Capital B

I debated writing this post because it  might be rather lackluster and has zero relevant media, but whatever.

Coming up on B's 2 year anniversary with me I thought would give me mixed feelings, but more than ever I find myself grateful for his existence and the fact that he is 100% mine. I used to have my doubts, and sometimes still really can't stand him, but more than ever, appreciate fate and how it worked out for us.

However.

Rides like I had wednesday really make me momentarily hate his cute butt, haha. Yankee is pure joy to ride everytime-something that comes with age and a long partnership. He is just so EASY, calm, quiet and consistent. I love it and I love that I made him that way.

Training up another baby is and will be that rewarding someday, but most of the time, some or all of our rides are frustrating to a point.

Yesterday was the first ride in a while that he was an actual hellion. He wasn't wearing his bonnet, but also hadn't been ridden since Saturday, so I'm wondering which one affected him more, if at all.

I figured a nice, long, quite hack in the field would be sufficient for a day back after a long show.

It was not nice. It was not quiet. But it was long. And bad with a capital B.

I hope someone gets this reference.

Oh baby B. I was mildly surprised with the amount of sass I was getting, since it was our first truly hot day here (84*) and we both feel lazy AF in heat..., but he loaded on the jazz on our walk out to the field and I knew our ride was gonna be a bit wild.

Looking back, he's been much, MUCH worse in the past. Like dangerous. Wed. he was just snazzy and energetic. I can deal with that. Trying to kill me, not so much.

It was all I could do to keep him at a nice trot, as he was yanking my arms out of their sockets slash sideways flailing every direction. Finally, I gave up and let him canter and it turned into a tug-o-war in which many aggressive half halts were needed to keep said horse in check and not madly galloping off in every direction.

Media not from said ride

 I hate aggressive half halts. They make me feel terrible for invoking that amount of pressure on his face, but I also don't tolerate a horse that bolts (sideways or forwards) with me, or tries to.

Manners, child.

This type of fuckery carried on for another 15 minutes with him lurching into a canter, jutting his nose forward and taking off. If I attempted to corral the energy in a circle, he would pop a shoulder and carry on with an impossibly bent body in the wrong direction.

At one point though, I had to sit back and half halt so hard his tongue flopped out of his mouth and I was like, okay. This is not okay. I just want you to trot & canter calmly and not rip your face off. Also at this point, my very very old boots gave out and both of them ripped and my legs were getting rubbed raw. Probably because I was wearing leggings and not riding pants, but whatever, it was a spontaneous trip to the barn after work and I just cleaned out my car of spare clothing items.

We have had a lot of success lately with backing, so a new battle plan was created for this day. Whenever he would get jiggy at the walk or trot, we would halt as calmly as possible and back until he relaxed.

This strategy actually fucking worked and within 8 minutes I had a soft, relaxed and engaged horse that spent the rest of the time beautifully cantering, trotting and practicing flying changes.

Just kidding, not done. But it is a work in progress. Always frustrating to have a bad day, but it is a good feeling when you find a solution to the problem you're having, while you're having it. B is a very complicated, emotional and tricky ride and we are still figuring each other out, thats for sure. But I think its getting easier and he is learning much faster now.

I can never be certain when or how the change happened. I truly believe in the effects of Magnesium and his magical bonnet. Having him at EME has helped as well. I also truly believe in massage therapy and his lady comes tomorrow actually for another session!

Coming in to our two years together feels like a marathon, but a rewarding one. I think I have finally decided our direction. I will not event with B. At least for now. He is still much too green and I am much too poor and scared to spend $700+/weekend to compete, just to get eliminated in the jumping. Because it will happen. We need many many more XC and schooling shows before I am willing to drop a load on more events. Its fine actually, I have made my peace with this decision. I thought about it long and hard, and right now, with this horse, eventing is not for me. Maybe with Yankee sometime, when his leaser doesn't want to ride or something, but for now, I am done with it. Moving on.

