BCHP ST - N

I'm going to try very hard not to make this show recap whiny and negative, no matter how much I want to. While yesterday's show didn't go at all the way I wanted, there were still some good things to take away from the experience.

Hubby and I had a disgustingly early 3:30 wake up call and we stumbled into the barn just after 4. I gave Bobby his grain and forced myself up the hill to grab a pony out of the paddock to longe her for one of the girls that was going to a hunter show with the barn that morning. Fortunately, she was a very good girl and didn't make a fuss about getting led about in the dark before getting worked in the indoor at such an early hour, but I was sleepily doubting my decision to be a nice person by volunteering for this job. I put her away, hayed the barn to keep them quiet, and then wrapped Mr Magee and took him out to get loaded. He was totes confused and distracted and was so busy looking around him that he forgot to pick his feet up when walking into the trailer and fell into it. Yep. Giving us a glance into how the rest of the day was going to go.

Dressage

Despite giving myself just over an hour before my ride time, I still somehow managed to feel rushed and like I was moving way too slowly. Getting myself ready, tacking up Bobby, picking the hay out of his braids, and finding my stock tie somehow seemed to eat up my entire hour and I quickly threw Bobby on the longe with his side reins out in the parking area.

I trotted him to the left for all of three minutes before having to call it quits and get on. He was surprisingly more cooperative than he was last weekend, but still just too tense and too braced to really put in the work he's capable of at home.

keeping the bell boots on as long as possible!

one last canter before getting called over.

Our test was...alright. It looks and felt smooth, flowing, and obedient, but I was riding my lady balls off to keep him focused. He kept trying to sneak glances down into the warm up ring that we were overlooking. Thankfully, we were the second pair in our division to go and there were only tree Training riders so no one was jumping yet. There were no mistakes, but there was no fanciness either and we scored 7s pretty much the entire way down to tie for 6th with a 32.6. There was less than 8 points separating our entire division after dressage.

Stadium

Bobby warmed up fabulously for stadium. He was hitting his distances, he was moving forward without getting strung out, and he wasn't at all fazed by the considerably more crowded warm up or all the horses jumping around him.

such a good pony.

calm pony pants.

We headed over to the ring just as the first rider was starting his round. There was one rider that wanted to get going so she went before us. Bobby curled his head to his chest despite being on a loose rein when she went in and started gnawing on his bit. He doesn't like to wait around for the jumping. The course had some crazy turns in it, but overall looked very doable, and despite the massive amounts of rain we got Saturday the footing was great. 

First jump? Fine. Landed on the correct lead, circled around to the right, and:

Ok. A chip. Nothing we haven't run into before. A bending line across the diagnol, I gave him a little more leg and three was...passable. Sharp left turn to an oxer on the short side right in front of the judge's booth and Bobby bunny hopped over it. Another sharp turn to a two stride and Bobby was so busy gawping at the judge that by the time I yanked his head straight again, he was like, "Whoa! Where'd that come from?!" and ran out. Circled him, he skittered sideways at the judge again, and ran out again. I gave him a whack behind my leg that he kicked out at, I turned him on a tiny circle and trotted him over it.

the offending fence with the offending judge behind us.

By that point we were both frazzled and Bobby just got faster and longer and more spastic. We somehow made it over 5b and 6 before crashing through 7. I ended up sitting on Bobby's neck and we were obviously eliminated. I came out of the ring mad, but also really confused. What was his deal? Why the drama over a course that he really should have been able to cruise around? Our course last weekend felt great and the turns were a lot crazier. Hubby was watching with our trailer neighbor's wife and he relayed that she said it looked like Bobby just wasn't seeing the fences until he was on top of them. That very well may have been the case; he was so distracted by the large crowd and horses milling around the arena--something that we didn't have last weekend where we were the last pair to go of the show and had the place to ourselves--that he wasn't focusing on his job.

