Summer is For Showing

For ONCE I have an actual show schedule set up, the means to participate and I am stoked about it.. Granted, this is probably because none of them are USEA-money-sucks, but still shows nonetheless. (For real, how do people have the means of doing more than 3 a year... eat ramen constantly? Not pay insurance? Walk to work?)

Favorite view because dat ass

Wow. That feels good to say actually. Eventing just isn't my jam anymore. It was for years, but its not anymore. Whew. Feels good to get it out. Feels good to accept that as reality instead of try and kid myself.

I still like dressage. I still like jumping. I still like galloping madly across varied terrain. I do not like participating in eventing.

Trailer manners installed

That being said...I wish my horse would be not lame...but alas, 4 days later he is still limping and pitiful and my feels are all fucked up. I don't know how to help him and I feel terrible. I don't know if turnout will help or keeping him in will help. I wish my farrier could get here earlier than a week, but thats now how things are panning out. So here he sits yet again, doing nothing after we made such progress last week with the foreboding task of fixing his actually ridiculously fucked up LF...

Le sigh.

In other news, and the real reason I am posting, is to elaborate a little on Yankee's first show of the year with his leaser!

Who you looking at human

Dressage is not the easiest to make exciting, so if you lack attention span or know that most show go about the same then feel free to skim the pics and bask in Sir Shininess glory and move on. A quick summation of the day would be, hot, windy, but good. There is much to work on, but productive things happened. Yankee was his good ole self and seemed to enjoy himself. I SO wanted to take the reins and it was a difficult watching from the sidelines, to be honest, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Looking back, I am pretty sure I was the classic helicopter parent for this show and I feel a little bad that was "that overbearing horse mom" to my leaser. I braided him. Wrapped him. Loaded. Unloaded. Lunged. Tacked him up. Then handed him over.

Lazy braids FTW

Essentially I was a groom.

I LOVED IT.

Not sure about anyone else but I am incredibly picky and particular when it comes to my horses and their tack. Sorry V, I am sorry! You are a saint for tolerating me, haha.

That being said, it was SO hard for me to not over-task V in warm-up and remind myself that they are still getting to know each other. It literally hurts my soul when Yankee takes advantage of her and flops around at the trot, but I grimace and let it go. V is literally one of the epitome of a perfect student. As a collegiate athlete she is incredibly body aware and is teachable. She listens and DOES what I ask her. She is promising rider and I am proud to have her riding my OG.

So the warm-up was productive and I was confident in their first test. yankee however, "lost his marbles" when  he entered the ring thanks to the dust bowl and the ring literally blowing around on the ground. I say that in " " because all it really entails is eyeballs and a sidestep, but tension is tension.

First test was...tense. Yanks was distracted and V I don't think knew all his tricks to get him back in the game. She handled the new horse she was riding quite well and the canter work was brilliant. The rest was....lackluster. He was all over the place and just not quite paying attention. Not his usual self, but I could understand with the wind, dust and ring falling apart around him. He handled it better than most horses did, to be honest.

Note the ring fallen over on the far side

He continued to be jazzed up right until the start of the second test though, and then he visibly relaxed into his work. Almost lazy. V could be more accurate, but she is new to dressage and that will come with practice and learning the horse. I will say the canter departures were incredibly well placed, accurate and fluid. A joy to watch. I personally thought the second test was better, but the judge had other ideas. Low 60s was enough to place and I couldn't be mad about that, first time out.

She was a fair judge and I feel they were scored according to the test that was ridden. V still has to learn how to ride him 100% through the contact and Yanks has to learn how to do that under her. They're a great pair together though, and even the judge commented on how wonderful they are together and how athletic Yankee was. So that was nice! I KNOW they are capable of scores in the 70s, not 60s...and we will get them there!

Yankees classic uphill canter

Overall incredibly proud of these two. V for learning so quickly and christening the partnership with satin, and Yanks for being the steady boy I know he always is. Soon we have XC schooling coming  up, a clinic and then their first event in July!

Swaggggg

Summer Woes

The best laid plans never take into account horses and their propensity to pull shoes.

For real, once the thermometer reaches 80* they flip their shoes off like they're walkin inside mommas house. 

I have a few shows lined up, as well as bi weekly jumper lessons, and the first one was scheduled for 4PM today.

Was.

He pulled a shoe Tuesday and I fretted that he wouldn't get it back on in time for the lesson, let alone riding all week leading up to it. He got worked Monday and that was it. Whomp whomp. 

I wish we had a farrier at our beck and call like apparently so many of you do, but also apparently we aren't the only clients he has. Who knew?

