Pony things.

So many pony things today. Where to start?

I guess first I should say that I'm having more issues with my supplements being fed. I had this problem in the early spring and BO said to date the SmartPaks so that next time it happened, there was no way week day BM could say she was feeding them when I know she's not. I started dating them and the next few months have been fine. A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Bobby had missed a day so I dumped the supplements in with his PM feed. No big deal, she must have just forgotten. Next day, same thing. I didn't say anything to BO then because the next few days he was getting them again. A week and a half ago, I checked and he's behind two days. And this weekend, when I did finally approach BO, he was up to three days.

Week day BM is a little crazy in many ways. One of her things is if she thinks a horse doesn't need something, she won't give it to them. I'm a high maintance control freak and I want my horse to get what I give him every single day. I don't care if you think he doesn't need it--I pay for it! BO had another talk with BM and I'm going to start putting only five days in at a time so there's no way I can be mistaken on when she misses a day.

And in case you're wondering what magical supplements Bobby gets, he's on Clitheroe's Garlic Granules for flies and ticks (and yes, I do see a huge difference in his sensitive TB skin not getting eaten alive) and SmartHoof which he's been on since I got him back in December until I took him off at the end of May and he started losing his shoes left and right so he's back on it now. Magical.

Other pony news: the jumps are all getting painted pretty colors! BO hired a new worker and he's been man-beasting his way around the farm. The arenas are looking awesome, and he does fun things like this in his spare time:

ooooh....

In other Bobby health news, his front legs are covered in bot eggs. Fuck no. I wormed him with Ivermectin and shaved all of them off. Nasty things. Another horse has them on his legs too. He goes out in the same paddock as Bobby, but in the AM. Sounds to me like everyone needs a little shot of fake apple flavored goodness.

In riding news, Bobby got his bum worked off today. The "severe thunderstorms" have yet to roll in (although the clouds are starting to look a little more menacing now) so it was sunny and breezy and beautiful enough to ride in the outdoor today. But first Bobby had to visit people in the aisleway and get some lovings from his adoring fans. He was a little sleepy and complacent when we first started out, but I somehow finally told myself to stop nagging him with my leg and spurs and just tell him to do what I'm aking and be done. We were both much happier when I got that through my head.

Me: Bobby, bend on this circle. Now.

Bobby: Okay.

Me: Ahh, what? Ok, good boy. Moving on.

Bobby: Thank you, stupid whore, for taking another step in the right direction of correct riding. Do I have to teach you everything?

Things we worked on during warm up:

* trot-halt-trot transitions

* spiraling circles

* counter bend at walk and trot

* sitting trot

After a solid half an hour w/t warm up, I dropped my stirrups and worked on the trot some more. Or, attempted to. Bobby was ready to move on to the canter and whenever I told him no, he'd throw up his head and hollow his back until I asked him to regroup at the walk. At the walk, he was fabulous. Back at the trot, he wanted none of it. I managed to get him somewhat compliant and did just under ten minutes of no stirrup trot work before he started being a serious tool again.

I picked my stirrups back up to give myself some help and we worked on the canter. More simple changes work. He did not want to pick up his left lead to start us out to save his life, and I insisted he do it which made him get flustered and tense. Once he finally got it, I gave him a loose rein and stroked his neck as we went around quietly before asking him to start working. That helped defuse the situation mostly. His simple changes, as always, started out rough. He was blowing right through my half halts and didn't want to come down to the trot. I had to give him a big whoa several times before he starting tuning in. Once he did, however, he skipped right through them and his canter was amazing. He's so close to flying changes.

I let him stretch out and take a long walk break before shortening my stirrups and doing some jumps. Why? Because he worked really, really hard and jumping was his reward. He did the gate awesomely, but kept getting in too close to the oxer. He nailed the distance to the coop the first time like a fucking hunter horse and just coasted right over so we ended an hour and half ride there.

nothing like a good face spray when it's hot out.

Sarah wants to go up to the xcountry field tomorrow so I agreed to go out with her and do my two point work then instead of Thursday. It's way less boring when you've got someone to talk to!

Chickens!

Remember my little baby cheeps?

They're now four months old and I've had three eggs in the past three days!

