Oh, the thrill!

Sorry for the few days of blogging silence. We had a massive snow storm that knocked out the internet. It was awful. I wasn't sure we were going to make it.

carnage!
not sure how this warranted broken internet, those fucks.

I've kept Bobby in his hackamore since our jump school Saturday since he was so fabuloso flatting in it. Apparently EN agreed it was a good idea. He's going quietly and softly in it, and working over his back correctly. If he wants to rebuild his topline in his hackamore instead of battling with a bit, I'm totally down. It's far more enjoyable for both of us. He might need his teeth done, so I'll have the vet check them tomorrow when she comes to pull blood for the Lyme test.

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it is just foot soreness. I've been riding in the indoor the past few times because it's been cold and super windy, and he's hardly taken a bad step. Still a little "catch", almost, in his stride when we first start trotting, but only for a dozen or so strides. By the time we've gotten to the canter, he's completely fine.

In fact, today he was a bit of a fire breathing dragon at the canter. I got him to slow down and focus by doing canter-halt-canter transitions. He was a total boss, especially from the halt to the canter. There was literally no step between the two--just standing there squarely and then cantering off. We finished with a few lengthenings to channel the forward energy productively.

chilling while i closed the gate after a ride last week.

I touched up his toes when we were done before taking him up to the paddock myself. He was more ouchy than he was a week ago walking up the hill. So....foot soreness returning? But why now? Another abscess brewing? Psh, I don't fucking know. At least I can cross Lyme off the list one way or another.

all by himself.

hello, cute pony!!

Obviously you guys have missed out on a lot of exciting things. I can't help that my horse leads such a thrilling life.

Speaking of thrilling? Here's a video of Bobby chilling in his stall waiting to get tacked up while I wandered around the barn:

He's allowed to stick his head and neck out, but he's not allowed to set a foot into the aisle. He hangs out with the door wide open hoping random passersby will feed him cookies. He's a special sort of special.

watching me feed the barn kitties in the tack room.

Well, boo.

First of all, boo on Hubby's picture taking skills today. Someone hasn't taken the new Nikon to get fixed because we moved and now live ten million miles away from the nearest Best Buy, and I just don't want to drive ten million miles. So Hubby was stuck with the old as hell Olympus that sometimes feels like turning on and sometimes not, and when it does turn on it hates your face. But he still could have taken better flat pictures the first time he was there to witness Bobby going like a Prance-a-saurus in his hackamore outside where there's good lighting. But he didn't. 

because he does not look as fancy as he was being here!

Really, I'm just being a whiny bitch because that's the mood I'm in. We've had one too many uplifting posts around this joint. It's time for my Stephen King novel to take a turn for the worse. (I've never even read a Stephen King novel, by the way, but isn't taking a turn for the worse what they're all about?)

Bad news first, or good news?

Yay, bad news!

my, what large ears you have.

Yesterday when I wandered into the barn, BM was like, "Let's shoot you down." No, she wasn't actually like that, but she did tell me that when bringing Bobby inside in the morning, he doesn't want to move to come in. He just stands there like he'd be perfectly happy to be left alone all day. Normally, since this is Bobby and Bobby is a giant dope, I'd be like, "Meh." However, it's a new behavior for him and a few horses in the barn have come up with high positives for Lyme disease. 

Ughhhhhhhhhh.

Then that got me thinking about how he feels under saddle. He's been warming up the past week and a half feeling like he's footsore, but he's not showing any signs of being footsore--even walking up the gravel hill! He just starts out kind of short-strided, but then once he's had a forward trot and a canter on a loose rein in half seat, he's absolutely one hundred percent sound. He feels great once he's warmed up. 

warm up canter in my ballin' Horze coat!

It's easy to write that off as "It's getting colder, his muscles are taking longer to warm up, yada yada" except that I've known this horse from Day One and he's never had a problem warming up in cold weather. 

But he's not running a fever. Once warmed up, he's supple, he's relaxed, he's excited to be working, he's moving into the bridle, and he's jumping great. He hasn't gotten grumpier. He's not grinding his teeth about anything (which is a big deal for him). The only difference is that he's reluctant to move to come inside each morning, and he's stiff warming up.

