Gosh, there hasn't been a farrier update in nearly a week. That means it was about time for Bobby to pull his LF shoe again, right? Right! He pulled it during turnout Monday night and the farrier put it back on Tuesday...for the third time in three weeks. Clearly this is not going to work. BM (who knows way more about feet than I do and whose help I was happy to enlist) and I had a conference call with New Farrier.
I tossed out the idea of glue ons and NF said he'd mull that over, but BM pointed out that when a normal shoe comes off, the nail hole might get torn up a little, but that's usually the extent of the damage. When a glue on comes off, the whole hoof comes off with it. NF suggested a change in turnout, but I'm really, really hoping it won't come down to that. Bobby really likes the group he goes out with and he's doing so much better with extended turnout time. And BM said that no one in that group really gets running around, unless they're doing it in the middle of the night.
So that brings us to how he's getting the effing shoe off in the first place. NF will be out tomorrow to look him over with a fine-toothed comb to hopefully come up with a plan for him. BM thinks what he'll do, and said what she'd do, is shorten up the toes in the front to get them out of the way quicker so he stops stepping on himself. I dunno. He's got such small, flat feet as it is, there's really not much to take off.
For now, the game plan is to put a hoof boot on over the shoe on the LF to keep him from pulling it. We'll continue to attempt to put a bell boot on the RF, which also had its own issues today--one of the nails needed to be clinched down badly, so BM clinched it....and saw that the nail was poking right out of the bottom of his shoe. She nipped that off so fingers crossed it won't be a problem tonight. Also, I think I found the magic pair of bell boots--an old pair of sparkly silver Davis boots. I don't even remember when I got them, and the velcro on one was ready to come off so it was no suprise that one only lasted two days, but the other one has made it a record-setting four days! I'm going to the tack store this week to pick up a new pair in a really bright color.
adorable braid afro.
Now all this happened before I had even gotten a brush out. BO was genius enough to leave him in last night so that the shoe had a chance of staying on so I did get to ride the beast. I know, I know. I was going to give him off until Friday, but I just couldn't resist the gorgeous weather. He'll get tomorrow off anyway. I opted for the outdoor to enjoy the weather. The half an inch of rain we got yesterday made it a little sloppy, but definitely ride-able.
To tell you the truth, I've been a little giddy thinking about the work ahead of us. I love having a plan!
* Goal 1: Forward at all three gaits without rushing.
I thought this was going to be very tricky with Bobby's propensity to rush. I'm sure it will be a work in progress, but Mr Magee was feeling fresh to death this morning and he killed it. Big, swinging walk. Big, bouncy trot that I could actually post to--and not like a jack hammer. The canter needed a touch of umph, but I got it when I asked for it.
* Goal 2: Stretchy trot circles.
I'm doing a dressage show July 1st and I really want to do Training 1 and 2. This means Bobby has to do a stretchy trot circle. This poses a problem as I don't know how to do them. I got about two steps, and then Bobby and I were both like, "Huh? What are we doing?" Lesson with BO to be scheduled.
* Goal 3: Control my body at the canter.
This is one of those things where I know I need to do it, and then I start to canter and start fussing with Bobby too much and lose track of what my own body is doing. I tried really hard to keep my upper body still today, but I think I'm going to need some video work to see how I'm doing, and point it out to BO that it's something I want to work on.
Overall, a pretty rocking ride. Only twenty five minutes, but Bobby worked every single step and even though it was 75* and breezy, he was one sweaty pony when we were done. Friday he'll have another flat school, then we'll start the jumping fun this weekend when I can recruit Hubby as pole boy.
muddy polos.
maybe the farrier can also fix how badly he interferes?
Also, pictures from Plantation are up. No stadium. Bobby really is not the most photogenic horse in the world, though he certainly knows where the camera is.
For such a big horse he certainly isn't very fast, is he? I'll have to put the pedal to the metal next time out and work on some speed work the next month and a half. Also, I cannot wait to try out the elevator bit on him. Pick up yo' head, Robert!
