The Adventures of Lucy

SO unacceptable.

2012-02-22T19:02:00.000-05:00

Lucy was a HUGE brat during our ride on Monday. Long story short, there was another horse being ridden in the ring when I was in there. Lucy has made it quite clear she hates this particular horse. She pins her ears at him and gives him a nasty look whenever he's around. We were coexisting fine until she randomly flew backward at him from a standstill with the intent to kick him...WHILE I was riding!!!!

The long version:

Lucy is stalled next to a chestnut QH in the barn and she absolutely despises him. She barely missed kicking him when he got too close to her hind end while out on a trail ride, and since then she has had it out for him.

As I said, Lucy and this QH were giving each other the stink eye the entire time we were riding on Monday night. She reacted when he picked up the canter, and every time he would pass her, though he gave her a wide berth, she pinned her ears flat against her head and got visibly upset. Finally I just chose to stand in the middle of the ring while the girl riding him cantered. Well, everything was ok until she got around the far corner where we were standing. Lucy tracked him with her head/eyes as he rounded the corner, and when he got closer to her she pinned her ears and RAN backwards at him, legs flailing and everything. He responded by spinning around so his hindquarters were aiming right at her. I yelled "NO!" and yanked her head around in a one-rein stop hoping to get some control of her hindquarters so she couldn't kick him. It was really scary. They didn't make contact but I was so shaken up that I made Lucy do a few more minutes of work so she didn't think she could act like that and then be done, and then I took her back to the barn. I was really mad at her but I was completely at a loss as to how to show her that, short of beating the you-know-what out of her, which obviously wouldn't be constructive.

Her dinner was waiting in her stall and again, I didn't want to just put her away and let her think she could eat dinner after acting like that, so I made her stand in her stall with her dinner right there and I did ground work with her. She was so good and so quiet and obedient. The aggression had completely disappeared and she had a soft look in her eye.

I am lucky that my friend whom I board with is really excellent at working horses on the ground and establishing boundaries. She's an excellent rider, too, but I really admire her skills working with horses in hand.

Here's a video, showing my friend working with Lucy first, and then I give it a shot halfway through:

Just compare Lucy's body language in the beginning to the video to how she is acting when my friend's part ends. She's actually trying to do what my friend wants, instead of automatically tossing her the equine bird before my friend even finishes the request.

I hope this ground work will translate to having a better handle on Lucy's feet under saddle. I also hope she never tries to attack another horse with me on board again.

videos from this weekend

2012-02-19T20:27:00.002-05:00

We had another weekend of beautiful weather here and I was able to spend a lot of it enjoying Lucy.

First, she got her mane pulled:

Then on Saturday, we did a lot of flat work and then played with some very small jumps in the ring. She was not keen on the little itty bitty oxer, as you will see. Warning, I may or may not swear in this video ;) I wished I had a crop:

Then we moved down into the XC area and had a lot of fun:

Here are some photos from that day:

check out her crimpy tail. I conditioned and braided it the night before :)

ok....so I know I said I was going to stick to small jumps and obviously this
is not a "small" jump. All I can say is that it was the only one we hadn't jumped,
and she was being so great in the XC area. I am glad we jumped it.

This afternoon I set out on a trail ride and not far from the barn, I bumped into Kenny and Cairo! Kenny and I switched and he rode Lucy for a little while, which was great. Here are a couple of photos of them:

on canine companions

2012-02-14T17:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went on a evening trail ride with a good friend. She rode an Arabian mare and we brought Cairo along.

Cairo in the lead, Surprisingly Chill Arab Mare in second place, and Lucy
looking annoyed that she's last.

I was nervous for the following reasons:

-we didn't ride out until almost 5pm and I knew we were racing against the waning daylight
-I had never ridden Lucy in the evening when it was basically dark and basically expected her to be a total freak
-I am personally a huge chicken and the idea of being in the woods in the dark is not something I would normally sign myself up for
-I had no idea how the other mare would be with the dog
-Cairo had been cooped up all day and was WILD
-Cairo had also left her listening skills at home and wasn't really interested in paying any attention to me, which is not like her. Usually she listens well, even when I'm on a horse.
-I forgot dog treats at home and so I didn't even have a way to bribe the dog to listen

So, I spent most of the ride waiting for a huge explosion that never happened. Yup, the Arab mare was totally cool with the dog, even when Cairo stupidly went right up to her hind end and licked her hocks(!!!). Cairo did not listen as well as I would have liked her to --I yelled "LEAVE IT!" when she went up to the Arab's hind legs and she licked her hocks anyway, little brat--, but she listened well enough and stayed in front of the horses for most of the ride. We even tried a bit of trotting and
Cairo loped out in front of the horses, glancing backward every ten feet or so to make sure we were following and she was not about to get run over.

Thankfully we didn't encounter any deer and both horses behaved very well. I was waiting for the ghosts to jump out and scare the crap out of all of us but Lucy was like, "no worries, mate". My friend wisely assured me that horses can see better than humans in the dark so I had nothing to be worried about. I have no idea if this is true or not but it sure sounded good at the time, so I chose to believe it ;)

Anyway, I think Cairo still has a ways to go before she is the perfect Canine Companion out on the trails, BUT for being not even two years old and a breed that is known to be quite wild/free-thinking, she does a pretty good job. I will be more diligent about bringing delicious doggie bribes (i.e. treats) with me from now on and I bet she'll listen much better if she knows food is up for grabs. I encourage her to be out in front of the horses for a few reasons: a) if a horse spooks, it usually spooks sideways and I do not want my dog to get tangled up in that mess, b) I also don't want her behind the horses in case they kick and c) she will alert us to things up ahead, like if someone is approaching from the opposite direction, or if deer are lurking in the woods.

Who else brings their doggies out on trail rides? Do you have any helpful training tips?

snowless snow ride

2012-02-11T23:32:00.002-05:00

Today's forecast called for 4" of snow and I was all excited about another snowy trail ride.

At 3:30pm when I finally got out there, this is what the trails looked like:

Not a single snowflake...anywhere!

It did snow a little bit this morning, but it wasn't cold enough outside to make the snow stick, and it all melted very quickly.

Despite my snowless snow ride, Lucy and I had a great time out there today. I was hoping for three things, and they all came true:

1. Part of the trail has steep banks on both sides, with a rushing stream below. Lucy sometimes is ok with this section of the trail, and other times she doesn't know which direction to spook in, because there are very scary things on both sides. Today I just wanted her to realize that forward is the best choice in that situation, and she was really good about it today!

2. I wanted to go to the power lines and do some hill work, but I was afraid she'd throw another massive buck at the top of the hills. She quickly gave my confidence a major boost - she was a perfect lady and was forward and excited to gallop up one of the biggest hills, but she came back to a relaxed walk immediately at the peak, and there was no bucking!

3. I have been very conservative about letting her canter toward home, because on one of our trail rides not long ago, she tried to take advantage and run away with me. I got her attention back, but it took a while, and then I made her walk all the way home. Today we did some trotting AND cantering on the way back to the barn, and she was so polite about everything! She listened to my half-halts and wasn't stupid.

at the power lines

back at the barn, spying on the neighbours

normally I'd crosstie her, but she loves being able to look out of the barn doors
and I figure it's good practice for being tied.

And here's one photo from a trail ride we went on earlier in the week, with Cairo!

Jolly Ball, Cairo style

2012-02-09T18:32:00.000-05:00

When Lucy soundly rejected the pink peppermint Jolly Ball that I bought her, I gave it to the dog. Cairo loved, but she loved it in a way it wasn't exactly designed for, and before long it was in many pieces in the back yard.

At the grain store yesterday, they had Jolly Balls especially for dogs. They are made out of harder plastic than the horse version, and they have a rope going through the middle. I got one for Cairo and to my delight, she loved it! She played with it all last night and then today after work, I took her to a near-by field and tossed it around for her.

if you are as terrible at throwing as I am, this toy will make your throwing arm
look great because this toy is really easy to throw far without a lot of effort
(or coordination!).

"take off my jacket!"

she is too cute. here she is throwing the toy for herself.

I couldn't find where she had hidden her collar with the tags on it so she wore
her extra one out.

just what the doctor ordered

2012-02-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

Yes, Lucy occasionally lets her freak flag fly, but then there are days like today when I arrive at the barn, pull her out of her paddock, tack up and head out on an hour long trail ride after she had a couple days off, and without lunging first.

Recipe for disaster? Or opportunity for an amazing ride?

We weaved through the trees, trotted along the trails, and cantered through the fields. It was an hour of wandering around, forgetting about drama and remembering how to enjoy myself. Lucy was forward but not bonkers, and she was alert but not scary. She did have one good-sized spook when some dogs came around a sharp turn in the trail and were running around her, but I can't blame her because they scared me too! They weren't doing anything bad but I will be more cautious about sharp turns in the trail in the future.

When we returned to the barn, I spent some extra time grooming her to perfection, and I clipped her legs and bridle path. She was looking quite lovely by the time I put her in her stall for the night.

if my brain could knock it off, that would be lovely.

2012-02-04T17:24:00.002-05:00

First, I am having a giveaway contest for a free painted saddle pad. There aren't many entries yet so your chances of winning are quite high! Details are over on my Facebook page (click here).

Ok, now for the tale of my inability to get my brain to shut up:

Poor Lucy. I don't know what my problem is but I had another tough ride today. It was not Lucy's fault. Kenny put some jumps up and immediately I started getting nervous. We warmed up over low fences (crossrails and 2') and we had no problems at all. As soon as the jumps went up to 2'6"+, I spent the entire approach to the jump a) starting at the base of it and b) silently freaking out. We jumped everything but I had a minor meltdown after she refused a fence (because I pulled her to the base of it, AND I was staring at the ground). Every ounce of me was subconsciously screaming "STOP!" and so that's exactly what she did, and then I lost my confidence. She has done NOTHING wrong and I am really alarmed at myself. We ended up with a very small vertical just to end on a good note, and then we went on a long hack where we had a really lovely, long canter along a section of the trail that is very straight and flat.

My plan is to jump only very tiny tiny jumps for a few weeks. Nothing big, no complex lines, no oxers, etc. I will stick with this height until I am bored out of my skull, then put everything up one hole. I always appreciate Kenny's help setting up jumps for me, but he tends to start them quite high right off the bat, and when they go up, they go up by 2 or 3 holes at a time. I also plan to go on lots of trail rides and really enjoy myself.

Anyway, here are some photos from today:

playing with the small bank jump :)

and back up into the ring

LOL Cats, a run down the road, and liability insurance 101

2012-02-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

First,

Ok, now to the nitty gritty:

What is it with loose horses and roads?

They are not friends.

They do not play well together.

fight! fight! fight!

They are both unpredictable, like two chemicals that may explode when put together in one test tube.

similar to how I bet your head just exploded of cuteness.

I have had several bad falls on trails where the horse (both Lucy and the horse I was riding before I bought her) left me and ran home along the road. My old horse, Caesar, lived in a super quiet neighbourhood and though a horse running down the road is never a good thing, I didn't completley lose my marbles because very rarely was there ever a car that came down that road.

This past Spring, Lucy and I parted ways on a trail ride, and she was so spooked that she galloped down the middle of the road all the way back to the barn. As I hobbled as fast as I could after her, someone picked me up and was like, "um, was that your horse galloping down the road?". The person offered to drive me back to the barn. On the drive back, people were literally coming out of their houses and lining the road with confused expressions, like a scene right out of Independence Day when the alien space ship is landing.

Sadly, it was Lauren's turn yesterday and due to a freak tack failure, Lucy was able to get loose and have a little trip down the main road the the barn is off of. The billets on Lauren's saddle broke mid-ride and caused the saddle to shift around Lucy's side, which set her off, causing Lauren to bail (she reports that the footing in the outdoor is very cushy, which I am sure will come in handy for me sooner or later). The worst part is that it's not like the leather part of the billets broke; the nails/tacks holding the top of the billets onto the body of the saddle popped out and that's how the billets broke away. Honestly, now, has anyone ever checked the tippy top of their saddle's billet straps to make sure they're not about to fall out? I sure haven't.

Lucy booked it up the driveway of the farm and was loose on the main road the the barn is off of. The saddle fell off about 1/2 way up the driveway. It's a fairly busy road with a 35mph speed limit and the barn's driveway is almost hidden, so she could have been easily hit coming out of it.

A stranger drove down the driveway, spotted Lauren, and asked, "Is that your horse running up and down the road?" Then the kind stranger drove Lauren up to the road to try and find the horse.

According to Lauren, Lucy trotted up and down the road, much less upset now that the saddle was off, and seemed to be trying to figure out where she was and how she could get back to the barn.

She probably knew she was in hot water!

By this time, traffic was stopped thanks to three police officers.

BAD HORSE!

Then Lucy got her bearings and saw the indoor, and ran over to it (and out of the road, thank God).

Now, the good news is that Lucy did NOT get hit by a car, damage any property, mow down any grandmas, or cause any permanent PTSD to anyone. It also really sounded like Lucy got her brains back as soon as the saddle was out of the picture, and she did not run up and down the street like a complete maniac.

The bad news is that Lauren's poor saddle is not a very happy camper and the whole thing was a bit traumatic for everyone :( I felt really bad that this happened, and even worse that I was stuck at work and couldn't do anything to help!

It soon struck me that I could have very easily had a BIG ASS lawsuit on my hands if she had been hit by a car, damaged property, or hurt someone. I spent much of last night researching liability insurance policies that would cover me if this were to ever happen again with not as good of an ending. For yearly $1,000,000 policies for one horse, I was quoted $150 by one company, $500 by another, and then someone said, "You should just get a USEF membership for $35. It includes $1M of liability coverage."

I was like,

I did a lot of frantic googling around and compared a few policies.