That's enough for me. Lyme is easily treatable, especially when caught in the earlier stages, and thanks to the awesome BMs who are quick to notice and point out any little change in the horses, I'd say there's just enough there to go off of. So I'm waiting for my vet to get back to me with an appointment time, and I'll have the test done. Hopefully if it comes off positive, it's really fucking low because treatment is currently really fucking expensive. 

oh, hey, fancy horse at really awkward angle.

On to the good news!

I got a video of Bobby jumping! 

Those were the last two jumps we did. I asked BM to watch since she was turning a horse out in the paddock next to the arena, which is who I'm talking to at the end. Also, I threw that chip in there on the last jump just so you guys wouldn't think Bobby and I were getting to full of ourselves. We do still occasionally bite it. That's just how we roll, okay?

slightly overzealous on a mid-air lead change while warming up.
don't judge.

the type of high quality photos you're missing out on.

obviously excellent timing.

That's all that's going on in Bobby Land at the moment. He's going to get his sheet switched out for his medium weight tomorrow in preparation for a week of highs in the thirties. That is clearly not exciting at all and just very depressing.

The internet is delusional.

I was fucking around with this "Analyze my text!" thing just for shits and giggs this morning, and I copied a couple of paragraphs from my last blog post.

Here's what I used:

"Yesterday, I lazily set up a two stride line that boxed in the vertical on the short side and made up a little course with the three jumps. He was totally nonchalant about the whole thing. I'm keeping the jumps tiny for now, so it's not exactly physically or mentally stimulating, but that's the whole point, isn't it?

I think I've finally cracked the Bobby Jumping Code. Three whole years of doing one extreme of this or that, and I've finally pieced together a little bit of both and created a perfect gentleman of a jumper. Well, over 2'6" at least. We'll see how well it holds up once I ask him to go a little more forward for bigger jumps.

But srsly.

Jumping used to consist of not being able to count how many good jumps we got in the entire ride because you can't count to zero on your fingers! Now I can count on one hand how many eyebrow-raising jumps we get throughout the course of the ride. Note "eyebrow-raising" and not "cover your head and peak between your fingers to see if it's over" jumps. I'll force Hubby to get video this weekend."

Any guesses on what writer I supposedly emulate?

Uh, would anyone have guessed Stephen King? Yeahhh....not really seeing it, unless even a random internet site is trying to tell my riding is downright horrifying. That's kind of a depressing thought.

So what about you guys? Who do you write like?

Team Work? It can happen!

I need to be blindfolded when I walk into the barn. It's just way too easy to get distracted when this is what greets you:

"oh, hey. it's just me--the cutest pony ever."
he's been named falco.

So Bobby has been......good.....the past two days. Everyone take a second to knock on wood. He's been so good jumping that I'm waiting for the inevitable reversion to the awful mess we usually are.

Yesterday, I lazily set up a two stride line that boxed in the vertical on the short side and made up a little course with the three jumps. He was totally nonchalant about the whole thing. I'm keeping the jumps tiny for now, so it's not exactly physically or mentally stimulating, but that's the whole point, isn't it?

I think I've finally cracked the Bobby Jumping Code. Three whole years of doing one extreme of this or that, and I've finally pieced together a little bit of both and created a perfect gentleman of a jumper. Well, over 2'6" at least. We'll see how well it holds up once I ask him to go a little more forward for bigger jumps.

But srsly.

Jumping used to consist of not being able to count how many good jumps we got in the entire ride because you can't count to zero on your fingers! Now I can count on one hand how many eyebrow-raising jumps we get throughout the course of the ride. Note "eyebrow-raising" and not "cover your head and peak between your fingers to see if it's over" jumps. I'll force Hubby to get video this weekend.

bobby finally got his own sheet instead of having to get stuffed into red's 78"
and, for the past few days while waiting for this to arrive his 75", sheets.
he was clearly super enthused.
also, i stick his feet into his tub and leave him to his own devices for 20 mins.
this is how crazy he gets.

Today was a dressage ride in the indoor. We spent a lot of time tooling around on the buckle at all three gaits because that seemed more fun than doing anything productive. I finally decided we should do some work and made poor Mr Magee do about a thousand transitions between walk, trot, halt, and canter, and transitions within the gait for the trot and canter. He was all, "Whatever you want, lady." I love when my donkey is feeling cooperative.