Shoe was put back on Thursday night (yesterday) and he was 100% and lovely for our light jump school. I was PUMPED for our lesson today. 

In shambles after the repair, but in working order

And then he flung it off in turnout Thursday night.

Yes. The same day he got it tacked back on.

Not pointing any fingers here, but WTF.

I had this issue last summer with B as well and I literally cannot comprehend what is happening out in the field. No amount of bell booting will keep his damn shoes on. 

He has thrown the same shoe, not once, not twice, but THREE times in the last four weeks. He broke a new record throwing the same shoe twice within 24 hours. Not even 24 hours really.

Of course now the foot is ripped to shreds and I'm sure we won't keep it on at all from this point forward,  and I'm sure it will be dastardly expensive and trying....so there's that shitpile.

OK, actually in shambles now.

For the record I also don't need suggestions on how to keep shoes on. Get a new farrier! Try bellboots! Feed supplements! Don't turn your horse out (literally, what the fuck)! You're a terrible horse owner! Buy cavallo boots! Don't use clips! You're a terrible horse owner!.....We've been there, done that.

Summer is apparently just problematic. I am literally just bitching because horses are the worst and I wanted to go to a lesson with a pro and I am adult POUTING. Why did I choose this sport? Why do I love them so? Why?!

Oh, and he's 100%, 3 legged, pitiful looks, horse sobbing lame. Which has NEVER happened when a shoe has been tossed. EVAR.

Halfway There

I cannot believe its already almost July. I know adults say this all the time, but time truly does fly. I feel like just yesterday it was snowing and cold and I didn't want to leave my house.

Now I am 6 months in to grad school (4 classes down), Yankee can start jumping TODAY, and B is coming along great! 

Considering Christmas is now 6 months away and its almost the best time of year (fourth of July), I would say its time to reevaluate the goals I made in January.

*drags and stomps feet* *pouts*

I have never been a huge fan of resolutions or goal making, for fear of failure (lol childish) but figured this year I would give it a shot. 

Last night when I went over the lists I made (and hadn't glanced at since) I was pleasantly surprised to see some progress being made. Since I hadn't looked at them and all. Luckily, I made some achievable and reasonable goals (shoutout to grad school and SMART) that even if I didn't give them a second glance, I was still working towards.

If you can bear reading through another person's goals for the year, stay tuned.

Lets start with riding. red X means I have not accomplished at all, green X means part of the goal is complete and the red exclamations mean I don't even know if I want to do these goals anymore.

Behold, 6 month old goals:

I would like to note that "clean changes" need to be a GREEN X

To recap:

*Solid progress has been made without realizing it! Technically he was E at his first event with Supretrainer but that was a technicality...jumping the same jump twice, haha! I'm ok with that.

*However, we discussed, I don't really want to event right now. Too expensive and insane. I am comfortable admitting I am afraid of XC now...god knows why, but I am. 

*Eventually we will jump 3'9 though. He's got the talent and the scope. Easily. 

*We still have the same old trot. A nice one, but he is not quite there yet in discernible differences with the trot. Its ok. He's a baby.

*I say clean changes, but they aren't clean yet. He still changes late behind. But he does change on cue and can do about 4 figure 8's with changes inbetween! Which is progress. Yankee refuses to learn them so at least I have one of them that will do them on cue.

*B is slowly but surely realizing what renver and traver are and can hold it about 3 steps. 

*Additionally, his leg yields are a lot less dramatic. (This is a big deal).

*I am also so proud that his turn on the forehand no longer involves rearing or dancing sideways and it is calm and collected. Also learned turned on the haunches to that the bomb.com

To reevaluate:

Removing eventing goals and adding jumper goals, keeping the rest...

-compete in one rated show (oh my god)

-begin monthly jumper lesson (first one is friday!)

-1 schooling show a month

-Join OHJA and USEF (bye money)

Onward to less interesting and more boring person goals. Also how many times can I say goals in this post?

Self explanatory.

Since this is a horse blog, I won't recap, but pretty solid work in the personal area as well.

2016 is looking good so far.

You'll be seeing this one a lot. Sorry not sorry.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

They're here!! That was a quick turnaround time...not complaining. And apparently spooking B is insanely gorgeous, who knew hahah.

Somehow Yankee looks taller and bigger...which he is neither

I wil never not like this photo....I. am. in. love.

Dashing

Snorting at things makes for good pics

Here We Go Again

I hate playing catch up on Monday or Tuesday but the weekends are always so wild that blogging is impossible.

Thursday after our great week I decided to jump a little bit before I left town for the weekend and it was ...not so great.