$35 later, I am a member (non-competing...for now) of USEF and I already have a copy of my shiny new $1,000,000 liability insurance policy saved on my computer. Contrary to popular belief, this policy covers you at USEF-sanctioned shows AND at home (or wherever you go). It covers property damage, bodily injury, etc. There are exclusions such as if you are teaching a lesson on the horse, so it won't work for everyone, but if you don't currently have liability insurance, I highly recommend you look into it!

new threads

2012-02-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

Lucy got a new sheet because her old one, which was a very cute Tuffrider sheet, was beginning to let the rain through it and it also had a small tear in the shoulder. I got a super deal on this new sheet and I figured I got 2 1/2 seasons out of her old one, which I think is pretty good!

isn't it so adorable?! with pink plaid, how can you go wrong?

spoiled baby :)

hill, buck buck buck

2012-01-31T21:43:00.001-05:00

I went on a fab trail ride today. Lucy and I met Kenny and Cairo in one of the fields and Kenny took some video for me:

And here's a "family photo":

excellent news! and check out my awesome t-shirt.

2012-01-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

I rode Lucy today for the first time in a few days, since she had seemed sore in her mouth and I decided to give her a few days off.

She was AWESOME!

She was actually quite fresh just warming up at the walk, even after going through the jump chute last night (and getting very sweaty) so I hopped off and lunged her before riding any further. Probably a good idea; she had a lot of excess energy to blow off. I was also taking a big gamble and riding her in the Happy Mouth bit (aka, the Listening Is Optional bit). Normally after having time off, I'd ride her in the kimberwicke but since I was worried about a possible mouth issue, I opted for the much kinder Happy Mouth.

I rode her on the flat in the outdoor and then Kenny came to take some photos, so I introduced her to some of the jumps in the little XC course they have at this barn. She was so good!

The side of the ring has this little cut-out that is a
step jump down into the XC area. Here Lucy was
trying to figure out what the heck she was supposed
to do. "But mom, there's a HUGE drop here!"

Then she was tres awesome.

Then we went in the indoor and jumped around. I randomly completely lost my confidence in the indoor, after I had been jumping some good sized logs outside, and Lucy fed off my nervousness big time and started refusing everything. 2'6" looked HUGE and I spent the entire approach to the jump thinking, "holy sh*t, holy sh*t" and staring at the base of the jump. Well, no surprise here: Lucy was not feeling like being the aircraft AND the pilot and she did not help me out a whole lot. Luckily I had my heels jammed down to China and I did not go airborne! I managed to pull it together enough to get her over all the jumps.

she was jumping QUITE round.

uhh...I guess they can't all be kodak moments.

The main goal today was to get some photos of me wearing my super cool OTTB-inspired shirt!

A fellow blogger (Kristen from Sweet Horse's Breath) has started a t-shirt business dedicated to OTTB's! Check her out on Facebook (click here) and spread the OTTB love.

mouth issue update/jump chute

2012-01-27T22:12:00.001-05:00

Lucy seems to have enjoyed her time off. I've been doing a lot of ground work with her so that she's not just sitting around, and tonight we tried a jump chute! She did great!

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and ideas regarding her mouth issue. I looked in her mouth (the best I could) and didn't see anything abnormal. She's not sensitive to her cheeks being poked or prodded, even behind the eyes as BeBe suggested. I got brave and tried pushing on her gums and didn't feel any bumps or get any kind of reaction from her, so I don't think it's a wolf teeth issue.

She just turned six and had her teeth floated in November, and it was a very routine, straightforward float. The dentist didn't find any abnormalities, but she is floated every six months on a schedule to keep up with the changes in her mouth, so she tends to be pretty easy to maintain.

I am going to ride her tomorrow and hopefully she will be ok! If not, the dentist will come out early next week to investigate.

Here's some video from tonight:

"a few days off"

2012-01-25T19:13:00.001-05:00

Something is bothering Lucy. She has been weird about anyone touching her mouth, accepting the bit, and she has not liked any pressure on her mouth from the bit. A few nights ago she was being a bit "looky" in the ring when I was trying to get on, so someone offered to hold her for me. As I mounted up, the person pulled down just slightly on the reins. Lucy reacted by violently throwing her head in the air and smacking me square in the nose. I was shocked but it was over as quickly as it began, and the ride went on without any further incident.

Then last night, she was very weird about half-halts. Constant (light) pressure on the bit was ok but when I asked for a half-halt, she flipped her head and got upset. Once again, though, it was over as quickly as it began and she was really good for the rest of the ride, though I was careful to ride off my seat even more than usual so I didn't need to do a lot with her face.

Lauren confirmed that Lucy was also weird about her mouth today, so I decided to call Lucy's dentist, thinking something must be bothering her in her mouth. The dentist spoke to me and as I listed off all of the symptoms, he listened intently. He didn't think it sounded like a tooth issue, because Lucy is eating fine (even hay). He said horses sometimes bite their tongues and maybe she had done that. The solution was to give her a few days off to let anything heal that the bit may be interfering with. Lauren and I decided to give her until Sunday as a little vacation, and if on Sunday she is still exhibiting the same symptoms, the dentist will come and look at her next week.

If this were interfering with her ability to eat properly, I'd call the vet, but I really trust this dentist's judgement and hopefully there is nothing bigger brewing! If she gets worse even with the time off, or starts to not eat normally, I will call the vet.

I don't have very much experience with mouth issues - does anyone have any ideas as to what the issue could be? She doesn't seem sensitive around her cheeks or under her jaw, so I do not think it's an abscess.

Awards!

2012-01-25T16:30:00.000-05:00

It has been like Christmas around here with all these awards! As Zenyatta would say, "blush, blush!". Thank you for recognizing my blog...I do put a good amount of effort into it and I am glad you all enjoy it.

I was given the Kreativ Blogger Award by BeBe over at A Filly's Best Friend:

For this award, I am supposed to share 10 things you may not know about me, my dog(s), and my horse(s):

1. Cairo is a Rhodesian Ridgeback but she is actually considered "ridgeless" because her little baby ridge doesn't meet the breed standard. We love her all the same and she isn't lacking any of the other Ridgeback characteristics!
2. I met Lucy a few months before I actually bought her, and at the time, she wasn't for sale. I liked her a lot then and it must have been fate that brought us together a short time later.
3. My dream car is a Mini Cooper S.
4. I grew up in Hong Kong, England, Washington DC, and Massachusetts, and if I've learned one thing from my international childhood, it's that "home is where the family is".
5. Cairo's parents and grandparents are international champions.
6. Lucy has grown almost four inches since I got her.
7. I have an art degree and my "ultimate goal" is to be a graphic designer for a horse magazine.
8. The saddle pad business started out as a just-for-fun thing, where I'd paint them as gifts for friends. When people started asking me if they could buy one, I realized I may have a good business opportunity on my hands, and the rest is history!
9. I sold my first commissioned horse portrait at the age of 14.
10. Kenny had only ridden a handful of times (ponyrides) before we met, but he quickly developed a very good sense of balance in the saddle and after a few "lessons" he was popping over little crossrails. He is a natural!

Now, for the passing on of the award to six blogs I enjoy (with this and also the next award, I tried to pick blogs that haven't been given an award yet):

CONTACT
Wanderlust (not a horsey blog, but VERY interesting and fun to follow!)
Foxhunting Friesian
Allie and Gracie
Mad for Smarty
Lovin' From the Oven

I was given the Liebster Award by Thoroughbred Adventures, Hopeful Jumpers, and Liz Stout (THANK YOU!)

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award
3. Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs!

Thoughtful Equestrian
Comedic Eventing
Capture the Light Photography
Polka Dot Periodical
The View From A Saddle

victory in the great hay hunt

2012-01-24T22:30:00.001-05:00

One of my biggest concerns since my boarding situation changed has been hay. This is the worst time of year to try and find hay, especially GOOD hay. If my horse weren't one with refined taste in hay, I would be just fine. However, Lucy likes green second cut grassy hay, preferably with small leaves, dancing kitties frolicking around the bales, and sparkly bailing twine.

While I was not able to find creme de la creme second cut, I found a pretty bangin' first cut today, and wouldn't you know, it was right down the street from my house. I bought it from a cow farmer and when we first spoke about hay, I asked him for some details on the hay he was selling. He is apparently a man of few words so it took a bit of prodding to get all the information I needed from him, but I had to laugh when he asked what kind of horse I had.

"She's a Thoroughbred, and she's fairly picky."

"Well that's your fault if your horse is picky!"

Alright, fair enough...

Anyway, he turned out to be a pretty cool guy and I bought two test bales from him late last week, and then another 20 bales today, which was as much as I felt comfortable stacking in the truck when I had no rope to tie everything down with. The drive to the barn was very short and I drove like a human sloth (sooooo slow and soooooo careful), but the good news is that no bales were lost in transit!

Kenny's truck doing truck-like things. One of the guys who work in the same
building as I do said "Nice truck" to me today. Did I say, "Thanks, it's my
husband's"? HELL NO!

It is so nice and soft that it could totally pass for second cut. I hope the horse is fooled and that she eats every last morsel. There is not much I hate more than throwing hay away because Miss Princess doesn't find it good enough for her!

ahh, the joys of rough boarding. take stacking a bunch of hay for instance! and
then you get home, take off your boots, and a bunch of hay is stuck to your socks.
then you look in the mirror and realize you have hay in your hair. then you
get dressed for bed and realize you have hay down your shirt. SO much joy!

A broken bale: the ultimate hay party foul.

I was so proud of myself for hoisting that last
level of hay up onto the stack. It was about 2' taller
than me! Yay muscles.

on making the right choice

2012-01-23T16:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you have to protect people, or animals, you care about knowing that it may come back to bite you. I was put in that type of position last weekend, when during a lesson I was teaching, Dreamer was led out of the barn, put on a trailer, and driven away. I hadn't been told anything about him leaving and since he did not belong to the individual who was caring for him, I called his owners to find out if they had any information. They did not, and they were understandably very upset. You may remember that Dreamer, the same pony I leased for a few years when I was in grade school, had been leased by someone at the barn where I was boarding Lucy. In fact, I had played "pony matchmaker" and connected the two parties. I have known Dreamer's owners for many years and I felt I owed it to them, not to mention the horse who had taught me most of what I know, to make sure he wasn't in any danger. I wasn't trying to tattle on the people who were supposed to be leasing him; the only thought in my head was the horse's safety, especially since the whole situation seemed very shady. The thought that this could affect me in a negative way didn't even cross my mind.

It turns out that the person who was caring for him (as part of a free lease/trial to own) knowingly sold Dreamer when that person did not legally own him herself. He was on a trial, and legal ownership was never signed over. If it had been, the contract would have included a right of first refusal. She, along with the people associated with her, shot themselves in the foot repeatedly, changing their story and lying to the police, who unfortunately had to be involved when she refused to tell Dreamer's owner where she had taken him. It took a few days, but Dreamer was located and contact with the person who bought him was established. Luckily, the people whom Dreamer was sold to have provided him with a suitable home and he will be staying there.

The person who sold Dreamer was upset that she had been caught red-handed and made a big stink about it, and I was given less than 24 hours to leave my barn and move Lucy. I had a place lined up to take her to, and a friend who could trailer her for me, within ten minutes of receiving that phone call. Lucy was moved in less than 8 hours. It's amazing that in a time of need, when someone you consider a friend and whom you have gone out of your way to help turns and does their best to make your life hell, how many people show you their best side. I had so many offers of somewhere to take Lucy, I had three people say they could trailer her for me at the drop of a hat, and the outpouring of support was amazing and just what I needed to get through this without losing it. Not one single person thought I had done the wrong thing; it seems the only person who thinks that is the one who tried to sell a horse she didn't own.

I am aware that the person who sold Dreamer has been trying to figure out where we went, and honestly I have no idea why she'd care. I left the barn when they asked, cleaned out all of my things and left my spaces in better shape than I found them (even gutted my stall for them!), and was nothing but polite and cordial to everyone, even when they were being very hurtful and rude to me. I try to find a silver lining in every situation, no matter how upsetting it is initially, and the best part about this new barn is the awesome trail system that starts right off the back of the property. We will get a lot of trail riding in until the weather warms up enough that I'm motivated to do ring work :)

I am also aware that this person is trying to ruin my reputation. I'm not really worried about it, because they don't have a particularly good reputation themselves (and especially not after this stunt with Dreamer) and anyone with questions about the incident can approach me and I will be more than willing to tell them the story.

There is no need for me to trash this individual or "out" her. Dreamer is safe, Lucy is fine, and life goes on. I was initially very hurt by what happened but I learned a good lesson, and I'd make that phone call to his owners again, even knowing what the outcome would be. Dreamer is a special pony who is dearly loved by myself, his owners, and many other kids whom he has shown the ropes. It would have been SO easy for him to fall through the cracks, and in this day and age when there are so many trailers going up to Canada, horses disappear at the drop of a hat and by the time you figure out what is going on, they're already on someone's plate at a fancy overseas restaurant.

Dreamer and I, about ten years ago

snowy ride

2012-01-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

I live in New England, but up until this weekend, we hadn't had much snow at all! We had a freak snowstorm back in October but it ended up bringing only an inch or two of snow to my area. This past weekend, on Saturday, we got 8 inches!

Of course in my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be great fun to go for a ride in the middle of the blizzard. Kenny and Cairo came along and by the end of the hour and a half ride, we had turned into one horsesicle, one pupsicle, and two humansicles. We were all frozen!! I dried Lucy off with the hairdryer when we got back to the barn, snuggled her up in a liner and her MW blanket, since I needed to take her HW home to wash it. She had been turned out in it for half of the day and the shell was covered in snow, that then froze and I could hardly fold the blanket up! The blanket needed to be washed badly as it was disgusting. I spent the rest of the day directly in front of our wood stove at the house, and it took a long time for me to be able to feel my hands and feet!

Lucy was superb for this ride, and also for another trail ride on Sunday. Sunday's ride was just as chilly, but it wasn't actively snowing so we weren't quite as soaked.

on the way into the barn

trusty pup and trusty steed, gallivanting down the trail

snack time!

Cairo says, "helloooooo!"

Lucy says, "Oh, hi."

And a video:

some recent saddle pads

2012-01-15T14:36:00.001-05:00

Email me at polarsquaredesigns@gmail.com if you are interested in a saddle pad, or check out other designs on my Facebook page.

horse? dog? deer?

