Grown Up Horsie rides again!

Friday I did a short dressage school. His trot work was pretty fabulous and I had to remind him less and less that he needs to keep walking forward and not drag his feet. However, his canter work left a lot to be desired. And by that I mean, I desired a bit more control than I was getting. He was being a total monster and I was having a lot of trouble just holding him back, let alone getting any real work out of him. I think he enjoyed his day off a little too much. Baby Horsie is getting fit, fit, fit.

I finally backed off to work him at the walk and trot some more to get him to relax his silly face and bend that silly body to the left. We went back to the canter, but by that point my bum shoulder was hurting so fucking bad it was pretty much useless and I called it quits after one semi-decent circle. I finished the ride with a few walk-halt-back transitions.

This afternoon, I dragged Hubby along as pro photog and set off for the cross country course. Hubby was okay with this because he got to play on the ATV the whole time. The puppies were also pumped to go romping around after him.

sooo slowww.

we did a lot of walking around.

Robert was a friggin' Grown Up Horsie superstar. We only jumped the jumps in the top half of the field because while he probably could have jumped the other, bigger jumps, I didn't want his confidence shaken in any way.

Buuuut.....we did jump every single jump up there and he didn't have a single hissy fit or a refusal or run-out of any kind.

We did have a couple of hiccups, but they were mostly my mistakes. His first time ever over the above jump he was kind of looky at it, so instead of giving him some encouragement with my legs, all I did was sit there and say, "Go over. Go over. Go over." Fortunately, he was being a very good, game pony and went over on his own accord.

Over several jumps, I didn't have him cantering forward enough and we took several really short spots thanks to me.  Bobby is okay with short spots. He's really good on the perfect distance, but he will not take a long spot, which is completely the opposite of Red. Red chose his own spots pretty much all the time (because according to him, I knew nothing about jumping and I should leave the work to him), and he always jumped from a mile away. So one jump, I actually did boot Bobby forward when I saw a doable long spot and I went ahead and jumped....and he chipped in another half stride, causing my va-jay-jay to land directly on the pommel of my saddle. Last time I did that, I promise you.

dammit.

He was also quite exuberant going over the ditch. Usually he just puts in enough effort to clear it, but he was so proud of all his "YOU ARE SUCH A SMART HORSIE!" praises that he thought he might get some extra brownie points for leaping extra high and wide.

second obstacle in a bending line. so excited.

He also charged the tiny hanging log that he flipped shit at in the epic "Let's go backwards All. Day. Long" day the first time through, but he settled down the second time.

ZOMG, tiny log! Must GALLOP over!!

And last but not least, we went over the picket fence twice. I don't know what it is about this jump, but Bobby raps it with his legs every single time he goes over it, without fail. I don't know if he underestimates its size (about 2'3), or if it's not wide so he thinks it's a stadium jump and will fall down if he hits it, or what it is. He didn't back off from it today because the footing was amazing, but he was like canter, canter, jumpWHACK, canter, canter. I think I might yank his boots off the next time we go out just as a friendly reminder that solid jumps not only don't fall down, but they also hurt when you run into them.

about to smack his back feetsies the first time through.

whacked the front leggies second time through.

I was so proud of Grown Up Horsie today. He was a total professional. He was also very, very tired by the time we got back to the barn. Maybe he's not as fit as he likes to pretend he is. I fully expect to find a pee spot on his side tomorrow from him passing flat out in his stall tonight.

good pony!

Happy Birthday, Red!

Today would be Red Pony's 12th birthday. It's also four days until four months have gone by that I had to put him down. So I figured in his honor I'd do a little Red Pony and Carly history, starting at the very beginning.