First of all, I know I shouldn't complain because I do live in Area II where there are a million and a half events within a few hours driving distance, but what a tedious drive down that was! I don't think we ever went faster than 50mph. It's actually less mileage to Plantation than it is to Burgundy Hollow, but it takes a full hour more to drive. Regardless, nothing went wrong until we drove right by the turn-off road to get to the event and had to drive a mile to find a place to turn around. On our way back, we stopped at a stop sign and had a middle of the road pow-wow with some Jersey eventers who had done the same thing as us twice. Hubby pulled over again when we turned onto the road so I could get out and move the inconspicuous arrow that was flush against a hedgerow halfway down the road you were supposed to be on to the other side of the road so people could actually see it--same place it was last year and we found the road easy peasy.
"stand still? why?!"
Dressage:
It was a cool 85* out by the time I got on to warm up for dressage. Needless to say, everyone was braided but not a single person had a coat on. Bobby walked out to warm up on the buckle, but he was cruising right along and staring at everything. However, once we got to work, he settled right down and was fabulous. One of our trailer neighbors was on a chestnut TB mare that was being a little bit of a nut and she offered a trade of horses, laughing as her mare reared up for about the tenth time. Crazy eventers. There was also another rider in the warm up with us that I knew I recognized from somewhere, but I couldn't place her to save my life. More on this later!
hamming it up for hubby.
my left side is broken.
The rider before me warned that the ring was a little slick, but Bobby didn't have any issues with it. In fact, he didn't have any issues with anything. I went in with my teeth gritted, determined to ignore the fact that I was doing a test and just ride my horse. I knew I had to put in a monster test to do well down there because I wasn't going to sneak up the standings with people having issues jumping; Plantation is the big leagues, folks! Bobby was listening to everything I asked for and killed it. We scored 7s and 8s for every single movement except for the final halt which was a 6 because Bobby could no longer ignore the horses jumping xcountry at the top of the hill. Comments included obedient, accurate, and well ridden. Heck yes. We finished with a 27.0 to put us in 3rd.
Watching the test, I know we're capable of even better than that. Bobby can put in an even better dressage frame and I've been working so hard on keeping my hands up and shoulders back. Just means there's room for improvement, right?
There was one weird moment after the test where I dismounted while still in the ring to pick up a metal rod in one of the corners. I wasn't sure if I should have, but there wasn't really anyone else around except the last two riders. I certainly didn't want anyone stepping on it. The judge made a comment on it, but she fortunately didn't dock me. I should have stopped by and told her why I got off, but I was hot and my brain was fried so I just turned it into the steward.
i got you this!
Stadium:
We had almost three hours between dressage and jumping and I enjoyed every second of it lounging in the shade. It reached 93* and there was only the tiniest breeze. The lucky dogs got to hang out under the truck all day and they weren't even panting until they came out to play with us during lunch. We sponged them off a few times, but they definitely had the prime piece of realty on the whole show grounds.
I walked up to warm up with our neighbor who was sitting in second in our division. She had the most adorable grey horse on the planet and I just wanted to kiss his adorable face. I trotted Bobby over the X, landed in the canter and cantered over the oxer. There--warmed up. It was so insanely hot, he literally didn't need anything else. We hung out in the shade with a couple of other riders. As I was walking up to join them, I heard someone say, "Yeah, I think she'll make a really nice horse for Will Coleman. They'd click really well."
*Sidenote: Does Will Coleman remind anyone else as a surfer? This horse was the same way. Kind of laid back surfer dude/chick vibe.
So I looked over and finally placed the rider in dressage warm up. Jane Sleeper!! Yeah, the same Jane Sleeper than just ran in Rolex in April. The same Jane Sleeper that's run in--what? thirty Rolexes? If I'm half as badass as her at 60, I'll be in heaven. I mean, srsly. Erin Sylvester was riding two horses there too, but I'm ashamed to admit I couldn't pick her out.