We ran though Training A, did some counter canter to his tougher direction, a little stretchy trot, and finished with some trot also to his tougher direction. He really likes to drop his shoulder tracking left, and then his whole giant body just collapses in on itself. It's a beast to work with, but lots and lots of leg and a relentless outside rein got him mostly straightened out.

halloween slobber!
or, what happens when your horse eats carrots pre-ride.

He gets tomorrow and maybe Friday off as well. I might be taking sick days due to the copious amounts of Halloween candy I've been eating. Ughhhhh.

Death by Cuteness

So my barn gets some pretty fucking cute ponies in on rotation. I never showed you guys Angie (I will one day when I dig up a picture of her), but the latest was Mojo:

bobby's t/o buddy until he was sound enough to go back to the big paddock.

However, Mojo was sold this weekend and in his place we got:

that's right, sunny. you admire that cute little pony.

He doesn't have a name, and BM wasn't able to tell me anything about him yet, but holy shit is he the cutest fucking pony you've ever seen in your life, or what? I stuck my fingers between the bars of his stall for about two seconds before I couldn't resist and threw open his door and gave him giant pony snuggles. Instead of being offended by the abrupt invasion of his personal space by a complete stranger, he was just like, "Oh, hai! I don't know you, but I'm sure we're best friends! Scratch my ears!" and proceeded to let me maul him for a good ten minutes before I could separate myself.

PONY EARS, I LOVE YOU.

I forced myself to get my giant, lug-headed mule-horse out, groom him, and do his carrot stretches before tacking him up. Adorable Pony heard the crinkle of cookie wrappers and kept letting out the cutest pony grunts until I dropped Bobby cold and stuffed them down Adorable Pony's face instead. Bobby looked a little confused, but listen dude--until you look like this, you're going to get less cookies than your neighbor. That's just the way life works. Attractive people horses just get farther in life.

"...but this is my best posing face."
FAIL.

WINNING.

Ohhhhkayyyyy. No more Pony. Tiny ponies do not get ridden by giant people, so this blog is sadly not going in that direction. I don't even care. All I want to do is smush him.

So. Bobby.

It was fucking frigid out this morning--frigid enough that the butt cape actually came out. BM said that Bobby looked a little foot sore in his hinds coming in this morning, so I was on the lookout for that during my ride. I thought he looked okay walking up the hill to the outdoor. He did feel a little shuffle-y at the trot for the first few minutes, but once he was warmed up, he felt great. (Sound. In the outdoor. Barefoot. Be still my heart.) He looks like he might have a little bruising on the sole of his RH, but that could just be me looking for an excuse. I'm going to restart the everyday Farrier Barrier application again to see if that helps any.

I started off with draw reins on, but I always warm up with them flopping in the breeze before giving him the chance to start working correctly on his own. When he refuses and reverts to Drama Llama, I pick them up until we've reached a compromise. Today, I ended up stopping my ride to pull them off because he was completely spot on from the first step, and all they were doing was dangling annoyingly between his legs.

Shoulder-in down the quarterline, leg yields both direction on and off the rail, flying changes, and counter canter from the walk both ways (He's such a boss about this one--who wants to lease him for $100k for next year's Maclay? Call me.) were all super good. He was just in a working mindset for once in his obnoxious life. Even his canter was quiet and balanced instead of braced and rushed. I worked him for about thirty minutes before running out of things to do and calling it quits. I need to bring my dressage tests up so I can be a little more focused.

Also, I need a pony.

Much better.

Friday was kind of a "meh" flat ride.

Bobby and I had different interpretations of what should happen once I got him straightened out. I felt that he should continue being straight, but at the canter Bobby was confident that me putting my leg on him to get his hips aligned with his shoulders, and then adding a half halt to keep him balanced, was the cue for a flying change. Granted they were very nice flying changes, but not what I was going for. Of course then we had a discussion about how I was right and he was wrong and OMG BOBBY CAN NEVER BE WRONG SO NOW WE MUST FREAK THE FUCK OUT.

Puh-retty typical ride with my dear, sweet, kind Thoroughbred. We are such good friends.