Granted, there were several factors going in to a rather lackluster and disappointing ride, but I will take the positives away from it and be happy.

Positives: I didn't fall off, warm up was stellar and B jumped all the oxers
Negatives: Snapped my favorite reins, Bacardi just couldn't and refused all the CROSSRAILS

What the actual fuck B?

The ride started out swimmingly. Actually, freaking brilliant, and I was happy because I had had a pretty stressful day and was relieved it would be a relaxing do-all-the-things-right ride.

Wrong.

I really think it had to do with the time of day and the shadows and sun casting and glaring weirdly. Reason I say that is because he jumped ALL the oxers and verticals without question, quite brilliantly, but when it came time to jump the fucking tiny ass crossrail bounce, he legit had a melt down.

The sun was glaring RIGHT on the white part of the poles, making them extra bright, and then the telephone pole was casting a massive shadow right behind it. Obviously terrifying and should be avoided at all costs.

Bacardi thoughts

It took all of my encouraging to get him to go over the crossrails made into groundpoles and I should've chalked it up to a loss. Should've stopped trying there too, but no, I couldn't because reasons.

Reasons caused us both to get frustrated and cranky and long story short he spooked at the GROUNDPOLES so hard that in flying sideways and my attempt to one rein stop the madness, my reins snapped and I was left with a horse flailing all about and me sitting there hoping he didn't bolt off when he realized he was free.

He didn't, thankfully...just stood there like the giant giraffe derp he is, wondering where he went wrong in life to deserve such an evil mother.

I deeply considered getting new reins out an trying again but we were both fried.

Hey, at least the warm up was good right?

So, note to self, don't jump B near dusk when the sun is casting weird death rays and there are monster shadows in the area, god for fucking bid.

He had all weekend off, sadly, because EME went to the creek to swim! Apparently Yankee had a ton of fun at least and dragged his rider out to swim about 100 times. Boy loves to swim, what can I say?

I also survived the second Tough Mudder we attempted this weekend.

the socks had capes guys, the SOCKS had CAPES

It was hot as satan's ballsack and I got a wicked forehead burn that 3 days later looks like a bad botox job. But it was really fun and mentally a true test of fortitude. I almost quit. Almost. Because 96* and 12 miles total was not very fun on mile 8 with no shade. That being said...I can't wait to do another one.

There's something truly satisfying about getting through something very difficult, challenging yourself and then overcoming it. I know us crossfitters are a wee insane at times (ask me how Memorial Day Murph went) but the mental benefits to these types of races are incredible. Plus, I just like getting dirty and getting free shit like beer and t shirts and headbands.

Bangor got extra crispy

Then on Sunday, EME got together to take group pics and headshot. BO organized it free of charge, so OF COURSE I was stoked for it.

The group shot turned out fantastic, but because there are minor's involved, I won't be posting the photo just in case their parentals aren't chill with that.

No individual pics yet, but Yankee, of course, was a gentleman and a scholar and stood very still with ears pricked. Bacardi on the other hand was a spooky asshole and couldn't stop snorting at shit. Luckily, his ears were forward so I just stood there pretending it wasn't happening, fake grinning the whole time. #whatever

Waiting our turn, I of course took a million iPhone pics and some of them turned out rather adorable.

my feels

Some..not at much.

MAXIMUM DERP

How Yankee looks so massive in this pic I will never know

Also, Bacardi was lovely this evening for his lunging sesh. Hoping his insanity the other evening was just temporary...but lets be real, its B.

Baby Steps

I want to thank everyone who commented yesterday and was able to keep the conversation adult. I know back in the day my blog was scattered, offensive and immature but I sometimes try to be a smidgen more professional these days when blogging. It was a breath of fresh air to see so many comments from those who prefer the breeds I don't, and were OK admitting they didn't enjoy TBs either. I hope I didn't offend anyone, that was not my intention, and I am happy there was good discussion. I love the blogging world!

Moving on.

I put off this post (surprise surprise) because I wasn't sure if "Bacardi good behavior "was a one ride" fluke or not and my last post about him was incredibly emo & I was having another mental breakdown about horses in general.

Past that now (will this be a monthly thing for me??) and moving on from the second guessing.

I have ridden B every day for the last week, with the exception of yesterday, which was amazing. I wish I could do this every week because unlike Yankee, he benefits from work everyday. I had a LOOOONG weekend due to the PT's being out of office for a medical seminar, so I wasn't required to show up to work...which was incredible for my pony time.

repeat media, don't care

I can't remember which day it was, but the first ride back after the disaster that was our shitshow ride was AMAZING. I decided to switch it up and do flatwork only and focused on stretching through the bridle for about 20 minutes in just the walk and trot. He was brilliant. Almost too brilliant. I dismounted incredibly skeptical, wondering if he would be the same the next day.

