Yankee Says....

...."Pfffffftttt!" to all the fuss being made!

He got his mane washed yesterday, tail today, tail trimmed, nosey clipped, last minute mane pulling, bridle path shave, ear trim and fetlock shave. I also cleaned all his tack, took pads, wraps and boots home to wash, clothes are packed, and all of Yankees stuff is ready to go. Minus grain. Must get grain and sawdust.

WHEW! Its been 8 months since I've done this. Forgot how much work it is.. And how wet and dirty you get..I kind of hate it..

Luckily I bought beer for the show.

Queeny Park HT

So this is how XC schooling yesterday went...

...Even the 2 prelim fences, a massive table and a hogsback.

This is one version of a hogsback

If anything, he was TOO enthusiastic. He about pulled my arms out of their sockets and I almost died from lack of cardio and being very out of riding shape. I;m afraid I might pass out on XC trying to hold him back! I wish I had the $$ to buy that meyler bit

It LOOKS medieval but its actually quite nice

Because it was magical and perfect and my death might be eminent if I go out with his normal waterford loose ring

...yeeeah.


So almost all of my anxiety has dissolved since the schooling show and XC school, but will most likely re-intensify when I arrive on the show grounds.

The main factors to my loss of nerve isn't actually his recent habit of refusals, but my utter lack of riding the past 3 months. Since Jackie has been leasing him, I've barely been riding 2 days a week, and even then they were mostly hacks or lazy trails. YEAH...not really conducive to going out and doing a full event.

Granted I WAS keeping my fat ass in shape by running, but a month ago final exams happened, then I got sick for a week and a half, and then summer happened. Que gaining 7 lbs in about 2 weeks out of pure laziness. No one to blame but myself, but I intended to get back into working out this week like a boss.

Not riding in a 3 day, all consuming, very exhaustive horse show in the blazing 92 degree heat with no hotel or AC. GAH.

I might seriously die.

Good news is though that he was jumping spot on, and I'm going to run through our test again today and give him Thursday off.

We shall see.

Our ride times are FREAKINIG excellent. I loathe riding in heat, and we will be done both days before it gets unbearable. I dislike riding super early because I feel rushed, but I am more than thankful that I ride when its cool. I also appreciate that they gave us ride times for stadium since the stadium ring is literally (yes, LITERALLY) one mile from the stables and there are no intercoms.

Ride times as follows:
Dressage Saturday-8:48AM
Stadium Saturday-12:30PM
XC Sunday-9:45AM

GAH. Crosses fingers.

Kiped With Crappy Cellphone Pics :D

I had no idea there was a photographer at the CT on saturday and he snagged a few good shots. Minus the fact that I gained a solid 7 lbs last week and look like a cow (and am wearing yoga pants because allof my breeches have gone missing...) they are pretty OK pictures.

Apologies for the low quality. I stole them by snappy pics with my cellphone. Those never really turn out great.

First trot down centerline

Second 10m circle to right

Mega long stirrups GAH

Seriously, I need to jack those up.
Also, is that not the SMALLEST training course you've ever seen?

XC schooling tonight here in town. Hopefully they will be substantial enough to actually school over....

More on Queeny expectations and XC school update tomm. :)

Change In Plans

Many many many things have happened since I last posted. I was just feeling lackluster about all the happenings and have been rather...blah lately. Depressed is the wrong word. Just, unmotivated...hot...bored...overwhelmed with my procrastinations...

Oh I know the word.

Summer.

So things around the barn have sort of taken a 180 flip.

Yankees been doing a lot of this...

...and I've been doing a whole lot of not riding. The temps have been fluctuating from high 70s to high 90s for about two weeks and it is currently face melting hot outside. That's why I'm in the AC...blogging.

After about 2 weeks of barely riding, and helping Jackie get ready for Queeny, she made the educated decision to not ride at Queeny and have me ride Mr. Refusealot at the first USEA show of the year and the schooling show this past Saturday.

Que panic.

After this infamous day in 2010...

 ...where I lost my nerve about jumping almost entirely...

...and last May, almost exactly a year ago, where I fell off of Yankee and at a show for the first time in my life and cracked my back and head pretty good on the XC fence..,

...jumping my horse confidently has been an issue.

You wouldn't know it because I don't ever tell anyone, but half the time I end up bracing for who-knows-what right before he takes off, which causes him to jump like shit, or refuse. I dropped to Novice last year to get my nerve back, but I ended up shaking so badly before each jumping phase that I choked. Luckily, he's a boss and Novice is basically sticks on the ground for him. I thought leasing him out would help our issue and Jackie proved to be a mass beast at jumping.

Lately though he's even been refusing with her. I thought we fixed it last week during XC schooling for good but I guess not :(

So I went to the schooling CT Saturday with major apprehension. Luckily I came armed with studs for extra gription on the shitty, hard, slippery ground and I attempted at having a positive attitude.

Funny pic intercession...

Gravel roads.

