Rocket Man

I said I would discuss my last ride with B, and here I am, almost a week after it occurred, in typical late Monica fashion.

I also was putting it off a bit because I really hate admitting defeat or struggle. We will get to that in minute.

First off I would like to virtually bitch slap blogger for never getting its shit together with my old layout. Its settings are all wonky and some of my widgets are all screwed. In addition, and most importantly, I can make my pictures extra big. And thats like, imperative. Because pictures.

Especially ones like this that I just really like looking at. Levi tails crack me up. And B is really starting to look nice. And FAT.

dat hay belly doe

Trot swag

He's been a little beast under saddle as of late. I have yet to have a truly terrible ride on him. I know I've said this over and over, but he truly impresses me with his work ethic for such a young lad. The big little man tries so damn hard for me and never gives me any real attitude, ever.

Any flack I get from him is just from a lack in training. I have to remember that he's only five, and not a grown ass adult horse. Its just so hard when your baby is so fucking quiet.... and does literally perfect flying changes (no I mean literally perfect. Go stalk my FB page for the video. Youtube was also on its period and refused to let me share it).

Quietest flying change...ever

I suppose some horses have more of a propensity for changes because poor Yankee is almost 14 (sobs a little) and STILL loses his effing mind over changes. I truly wonder if he will ever be able to do them with any kind of composure. I'll take 1/2 horses doing changes though.

Our only internal struggle with each other seems to be jumping.

I havent had any truly difficult hardships since I was a wee child when it comes to jumping. I've had a decent form, OK skill and until recently, no fear. But god bless it, I cannot seem to ride my dear baby horses' jump to save my life. And he cant seem to jump even the smallest of fences like a normal horsebeast.

Please meet, rocket man.

srsly B?

For the first couple fences, everytime, he does this weird rock back dealio and LAUNCHES over it liek it might eat him for dinner. Every. Time. He also refuses the first time I ever present him to a fence. Not good.

And I go flying. Every. Time.

Graceful

The most awkward 

No matter what I do, I always end up flying backwards upon landing. If I try and 2 point to the fence...flying off. If I try and close my body angle and stay close...flying off. If I grab mane, I still fly backwards. I swear to god this horses' jump is impossible for me to figure out and it makes me want to cry a little.

I try my best to not jab him in the face, and usually do OK with that. His old owner told me he likes loose contact to the fence and that seems to hold true. Hope I can rule out fear of face jabbing. I'm wondering if he's scared. But then later ATTACKS the fences. So ruling that out. Doe she hurt elsewhere? Doesnt seem to be. Or is he just green? Most likely.

Hes MY horse. I should be able to fucking ride him.

Granted, I've jumped him 4 times, and all over crossrails. But STILL.

At a loss over what to do with this one. Why does he jump so awkwardly at first (and mostly in general)? Why cant I ride him? Questions questions.

I gave up over crossrails and set up a baby oxer to see if he would be a little more round and not...squatty. I also pushed him to the fence. He has a tendency to sputter out before, like hes a little unsure of himself an his legs. As you will see though, after a couple fails, he really gets into the groove.

.

I guess its just hard to accept that I need to work on rudimentary skills when you're used to scaling 5ft fences with superbeast Yankee and rocking out XC courses.

So what do you guys do when youre feeling a little discouraged? Any suggestions for his wacky jump style or what else I could do to keep my butt in the saddle?

7 Weeks

Thats how long its been since I've ridden this dreadfully handsome horsebeast.

Rather dashing, for a mud buffalo disguised as an eventing horse. And can we also please notice how dapper levi looks in dog clothes?

Yankee's time off culminated from the lack of organization in my life, hectic schedule and minor injuries to Yankee feets.

To recap; we had that whole debacle with the first farrier I tried when we moved back to OH. Not only could the farrier not keep shoes on, but he charged for it everytime he had to come out to put them back (not customary in my experience). Yankee ripped his shoes off 10 times in the span of 3 months, 7 of them I believe on the RF. As you can imagine, the RF was shredded. Then, we pulled the shoes in an attempt to save what little hoof wall we had- wrong choice, and he got a mega stone bruise. New farrier set beautiful shoes on him (they stayed by the way, in all the mud and weather fuckery) and I continued to give his fat self time off.

It did wonders.

He was feeling fresh and perfect when I tacked him up Sunday for the first time in SEVEN weeks. Thank God for Bacardi or I wouldve gone insane.

Luckily, I still got to play with him while he was on his vaca getting fat and shaggy- in what little "spare" time I had. In a lackluster attempt to de-shag him a I attempted to clip him in some cool and fashionable way.

