I thought long and hard yesterday about how to best utilize Hubby on his day off. Grid work? Eh. That involves pulling out jumps, measuring distances, hoping the footing is actually acceptable to princess toes after all, and then getting mad because grids never ride as well as I think they should. Certainly not another dressage ride. We've had ten too many of those in the past few days. (Something about that math doesn't pan out.) So by default I was left with the xcountry field. Aw, shucks.
don't worry. maybe one day you can be as cool as us.
I went in with a game plan. Bobby was going to go forward, and I was going to be soft and loopy with my reins while remaining in light seat all the way to the fence, over the fence, and after the fence. You see, dear readers, here is the way my brain started working when I was redelivered this large, questionably intelligent, very green, overly anxious OTTB:
Bobby: Ahoy! Jump ahead! (Sometimes Bobby is a pirate?)
My Brain: Roger. Cantering along, cantering along... we're two strides out... quick! Snatch at his face and grind your seat into his back! Well done!
Bobby: The fuck are you doing?! Do you want me to go faster to the jump? Or do you want me to slow down? WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME BOTH??
My Brain: Fuck, that sucked. Oh well. Let's do it again the exact same way!
Here's how my brain worked with Red:
Red: Jump ahead! Jump ahead! OMG, you're probably not even aiming me at it, but jump ahead!
My Brain: Sit quiet, Red's a boss, you don't need to move an inch. Aaaand we're jumping from about three strides away, but that's alright. Slip the reins, stay quiet, and carry on.
How did this disconnect happen? Honestly, I don't really know. But keep this in mind: I owned Red for six years. We had a long time to figure each other out. I've owned Bobby for two-ish years and I didn't start riding him with intent to do real things with him until last year at which point we started at square one. So if it took me six years to figure out how to ride and jump Red well, two years to make some real adjustments on Bobby is like a record!
Uhh, right?
Anyway, back to the plan. Bobby had been out for a couple of hours by the time I got to the barn so I walked him halfway up the hill to the field and then trotted the rest of the way for warm up. Every time he dropped pace a smidgum, I put my leg on him like he'd just slammed to a stop. Bobby was a little confused about my newfound brains assertiveness, but he agreed to play the new game and marched right along.
We did a couple of logs a couple of times with a loop in my reins, my butt out of the saddle, and a happy, forward horse that didn't change pace once. Blammo. I just fixed my horse. Or, at the very least, I made my horse not hate me as much as usual.
We headed down to the stacked logs on a hill and came up to it uphill. Same thing: forward pace, not-tense horse, even pace. We did it a few times before I was like, "There is one thing missing here: my leg. It's way back there.... in a different county." My stirrups were way too long and I could feel my leg swinging in the breeze over the jump. So I shortened them two holes and felt way more secure.
the noble steed waiting patiently while I shortened my stirrups.
I told Hubby we'd do the oxer and the stacked logs downhill and be done, which pretty much sealed the deal of the next jump not working out. Balls. The oxer is short in length, airy, hard to read, and rickety looking enough that even riders give it the ole "o.O" Bobby was like, "Nope. No thank you." And then Bobby was like, "No thank you? I actually meant to say NO FUCKING WAY." So he had a tantrum, a rather epic tantrum, and we went back to the stacked logs.
but that was good at least!
After he got some more jumping efforts under his belt, I casually trotted him back to the oxer, used my handy dandy legs and handy dandy spurs to keep him straight and forward (Oh ho ho! Who remembers that legs can be used for riding now?) and he went over! I gave him massive praise and called it quits on jumping.
We finished with a victory run up the hill and Bobby cemented the fact that he was much happier this time around than he was when we went out with Sarah and he wanted nothing to do with any of the jumps or with going up the hill because there were jumps on it. Yay, happy (albeit very slow) horse!
Take aways:
I need to make sure my stirrups are appropriately short. No being lazy about checking them.
I need a neck strap because my core is sadly weak right now. Cantering uphill to a jump, I had to grab mane to not lay on Bobby's neck or just park it in the saddle.
I need to keep working on my core strength. I am working on it, but I need to ramp it up. I want to be as strong as my pony!
Lots of jumping practice in my future, but today the hoss has off.