2012-01-14T15:50:00.000-05:00

Cairo, putting the jumping form of most of the horses I know to shame:

Did I mention she's a sweetheart?

tales of a barn sale, and ponies in my driveway

2012-01-08T17:43:00.000-05:00

This has been a highly stressful week for me. I heard through the grapevine about two weeks ago that my barn had been sold. I was really taken aback by it because I hadn't heard anything about it directly from my BO, but I decided to let it play out and see what happened. I wasn't too worried about it.

Then last week my BO told me they had received an offer on the farm but it still had to go through inspections and all sorts of preliminary paperwork, and she didn't seem too confident in the whole thing. This made me feel even less worried about the sale.

Then a fellow boarder told me early this week that the farm had passed inspection, but I never heard anything from the owners about it. I completely freaked out because there was absolutely no communication about anything, and I decided to plan for the worst (being kicked out by the new owners) and I immediately started searching for a new barn.

Then the new owner was suddenly at the barn this weekend, moving her horses and belongings in. None of the boarders had any head's up that this was going to happen, so we were all very surprised. Thankfully the new owner seems really nice and was happy to communicate with all of us as to what was going on. I feel a little bit better about the situation, mostly because I know I am not going to get kicked out on the first of next month, and I'll even be able to continue to work off my board as I have been doing. I am sure changes will occur and I will do my best to roll with it and see the positives in everything.

Of course all of this was compounded by a whole lot of nonsense at work, so between the barn and my job, I was feeling very overwhelmed this week.

Lucy has been doing ok. She has been so forward and absolutely nothing slows her down and she has been exhausting to ride. I've been riding her in her new bit and she certainly seems much happier in it, but it's still constant half halts/setting her up/enjoying a stride or maybe two/her falling apart/rushing/half halts/setting her up/on and on and on. The whole ride.

Here's a recent video:

I was feeling very disheartened last night but today, a friend came and picked Lucy up and we took Lucy and my friends horse RiRa to a near-by trail system. We actually parked the truck and trailer at my house, unloaded the horses, and walked to the end of my road, which connects to the trails. We had an absolute BLAST! I fell in love with my horse all over again. She was a superstar. She took her time getting on the trailer, BUT she wasn't naughty or belligerent at all; she just wanted to have a good look and a good sniff before getting on. It was a step-up trailer, too, and she's not very used to those. I ended up picking up one of her front feet and putting it on the trailer and then bribing her forward with a crinkly candy wrapper, and she walked right on!!

She was quiet for the ride over to my house (about ten minutes), unloaded great along with RiRa, was good to tack up, and was so brave and so happy out on the strange trails. She did have a good-sized spook twice, both times because dogs ran up around a corner and it was the sound of the leaves and the running dogs that got her, I think. Luckily I had my heels jammed down to China and I hung on!

Here are some photos:

happy ears! she is a totally different horse out on the trails.

Nicole and RiRa! RiRa is a QH/Belgian cross and he is
awesome.

after our ride, back in my driveway. my neighbours
weren't quite sure what to think of this!

pony love!

brrrrr! and, a "bit" of success?

2012-01-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

The temperature has dropped well into the "can't I just stay under the warm covers all day" zone but I have been trying to ride as much as I can. Yesterday I took Lucy and Cairo on a quick trail ride with two other people from the barn. We only walked, but it was just what I needed. Cairo had a good time, too :)

Today I brought the new bit and running martingale that I got Lucy with me to the barn and tried them out. The bit is a happy mouth shaped mullen mouth D ring bit and she actually LOVED it. Could it be, I finally found a bit that she likes and respects? She went well in the running martingale, too.

I will leave you with a photo from our trail ride yesterday!

recycling busted bell boots

2011-12-30T16:01:00.000-05:00

Lauren got Lucy a pair of silver glittery Davis bell boots for Christmas, and it was just in time for her old set (boring black) to get demolished. I switched them out for the new silver ones today and Cairo seemed interested in the old ones, so I gave her one to play with.

she thought it was the best thing since dog cookies

love is, um, blind?

sooooo happy!

"what do you mean this is a hand-me-down?"

"ahh whatever, I'll take it!"

2011 in review

2011-12-29T21:40:00.002-05:00

2011 has really been a stand-out year for me and Lucy. This was the first summer where I wholeheartedly 100% enjoyed my horse and felt we really made progress.

I think by far, the best decisions I made regarding Lucy this year were:

-getting her scoped for ulcers, and treating the ones we found aggressively and completely
-cutting her grain in half
-moving her to a barn with ample turnout where I am even more involved in her care
-getting her out and about whenever I could to shows, organized trail rides, the beach, etc

Going month by month, here are the highlights:

January: It snows. A LOT. In fact, I think it snowed every Wednesday for months (right, Lauren?). Good thing Lucy seemed to enjoy trudging around in the snow. Example A. Example B. Example C. Lucy also turned 5, though she could have fooled me because she mostly acted like an unbroke 3yo.

February: It continues to snow, A LOT. Mice take over the barn. Gunner, Lucy's boyfriend, enjoys eating my water heater. Kenny buys his truck, which will eventually allow us to have lots of fun over the summer with Claire.

March: We enjoy a few really nice trail rides, and then Lucy dumps me in the middle of the trail, drags me a bit, and gallops the 7/10ths of a mile back to the barn...down the middle of a road. Less than a week later, I made myself take her back there for another ride that wasn't quite uneventful, but at least she didn't run away this time. We had a few really fantastic lessons and I felt we made a lot of progress.

April: Lucy was scoped, which revealed ulcers all over her stomach. I felt like a crap owner, but tried to make it up to her with $1200 worth of GastroGard (thank god for horsey insurance). She rapidly makes progress and I begin to have hope that she isn't a total whack job afterall. I also connected with a new friend, someone who knew Lucy in her racing days, and we've remained in touch since then. She would later help me and a friend find the perfect OTTB for my friend. Lucy and I go for an unplanned swim at the beach and I develop a deep hatred for swans. Claire and I drive from Rhode Island to Kentucky to attend Rolex 3DE and we have a BLAST.

May: Lucy throws me into a jump and I do quite a number on my left shoulder. Actually, looking at my entries from May, most of them involve me getting tossed. See? And another.

June: I discovered some long lost trash the dress photos. Claire and I FINALLY have a successful trail ride that doesn't involve me eating dirt. Lucy gets weighed and I discover that she's gained 180lbs since I bought her. I give myself a big pat on the back. Claire and I go on a hunter pace and have a great time!

July: We move to a new barn and Lucy instantly seems much happier. Much, much happier. I do extensive work with Lucy and overcome a lot of her trailering issues. Since she is behaving so well, we get to have some fun together, she gets to model for a photoshoot, and I even take her to her first horse show.

August: Lucy lets me know I made the right choice not becoming a vet. Lauren and I truck out to take a lesson together at a near-by farm thanks to the wonders of Groupon. I discover I have guts, and we spend Hurricane Irene barrel racing in the indoor in an attempt to forget that we have no power for three whole days.

September: Lucy continues to look amazing thanks to all the grass she stuffs her face with daily. We conquer 3', and then soon after, 3'3"! I help my friend begin a horse search at Suffolk Downs.

October: Kenny and I go on a few trail rides together and Cairo gets to come along, too, marking the first successful group trail ride! Lucy and I go on a massive beach ride, and then another hunter pace, where I get the truck stuck in the mud like an idiot. We also go to another show, and I make my first solo truck and trailer adventure to take Lucy to a clinic in Massachusetts. October was a busy month!

November: Lauren, Cassie and I attend Equine Affaire and have a total blast. I have some wonderful rides on Lucy and my saddle pad business really picks up. We conquer 3'6".

December: December was not a great month for me. I got thrown a few times, I got run over by a horse, I got stepped on, and it seems a lot of horses forgot their manners when the weather changed. Lucy did get a little friend, though, so she had a good month.

I hope you have all enjoyed this year's shenanigans, because there sure were a lot of them!

manners

2011-12-28T19:17:00.004-05:00

If you full-board your horse, do you expect the barn staff to install manners in him or her, or do you believe it is your responsibility to make sure your horse respects his or her handler on the ground?

Similarly, if you work at a barn with full-boarded horses whose owners may not be around much, how would you handle a very VERY rude horse? Would you take extra time to work with the horse, or just deal with its nonsense every day? Would you contact the owner and ask them to do something about it?

I'm talking about blatantly rude, disrespectful, and potentially dangerous behaviours. Spooking into the handler, disregarding the handler's personal bubble completely, refusing to move forward, pushing the handler around with the shoulder, yanking the handler around, etc.

(we got a new boarder. the horse is quite rude. I'm not impressed.)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:15:00.001-05:00

early morning crazies!

2011-12-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

She was getting a bit warm, so I took her blanket off.
Isn't this December? In New England? It felt like Spring!


Oh here comes Tony, the 17hh Shetland Pony. Well, he thinks so, anyway.

Sheepish?

Tony ran around me in circles, taunting her! HE IS SO NAUGHTY!

Mom, seriously, you turn me out with this fool on purpose?

I bet he would taste really good.


Is this their inconspicuous look?! "It wasn't me!" "Or me!"

Then at the last second she sticks her tongue out at me...

And they're off again, leaping about their field.

Lucy and the invisible aliens

2011-12-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

I fell off today...TWICE!

Round 1:

Trotting along, L spooks at something, ducks her shoulder/spins/bolts, I go off the side, land hard on my lower back and then slam my head very hard against the ground.

I was mad and very sore (and more mad because I had to buy a new helmet! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!) but I got up, dusted myself off, and got back on.

Round 2:

Had successfully w/t/c around the whole ring, Lucy was looking at things that had been there all summer like they were green, slimy, and arriving by space ship. She was being kind of lala in general. I thought I was being so clever, and I tried to get her mind off of the invisible aliens by saying, dear horse, meet my inside leg! BAM. Then coming around the halfway point of the ring, something caught her attention and we went from going nicely forward to going backward! and sideways! and up, down, and around! It was like an amusement park ride, except I wasn't amused! Her spooking caused the horses in the turnouts to spook, which got her more upset, and though I thought I had managed to sit all of it, she threw those last two maneuvers in there (got me unbalanced enough where I lost my stirrup, and then jumped to the side and deposited me neatly to her left). I landed on my feet this time and was unhurt but I was so mad that she dumped me twice, and I of course had a bleeping audience who saw the whole thing (both episodes) and their faces were like :0!!!!!!! that I had a minor breakdown.

Yup, I sat in the dirt and cried about it. Kenny ran over (for the second time) and said, where are you hurt?! and I replied through my tears, "I'm not even hurt, I'm just really really mad!".

Lucy was hanging out by the gate like, "um, is it dinner time yet?".

I got up, got as much of the sand/dirt out of my pants as I could*, collected my beast, and took her into the indoor. I lunged her for about 10-15 minutes and then got back on (for the THIRD time) and rode for another 15 minutes. She wasn't bad in the indoor but she wasn't great.

Overall, a crappy day.

Kenny is a total superstar and caught the entire second round on camera!

running sideways.

jumping invisible 3' fences

the getaway.

*Can I just say, if it's not bad enough to get tossed twice in one day, did I really need to have to literally sweep the sand out of my riding pants and underwear? If that's not adding insult to injury, I don't know what is.

fun ride

2011-12-14T21:59:00.001-05:00

I replicated the "s" line of jumps that I worked on earlier in the week tonight, but made the second jump a bit bigger:

As you can see, she was awesome!

Lucy and the Fuzzball

2011-12-14T16:30:00.000-05:00

Early November marked two years since I bought Lucy, and in all that time, I've never turned her out with another horse. I know horses are sociable animals but every time I considered turning her out with another horse, I remembered the times she got her back legs stuck in the fence at Frank's barn as she was trying to kick the gelding next to her in the face. Or how when she says "hello" to another horse, she goes up to them, takes two big sniffs, and then pins her ears, emits a high-pitched "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" and strikes out with a front foot.

These behaviours led me to believe that maybe she was better off as a lone ranger, safely confined to her own enclosed space, and that would be all fine and dandy if I hadn't moved her to a new barn exclusively to put her in a bigger paddock. You see, only groups of horses can go into the big paddock at my barn. If Lulu wanted a bigger space, she was going to have to learn how to play nice.

Earlier in the week, we put her out with the smallest equine on the farm: Tony the Shetland Pony. He may be small in stature, but he is mighty at heart. I thought he'd probably be perfect for Lucy because he isn't going to fight back if she tries to push him around, but he isn't going to take a beating, either. He is smart and cunning and it turned out they actually liked each other.

She tolerates him until he gets too close to "her" hay if she is eating it. We put out several piles of hay for the two of them, and the piles are far enough apart that they can both eat separately and not be in each others' faces. As you can see, she does occasionally share with him, though about three seconds after this photo was taken, she pinned her ears and drove him off. He wasn't fazed, though; he just trotted ten steps over to the next pile of hay.

I am really happy because this paddock is about five or six times the size of her old paddock, so there is lots of space to run and play. I caught the two of them playing one night. To a non-horsey person, it would have seemed that Lucy was about to kill Tony, but she was just kicking up her heels (and not getting anywhere near kicking Tony) and he was loving it. At one point she was in one corner of the field after romping over there from the opposite end, where Tony was still standing. They had a bit of a stare-down and then Tony suddenly dug his heels in and whisked himself over to Lucy as fast as his short pony legs could carry him. He was totally instigating the play! It was adorable.

how about a positive post?

2011-12-12T21:02:00.001-05:00

Enough with the woe-is-me-I-just-got-run-over-by-a-horse nonsense.

I gave myself the weekend to heal from my various cuts and bruises related to getting trampled by a horse last Thursday. Today I saw that the worst bruise had turned from blue to green to a delightful shade of puke yellow and thought, "that's good enough; it's time to ride!" Lucy had been out of work since Thursday, so I was slightly apprehensive about what she'd have in store for me. To be safe, I lunged her before getting on. Ohhh boy did she have a lot to say! Buck, romp, leap, rinse, repeat. When she started breathing evenly and stretching down at the trot, I asked her to woah and I got on.

She was LOVELY.