I went over to the TD and asked if we could still try to go around cross country. She gave me a brief but well deserved lecture about my disastrous stadium round, but agreed to let me go as long as I pulled up at the first sign that he was going to pull the same shit that he did in the ring. I readily agreed as I had no desire to get myself hurt and cross country fences don't come down when you jump into them. 

Cross Country

Course walk

The course was soaked when we walked it. Absolutely saturated. Listen for the suction/swimming noises on the helmet cam and you can get some idea of how wet it was. It was also massive. 

The first two fences went okay, although Bobby felt obligated to take as many zig-zags as he could to fence 1 before straightening out. The third jump was a giant drop.

Thank God for my cross country schooling where I felt like I had dominated banks because I would probably have walked up to it and gotten a stop otherwise. As it was, I still made him trot it and he launched off of it Superman style. We trotted through the swamp on landing and went mud bogging through the woods. At fence 10, I began to lose control. 

Fence 10 was actually his best effort on course. He had a big, forward canter going to it, took it in stride and carried on strongly. Too strongly. Fence 11 was the N version of the dreaded "farm stand" that I fell at last year and I was just as freaked out by it as I was then. I wanted to get him focused on it so he could see that it was steps and not just a solid upright like it looks, but he blew me off and sailed over it from a mile out. Same with 12. And 13. And 14. After 14, I ripped his face off with all my strength. After the "palisade" (the ramp thing), look for his head to go shooting up in the air. That would be me sitting him on his ass. He was completely ignoring me and just steam rolling through my attempts at braking.

That was going to get us hurt for the "roller coaster" of 16 A and B. 

up a steep, short hill to this hanging log where you can't see the landing

land downhill, down this short, steep hill into
a ditch and across the road

to another hanging log.

I fought with him to get him to trot the fence as I didn't want to go mach speed down a hill that he couldn't even tell was there, but he was insistent on cantering. Fortunately, I was hauling on his mouth enough that when he  got to the jump and saw the landing, he had enough sense to stop instead of catapulting over it. We stopped there. We'd already earned our E, no need to finish the last two jumps.

The helmet cam:

Where do we go from here? Ughhhhhhhh, I don't even know. It's still hard for me to wrap my mind around our stadium round. I just can't believe it went so awfully. I know that Bucks has a ton of atmosphere and Bobby does not do well with that. We have never had three good phases there. But that much of a mess? Really, Bobby? Now I have to decide if I want to spend $165 on an entry there for next month, or if I need to find another Sunday one day event in the same time frame--because that's super easy. 

As far as a training plan for the next three weeks until GVRDC.... no clue. Absolutely no idea. I need to figure out brakes, focus, softness and suppleness, compacting his massive body, and on and on.

I scheduled a massage for him Friday and he probably won't really get worked until then. 

Swag!

Yesterday, I got to the barn just as NF was finishing up his last horse so I got a chance to talk with him about Bobby's feet. He asked how our show went over the weekend and whether or not Bobby had had any issues keeping his balance cross country. He said that with the squared off toe in the back, horses can't quite dig their feet in as much and might lose traction a bit. I told him I thought Bobby felt great, but we discussed studs. We both want to wait as long as possible before having to use them because NF thinks that his feet are such a mess, tweaking with his shoes any more than we have to is just asking for a problem. He said that if Bobby really needs them, he can put some tiny studs in like he did for us over the winter and see if that works. For now, though, we're going to stay with where we're at.

I went to grab the horse to put him on the crossties and he started snaking his head and snorting as soon as he saw me. Sassy pants was pissed he missed his turnout the night before. Fortunately, Step Two of Operation: OUTSIDE DRESSAGE was longeing in side reins before I got on.

are those...neck muscles??