 I did a first level test for warm up and ended up with a 65%. Not bad, but it wasn't good enough for me, haha. I LOATHE dressage in grass rings, and the second extended canter was on a DOWNHILL (wtf) and Yankee got a titch nervous and lost his balance for the last 1/3 of the test. Still though, better than he was  2-3 years ago when we couldn't even get a 30 (USEA) or a 60%.

We did our training Level dressage test almost right after and he was a gem. His lengthen trot was bleh, but again, the footing was slippery and I didn't stud for dressage. Overall he was relaxed, balanced and listening. We got a 34, which I again was not happy with. At the last CT we got a 32 and I was intent on beating myself with a goal of 31. Eventually I would love a 28-29, but with an OTTB that may or may not be entirely realistic.

I watched and memorized the stadium course, which was basically the worst course ever invented. Like, ever. I'm glad I studded for it.

I warmed up just fine. I galloped him out twice to get him forward and he was ATTACKING the fences, which I was happy about. AS long as we stayed forward and I rode him like my life depended on it, we would be fine....

GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH GAH<---that was me hyperventilating.

So stupid. This was such a tiny PRACTICE show and I couldn't even keep it together.

Luckily he was on his game and the first 3 fences went very well. The fourth was not only a stupid awkward approach, but in the trees, shadowed and a dip before it. He refused this exact fence 3 weeks ago at the last show about 4 times. I got an inch ahead of him and he refused.

Great.

He took it he second time after I reminded him that he could do this in his sleep.

The rest of the course was perfect. He hapily rated where needed, jumped like a boss and turned on a dime. He attacked the triple combo and I was pleased.

I think I didn't breathe the whole time.

Weirdly, we had time faults, which was a theme of the day. Even the BN people had faults, which is unheard of. Tells you something about the course design. I was hauling ass where I had room, and I STILL got faults.

So anyways to end this novel and pick it up later with my thoughts anxiety about Queeny, here's our winnings from Saturday!

Dont forget to like us on FB for more updates :)

Issues.....Fixed?

 Sorry I've been MIA. I know you've all dreadfully missed my droll posts. Life after graduation, especially after breaking up with one's boyfriend, with no hope of a big girl job, avoiding looking at final grades and no real hopes for the future, can be quite depressing.

Anyways.

Yankee has been off almost as much as me with Jackie working her pa-tooty off to pay for Queeny and me laying around feeling sorry for myself. However, Sunday dawned bright and early and we packed up pony and headed to STL to school XC for the day!

Yankee suited up for the 2 hour drive

ALSO. New scrim sheet. $20 on consignment for the WIN. Reason I was at the tack store? to pick up these babies (rented)...

Meyler D-ring, lever action, Level II

Meyler combo bit, Level II

AS some of you may know, I've been in a 6 year predicament with the bitting situation for said horse. When he was right off the track I used a rubber mouthed 3-ring. Worked for a few years and was the right leverage and whatnot. Once he got more responsive and well trained, I bumped it down to a waterford full chek. He didn't respect that at all. Then I tried a waterford loose ring. Respected...for the most part. He still tried to take the bit in his mouth and charge after every fence. He's not being naughty, just exuberant.

I like exuberant. But I don't like runaway OTTB.  Runanway is a loose term. More like, overexcited.

Anyways, we set off at 7AM for STL, settled in with snacks and a full gas tank, ready for the drive. It went wihthout a hitch and we arrived around 9, checked in, and tacked up! Yankee was so perfect. Not once did he act up likr he used to as a baby OTTB, I never thought I would see the day I had a well behaved horse!!

It was already like 85 degrees, and we were both drenched just from tacking up...Cue pack mule Monica.

 I brought 2 waters, a change of gloves, our phones (of course), my keys, our money and a spare bridle (for the meyler bit #2)

At first...we had issues...Lots of issues. I was getting a titch worried about them competing at Training in 2 weeks. Yankee refused everything. Well, almost everything. At first I attributed it to the grass. It was long, and Yankee is a little bitch about footing. But he then refused this log into the water like 5 times....

Jumped it perfectly out though!

 Then he refused little logs. The down bank. Twice.

PERPLEXED. Where is my cross-country-attack-horse-machine I know and love? 

Poor jackie I think was a bit embarrassed, since we were "with" a group of about 6 (one of whom is an old friend who I love and missed dearly!) and Yanks was being a jackass. She was doing the best she could but he was refusing like he didn't even WANT to jump. 

Eventually after mastering the Novice stuff, ( -_-)  we meandered to another bank complex.

He kept refusing. Over and over and over and over. 

WHAT THE FLIP YANKEE?!

I was out of explanations. He would "lock on" to a fence, then just decide last minute, "no thanks" and either slide to a stop (dangerously I might add, I thought he was going to flip twice) or ducked out. Once, Jackie almost fell off, landing on his neck. I felt SO bad.

I was concerned now. He was refusing things that were EASY to him. Not like we were facing him up against massive Prelim stuff as warm-up, we were doing the Novice jumps and small training questions.

GAH. So annoyed.

