Video, Pictures, and a Ride

Sunday's dressage test. Observations: I need to ride instead of just sitting there like a hot mess. That is all.

Dressage Pictures. Continue on page 12. The only one where it looks like we kind of, sort of look like we know what we're doing is the trot at H.

Stadium Pictures. Also continue on the next page. Robert looks adorable and my leg stayed where it was supposed to. Double win.

No xcountry pictures! She has one of the girl before me and one of the girl after me, but none of me. Fail.

I checked on him Monday and his legs were nice and tight. He got yesterday off as well, and had an easy thirty minute ride today. I did my dressage two point during warm up and while I really wanted to at least equal my previous 10 minute time, I only got 5 minutes done. Yikes. Needless to say that I'm going to be working on that every day.

BO observed in our last lesson that Bobby looked a little "stuck" in his neck at the withers where his old injury site is which might be why he was throwing such a hissy fit about dropping his head. He's getting worked on on Saturday so I'll see what Massage Lady has to say. In the meantime, instead of working on a dressage-y frame, I asked him to go long and low today. He did pretty well--nothing pretty or fancy, but he was very responsive to my aids for once. We finished off with a few simple changes across the diagnol which he nailed every time. It's time to start working on flying changes, I think.

When we were done, he had baby foamy lips! Nothing too crazy, but even a little bit of foamy lips after an obedient ride counts as a success to me.

Aaaand...best of all, my old college roomie, Jen, made me a bunch of bracelets from Red's tail.

blue and gold beads, of course.

I love how tight and smooth she made the braids. Jen makes custom bracelets for $5 a piece. If you want one, let me know and I'll get you in contact with her. She did all five (!) of mine in two days and sent back the extra hair. I think she also does key chains. She needed very little hair to get them done, so you can totally take a snip of your current horse's tail.

Burgundy Hollow HT--Starter

Sorry, guys---no death-defying trailering incidents to report this time. We were actually right on schedule to the minute and got there a full hour and a half before my dressage test. Plenty of time to check in and guage how Mr Magee was feeling.

wearing red's halter for good luck.

Dressage:

I went into warm up way too early. I was expecting to have to work him hard to take the edge off of crazies. He bounced into the warmup area snorting and looking around, but since we were the second divison and the second rider of our division, it was still pretty empty so he had plenty of time to just walk around on a loose rein and look at things.

I didn't canter him at all because I was worried he'd lose his cool so instead we spent a lot of time walking and trying to avoid the little kids in the Intro division who glued themselves to the rail and practicing our trot-halts.

We finally got to go in for our test and I completely blanked out. I can't count the number of times I've ridden this test yet when I trotted in I was like, "Oh, shit. What now?" Bobby, however, was so good. He tried his big, silly heart out but I totally let him down. I couldn't get my shit together fast enough for each movement and he was constantly getting caught off guard when I asked him to do things. I didn't even bother to check if I was on the correct lead when we picked up the first canter and he corrected it by himself. I didn't even check to see if he had switched to the wrong lead or the right one when he did break! Fail. I want to say I should have ridden a lot more aggressively, but honestly I just should have ridden period. Bobby got 6s and 7s down the board (with the exception of a 4 for the "late fix" to the left canter and a 4 for his break in the trot) and I was lucky to get 5s and 6s for my riding. We ended with a 40.

First show of the season rustiness I guess. I can promise you I won't make that mistake again! Overall though I checked off the first goal--we stayed in the arena and Bobby was totally calm througout.

I'll post the video of our test when the pictures go up. Blogger doesn't want to load it right now.

Stadium:

After a boring two hour wait where the hounds and I did our xcountry walk alone so Hubby could stay with Bobby who was quite certain proper trailer-tieing behavior was pawing your way to China (he's never been tied alone before), he got tacked up and we headed to stadium warm up. I had Hubby take the reins while I was adjusting my stirrups since Bobby was being snorty and prancing, and Bobby was now sure he was being led to the track and turned into a frothing, bit-chomping, sideways-walking, ready-to-run Baby Racehorsie. Once I got my stirrups, Hubby let us loose and I cantered him around a few times right off. Having to canter downhill a few times was enough to convince him we weren't at the track and he walked around with restored calm.

burgundy hollow: home of overhanging branches to wipe out
the unsuspecting rider.