He had a little bit of sass on the line, but was overall pretty good. He longed for about ten minutes all together, and then I dumped side reins, longe line, and back up plan draw reins in a big pile and got on.

his tail is soooo long! (for him)

I was frustrated with myself at first. I've gotten so dependent on the mirrors in the indoor to track our progress that I didn't think I could tell if he was going correctly. I didn't want to let him get away with sub-par work, but I also didn't want to push him harder than he's been going without knowing it.

I had him do a lot of trot-halt-trot transitions with a few trot-halt-back-trots thrown in while focusing on keeping him straight and not launching above the bit when trotting off. Between the side reins and the transitions, he really stayed focused and all of the sudden I felt him click into Indoor Dressage mode. Ballin'!

Once he was in gear, it was easy peasy to keep him working correctly. We even had a stretchy walk break before picking up the trot and canter to the left again and he didn't throw a temper tantrum. We finished on a 20m circle cantering to the left, working really hard to keep his shoulder up and not drift out. He got it spot on for three strides and we called it quits there.

dressage mule.

Today was a scheduled jump day and, despite the massive amount of rain we got yesterday, we headed back up to the outdoor. The ring was absolute shoe-sucking slop. Oh, well. The footing at Bucks is almost identical to our outdoor and they're going to get just as much rain as us leading up to Sunday. It was like a home advantage! Sort of.

jump course.

After a brief warm up, I started Bobby off tracking right to the 2'9" vertical down the middle of the ring. He rubbed it so softly behind, he only knocked the rail out of the cup on one side. I didn't feel like getting off to put it back up, so we moved on to the oxer along the long side. Did that a few times, and then changed directions. We made a circle over the gate (against the short side of the ring), then made a line from the gate to the oxer, eventually also adding in the coop (angled against the other short side).

The first time adding in the coop, he jumped so big over the oxer that he landed uncoordinated and under-powered and he came to a slow, calm, "Um, no. That's a dumb decision." stop in front of it. Since I wholeheartedly agreed with him, I turned him around, circled, and came over the coop by itself. We finished there since he was not impressed with the footing and I didn't want him freaking himself out and getting panicked if he started sliding.

sloppy!

In other exciting news, I opened my locker yesterday and saw a giant pile of swag! NF and I were the only ones around, so I had no idea who it came from or if it was even supposed to be in my locker. I left it in there overnight and asked a.m. BM this morning about it. Apparently p.m. BM's mom owns a tack store (I think that's right) and BM got a bunch of loot and decided to share the wealth with me. Awesome!!!! So what did I get? A massive stack of dressage and eventing magazines, a shaped white show pad, a pair of black leather gloves, a bag full of half a dozen pairs of bell boots in swanky colors (not going to lie--lime green and hot pink excited me), and.....

dreamy.

It was like the best Pony Christmas in May ever. I can't wait to show off this bad boy this weekend.

rocking the lime green bell boots

Bobby gets tomorrow off. We'll do another outdoor dressage ride Saturday before he gets bathed and braided and locked down for a 4:30 am departure time. Ugh.

Operation: OUTSIDE DRESSAGE

This Sunday we're headed to BCHP where Bobby is, without exception, as squirrely and as squiggly as they come. Side reins are getting packed alongside the longe line and we'll be taking advantage of their round pen before even heading over to the warm up.

To work on the issue of Bobby's cracked out gerbil brain at home, today I pulled out the draw reins and we headed up to the outdoor.

working on no llamas last summer.

Obviously I don't put draw reins on, crank my horse's head down, and call it a victory. They come with their own set of problems. He wants to put his poll down too low and when asked to do something really hard, he tries to curl behind the bit. However, for Bobby, just wearing them is enough to hold his attention and to keep the periscope down. It's easier for me to get him going forward and bump his head up than it is to bring the drama llama head down, fight for bend, fight for straightness, and fight for a sliver of his attention.

To start with we alternated between a working trot with half halts to get him sitting on his butt instead of dragging his toes, lengthenings down the long side, and leg yields. The arena was sectioned off to measure out a large dressage ring for a rider that had a dressage show last weekend, so I worked on parts of our test.