Hubby still hasn't figured out the admittedly crappy camera so jumping pictures....suck. We'll all have to wait for professional pics to go up. I choked and even with the huge arena to get going in, I never got Bobby going like I should have to the first fence and he just wasn't quite forward enough the whole ride. Our only hiccup was a 3 stride line of orange and blue planks. Apparently planks eat horses? Not being able to carry a whip on the princess, I had to growl and get after him with my spurs, but he went clear the whole round.
The course was legit. Honestly, I saw the first jump and I was like :-O, but as I kept walking, I made myself focus on how each fence was going to ride. Fence four ended up being removed from the course because of the impossible angle to get to fence 5. We got to fence 5 and Hubby said, "We shouldn't have walked this one." It was the most ridiculous downhill jump on the planet. At least for a BN course. There was just enough landing room for your horse to land on "flat" ground before he had to go tumbling off the cliff.
We got to go early and Bobby worked up a nice canter heading to the first jump. He gave it the eye as we got up to it, but he was game to go over. The ground rolled down a little bit and he fell flat onto his forehand. I was trying to lift his head up so he could watch where he was going and he caught sight of the training roll top that we had to squeeze by. "Next jump, yay!" Um, no, Bobby. Second jump was a breeze, the third jump actually looked bigger from a horse than it did from the ground but rode fine, and then the deadly drop. I'm sure I gave the jump judge a good laugh as I choked Bobby back to a trot and repeated to myself "We are not going to die. We are not going to die. AHHHHHHHHH!" Bobby landed in the canter like a good boy and half cantered, half trotted down before calmly picking back up the canter and jumping out over the oxer, ignoring my girlish screams of terror. Right. Get it together Carly and move on.
The heat and lack of fitness prep were really getting to me by the time we hopped over fence 10 and I had to lean against Bobby's neck to give my legs a break. Bobby was still cruising along comfortably though so at least one of us had their head in the game. Hubby and I agreed to swing Bobby as far to the left going into the water as possible because when he refuses, he ducks to the right and I didn't want him to go past the flags. However, he went right in and we were in an awkward spot to get to the log out of the water, having to squeeze past a prelim jump and angle in pretty sharply.
I thought I could cut off some ground going over the 14th jump, but the line I walked was definitely the way to go and Bobby couldn't figure out where his crazy rider was pointing him until he was a few strides out. The only other bobble we had was at the chevrons where I had to call out to people walking the course to look out and we were both distracted by them. I was taking Bobby's willingness for granted and almost lost him, but I rallied at the last second and gave him a good jab with my spurs to get him over. One more fence and we were home clean for our first BN!
I passed Jane (!!) again on my way back to the trailer and she asked how he did and congratulated us on a good round. !! I was slightly giddy. I'm very easily star struck. You really can't take me anywhere. I walked down with a lovely English rider doing her first event in the US and we bonded over our diva horses that can't be around whips.
So. Where did we end up? Cute grey horse lost his really nice mom on course so she was unfortunately eliminated and we moved up to second. Not a single other rider in our division had a jump fault anywhere, so that killer dressage test really carried us through.
The heat really took a toll on Bobby. He drank just under four full buckets of water thanks to his love of Horse Quencher, but you can see how ribby he looks at home. He's getting the rest of the week off to recoup and then we're going to start drilling small jumps to teach me how to ride him better. He's still green, but I think the biggest issue I'm having with him is that he's so big and he really uses every single part of his great big body that I'm all over the place. Red was small and compact and he jumped the same way. Bobby launches and I'm having a lot of trouble staying with him over the whole jump. Always room to get better.
I'm going to try him in Red's elevator bit. Right now he's getting too heavy on his forehand and not listening to me trying to lift him up. Not a good thing when you're cantering downhill to a jump. I'm also going to buy some alfalfa cubes to soak to feed him in the trailer between dressage and jumping. He has zero manners on the ground while at shows and he paws and kicks when he gets left alone. Be on the lookout for the xcountry video and better pictures!