This would be way more exciting if Hubby's mom hadn't just given us three dozen eggs from her chickens. I see a lot of baking in my future....

All six chickens need names! If you want to suggest a name, or name one after yourself, let it fly. (no pun intended.) We can tell the three Comets apart (the red ones), and we can tell one of the Brown Leghorns apart from the other two because she likes to go sprinting around the yard before her breakfast Wheaties. I have a name for her, but it's not PG rated.

Oh, hey.

As promised, there hasn't been much to report on the pony front. Not having any money to make it to the barn really isn't all that bad when it's 100* and you're sitting in air conditioning. Hubby and I went up to NY for his Grandma's 80th birthday yesterday and not only was it hot, but it was also disgustingly humid. Needless to say, I didn't feel all that bad about missing another day. I did make it down this morning however.

It rained about half an inch at the barn last night. With the sun beating down on the damp footing, it was made the heat about ten times more awful. I kept my ride super short and put the draw reins on Bobby to remind him that he can, in fact, do dressage in the outdoor and not just run around with his head in the air.

He wanted to drop his head well below the vertical at the trot so it was a good exercise for me to work on keeping my hands from floating around in my lap. I drilled him on his simple changes at the canter for about five minutes. He started off with a few steps but finally remembered that he can do them with just one step on trot. My lower legs--particularly my feet--swinging around were a good reminder that I need to work my ass off on no stirrup work. Like, every single ride.

trying hard not to fall in.

I'm planning on stretching the last of my gas money to get me out Tuesday and Thursday before my car goes in for surgery Friday. It's supposed to storm Tuesday so I'll make that my dressage/no stirrup kick ass boot camp day and hopefully get up to the xcountry field to do some half seat work Thursday.

The Bell Boot Saga

Through a barnwide effort, we might have found the perfect set of bell boots for Bobby. He's become famous for the vast amount of chili powder he goes through, and one of the BMs favorite games is to guess how he got the stupid things off. He has literally gone through TEN pairs of bell boots. Ten! Do you want to know how much money that is? No, you certainly do not. We thought we'd won with a pair of small pull ons that we had to use half a pound of lotion to get on. Then he came in with one missing, so one of the double velcroed Davis boots got soaked in chili powder each time he went out. That worked for a couple weeks until it met its end Monday. He'd eaten the velcro off. "Tastes like tacos!" he said. BM dug us up another small pull on and Hubby used his huge man muscles to get it on. Fingers crossed he keeps them on!

So if you've noticed in his pictures he has on an odd assortment of mis-matched bell boots, that's why. I love matching, but I love my horse keeping his shoes on even more.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that celebrated the 4th by riding. Everyone at my barn canceled their lessons! Lame.

I took advantage of Hubby having the day off and signed him up for running us through a little grid. I dug out a saddle from the back of BO's "this is where I keep all my extra crap I've accumulated over sixty years" tack room. It's a Crosby Corinthian and it's in pretty awesome shape despite needing a week's worth of oiling. Always on the search for a real saddle that fits both Bobby and I, I decided to try it out. The stirrups were ridiculously long, and the seat was only a 16.5 instead of a 17, but it does look nice and it has a forward flap that fits my awkwardly long femur. Bobby's such a tool about doing anything but jumping in the outdoor, I couldn't tell if it bothered him or if he was just being a brat warming up.

the outdoor is only fun when we get to canter jumps!

Working with what was in the arena, we did a modified version of the second exercise in my Wofford book. Ground pole, 9' to a 2' vertical, 18' (one stride) to a 2' oxer. Here's how we built up to it:

I know Lillian did some gridwork with him, but I've never done it so I was really happy with how quickly he picked it up. We had a few bobbles since he was being pretty sloppy over the tiny vertical, but I figured I'd keep it as easy as possible this time around. He'll definitely need another foot added for a one stride when the height goes up. His big body needs time to get out of its own way.

It's going to take some finnagaling to find days to get out to the barn. The key got stuck in the ignition of my car a week ago which is apparently a very common problem in Saturns. Unfortunately because Saturns aren't made anymore, the replacement part is now considered a "specialty" part and costs $275. Add in labor and getting a new key cut and the garage quoted us $350. Fabulous. Not that I don't love having to turn my car off by unhooking the battery.... Gas money is going to be pretty much non-existent until the next paycheck. Sunday will be a definite at least.

black and white bell boots!