Red raced fourteen times with one win, one second, and two thirds. He only earned $48k, but he did his work at the big tracks: Saratoga, Gulfstream, Belmont, and Fair Grounds. In his only win, he was Johnny V's mount a race after Velasquez broke Jerry Bailey's Saratoga meet win record. He also raced against (though finishing eighth) to a horse named Mr Light who would later go on to break the world record for a mile on the turf. Red was not a rescue. He was always very well taken care of on the track and every person I've been able to get ahold of that had him in their barn at some point remembers him--including the people that owned him from a yearling to 3yo. Niall Brennan said he was "Mr Personality" in the barn.

mr personality? i don't believe it!

Red came to me via college. He'd been let down and gelded at Highcliff Farm and we picked him up in December of '05 to be one of our racehorses. When we went to get him, his groom happily warned us, "Just watch him when you turn him out. He likes to jump out to see the mares!" This proved true over and over and over. When he wasn't brought in soon enough for his liking, he'd get running and vault over the 6' wooden fence and trot his merry way back to the barn himself. He was also well known for jumping over gates from a complete standstill when he got pissed.

racehorse red was a dick.

I took him on as my special project for the semester. He was a bit of a looney. Ok....he was an absolute nut. He was a bull to gallop and he spooked at everything. I literally fell off of him more than every other horse I've ever ridden ever combined. I distinctly remember one time when we were galloping out in a field and he spooked at nothing and launched us both into the surrounding cornfield. I wound up upside down with my arms and legs wrapped around his neck and swearing like no one has ever sworn before. After several attempts to haul myself back aboard, I finally gave up and dropped to the ground where he continued to stand like a stone, but I could see the silent LOL that was going on in his head.

Fortunately for me, Red was done racing. His last owners decided they wanted him retired for good and refused to hand over his papers. My advisor, teacher, and friend, Ray Whelihan, thought he'd make a great lesson horse for the school and started working on getting him to jump. Only Red had been ridden solely by me for months and wanted nothing to do with carting around different people every day. He refused to jump anything--not even a crossrail. He threw temper tantrums at trot poles. He took off with people. He had a personal vendetta against the BM. In short, he hated his new life.

I went to work at Saratoga for the summer and Red got kicked out to a field because no one wanted to work with him. I think he was perfectly okay with that. When I got back, I started working with him again, only this time with a riding horse career in mind. He still got wound up and was still a little wild, but he and I really got along and on Valentine's Day, Whelihan simply told me, "So, when are you taking him? I'll trailer him for free for you." I, of course, was elated. I think everyone else at the barn was equally as happy to see him go. He was referred to by people as "that crazy horse."

I moved Red to a barn twenty minutes from school where I also started working. Being out of the hectic atomsphere of a college lesson/boarding barn and being ridden again by just one person settled him right down. He still had his bitch fits, but I could gallop him on a loose rein. He learned to trail ride. He got along with the horses he was turned out with. And he jumped.

He started off on the jumper circuit and was a monster. He would jump anything that was in his way, and he did it stylishly. His knees came to his eyeballs every time and he had scope to spare.

jumper pictures were eaten by former lap top and i wasn't a
facebooker back then so they're lost to eternity.

However, during a round I felt him start to suck back and falter. Instead of listening to him, I asked him to finish the course. He went clear and hobbled back to his stall on three legs. Red had an extremely high pain tolerance level, and he would have done anything I asked him to, no matter how much he hurt. That's why when the time finally came to put him down, I knew he'd reached his limit. He let me know he couldn't take it anymore; it hurt too much.

But this injury was not life-threatening. I don't remember the fancy schmancy term for what happened, but he had a tear to the suspensorary in his RF. Former laptop also ate the ultrasound pics I had saved. He was ordered on three months of stall rest with handwalking twice a day. Then he was allowed to be turned out in the arena for a few hours at a time with more handwalking. As this was going on, I'd blown out my own suspensory in my left knee and was doing three months of PT. We did a lot of hobbling around together. Finally, after a year, he was allowed to go back to full work.

Instead of gearing back up for jumping, I spent my time just enjoying my horse. We spent a full summer barrel racing. In a hackamore. Neither one of us was very good at it, but it was different and it was fun. We dabbled very, very briefly in the hunter ring on the local circuit. (Of which I have pictures, but can't seem to find....hm.)

