It's Official

I really hate March. good thing it is almost April. wait...

I hate April too.

Well, spring alltogether in general.

BUT, it is officially spring break for me! I leave at 1PM to make the 8 hour drive home to Ohio to get the horse trailer from my mom.

I feel like a GIANT weight has been off my shoulder. However, there is a little scratch inside me reminding me I DO have 3 projects due the day I get back (Thanks a heap profs. Its not like I want to relax on spring break or anything.) and I need to study Spanish since on my last exam I literally failed it. Try and guess how badly. I will give you a hint, it was below a 30%. Yeah I am f******. But I will not go into that, I have a tutor now and I have have 8 weeks left to make it up.

I am anxiously awaiting my new saddle! I had to buy leathers separately too and they might make it here before the saddle itself. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! So excited!

Forgot to tell you why I hate March in Missouri.

It was 30 degrees 2 weeks ago and snowed 6 inches. Then it was nice for approx 6 days, temps in the 70's and one day it even hit 84. Yesterday it was 45. This morning in slneeted (snow/sleet) like 3 inches. UGHGGGHHH!

I woke up early to ride my conditioning sets before class this morning but my efforts were thrawrted by mother nature. Dammit! I didn't want to ride ANOTHER flat session since he has had 3 this week and I didnt want to have to borrow Cheryl's saddle again.

Good news is R will lunge him while I am gone for 4 days.

I almost quit my job yesterday. My GM quit, a manger got fired and I got my promotion taken back. A lot of other shit went down as well that I do not feel comfortable sharing but I will say it involved beer and other things. Yeah this girl was livid. I would have told them all to suck it if I didn't have a horse and 3 pets to feed.

We still don't know what happened to Scarlett.

To jump around again from happy to sad to happy I wanted to send a shout out to my friend Matthew B. for keeping my spirits up about my horse :) I have my doubts sometimes and he makes me feel like I am headed in the right direction. You guys all do actually. I LOVE horse people!

15 days till Equine Affaire...I wonder if I can lose 6 lbs by then so I can fit into my tall boots and not look like a fat ass in front of hundreds of people.

Meet My New Saddle

After much discussion with the boyfriend and mother, it was decided to snath this gorgeous thing off ebay while I could. I know this was quick...since I just decided 2 days ago it was definitely a saddle issue.

Today I tested my theory more. I rode in Cheryls County dressage saddle and then switched to mine halfway through. The difference was unbelievable.

Perfect pony in the County,

Devilish bucking stiff nightmare in mine.

Well that solved it for me didn't it.

I called my mom up right away afterwards and explained my predicament. I am poor. I want to show this year. I cannot show if I don't have a saddle that fits. I can't show if I spend a ton of $$ on a new saddle. Hmmm. Conundrum.

Thank sweet baby Jesus for Ebay.

I found the County above for $525, They retail for $3000+

I am now selling my Wintec Isabell Pro on Ebay as well. I hope to make up the difference since I still choked a little spending $525 since I just sent in my USEA fees, paid Yankee's spring vet bills and just sent a $200 check for a dressage show and I need to do some jumper shows OH and I paid $70 to ride in Equine Affaire AND I am going to get my trailer in Ohio this weekend and gas for an 8 hr. drive both ways....gah. Anyways, its bought, and my Wintec will be listed here shortly.

I hope this will help :)


My Wintec Isabell Pro.

So remember how I said Scarlett miscarried her foal? Well....she died today. It was SUPER shocking and all of us at the barn are stunned. R was working the PM shift and she said Scarlett was munching hay fine, then FLIPPED out, ran through a fence, then died. Just like that. No blood, just died. Such a sad day when TWO beautiful creatures die horrid deaths :(

Sigh of Relief

s
I am almost done. 66 math HW problems stand between me and 11 days of glorious spring break. I took an early leave day though and rode my horse, cleaned ALL my tack and org. the tack room. Gaze upon its beauty. (All mt stuff is cramped in a little corner, but damn I made that corner clean!) I know you love my pink rain boots. I know you do. It was WONDERFUL to know I had NOTHING to rush off and do...I took a whole 3 hours at the barn today.