So lovely, in fact, that to finish up the ride, we went through a reasonably tight bending line of a crossrail to a vertical, both of which were on opposing diagonal lines in the middle of the ring (like an "S"). I trotted in, looked left and opened my inside (left) rein, cantered off the first jump, used my outside leg to get her straight toward the second jump, had four fairly effortless and floaty canter strides to the second jump, and over the second jump I looked right and opened my right rein/redirected the bend, executed a nice automatic release and she easily landed on her right lead and softly cantered away.

BUTTER, people. It was like butter.

The best part was that we had an audience. A girl from the local high school had contacted me through the farm website to see if she could shadow me. I was supposed to teach a lesson this evening so I offered to let her come to the barn, learn what I need to do to take care of my horse, and then watch me teach the lesson. She was very excited to be there and she asked lots of intelligent questions and listened to my responses (and even took notes!). She has to write a paper about what she learned so I tried to beef my responses up with some intelligent banter. Horse management is so complex and I wanted to give her the most complete answers to her questions, but I felt a bit bad about rambling on and on (or so it seemed) because of course each answer required background information, and that background information required its own background information. Oh well, I don't think she'll have any problem coming up with a two page paper.

My student ended up rescheduling her lesson but I enjoyed my evening immensely regardless.

I will leave you with a fun photo of Kenny and Lucy that I took early last week:

my cowboy and my wanna-be western trail horse.

when life hits you from behind, literally

2011-12-08T18:39:00.001-05:00

I went to the barn this morning as usual, to turn the horses out and clean Lucy's stall. It rained for 48 hours straight so the horses were all inside Tuesday and Wednesday. The wind was quite strong today but the sun was out, so I decided to turn them all out.

As I always do, I started taking them out in pairs. The first pair to go was Dreamer and a boarder's horse, A. A is either very sensible or a total idiot. He is a sensitive flower of a horse and I think he woke up on the wrong side of his stall this morning. I had him in my left hand and Dreamer in my right hand. I walked them both down to the end of the barn and opened the door to go outside. I stepped foot out the door and Dreamer followed normally, but A got spooked by a tarp that was blowing in the wind to the left. He ran forward and sideways and knocked me to the ground, and then proceeded to literally run over me. I hit the ground so hard that my hat and glasses flew off my head. A stepped on my leg and kicked me in the back on his way through my personal bubble, and both horses got loose. I screamed for help and luckily, someone else was there this morning. He ran over and made sure I was ok and caught the horses, who had run about ten feet and then they immediately started contentedly eating grass...I guess that tarp isn't so scary when grass is in the picture.

I was so shaken and honestly a bit in shock. I thought at first I had been kicked in the head but now I think I just hit the ground without catching my fall because I was trying to hold onto the stupid horses. I have bruises all over my body, and I ripped my expensive dress pants that I was supposed to wear to a big seminar at work today. I had to go home and change before going to work. I cut my knee and the inside of my left thigh clearly has a horse hoof-shaped bruise brewing. I feel a bit concussed but I went to work and had a productive day.

Oh I almost forgot, when I gathered myself and finished putting the rest of the horses out, another horse (who has a history of being an idiot, so I took him out by himself this morning) spooked into me and stepped on my foot.

This is really, really not my week!!

thanking my lucky stars

2011-12-06T22:11:00.001-05:00

I had a very bad surprise at the barn yesterday morning and I am still perplexed over the whole thing. When I arrived at the barn in the morning, I walked down the barn aisle to start bringing the horses out (I always start with Lucy, of course!) and about halfway there, I realized her stall door was wide open.

Like, WIDE OPEN.

To make matters worse, I didn't see the horse in her stall at first. I started running and she heard me barreling down the barn aisle and stuck her head out like, "oh, hi mom!". I stood there and took it all in: the horse still standing politely in her stall waiting to be turned out, the door completely open, the chest guard not up at all, and all of the other horses getting very impatient about going outside.

My barn is right off of a highway that is two lanes and has heavy traffic, especially in the mornings. I really cannot believe my very curious and very cheeky mare didn't waltz herself right out of her stall, down the aisle, out into the driveway, down to the highway, in front of an 18 wheeler, or maybe back in the 60 acres of property that the barn has where hunters like to trespass and shoot big brown things (deer? horse? really, what's the difference?!).

Nope, she stood there and munched her breakfast hay quietly and then happily went outside when I put her halter on and took her out.

My barn owner feeds breakfast in the mornings and she didn't think she had left her door open, but the other possibility is even scarier: that someone deliberately went in and opened her door. I am not sure which option to hope for...I just hope it was a freak thing and it will never happen again. I certainly can't be locking her stall in case she needs to get out quickly (like in the case of a barn fire, god forbid).

I'm alive!

2011-12-04T21:34:00.001-05:00

Just very, very busy.

Lu got a week off for Thanksgiving and the resulting turkey coma I was in for a few days following the festivities, but I think it did her some good to just chill out and stuff her face. I mean, I was doing the same thing, so it was only fair ;)

This is a video from yesterday, when I took Cairo out with us for a trail ride:

Here are some videos from today:

As you can tell,

-she doesn't appreciate knocking down poles
-she thinks the tarp is VERY SCARY when the wind blows it around a bit
-happy/mad/happy/quiet/RACEHORSE!/quiet/that's a nice tarp/THAT TARP IS GOING TO EAT ME!: completely a normal progression of thoughts for Lucy.

back in the snaffle

2011-11-23T19:16:00.001-05:00

Lu has been going pretty well in the Kimberwicke since I switched her to it earlier this year, but I knew I wanted to eventually put her back in the snaffle. Last night I tried her back in her single-jointed copper mouth D-ring snaffle. I wasn't sure what to expect, but she was actually pretty good! She was quite heavy and she tried to drag me around the ring a lot, but I didn't allow her to hang on my hands (I dropped her several times until she realized that she wasn't going to get away with hauling on me). I got some nice soft moments from her at the walk, trot, and canter. I also did a lot of lateral work with her, like asking her to step sideways off my leg. She did this willingly to the left but she was very stiff and resistant to the right, so we will work on that. We got some nice walk/canter transitions, even though she threw a little buck almost every time I asked. Gotta keep me on my toes! ;)

I started a Facebook page for my saddle pads, artwork, and Kenny's tack trunks. I was getting a lot of friend requests from people for my personal Facebook, and I don't tend to add people there whom I don't actually know. I figured starting a business FB page would be perfect because anyone can "Like" the page and then get updates about the newest pads.

So, please check Polar Square Designs out on Facebook and feel free to share the page! I will do a contest there for a free giveaway pad when it gets 100 fans.

umm, 3'6"!

2011-11-20T19:56:00.001-05:00

our "warm-up" jump...hahahahaha. remember the days when I was afraid
to jump a crossrail?

woops.

eek.

one very unhappy mare. she gets offended when she knocks a jump down.

yup, that right leg needs to jump too, Lucy!

some pretty atrocious riding. she saved my butt BIG TIME on the landing
as I was hanging off the right side. she moved her back end over in mid-air
as she came down from the jump and saved me. WHAT A GOOD HORSE!

and then I stopped riding like a drunk monkey and started you know, helping
her a bit.

oh Lulu, you are amazing.

"you are going to get so many cookies"

this was a pad someone ordered, but like an idiot I painted the horse on the wrong
side of the pad. the customer politely pointed my mistake out and I was like,
ohh yes I am a moron. so I painted another pad for the customer and kept this
one for myself :D. I needed a black pad, anyway.

two videos!

2011-11-20T19:42:00.001-05:00

Lucy the beauty queen

2011-11-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

I ran some errands the other day at WalMart. For Cairo I bought a new squeaky toy that she removed the stuffing from with surgical precision in less than 15 minutes. For Lucy I bought a hair dryer and an extension cord.

It's getting cold enough here that if she's hot and sweaty, I can't hose her off and I certainly can't leave her damp in her stall. She cools out much faster than she dries, even wearing an absorbent cooler.

Enter the hair dryer:

My friend Cinnamon rode Lu last night because I was teaching Dreamer and C a lesson and I am not very good at riding and teaching at the same time. Cinnamon had a great ride and even popped over a few jumps on Lucy.

Lucy was really hot and really sweaty after the ride because it was abnormally warm last night (in the mid 60's at 6pm) and Lu has her winter coat. The temperature started to drop as soon as the ride was finished, though, and I was nervous putting Lucy away even a bit damp.

I brought out the hair dryer and Cinnamon got to work:

Lucy says, "I'm not totally sure about this...but I will check it out."

And then Lucy started really enjoying it. Cinnamon even put the hair dryer
on Lucy's face and her bangs blew around and Lucy closed her eyes and breathed
in a deep sigh. She was loving it. She cracks me up. See, it's nice to be pampered :)

The horse was dry and cozy in no time flat, and she went in her stall to have her dinner.

less for more/dentist/saddle pads

2011-11-14T21:16:00.001-05:00

Less grain for more money, that is.

I went to the feed store to get grain today. I usually buy in bulk to save trips because my feed store is kind of inconvenient to get to and has weird hours, so it's been a while since I last went.

I noticed the prices went up (but when don't the prices go up?). Each bag cost just under $18. Then I went out to my car where someone was loading the grain into the trunk for me. "They changed the bags, just to give you a heads up, but it's the same stuff." I looked at the bags and noticed the design was different. Ok, no biggie. "They also made them 40lbs instead of 50lbs." I scowled and thought, I may have an issue with that.

Seriously, prices go UP and quantity goes DOWN? I call bull.

And it happens just after Equine Affaire, where I spoke to Poulin and told them how happy I was with their product. If I had bought grain before going to Equine Affaire, boy would they have gotten an earful from me!

If Lu didn't do so well on this grain, I might even switch to Nutrena...oooooo.

Anyway, Lucy had a visit from the dentist today.

what a good girl

There are a lot of times I wonder what the devil I was thinking getting an OTTB. Visits from the dentist are NOT one of these times. Bless her big TB heart; Lucy was fantastic for the visit. She just stood there and let him get right in there. I was very pleased with her and she got lots of treats when it was finished. She can be fresh to deal with on a regular basis, but for the vet, farrier, and dentist she is always well-behaved. I find that a lot of OTTB's are like this, because they are handled so much at the track. The dentist said he does a few 2 and 3yo TB's at the track every three months, so they're used to having it done.

Good news is that she had a few sharp points brewing, and two of them had caused some slight ulceration on her cheeks. It's only been six months since her last visit and I am glad I am diligent about getting her done on schedule! If it had gone much longer, she would have been very sore. The dentist said she'd be feeling a lot better with everything smoothed out and filed down. When he was finished, she leaned her head into his chest as if she were saying "thank you". She's not usually snuggly but she was really sweet with him.

I have been painting lots of saddle pads! Here are a few of the ones I've finished recently:

custom pad. the design was inspired by the Rohan flag in the Lord of the Rings
movies.

One of my all-time favourite pads. This was another custom pad. The logo is
the client's family's company logo. This pad took me just under 2 hours to paint and
I am really proud of the details and how well it came out!

Another custom pad, with a barn logo.

less attitude, more brains

2011-11-13T21:50:00.001-05:00

Lu was much better this afternoon:

ohhhh boy, winter horse returns

2011-11-12T21:22:00.001-05:00

Lucy was FRESH tonight. It was cold and windy outside and a lot was going on. She was spooky and very reactive. She lost her footing just slightly at one point and threw a huge fit. She threatened to rear several times and kicked out, too. I almost want to run a one-week course of GastroGard in case her tummy is bothering her a bit. Granted, she could have just been off her rocker since it was freezing cold and windy and the 4-wheeler was zooming around...

Anyway, here's a video:

Equine Affaire 2011

2011-11-12T20:00:00.001-05:00

I put 230 miles on my new car yesterday (yay wheels!) and spent the day in Springfield, MA at Equine Affaire. Lucy's leaser L and Dreamer's girl C came too. We had a great time but it was a very LONG day. I woke up at 5, was at the barn by 5:45 to pick up C and take care of Lucy (cleaned her stall, fed her, turned her out, got her dinner ready), picked L up at 6:30 on the way up to Springfield, and we were at Equine Affaire by 9.

We dropped some of our hay off at the Nutrena booth to have it tested before we headed over to watch Anne Kursinski's jumping clinic. My barn owner is selling the hay and Nutrena was offering free hay analysis, so I brought samples of the first and second cut that we have. Both types of hay came back with "ideal" reports, so I was happy about that. The Nutrena rep did try to convince us to switch the entire barn over to their grains even though I said I was happy with the Poulin I fed my horse, but other than that we didn't have to purchase anything to get the analysis done.

Next we went and watched the first jumping clinic, about improving equitation over fences. Anne Kursinski taught the clinic and I personally learned a lot from watching the riders. She focused a lot on automatic releases and was having the participants hold their reins upside down to encourage a following hand over fences.

Here is Anne riding one of the participants horses, a grey mare who was very
stiff and bracing against the contact. Anne got on to see if she could coax the
horse down and get her to relax. This photo was taken 30 seconds after she got
on...the horse started out very stiff and looked like a totally different animal!

bracing at the trot

and then going soft and round. Anne even got her to do some really nice
stretchy circles at the trot and canter.

you can see how she's holding the reins upside down here

and that translated into an auto release very organically. I loved this chestnut.


this horse was faaaaaancy! and the rider was very talented.

After Anne's clinic, we walked through the barns and looked at all the horses.

This foal was having a nice midday snooze!

We also did a lot of shopping. Mostly browsing, as I am slightly poor for the next 72 months, but I did get everything I needed for my secret santa for COTH. I also got a cool red half pad for $20 and some peppermint wanna-be stud muffins for Lucy. L bought some winter riding gloves and C got a nice leather halter for Dreamer. Other than that, we just browsed and had a good time trying things on and seeing everything that's available on the market.