I transfered to school to my home state of IL and shipped Red out with me. A week in, the school decided it didn't actually take any of my three years worth of credits and if I wanted to finish my education and get my bachelors in English--which should have taken another year at the most--I would be starting off with a freshmen curriculum. Um, no. So back to NY we went. We call it Red's two week vacation. He didn't seem to mind.

Eventually, I got fed up with the Crazies of the barn I was at and brought him back to Cobleskill where he fortunately didn't revert back to his days of being a looney. Unfortuntately, I was broke as hell and unemployed. I ended up making the tough decision to sell him to an amazing girl in upstate PA who, while being a very accomplished western rider, wanted to learn to jump. They loved him a lot, but a year after I sold him, I got a call saying he was up for sale. He had become impossible to tack up and they couldn't tie him to anything because he kept breaking free and had trampled the girl. They didn't seem to hold it against him, though. The thing about Red is, he got away with a lot of naughty things because he was so cute.

So I ended up buying him back for half of what I sold him for and we moved down to my current town together.

red and my other horse at the time, storm the gate.

I got him over the tying issue by cowboying his ass, putting on a neck rope Amish style and tying him to a tree until he got tired of pulling. He never gave me a problem after that.

Most of the rest of the story you can catch up on by reading the very beginning of this blog. Red turned into an eventing pony simply because Bobby wasn't coming along fast enough. I never thought he'd be able to do it given his propensity to spook and his extreme distaste for surface changes, but I disregarded the fact that eventing combined his two favorite things in the world: pulling my arms out and jump big, scary looking fences while going fast.

I wish every single day I'd started him eventing sooner. I'd planned on moving him up to training at the end of this year, and I think that's where a lot of my Bobby issues are coming into play: He's not Red, but I really want him to be, and I hold it against him that he's not taking me up as far and as fast as Red was.

And while he had moments like this:

And this:

It was moments like these that made him so special:

I miss you every single day, Red Pony. I wish you were here for your birthday cookies.

Catching up on another dude.

A little over a month after I got in touch with Gold and Blue Box, I had horse racing on in the background and heard the name Unbridled Danger. I was all, "Whaaa?" because I worked with an Unbridled Danger in the summer of 2006 when he was a 3yo. So, six years later, there was no way this was the same horse, right?

I recognized his barely faded big grey self as soon as he stepped on the track. Still gorgeous, and still racing. He was making his one hundred and tenth start!

Even I was kind of like, "Hmm....I don't know about this" and I love seeing older horses racing. But I know who he was with as a baby and how long most of those horses stick around before they break down. He's also by Unbridled's Song who is not renowned for sound babies. Fortunately for him, he'd long since been removed from there and was doing very well for himself.

Out of the 110 races he's now been in, he's won 8 times, been second 10 times, and third 13 times. He finished fourth in his last race. He's earned $334,574 and seems perfectly happy with his job. I think it's a testament to the good care he's had that he's been around so long and is still sound enough to race consistently. He averages 14 starts a year and the only two years he hasn't had a win were as a 2yo where he started only twice and was third once, and as a 6yo where he started 24 times and was third 6 times.

I added him to my Equibase Virtual Stable to keep track of his work outs and starts. I might just be nosey and get in contact with his owner/trainer to see if they'll let me know when he's done racing--if he doesn't get claimed. Not that I can take on another horse, but I like to keep track of everyone and Unbridled Danger clearly deserves a good home when he's done making left hand turns for a living.

Grown Up Horsie jumps a course!

I was all set to rig my camera up on the fence to video our jumping until I got to the barn and realized I'd forgotten it at home. Fail.

