cash makes the horse world go round

Back from the brink of insanity/poverty thanks to my new job, I am now able to afford some extra bonuses for Lucy the Princess. The chiropractor is coming out tomorrow to give her an adjustment and also check the fit of both saddles (Lauren's and mine), and I have gone and signed myself up for a rather pricey lesson with Niall Quirke. I think we learned so much from the Eric Smiley clinic, and it completely changed the way I ride (for the better!) and I hope to gain as much knowledge from this lesson with Niall.

We've been going on lots of hacks, doing some ring work, and finishing every ride with a nice hop over one of the smaller XC jumps. She has been going so well, and she seems very content.

out exploring, bug free

Today we had a really nice, really long trail ride with Maddy and Pretty (an Arabian mare). We walked through the trails to a nice park that we visit sometimes. This particular park has some softball/baseball fields and today they were having a game. No problem for Lucy, but Pretty went into insta-Arab mode, tail flagged, eyes bugged out of her head, ears on high alert. We didn't have any problems until we were past the softball field, because three little girls apparently really wanted to pet the ponies, but instead of asking us, they stalked us through one of the fields, trailing about 50' behind us. It was like a game of red light/green light because when I'd turn around and look at them, they'd be walking, but when I would return to looking forward, they started running toward us. Understandably, Pretty could not handle that nonsense. I turned around quickly and caught them running toward the horses, and I ended up taking Lucy over to them and giving them a gentle lecture on safety around horses (i.e. DON'T RUN UP FROM BEHIND THEM!) and then let them all pet Lucy's shoulder.

After the three girls went back to their parents and left us alone, Pretty relaxed considerably and the rest of the ride went smoothly. When we got back to the barn, I pulled Lucy's mane. It was right on the edge of out-of-control but I pulled it really short, so I hopefully will not have to pull it for another few months.

almost done, giving my hands and her neck a break!

In other horse-related news, Kenny's dad got us these awesome aftermarket mirrors for the truck that are specially designed for trailering. They come standard on most of the bigger trucks but Kenny's Silverado 1500 had regular mirrors on it that made seeing around the trailer very difficult. The new mirrors are much bigger in size, have a fish-eye mirror on the bottom, and telescope outward to allow the driver to see as much as possible even while towing a trailer.

Cairo likes them, too.

Now we just need a trailer...ahhh.

XC school at Course Brook Farm

The Queen Bee, photo by Amanda Rains/Red Horse Photography

Yesterday morning was an exciting one - we were heading out to Course Brook Farm in MA for an XC school with Suzi Gornall. Lucy started the day off in style by getting loose at the barn before getting on the trailer...I took her lead rope off so I could put the chain over her nose because she was being a bit strong when I was leading her around, and she waited until she knew the clip was undone and then said:

She had a GRAND time running around, getting all the other horses riled up, and playing hard-to-catch. We corralled her into the indoor where she finally stood for me to catch her, and then she got her little heinie kicked on the lunge line. Oh, you think it's so much fun to run around? Well then you can do it on the lunge line.

Yes, two can play that game!

After a good amount of lunging, and then some refreshing on ground manners, she was a perfect angel. She loaded in no time, trailered great, unloaded at CBF, stood for me to tack her up, and let me mount from the ground. We walked around the trailer area on a loose rein while the rest of our crew tacked up, then hacked back to the cross country course.

Suzi asked me what my goal was. I told her about our massive failure at Groton House and said that I didn't care what height we were jumping; today I needed to get confidently over some jumps. That is exactly what we did; the "scariest" jump was a 2'3" (if even that) log that was hoisted up in the air, with a small ditch underneath. Going up to it I was like, THAT IS A SCARY JUMP!!! but Lucy hopped right over it. Given my defensive ride, she threw in a few bucks upon landing. Suzi said I needed to stay off her back a bit more and let her jump; she is a nice jumper but jumps very round and I should try to stay out of her way better.

One other thing was that she loaded like she could not WAIT to get on the trailer. WTF horse? We used my barn owner's ramp load trailer, and of course her super sexy Dutch Warmblood gelding was in there. I think the key to my loading issues with Lucy is to buy myself a nice ramp load trailer and an even nicer Dutch Warmblood. Yup, that's what I need! Kenny, are you reading this?