The ride after was another flat day, and B maintained greatness.

Such a good baby

I won;t go into too much detail, because how fun can reading about flatwork be? Like "oh, yeah he was being really good and responding to my inside leg like a champ. Doing normal dressage  horse stuff. Also, he cantered straight and picked up all his leads calmly and was adjustable and..."

Pretty much the same everytime, amirite.

The next ride I wanted to bring back some jumping. My friend L showed up again, which is always lovely because  get media and second opinions! She's a really good rider and I enjoy her company at the barn.

For always, B has had a little issue with quickness in-between lower height fences. At first it was because of weakness and as most of us know, weak horses tend to snowball over courses. Then it morphed into gusto after he learned how to carry himself and realized jumping was best. Now its flat out not listening to half halts and blowing through fences because they aren't tall enough. Literally. He sometimes takes out the entire fence because he's traveling so far DOWN and refusing to listen to half halts and effectively jumps downward....its possible.

Case and point.

This type of jumping is no bueno and not something I like to encourage. We've tried grids. We've tried trotting fences (hint; he gallops at them anyways). We've tried half halts. I tried everything I could think of to get him off his forehand and RESPECT the fences. Not like he can't jump the height. He's cleared 3'6 easily before, when he's paying attention.

First thing I did was change him back to his golden wings elevator bit. 

Notice anything different besides the bit?

Then, my friend L got on him and showed me a little trick she uses with her reining horses.

Yes, reining.

We would hop  him over two crossrails, at his preferred speed (yes, his speed...which is full on gallop) and then halt him HARD after the line, about 4 strides after.

It was messy. It was ugly. It looked a little like this..

Such impulsion. Very canter. Much uphill.

A few things you might notice. I am not sitting down. We tried that and it lit him UPPPP. We realized that if we ask for the halt with pulsating hands (so we aren't ripping his face off) he has less to fight and brace against  (his favorite) and we aren't jamming down on his back. 

Then, once he was halted, we asked for a turn on the haunches 180*, moving his shoulders while his butt stayed planted. Then, canter off and do the line again. Wash. rinse. repeat.

(This is what I referenced in my last post about teaching him in about 10 minutes flat. He went from not knowing how to do this, to doing it the second you moved your hands and asked with your heel. Genius level when he wants to be.)

After 4 tries only, he was like, "OH OKAY, sit back and slow down after fences, I get it now".

Literally four tries.

Complete gentleman

After that he was a dream after and in-between fences.  I kept practicing string together the outside line, the liverpool and the oxer line and he maintained even rhythm and consistency throughout. #PROUD

I try to keep the fences lower for work like this, because it is more difficult and there is no need to always school 3'3. It is fun, but not necessary. Especially because when I do ride, most of the rides consist of flatwork then some light jump school work. 

After the coursework, I felt good and confident to send him through the grid thinking he would be abel to maintain a balanced uphill canter.

Wrong.

We still have a lot of work to do when it comes to stringing together a lot of fences in a grid. He tends to get so so so strung out and the good effects of the grid never really take place. I've never seen a horse turn a one stride into a bounce before, but he has the stunning ability to jump a grid of 3 fences in 3 bounds, no joke.

First, he tranters over the ground pole...

And proceeds to bounce through the grid like it was set to bounce distances. All I could really do was laugh, because the amount of athleticism it takes to do that and not knock any down was impressive. It also felt really good, which is weird, haha.

long spot much

L was videoing and at the end of one pass through I was cackling and said "WHAT was THAT". 

Eventually, I was able to get him to sit back a little bit and slow his roll through the grid, but for now, I think I will focus less on gridwork and more another things. Sorely tempted to jack them up to 3ft 3in and see his that backs him off, but that smells like disaster. He did do remarkably better though when I bumped the last oxer up to 2'9...

Much better with some more height 

The next day I repeated the exercise L taught us over the outside crossrail line and no fights were had and he halted calmly and without issue.

SO that was neat.

The rest of the week I focused on flatwork and hacks and gave him the day off yesterday. Today will be an other jump school and hack before I leave for KY for the weekend.

I'm running another Tough Mudder saturday in the 93* heat, so if I don't return its because I died.

What Do Wednesday: Breeds

Again, trending with the theme of not exactly what do you do, but "what is your opinion" this week.

Also, I have great news on the Bacardi front and so much to update I haven't even sorted through all the corresponding media. Its coming!