I don't mind riding a little later since it means I get to sleep in more. Sleeeep, I love you. Of course we'll be getting up earlier than we need to since new barn means new directions to get down to Unionville, but hopefully we won't get too lost and have to call upon OnStar--the most useless direction finder ever.
"don't worry. i'll be on the lookout for wildlife
since you're too busy playing with the camera."
The ring was getting watered when I was done tacking up so I decided to go for a hack first and come back to school a little dressage when we were done. Once more, we were accosted by stupid turkeys as soon as we hit the first field. They went fluttering up around Bobby's big, dumb head but he just kept strolling along.
We did a few short canters and lots of walking instead of trotting because Bobby thought his trot should consist of bouncing my around in the most jarring way possible. Um, no thank you. On our way back, I happened to be looking down (I was making sure we didn't step on any branches in the tall grass, I wasn't just randomly staring at the ground--for once.) and saw a fawn curled up in the grass! Awwwwww.
must. resist. snuggling.
I finished off our ride with ten minutes of no stirrup work in the indoor. It's amazing how much better his downward transistions are when I'm actually sitting in the saddle instead of bracing against my stirrups. Hmm. Also, I am so crooked in the canter. How I didn't just slide right off the side, I don't know. Must. Force. Self. To. Pull. Stirrups.
Then I spent another hour at the barn doctoring the princess. He's going on a record one whole day with both bell boots on so amazingly I didn't have to do anything to his feet, but he has rain rot all over his hanuches and he came in with two new scrapes, one of which is huge and both of which are mysterious. He had his sheet on for turnout last night since it was raining and I didn't want his bum to get wet and there's not a mark on that. But somehow.....
He got a bath and a long soak with Microtek, then Blue Kote spritzed on various tiny cuts, Swat slathered over the big scrape, and MTG rubbed into his hindquarters. Anything else you'd like to do to yourself, Robert?
I had a relatively fabulous ride today. A lot less drama llama-ing and a lot more cooperation. We spent the first fifteen minutes at the walk doing all sorts of fun things that got Mr Magee's wheels churning. Leg yields, walking straight down the quarter lines (so hard!), and a lot of counter bending in an attempt to straighten his sideways head out. I don't know what this sideways head thing is. We had a horse at school that flatted with his head literally stuck on sideways. He was one of our racehorses and he never did it when galloping, but anything slower and off to the side it would go. We never figured out what his issue was. We just assumed he was rolling the marbles around in his empty head.
deby doo! not the brightest tb on the track....
Anyway, the counter bend excerise that seemed to work the best was counter bend down the long sides and exaggerate the correct bend on the short sides. By the time we moved into the trot, I could give him a little half halt, shift my big booty, and ask him to bend in whatever direction I wanted anywhere in the arena I wanted. See? Sometimes walking is fun!
I worked him for another fifteen minutes, breaking down our dressage test into pieces and practicing them in various spots around the arena. Lots of trot to walk to free walk across the diagnol and back to walk and trot again. I reversed order for the trot to canter circles and started with the right, free walked across the diagnol, and did the trot to canter circles to the left and down the centerline from the left at C.
He still puts his periscope up every now and then, and he still gets quick when he gets flustered, but he is coming along soo well. If I can actually pull my head out of my ass long enough to participate in riding this Sunday, I think we'll actually go through a pretty nice test. Fingers crosssed!
I started Bobby off in the indoor for a dressage school. I was initally very pleased with how forward he was walking around, and then we started trotting and the forwardness turned to rushing. I insisted he keep his head down and go like the semi-fancy pants he's been during our walking rides and that seemed to defuse the pulling more than anything. Give his silly brain something hard to work on, and suddenly speed trotting isn't quite as fun or easy to do. I also did a lot of trot-halt transitions with him and some sitting trot when he started to really cruise along like an ass.