For those curious about massage: I contacted my friend and former fellow boarder F to see how much she charges for massages. She just started her own business doing them again and she's way cheaper than the usual lady I have do Bobby. So when I have the money, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later, I'll bring her out and takes lots of pictures and videos for you guys. I'm sure she can do a better job explaining things than I can.
I didn't get to the barn until mid-afternoon yesterday, but do you know what I accomplished? Getting my mail! Why haven't I been getting my mail? Because the mail lady didn't feel like driving up the driveway to deliver the bundle of mail and the package containing my new vest. True story. I might have flipped a little bit of shit.
such an awkward beast.
I went out to grab the hoss and walked back into the barn to find Bobby's girlfriend Tasha on the crossties. I was like, "Uh oh. I guess I should put him back out!" Fortunately he was easily distracted by me shoving fistfuls of cookies in his face and I quickly tacked, wrapped, and headed down to the indoor. K was just unloading her mare from her trailer and Bobby was like, "O.O" because parked trailers are the devil. Clearly. We were soon joined by Tasha and another rider and K and L got their lesson underway.
The barn is headed to a weekend show, so people started showing up in droves to get horses and the trailers ready, including--wait for it--hooking up the trailers. The audacity! Needless to say, Bobby felt like he was going to spontaneously combust. He wasn't prancing (for once), but I could feel how super tense his whole body was. I tried to get him to trot, but he was having no part of relaxing his back or face. So we walked some more. For a long time. A really long time.
Finally, he settled down a bit and we got to work. I ended up warming him up in the sitting trot to keep him slower with my seat in an attempt to not yank his face off. You're welcome, Robert. His canter was surprisingly fab and by the time we were done, the trailers had been taken care of and Bobby decided the chaos of jumps in the ring + two pretty mares + another rider continuously in our way = warm up at a show and he put his prancing pants on. He was so ridiculously fancy. Every now and then he gives me little peeks that he can be a real dressage horse and I get a bit giddy. Which is good because usually I'm a bit ticked at him. But yesterday he was going around on a feather-light touch, responding to the teeniest, tiniest correction. Own it, pony pants!
He was super sweaty when we were done, so even though it was starting to sprinkle I hosed him down and turned him back out. We were under tornado watch until 11pm, but aside from five minutes of crazy rain, it was the lamest "storm" ever.
"ladies!"
Today was another dressage day because turkey season has started so trails are temporarily off limits and the footing in the outdoor is just bleh lately. Bobby was a bit of a punk warming up, requiring a correction for one thing or another every few strides. He never really hit his stride, but we did accomplish some things. We ran through Novice A to take stock of what we needed to work on: straightness across the diagonals, especially at the free walk; taking up contact right after the free walk and doing quick transitions to trot and then canter without anticipating and trying to go right to the canter; and not launching into the canter at any point.
We did a million transitions from free walk across the diagonal to walk to trot and all start all over again until I got what I wanted. Then we added in the canter and did a million more transitions. I finally had him go through the second half of the test without any massive mistakes or tension. Win!
But I wasn't done with dressage torture yet. Anyone can skate through BN and N A and B. All it requires is 20m trot and canter circles. I want to do at least a T CT this year and definitely First Level dressage so he's got to have some real lengthenings put on him. Bobby wasn't convinced this was a fun game to practice. At all.
He's pretty decent at canter lengthenings, but at the trot he's just like, "Huh?" I asked him down the long side and got almost no response. I asked with more leg and he broke to the canter. Brought him back to the trot and tried again. Bobby vetoed that quickly. "I'M ALREADY TROTTING AND YOU'RE PUTTING LEG ON! THE NEXT GAIT IS THE CANTER! WHY DON'T YOU WANT ME TO CANTER?! WHY ARE YOU SAYING NO? WHY DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT RIDING?! KABOOM. (<---That would be Bobby's brain exploding.)"
We had a little conversation where I chanted his mantra "Backwards is never the answer, Bobby!" and tried again. Leg on, fingers closed, hands forward, shoulders back. After a slight hesitation, I got a bell boot flapping lengthening and Bobby got a "GOOD BOY!!! You are the smartest pony in the whole entire universe!" His ears went swiveling back to me at a million miles an hour. "Oh? That was the correct answer? Dually noted, crazy rider lady. Dually noted."