We went over each of the warm up fences a few times a piece starting with the X. Bobby broke into the trot and started trantering almost in place all the way up to the jump, but went over. I was like, "We are not starting this bullshit again!" so when he broke again the second time, I really put my leg on and asked him to canter his ass up the hill and over the jump--and he did. "Jeeze, lady. It's about time you participated in this riding competition, too!" He didn't have any problems after that. He just needed to be told what I wanted and he did as I asked.

We finally got a chance to meet the COTHer that helped us get started in eventing last year when she approached us as we were walking around and her daughter was warming up for dressage. We talked with her for awhile as Bobby got a quick lesson in standing still for more than two seconds. Very cool.

After waiting for the judge to run back up to get a chair, and then run back up again to see if there was a bell or whistle she could use (there wasn't), we were finally funneled in to start jumping. And you know what this means....Paint Jump Course Design!!!

blows me away every time.

As you can see due to my excellent talents, this course had zero flow to it. Even just finding a spot to start jumping was tough! We trotted in and Bobby was looking at every jump ready to rock and roll, but I had to weave him in and out until we were semi set up to start in a straight line. However, as soon as I gave him a notch in the reins, he put his game face on and owned that course. He wasn't going to say no to a single fence. I was so proud of him, but I was also proud of myself. I actually rode him the whole time and gave him leg when he needed it and checked him back when he needed it. Team work! Finally!

 

Coming off Fence 6, it was almost a 90* turn to get to 7 and you didn't have a lot of room to turn with the hedgerow to your right. Bobby was gung-ho upon landing and I had to almost sit him on his butt to get him slowed down enough to make the turn. He was caught off guard and I really rode him up to 7. When we got out of the arena, the rider going in was like, "Nice save on seven!" Love eventers. They become insta-friends when you're competing against them instead of the person you have to beat. Although I'm a little suprised people even talk to me when I come out of stadium. I am all about verbal praise while jumping and I'm so loud and crazy with my compliments even I think I sound a little crazy.

Cross Country:

Your virtual course walk.

We headed down to the start box only to find there wasn't a judge there yet. Hm. Fortunately, he was right behind us. Unfortunately, we soon had a pile up of people waiting to go as we all circled around and around and around and around waiting for some word of what we were waiting for. The judge finally got a new radio and then we had to wait for the rest of the judges to check in at their fences. Thirty minutes later, the first riders were off. Let me say again how fun eventers are. Most of our division was either baby horses in their first or second show and a couple of first or second time riders. There was one Eq girl doing her first HT on a too adorable Perhie mare. After seeing one runout after another at the first jump, she was super nervous to head out, but she got over on the first time and we all cheered for her from the sidelines. Talking with her after we were both done, she said it put her in such a good mood for the rest of the course, she just kept kicking and didn't get scared. Woo hoo!

Bobby had his game face on. He didn't think twice about a single one of those jumps and after he made it over the coop that he had his final meltdown at schooling and was looking for the next jump, I had a huge grin on and just sat back to enjoy the ride.

fence 2.

"yeahhh, i'm a xcountry horse!!"

The best part of the course was when we turned off of fence 6 and Bobby saw the bank in front of him. He was like, "A fence I know! I can do this one! Let's go!" And we then proceeded to gallop up and over it to the laughter of the people watching. Oh, Robert. He was pumped after that and I actually had to take more of a hold on my reins because he was pulling me around with his ears pricked ready for whatever was next. Over the log, then you had to go in a diagnol line to get to our fence along the hedgerow. Bobby was locked onto the Novice log that was in his line of sight when he landed and I had to do some Pony Club steering/pulling to refocus him on our baby jump.

I asked him to go through the water even though it wasn't marked for us, but he wasn't feeling it so I let him circle around and we finished the last jump. There was a photographer there this time so you'll have to wait until those pictures go up to hopefully see some good ones.

Scores:

Out of our division of six, Bobby was one of only two horses to finish the xcountry course. We all agreed it was a pretty scary course for babies and apparently the other baby horses thought so too. The other horse/rider to finish? The Eq girl! We got a Mane 'n Tail prize package and Bobby's first blue ribbon.

He was so funny when we were done and waiting for scores. He'd take a few bites of grass and then beg for treats from me or Hubby. He was also happy to just stand there and look around as we gave him pats. He totally knew he'd done a good job and was eating up the praise. Well done, Grown Up Horsie!