I decided against the xcountry field today because no one was around to go up with me and I value my life, and because he got a good workout yesterday so trotting around the hills out there was kind of a moot point. But I did want to jump, so I headed up the outdoor and made a little baby 2'3 course. Only five jumps because I wasn't brave enough to include the monster coop in the line up. But none of the jumps were just straight approaches and canter off; each was either part of a line of on a diagnol.

skillz at paint.
start at red, then green, blue, and yellow.

I warmed him up on a loose rein and let him stretch out and cruise along at the trot and canter. He's being lazy at the walk and I have to remind myself to get after him. Walking is the time to catch our breath, not the time to let a snail race past us!

I started off trotting each jump indivdually to guage his mood. I shouldn't have worried because he was totally gung-ho and very well behaved for each fence. Then I started sticking fences together. First the gate to the tires. Then the gate to the tires to the blue vertical. Then the bending line of cones to barrel. Finally, I glued it all together and let him rip.

Well, sort of. I choked him back over the first two--the gate and the tires--but I was a fast learner for once and let him out a notch as we made the circle to the blue vertical. He took that one like a fucking dream. I actually yelled out "Perfect!" as he went over. He literally could not have done it better. Landed on the left lead like an old pro, made a beautiful circle to the bending line, listened when I opend up my outside rein to get him a little farther over as we were jumping, and bounced over the last jump in a solid four strides. Yay, Robert!!

He had two very minor mishaps. The first was when I came to the blue vertical on its own as I was warming him up jumping. I didn't have him forward enough (Do we sense a theme here?) so he ended up basically on top of the fence before he took off and knocked the rail down. The second was our first time through the bending line. I turned him for the first fence too soon and had him too far to the inside so I missed the line completely to the second jump. He had his ears pinned at it and I think he would have jumped it from the awful, awful angle we were at, but I didn't feel like losing my leg to the standard we were face-to-face with so I pulled him aside and came at it again.

Overall though, super pony. He'll get tomorrow off since he worked hard for the past two days. Dressage school on Friday and to the xcountry field this weekend!

No Baby Horsie moments today!

Impromptu change

I started off in the arena with Bobby, but he wanted to plod along at the walk and rushrushrush at the trot and canter. To prevent the tug of war that was about to start, I gave the finger to arena work and headed out to the trails.

I started off feeling like it was going to be one of those days where I left the barn with absolutely nothing accomplished, but I decided to focus on hill work and actually get something out of our ride. Robert was a super star. He trotted up and down big, scary hills like an absolute pro. He started off going down the first hill a little sloppy because he kept glancing back at me, but I kept giving him leg and he eventually gave up hope that I'd change my mind and got down to business.

He's kind of a pain in the ass sometimes. It's like he relies too much on me when he should figure things out for himself--such as trail work. But he shuts his brain off when I wish he would let me help him out--like jumping daunting 2' cross country jumps.

Regardless, he didn't put a foot wrong the whole ride once we left the ring and he got fawned over most suffeciently.

Speaking of feet, while I was waiting for Bobby to finish his dinner, I was talking to the farrier who was putting on the coolest shoes ever on Gabby. Have you guys ever heard of Happy Hoofwear? The shoes are awesome! The farrier let me play with them. They're super thick plastic, but you can literally bend them in half. They last six months and are just as sturdy as real shoes. The big thing is that they let the hoof expand just like a barefoot horse. I just might have to put them on Bobby when he gets done in a month.... Now to decide on the colors!

oooooh!
BM said I'd give Bobby a complex if I chose pink.

Ouch.

I bought a dressage saddle today! Sarah brought her old Thoroughbred brand dressage saddle for me to try. I didn't think the fit was 100 percent on Bobby until I stuck my wonderful, amazing Ecogold pad under it and I decided I'd take it....for $70! I know, I know. One day I'll learn. But that day certainly isn't this one!

However, the one bugaboo was that we couldn't get the fucking stirrup leathers through. So I was like, "No big! I'll ride without stirrups. I'm due for it anyway." And by due, I mean about four years over-due.