Now that he's gotten a real one and received big praise for it, I think he'll catch on quickly. There's nothing Bobby likes more than getting things right. Well, maybe cookies, but one can only eat so many cookies.
....And suddenly everything is right. Name that song!
Bobby had Monday and Tuesday off. Wednesday I pulled into the barn and found New Farrier there. Woo hoo! I walked and and greeted him with, "Are you ready to kill me yet?" He answered with, "Ha. Ha. Ha. That was a fake laugh, by the way." Ok, that's not what he really said, but that was the gist of it. I gave Bobby a beastly grooming (Naked Horse loves being outside) while Spyder got done and then talked to NF about what the fuck to do about Bobby's amazing propensity to lose shoes.
He decided to square of the toes of the shoes and set them back because he's finally "okay" with how Bobby's hinds look. Hopefully that will keep him from grabbing the fronts off. Dreamer had wrenched a shoe while locked down in her run for the night, and BM was trying to figure out how she did it as she doesn't have hind shoes or enough space to pick up enough speed to hit herself so hard. NF was like, "It's not the eighth wonder of the world. Bobby does that shit every day." Poor Robert.
With new shoes, I threw on dressage tack and went up to the outdoor where we walked for five minutes and headed down to the indoor. The footing was too wet and deep to work on. Bummer because it was really nice outside. Bobby has recently discovered how much easier leg yielding is when you lead with your shoulder and just let your bum trail behind, so I grabbed a dressage whip and went to work on getting the hind legs to step over.
He caught on right away, but having the whip in my hand was fucking with his delicate psyche and he kept trying to break into the trot every few steps. When we did move on to the trot, he was ignoring my half halts which caused me to get heavy with my hands which then made him go behind the vertical. That was almost a good thing though as every time he did it I remembered to loosen my fingers and soften. After we got some leg yields in the trot, I ditched the whip and ran through Training A.
He was fine until he had to go across the diagnol in canter and he anticipated a flying change. When I asked him for the trot at X, he flew sideways and went up and down. So I calmed him back down, regrouped, and tried again. Much better. Then he had to do the final 15m canter circle and he went flying sideways and went up and down again so fast I lost a stirrup and almost went flying off his side. Really, dude? What's the deal? I sent him back out to the rail and asked him to go at the canter. He did half a dozen laps, I brought him back to a normal canter, asked for the circle, and had no issues. Whatevs, Bobby.
what ponies get to do while i set jumps.
Today I had planned on doing a simple grid: 4 poles 18' apart to eventually be set to small verticals. By the time I got done setting jumps though, I had lost all my motivation. Not even the arrival of my partner in crime (who came bearing new bell boots for Bobby-hallelujah!) brought any excitement.
Got on, warmed up w/t/c, trotted through the poles, and cantered through the poles. Bobby stuttered through at the canter so I asked Sarah to take Memphis through so I could see if it was just my horse being stupid or the jumps were causing the issue. Definitely the jumps. This is why I fucking hate grids. I hate them. Even measuring with a wheel, using a grid from a pro, I can't get them right. I adjusted the two poles causing issues and cantered through once more with okay results. Jumped the tires, jumped the coop, and then parked it in the middle of the ring while Sarah jumped a bit.
After twenty minutes in the ring, we were like, "Fuck it. Let's go on a trail ride." Bobby was super good with Memphis. He let Memph lead up the trail to our galloping hill without going sideways or jigging. Once we got to our hill, I just leaned forward and he jumped into a flat out run. He finally turned his Thoroughbred on! Memphis was waaaay behind us. Now if he can turn his Thoroughbred on while going xcountry, we'll be set.
Bobby led the rest of the way at the walk and as we got closer to where I turn him around to canter during out conditioning sets, he kept glancing back at Memphis to make sure he wasn't going to turn around and take off. He had such a dirty look on his face. Like, "I'm winning this walk race, Memphis, but you better not try to pull a fast one and get a head start on our running race." Turned the boys around, let them loose, and put massive distance between Memphis again. Where was the go button all these years, pony pants?!
I let him have a long canter out to pull him up, brought him back to the walk, and right away his breathing was back to normal. Boss hoss. I'm glad we're getting fitter.
flash on because it looked cute. so there.
I'll try to get to the barn tomorrow, but I have a long To Do list that involves beating down postal workers to try to find my mail. Three weeks and we still haven't gotten anything but magazines forwarded. Awesome, post office. Let's fight.