We went back to the coliseum arena and watched a colt starting clinic. The clinician, Guy McLean, had worked with the horse the day before and ridden him for the first time, so yesterday's session was a continuation of that. He did a lot of ground work to start it off, and then got on the horse and had him going w/t/c in both directions in no time! It was amazing. Then he taught the horse to pony from another horse.

starting off cautiously

he started asking the horse for his inside hind leg ("the driving leg") and once
the horse willingly gave it to him, he drove the horse forward.

tah-da!

the horse was a real cutie :)

teaching the horse to work around another horse

lunging the horse while riding another horse

and finally, ponying.

the day before, the horse had been very weary of the tarp so he was showing
everyone how far he'd come.

The last thing we watched was the Versatility Challenge. It's a kind of working ranch horse meets gaming horse meets jumper competition. The course didn't look too bad but it proved to be very challenging!

I will take this major hunk any day!!

His owner had just gotten him two weeks prior to the competition!

the horses had to put their front feet in the kiddie pool and then rotate around
the pool. Some horses did it no problem, and some acted like the pool was
a 1' deep horse eating monster.

excuse me while I wipe the drool off my face...

jumping in a western saddle: OUCHIES

this horse was not a fan of the jumps

but the rider was very persuasive!

We didn't get home until 9:30pm and I was so exhausted, but it was a fun day overall!

move over, horse; I've got a new ride.

2011-11-10T20:47:00.001-05:00

New wheels:

2012 Subaru Legacy :D Yay!

Lucy's fecal test came back with everything in the low/normal range. The vet did recommend that I treat her for tapeworm because it is the season for them, and they oftentimes don't show up in fecal tests. I picked up some Zimectrin Gold today at Dover and will give it to Lucy tomorrow. I am glad that nothing was high, but I kind of wish she did come back with something that I could treat. It seems the answer to her weight loss is most likely a combination of the weather getting colder and me trying to hold back on blanketing so she'd grow a coat, and the stress of going so many places in the past few months.

I'll be spending the day at Equine Affaire tomorrow so I will return with a full report and hopefully some good photos!

a very long note on leasing

2011-11-09T22:03:00.001-05:00

I had a comment asking for an overview of leasing (how to find the right person, how much to charge, how often the leaser can ride, how to write a contract, etc), so here is my best advice:

Your horse is your baby, right? Of course. And no one can ride/groom/train/discipline him better than you? Wrong. If you find the right leaser, you will feel totally confident that the person working with your horse has your horses best interest at heart and actually wants to improve your horse. This is the mindset that I went into my search for a leaser with, and it worked out really well.

I got soooooooo lucky with the woman who leases Lucy. She is perfect. I have had so many people who meet her ask me, "where did you find her?!" and they are all shocked when I tell them the story. I put an ad on Craigslist one day just to see if I'd get any responses. I got a few emails, but two were serious. One was L, and one was another woman about my age who wanted to ride over the summer while she was home from college. I had advertised the lease for $250 and 3 days a week. I called it a "half" lease. The way I decided on the price was by figuring out how much per month I spent on her, including shoes, supplements, grain, her stall, hay, and bedding. It came out to about $500, so half would logically be $250. I had decided from the start that finding the right person was much more important to me than getting the full amount for the lease, and really I was just looking for a bit of help with the cost of her shoes. Anything extra would be awesome.

I wanted Lucy to have at least one day off a week so I figured I could ride three days a week, the leaser could ride three days a week, and the horse could have a day of R&R. If the horse needed more than one day of rest, I would just ride less. I put an honest ad up on Craigslist with Lucy's age, experience, the fact that she needed an experienced rider, and I also included photos. I mentioned that the barn she was at had an indoor and trails and was an adult barn. The ad was up for a week or two before I got L's response but when she emailed me, I had a good feeling about her, I googled her name and nothing scary came up on the search results (you may laugh, but this is a powerful tool!) so I agreed to let her come and try Lucy.

I was relieved when she arrived at the barn and seemed very normal (phew). She seemed polite, knowledgeable, she was comfortable around my horse, and didn't seem put off by the whole "4yo OTTB" thing. I rode Lucy first and she spooked at something and sent me flying off her right shoulder within ten minutes. I was mortified. I had never fallen off of her until then so I couldn't believe she had just dumped me in front of a potential leaser! I also couldn't believe that L still wanted to try her out. I was like, wow, this girl must be as crazy as I am! But she got right on and did great with Lucy. She decided she did want to lease her. She couldn't do the three days a week so we negotiated the price down a bit and she rides two days a week. Her lease fee covers Lucy's shoes plus her SmartPak supplements so that is good enough for me.

As far as a contract, a friend emailed one to me but I didn't ever have L sign it because the lease was so simple, and it is a month-to-month lease. The contract that I had a copy of basically states that the leaser can ride x days/week for $x/month. It says the leaser is not responsible for any farrier or vet fees. Obviously this is something that can change; a true half leaser would also be responsible for half of the vet/farrier/dentist/etc. I preferred to just keep it at a flat rate because I had budgeted for the other expenses already. It also states that the leaser is responsible for any injuries the horse sustained while under their care. For instance, if the leaser doesn't put boots on the horse and goes and jumps a stone wall and the horse gets a big gash because of it, then the leaser is going to have to foot that vet bill. I really wasn't worried about major vet stuff because Lucy is insured, though. Finding someone you can trust with your horses well-being is very important for these reasons. If you think the person is going to go yahoo-ing on rocky roads and put your horse away sweaty on a cold night, they are a person you should probably show the door to. I got a really good vibe from L and we seemed to be on the same level.

Even if you don't go with a contract, make sure you have anyone who rides your horse sign a liability release!

Honestly this lease has been the easiest thing. L has become a second mom to Lucy and she has become a friend to me. If I died tomorrow, I'd want Lucy to go to her, hands down. I know she'd take great care of her and love her and enjoy her and put up with her nonsense. I wouldn't want Lucy to sit in a pasture and be ignored because she is a pretty awesome horse and she has a lot to give, but I also wouldn't want her to go to some random stranger because she is quite particular about some things. L knows her quirks and even over the winter last year when Lucy was a rank b*tch and tried to buck us off every three seconds, L stuck with it and still rode her. At one point I didn't even charge her for a month because Lucy was being SO horrible that I couldn't believe she was even still coming to ride, let alone paying to do it! If I had been leasing Lucy, I would have said, "enough is enough!" and peaced out. Lucy really was a force to be reckoned with, BUT we both hung on (both literally and figuratively) and we were both rewarded with a pretty awesome horse once her ulcers healed and she was happier at the new barn. L rides the same two days every week, but sometimes her work schedule changes and she asks to ride a different day. I am always flexible on that stuff and 99% of the time she is able to ride whenever she wants. She also comes down every so often and rides extra days if I know I'm going to be super busy one week and I'm able to offer her the extra riding time.

Wow so this entry got ridiculously long, but in short, the great thing about leasing is that YOU can decide what is best for you. There's no magical "formula" for what a half lease is. I'd start with deciding how many days a week you want your horse ridden, then come up with the money aspect, then ask yourself what the leaser can do with your horse (is jumping ok or no? can they take the horse on trail rides? off the property? to shows? can the leaser take lessons on your horse? are you going to require that the leaser takes lessons with only your trainer?). Next think about what else the leaser is going to be responsible for. If the horse colics, are you expecting 50% of the cost of the surgery? What about yearly shots -- do you want the leaser to split those costs with you? Farrier? Then think about time. Do you want the leaser to commit to six months of leasing or are you ok with a month-to-month thing? Personally I like month-to-month because if you decide this person is not right for the horse, you won't be stuck with them for 6 months. Then think about tack. Can the person use your tack? If the person has their own tack and wants to use it on your horse, are you ok with that? L has her own saddle and I didn't mind her using it but I did ask that she have the fit checked by the saddle fitter routinely, which she has done. If the leaser uses your saddle/bridle/horse boots, etc, do you want them to clean the tack when they are done with it?

So once you have all of those answers, make an honest ad up about your horse. Say what breed/age/height/sex the horse is, say what kind of training the horse has had, any show experience, if the horse will trail ride or is it afraid of leaves and stationary objects, etc. Be honest about your horse...it will weed out a lot of people who aren't right for the horse. Say how many times/week the leaser can ride, and talk about your facility a bit. Does the barn have an indoor? Jumps? Trails? Are there shows on the property?

When you get a response from someone wanting to know more, ask for references for the person. Ask if they have any videos or photos of them riding. GOOGLE THEM...you'll be surprised what pops up. Go with your gut feeling if they come to meet you and your horse. A lease is really a partnership, so if you are getting bad vibes, listen to them!

Hopefully this info helps someone! I know it's a lot to think about, but be firm on what you NEED out of the lease, and flexible on everything else. You will find the perfect person so be patient!

why I wish I had her metabolism

2011-11-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

Lucy was weighed on Sunday. I was excited to see what her weight was. I didn't think she had gained much if anything at all, but I thought she had added a lot of muscle over the summer with all the jumping we did.

First, a review of her progression:

11/7/09 (the day I bought her): 1020lbs
1/23/10: 1011lbs
4/10/10: 1053lbs
9/26/11: 1150lbs
6/11/11: 1197lbs (almost 180lbs heavier than the day I bought her)
11/6/11: 1152lbs :( :( :(

So she lost quite a bit of weight.

The dumbest thing is that I had 1253lbs in my head as her weight back in June, so I was beating myself up over the fact that I thought my horse had lost 100 lbs in less than 6 months...but in actuality it is half of that (not that it's good, but it's not as terrible as 100 lbs would have been).

I have been coming up with a list of reasons why she might lose so much weight:

-worms are the most likely culprit. I de-wormed her back in July-ish but I haven't done anything since then, and 'tis the season for lots of nasties right now. I sent a fecal sample out to be tested so I know exactly what I'm dealing with before I pump her full of chemicals.

-lots of exercise, even more than usual

-cold weather setting in

-grass not as plentiful in the paddocks

-trying to hold off on blanketing so she'd grow a coat (though in mid-October I looked at her one day and saw ribs and I was like AHHHHHH! so she's been getting blanketed fairly aggressively ever since)

I will wait for the fecal report to come back and go from there. I'm just glad she didn't lose 100 lbs...I seriously was going nuts about how terrible of a horse owner I am.

up on the scale, looking cute

The highlight of the day, by FAR, was a little visitor we had to the farm for the weighing clinic:

a pony in a mini van!

meet Lily, a therapy pony who came to be weighed. how much do you think
she weighed?

she was an excellent loader.

she kissed, "shook hands", peed, pooped, and reared on command.

Lucy, Lauren, Dreamer, and C ready to go out on a trail ride. Yes, Lauren is
bareback. She's a brave woman.

trip to Goddard Park

2011-11-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

Life has really kicked me in the you-know-what over the past couple weeks, but I apologize for being MIA. My car continues to cause me some serious stress, as it became clear that not only was it not working right, but it literally needs a new engine. YEAH, not happening. Kenny and I spent the week looking into options and yesterday I took the day off of work to sort a lot of car-related stuff out, including looking at new cars. I hope to have a new car by the end of this week or beginning of next week because the Silverado is beautiful to look at but very expensive to feed. Luckily Kenny's work schedule allows us to manage (though barely) with one vehicle, because he works a lot of night shifts.

Lucy, Dreamer, Dreamer's girl "C", and I went to Goddard Park (the site of the unfortunate run-in
with swans this past Spring, if you remember that) on Saturday for an organized trail ride.

It was about 2.5 hours and C did great. I think that's the longest she's ever ridden, and we went on the beach, galloped down the trails, etc. It was a great time. We did have one incident (and again, it was on the beach! I think that beach may be cursed) where Dreamer dumped C right in the sand and ran away, but he didn't plan his escape very well because he found himself caught in a bush about 20' away from where he deposited his rider. Lu was excellent about the whole thing and I swear, she went into Search & Rescue mode. We had been galloping down the beach with C and Dreamer behind us, and I heard a faint "Kaaaate!". I shot a quick look behind me and there was C, standing sans pony with a stirrup in her hand. Of course I muttered many bad words and spun Lucy around and set off back down the beach to assess the situation. C was thankfully unhurt, though she was very shaken, because her foot had gotten caught in the stirrup and she had been dragged a short distance before the stirrup leather came off the saddle. I said a silent "thank you" to whomever taught me that the end of the stirrup bar NEVER gets locked in the upright position so that the leather can come off the saddle if your foot gets stuck in there. I passed that knowledge onto C sometime over the summer and it very certainly saved her some major injuries.

Once I was sure that C was ok, I pushed Lucy on to find the Naughty White Pony. NWP had disappeared up a 4' embankment according to C, so I asked Lucy to go up said embankment, which she easily could have just walked/run up, but NO, she was in S&R mode as I said above, so she opted to take care of business and like any budding eventer would, she jumped the embankment in one smooth and terrifying leap that was positively effortless for her. I mentally checked "jump 4ft" off my bucket list. We went a few strides into the forest and then I spotted a very sheepish looking NWP, tangled up in a group of bushes.

I'm sure he will plan his escape better next time.

Lucy was locked and loaded on the pony and she was like, "MOM! MOM! MOMMMM! I FOUND HIM! HE'S THERE!"
Me: Ok, excellent work, I see him.
Lu: BUT HE'S RIGHT THERE! NWP RIGHT AHEAD!
M: Ok, really, I've got it from here.
L: HE MIGHT ESCAPE AGAIN! LET'S HERD HIM RIGHT NOW!
M: Lucy, he's going to kick you square in the face if you get any closer, so just stand here and relax.
L: *glares at NWP daring him to move*

The good news is that neither NWP or his rider were injured, and I dusted C off and gave her a hug and some words of encouragement, re-attached her stirrup, and put her right back in the saddle. At that point we were about 6 miles from the trailer so I told her to put a brave face on and try her best to enjoy the rest of the ride...well before I knew it, she was asking to trot and canter through the woods again. Needless to say it was a scary experience but a good thing for her confidence, because she learned that life does go on even when you fall off, and she just needs to wipe the dirt (sand?) off her butt and get back on the horse.

happy horse on the beach...the swans were nowhere to be found, thank god.

Lu went in the water and we even persuaded NWP to
get his tootsies wet.

One of the beautiful views at the park.