Please disregard all horrible eq in photograph

Unfortunately for the boys, my clippers shit out mid clips, so Yankee is stuck with this and poor B looks so so sad half fully body clipped. Luckily for Yanks, I was smart and did ass first, then front trace. I wanted to get a trace done on B too that night, but then got clipper happy and kept rolling right along until *bzzzzzzz-shhiiiitttt*.

NEVR BREAK THE CARDINAL RULE OF CLIPPING: do not clip one full side, then the next. Always match sides evenly and clip a pattern that will look good if clippers shit out. I knew this and still disobeyed and now my baby looks ridiculous.

I digress.

Yankee was wonderful. Not an ounce of stiffness or lack of energy in his body. He wanted to go go go

Honestly, how does one even trot that big?

Not much else to report on that ride...fatty magoo got tired after 5 minutes (literally) and I didn't wan to overwork the poor guy.

I also rode B, but thats for another post. Just wanted to share my majestic steed and all his wonderful ass glory. 

Happy Almost Halloween

This has been your courtesy Halloween well-wishing, may the ghoulies and ghosties stay far away

Baby Steps

Siting here feeling extremely guilty for blogging since I skipped the gym this AM and working Bacardi...so many excuses, so little time.

GET IT TOGETHER MONICA.

Luckily I can workout at home after the day job...but unless I want to ride in the dark, I kind of dropped the ball on that one.

Its really hard to be motivated when there are no shows coming up. I try to tell myself this is the "training period", but when you have no arena and the ground is shit, you really don't get much done anyways and I'm like why even.

Just one of those weeks I guess.

I shall do better tomorrow.

The three times I worked him last week were amazing at least. Going back to my last post about connection, he really was a total gem and I guess 3 weeks off did him well.

I have this theory that OTTBs need mini vacays to let things sink in. When they come back they're all refreshed and wonderful and perfect until the next time they have a meltdown.

That means Yankee should be wonderful when I finally ride him again -_-

He's coming up on his 7th week off....and I'm cringing at those words. I look at him and see an EXTREMELY fat horse with no topline and it hurts my soul deep inside. I keep telling myself he needed it after all the fuckery with his feet, but it still hurts me.

Some randomly placed pic of B being AWESOME

For those of you that asked, the hay thats outside is a round bale. My massive square bale lives inside. Its a BITCH to deal with, but its super good quality and should last me forever. At $55 I could NOT pass that up. And the horses are LOVING their round bales.

I've been attempting to clip the beasts. I say attempting, because after 5AM wake-up times,  6Am workouts, 8 AM rides, 10 Am report to work, 8 hour days, 40 minute commutes and getting home at 7:40 PM leaves me WIPED the FUCK OUT and all I want to do is sleep when I get home. I have a pile of chores to do, and tasks to complete and the list is never ending and always growing. Does anyone else have difficulty getting things done after the sun goes down after a long day? Yeah.

Also. fun fact, Bacardi does not clip very well. Spastic and explosive could be terms used to describe the fun that is clipping him. I ended up twitching him, which put him to sleep but one can only do so much ALONE holding a twitch in one hand and clippers in the other. Meaning B has his neck and shoulders clipped but nothing else. He looks like an idiot.  Yanks has his butt design and his neck and chest shaved for now. If I ever get him back into work I shall remove his hair clothes fully.

Liek I said though, besides being an idot about clipping, the red nugget has been brilliant. Last time I rode I worked on loosening him up a bit. 3 weeks off did wonders for his brain, but not his body. Talk about riding a 2x4

must..not...touch

prolly the cutest pic on the internet

I started off with some trot poles. Which he obviously cleared with feet to spare. But hey, got all those joints loosened up aye?

I love this

hock action

New fav

Then I asked for some really nice and round, but active work in the trot and canter for about 10 minutes. He delivered quite nicely. Love this guys leg action all around. He tries so hard!

I love this...relaxation!

working on perfecting those 20M circles

can you see the baby clip?

I kept the ride short since he's been out of work, but it was productive. Afterwards I let him stretch through the bridle in the trot. Mildly surprising he did it considering all the tense weeks I've had with ihm in the past. This is the FIRST time he's EVER stretched down for me.

Started off looking like a hunter princess

To some awkward, yet nice stretching

I always think horses look like theyre diving down to the ground when they stretch, but at least he was keeping his hind legs active. And reaching forward in front. When Yankee stretches, the hardest thing for him to do is keep on truckin with the rhythm. Glad the baby gas some basics.

