I Haz Good Peeps: PI

I have a couple posts on draft, and I really need to update on this weekend! It was a good one, thanks in part to my posse. Where would any horse girl be without her posse of supportive peeps? Lost and alone.

Part II will highlight today (dressage show) and how all that went. But before that I wanted to talk a little about Jackie and her awesomeness. Many of you longtime followers know who she is, but newer ones may not.

Jackie is a jumping goddess. Like for real, I bow down to her. She also happens to be my best friend and leased Yankee last summer before she bought her own mare. Shes new to eventing and dressage, but used to catch ride jumpers and literally has no fear. She is my PIC in all adventures, horsey or not and on Friday she came out to the barn to help me with our jumping.

Since 2010 I have had this weird aversion to all jumps over 3'3. I've been told not to fixate on the incident by many people, so I will not mention it, but I now have anxiety in stadium...and XC....so yeah.

It sucks being an eventer with jumping anxiety because usually those are the fun parts that people live for. I think most eventers have a little dressage anxiety because that score determines where you start..so add to that, I'm just a ball of nerves at every show now. While they are my favorite phases...they are also the ones that I screw up repeatedly simply because I have a horrible mindset. I wish I could go back in time when I was fearless and rode correctly. I'm not "afraid afraid",  just anxious...and therefore my riding is not as good as it can be. Jackie helps.

My biggest problem is tensing up before the fence, looking a the groundline and jumping ahead, which in turn puts me forward in the landing and unable to gather us for the next fence. Basically I can't keep my shoulders back. All I really needed was someone to yell at me on the ground and show me that, "Yes, you can do this. You can. You've had the capability, you just need to not think about what could go wrong".

Enter Jackie.

We set up a neat little small course that was meant to give me no time in between to think, only time to ride. Yankee was very excited to jump since we had been practicing dressage all week and was a BIT fresh, but he still listened.

The entire "lesson" was spent doing jump after jump, concentrating VERY hard on keeping my shoulders back and Yankee UP towards the fences, relaxed over them and sitting UP after fence fence to recollect.

Without fail, everytime I tensed up, he jumped like shit. He even refused a few times because I dropped him. Whenever I sat UP though, and softened my rein, whaddayaknow, he jumped the moon.

Jackie was very good at being quiet until she saw me tip and would yell "BACK" or "SOFTEN" and it always jolted me out of my bad riding mindset. She even had me ride oxers with my eyes closed to learn to WAIT for the jump and TRUST my horse to do his job. He knows his job. I get in his way. It was incredible the difference. I maintained a pretty solid eq. and he put forth a great effort for me!

What I'm saying is, that I am extremely lucky to have her in my life.  Not many friends would take 3 hours out of their day to help someone with something, without getting something out of it. I always appreciate my horsey friends' support and I really don't know what I would do without them. She is definitely a big reason of why we get better :)

Here's a sneak peek from today! The boy, another amazing person in my life :D

I was bad.

SO I've been bad.

Very very bad.

Besides eating copious amounts of chips and chocolate the past few days...

I rode my horse. I cleaned stalls. GASP. Even though I was ordered to lay around at home and get better. Yeah right. I tried that for two days and about lost my shit. I can't...I can't even.

But Yankee was FANTASTICAL today. Everyone who popped in was all like, "omg he looks soooo good" "omg he looks so great. Like, so great". And I'm just over here fangirling kinda humble like, "You think? I mean we've been working really hard at it. I just hope its good enough..."

But SRSLY GUYS he was a dream today. You know those fancy dressage horses that are all gooey underneath you and bendy and put their shoulders and bootays where you want them to go and all that jazz? Yeah.

I forgot my inhaler though and halfway through the ride I felt like I was dying. Thanks Bronchitis.

In other news, I found out today that there's a Hickstead documentart coming out soonish.

The link is HERE.

...... OMG BRB SOBBING.

If you don't know who he is...we....we can't be friends.

Also, don't worry contest winners from a coons age ago, your drawings are ALMOST done. I like to tweak them to perfection. And those who ordered drawings from me, no fretting either-yours are coming along too! I wish I could do them all in one day, but alas.  I can't.

PLans this week...more dressage schooling, then kick some ass  at the show. BOOM.

Rollercoaster Ride

Hoppy Easter everyone! Spring has sprung!

Many ups and downs lately for me...

This time the up was our schooling and photo opp on Friday, and the down, me, sidelined AGAIN with sickness. Yes. I've been complaining of a cold for about 4 weeks. It lingered, I felt better on week 5 and them BAM, sick again. This time I couldn't just power through it. I was really dragging, couldn't breathe, non stop coughing, etc. Doctor man at Urgent Care said I'm plagued with bronchitis which I suppose is better than Mono, but it realy blows. I even have an inhaler now, its so nerdy. I've been intermittantly napping and watching insane amounts of SVU on netflix.