And here is a short video of us running down the beach:

things that make me irrationally happy

2011-11-03T20:43:00.000-04:00

I bought myself a present earlier in the week: an electric blower. I have this weird obsession over sweeping the floors at the barn. Hay, dirt, and miscellaneous stuff all over the floor really drives me nuts.

The thing is, sweeping takes a long time and it isn't really that great. Plus, someone always walks a horse down the aisle or mucks a stall or carries hay through the barn as soon as I'm done, and all my hard work goes to waste. My new electric blower, however, shows the dirt the door...literally, and it only takes a couple minutes to clean the whole barn, so I don't even mind if someone gets it dirty right after.

Best part of the whole story is that I bought it at a liquidation sale at a local home improvement store for $20!

Lucy gets treated to a spa week

2011-11-02T21:38:00.000-04:00

Lu has been working very hard, and she's been an excellent sport about everything. I decided it was time to treat her to a bit of primping. :)

Kenny and Lucy earlier in the week. She is so awesome.

What a good horse.

She got her feet done yesterday, which is a normal part of horse ownership, as it happens every six weeks. But today, she was adjusted by Dr. Steven Katz, a local chiropractor who is great with the horses, even sensitive flowers like Lucy. He also did a bit of muscle release/massage with her, and checked the fit of my saddle and Lauren's saddle. I haven't had my saddle's fit checked since I bought it last November, so it was waaaay overdue. The sorest points he found on her were her SI/hip area and her neck. Her SI joint has always been a bad spot for her, which probably stems from her time as a racehorse. Going from zero to forty miles per hour in a few strides puts a lot of stress on a horses hind end and after doing it for two years while still so young, the damage doesn't just disappear magically.

Dr. Katz doesn't need any fancy gizmos to do his magic. He comes equipped
with a couple milk crates to stand on, a clipboard, and a pen. Here is Lucy
waiting patiently with Cairo next to her waiting not-so-patiently for Dr. Katz
to come back inside after adjusting the flocking of my saddle.

Luckily for Lucy, Dr. Katz knows his stuff and he isn't put off by sensitive mares (ahem) and in a short amount of time, he had her feeling much better. He got some great adjustments in her neck and was able to release a lot of tension in her hind end. I always love watching him work with his patients because of the way he gets the horse to use their own weight to adjust themselves.

After Lu was all done, Dr. Katz posed for a photo with her. "She has a BLOG?"
he asked with a smile. Why yes, yes she does. Is that weird?

Next Monday, she has an appointment to get her teeth done. She is still young enough to need to be done every six months. Last time she was seen by the dentist, she had some sharp points and he had to remove some caps. We'll see what he says about her this time around!

Between the pedicure, body work, and dentist visit, she should be feeling quite wonderful! She deserves it, though :)

Lauren also had a great ride on Sunday. She and I went out on a trail ride together. It was supposed to be a "snow" ride but by the time we actually got out on the trails, the snow was almost all gone! We had a good time anyway, and after we got back to the barn I put the horse I rode (my little project Appy -- I really need to update about him, too) away and she had a bit of fun with Lu out in the field. It turned into somewhat of a Rambo commercial:

see? SNOW!

I also need to say a HUGE thank you to anyone who voted for me in the Tredstep Facebook contest. I won! Thank you for your support!

an insightful clinic, and October snow

2011-10-30T12:14:00.000-04:00

The clinic yesterday went great! I was nervous because despite my best intentions, I left my house late and was then further delayed by Lucy being wary of the step-up stock trailer that I borrowed, which made me very late to the clinic. I didn't let myself speed at all - in fact, I went 50 or slower the whole way there on the highway. It was my first time trailering alone and the trailer I borrowed was a 4-horse stock trailer, which was bigger than anything else I've towed so far. That combined with my baby being inside was reason enough to go nice and slow and just get there whenever I could.

It turned out that the clinic organizer had added another session before mine, so I was in fact very EARLY :) See? Things work out for a reason! Lucy unloaded great and the barn manager let me put her in one of their empty stalls. The weather was deteriorating already so the clinic was held in their indoor. Lucy munched on her hay while I watched most of the lesson before mine, and then I got her ready for our lesson.

The clinician teaching the lessons is also a well-respected judge around this area. I showed under him a lot as a kid and always appreciated his fairness as a judge. I was excited to get his insight on Lucy.

He immediately commented on her huge stride even just at the walk, but also said it was "hurried". We spent the first half hour making her more adjustable and also making her stride less quick. We talked about half halts and it turns out I've been doing them wrong for about 20 years! ha. His half half method was waaaaay more effective with Lucy. He said instead of pulling back evenly with both hands (as I've been doing for ages), hold your outside rein at a constant pressure to support, and "vibrate" your inside rein. I tried it and immediately her stride slowed, she dropped her head, and waited for another instruction from me. He said, "Yes! This is what it's all about! With your half halt you're saying, 'Lucy?' and she is supposed to respond, 'yes?'" This is a vast improvement over using the "old" half halt with her, because she would immediately go to fight it.

a nice "quiet" trot, and I'm not even slouching!

We did some work over small fences. It started with a small vertical line with five strides between it. Lucy and the other horse in our lesson both rushed through it and jumped very flat. Next he asked us to trot to the first fence and then bring them to a trot before the second fence. Both horses flat-out ignored their riders and bombed through the line again. He said we needed lots of grids. I was like, yes, I know, that's why I'm here! I can set up lines just fine. I want to know how to set up grids and teach her to pace herself.

To my delight, he moved the two jumps so that they made a bounce. It wasn't a very tight bounce but it was a good place to start. He mentioned something about height not being necessary to teach these things, but I wasn't upset about the small jumps at all. In fact, on my clinic application I had written "I don't care how big the jumps are - I just want to learn how to ride her through a grid!"

The first time Lu went through the line, she was very cautious about the second jump but she bravely gave it her best shot. I was really proud of her! She knocked the first jump down but I didn't even care -- the important thing was that she jumped the second jump. We haven't done a bounce like that before, AND the second jump had this weird fabric filler thing on it that spooked the heck out of the other horse in our lesson, and that horse had been showing in the 3'9" classes all summer.

First time through the bounce. She's about to obliterate the first jump but look
at how hard she's thinking about the second. Joe is saying "SLOW. SLOW!!!"

We did the two jumps as a bounce a few times, and then he added a third jump to the line, also as a bounce. We went through that a bit, and then as our final test, he tightened up the line so that the horses really had to use their brains and jump round. She did it perfectly! She's so clever :D

A video showing some of the flat work, and the progression of the bounce lines.

Watching the other person in my lesson negotiate the line on her horse. One of
the best things about clinics like this is being able to learn from the clinician
AND the other people riding. You can always learn something new!

I was really, really pleased with her for the following reasons:

-it was cold, rainy, and miserable yesterday. she didn't try any nonsense at all. I believe this time last year she was already throwing herself through the air and refusing to go forward and in general being a raging b*tch. I guess all of that GastroGard did work, afterall. I am feeling much less apprehensive about this winter.

-she behaved *really* well in the strange indoor, which btw had several stalls in it, some equipment at one end, and lots of people at the other end who were auditing the clinic. not a single spook out of her!

-she was super brave to the strange jumps, and was really a good sport about the whole thing. I was by no means riding her perfectly. It's been about ten years since I did a line of bounces and she let me figure myself out up there while she negotiated the lines. Really, really good.

-she didn't seem to mind the open stock trailer I borrowed for the day. even with the rain coming in through the slats at the top of the trailer walls, she was quiet back there the entire trip both ways. I did leave her fleece lined blanket on for the trip because I thought she'd be cold and wet otherwise.

Speaking of cold and wet, it SNOWED last night! We got just a few inches but my parents house in MA got 14" and they have trees down all over the property. The poor trees didn't have a chance...they still have green leaves on them! I texted L, Lucy's leaser today and asked if she wanted to have a snowy trail ride but it looks like the snow is going to be gone for the most part before we have a chance to ride in it ;) Oh well, I'm sure there is much more snow in store for us this winter!

barn rules

2011-10-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

The number of horses at my barn is about to increase by 150%, as a local lesson barn is moving 15 of their horses and ponies to my barn on the first of November to stay for the winter. I'm not exactly thrilled about this because I like how small and quiet my barn is. I also like that there are minimal kids. There are a few kids at my barn currently but they are pretty mature and reliable. My last barn was all adults, though some of them acted a lot like kids themselves. All of the boarders at my current barn are respectful of each others space, I know all of the horses and their quirks, and I don't have to battle for ring time or play dodge-em with four other horses in the ring.

I know I've been spoiled with all of that space, though, and I've accepted the fact that the circumstances will change dramatically very soon.

My barn owner and I were talking about barn rules. With so many new people moving in all at once, there is the potential for things to get very messy. My opinion is that we should post the barn rules in a very obvious spot and have a barn meeting within the first week of all of the new people being there to introduce everyone and make sure we're all on the same page. The thing is we don't even have official barn rules because we've been able to function just fine with everyone cleaning up after themselves, being respectful of each other, and making sure their horses are behaving themselves.

My main concerns are:

-possibly having to schedule ring time because there are going to be so many lessons that the lesson program could literally take over the barn and all of the space
-if there is a lesson going on (or two), are they going to allow me to ride in the indoor with them? this is New England and it's going to start snowing soon, so though we have an outdoor it may be under 3' of snow until March like it was last year.
-making sure people clean up after themselves. this is a HUGE issue for me. I hate when people pick their horses feet out and then just leave the dirt right in the middle of the aisle.
-ensuring that people are aware of what they can and can't use. I'm lucky that my tack, grain, and other supplies are locked up safely in a small tack room that I share with one other person, but my tack trunk is out in the aisle. I don't keep anything valuable in it but I would hope that no one would go looking for something in there. I am very particular about my things.

So my question is, what rules does your barn have?

Shameless plug - please vote for me!

2011-10-25T20:00:00.002-04:00

Tredstep is running a Facebook contest to win a pair of half chaps. I posted a photo of Cairo, Lucy and I and we are in second place. If you have time and wouldn't mind, please like my photo on Tredstep's page! I would be thrilled to win the new half chaps and after this week, it would be a really nice change. My tall boots broke, then my washing machine self-destructed and flooded my basement and we had to purchase a new one today (NOT in the budget this month but what can you do?!), and then today my Mazda once again failed at life after it just got $5,000 worth of repairs (new transmission, new clutch) a few months ago and is going to have to be towed to the garage tomorrow. I could really use some good luck.

Link to Tredstep's page (scroll down to see my photo)

Direct link to my photo

Thank you!!

I absolutely had to share this video

2011-10-25T13:07:00.003-04:00

Can you believe the strength, seat, and centre of balance this girl has?!

GREAT day!

2011-10-23T21:35:00.000-04:00

The show today went better than I could have expected. By some miracle, Dreamer stayed white overnight. He wore a sheet last night but I seem to recall from my days showing him that he would always manage to get stained somewhere, even on occasion UNDER the sheet. Last night he must have been feeling cooperative because we pulled him out of his stall this morning and I almost had to put sunglasses on, he was so sparkly.

Then we took the sheet off of him and while we loaded Lucy, we put him in his stall for all of two minutes and the little devil rolled in the dirty stall, so he had to have a vigorous cleaning session with Miracle Groom and an old towel to get him clean again.

C rode Dreamer beautifully. This was her very first show and she was nervous but excited. I spent a long time with her yesterday practicing in the ring at the barn as if we were at a show, so I'd stand in the middle, "call" the class into order, and go through the walking and trotting in each direction. We practiced how to switch direction, how to pass another horse, and how to stand when the judge asked people to come into the middle of the ring at the end of the class. We reviewed what the differences were between "pleasure", "equitation", and "command". She is really smart and kept her wits about her, and concentrated on accomplishing her goals, which were very specific, instead of trying to "ace" the entire thing. She came away with all firsts and seconds and a championship ribbon! Dreamer wasn't perfect for her; he gave her some trouble by the gate, trying to get out of the ring and that sort of thing. She gave him a smack with the crop and didn't make anything but forward and straight an option for him. He didn't give her any nonsense after that! I was so proud of her.

Lucy warmed up so well for her classes but once the classes started, she was more excited than I had hoped she'd be. The show was so small that I entered the Open division because no one else showed up for the Green division and I didn't want to be the only one in the class. There was only one other girl in the Open division. Our first class was hunter pleasure, which we obviously flunked because she's neither a hunter nor very pleasurable to ride lol. Oh well, she tried very hard. The second class was equitation and I won! The third class was command, which we also won (and it just occured to me that we picked up the wrong ribbon for that class at the end of the day...oh well). I was really happy that we won that class because we were asked to do things like walk/canter transitions, backing up, changes of direction at the canter, etc. She ACED it. The fourth class was the Championship class, which we got second in because she blew the left lead (picked up the right lead, got pissy, threw a tantrum/flying change leap fest, and then picked up the left lead...RIGHT in front of the judge. Argh. Oh well. She was much better than the first show we went to over the summer. Then we did trail, which we won out of everyone at the show. I think that's pretty hilarious and awesome.

The tall boots looked great and I was able to at least put my heel down, yay :).

The biggest stress source of the day was having a student with me and having to get her and her horse ready on top of me and my horse, which was a first for me. I think I handled it well. Both of us were on time for our classes, and both horses got a warm-up.

off to the warm-up ring

Trail class - going over the "bridge"

backing up through the poles

moving a bucket from one barrel to another

C and Dreamer warming up. Don't they look great?!

Dreamer with his ribbons at the end of the day

On a side note, check out the contest over at Get My Fix to win a free custom ear net from De La Coeur.

tall boot nightmare

2011-10-22T21:45:00.003-04:00

Did I mention we're going to a show tomorrow?

No?

Ok, we're going to a show tomorrow.

This was all very last minute. I got the email with the class list in the middle of the week, wrangled a trailer to use on Friday, went and picked the trailer up Friday night, spent all day today getting the horses clean (yes, plural...I'll get to that, though) and tack conditioned, ran a million errands, and then at 4pm just as I was about to leave the barn to go to my Dad's birthday dinner an hour away, I tried my tall boots on.

I got the zipper halfway up the leg on the right boot and the zipper completely failed.