After moving on to another complex with a hanging log (T), banks up and down (P&T) and some free standing jumps like a chevron, hogsback and tiger trap (all T) and him STILL refusing things completely randomly (he would jump it beautifully twice, then refuse it the third time...???) and seeing  him almost run off with Jackie (scary), I switched bits to the leverage Meyler.

It looked medieval.

But was magical.

Bounding over the Training level Corner

Better.

Beasting the Prelim Rolltop

 That and the combination of my dumb-ass brain FINALLY putting together WHY he was fizzling out a stride before (Jackie was unintentionally dropping him. Meaning, with her grand prix horses, she was used to setting them up for the fence, then not touching them. Not really "dropping" but in a sense, thats what Yankee thought. He didn't feel her support all the way to the fence, so he just didn't do it. I finally figured it out, took long enough!) and when we fixed it, he was an effing badass!!!

He tackled all the Prelim stuff without hesitation and had a renewed vigor for schooling. 

PHEW! I was getting worried.

My favorite moment of the day is when he completely sailed over this massive chevron table...

I was almost filled with tears! HAHA.

It was great feeling, finally getting to see your horse jump something so massive, so perfectly!

Badass effort over the Prelim trek.

 After 2 hours of schooling, walking all over creation and sweating our balls off, we called it a day and headed back to the trailer for a well earned bath.

I'm really glad we figured it out before the show, AND actually went to do this. Yeah, it was 4 hours round trip and costed us about $150, but it was well worth it.

I got super spoiled in OH, we had a FULL XC course starter-intermediate about 20 min. form my house...gah!

Only "bad" thing that came out of this was that  it is 100% obvious that the meyler bit is perfect for Yankee. It doesn't collapse in his mouth, doesn't over flex him, and puts pressur e on his nose when it needs to. Sadly its $150.

It would be.

Graduation Visit

WHOOP WHOOP!!

The entire family wanted to see Yankee today, and after a WHOLE day of worrying and not being able to see him (regarding the crib collar/fly sheet issue) I was relieved to see that the swelling had almost all gone down and he was almost 100% back to normal. I haven't ridden yet to see if he's stiff, but PHEW!

Doesn't he look ridiculous in his fly gear?! (also, that is my Mizzou Alumni shirt. Feels weird to say...)

 

Hahaha. 

 

Yeah I am one of THOSE owners. Decking their horses out in fly suits. (In my defense, he seems to be happier when he doesn't have flies eating him non-stop. He is quite the baby.)

 

At least he doesn't have leg wraps for flies. Now THAT would be excessive. 

 

 Also, I found this gem at the grocery store today..

Why yes, that IS a 25lb. bag of carrots.

I was tempted to buy it just to say I had 25lbs. of carrots. But I didn't.

In other news, I missed my favorite horse trial this weekend, but I also am sending the Queeny Park entry tomorrow to make up for missing MCPC.

Prrrretty stoked, even if I'm not the one riding.

I hope to ride the pony for the first time in like, a week, tomorrow in between crazy paperwork for Alum stuff, paying remaining school tuition, job hunting and etc. etc.

I promise more exciting blog posts will come in the future. XC schooling May 20th and various other fun happenings.

Oh Lawdy, Today Was Not A Good Day For This

Tis' graduation weekend. Today I walk across the stage and receive that $78,000 Diploma that pretty much just says that I conformed to collegiate standards and barely scraped by on the skin of my teeth. Yay.

Anyways, magically, Yankee's jumping problem went away altogether. Jackie jumped him for her parents on Friday and he was perfect. Freakin' weirdo.

It being graduation weekend, I found someone to feed the pony for me (I'm on self care board) all weekend PM's, so I could spend it with my family that came up. Pretty awesome actually, because driving to the barn twice a day, everyday gets old REAL quick. No offense Yanks!

I got the barn early to feed and Yankee was already at the gate. Warning signs. His head was also hanging and he nickered to me. OK, big neon warning sign flashing in my face.

I remained calm and s didn't need more than .03 seconds to see what was wrong with him.

The girl who fed him last night attached his fly sheet to his cribbing collar, which was now halfway down his neck, cutting off all the circulation to the front half of his neck, and whole head. IT. WAS. SO. SWOLLEN. I almost cried!

He was in a ton of pain since the collar is meant to stay right behind his jowls and only tighten when he cribs. It was now around the meaty muscle of his neck, still as tight as it is when its where its supposed to be.

I didn't know what to do! I thought that by taking it off, all the blood would rush out of his face to quick and kill him. Crazy right? My mind thinks of the worst.

I struggled to get it off since it was so tight, but instantly after the swelling went down and he was much more chipper.

He acted liek his old self again and charged into his stall for noms. He ate his grain as usual, and I was a little relieved.

The flash makes the giant lump behind his jaw hard to see, and the one on his neck. Not even sure why I added this pic.

I'm still worried about damage to his muscles though. There are these massive lumps all over his neck and face and they are quite hard. GAH.

I REALLY hope this didn't permanently damage anything :/ I have a barn friend checking on him all day since I can't just leave my whole family at the Hearnes Center, watching everyone else graduate while I sit with my horse all day. But dammit. I want to!