Ohh, my poor, pathetic thighs! I didn't even canter. I just did a bunch of sitting trot (Ohh, my poor, pathetic core!), some posting trot, and a whole lot of walking. New goal: One ride a week without stirrups. You can do it, you flabby beast.

Also, I heard back from the manufacturer on my busted brand new saddle. No warranty except for on the tree. Grr. So I'm looking to see if I can find someone to stitch it up for me. In the meantime, I'll be dressage-ing in this old boy, and I'll borrow one of BO's Stubben's to jump in.

Also again, I'm having a daily debate with myself on whether or not to push for a BN debut for Bobby at Burgundy Hollow first out, or only do Elementary/Starter. I'm going to wait until we school on the 15th (penciled in, mind you) to send in my entry, but I'm rather conflicted.

A) Everyone says every horse can go around a Novice course. So why shouldn't Bobby be able to go around a BN course? Every horse can! It's a walk in the park. Only....I'm kind of making myself anxious over the thought of it because of his temper tantrum when I tried to jump any real xcountry jumps with him last time out.

B) Elem. would be a good confidence builder for him and an easy debut. But....every horse should be able to go around a Novice course! Why am I such a failure that I can't get my own very large OTTB around one when he could literally step over half the jumps?

So. I guess will see next weekend how he's doing. I'll probably head up to the xcountry field on Wednesday to have another check-in on his brain.

Three whole days!

Three days without any word of the exciting things that go on in my life?! How have you lived? Never fear. I have a brief post for you to bring you back to the goings-on in my pony life.

Thursday:

grazing while i set poles.

It was cold and drizzly and kind of crappy. I brought the dressage whip out with me to work on the cross cantering. I've been trying to ride him with a whip in my hand just so he gets used to it again. I've been giving him one tap behind my leg when I first ask him to trot just so it means "Go" and nothing else. He learned that lesson really quickly and all I have to do is squeeze now and he trots off like a smarty pants. After a couple of unsuccessful tries at getting him to canter correctly to the right, and one 20m circle that was really good, I got off to bring my saddle forward. Story of my life. Just when I think I've got the girth tight enough, it seems he's blown out an extra inch.

So I drop the girth on one side. Bring saddle forward. Reach underneath him to do girth back up. Bobby takes offense to this and steps sideways as I'm pulling the saddle towards me. The result:

I know your first reaction is :O ... and your second reaction is, "What the fuck kind of cheap ass saddle is that?!" Well, it was only supposed to last me a year and it fit us both really well! Not that it matters now! Since I only got it two weeks ago, I emailed the place I got it from and they're trying to get ahold of the manufacturer to see if we can't work something out. Meanwhile, I'm yet again borrowing an old Stubben from BO.

"uh oh. am i in trouble?"

Friday:

I rode with Sarah. Bobby went really well. I think he was trying to make up for me bursting into tears of my poor, ridiculous plight. I jumped him over the tires a few times, and a couple times over the 2'3 vertical on the circle. We trotted the poles a couple times and called it quits while we were going good.

simon playing fetch with himself.

Saturday Robert had off. Just because he was about due for one anyway, and because it was freezing and rainy and I amazingly had other things to do.

Today, I only managed a quick ride (twenty minutes) in the outdoor before it started raining/sleeting/snowing with a vengence. Um, what happened to eighty degrees?? Regardless, it was all super work and I managed a w/t/c in both directions with minimum problems. I had to switch his back leg over cantering to the right, but I only made half a lap of the arena to avoid a temper tantrum before coming back to the trot. The past couple of times I've cantered him that way now, when I bring him back to the trot he wants to immediately canter again, so I've been doing a little sitting trot to slow him down, and then make him walk and halt before doing anything else.

headed back to the barn in the freezing monsun.

falling asleep while i put my stuff away.

So really, nothing very exciting, minus the saddle fiasco, has been going on. Things could be worse!

dakota and darcy two seconds before the Crazy Play button was pushed.