Until we meet again Eventing

For now, I want to focus on show jumping. I have always loved the jumper shows with Yankee and its a blast with B as well. There's something inviting about speed, power, rollbacks, cheap(er) shows, more opportunities and more satin. Because lets be honest, everyone loves ribbons.

I'm not hanging up my eventing spurs just yet. For now, yes, but for good? Probably not.

Also, next post, stay tuned for a very legit giveaway contest!

Jumpy Things

This last weekend was a ton of fun, even if it did rain almost the entire time. I feel like mother nature has not gotten the memo that its almost JUNE. It was freezing, windy and rainy most of Friday and Saturday.

Stormy Saturday

Friday I almost peed my pants with excitement because I got to ride Yankee again! There's notch to report except he is his good ole' self and if anything, he feel better than he did before he left. The old man makes me so proud to be his momma. He is my greatest joy and success and I love that he is so consistent, even after 3 months off and major surgery. I kept the ride brief, but I hopped on to demo for his leaser, then she hopped on to try him out.

I think I spent 5 minutes patting any hugging him before I did anything else!

Yankee is a definitely a bit weak through his back and hind end, but I expected that. Despite the weakness, he was more than willing to WTC beautifully for me and V.

For V, I am hoping there isn't too long of an adjustment period for her and Yankee. I think they will do well together & he will enjoy his job of taking her through the levels of eventing.

Then, after much love for Yankee, I tacked up B and hoped to pop him over a few jumps and hack out in the field. We didn't have the greatest jump schools over the week, but I was still hopeful for a good show over the weekend.

My main objectives for the show was no refusals and a good experience for The Baby.

Sidenote, how long can I call him a baby? haha.

He was surprisingly doing well, minus spooking at the fake flower jump. Uncharacteristic, but moving on....

Lovin' this horse even if I still look like an amazon on a 17.1 beast

We played around in the field a bit, and then my friend L hopped on. I trust her completely, as we've been friends for years. She actually leased yankee for a period in 2009 when I was injured, was on a college athletic riding team and competed at Congress numerous times. In 2010 we actually went to a few events together as well!

Anyways, she got on B and learned that he's no the easiest horse in the world, but fun! In comparison to Yankee, his stride is massive- something I struggle(d) with all the time.

Saturday EME loaded up and headed out to the Serenity Valley jumper show and CT. I did not sign up for the CT because I didn't know about it in time, but planned to do the green as grass jumpers, starter jumpers and BN jumpers. Obviously very low jumps, purposefully so.

I wanted to focus on not refusing the fences and consistency in-between. B has a tendency, as most younglings, to get more and more on the forehand throughout a course. So for this show, I wasn't too concerned about speed and winning, and more on balance and consistency.

The most perfect baby

B surprised me by also behaving quite well all day. Especially while at the trailer! No tantrums, no freaking out. He had a few moments of anxiety in between a class, mostly induced by his hind boots (I think), where he repeatedly would kick the air. After removing them, he stood stock still in-between all classes. Miraculous. He's a spoiled princess who doesn't like hand boots. Figures.

Our warm up was a bit sticky, literally, since it had rained all night and day and I gave up after a few jumps. B seemed unsettled by his feet getting sucked in the ground, and the course was all of 2ft so I wasn't concerned.

It also had no flowers, but he was notorious for refusals first time out. 

All black everything. Like my soul.

Again, he surprised me with a flawless and eager round. I was so floored by his performance! Granted yes, the jumps were wee tiny but he was HONEST and quiet. There was one moment where he looked hard at fence 6A because there was a western saddle on that standard, but other than that, he was great. This round had no jump off because of height, and we got 3rd place despite the slowness! I believe Amy and her wonderkid beat us, haha!

Video is here.

Sorry the videos are up and down.

Hanging out with adoring fans

The second class was the starter class and I believe it was 2'3 or 2'6 or something around there. It also contained oxers and flowers this time around.

While very pleased with his first round, I was still skeptical of how he would handle the added height and spread, PLUS  the horse eating devil flowers. 

He was great.

Seriously so freaking good. 