Our main battle, though, was straightness. There are mirrors at the end of the arena so I worked off the quarter line to see if Bobby could walk and trot a straight line down each long side. He could not. At least not easily. At the walk he went decently, but at the trot he wanted to drift in towards the rail or when I started trying to help him out straighten him out, he'd snake his neck and twist his head so he was wobbling all over the place. I did some leg yields with him at the walk to get him listening to my leg a little more and we finally trotted straight down once with a little help from me before calling it quits.
He wasn't great by any means, but it was a good work out on his major weaknesses. Plus, he had foamier lips than he's ever had before when we were done!
We worked twenty minutes in the indoor and headed out to the trail to do some hill work. We ran into a ton of wildlife. The turkeys seemed to be celebrating the end of hunting season and were flapping around in the tall grass like total asses. The first field we got to, one of them flew up right in front of Bobby who had to half rear/pirouette to avoid getting hit by it. I yelled out some obscenities as it flopped away, but Bobby marched on. He's not easily phased by things running him over.
our galloping track needs a mow.
We also saw quite a few deer that meandered off when we got too close. In one of the fields, what looked like an old lady deer (she had grey all around her head) walked off as we got to her and waited in the hedgerow for us to pass. When we came back out to go home, she was grazing with two fawns. Too adorable. She never once raised her tail or went faster than a walk, totally unconcerned by Mr Magee.
old mama deer.
do you see her?
We did a ton of trot work. Bobby wasn't too amped and I had to boot him on when we started out, but he eventually settled into a groove and we finished off with a really good forty minute hack. I slathered on some SWAT over a cut at the very edge of his eye. No clue where he got it from, but I felt a little sick thinking that less than half an inch closer and it would have been on his eye. No, thank you.
Alrighty, once again I have a few days of catching up to do. On Friday I had a million and a half things to do so I ran to the barn really quickly first thing and dropped off a check for the farrier with BO's promise she would get the scoop for me. New farrier was down with adding me to his client list (thankfully--farriers are such divas) and opted to put a new shoe on the LF with acrylic to cement it on there until he's due to get done. He said he didn't want to mess around with clips yet because he wanted to do a whole lot of work on Bobby's feet period to "fix Other Farrier's mistakes". Ohhh-kay. Unfortunately, I'm totally cluess about feet so....anyone have any good hoof books they'd like to recommend? I think it's time I jumped on the learning train.
crappycamerapicturewhat.
acrylic on the lf.
Saturday I was all set for a good ride but I walked into the barn and found this:
he had hay dangling out of his mouth as well.
He was too sleepy to do anything. Including get up. He let me give him some scratches before having the lamest roll ever and passing back out. I organized all my stuff for our schooling before bribing the pony to get up with peppermints. However, all I did was give him a good grooming and stuck him back in to eat. He really probably should have been ridden, buuut Saturday was my birthday and I wanted to do fun birthday things!
We ended up not doing anything too crazy, but we ate so well. Steaks on the grill, corn on the cob, and homemade strawberry shortcake made with strawberries that Hubby got fresh from one of his customers. So delish.
Yesterday was Bobby's second xcountry schooling at Burgundy Hollow. Michelle forewarned us that she hadn't taken the hay off the fields yet so things were looking a little cray-cray, but since the paths for all the fences got mowed for May's show, it really wasn't bad at all.
personal groom and pro event horse.
We had a solid game plan going in: School the whole stadium course, walk down to the start box and give him some time to regroup like he'll have to at a show, and then school the whole BN course. Michelle had a left over course map from the last show so I studied it for about five seconds before tossing it in my tack box. Totally memorized. Riiight.
We got there a little early so while we were waiting, we took Robert down to introduce him to the water. He's done lots of cantering through enormous puddles before without paying them any attention, but he wasn't so sure about this. However, he was persuaded to get his toes wet when I lured him in with apple pieces.
We finally tacked up and as I was tightening my girth and zipping up my vest and buckling my helmet--you know, all things that should be done before I even get on--Bobby marched off and made the turn to the jumps through the hedgerow on his own.