I hired a friend to come out and take photos for me, so here are a few! Check her out here (Red Horse Photography on Facebook).

warm up gallop around the field

pep talk from Suzi

can we just jump little logs forever please?

folks, this is why I do what I do

the scariest jump of the day
no really, I was petrified of it...

The Lucy Special

trotting through the "water jump", which had really dried up to nothing
more than a puddle.

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!!!

switching it up

I have been a bit absent this past week. It was an extremely difficult week for me personally. My friends horse being put down was a very sad thing that happened amongst many other sad things. I didn't ride at all last week with the exception of Sunday.

On Sunday I got the opportunity to have a lesson at a near-by dressage facility called Woodwind Farm. Lauren was also having a lesson. We had bought the lessons on Groupon for a killer deal and Lauren had arranged to use hers on Sunday. I went to watch her lesson and then it became apparent that they had time to do mine also on that day, so Kenny and I drove to the barn, hooked up the trailer, loaded Lucy, and drove back up to this other farm. Crazy? yes. What I really needed after the week I had? yes.

The lesson went very well. I was most proud of Lucy because she had only been ridden twice all week (by Lauren) and yet she got off the trailer, stood on the cross-ties to get tacked up, and was a well behaved lady for the whole lesson at a strange barn. However, when I tried to cross-tie her in the wash stall area, she flipped out, broke through the cross-ties, and ran up to the barn. Then, she refused to get back on the trailer. So it seems our trailer woes are nowhere near "fixed" and I guess we'll have to go back to square one for that. After some brief lunge line work, I did get her on, but it was embarrassing nonetheless.

Anyway, here are some photos:

this is how she was straight off the trailer...not bad.

The majority of my lesson focused on reforming my horrible and stubborn
hunter perch. Even after 45 minutes, I couldn't make myself sit up.

Lauren riding Dan, or Fabio as I thought he should be named ;)

videos from yesterday

Slightly sassy...

Evasions

If you watched the video that I posted yesterday, you probably saw Lucy's new fun game: switching her lead as an evasion.

Let's review a brief history of Lucy's evasions:

1. Running around like a giraffe with her head in the air and singing "Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalala!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" to herself constantly.

2. Grabbing the bit and going for it (this was built on evasion #1).

3. Leaping through the air like a Lipizzaner.

4. Bucking.

5. Standing in one place no matter how hard I kicked her (and I was NOT nice about it).

6. Standing in one place and kicking out every time I urged her forward.

7. Rearing (this lasted two short days because there was NO delay in swift and severe punishment for this behaviour, AKA, she got her little dappled heinie kicked).

8. And most recently, the swapping of leads.

You may think, "Wow, how wonderful! A horse with a built-in lead change!" and yes, it is quite wonderful, but not when I am trying to do everything humanly possible to prevent her from swapping her lead, i.e. bend her around my inside leg, block her outside shoulder with my outside rein/leg so that she can't pop it out and change her lead, etc. Despite all of that, my athletic-to-a-fault little mare still manages to do the most even and perfect flying lead change, and around a corner no less.

My instructor watched this happen in our lesson four times. The first time I took the blame. "Well that was totally my fault; I had a half-ass bend going on and I probably wasn't even supporting at all on the outside." He just replied, "well fix it!" and then he coached me through it. So we picked up the canter again and wham, she did it a second time. This time I got mad. I didn't want to be asking her for a flying lead change at this point in her training, so I had to bring her down to a trot, and then I had to spend time getting her balanced again, and then I could ask her to pick up the canter. It just took so LONG that by the time we were cantering again, she had already finished celebrating her victory *and* planned her next move. I said this to my instructor and he assured me that she hadn't won because she was still moving forward, but I know the way the female brain works and she had totally won.

I was screwed before I even picked up the third canter, and once again, she did it. Now we were just trying to get once around the ring at the canter without any changes so that I can ask her for a trot transition on MY terms, and not because she's popped her lead. It took four canters to do this, and she was absolutely tickled pink with herself. So crafty, so clever, SO INFURIATING.

And don't doubt that as soon as I master this evasion, she will come up with another one. It's just the way it goes with this horse!! I can't say I'm excited to discover what new fun games she devises, either...

But yes, when we eventually do start schooling changes, I am confident it will be a breeze.

photos from today's lesson

Happy :)


"Good girl, Lu."