Teaser.

Happy Derby Day!

My pick? Creative Cause, though there are a few I like. For the first time in years, I think this is actually a really nice, talented field. Also rooting for Liaison because my amigo from my track days is his exercise rider. Go, Georgie!

Now for a less talented Thoroughbred....

ohh, robert.

I didn't post yesterday because I was having one of those days where everything was going wrong, and if I'd been in a good mood, it would have been NBD, but as it was everything was like, "What the fuck, world?! Why are you out to get me?" It was only fitting that I walked into the barn before my lesson and my horse was a total mud pit.

One he was clean, I headed down to the arena early to set my dressage saddle two point baseline. Thank goodness Sarah pulled in because after about thirty seconds I was bored off my ass and making airplane motions with my arms.

waiting for bo to show up, bobby got decked out
in sarah's dog's new shirt.
gtl, baby.

She stopped to talk with me as I made big, boring loops around and around until she was finally like, "What are you doing?" Don't judge. Especially not when I'm timing myself with THIS:

damn right those are unicorns!

So baseline two-point in dressage saddle? Ten minutes. My ankles were aching and I probably could have pulled off another minute or two, but I wanted to save some mediocre leg strength for my lesson.

And it's a good thing I did because it was 80* and humid as all get out. I had to take a water break every time Bobby got a walk break. It was sooo nasty out. Also, our lesson was less than inspiring. In BO's words, "He's being a tool!" I have other words for it, but call it what you will.

We spent the first twenty minutes trying to get his head out of the clouds and then next ten minutes trying to give him a crash course in remedial steering. All things he knows, and really all things that shouldn't even need to be touched upon in a lesson at this point. We finished up with twenty minutes of real work, focusing on a good halt and non-fall-on-your-face trot to walk transitions. I would have prefered Tuesday's lesson over Friday's, but oh well at this point, right?

Today he got a quick (really quick--like 20 minutes total riding time) jump school over a few 2'6 fences. Baseline time for two-point in a jump saddle is seven minutes. I took a walk break once around the arena after trotting and plunked my ass down since my calves were hurting, but I did the rest of the ride also in two-point as I was cantering and jumping.

This two-point challenge is fabulous! Even with just the 7 minutes to start me off, my heel was like, "Oh? Stay down, you say?" over fences. However, to compensate for good lower leg behavior, my upper body was like, "Let's go this direction! No this direction! Weeeeee!" Let's work together here, guys.

Despite a lack of coordination, Bobby was very well behaved and was jumping like a serious pro. We didn't miss a distance and he felt super smooth over every jump. But maybe that's how he always jumps and I just couldn't tell because my leg wasn't jumping with him....

He got bathed and kicked out to graze while I cleaned the trailer and gathered my piles of crap for tomorrow.

"you left me outside?! with no friends?? horrible woman!"

Now I have to go clean the mountain of tack waiting for me and refrain from eating all the candy I bought for tomorrow. Wish us luck! It's only a 2' division so it can't go too badly!

Ha. Ha ha.

Famous last words.

New Camera!

So I indulged and bought a new digital camera on the sole credit card we have. A camera under my care usually last eight to twelve months at the most, so the fact that my little Olympus lasted a full two years is pretty amazing. However, the screen on it was shot, it didn't like to turn on or off,  and the lens cover thingy never opened all the way on its own. This my new one, only in blue. It's fun to play with, and it's very obedient to my wishes. I brought it to the barn today to test it out.

trip and bobby bothered by the bugs

smartest ponies ever?
maybe not.

I brought him in a little early so he'd eaten his dinner and had time to settle by the time the other horses were coming in and going out. He loves being BFFs with other horses and we had to stop to say hello to Kidd on our way out. Kidd loves other horses too and was happy to slobber all over Bobby's face when he stopped by for his visit.

love nibbles. bobby was covered in hay slime when they were done.

I finally, finally had a nice ride on Bobby without outside help! I went through several of the warm up exercises BO had given us and made sure to give him lots of praise and take lots of breaks. I think the breaks are my biggest downfall--why does he need to trot in circles for twenty minutes?! I'd get pissed too! Trails are for fitness work, the arena is for obedience and happiness work. A dressage test is only 3-5 minutes after all.

