Kenny, the Chipmunk Whisperer

Kenny and I went to the barn this evening around 8pm to check on Lucy and fill her outside water so she'd have plenty of fresh water for tomorrow. It was 95 degrees and extremely humid here today, and it's going to be equally hot and sticky tomorrow. When we got to the barn, we found Lucy absolutely drenched in sweat in her stall, so I took her out and gave her a nice long cool bath with the hose. As I was doing that, I asked Kenny to fill her outside tub, so he walked out to her paddock with a 5 gallon bucket full of water.

He got to her paddock and then called over to me.

"Kate! Kate! We have to have a chipmunk rescue mission!"

I put Lucy away quickly and went to see what he was talking about. He walked over, orange Home Depot bucket in hand, and inside the bucket was a very exhausted looking chipmunk that Kenny had just saved from certain death by drowning! Kenny said he found the chipmunk swimming frantically around in circles in Lucy's water tub, trying to find a way out. Kenny fished him out with the empty bucket and brought him over to the barn, where we made sure he looked ok. We gave him a few minutes in the bucket to recover before setting him free. He scampered off quickly, but we left him a pile of grain and a carrot so he can have a snack after his workout.

I posted about this on Facebook and someone replied I should have some sort of a ladder so that the little animals can get out easily if they fall in. Does anyone do this? I was thinking I could put a piece of thick rope in there. The bucket has a heating element in the bottom that I am obviously not using now that it's a gazillion degrees out, but I could tie the rope to that and just have it drape over the side of the bucket.

Here's the lucky little chipmunk post-rescue and pre-release:

 And here is a funny photo of Lucy after I hosed her down, proving that the stall guard is no match for her:

we totally ROCKED IT

Holy crap, we did it. We completed *AND PLACED* at our very first event. I am beyond happy with Lucy today, and I am proud of myself too.

Image by Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

My one goal today was not to make a fool out of myself. I came away from the day proud to say, "this is MY horse and she ROCKS". I think that's pretty damn good!

We got a super late start because both horses were idiots about loading, UGH. I really cannot believe we are dealing with this crap again. How many hours did I spend last summer working on loading? Ridiculous!! Lucy wasn't as bad as Wind (my friend's mare) but she was not good. They both did get on eventually, though, and we started the drive to Groton, MA (100 miles each way).

We got there about 40 minutes before my dressage time, which was not enough. I had to rush to check in, get changed, tack up, get on, and warm up before my test. If there is one thing I absolutely HATE, it's rushing, but that's what I had to do so we did the best we could. My nerves rubbed off on Lucy a bit :( Also Wind was very keyed up and got loose, and while Lucy kept it together, she was very confused about what was going on. Poor thing.

The test went surprisingly well, though! She was tense but she was a good girl. She was very obedient and really TRIED. I was so happy with her. I talked to her the entire time, which apparently I wasn't supposed to do...woops? :D My score wasn't great at all, but I know what we have to work on.

done with Dressage!

We went back to the trailer, did a tack change, I ditched the wool coat, and my friend and I learned our jumping course. We walked the XC course and went back to the trailer, mounted up, and I did a quick warm up over fences. We went right into SJ, where Lucy promptly refused the very first jump. GRRRR. It was totally my fault; I stared right at it as we approached and I was not there for her. Second time around we did it just fine, and the rest of the course went very well!

We went straight from SJ to XC. She stopped at the first jump on XC but didn't back up at all, so I made her jump it from a stand-still. HA. We weren't penalized for that, YAY! After that, we got in the groove and XC went by super fast! I let her canter about 50% of the jumps but chose to trot up to jumps that I wasn't 100% sure she'd be good over. She ended up being so honest and I really had a fun time. I think she did, too!

