my own bank account. That’s over ten years people.

Smartpak started off with providing convenience in feeding supplements and soon evolved into a company that produced high standard brand of supplements at an affordable cost, in addition to a wide range of other supplements. Then, tack & apparel and now they have their own line of blankets with the no questions asked return policy.

For me, this is a win. I have counted on them to supply my horses with the supplements they legitimately need to stay healthy and I have never once encountered an issue. Simply superb company and they have a loyal customer for life.

This got me thinking about tack.

I am not really “brand loyal” to any tack simply because I can’t really afford the good quality brands that are worth remaining loyal to.

When I thought about it though, I do have some affordable favorites I tend to stick with, simply based on the fact that they work, I can afford it and it fits. For breeches, its Kerrits and Smartpak Pipers. For people boots, ariat. For horse boots, Majyk Equipe. For blankets, I prefer Amigo or Rambo. Saddle pads, hands down BOT & thinline half pads. Tack in general, I own mostly HDR tack, with some stubben that I’ve acquired with major discounts. So I suppose you could call me “brand loyal”. However, I have no particular desire to only remain loyal to those brands or products when it boils down to it, because I buy them all from tack stores, they are just what works.

Usually Smartpak.

My question this week is, are you  brand loyal to a certain store, or even, brand of tack? Why? (Like you legit cannot go without the product or company in your life.) Please tell me, what do!

The Making of an Event Horse, Slow & Steady

First off, LOL to the fact I legitimately lost followers over my What Do Wednesday post last week. Seriously people? That was tame.

Moving on from that, I’ve had a lovely little break from school, so in the meantime I’ve been racking up OT, gym and training hours trying to get back n the groove of things after essentially being sick 4 out of the last 6 weeks.

I hate winter.

But I loved this last weekend!

It was a balmy 55*, which in winter feels like a muggy summer day almost, and I took advantage of the warmth and headed outside after a little bit in the arena.

Bangor of course came out too, and since he was there, I figured why not play around outside a bit and feel out our XC legs.

B got his massage Friday and I can tell you, I am a believer. I was going to do a whole big post about it, but I didn’t creep and take pics or videos while she was massaging him and reading a whole mess of text is boring AF. So I saved you there. I CAN say, it was incredible to watch. Literally improved right in front of my eyes. He was like a whole new horse on Sunday, for REAL.

We warmed up over some trot poles, in which he progressively got worse. I don’t know what it is about trot or canter poles that get him all tied up, but he clangs, falls over or knocks almost everys single one, no matter the spacing. I think its  TB thing because Yankee generally did the same thing.

Moving on from that, we jumped a single vertical on the centerline about 10 times through, raising it two holes each time.

It was great fun and he felt incredible. Completely on point, soft, and into it. Even nailed his lead changes like a pro, I was impressed.

Without further ado, here's a little video compilation I put together with the most infuriating video editing app known to man. It turned out alright though & I might have to suffer through making more

The galloping was incredibly exhilarating, yet scary. His stride is massive and he takes off like a wrecking ball. I've never had the guts to let him full out, because I think I would need a football field to stop him!

Also, this is a pretty big, yet casual deal....but that was THE FIRST XC jump we have done together as a team. I completely chickened out over the rolltops we have at our farm...they looked monstrous. But this cute little gate was fun and he literally attacked it with pleasure.

Holy knees! Also, check out those lead change in the video too! I counted four of them!

WHEEEE flying changes! We has dem!

I'm slowly coming to realize that this horse is not one to be rushed and I will never have an 8 year old going training or Prelim...but that's fine by me! Slow & Steady wins the race, amirite? WE have been together 2 years in May, he's only 7 right now, and this was our first XC fence together...HAHA. Wow. But still, its OK. He had a lot of mental issues to work through, and I think now he's in a better place both mentally and physically. 

Plus, now he LOVES jumping and he has incredible scope. I'm pretty sure this horse could jump 5ft with ease, but I am too chicken for that type of shenanigans now. Is chill, we probably won't grace a training level event for over a year  anyways. I'm happy to flit over BN and N fences for a while, considering Novice looks terrifying these days!

Overall, an amazing ride on an amazingly warm day. I have a lesson actually scheduled Saturday, and we will see how that goes!