B was eager to jump and locked on to almost everything. I really had to ride to one or two of the fences and the turn after fence 6AB and 7 was rougher than it looked to 8, but he handled it all with ease. I was so proud of him! A clear round sent us to the jump off and I let him out a little for that slightly. 

Pats for the good boy

Video is here.

We actually snagged 2nd place in that one, with only Amy's wunderkind beating us! A pleasant surprise indeed!

The last class of the day was the BN height and I think it was like 2'9? I'm terrible. They also added an element to fence 10, making element A an oxer and element B a vertical. I thought that was odd, but figured we could negotiate it just fine.

Since I'm a giant wimp, I thought this course looked more like 3'3 but I wasn't as nervous as I normally was. The horse under me was so game and he seemed to be enjoying himself and I was having fun too!

The course rode beautifully, and B was quite honest to everything but the 10A. He looked hard at it, since it magically appeared out of nowhere and jumped it last second, which put us in a bad place to the vertical. I tried my best to readjust, but he knocked the rail anyways. Disappointing ALMOST but the win to me was the fact that he DIDN'T refuse even though he thought about it.

Video is here.

We still snagged a fourth place ribbon, which was cool since we didn't make it to the jump-off.

Normally, I would have been disappointed since I usually am out for blood when competing, but I think having such easy goals for ourselves for this show made it easy to have fun regardless. I went in not trying to win and it was pretty damn fun even getting 2nd, 3rd and 4th place ribbons!

To me, building the foundation now is essential for him and I want B to enjoy showjumping before we get too competitive. Eventually thats my goal, but for now I am content with the baby fences and the baby pony learning his job! I think our next one will be June 5, but we will see!

Reminiscing

Bacardi's second gotcha day is fast approaching (along with Yankee's "back to riding day-- FRIDAY) and it has me pondering during the slow moments in life. Driving to work. Sitting at work. Driving home from work. Laying in bed at 3AM. Running because you signed up for another tough mudder.

First time ever riding him

First off, I can't believe its already been two years. To years wit dis wild child dragon beast, and I will admit it has been challenging. I don't know how many of you have been around since I first got him, but he was troublesome from the start, refusing to load on the trailer home.

"is that a....trailer??"

He then proceeded to kick my trailer door in and panic the entire 3 hour drive home and then wouldn't unload when we actually got home.  WHOMP WHOMP. Then, I couldn't catch him for a week so he looked feral to boot.

Wouldn't come in so he got to eat out of a bucket in the field.

Don't even get me started on how hard it was to get him to gain weight. Truly a disaster. I dumped more money in this horse than I have into my own damn self for medical expenses.

One week after owning him he nailed a kick to my leg so bad I was sidelined for months from any kind of physical activity at all. Awesome right?

Top 3 months into ownership, bottom 8 months.

Then, he was horrific to ride. If you remember the days when you thought he might actually kill me, then you've heard the stories. At the time, I never saw it as scary, only frustrating as all hell. Now I'm like, WOW. Woowwwwwwwww. I literally could have been killed so many times.

Like literally every time I rode him, he was a terrible asshole. Riding in the winter was out of the question. I don't think I was truly happy with him  under saddle until after I moved him to EME which was only Sept of last year.

Right before he reared and bolted. 

Awkward jumping is awkward.

Then in the spring we travelled around a bit. He refused a lot of jumps, threw a lot of tantrums and essentially was an absolute nightmare still 95% of the time. He reared, bolted, bucked, kicked. Refused to load, stand, come when called, be pleasant at all or show any kind of affection. He spooked constantly and I'm confident he thought everything was going to kill him. One time, I thought it would be a good idea to bring him to an event as a NC and he showed me how wrong I was on that one.

See; fire breathing dragon and me dying trying to keep him from bolting

Strangely enough, I still loved and believed in him I defended him against the haters and kept working with him. I intentionally was so slow with all his training, intent on keeping it positive and reoccurring. Hey, it works with Yankee right? He's a fucking saint and also used to be a demon.