Ah, no first outing of the year is ever complete without a little drama, right? Remember last year? We got to the barn early, wrapped Bobby, filled the hay bag and water buckets, and we were on our way. As we pull out of the barn driveway, I glanced back in the mirror and said to Hubby, "Not that I know anything about tires, but the front one on the trailer looks a little wonky--like it's tipped out." Back into the barn driveway we go, unload the horse, and Hubby takes the wheel apart to check the bearing. He says things about it that apparently mean it's fine, but we decide to be on the safe side and stop into Advance Auto on our way to the interstate to grab an extra bearing just in case. I call Michelle at Burgundy Hollow to tell her we'll be an hour late and off we go.
"ponies just want to ru-un."
taking off with me. easily controlled. beast.
Bobby warmed up strong but obedient, clearly excited to be in wide open spaces with jumps all around him. He did attempt to take off with me a couple of times in the canter after the firs several jumps. He's not quite ready for just his dressage snaffle on xcountry. Especially not anywhere with hills as I was having a lot of trouble picking his giant head up. We had a little w/t/c and then headed over to play in the water.
After going in and out of the water a few times, I had him jump the black rails and go through the water, and then added the N pheasant feeder after.
The first time over the feeder, he thought about running out to the left, but decided against it and had a bit of an awkward jump. The second time through he was much better.
"omg, it's a jump! am I supposed to jump it?"
normal horse.
After the feeder, we came around and did the grey rails:
We did the N roll top once or twice and then continued up the hill to the double barns.
He was a little backed off of the barns. I don't know if it was because I was coming at them from uphill and that made it tricky for him or what, but I just couldn't get him forward enough to get a good jump. He went over them, it just wasn't great by any means.
srsly?
"ermahgerd, I am running up a hill!"
I decided not to press the issue after going over them a few times even though I didn't get the jumps I wanted, and we moved on to the banks--my worst nemesis. You guys should know by now that I loathe anything that involves going downhill. What are banks? Jumping off a fucking hill! Whose bright idea was this?!
walking off the starter bank. clearly terrifying.
I started off with having Bobby walk off the baby bank. No bigs. Bobby doesn't care about banks. Turned around and cantered back up it. Again, no bigs. Then I thought I was being brave by coming back and trotting off of it. So scary, right? Not when you ride the balling-est bank horse ever.
From there, I decided to grow a pair and I quickly went from, "Eek! I just walked off the tiny Starter bank!" to "Let's just canter off the BN bank. Let's just trot off the N bank." (Baby steps, kids.) And you know what? I had fun! I had fun going off of banks!!! Who would have ever thought that was possible for me?! Yay, Bobby, for making me brave!
ok, so what if I make the best faces ever? don't be jealous.
Off of that high note, we went across the road to the tables. It was a little bit of a walk from the banks, but not too far. However, it was enough of a stop-and-go for Bobby's easily fried brain that I think he kind of shut himself down a bit.
jumping literally from a stand still
"you will jump this, so help me god."
He performed his favorite "go up and down" instead of forward and while I made him jump them anyway, they were almost from a standstill. Hubby and I brainstormed after several such jumps. Hubby's observation was along the lines of, "He just looks like he's being a dick and doesn't want to do it." Well, clearly. I thought maybe his hips were hurting, but when we were finally all done, I realized he lost a front shoe! Looking through the pictures, he lost it right off the bat so I'd imagine the harder ground (and for all the rain we got last week, it was pretty frickin' firm) that he was going over for the double barns and the tables were really hurting his princess toes. The soft sand for the water and the banks was probably much easier to cope with. Also, he just does not like the stop-start process of a schooling. I'm going to have to do a new game plan the next time we go.
With the need for some flow in mind, I set off to make up my own random course as we went along, only worrying about not halting progress. Refusal? Whatever. Carry on to the next. And so I bring you, dear followers, the Bobby Cross Country Song:
Let's face it. You might not get much out of reading this blog, but you're certain to read about, listen to, and see me humiliate myself. I am not ashamed.
Pictures from the Bobby Cross Country Song:
Then he spooked at a jump:
"PRETTY SURE THIS WASN'T HERE EARLIER!"
pretty sure it was, bobby.