Sneak peak picture of a picture, lol

So this week was inspired again by Facebook. I spend far too much time there, scrolling scrolling scrolling mindlessly in the middle of the night when I can't sleep (often). I classify myself more of a "lurker" than an active poster or comment maker, but sometimes I can't help myself.

This past week I read a comment that I haven't been able to dismiss yet. Perhaps because I am so sick and tired of hate becoming the norm online, or perhaps I just can't grasp why people have to be so nasty for no reason when hiding behind a keyboard. I also will never understand why people insist on forcing their opinions on everyone at every opportunity and then making those who disagree with them feel idiotic or horrible for disagreeing. They're called opinions for a reason, we don't need to hear yours for the hundredth time. We get it. You hate *this* for *this reason*. What is the actual point of repeating yourself all over social media?

What I am speaking of, and what I read on Facebook that night, was an absolute disdain for Thoroughbreds.

Which I can understand.

They aren't for everyone. I am well aware of that. They can be hot, lunatic, batshit insane, unsound, skinny beasts. I've been there, done that.

Jumping attack mode; engage

I have also seen and personally experienced the heart, work ethic, athleticism and love a thoroughbred can have for its job and its human.

But the unnecessary bashing needs to stop. Regardless of what it is about. Breeds, discipline, talent, money...whatever. Why do we all hate SO much? We are so quick to judge and spew distasteful comments and I am sick of it. It sometimes makes me want to quit blogging altogether because of the few select Queen Bitches that reign.

Breeds are a choice, and those choices are made due to personal taste, comfort level, goals and experience. Who are "we" to judge anyone else for their choices?

For me, there will never be another horse like my Yankee. He is one in a million. When I sit on his back, I am home. Everything else dissolves and I only feel him listening beneath me and I am content. There is absolutely nothing better than that creature in this entire world. He is perfect in every way to me and I will treasure him until the day he dies. And guess what, he's an OTTB. Suck it haters.

Kiss our perfect asses

I am so SICK of people vehemently preaching their hate for OTTBs/Thoroughbreds specifically,  and then casting out those who love and own them....considering them lesser people with minds of an ape.

NO.

I  love thoroughbreds. Its okay that "you" don't.

I just don't see the point of spewing the hate repeatedly (like, all the time on Facebook) with derogatory and condescending comments.

I absolutely 100% take offense to that, even if those comments aren't even directed at me (most of them usually are, for the record).

Thoroughbreds will always be MY breed. For the reasons I listed above. I would appreciate not being hated for that opinion. When someone insults thoroughbreds, intentionally directing the comment my way, you are essentially saying my horse(s) is/are a piece of shit. When in reality, Yankee is the lightest, most responsive, consistent and athletic horse I have ever owned or ridden. He glides over 4 ft fences (and above). His halt to canter transitions are almost flawless. He responds to my aids without hesitation and he is happy to please and work his ass off for me.

Halt to canter betches

Bacardi too, despite his green horse flaws, is an incredible animal. His athleticism continues to amaze me and when he's paying attention, he absorbs training like a sponge. I taught him turn on the haunches in ten minutes yesterday, and today he did them like he was an old pro. Sure, he's green and sure he can be a a handful but I LOVE the spunk and heart and ability that horse possesses.

How DARE you assume otherwise, or think they are lesser creatures, or label me as an idiot. How fucking dare you.

I will say this one time only and for the sake of this blog post.

I have breeds I really don't care for too. Paso Fino's, Arabians and Saddlebreds. I think they're abominations of the equine world and would rather not associate myself with them. Paso's are like tiny bombs with no brains and I think they are useless creatures. Their gait is confusing and boring and I think it looks manufactured. I also had more trouble handling this breed than any other I've worked with. So stupid. Arabians are more insane than Thoroughbreds, and I will NEVER own another (fun fact, I've had 2). Never. They are impossible and I won't do it.  Additionally, MOST of them are too refined for my taste. Too man-made and dainty. I like some meat and bones on my horses. Also, too small for my tall ass self. Saddlebreds are just ugly as sin and I cannot make myself like them even if I tried. Plus, I only know of one that is good at jumping/dressage- which is MY sport.

But you know what, thats fine. That my opinion and I don't give a flip if you own one of those breeds, because YOU love them. Its YOUR choice.  & I sure as shit will NEVER make you feel bad about it or berate you for owning a certain breed.

They all have a purpose and have those humans that love them. Its not okay to hate someone for the breed they choose to love.

Can we please end the hate?

So what I want to know is what your favorite breed is and why! If you want to share your least favorite you can as well, but you don't have to.