I finally had him loading on the trailer when he flipped out (literally) and whacked his face open to the bone. Cue 3 steps back in trailer training. So we did approximately nothing all summer until I moved him to EME in Sept.

The change was slow but sure.

Personally, I think the arena helped him immensely. He has this brain that is never shut down and constantly spinning in overdrive. The walls of the arena seem to channel that energy and he was slowly making improvements.

There were still tantrums, violent ones, but they were less frequent. He was learning that jumps weren't evil (usually) and seemed to learn to love it.

One of my all time fav pics

I was even starting to love riding him! I also was no longer worried i might actually die riding in an open field and even braved it a few times over the winter!

We even went to a show! IN THE WINTER. And it was fun as shit. And we got satin. 

"IS that a ...trailer??"

We worked sporadically over the winter, because of my work schedule and his ability to ...*ahem* lose focus and his shit on the reg when the mercury drops below 30*...but it was sold work. Foundational work. Little by little.

Sometimes I was incredibly discouraged. Like, wow my horse is backing up the entire length of the arena losing his shit for the millionth time this week, cool. Or goddammit B you've jumped this crossrail 76006454 times, why are you now putting the nope brakes on this one time? 

But I kept at it, because I knew he was special.

Sometimes I didn't want to. Sometimes I really hated him. Like why wasn't he JUST EASIER to deal with. Why. LIKE WHY. Even Yankee on his worst 4 year old day was not half as bad as B on a good 5 year old day. Or 6. Or 7. 

I firmly blieve in the saying that the most talented are the most difficult to work with and it won' be easy.

Yesterday though, I had such an incredible ride on him. It started off pretty shitty and I kinda slumped over thinking GOD DAMMIT WHY, again. Why is jumping so hard for him some days? But then I worked on something else and he gave me 110%.

I was asking for counter bend on a 10 m circle at the walk and he flexed like BAM and it was magical.

I know you're saying "wow, monica, counter bend how amazing *rolls eyes*"...but you don't get it.  A year ago, if I put my leg on him, he would bolt. Yes, bolt. Wildly. And rear. Fly backwards. All at once. Its possible. Now he accepts the contact, swings his ribcage over and steps under himself. Its incredible.

Then, I got a wild hair in me and practiced some canter drill work. I would asked for the canter from a walk, 20m circle then head down centerline. Really focusing on staying straight. Then, we would come to a halt through the walk. Back 6 steps and canter off on the other lead.

B executed it flawlessly. I am serious, it was amazing. I almost fell off the first time he backed neatly 6 steps, waited calmly, then canter off still on the contact and rocked forward into a perfect halt to canter transition.

Then did it 8 more times. Then jumped the problem fence with no issues. I hopped off, hugged him and cried. He just looked at me like, "wut, I waz good, cookiez now plz".

Total transformation. Every ride these last couple of months actually have been so incredibly different forma year ago, I could cry.

Sometimes I still question purchasing him, but more and more often, I feel no regret whatsoever. He comes to you in the field now, loads on trailers, no longer tries to kill vets, clips (this is a big one), trail rides, snuggles and is all around awesome. 

Training my dragon is going well.

What Do Wednesday: Admiring From Afar

I was struggling to stick with my Wednesday topic today and thought about just posting about my ride last night, but I'll save that for another day! This week's topic was inspired by none other than Sprinklerbandit, while in conversation with her regarding several horsey things. I love horse friends.

My question this week isn't exactly a "what do" but more of an opinion question. And no its not about the out of control debates I am seeing everywhere regarding eventing. Staying FAR away from that for now....

Considering I have been slowly turning away from eventing over the last several years, focusing more on regular show jumping and flat work that goes alone with that, I have been paying more and more attention to the UL Show Jumping world. COTH does an excellent job covering all sports, usually and I like to stalk that frequently. Along with that and social media, I have developed a few favorites. There are of course the classics like Beezie that I have loved forever, but theres also the up and coming outliers and famous people that many "other equestrians" (aka, us poor folks) take for granted simply because they're rich.