Today was glorious. Easy classes...nice temperatures...great ride...why is this underlined?



Looky at what I maaaaade. Its a prancing pony. I was bored painting a stupid sphere so I painted this. I think I will make it better. Painting is really hard.



Excuse my simple writing style today. My brain is taking a vacation.

I rode my ponyface and he was ahmahzazing. For the most part.

I asked Cheryl if I could borrow her Passier saddle to try out and he.was.a.dream. This leads me to believe that it is a saddle issue mixed with ulcers...He is still touchy on his sides

Like I said before he was mostly good. I REALLY wanted to ride in the outdoor but our neighbors (haha neigh is in neighbor) stupid cow herd was lurking in the scary shadows and scared Pronto and Yankee shitless. He was actually rearing straight in the air trying to escape them. I felt bad for him since he could hear them and smell them but couldnt see them. Not mad at all actually. We had to migrate to the indoor which I guess was all for the better since it started to rain.

Anyways after that he was fine. PERFECT. Glorious. Stunning. Like, OMG.

Perfect to the left. Stretchy, no bucking, soft in my hands, perfect transitions, shoulder-in/fores. Not once did he lock up. Ok wait yeah he did, I lied. Asking him to sidepass at the trot he would throw his nosey a little but I think thats because I have overschooled them, since he was fine with other lateral work.

Oops. My bad Yanks :(

So....New saddle. F***. I am poor. I cannot afford a new saddle. I am diligently searching ebay and I found a reallllly nice County saddle for cheap (relatively). Tomorrow I will ride in Cheryls County to see if that one works just as nicely.

So in other (sad) news. Scarlett miscarried her foal yesterday; she only has 2 more months to go. I was really torn up about it, she was too. When the vet removed it from the stall, she just stared at it. She is really depressed too, now. The vet could not figure out anything that could have caused a miscarriage. Fetus looks fine, Scarlett was fine, updated on all vaccines, and the membrane was fine. I thought about the fluxuation in weather...but I doubt that was the cause. Although it was 29 and snowed last week and yesterday it was 82 degrees.... It is heartbreaking. Scarlett is such a sweet girl and I would kiss her belly everytime I fed...ugh I am still sad. She was the only horse bred last season so now the Holekamps have no babies this year from Windfall.

Scarlett 3 days ago

Hate to leave it on a sad note, but I have no others news.

Enhancing the Calm

Look at me I look skinny! HA! I was giving a pretty big half halt too....



It was pretty HOT and muddy yesterday...sigh. I hate summer heat with a passion. 83 degrees before april is too much. Yankee agreeds. He still has his winter coat! Overall I only worked him about 25 min total, including walking down to the XC field. I only schooled baby fences and tried to work combos to keep him on the ball and not rushing.

He was crazy hyper.

He is always soooper excited to jump and I have a hard time controlling him sometimes. He never runs away, just gets really strong before fences. I am afraid he will jump hollow if he runs at them so yesterday we worked on being a calm pony. More often than not though he took off early and left me behind. UGH.


I tested the waters in holding him a bit more over fences and it seemed to work a bit with combo jumps, but free standing single fences not so much. My plan of attack from now in is
*HOLD him collected on combo jumps...2 strides bounces, coffins etc. Keep him in front of leg but DO NOT let him run at them. He loses carefullness and I KNOW he can jump 3ft from a walk if he has to
*Half halt strong 3-4 strides out on free standing jumps and let him jump them at his own pace then IMMEDIATLY bring him back.


Half halting

This works for XC but stadium is so tight that we still will need a new battle plan for that..

I guess its better that he LIKES to jump rather than not jump...but getting in a fix about jumping and lathering up in 20 min its so not the calm we need. Gosh I thought we were over this last year Yanks.


"Look at me, I'm a retarded ponyface who gets sooper worked up about little baby rails on the ground...I don't know why...I just wanna go fast and Mom doesn't let me. She wants me to behave and I hates its."

So on the 'what is wrong with my horse front'..I think I am going to go with Ulcers. He is very touchy on his sides and hates being girthed lately....Like I said he is back on Ulcerguard though and I am TRYING to get him ample turnout. The field is soo muddy though and he gets infected heels so easily. Trying to balance it is hard!