Our dressage judge for the show told me that Bobby almost leg yields out on a circle when coming to the canter depart and I need to work on keeping him straighter. I can feel him drift out, but I guess I've just been ignoring it. We had several discussions about my outside leg pressing against his side not meaning "ignore the canter cue" or "pick up the wrong lead" or "throw a shit fit because you have to stay straight". Eventually we got it sorted out, but it's going to be something we need to keep working on.

It wasn't a breathtaking dressage school by any means, but the problems were worked through as they came up and we moved on instead of constantly fighting each other. If he can just learn to keep his focus while outside, we'd be in good shape. Tomorrow I'm going to longe him in side reins and see if we can have a polite school outside without the draw reins.

He's staying in tonight because his shoes are desperate to part ways with his feet and I don't want them getting ripped off before the farrier gets out tomorrow morning.

Burgundy Hollow HT - N

I had a minor panic attack when I arrived at the barn yesterday morning. I was wrapping Bobby's legs and noticed that there was no poop in his stall. BM walked by and I asked if he had gone out the night before. Despite the big, starred note I had left on the board for the barn worker, Bobby had spent his night frolicking in the field. Miraculously, he still had all of his shoes on and all he needed was his back legs washed off.

Dressage

Here's how dressage warm up went:

"hellooooooo, bobby. fucking pay attention!"

I knew as soon as we got into the warm up ring that we were not going to put in even a remotely respectable  test. Bobby had zero interest in softening, bending, maintaining rhythm, or listening to me. Horses were out on xcountry and all he wanted to do was watch them go around.

one of us had our dressage britches on.
it was not the four legged one of us, by the way.

I did minimal w/t/c before sticking him on a circle and trying to get him to soften and bend. It didn't work. At all. I rode into the ring trying to keep Bobby strung out and plodding instead of drama llama-ing and exploding. Came down the center line, made our first circle, and I really focused on getting my geometry correct to pick up points where I could. I was chanting a little mantra of "Ride into your corners" when the judge blew her whistle. I rode into my corner alright....but I was supposed to be going back down the center line. Dang! I didn't let it rattle me and we carried on back on track.

We got 6s and 7s for our trot work. We managed to pick up a few more points at the canter, getting an 8 and 7s. We ended with a mediocre but well deserved 34.3 that tied us for second. Hubby only got the trot work on video because he abandoned his filmmaker duties to retrieve the dogs who were barking at the tool who parked two inches from our trailer and hung out with his door open and radio on.

Stadium

I took my time to get ready and headed down for stadium twenty minutes before my ride time. There was one rider just going into the ring to jump and then us. They were running way ahead of schedule, but I wasn't going to rush.

Jumped the X and the vertical, making use of my neck strap to keep my balance on the uphill approach to the warm up jumps, and then headed down to do our round. The jump crew volunteer asked me what number I was and I looked down and realized I didn't have my pinny on. I cantered Bobby back to the trailer and enlisted our trailer neighbor to ransack the truck and trailer with me to find it. Thank you random fellow competitor! We eventually dug it out, tied it on, and Bobby and I hurried back.

Here's our crazy, twisty course:

say what?!

Bobby felt okay through it. He was a little wiggly making the turns, but once he got straightened to the fence, he was all business. We did have one chip, of course. But only one this time instead of every single fence!

not sure what i'm doing.

It was a clear round that I actually wasn't embarrassed to do in front of other people! Well on our way to checking off one of my year's goals.

Cross Country

The course walk.

Bobby came around the corner of the stadium ring and saw the start box ahead of him and instantly started jigging sideways. Hubby had to hold on to him while I put my helmet cam on and once he let go, Bobby trotted right off. Pony was ready to do his thing!