What was I thinking?!

The report from the barn is that Bobby slept the day away yesterday, snoring his brains out. Such a classy dude.

Today I decided to implement stage one of the New Carly Plan: No stirrup work. And not just drop my stirrups while riding. Oh, no. I was instead stupid ambitious and yanked them right off my saddle! Are you cringing in sympathy yet? You're probably just shaking your head.

I didn't have my spurs on because I didn't want to accidently jab poor Bobby as I flopped around. I picked up a dressage whip in the arena and he didn't even freak out. Small win! Within the first five seconds of getting on, I was doubting my sanity and thinking about going back down to the barn to grab stirrups. But I manned up, giving myself a good degrading pep talk. "You want to ride better, weakling? You want to stop bouncing around at all gaits? You want to be able to survive if you lose a stirrup cross country? Then shut the fuck up and get on with it." I'm available for motivation speaking if anyone's interested.

I did fifteen minutes of walking before finally building up the courage to trot. I was prepared for either bouncing all over the place, or only staying in the saddle because Bobby was doing a western pleasure jog. However, I must not be nearly as pathetic as I think I am because as witnessed in the video I took (which I'm not going to share because it will take ten hours to upload a video where I trot into the frame for five seconds and move on), Bobby was actually trotting quite nicely and I wasn't bouncing at all. Success!

The canter was equally as "easy" as long as we were going down a straight side. I'm sure it's a little bit of both of us, but we really need to work on staying upright on circles. I was definitely leaning and Bobby was definitely dropping his shoulder. We did a few simple changes across the arena with great success.

on our way to a change.

As a sidenote, Bobby's been so good at getting one-step simple changes across the diagnol, I think I should start trying to teach him flying changes. He just doesn't like to bring that butt with him.

I did thirty minutes in the arena with probably only ten minutes cummulative of trot and canter. It's not much, but it's a good place to start. I finished with the arena work by cantering him over a tiny vertical (maybe 2', if that). The canter in was great and then I curled into some sort of fetal frog position over the jump. Bobby landed and gave me one of his famous "I don't think this is a good idea" backwards glances. I agreed and we didn't try again.

We finished off with our thirty-ish minute trail ride loop. Bobby was bouncing along to get to his galloping hill, but all I had to do was squeeze the reins and tell him "Easy" and he politely settled into a lope to start us out. I didn't feel like I was going to die, so I let him work up into a strong canter and he stepped right into a walk when we got to the top. Most rateable eventing pony ever? Check!

My legs, of course, feel like death, but I think they'll be fine with a good stretch. I want to do no stirrups once a week, two point work in the xcountry field once a week, and grid jumping once a week. Our next show isn't until August 12th so there's plenty of time to become even more awesome.

Dressage Show Videos

It only took all day!

Training 1:

Did we deserve our two 10s? I think we can all collectively agree that no, we did not. Would any one of you have argued against them. Hell no! For the record, the arm spasm just before our final halt was a giant green fly trying to land on me. The flies were awful all day.

Training 2:

What's there to say? Bobby had already done his good dressage deed of the day. Jumping was supposed to be next!

Things to improve on:

* Consistent contact.

* Get my shoulders back. Everything else is okay with standing up straight, why can't they follow suit?

* Dressage in general.

WRC Dressage Schooling Show

First of all, I just have to say how awesome the organizers and volunteers of this show were. By far the best people I've ever met at a show. Everyone was super nice, ready to answer any questions no matter how dumb, Linda (the woman running the show) knew everyone by name after checking in and she was able to pick us out in warm up to tell us we were up next. Everyone went into the arena to the minute for their ride times and results were up the second the division was done. Plus, when we checked in, we each got a baggie of homemade horse treats. It was a small show and it was hot, but there were free donuts and bottles of water at the secretary's stand. Little things like that go such a long way and I will definitely be choosing them for a dressage show before others in the future.

linda directing traffic.