I think I am still going to look for a new dressage saddle though becasue he is 10x better bareback or in the jump saddle...making me think his dressage one doesn't fit him as well as it used to. My mom SO kindly offered to get a saddle fitter to fit it for his back too, so that is an epic win and really unexpected. I just have to foot the bill for a new saddle. I want a leather one too, looks nicer and lasts longer. Ebay, aawaaaaaayyyy!

ALSO, Training level it is!

Thanks to all who voted! I appreciate your support :D

Happy monday!

Questions and Thanks Yous

I have two pressing issues at hand that I would love opinions on.

1)What level I should start with this show season
2) WTH is wrong with my horse and what do I do about it??

So let us begin with A.

I have 2 months till our first event. I must decide wether to be super extra excessively careful and go Novice first time out or go ahead and do Training. The course looks super easy and I am not worried about XC. It is the stadium that always gets me worried (without me knowing I am worried then right in the middle of the course I am like, “OH SHIIIIIT. Shit. SHIT!” and then we knock some fences over, miss some distances and generally fail all around) and why after 3 T’s last year I moved down to N midseason then back up to T.

Last summer I stupidly decided to run Training first time out after 7 months of not riding and myself coming back from a horrific injury that left me on crutches for about 6 months and an extra 20 lbs for my horse to lug around. Yankee had been leased out but not ridden hard or schooled for eventing. We crashed and burned hard and it shook our confidence on stadium real bad. I was dumb, no need to tell me that.



This year though, he has been in work since September. We jump once a week. School dressage every week (2-3 times a week), condition once a week mostly and do lunging sessions to stay supple. To me, I feel confidant running training first time out since we will do SEVERAL Dressage shows and Jumper shows before May 14. I feel it is a waste of $$ to run Novice, and we all know I am poor. I really want to get 4 NQR’s this year so I can qualify for Prelim AND T3D.
I just can’t justify a $500 show at a level we both fall asleep doing. Novice was forever ago and we should have already moved up to Prelim. 3 years ago I broke my arm mid season, 2 years ago I didn’t have enough money/he was afraid of spectators XC and spooked so bad that we missed fences completely and OBV got penalized refusals (thus not receiving enough NQR’s), last year I was fat and not strong enough and Yankee was not schooled enough consistently… but this year…we ARE ready.

What do you think?

I have to decide by Mar 31 since I am mailing the show entry then (spots fill fast).


As for B….well it puzzles me big time. Tuesday I took Yankee out for a dressage school in the indoor.

Let me just say he is more confidant and loose in the outdoor and in the indoor he is choppy, hyped up and stiff to the left. It puzzles me.

Anyways, he was…HORRENDOUS. I have never ever in my 6 years owning him had him be this bad…he was tossing his head every like, 15 seconds, bucking super hard at EVERY transition and in the canter, SUPER hella stiff to the left (like he would not bend or even stay on the wall…) and dead to my left leg. Mostly the issues were to the left..

I tried just walking and doing suppling excercising, bending away from leg, giving at the poll, etc but he would not have it. He either tossed his head, lost impulsion or tried to bite me….WHILE I WAS MOUNTED!? WTF!?

Where did this evil ponyface from hell come from?????

I have a few theories but I am super confused since he was an angel Monday morning…
a) Still sore in the mouth from vet
b) Saddle sore
c) Blanket rubbing him
d) Ulcers

These have all been cause for issues in the past, but the tooth soreness I am ruling out since I worked him in sidereins Monday and he was perfecto. So…not an issue?

Saddles…I checked, rechecked and triple checked his fit. It is still perfect. Nothing in the saddle pad, girth fine, not ouchy anywhere on his back when I palpate. He does pin his ears something fierce when I saddle him though but I always attributed that to the leaser who had him over the winter used a bad girth (gave him galls), too small a saddle and cinched him up too fast (since he started doing that right after I got him back from her). But I have a different (super expensive really nice for just that reason) girth, use my own saddle fit for him and I cinch super slow…so not an issue? Or do I need to start searching for a new saddle?