Anyways, we had an OK week. I can't remember if I blogged about our jump school with the single oxer and the figure 8's over it but he was pretty dreadful. I'm sure it was my riding, but he kept rapping the rails and only get his lead changes 70% of the time. So, suck.

We've done 2 more conditioning rides. Lots of walking and trotting. Hella boring. But Levi the dog loves coming along.

Friday A. and I made our ponies a little prettier and made plans to shoot a few pics in the outdoor. I threw Yanks white polos on and cleaned my tack a bit, cuz we fancy.

How adorable.

The warm up was fantastic and I was very pleased with how soft, forward and relaxed he was being. Our forever struggle is getting him to relax his jaw, neck and shoulders and  move forward, especially to the right. He's been doing great lately since we've really been working hard on the "forward and soft" aspect of dressage.

 





I too have been working exceptionally hard on my position. I have a horrible habit of 'scrunching'. I look down, tilt my thumbs in, and my leg angles get all wonky. Half of it is because I am constantly having to use my inside leg to push his shoulder over, the other half is that my legs are a mile long and my saddle is about 2xs too small now. But no monies to get a bigger one.

Case in point:

mmmmm, scrunchy. A hard hunter habit to break. As I look though, I still have a line all the way down from ear to elbow, hip to heel, But its not "correct" for dressage. And those hands...LAWD. Thumbs UP buttercup! Least my Yankee looks great.

I also got on Pronto for H. since she is injured and can't ride for months. Its actually quite tragic...she was getting Pronto going along really nicely and then she hit the bottom of her rollercoaster.

He's half percheron and MASSIVE. I mean, absolutely huge. He makes me look tiny and I'm 5'9. His biggest issue is also unlocking his jaw. But his gaits are naturally gorgeous and uphill. I LOVE working with him because he tries so hard to please you. I rode the day before I got sick though and his trot and canter are so huge, you feel like you're gonna go flying out of the saddle! It was a workout for sure.

But look how soft, round and forward he was going! Love this horse! And I always have better equitation on him too-yay properly fitting saddles!

So I guess I'm stuck in bed for the next 3 days, recovering. Hopefully I do so quickly because I have a show to attend on Sunday! The boy is coming so I believe I will actually have photographic or video evidence!

OUCH.

...says my bank account.

Not only is this the time of month that all bills are due, but I just paid for my first  HT, a schooling dressage show, and XC schooling for mid-April PLUS bought a lever noseband off eBay for $65.

I should be happy...but an empty account gives me anxiety. Like, lie awake at night anxiety.

Lets hope I make big money this week or I may have to curl in a ball and sob over what is my life. WHY DID I HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE MOST EXPENSIVE SPORT. Well. The one that is the most expensive in relation to how much you get from it. Which is basically $0. Unless you count happiness. But happiness doesn't pay my entry fees. Or gas.

I shed a tear. Or few. BUT I am looking forward to them! I just have to sob for a while over my literally hard earned money getting pissed away in less than 10 minutes.

We had a glorious ride today though and it really put me in positive spirits. The pony was absolutely a gem; loose, free, relaxed, obedient. I didn't ride earlier this week due to the winter blues, but I plan on doing our weekly conditioning ride tomorrow, Thursday off, jump Fri, light work Sat, off Sun. due to my busy sch Thurs/Sun.

The schooling show is on the 7th and then we have two opps for XC schooling- the last two weekends in April. I'm not going to Rolex anymore, but its just as well since I NEEEEEED to school. Need.

Wish I had more flat pictures. Words are boring.

Also I'm sorry I ruined WD for a few. I was just...so traumatized.

Confidence Boost

These winter blues are a reoccurring thing apparently. Shitty rides (leaving me in doubt for this season) and missing my boy have made my life seem bleak. I've literally slept till 5PM the last two days thanks to being overworked and a lingering cold. It was miserable.

But, nothing like getting hit on at a gas station at 1am to make one feel better about things though.

oh wait.

No, nothing like buying things on Ebay you don't really need to make you feel better.

oh wait.

No, no, its, nothing like making bank at work because of March Madness. Yeah. Thats it.

Despite my boy being gone for a whole week without cell coverage (I feel like I'm dying not be able to talk to him. Oh the curses of growing up in a technology driven age.) it hasn't been too hateful.

oh wait.

I forgot. It snowed 7 inches last night...