Don't get me wrong, any UL anything requires money and financial support, and quite a few people buy their way in with fancy horses and trainers. No one can dispute that fact. However, there is one "fancy rich person" I can actually respect and totally adore. You might know her from Big Bang Theory. Its Kaley Cuoco!

Hi I love you. & your dashing beast.

I can respect her hustle because she seems like a great horseman and her jump position is solid. Seems petty, maybe, but I have a hard time taking celebs seriously when they can barely give a release over a fence or keep their heels down. Thats just me though. I'm not perfect by ANY means, but I also don't buy 6 figure horses and win with them either.

I digress.

Kaley is a class act, in my opinion. My lil brain almost exploded when I found out that she rode horses and then was ACTUALLY good at it. I love her on BBT and it was so perfect that she was an equestrian as well. She adores her horses (follow her instagram!) and regularly rides, takes lessons and shows. I read an interview with her and she mentioned that after BBT is finished, she wants to go full time with GPSJ and competing. She recently bought a few horses as well and they are to.die.for.

Personally, I think its very cool thats someone with as much money as her is so humble about having a string of GP jumping horses on her team. Some of us could only dream of that type of lifestyle (*raises hand*), but I enjoy following someone positive that is in the limelight.

Speaking of, it is insanely funny to read tabloids about Kaley and her equestrian endeavors. And except from a Tabloid Mag, "Not only did she ride in circles on Thor, but 24-year-old Cuoco also fitted in some tricks, jumping the horse over barriers". I am dead. HAHAHA. That is great.

Kaley, I love you. Please keep being awesome and doin' the damn thang! I'll read all the tabloids about you, I don't even care.
My question is a fun one. Is there a celebrity that you follow and adore who also rides? If not, who's your favorite pro rider? I am interested to see everyone's opinion on this one!

Weekend Pony Time

First off, if you're alive, you probably have read a little about the recent events at Jersey Fresh this weekend. I'm just going to leave this article here and say no more.

My weekend was productive, despite no super exciting things like shows, it was still a good pony weekend. 

By the way, changing jobs gave me a whole new definition of "weekend", which is now Fri-Sun. SCORE for more pony time! 

I have been lunging the boys all week, I've been getting their things organized (which I oddly love to do), and it's all been going well with the exception that B has been struggling with his right lead a few times here and there. Which isn't completely odd, but not being able to keep it for more than two laps raises concerns. More on that later. 

Yankee is doing incredibly well and he is finally able to be ridden Friday, which I'm eagerly awaiting. Like you can't tell, because this is text, but I'm like screaming internally with the thought of sitting on Best Pony for the first time in two years (!!!).

Hi, I'm perfect give me cookies

I hopped on B for the first time in a month on Thursday and he indeed felt so incredibly stiff to the right at the canter it was concerning. Thinking he tweaked something in the field, I let it be for the day and reevaluated Saturday on the flat. 

In which he still felt crooked as a question mark and unable to pick up his right lead without several tries. Interesting. 

No lame steps, no head tossing, just incredibly one sided and really riding the struggle bus on right leads. 

I really can't pinpoint a problem area, but since he was showing no signs of concern from himself (as in not flailing or resisting) I kept working on fundamentals and riding at the trot and kept it to that. 

He's been brilliant by the way. Literally like a whole new horse mentally. Not sure if pro rides everyday for 3 weeks kicked his ass or he's just maturing/over winter spunks, but I'm not complaining. It's amazing to have a horse who shows up to work and I'm no longer concerned about dying when I get on his back. 

Sunday despite his weird right canteriness I opted to jump him over some low fences just to "re acclimate" myself back into jumping. I was surprisingly not sore from the previous two days of riding, which was nice. 

He was glorious. Still having weird issues with the right lead but didn't feel funky and was actively present in our session. Among, not distracted/nervous and really locking in to fences and going for it. 

Super exciting stuff guys, my horse is behaving and acting normal. 

Here;s another one of my beasts being normal, and cute.

I did contact my equine massage lady and ask her to come it and evaluate him to try and find where the issue with the leads. I'm praying it's not a chiro issue because I can't exactly swing $200 at the moment. I'm also hoping he just works out of it...