I lunged/rode him today bareback and he was better (still stiff but responsive-no spurs either), minimal head tossing, so that leads me to believe it is the saddle but I dont know how..

Blanket. He has weird shoulders. No blanket fits him perfectly and I am too mega poor to even contemplate contacting someone to make him a custom. I have 5 different turnout blankets for him (EBAY!) and rotate them. In the past he has rubbed his shoulders raw and the blanket has pulled too much on his booty, so I got new, bigger sizes and rotate them. He used to pin his ears when I went to put the old ones on, but with the new system he is fine, and no hair rubbing of any sort…so not an issue?

Ulcers. The only other thing I can think of. He had Ulcers from the track and suffered with them for 2 years before I diagnosed them. April-September he is on UlcerGuard but I take him off in winter because I feel it is unnecessary since we don’t travel or show at all from Sept- April. However, classic signs, pinning ears when girth, ouchy on the sides and just all around grompy. So, I ordered Ulcerguard and put it on expedited shipping and he will begin tomorrow. I hope it helps clear up his grompy-ponyness because I am seriously baffled by his random ass mood swings. He swings harder than my bi-polar friend and it is SO WEIRD.

What do you guys think? Am I ignoring blatant signs and brushing them off or do any of you think there might be a problem?

I just don’t understand how one day he can be brilliant and the next just awful. It happens. EVERY. WEEK. SO inconsistent!! It’s getting severely discouraging and frustrating.

And for your entertainment, here is a photo of possibly the worst face I have ever made while riding dressage. My jumping pictures are way worse and usually involve my tongue sticking out, haha!



And thank you to those who gave me advice on the posting...I have no idea why it is so psycho sometimes but your advice worked!

OMFG

I HATE blogger sometimes....

I typed up this huge long post on Word to copy and paste (did it in class, no internet access) for my post today...but it wont publish to my blog. It keeps saying "Error HTML CODE NOT ALLOWED" wtf???????????????????????????

This has happen before.

Why the F can't I publish it? Do I need to type it on blogger and not copy paste?

Makes me want to hurl my computer down 7 flights of stairs.

The post will be up tomorrow sometime, I just don't have time to do it today.

Anyone else have issues with blogger??

Aww come on!

So much shit hit the fan I cannot even start.

So yesterday I was really pissy and wrote this really epic long depressing post about how I hate my life and I will never succeed and how I am a worthless human being. Good thing I succumbed to tears and never posted it, you guys would have me committed. I ended up having a pretty horrid panic attack at work though, and they sent me home because I.could.not.get.it.together. I did not have my KIT (Keep It Together). I was very productive once I got home and it lightened my mood. All HW done and I cleaned all the things whilst bawling my eyes out. It made it all bedder.

College has stolen my soul.

This morning I got up early and was going to ride my horse but I forgotsies my bootsies at home so I lunged him for a good 30 min and gave him a good grooming.. This kinda effed up my weekly workout plans for him but I can make it work...I think.


He was not enthusiastic about coming out of the field right after breakfast. Plus it was cold. Note the f***ing snow. Tomorrow gonna be 73. WTF Missouri, wtf. Come on!


"NOOOOO, hay noms...I want"

Despite the cold and unwillingness to leave his hay noms he was realy good this morning. Loose, active, calm. I was happy with that :)



Also, I got word back today about equine Affaire. Good news and bad news. Good news, I got accepted to a clinic and will onyl have to be there a day and a half and I won't miss any class. Less stall $$. Less excercise for ponyface and myself. Bad news, I only got accepted to one clinic, I won't miss class and driving 16 hours in less than 3 days worries me a little. Lotta stress on Yankeepoo.

Daniel Stewart wante dus so that is neat. Neal Shapiro had like 100 ppl. apply and unfortunately I did not make the cut. Sad panda. Reese Koffler Stanfield made me a stand by rider, meaning if someone can't make it, I am the next in line...Guess that's better than nothing and one clinic and a breed demo is better than none! Plus I get free admission to all the days :)

so, sadface and happyface all at once.

Gonna do dressage tommorrow, possible conditioning ride thurs, off friday, hack sat, dressage sunday

Exam Thurs and Friday...

work friday, sat and sun....fml.