Maybe one day I will perfect this schedule, but right now I'm struggling to swim. Glad the horses don't care and enjoy pasture lounging on the days I can't motivate my lazy butt.

Hay is Happiness

And rocks. Lots of rocks. 

Connection; Engage

I realize what a play on dressagey words my title is, because you know, connection and engagement.

But what I really mean to hint at is the gloriousness that is the level of bonding Bacardi and I have reached as of late.

He nuzzled me guys.

THAT only took 5 whole months but god bless it, my flighty, nervous baby nuzzled my shoulder and it was ADORABLE.

I could never put my finger on Bacardi. Does he like me, or nah? He LOVES his face being brushed and petted, but when I first got him, GOOD LUCK touching his face without him running backwards. He would come up to me with interest, but if I made a move towards him he would retreat to the back of his stall again. He always had this look, like he didn't quite trust you. And I was already ready for him to spook and RUN AWAY.

I didn't consider myself his person. And I knew he didn't consider me HIS person. He was just a horse I owned.

He always did what I asked of him under saddle too, but there wasn't that *connection* ya know?

Yeah you guys know.

When you can just shift you weight and your horse knows what you want instantaneously. When you sit deep and they give you a flawless transition down. When they canter just as you lift your heel to ask for it. When they halt with a slight movement in your seatbones. When they rock back with the tiniest of half halts. When you are connected mind and body.

You know *that* feeling.

I hadn't felt that with B, until today.

He literally did all of those things with just a touch. It was magical.

I has a horse guys.

I finally feel liek his person.

My mud pony on our hack today

Maybe he just finally realized I feed him. Or maybe he really does love me :D

MudBGone

I fixed a problem in my life today.

This problem affects all sorts. But equestrians can relate to the type of pain I've felt almost my entire life when dealing with...MUD.

I've truly come to loathe the sticky stuff and will never understand why anyone would WANT to go muddin', or play in it or be a Tough Mudder or be associated with mud in any way shape or form. Its totally beyond my comprehension. All I feel is pain and suffering when I think, see, feel or deal with MUD.

My loathing can be compared to that of the fierceness of a pack of lions roaring in the African wilderness. Or the intensity of the burning of a thousand suns. Or the volume of water molecules in all of the oceans of the world.

I really can't even when it comes to mud.

It get on my tires. My driveway. My shoes. Under my nails. On my clothes. And most annoyingly, completely seems to coat my horses on a regular basis.

Mud tail dreads. Muddy feet. Muddy bellies. Muddy manes. Muddy faces. Muddy bodies. And consequentially, muddy blankets, halters, bell boots...LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYTHING.

Not my horse. But this is what they look like 98% of the time

And when you attempt to clean it, what happens?? FUCKING DUST....everywhere. In every orifice and on every surface.

THERES NO ESCAPE.

I HATE IT.

More than  most people.

I actually lay awake at night thinking about the foul looking wildebeest I call my eventing horses and my soul hurts a lotta bit.

We finally, mostly, solved the mud problem the Vollmer Farm has been plagued with for over 15 years.

(Knee deep, sticky, gloopy, disgusting mud right up next to our barn doors/gates that never dissapears until mid summer. Its torture.)

In the form of pulverized boulders.

I think of this Spongebob episode whenever I hear the word "rock"

Lots and lots of little boulders.

Please, disregard extremely ancient, and very ratchet old barn 

Three tons of it to be specific.

I've waited 15 years for this glorious day.

You have no idea.

I literally danced in my chair all day while my dad sent me pictures of the progression.

Scraping all the disgusting mud out. Leveling the ground. Bringing in the gravel. TAKING APART MY FENCE. Smoothing it out. GAH :D

I almost died a little when they said they had to disassemble the fence, but then I  didn't care, because NO MORE MUD.

I texted my The Boy about 10 times today noting my excitement. I don't think he understood. I did not grasp why he too, was not pumped. Luckily fellow internet friends sympathized with my intense joy over fucking rocks.

I firmly believe only equestrians will comprehend the level of happiness I experienced all day.

My little heart about explodsies when I walked down to feed the horsebeasts and shone my flashlight a lightly sloping graveled area. I think I sprung a tiny tear. My horses were standing....on rocks. Not mud. They were....pretty clean and and and, their feet were...VISIBLE

OH GOD I CANT HANDLE IT

The most beautiful thing on earth. If you dont count the partial fencing...
or the rusted old roof..or chipped paint...or slime on the doors...

Just...so pumped.