But he redeemed himself today! K reported that the outdoor was slop, but there was no way I was riding in the indoor with half a dozen beginner kids, and I'm determined to stick to my alternating dressage-jump schedule, so we went up anyway. I rolled some poles together between a pair of standards and started the Baby Jumping Horse exercise.

He was a total star! I set up the jump so he came off the long side and jumped "on" the short side in the middle of the ring, and we did a figure eight over it. No rushing at the trot or canter over the poles, X, or 2'3" vertical. A couple of not-perfect spots, but they weren't like, "Oh sweet Jesus, how did we not just die?" They were like, "Grr, needed to take that spot, but it was a little awkward."

I only rode him for about fifteen minutes because he was so good, and I'd like to reinforce that calm jumping = best thing ever.

Even better than calm jumping?

Oh my gosh, he is so fucking sound. I jumped him out there completely barefoot and he was totally okay with it. He walked up and down the gravel hill to get to the ring, and he was almost totally comfortable. Still walking a little cautiously over some of the worse spots, but just...so good. So, so good.

Just before soaking his feet this morning, I was cleaning his RF out and noticed that part of his frog was looking pretty manky. It's been like that for about a week, but I'm honestly a little afraid of my hoof knife and have been ignoring it. I could almost yank it off with my fingers, so I finally caved and cut it off, which revealed....

see it?

Looks just like an abscess blew out there, doesn't it? It would make so much sense, too. He was progressing really well, and then for a week he came out super foot sore and lame. I blamed the thrush, which was certainly also getting worse and needed more aggressive treatment regardless, but brewing an abscess under there fits right in with that timeline.

So lesson learned: when you see gross frog that needs to be cut back, put on your big girl panties and confidently wield that hoof knife.

Jumping in the Indoor

I decided it was time for Bobby to do some jumping again yesterday. Why? Well, because I wanted to is why. There actually wasn't a real reason. So I set up an oxer and a couple of verticals (all 2'6") in the indoor (because it has rained its fucking balls off here the past few days), dressed Bobby up in his jumping outfit, and went to work.

He started off the way Bobby always starts off working--completely inverted, refusing to move forward, and paying attention to everything but me. After a few laps of w/t/c each way, I got sick of him tuning me out and running around with his face in the air and just pointed him at one of the verticals. He took it from a long-ish spot, but it actually felt alright. After that, he was forward and wanted to curl behind the bit when not being allowed to jump, so that was kind of better than looking like a llama. Kind of?

sorry, george. it made sense to me.

Well, then he reverted to "Bobby Jumping In The Indoor"--my fave--and things just went to shit. If I got him moving more forward, he chipped big time. If I slowed him down, he charged the jumps and took off from wherever the hell he pleased. I was all, "Ugh, what is your deal, son?" and he was all, "BOBBY JUMPING IN THE INDOOR" which is clearly fucking code for "I'm a shit head."

I took a breather and just let him hack around...and he moved smartly off in this lovely, balanced, relaxed frame--in his hackamore! The past few dressage rides I've done with him in the arena were in draw reins because I could not get him to work with me whatsoever. Neither one of us were getting anything out of just wanting to punch each other out, so on they went. And then we were besties. And it carried over to flatting with no draw reins. Win-win.

And for those of you who are firmly against draw reins in any way, shape, or form, come ride my horse. If nothing else, you'll want to use them to wrap them around your own fucking neck to strangle yourself by the time you're done dealing with him.

But as happy as I was with his flat work, I had tacked up with the intention to jump, and I didn't want to just throw up my hands in defeat just yet. So I knocked down one of the verticals to a pile of poles and we began Baby Horse Learns to Jump. Again. For like the third year in a row. When will this end?!

Trot the poles until he was calm. Canter the poles until he was calm. Make and X. Trot the X until he was calm. Canter the X until he was calm. Put the vertical back up. Horse is ready to drop dead from exhaustion. Canter the vertical once, horse is calm, end it there.

Now my plan is to repeat Baby Horse Learns to Jump every other day, alternating with dressage work. One day he will be able to jump in our indoor, and once he learns to do that, he'll be able to jump anywhere. Maybe even at Bucks, even though I still think that place is fucking cursed.