My beautiful, $380, never-see-the-light-of-day-unless-it's-something-important, zip-up Ariat Challenges. I think I rode in them maybe 75 times.

I spent 25 minutes trying to get them off, PRAYING I didn't have to cut them at all, and finally I pulled hard enough to get the zipper pull back down to the bottom of the boot.

Then I had a minor breakdown. With 16 hours to go until we were supposed to be at a show (and dressed the part), I had no tall boots. This is when it is really, REALLY good to have a Dover store less than five minutes down the road. I called them almost in hysterics to see if they could do anything to help me. They said, "sure, bring them in, we'll see what we can do."

Folks, less than 20 minutes after I walked into Dover with my busted old Ariat boots (which, by the way, I bought SEVEN years ago), I was walking out the door with a brand new pair of Ariat Challenge II's that I had exchanged for my old boots. It's like that pair of size 9 tall/regular calf was sitting right there waiting for my old ones to fail. I literally tried them on at the checkout counter as they were ringing me up. I wasn't even late to my Dad's birthday dinner.

Dover, I freakin' love you. The only bad part is that this means I will be riding in an entire division at a show with brand new boots. I am doing the best I can to break them in at least a bit tonight but so far my ankles and the backs of my knees are not pleased with this arrangement. Commence walking up and down the stairs 50 times? Yes.

Oh, so horseS. Yes, Dreamer is coming too, and it will be his rider's first show ever. She is excited and nervous but after her ride today, I think she's going to do very well! We set some goals for her that have nothing to do with the colour of the ribbon she gets so no matter how you slice it, tomorrow will be successful and most of all, FUN. :)

Congratulations to our winners of the hand painted saddle pad contest :)

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

I am so pleased with how many people entered this contest! Thanks for your support, everyone!

The random winner is Stacy of The Demure Connoisseur. Her haiku was:

with a quiet neigh
and a soft sweet nuzzle
I sure love my horse.

And my personal pick winner is Terry of Moondance Ranch. Her haiku was:

crisp sharp morning air
first slanting rays of sunshine
wild hooves thunder by

I picked Terry's haiku because it jumped right out at me. Reading it gave me a clear visual of a scene I have witnessed often, but will never tire of: frisky horses playing in the early morning cool fall air.

I loved ALL of the entries; you are all so clever :) but sadly I could only pick two, so congratulations to the winners! I will be emailing you both to find out which pad you'd like, or if you'd like a personalized one.

matching jackets

2011-10-20T21:58:00.000-04:00

Do I or do I not have the most tolerant horse ever?

I know, it shocks me too.

tomorrow is your last chance!

2011-10-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

Last call: Don't forget to enter to win a hand-painted saddle pad! Entries close tomorrow at midnight and I will announce the winner on Friday.

Since there are so many fantastic entries, I've decided I will pick TWO winners. One for best entry, and one random. I was going to do a 2nd and 3rd place but I can't give away three pads so I thought this was better.

Enter here!

Kenny gets brave

2011-10-18T08:03:00.000-04:00

Kenny has really taken up a renewed interest in riding. I had to run a big errand on Friday night so I wasn't around, but he went and tacked Lu up by himself, warmed her up, and rode her in the indoor. Toward the end of the ride, he decided to jump over a crossrail that he had set up. She jumped it well, so he made it a 2' vertical, which she also jumped well. He sent me a photo on my phone of the jump and told me he jumped it with Lucy and my eyes just about bugged out of my head. I was a bit concerned that Lucy is still so young and impressionable, and I didn't want her or Kenny to get hurt. He assured me that it was a positive ride, though.

On Saturday, he rode again and this time I was there to help him. She was kind of a huge brat to begin with, but he got her attention by using lots of half halts, changes of direction, and circles. They had to ride in the indoor again because the outdoor was totally saturated from all the rain we got on Friday, and Lucy is really different to ride indoors. She is stiff, she turns like a piece of cardboard, and she is more "up". She did relax after a few minutes, though. He ended up jumping her over a 2'6" vertical and they both did great. I was like, PHEW! What a nice horse. She really took care of him, listened well, and was so cute.

He rode again yesterday and this time I have photos! He "warmed her up" for me and then I rode for a few minutes.

Pretty good, huh?

First swedish oxer! What a star.

Trying out a bigger spread.

I am also very proud of the young lady who has my old pony Dreamer at my farm. They have come so far since Dreamer arrived just a couple short months ago. She started out not being able to really stay with him at the trot, has progressed to feeling comfortable enough to canter through fields and on the trails, and yesterday they jumped their first little crossrail! I was beaming...and so was she :) Dreamer was such a superstar. He is pretty much autopilot to a jump, which is great for her right now because she can focus on her position and not worry about getting to their destination. That pony is worth his weight in gold.

fastest way to get a white shirt dirty

2011-10-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

looking for some feedback

2011-10-13T16:15:00.003-04:00

I've been pondering a few things over the past day or two and I'd love some feedback.
1. Do you keep in touch with your horses old owner? If so, to what extent? Do you email back and forth occasionally, are they friends with you on Facebook, do they follow your blog if you have one, etc? Do they support the progress you've made with your horse? Do you invite them to visit your horse? Do they invite themselves to visit your horse? If you found out they were speaking badly about you and your horse, what would you do?

2. Do you keep an amount of money in mind that you would sell your horse for? Lately I've been considering what Lucy is "worth". I'm not thinking about selling her but her insurance came up for renewal and she's insured for $6,000 right now, which is the lowest I could insure her for when I bought her. At that point she was really worth nothing and my main concern was being able to pay for colic surgery if she ever needed it, which is why I insured her in the first place. With my insurance plan, as is the case with most insurance companies, you cannot insure the horse for major medical without also insuring the horse for mortality, so I had to pay the premium for $6k (just shy of $600). Long story short, I was telling a horsey friend about having to renew Lucy's insurance and when I told her how much she was insured for, my friend was surprised I didn't insure her for more. I really have no idea what Lucy would be worth if I sold her right now, though. She doesn't have much of a show record but she is a pretty cool horse with a lot of talent.

Reminder: don't forget to enter the hand-painted saddle pad giveaway! Contest ends in one week! I am getting very excited to pick a winner and due to the fantastic entries, I've decided to add second and third place prizes. Click here to enter.

Kenny, Cairo, and Lucy

2011-10-12T21:29:00.000-04:00

Today I met Kenny at the barn after work. Lauren had already ridden Lucy but he really wanted to ride, so we decided that she could go on a low-key walking trail ride and have a bit of trot/canter in the field if she was good.

Lucy "Marilyn" Taylor

Cairo takes herself so seriously...sometimes.

Dad! Dad! HI! Dad! Down here! HI!!!!

Wait for meeeeeee!

*boing*

Cairo having a blast. Lucy was not as excited. She just wanted to go home and
she was being naughty to try and get out of work, but you know what that got
her? more time in the field, and some ring work too.

pony ride pony

2011-10-12T21:17:00.000-04:00

One of my coworkers celebrated her birthday on Tuesday. Last week, she asked me what kind of stuff she had to have to ride a horse. We talked about boots with a heel, long pants, and a helmet. Then she looked at me and asked me where my horse lived. "Do you want to ride my horse for your birthday?" I asked her. "YES!" she replied. So we made it an office pony ride party (there's only four of us in the office, including me), and Lucy was the chosen steed. Everyone came dressed to work in their best equestrian-themed outfit. I bought the birthday girl a pink sparkly crop at Dover, not that she'd need it for Lucy, but it completed her equestrian outfit. One of my coworkers supplied homemade cupcakes, and the other brought cheese, crackers, and champagne.

Lucy was pretty tolerant. I tacked her up with the Western saddle and hopped on to give everyone a crash course in how to steer and sit. Then each girl took turns getting a leg up and riding around for a bit, with me leading Lucy.

Birthday girl aboard.

Coworker #2 putting her super cute boots to good use.

Showing coworker #3 how to hold the reins properly.

Over the river and through the woods...

2011-10-09T22:00:00.000-04:00

No, really:

We had a BLAST today at the Tyrone Farm Hunter Pace. It was unseasonably warm, about 80 degrees and humid. The horses have both grown in a really nice starter winter coat already so they were hot right off the bat. I had kept the truck and trailer hooked up overnight to make this mornings departure as quick and easy as possible. Both horses loaded without any fuss whatsoever, which set the tone for the rest of the day. They both unloaded well at the pace and we quickly got tacked up and set out. The ride was ten miles long but it felt much longer than that because the footing SUCKED. The ground was very saturated and we were walking on dirt trails, which quickly became deep and sucking mud. It was very strenuous on the horses so we walked more than anything. There were a few spots that were dry enough to have a brisk canter, and we also tried a lot of the jumps! Lucy was such a pro today over jumps that were much different than the ones we've been doing in the ring. We did coops, a ton of logs, a little coffin jump, a box jump, a stone wall, planks, a step, etc. I was VERY impressed with her!

horses loaded up and ready to go. I think Lucy was a bit anxious to get moving :)

the first field we walked through. beautiful, huh?

approach to a pile of logs. she was very excited about this jump.

"airplane ears" hehehehe ;)

we had just finished the courseand walked back to the trailer when Claire
snapped this photo of Lucy and I. we were both dripping with sweat,
covered in mud, and exhausted; but we were also happy!

on the way out, I got the truck stuck in the mud! seriously, though, the field
they had us all park in was like a swamp!

Video!

Sea horse

2011-10-08T19:22:00.000-04:00

Today was our trip to the beach, aka part 1 of 2 of a truly rockin' weekend. I practiced trailer loading with Lucy last night and with clear cues, a lunge line, and lots of positivity, she was standing quietly in the trailer within twenty minutes. I think she will need these tune-ups from time to time to maintain her good loading skills, especially since we don't normally trailer very often.

She gave me a bit of a problem getting on this morning but I didn't get upset about it, I didn't fight her, and I patiently persisted that she get on. She finally got on after five minutes or so.

The trailer ride to the beach was quiet and uneventful except I was too dumb to get actual directions to the beach we were going to and I got off the wrong exit on the highway and had to do a three point turn in some random parking lot, get back on the highway, and continue on. Oh, did I mention that *I* drove today? :D We finally got to the right beach and unloaded the horses and tacked up without any problems.

Boe was a little hot to start out but Lucy was impeccably behaved from the beginning. I could not have asked for it to go any better, honestly! She cantered happily, lead or followed without any nonsense, let horses gallop past her and barely flicked an ear, and went in the water. What a good girl!!

Here are some photos!

Let's get this show on the road, mom!

Claire and Boe

What a good horse!

Boe and Claire leading the way. I had no idea you could drive your vehicle on
this beach...it is a happening place, let me tell you!

Very pleased with my girl!

Videos:

Tomorrow is the hunter pace. Wish us luck!

Superlu

2011-10-06T20:28:00.000-04:00

Reminder: don't forget to enter to win a hand-painted saddle pad :) Contest ends 10/21. There are some truly excellent entries so far. I'm glad I decided to pick a random winner because choosing the "best" entry would be next to impossible.

another OTTB success story: Jess finds love at Suffolk Downs

2011-10-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, my friend Jess and I have been on almost a month-long mission to find her an OTTB. We have made the trek to Suffolk Downs three times. She fell in love with one sweet mare and arranged a vet check for her, only to be told the day before the vet was scheduled to go out that the owner didn't want to sell the mare anymore because she had been training really well.

Last weekend when we returned to the track to try for round two of shopping, we met a very sweet gelding called Montana Country. He has *the* classic thoroughbred look. He is incredibly intelligent, has a great build, but most of all he exudes kindness and has a distinct feeling of calmness about him. He is very gentle and polite, which was important to Jess because she has a 5yo son at home, and she'd like for her son and the horse to be able to interact without her having to worry.

Montana Country fit the bill perfectly, so once again she arranged a vet check. The vet came out yesterday and we were there to watch how the exam went. I am always happy to take a vacation day from work to do horsey things! Montana Country was a perfect gentleman for the vet and he stood stock still while they took x-rays of his knees. He trotted up and down the shedrow as pigeons exploded out of the rafters overhead and the other horses went ballistic in their stalls, rearing and spinning around. He didn't put a hoof out of place. What a nice, nice horse.

He had chipped both knees as a 2yo in training so we were mainly concerned about any damage from those chips. Luckily the owner and trainer were good enough horsemen to allow the horse to rest for his entire 2yo year before returning him to training. He came back completely sound and raced his 3yo, 4yo, and 5yo year without any soundness issues or soreness. He was being retired now to prevent any injuries to him since he is 5 now, and not all that competitive against his peers anymore. His knees looked and felt great, and he flexed sound on all four legs. Even the x-rays didn't look too bad at all. He will be perfectly capable to do what Jess wants with him, which is mostly pleasure riding, a few hunter paces here and there, and some very low-level jumping. His only issue was that he was a little bit foot sore, but he had just been shod a few days beforehand and Suffolk Downs is not known as a track that is kind to horses' legs, so that issue will be resolved easily once he is no longer training and racing on a hard track.

Montana Country being flexed by a vet from South Shore Equine to test his
soundness.

Montana Country was then trotted up and down the shedrow. If he had any
joint soreness or unsoundness, it would have been immediately apparent after
flexing (i.e. putting a lot of stress) on the joint. He passed with flying colours!

Montana Country inspects the x-rays on the computer monitor alongside
the vet. How cute!!

We have a few people to thank for making this story a success: Jessica Paquette at Suffolk Downs, who clued me in that Montana Country was looking for home and that he was super fancy and super sweet; South Shore Equine for coming out and doing a pretty fantastic vet check on short notice (seriously, they are awesome); and Montana Country's trainer and owner for holding him for Jess, because they had THREE people show up with trailers this week wanting to take him home right then and there, and they apologized and said they had a vet check scheduled with a potential buyer already. That was really, really decent of them!

Three cheers to Jess and Montana Country! I am so glad they found each other.

After the vet was finished, we spent some time snuggling with Jess's new horse.
Jess was saying "You're my pony!" as I was taking this photo. Awww :)

Jess has plans to bring her new horse home to CT this weekend!