WHERE THE HELL IS SPRING. Like seriously I have an event in less than 2 months and XC schooling in 3 weeks. But really, Yanks wasn't hateful this week, the whole two times I rode.  He had a bit of the Spring willies and jumpies but he was well behaved for our dressage school and put forth a lovely, soft effort.

I just LOVE that he is finally using his back end and really pushing through, even lunging. AND this is his worst direction, so I have high hopes for our scores this year.

I'm not being too optimistic about the AECs since there is no chance in hell that we would ever score a 29 with his TB trot and that tends to be the leaders' score from beginning to end. BUT if we can just twerk out with a solid XC school before the event, I feel confident going out training the first time and possibly scoring in the top 3. Maybe. That's be the tits.

We've been in relative work all winter and jumped once a week. His dressage is improving AND we've been at this level for 4 years.

Thanks to my unpreparedness in the past, we've been less than successful but I'm doing all I can to make sure we are 110% for Mill Creek. Last year I fell off there thanks to a last ditch decision to go and even at Queeny (2 months after) we barely prepped. I'm an idiot.

This is one of the most disjointed posts I've ever made but my brain feels like jelly.

I THINK I'M TRAUMATIZED BECAUSE MEARLE TURNED TO A ZOMBIE.

I promise I'll post better this week.

Spring Training

I am supremely jelly of you people who are eventing already or working with Becky Holder and shit :P

I already missed TWO schooling shows because of work so I'm getting anxiety about our first outing in less than two months time. Not only because of the missed schooling shows, but I will most likely miss our ONLY XC schooling opp as well. In addition, the first show of the year for us just so happens to be the ONE AND ONLY time I've ever fallen off Yankee, AND at a show. After 17 yrs of riding and 7 with Yankee, I couldn't believe I had never fallen at a show, but my one year anniversary is coming up and making it all the worse that we haven't schooled XC.

I'm trying my damndest to squeeze in some schooling sessions inbetween my 40-50 hrs of work a week. On top of that I've had this damn cold for over three weeks and I'm on the struggle bus to maintain energy throughout the day.

This week I had 2 dressage schools, a 2 mile gallop/hack and a jumping school. None of which were really great. The dressage sessions were dismal at best with Yanks flipping his face, hollowing his back, sidestepping/pacing, resisting contact and pretty much sucking in general. Frustrate. The hack was OK- I took Levi along and he had a grand ole' time galloping along with us. Yankee listened but was so crooked I felt like I was going to slide off his back. UGH. The jump school was pretty horrendous, in that horse charged the fences, bucked afterwards and never got his leads. Not a great start to our "spring training".

The boys after our run

3 loop serpentine exercise over 3'6-3'9 fences

I give up for this week.

I blame it on the wonky weather. One day it will be 75 and the next 30 degrees. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I just want summer to be here so the temps will at least REMAIN at a constant blister.

Perhaps next will will be better. Here's to hoping.

Calling OTTB Owners

OR anyone with event horses that pull on XC.

I've been debating for a year or so what I should switch Yankee to since he outgrew his horrendous out of control baby phase and only now needs a little more "HEY THERE".

Before anyone else says Pelham, I've tried it and the curb chain is too much. Weird considering his hackamore has a curb, but its also not in his chin groove and its leather. For some reason it doesn't bother him, but when attached to a bit he literally can't handle it.

The Meyler combo was a little too much as well with the curb AND three rings AND noseband PLUS its ridiculously expensive.

I've narrowed it down to two options but have zero experience with either tool and am calling out to anyone who has use one of either or has advice. I feel these are a nice alternative to curb chain and uses just a little extra nose pressure in addition to a plain snaffle.

First up, the Kinton (in red)

From what I can deduce it uses the pressure you put on the bit and transfers it to the nose. I like this option better but its the one I CANNOT find on eBay and as a cheap tack ho', I kind of was hoping it'd be there.

Second, the Lever Noseband

This is everywhere on eBay and for about $15-$60, thats not bad. What I dont like it the leather piece right in the chin groove. PLUS, I have no idea how it works. It seems like a fancy figure 8-whenever the horse resists, it uses the horses' jaw against itself and puts pressure on the three straps.

But, I dislike flashs of any kind. I used to use them, but I learned you cannot MAKE a horse accept the bit and if they open their mouth to resist, you must be doing something wrong. I don't like the thought of strapping their mouth closed and ever since I took Yankee's flash off his dressage bridle its been a huge difference. Granted I still have a  figure 8 on his XC bridle, BUT I keep it hella loose. I'm just too poor to get a new noseband. I feel if its loose its fine and their is no need to buy a new one. HOWEVER, I need a whole new bit anyways so with either of these purchases it will be bye-bye figure 8.

Please help! I honestly don't know anything about either of these pieces of tack.