Bobby was a total super star. He took a little peek at fence 3, but didn't back off of it all. Fence 4 kind of wigged me out and it was on a downhill landing. I thought about trotting it, but Bobby wanted to canter it so I let him do his thing and he popped right over. We trotted across the messy road crossing, and that halted our momentum a bit so that when we came over the ditch to the big roll top, he was a little under-powered and threw in an extra stride to climb over. After that, he just cruised right along for a super smooth round. 

Watch for yourself! (It repeats for some reason. It's only a 4ish minute video.)

Double clear jumping rounds for our first full Novice? Heck yes! The COTHer that got me hooked up to all the eventing venues in our area was volunteering with her daughter and she stopped by the trailer when we were done to compliment Bobby. She said he looked super smooth and super confident. She was stroking his mile long ears while we chatted and he passed out with his lower lip flopping. Poor thing also had to miss his nap by getting turned out at night.

Our tie for second was broken by our dressage tests meaning I moved down to third. No surprise, and I was really happy just to make it around so easily. We stopped by the ice cream truck on our way back to the trailer and got popsicles and dog treats for the hounds. 

Ribbons, ice cream, and a good pony made for a totally rocking day.

creeping on the mares. what's new?

Driving!

Remember way back in December when I announced I was going to learn to drive? Drive a horse, that is. I'm already a confirmed liability behind a car wheel. Well between the snow and then the rain, it just kept getting pushed farther and farther back. No more, ladies.

I got to the barn early this morning to get in a quick ride on Robert. He had just lay down for his morning siesta so I went up to the outdoor to watch the last half of a lesson to let him get his snooze on.

nobody interrupts bobby's naps.

 He was awake by the time the lesson was over so I took him up to the outdoor. Warmed up on a circle over a big X, came over a small grid (vertical, 2 strides to a bounce or vice versa) a few times each way, and finished with the coop once in each direction. As I was giving him his bath, BO came by and said she was going to drive Artie if I had time to stick around.

artie.

She showed me how to tack him up, took him for a spin down the driveway, and then came back and asked if I wanted to go. I was climbing into the cart before she even got done asking. She let me hold the lines to trot him back up, but he's so impeccably trained he pretty much drove himself. So fancy.

Then it was time for a horse more my speed:

star!

Ok, so she's a pony, but still. The weekend barn worker, K, learned how to drive from the Amish while living in Lancaster so she helped me get Star ready while BO untacked (unhitched?) Artie. BO had me line drive her around a little bit to get used to her steering.

And then we hooked up the cart! K jumped in with me to make sure I didn't die while BO gave me a basic rundown of how Star drives. I backed her up, told her to "come around", and off we went. I wanted to walk a bit first on my first "solo" drive, but Star had other ideas. I was like, "Walk. Star! Walk!" and Star was like, "Shut the hell up back there. I know what I'm doing. You certainly don't."

Ponies. Pony mare no less.

I eventually got her back to the walk (very begrudgingly on Star's behalf) and we ambled around a bit before turning around and "asking" (ok, letting) her trot back. We picked up another passenger--a little girl whose parents want to train their mule to drive and had stuck around to watch--and made the loop again. K went solo to finish the pony off and then the three of us clambered back aboard to pose for pictures.

k, h, and me!

I was giggling like a little kid the whole time. I had so much fun! BO said that now that I know the basics, it will be easier to fit a drive in. Star got stuffed full of cookies for not killing me, Bobby got locked in his stall for the night, and I dragged eighty pounds of tack home to clean.

Hopefully our show tomorrow will be as fun as trotting down the road with a pony!

Melt down in the outdoor

Well, after two good dressage schools in the indoor, I got ambitious and decided to try my luck by taking the show to the outdoor. Bad decision. As soon as we entered the ring, Bobby's periscope went up and his head went every direction. I put him right to work at the trot to try to focus his attention and it actually kind of worked. Not great work by any means, but he wasn't giving himself whiplash.