I worked on posting"low and slow" (BO's tip) when Bobby started rushing at the trot which is way harder than it sounds. But it does work, so it's something for me to keep working on. I also made sure to pick up the canter from random spots instead of in corners. To the left, I picked it up as I headed onto a circle from E, and to the right I picked it up at X again. Both times from the walk and both times he was pretty friggin' calm. He got the wrong lead behind to the right, but with a little poking from my spur he swapped over and carried on.

We finished with a little hack (only ten minutes) down the trail, but it was all in half seat! Even down the hills! Which terrifies me! So yay! I did do a lot of two point work during our arena ride too, but I realized once I was mounted and walking along standing in my stirrups that a) I don't have a watch, and b) there's no clock to be seen in there! So I plan on picking up a cheapie watch tomorrow so I can set a baseline.

Mr Magee got sprayed down and taken out for some grass to dry when we were done.

fml.

silliest ears ever.

see?

I dropped the lead as I went to close the gate to the arena since he was nibbling on grass along the fence line, and Bobby decided that would be a good time to take himself back to the barn. Only he got distracted along the way....

he found love in a hopeless place....

And finally, we're having some crazy cool weather here tonight, topped off by a double rainbow.

just before the thunderstorm hit.

and just after, taken from off our porch.
nice fricking house, huh?

Case of the missing pulling combs.

Two posts in one day? If that doesn't make up for a not particularly absent absence, I don't know what will!

Today, all I did was longe for thirty minutes and do a little in-hand work. He's not super fond of the footing in the outdoor, especially since it needs to be dragged, so he was a little less enthusiastic than yesterday in the indoor, but he was striding out well. His jaw was mucho tight to start off with and I didn't quit with him until he softened it up.

waiting patiently at the end of the line for me to tell him he can come in.

He went through the same exercises in the outdoor as yesterday--little X, cones and pole, and bridge--and minus one bobble through the cones and pole, marched around like, "Whatevs, mother. This is not rocket science."

I called it quits and headed to the barn with the intention to pull his mane. I had actually planned on doing that last weekend, but I couldn't find my pulling comb in my grooming box, so I just pushed it aside. Well, since his show is this weekend, I wanted to give it time to de-frazzle a bit so I dug in my locker to see if I could find it. Nope. In my tack box? Nope. Did BO have one in her locker? Nope. In the school horse grooming box? Nope.

So I asked one of the boarders if she had one I could borrow. "Sure! Let me grab it!" >Insert digging through her locker for five minutes here.< "I can't find it! I know I have at least two!"

BM steps in. "I know my daughter has one. I just saw it at the show last weekend." >Insert digging through her daughter's locker for five minutes here.< "Hmm, I can't find it."

The boarder was like, "Well, I think I can find one in the carriage house." >Insert both of us opening drawers and lockers to no avail.< WTF, pulling combs? Where have you gone?! At least they're cheap, as I'll now be buying handfuls and placing them strategically around the barn....

Also! (Do you like how I always seem to end posts with some random shit that no one really cares about? Well, you will care about this. Because I told you to.) Aimee over at We All Love Cuna! has proclaimed a challenge. Read about it yourselves, but also do it. I will be taking BO's words of advice and doing my two point in my dressage saddle as too many summers of galloping have given me the "It's like riding a bicycle! You never forget!" muscle memory with short stirrups. But damn it if my legs don't like to go all hibbally-bibbally with longer stirrups. I'll time myself for a starting point tomorrow, but like Aimee, I get bored/distracted of this game really quickly so it might not be an accurate number. I will try though!  So go do work.

Oh, hey!

First, I have to apologize for not spamming you all with daily updates. This every other day or every two days posting must be really hard on you guys. I'm not sure how you've survived without my mundane ramblings, poor equestrienne skillz, and crappy photos. I promise I'll try harder to keep up.

................

LOL.

Whatevski, right?!

Monday, I started down the road towards "Make Bobby Like Me."

*Ohhhh.....oreo cookie cake on tv......must. stay. focused.

*I'm surprised anyone reads this. How you guys put up with me.....

So anyway! I spent a good long time with a curry and my new friend Absorbine Vet Linament with fancy spray attachment so I don't have to glom the shit all over my hands. Bobby is definitely sore throughout his topline so that's where I went to work. He had his ears pinned back the whole time and played the game "Grind your teeth or try to bite your evil mother--you choose!" with gusto.