Finally! (!!) (Have you made it this far?) The last thing we did was the bank in and out of the water. Remember me being terrified of hills and banks? No, sir. I wanted to do the bank because I thought it would be fun!
Bobby didn't even blink. "Jump off a bank into water? Why not?"
SO. The take home message from the schooling:
For now, over a hilly course, I have to use the elevator bit.
Steering needs to be worked on like whoa. At 8yo, you'd think he'd have a little better concept. Maybe if I was a little more aggressive with my leg (right, remember that thing?), he'd be straighter.
Speaking of legs, mine stayed in place over pretty much ever jump. Big fucking win.
Forward always needs to be worked on. Always. Maybe if my horse could keep his stupid fucking shoes on, we'd do a little better.
I DID BANKS AND HAD FUN DOING THEM! WHO THE FUCK CARES WHAT ELSE?!
having a friends moment.
But hold the phone. This epic post isn't over yet. We're driving down the bumpiest road in existence (a rather major four lane, I might add) when Hubby goes, "Does that feel like it's riding rough to you?" at the same time I glance back and say, "Um, I think we blew out a tire." Deja vu. Pull onto the shoulder, ditch the blow out, grab the spare.... "Hold on. Why the fuck is the spare flat? We just checked the stupid thing this morning!" We put new tires on our old, old trailer all around last year, using one of the old still usable tires as a spare. We have old, shitty things. We work hard to maintain them so our old, shitty things last forever. Needless to say, neither one of us was happy to lose two tires in one fell swoop.
We had to do something though. Hubby called everyone, but no one was open on a Sunday afternoon. Hubby put on our mysteriously flat spare and crawled the three miles to the next exit where we parked and unloaded the thrashing Mr Magee. He trailers like a dream as long as we're moving. He doesn't like being in the trailer when it's parked.
I shoved electrolytes down his throat, fed him half a bottle of Tums (My probios was in my locker. Don't judge.), and let him graze while I called AAA who informed me my trailer was only covered if it had living quarters. Actually, AAA, I will probably be living in this thing overnight if someone doesn't bring us a tire! Does that count?! I did get a number for a company that does RV towing so we called them and they came out to assess the situation. Three hours after the initial blow out, Bobby had eaten two flakes of hay, drank an entire bucket of water, and hot walked himself in circles around me as I sat on a rock in the random driveway we were parked in. Not once did he call out or get wild. Way to stay cool, Robert.
Karl's Towing saves the day.
The guy took Hubby back to the shop where he gave us two really nice used tires for $75 and didn't charge us for the call thanks to AAA. At 5:30, we were finally back on the road.
tired puppies on the ride home.
At 6:45, we were back at the barn where Bobby got fed, unwrapped, and turned out with a boot on his naked foot to wait for the farrier to come and yell at me for not being able to keep my horse's shoes on. What're you gonna do?
Today Robert wrapped up his three days off to help with a brain reset. Hopefully. I didn't go out to the barn at all Wednesday, but I did go out yesterday and today. I spent a long time grooming him, stuffing treats down his throat, and going over his body inch-by-inch to see if I could find anything to explain his latest spaz. Not that he needs a physical excuse. Sometimes he's just a tool.
I really couldn't find anything, so I took him down to the indoor and put him on the longe for around ten minutes. His only "off" step was switching behind while cantering to the right, but it was because he was trying to chase Darcy and canter on a circle at the same time and he almost fell over. Not only is he sometimes a tool, but he's also sometimes just plain dumb.
"I iz a smart horsie. Yes I iz."
Today was mostly the same routine. I got to the barn and gave him a massive grooming to get as much of the mud off his naked body as I could. The only good thing about it getting cool again tonight? Being able to put his sheet back on. Dirty beast. I noticed that he was dropping his hips a bit as I was really laying into him with the curry, so I gave his butt a good grope and decided to give him a little all-over massage.
He really liked the area along his crest, and of course the area where his neck injury was, and he was surprisingly willing to let me rub his girth area. Usually that gets me within inches of being bitten. He must like his new elastic dressage girth. As for his bum, it took me forever but he finally had loose, jiggly muscles. He was so super tight back there. No wonder he didn't want to jump. I've upped my workout and I don't even feeling like moving let alone piggy backing someone up and down hills and over jumps. He was far less interested with any neck work on the right side, choosing instead to show me all his stretching poses and trying to pull my coat off. "Carrots live in your pocket! I need them now!"