Lucy the warmblood?

2011-10-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

I have been quietly musing over the idea of getting Lucy approved through one or more warmblood registries as a broodmare for a while now. I don't personally plan on breeding her anytime soon, but in my completely unbiased (haha) opinion, I do think she's a nice enough mare that if I ever had to sell her, she possesses qualities that a prospective buyer might want to pass on to a foal.

If Lucy ends up being very successful and I magically come into a vast amount of money, I may consider breeding her myself but that would be a long way off.

Lucy is a fully registered Thoroughbred but when I bought her, she came with only a copy of her Jockey Club papers. This was to prevent anyone from racing her again, since you have to have the original papers to race a Thoroughbred. All of the registries I looked into require an original copy of the horses papers, so I either need to figure out who has her papers or request a duplicate copy from the Jockey Club, which would cost $150.

Then there's the question of which warmblood registry to pick. I looked specifically at Zweibrücker (Rheinland Pfalz-saar/RPSI), Trakehner, Hanoverian, and Holsteiner. Each registry has different requirements, studbooks, and fees, but in general they are all looking for a horse with a suitable type, three swinging and powerful gaits, and excellent conformation. Fees range from $150 to upwards of $600 depending on the registry. I'd also probably need to pay a handler to show her since I have approximately zero experience in this area. I don't know how much that would cost but I'm guessing somewhere between quite a lot of money and an absurd amount of money, as these things tend to go.

Does anyone have experience with this type of thing? Any wisdom (which registry to pick, details on hiring a handler, etc) would be awesome.

Win a hand-painted saddle pad

2011-10-04T17:00:00.030-04:00

I promised I'd hold this contest once we reached triple digits (100+ subscribers), and that milestone was achieved today!
This contest is to win a hand-painted saddle pad, a $45 value. Here are the options:

maroon and white swirlies on a purplish-pink a/p dover pad

teal and silver swirlies on a blue a/p dover pad

koi fish on a white a/p dover lite pad

purple metallic swirlies on a white dressage dover lite pad

swirly green and silver metallic fox on a black Dover a/p lite pad

OR I can put your initials on a Dover brand pad of your choice. I may also be open to a custom design depending on what you have in mind.

No matter how you slice it, this is a sweet prize.

To enter, leave a comment on this post with the following:

-your name
-your email address
-a little horsey haiku. it can be random. it can be sweet! it can be funny. whatever comes to mind.

Haiku 101: A haiku poem has 17 syllables and three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second had seven, and the third has five.

You can gain a second chance to enter by promoting this blog/contest through your own blog if you link that promotional post in your comment.

Contest closes on Friday, October 21st 2011 at Midnight. Winner is chosen at random.

Building up the resume

2011-10-03T21:55:00.000-04:00

Lucy can add "save my human's rear end" to her resume.

We jumped around today but she was a different horse than she has been lately. There was a fall chill in the air, she had an easy weekend of walk/trot trail rides, and she was feisty. She threw a tantrum two minutes into the ride and I put her right back in her place. Still, a looming fear settled in: was Lucy's Evil Winter Counterpart ("Lucifer") going to return along with the cold weather? I guess we'll have to find out.

Our carefree fun rides may be winding down, but after the first tantrum, she settled down a bit in that she didn't try any more nonsense. She was still VERY hot and tried to drag me around the ring while Kenny was setting out the jumps. He suggested I take her out to the field and gallop around a bit, which was a great idea. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. Then we went back into the ring and schooled briefly on the flat to get her brain back on track. She perked right back up again as soon as we started jumping, like someone had lit a fire under her heinie and she was a lot of horse to ride tonight!

Anyway, we worked over a few smaller jumps first and then Kenny set up the oxer at 3'. We jumped that, then we jumped it at 3'3" a few times. She was doing great, showing loads of confidence to the jump and though she wanted to rush to the first jump in the line (a crossrail), she paced herself perfectly through the two strides to the oxer.

Wahoo!

The second time through, she was not paying attention at the base of the first jump and I thought she was going to ditch it to the left, and I made the mistake of overcorrecting her and getting way ahead of her. She flung herself over the crossrail, scrambled through the two strides, and we found ourselves way to the left very deep at the base of the 3'3" oxer. Both of us stared right at the top rail like "crap, where did that come from?!" and I put my leg on her and did my best not to catch her in the mouth. Bless her heart, she jumped it like a deer...and cleared it. She got lots of praise for that one. Many other horses would have simply stopped since we were halfway there anyway. What a good horse.

"Mom, could you have ridden that line ANY worse?!"

Not the prettiest...

The rest of the ride continued without incident. We didn't jump that oxer many times at all but I cooled Lu out thoroughly and applied Sore No More to all four legs up to her hocks/knees, and I also applied it to her SI area. Then she got a nice mash with carrots and apples mixed in :)

I am really proud of my position over this fence. I joked to someone on facebook that my plan was "jam heels down, don't jab the horse in the mouth, and hang on for dear life." In truth, Lucy makes it easy to ride her well over fences. She jumps very well and she is even and smooth in her stride. She's so tall that she doesn't even really need to try until the jumps are 2'6" or bigger.

She is going to get a day of flat work tomorrow, then Lauren is riding Wednesday and Thursday. I took the day off of work on Wednesday to go up to the racetrack with my friend who is horse shopping to be there for the vet check for her top pick, so cross your fingers that the horse passes! Very exciting. On Friday if the weather cooperates she will be getting a bath and then a tune-up session with the trailer, because on Saturday we have a hunter pace!! So exciting!! Sunday we have a beach ride tentatively planned and then on Monday I will spend the day in my pajamas and drink martinis. I'm not even really joking... and to be honest, I think Lu will probably do the same.

Saturday's success was not a fluke

2011-10-02T18:45:00.000-04:00

We tried again today. It was equally as awesome:

Cairo's face: Priceless.

a true milestone: puppy+pony=success

2011-10-01T21:17:00.000-04:00

I tried last year to take Lucy and Cairo out on a trail ride together.

It didn't go so well.

No one died, but Lucy was tightly wound and she expressed her anxiety in an up and down fashion. Cairo thought it was a really fun game and expressed her joy in a zig-zag fashion at a high rate of speed. I just hung on for dear life.

I have been wanting to try again for about a month. Cairo is a year and a half old now and she is a very good listener. She also respects the horses. Lucy has also grown up a lot and is not bothered by the dog being around her.

It went really well :) Kenny came along too! He rode my barn owner's Arab mare Bella, who was a little worried at first but she settled right down and actually enjoyed herself.

The horses even tolerated Cairo taking off like a banshee after two MASSIVE deer and chasing them all through the woods alongside the trail. Lucy was like, "sigh...KIDS these days!". Kenny was convinced the horses knew Cairo was trying to protect them. Though I don't personally think that was their train of thought, I am glad they weren't concerned either way.

Cairo deer hunting, Bella trucking along, and Lucy wondering when we get
to run. Sadly for her, this was a walk/trot trail ride only.

Dream horse.

I am barn sitting this weekend for my barn owner. She and her family went away for a couple of days and she asked me to take care of the barn. I was honoured that she asked - that is a big responsibility! I was there for six hours this morning turning out, doing stalls, scrubbing buckets, filling inside waters, riding, holding a horse for the farrier to tack a shoe back onto, and then I moved all of the outside water tubs into the new grass paddocks that were built last week and filled them all. Very productive!

3'3" and an oxer...together :)

2011-09-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

Lauren and Lucy over a 3'3" oxer yesterday.

It has been easy for me to forget lately that Lucy is only 5. She's been acting very grown-up this summer and she's been enjoying all the new fun things we've been doing. Her knees are closed per my vet (or she wouldn't be jumping) and I think she's just about done growing. She's still young, though, and I don't want to fry her body or her mind. Do you have any specific rules for your horse as far as how many days a week he or she is worked, and how hard? Do you only jump x number of days a week? Do you never jump more than one day in a row? If you jump one day, does the horse get the next off or do you just hack around and have an "easy" ride?

I am asking because I tend to have a "no jumping two days in a row" rule, but this week was an exception. I jumped on Tuesday, and then Lauren jumped on Wednesday. Lauren jumped the 3'3" oxer just twice and a few of the other, much smaller jumps a couple times each. Lucy was hardly even sweaty at the end of the ride and Lauren said she planned on a light hack today. Lucy also got her legs hosed off thoroughly with cold water and then a brace/liniment applied up through her hocks and knees, just as a preventative measure. She seemed no worse for the wear this afternoon when I brought her in. Still, I don't plan on making that a regular thing.

When I introduce new things to a young horse or a green horse, I want to challenge them and get them interested, but I do not want to over-face them or make them doubt that they can do whatever I'm asking of them. I think I've done a good job of this so far, because Lu hasn't shown any hesitation at all. She's jumped everything confidently and willingly. Ideally from here, we'll start upping the complexity of the courses so that they include rollbacks, inside turns, broken/bending lines, and other challenging things. I would also like to start simulating some XC jumps in the ring (more on that in a future post). I am not eager to increase the height she's jumping right now. She's shown she has plenty of athletic ability and she certainly has the propensity to jump big. What I'd really like to know is if she's cat-like enough even as a big horse to get around a jumper course with the aforementioned challenges.

So this is what we'll be working on in the near future :)

In other news, this blog has reached almost 100 subscribers! I am planning on doing a giveaway contest for one of my painted saddle pads, a $45 value, once we hit triple digits.

3'3" and an oxer

2011-09-27T15:54:00.001-04:00

I didn't think it was possible to love my horse any more than I already do, but today she was so spectacular that I think she has gone up yet another notch. I wasn't feeling well this morning so I took the day off from work, but by noon I was feeling much better so I decided to go to the barn. We jumped 3'3" and also our first real oxer. We also had a good gallop in the field! It was a busy day.

zoomzoom

Trying an oxer. She didn't hesitate at all.

3'3"!

Great horsey weekend

2011-09-26T08:03:00.000-04:00

On Friday it was drizzling, chilly, and feeling very much like fall in New England. There were periods of heavy rain so the horses stayed in. When I got to the barn after work, I put Lucy out in one of the big paddocks so she could stretch her legs, since there was a lull in the rain. I figured she'd be fine out there for half an hour while I did stalls, and then I planned on bringing her in and riding.

I went out to get her half an hour later and she was covered in thick, wet mud from nose to tail. UGH.

I brushed her off as well as I could and rode anyway. I decided to ride bareback, and we went and hacked around the front field on a very loose rein w/t/c. She was so dreamy and easy to ride. I was really quite impressed!

Saturday was sunny and beautiful. I had to photograph a wedding in the afternoon, but I was able to sneak in a quick hack in the morning. I always carry my cell phone with me and it rang as we were walking down the trails. I answered it as Lucy carried on walking on the buckle. There I was, yakking away, when I noticed two good-sized young bucks in the woods about 30 feet away from us. Lucy looked over at them and I prepared to get tossed. I quickly said to my friend on the phone, "ok gotta go!" and hung up, and braced myself. She looked at them, let out a huge sigh, and turned her attention to the trail. Then the bucks took off through the forest parallel to the trail, and ran across the trail behind the horses. She didn't even flinch!

On Sunday, Lauren and I went on a really long, fun hack together. She rode Lucy and I rode my barn owner's little Arab mare, Bella. I have ridden Bella in the ring a few times and she has always been well-behaved, but no one knew how she'd do on the trail. She turned out to be a total pro. She was happy to lead, or she was happy to follow! She wasn't impressed by a big puddle we encountered but she just danced around it. We had a trot and a canter alongside Lucy, and both girls behaved beautifully. We walked through a big neighbourhood, met some kids, saw some kids on bikes and skateboards, and had dogs running at us and barking, and neither horse had an issue. We went back to the barn and had some fun galloping around one of the fields:

Lauren and Lucy

I LOVE this photo.

Me and little Bella. She is a ton of fun!

One of Lauren's stirrups came off the western saddle! We had to have a 20
minute stirrup hunt. I found it, though! Isn't she a nice rider? Perfect eq
despite her stirrup disappearing out from under her.

Then we went for a hack in the front field with two other friends
and their horses.

In the afternoon, I headed back to Suffolk Downs with my friend whom we went horse shopping for last weekend. She had decided to vet out Prairie Melody, the beautiful bay mare with the great personality and quiet disposition. She set the PPE up for Sunday afternoon and then on Saturday morning, the trainer called her and said the owner had changed his mind and didn't want to sell her, because she had been training well all week. I was like, seriously?! They're going to run her until she bows a tendon or something, and then her chances of finding a great home will be much slimmer. She's already 6! My friend was really upset because she had fallen in love with this mare, but she bravely decided to go to the track and have another look to see what else was available.

We had gotten a tip from a friend who works at the track that there was a lovely gelding available. His name is Montana Country. He's also 6. He was a bit smaller than Prairie Melody, but my friend is very petite so she had originally wanted a smaller horse anyway. He was super sweet. He came out of his stall without a chain over his nose and he trotted like a hunter, pointing his toes and poking his nose out as he stretched through his back. REALLY a nice horse. The problem is that he had chips in his knees as a 2yo, and the owner didn't have them removed on the vets advice. Instead, they gave the horse 6 months of rest and he has raced sound ever since. I personally feel that if the horse has raced just fine for 4 years, his knees are probably not an issue, but I still advised my friend to get x-rays in case there's any arthritis starting up in there. I hope he vets sound, though!

We saw a few other REALLY nice horses. One was a 7yo mare who was broke to ride as a hunter, and then when she was 6, the owner decided to race her. She has raced just a handful of times and isn't showing any talent, so the owner wants to sell her, but she is totally sound, no issues, and she is a true black to boot. She would be super easy to retrain since she already has a solid foundation under saddle. I would bet that she'll stay sound for a long time, since her body wasn't put under racing stress until she was 6 and fully developed. The owner is asking $3500 for her but according to the trainer, she's very negotiable. If you're in this area and looking for a horse, let me know and I will give you the trainer's info.

Another nice horse that we saw was a black gelding with really cute markings. He is also sound, and they're asking $2k for him and he has a lovely balanced build, and moves like a hunter. Really really cute.