I gave myself thirty minutes for warm up since that's been about the amount of time Bobby's needed to work at home before he comes down from the cantering high and thinks about starting to stretch. I thought he was going to be a complete tool about settling down after cantering, but I'm going to have to give into the fact that Bobby is a completely different horse at shows. He comes out with his game face on, does what's asked of him, and moves on. He just doesn't need a lot of warm up time because he's so ridiculously good away from home. Gosh, what an awful problem to have!

I ended up jumping off of him and hanging out in the shade for fifteen minutes before giving him a ten minute workout and heading in for the first test.

Bobby was a little mincy in the warm up where the footing was rock hard and I didn't really push him to go forward. When the judge blew her whistle, I was at the far end of where I needed to be, so I took a chance that Bobby's showtime manners would hold and cantered the long side. It put a little more pep in his step, but he was came right back down to the trot without yanking on me and in we went.

I've been schooling our halts a little obsessively and Bobby has taken the hint that coming down the centerline means prepare to halt. He nailed the first halt and kept his focus through the salute. (It helped there weren't horses galloping by this time around.) We started out with a little bit of a giraffe head before getting a rhythm and getting to work. He came right back down to from the canter and after several strong half halts in a row, he got the hint not to take off when I gave him some rein for the stretchy trot....of which there was no stretching until the very last stride. Dang it. For the free walk, the judge's comment was "needs much more bend." ?? Am I supposed to bend in the free walk?? Why is dressage so confusing?? The rest of the test went without issue. Nothing spectacular, but I didn't forget anything and Bobby didn't get pissy.

The judge wasn't giving feedback (which I thought was the point of small schooling shows, but whatev), but I rode by to say thank you and she pulled us aside.

Bobby was blown away that the trailer was speaking and felt that he was justified in giving it the hairy eye each time we passed it. He stopped to listen politely though, which was a nice change from our dressage show last year where he was certain the speaker was going to come out and eat him.

So. What did the judge have to say to us? "Carly, I had to give you two tens in that test." To which my reaction was, "WTF?!" Oh. That was just in my head. I actually said, "SERIOUSLY??" in a seriously shocked voice. Clearly she was a crazy person. She gave us a 10 for the medium walk between A and F with the comment "Good free walk. Nice, soft contact. Chewed when reins were shortened." So why did I only get a 6 on my free walk? Dressage....you people confuse me. Also a 10 for our final halt. Practice makes perfect. Literally. She told me that she really liked that he chewed the bit and that both are halts were nice and straight. She said I was doing a good job with him and to keep up the good work. If only he wasn't such a pain in my ass at home....

big hug for a good boy.

Our final score was a 69.58% which earned us a first in Training 1. I'll take it, even if I don't think we deserved it!

Bobby spent the next hour and a half sticking his nose in everything and just being a general nusiance. He's so busy all the time, like a great big baby.

"you with the crinkly wrapper, share your cookies!"

"maybe there's something fun to play with in here."

"or in here."

"or maybe they put something fun in my water."
nope, just horse quencher.

Finally, once he decided he didn't like salt and pepper chips, but he did approve of Twix bars, he settled in for a nap. Right before I had to tack him up and go in. Where's that Mountain Dew when you need it?

such a droopy lip.

He warmed up amazingly. Awesome stretch, awesome trot, awesome everything. And then we got to the dressage ring and he was quite adamant about the fact that he was not here to do even more dressage. He proceeded to go into giraffe mode and didn't get out of it for the whole test. But he did do one killer stretchy circle! His only redeeming move. I was just shaking my head and laughing off all the naughtiness. His first test was great, he's not a dressage horse, and I survived the second test without forgetting anything. No reason to get mad about it. In fact, I think it's a testament to how much he's grown up this year that all he did was stick his nose in the air instead of having a complete meltdown.

We got one 8 for the medium walk, a 7 for our stretchy trot with the comment "good stretch shown", and a 5 for our final canter. It was enough to get us a 59.64% and 3rd place.

I have to give you dressage riders some serious kudos. Remembering those tests is hard work, and after doing only two of them I was so tired! I promise I'll have video eventually. Youtube reports that Training 1 has 281 minutes left and Training 2 has 170 minutes to go. Seriously. Youtube hates me.