Another longe and he looked fab. Light on his toes, a bouncy walk and trot, and a topline that wiggled as he went. I let him graze for twenty minutes as grass has exploded this week and all the poor, starving ponies have been locked into their sacrifice areas. Poor, poor ponies.
So I'm hoping that between the bute, the time off, the massage, and the much underrated bonding time, I'll have a happy, willing horse on Sunday. Let's make this a better schooling than last year's April go-round, Robert!
Ugh, what a cluster fuck this move was. I lived in five different states by the time I was eight, and I haven't lived anywhere longer than two years since I moved out of my mom's house at eighteen, and I can honestly say this was the worst move ever. And we only moved an hour away!! The plus side is, I'm now only fifteen minutes max from the barn. Stellar.
pig says the best part of unpacking is finding all your old outfits.
darcy does not partake in such nonsense.
So what has Mr Magee been up to? The fuck if I know. My brain is so fried.
Last week, we did a lot of trail riding. We explored down by Fishing Creek, but didn't go far as round river stones don't make the best footing. I also nearly lost a boob to a vicious tree branch Bobby was intent on walking me into.
fishing creek.
We found the Stairway to Heaven:
no, really. we did!
And I made it down the Monster Hill by ourselves for the first time ever!! It only took us eighteen months!
"Hold on," you say. "You just strolled right down it like nothing? That doesn't sound like an accurate Bobby and Carly adventure!" No, of course not. Here's the out take:
That's more like it, right? Bobby celebrated by playing in the creek.
We did some dressage work that was obedient for the outdoor (where "obedient" usually isn't a word used in conjunction with riding Bobby), but pretty piss poor quality.
But it was still enjoyable because I was in a t-shirt (!!), we hung out with Sunny for awhile:
And we amused Hubby by going over a jump so he could play with the camera settings:
I followed up the next day with another outdoor dressage school where I shortened my stirrups a hole and my reins an inch and really went after Bobby to work as well as in the indoor. I kept it short since he was working super hard and it was in the seventies (!!), but I think we did a better job. He also got his first bath of the year!
giant ears, giant horse.
We played with Sarah and Memphis, once on trails and once on the xcountry course. Bobby was actually really well behaved on our joint trail ride. He was able to keep his jigging under control and channeled his "I'M WINNING!!!" mind set into simple power walking.
Memphis is all, "I got you this plant."
That is until we tried to show off for Sarah by riding down the Monster Hill with her, and Bobby flipped shit and fell off a cliff. Literally.
there's my horse, sitting on his bum after falling
off a cliff.
I did a flying dismount as he went sideways and backwards at the same time and scooted right on off the path. I did get back on and try again, but his brain was fried and I ended up just leading him down. Again. Grr.
Yesterday we went up to the barn's xcountry course for Memphis's first schooling. Bobby and I loped over a couple of the small jumps in the upper field and did the ditch while Sarah tried to wrangle in The Dutch Hippo's newfound "I'M AN EVENT HORSE!!!" enthusiasm. Then we did five minutes of trot in two point together and did a couple more of the tiny jumps and the tiny bank with them before putting it in park and watching Memphis jump the 2'3" jumps with his knees square to his eyes like they were 3'6" (including the ditch, which was hilarious). Memphis loved this new game and it was awesome to see how cocky and confident he was cruising around.
friends! for once.
We decided to do one more jump and have a run to finish. We aimed for the little (2'3 max, but probably only 2') hanging log that Bobby has done before many times and he sucked way back before running out. Oh, Bobby. I brought him back to the trot and he stopped right in front of it before climbing over it, whacking all four feet on it in the process. I gave him a pat anyway and we walked down to the bottom of the field for our run.
He hopped up and down and didn't really want to go forward until we had made it past the jumps. Then he moved out and had a nice gallop. I looked him over everywhere when we were done. Nothing. No bumps, bruises, lumps, whatevers. I gave him another bath with a healthy splash of linament in the water, gave him a gram of bute, and he'll get the next three days off.
Is it the LH foot still? That's the only thing I can think of that's been showing any sort of "offness". I'll give him a light dressage school Saturday to see how he feels, and hopefully we'll still be on for xcountry Sunday.