I signed up for a "jumper show" this weekend right here in town with Amy and EME, which should be fun. I plan on keeping it low key and not pushing him. Mainly I just want to work on show experiences and not refusing fences and keep the height for later. Especially if he's ever so slightly acting strange with the leads. Still super jazzed about it though, gotta love community, low cost shows for fun!

Operation Tail Revamp

Since Supertrainer just finished with B and his show training and Yankee is still "broken" (8 more days!!) I have yet to step in the irons which makes for boring blogposts. However, things have happened.

Many things.

Most notably and very exciting for a tail whore like myself, I took Amanda's tail dye tutorial and worked on revamping Yankee's very sad tail. If you know me at all, you know I am obsessed with tails...especially my own horsebeast tails. Bacardi's is gorgeous, but nothing has come close to Yankee's luscious locks when it comes to my string of horses. His tail has always been THE tail and I treat it like its made of glass. I legit SOBBED when we had to cut off part of his tailbone in 2014 and part of his tail hair went with it. I died inside a little. I love it, cherish it and care for it like it were worth a million bucks. Unfortunately due to boarding circumstances in MO, his tail got quite bleached and it made me so sad inside. I also think a lot of the hairs got pulled out due to living outside constantly which also made me more sad. Precious, precious tail hairs.

Therefore, "Operation Tail Revamp" began with me making trip to CVS to buy human hair dye. yup.

THE HORROR

Seriously, I can't look at it. It makes me ill. ORANGE. It was fucking Orange. His tail has never been ORANGE, OMG.

First step was to slather his surrounding bum hairs with the conditioner that came in the package to attempt to keep his butt from getting black dye on it. For those dying to know, I chose "soft black". I chose Garnier, because I have used that in the past with my hair and its just the brand I know. I'm sure there are better brands for dying horse tails, but thats what I chose. I hear ethnic hair dye works well, but I didn't know where to even begin with that.

Why did not one tell me my floor mats were disgusting before I took this pic

Next, I gloved up and mixed the solution and started applying it from the top down. Made sense to me. Luckily it was a cold day, so no flies...but if you do this in summer I recommend slathering horse with fly spray.

I am a messy SOB so I took extra care to not get dye on my clothes, body or the rest of his body. Shocker- I managed to get a huge streak down his butt in the red so he has a lovely black skid mark on his ass. Go me.

Then, I braided it up, with gloves on still, doubled under and stuffed in a plastic bag then vet wrapped the top for security. Then we waited.

Amanda warned against plastic bags  in your horses' tail if they are spooky, but Yanks could give a shit about nothing so I just assumed it would be fine and he was. Literally fell asleep. 

Do you guys love my old shitty barn?

I sat on the floor (safety first) and watched Yankee doze while I played on insta because addicted, and after 30 min, took his tail down and rinsed it. Per Amanda instructions I did NOT shampoo, just rinsed thoroughly and then when it dried Cowboy Magicked the whole tail. 

BAM! Gorgeous tail.

SWOON. Thats better. & I swept up the mats a bit.

Seriously, this is an amazing "trick" and I don't give a shit if anyone screams cruelty, his tail is the bomb.com again and it makes me happy as a pig in mud. JUST LOOK AT IT.

I choose not to "event" the tail at the top by pulling the hairs to give the tailbone a sleek look. I personally can't stand it and it reminds me of rat tails. But thats just me and my horses. For some it looks really nice, just too fake IMO. I do bang the ends though.

So that was that. Thanks Amanda for your wealth of knowledge and things. 

Also, Yankee moved to The Palace (EME) a week early because Braggles left for his new job.I wasn't mad about it, because I literally loathe cleaning stalls and it freed up so much time for me this week.

Mostly though, I was so so sososososososooooo happy to have my boys together at the same barn again. Yankee settled right in at EME and I think he will do great there! His lease already started even though he can't be ridden until May 20th and jumped until June 15th, but all is well and good in my little corned of the world.

PRECIOUS