We did a brief warm up in the stadium ring and without jumping a single warm up fence, went through the whole BN course. He had a rail at the second fence; from the video it looks like he just didn't get his knees up high enough. He thought that was a good enough excuse to jump even higher for the rest of the fences and didn't touch anything else. Now, I do have a video of the course, but it is possibly the most awful riding ever done by anyone ever. Seriously. Just horrible. Thank goodness Bobby was gung-ho to go because I was staring at the base of the fence every single jump, not releasing unless I was releasing way too much and letting my reins go flying through my fingers, and I did a very strange "lean way too far forward going over the jump before popping back up way too fast" sort of style. Paired with Bobby's over-jumping, it was just a hot mess all around. But we did do it and Bobby was pulling me to every single fence, so I'll take it for now.
what a good boy!
We headed down to the start box and Bobby totally had his swag on, ready to show off his new confident Important Event Horsie skilllz.
pig waiting with hubby as bobby and i walked around.
Bobby walked in and out of the box and around the waiting area totally chill. In fact, he didn't neigh or get tense about anything a single time even though he was all alone. We headed out at a canter and Bobby was ready to take names. He didn't think twice about a single jump. That's not to say he wasn't jumping like a greenie, but every one of those fences were bigger than anything he'd jumped before. First up was a big blonde colored log, then a blonde coop.
The third jump was a hay feeder before heading out through the hedgerow and angling right down a hill to the table (the N of which is featured in my header). I tried to convince Bobby we should trot this one since he'd never jumped downhill before, but he said "No, thank you" and went sailing over with me taking a very defensive backseat. It was a pretty good sized hill and after he landed going much faster than either of us wanted, he decided he'd listen to me and trotted the rest of the way down.
We crossed the road to get to the ditch which was really hard to see with the grass grown up so I tried to get him to walk up to it, but we sort of compromised with a rein-pulling trot. "Bobby, there's a ditch ahead!" "Alright." "No, really, Bobby! Ditch! DITCH!" "Alriiiiiight, lady! I fucking see it! Let's just go already!" We were supposed to turn left immediately after to stay on the BN track but I completely forgot that and made the three strides to the Novice (!) coop thingy with a flat top. Half coffin anyone? Since we were now off track, I just followed the Novice (!) path, jumping the N ladder and coming around the bend to a really cute N house combination. Bobby was locked on, but I was like, "Fuck no." and met back up with the BN track to head up the bank.
He skipped up the bank (he gets really pleased with himself when he goes up banks), did a BN log, detoured to the N log since there was a flag down in front of the BN one, opted for the bench on the Starter track instead of the oxer because I know Plantation has a bench, over the "grey rails", and to the water.
safely navigated past the pond monsters.
He did peter out to a stop at the water, but I gave him a poke with my spurs and he tip-toed in before agreeing to trot out and canter over the black rails. Finished off with a little coop uphill and came back to play in the water more.
"i iz jumping the jumpssss!!!"
He was a sweaty, but not overly so and he barely took a deep breath. Burgundy Hollow definitely matches Plantation in terrain so I'm glad he's not super out of shape, but we need to do some serious hill work because every time he landed downhill, he'd be so unbalanced he'd go careening off into a gallop and I had to really yank him back to some semblance of control. He goes out in a really steep paddock so I know he just needs work with my silly ass on his back.
Needless to say, Bobby was a total super star the whole day. I, however, have a ton of work to do. More two point work, jumping without reins, maybe some longe line work, and lots of hill work. I have got to stop pinching with my knees so I can keep my heel somewhat down, and I've got to get my friggin shoulders from trying to meet over my boobs. Regardless, I think we're going to be okay for next Sunday. I payed for Videos by Patrick to video our entire xcountry round and Plantation always had killer photogs there so be prepared for a fun media dump!
this moved in as i was wrapping bobby's legs to go home.