After the mediocre trot work, I brought him back to the walk and tried some leg yields. He wanted none of it so I grabbed a long whip off a barrel in the ring and we discussed moving the hindquarters over. There was a little drama about me holding a whip, but he remembered his dressage whip tap-tapping that didn't kill him and scooted over. The leg yields carried over beautifully at the trot tracking right, and then we switched directions and lost everything.

He would not bend to save his life--and I threatened it. Shoulder in? NO. Bend through the corner? NO. Bend on a 20m circle? HELL NO. Grrrr. It was hot, there were flies out, I'm PMSing, and I already have a short temper so before things got out of control and he totally shut his brain off from me fighting with him, I made the smart decision and headed down to the indoor to resolve the problem peaceably.

I put him on a 20m circle and we walked until he relaxed and softened and bent. Then I picked up the sitting trot and we stayed on the circle until he was rhythmical and bent. Then I very very quietly asked for the canter that he calmly stepped into and we were able to move off the circle and eventually do a couple of shallow counter canter loops.

buttercup head goes for a walk.

We had a mental cool out walking up by the paddocks.

skye was the only horse that bothered lifting his head when we went by.

Got back to the barn and gave the nasty beast a bath where his attention span quickly dwindled.

watching star graze.

helping weed.

raiding the bath stuff.

It was not really the last flat ride I would have wanted before a show, but oh well. I think we'll both enjoy having tomorrow off.

Lengthenings

Have you guys ever had one of those mornings where you wake up, look in the mirror, and find yourself gasping, "Holy shit! The zombie apocalypse is upon us, and it's started with me!" That would have been me this morning to the point where I put on makeup just to go to the barn. I was that terrifying. Pig Dog felt that she had to outdo me and found something obviously dead and truly foul to roll in and came trotting up the driveway as I went down to check the mail covered in road kill slime.

be glad you can't smell her.

 I stuck her stinky ass on her chain because there was no way she was hanging out inside where she has free access to the furniture while I'm gone. When I got back, she got an ice cold bath from the hose and she's now cavorting about the yard with a relieved-to-be-dry and normal smelling Darcy. (cough, cough. It may have something to do with the fact that Darcy is my dog and she's a perfect little angel puppy and Pig is Hubby's dog.)

fortunately pig dogs love getting wet.

On to Pony Pants.

He was far less enthused to head down to the indoor than he was yesterday, but yesterday's weather was grey and chilly and today is sunny and warm. I would have much rather spent it on trails as I'm sure he would have, but turkey hunters put the kibosh on that.

Because he was a bit more push-along today, he was also easier to get into work mode. He resigns himself to his fate pretty quickly when he's not feeling high as a kite. We had kind of a stop-and-go warm up as a new boarder trailered her horse in as we were doing trot work. Bobby finds trailers rather distasteful/spaz worthy (though he does self load without issue) and I gave him a timeout to sit in the middle of the ring and gawp for a few minutes. Once the horse went by, the trailer got parked, and the dump truck returned, he was ready to refocus.

His canter work was a little tense and quick, but a few laps in half seat steadied him and we moved on to lateral work. Bobby's lateral work disappeared for several weeks. He didn't want to step under himself in leg yields and didn't want to move his shoulders for a shoulder-in. His hips and/or back could have been a little sore, but whatever the reason, he's been pretty good the past couple of times. His shoulder-in was still a little sticky, but he was really fab for leg yields today.

crossing the booty.

We finished again with trot lengthenings, something I'm currently only doing along the long side of the arena instead of the diagonal. I don't want him thinking diagonal = lengthening until we've firmly moved up to Training.

I'm not going to lie, I'm really happy with them--especially seeing as how we didn't really start working on them until two weeks ago and we spent all last week jumping instead of dressage-ing. He's not just jetting ahead into a fast trot, and while he's no toe flicking Totilas, my giant, bumbling OTTB does not usually stride out like this:

I told you guys he's one smart cookie.

although he doesn't usually look like one....