After thirty minutes of not really being friends, I took him up to the round pen to longe. His ears were pinned mostly back throughout, but Bobby is a product of an equestrian program at an ag school and longeing is his forte. While clearly not happy about it, he did everything without having to ask twice. I broke it up into lots of little pieces: trot two laps, walk one lap, trot one lap, walk three laps, trot four laps, canter one lap, come in, and so on.

To finish off bonding time, we stopped in the outdoor to do some fun in-hand work. The jump with cones under it was disassembled so the cones were on their sides between the standards and the pole was a step out past them. I made Bobby step over the cones with his front feet and stop, and then step over the pole with his front feet and cones with his backs and then stop, and once more with his back feet over the pole. He fumbled through this exercise the first time and plowed through me, so I gave him a sharp tug on his lead rope and we tried again. This time he was ready to listen and was waiting for me to tell him what to do. We went through twice perfectly and he got tons of praise for a job well done.

Next we tried to walk over a baby X. He walked right through it the first few times and was starting to get flustered that the poles kept coming down, so we went through the cones once more for a confidence booster and tried again. This time, he was looking to me to tell him what to do and he sloooowly put one foot over at a time and made it over without incident. We tried again and he went happily over.

Finally, I got him to walk over the trail class bridge for the first time ever in both ways. He was ready to do what I asked him without question at this point so I kind of crowded him onto it and then praised him like the smart donkey he is as he walked over it. We ended with a little more massage and linament and loads of cookies. He was definitely pleased with himself and he didn't seem quite so eager to hate me when I left.

robert's opinion of me.

Yesterday was our lesson. The boys came down early because of the bugs (it was 80* and humid yesterday) so when I went to grab Robert to bring him in so he had enough time for dinner before working, I had to wade my way through a pile of OTTBs.

ah! they're after me!

"where are our cookies?!"

I put the halter on a very dirty Mr Magee and turned around only to be confronted by this:

"you're not leaving until i get the cookies, lady!"

double trouble: trip and spyder.

As Robert was eating, I worked on his back some more. Minimal ear pinning and no teeth grinding this time, and not just because he was eating; trust me--he has no problems being pissy when stuffing his face. I sprayed him down with linament and tacked up. His ears were back when I put the saddle on, but he didn't grind his teeth or try to nip. Small win!

I warmed him up on the longe and his trot was much bigger and his ears looked much happier. Clearly I haven't been working hard enough on loosening him up during grooming and he appreciated the extra effort. BO and I set up a game plan for the lesson: start off just seeing how he goes and if he starts to spiral downwards, BO will be there to help defuse the situation; work on warm up techniques to keep him calm and happy; and if all goes well, maybe run through the test at the end.

BO kept us on our toes and didn't give us time to anticipate things and get tense. She'd call out the movements she wanted us to do almost to the point where we were past where she wanted us to do them, so Bobby and I had to be paying attention to each other, but we couldn't work ourselves up to a hot mess "preparing" to do them.

Things we did:

* Lots of half halts. I like BO because she's not afraid to tell the horse "Absolutely not!" Instead of teeny half halts over and over and over again when Bobby started rushing, she told me to HALF HALT and get his attention back on me, and then ask quietly.

* I did a lot of standing in my stirrups while we started a new exercise to help Bobby free up his back. He really appreciated this and was in tune with what was being asked of him instead of worrying about me bouncing around up there. Also, BO suggested lots of standing work to stabilize my lower leg as it's decided it likes to swing too much for Bobby's sensitive self.

* A lot of what we did was the test broken down into parts, but executed at different parts of the arena so Bobby couldn't anticipate what we were doing. For example, we picked up the right lead canter at X from the walk. We cantered to the left spiraling out in three big circles until we reached C and then walked across the diagnol from there. We halted down the centerline from C and from A coming in from the left instead of right. We halted at X across the diagnol.

* Counter bend work at the trot to help straighten him out down the centerline.

Overall, I'm feeling much less hopeless about Sunday. I'm going to do more ground work with him today and ride him Thursday, then lesson once more Friday, and finish off with a good longe Saturday in between packing and bathing.

I promise I'll bore keep you updated with the details!