(c) Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

(c) Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

(c) Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

(c) Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

(c) Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

We ended up 4th overall. I am SO proud of Lucy. She started out a little frazzled, but so did I. She pulled it together and really came through for me. I adore that horse, I really do. She has grown up so much and I was just thrilled with her good nature and attitude. Out on XC, I was cantering toward fence 4 and I thought "wow, I'm really doing it. 3 years of work for this day and here we are!" and I almost got a little teary!! Then I was like, SNAP OUT OF IT! hahaha. I was just so pleased that we had a good day.

we had an INCREDIBLE support system. look at all these wonderful people
who came to cheer us on!!

Lucy, me, Wind, and my friend Cassie, who also competed! She had a rough
day, poor Wind was stung in the NOSE by a bee...um OUCH!! Their day
ended abruptly in show jumping because Wind kept shaking her head
and she refused a jump three times. They did go out on XC though, just
to school. The event organizers were awesome about it!

We packed up and headed out, and stopped at Pinkberry on the way home. If you don't know what Pinkberry is, let me tell you:

IT IS AWESOME.

You should go.

trailer door on left, Pinkberry awesomeness on right.

the girls content in the trailer, sharing hay

pink and yellow Davis boots!

 We have video of the XC and SJ phases coming up in the next couple days!!

coolest jumping lesson ever

Yesterday, Lucy and I ventured to Massachusetts for an XC lesson with Suzi Gornall. Suzi is well-known for her success as a rider and a trainer, and she has a lot of experience with OTTB's. I was offered the chance to split a group lesson with my barn owner and jumped at it - how cool is that?

I packed the trailer the night before and double checked that I wasn't forgetting everything. Lucy was a JERK and a half to get on the trailer so I am glad she's all I had to worry about! Once she finally got on, we headed out. Two friends came along with me to take photos and video (I have great friends!!). On the way there I kept going down the list in my head. I'd panic and think, "holy crap, did I forget my girth?!" and then I'd remember putting my girth in the trailer. I did the same thing with my boots and my helmet, panicking that I forgot both, but then visualizing exactly where they were in the trailer. I'm such a weirdo.

Lucy unloaded great (hey, at least we can do one thing regarding trailering correctly and without much flair), and I tacked up and walked up to the ring with my BO. We warmed up and then Suzi started tweaking things. Before long, I had a really nice trot where I felt Lucy wasn't way out ahead of me, and she was timing her steps to my posting, instead of the other way around. This was really the lesson of the day, and we touched on it at the trot, canter, and then over fences of all kinds. I was  worried that Suzi would ask me to jump things I wasn't comfortable with, but I didn't feel overfaced at all. I felt comfortably challenged, and I think that is the mark of a good instructor.

We started jumping by going through a line of 2 cavaletti jumps. It was a six stride line but Lucy wanted to do it in 5...of course. So we got her going nice and soft through that, doing it in six strides, and then we built on that with some natural obstacles. She jumped everything readily and happily until Suzi tacked on a simple stadium-style jump in the ring, probably 2'6" ish, with a green filler. Three strides out, Lucy felt confident. Two strides out, she felt confident. One stride out, EMERGENCY BRAKES! I almost ate it because I had started committing to it with my upper body already, but my heels saved me. It was a dirty stop though, which I do not appreciate! The second time into it, she stopped again, but it was mostly because I got nervous and was probably telling her subconsciously to stop. It was not a dirty stop, more like a fizzle out in the last three strides. The third time, I really put my leg on her and pushed her with my seat. She leaped over it and I got way left behind. The fourth time was somewhat passable; not perfect but I stayed with her at least. The fifth time was really good, though...lol.

Suzi really liked Lucy a lot. She liked her gung-ho attitude and I really liked the way she taught. She explained things well and had great insight. She complimented my leg, too, which made me blush. I want to go back!

Here are some photos (video is still being worked on):

that super scary jump...yup

I love my girl!

In other wonderful news, I WON the Tack of the Day/Eventing Nation photo contest, so THANK YOU to everyone who voted for me!!!

Equine Affaire 2011

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!