Quick Ride

I scooted out to the barn yesterday afternoon. Never mind that I was cramming it in between lunch with the in laws and an evening commitment, I was going to ride.

Izzy did not think she should have to stand in the crossties, especially since I just used her rope halter that hangs on the front of her stall instead of getting out the leather one we usually used. Plus, I think she likes the noise she makes when she flips her head around.

I just ignored her antics as I speed-groomed and booted her up. (I learned my lesson about skipping boots when in a hurry last time when she tried to lame herself.) The gusty winds weren't my favorite thing ever, so I took Izzy to the indoor and put her on a lunge line in case she decided she was scared. She wasn't. That gave me just enough time to hop on, w/t/c both ways, and hop back off. She was ok. Not really good--she didn't really accept the contact, but she was pretty forward and relatively adjustable.

About halfway through our ride, another boarder showed up in half chaps and breeches and got her WB looking horse out to tack up in the aisle. I was super excited. Yay! Someone new to meet. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and she was pretty absorbed in what she was doing, so we didn't get to talk. Now she probably thinks I'm a horrible snob, but at least I'm a horrible snob with an adorable pony, right?

Anyways. As I led Izzy down the driveway to get back to the barn, she decided to stop and poo. I wouldn't have cared except there was a group of people I didn't know standing by the barn and a car coming. Of course we'd stopped in the narrow part where the car can't go around. I tried to lead Izzy out of the way, but she was having none of it until her poo was done and I didn't want to pull the whip out with all the people watching. I know, she's my horse and they probably wouldn't say anything, but I just don't want people to think I abuse my girl... Am I over-reacting?

I've been noticing that Izzy tunes me out on the ground and just sort of ambles along at the speed she wants to go. Any recommendations for working on that? It's driving me batty, but I don't want to just whip her every time she does it. That seems mean.

Stress!

I thought that I had pretty well eliminated stress from my life by graduating and working less and all, but oh well. I got Izzy out yesterday and turned her out since I was out of town Sunday. She galloped and bucked and cavorted all around, so I let her be. It was blowing like 40 miles an hour, so I chickened out on riding. I was running late as it was and with all the other factors, I figured it wasn't worth it to try and force something.

Today it's pouring rain. Also, my husband is home sick. Also, I have to work. Also, I'm going to visit my grandpa. Also, I have a ticket to the game tonight. Also, I HAVE to go to the barn because the nutcase gelding next to Izzy has started her chewing and the B.O. isn't super happy about that.

Tomorrow looks even less likely for squeezing a ride in.

None of that would bother me, except I have a lesson scheduled for Saturday. It does bug me to pay for a lesson when I haven't been riding, so I need to RIDE.

Oh well. We'll figure it out, right?

Testing

Apparently there are blogs about how to use blogger. Who knew?

Technical Details

I have a new gmail address for my primary correspondence. Is there any way to migrate this blog over to it?

It's looking like I either have to keep the blog with this gmail account or download and re-upload at a new place? I'm not sure. Any tech savvy advice appreciated.

Where Izzy is a Good Pony

As I mentioned in the last post, my friend (and blog reader!) M came out to see Izzy with me yesterday. She would have come sooner, but she lives in a different state, which complicates pony trips. Here is a picture she took of me warming up Izzy for her.
I wanted to post it to prove that I do not always sit in a chair seat, though my hands are apparently still in my lap. Nuts. I thought I was doing better there.

Here is M on Izzy. She is only the 5th person to ever ride my wonder pony and the first to get a leg up on her. Izzy was kind of surprised, but quite good.

And they're off!
M used to have her own horse and ride a ton, but now she is stuck riding my mare here and there. Nice basics, though.
Izzy was super cute about the whole thing. She figured out that M wasn't 100% sure what she was doing, so she just played dumb and pretended she didn't know how to trot. Pretty funny, really.
It was so fun to watch the two of them. I almost never get to see Izzy go (since I'm riding) and she has grown up so much. I never thought she'd be a horse I could put someone on, but she was amazing yesterday.

Finally, we get a trot!
Not terribly forward, but calm and relaxed. Then we go the other way...
You may notice one of the other boarders in the background riding here. This officially marks the first time I have ever ridden in the arena with someone else at this facility.
There she is not in the background. Quite easy to share an arena with; she's good at steering. They're schooling 2nd level dressage.

Back to our stars:
I didn't make M ride her over the bridge, but she dismounted in a new place and then we led Izzy over the bridge and around the track. She was quite good throughout. I'm proud of her. (And YAY for seeing M!)

Improvement?

I didn't get out at all on Tuesday. I was home very sick. I did manage to go out briefly yesterday. Izzy must be feeling much better, because she met me in the front of her stall with her ears pricked. I suspect that she was tired and a bit bodysore after jumping and was letting me know she didn't feel up to getting out Monday.

Anyways. I turned her out for a while and did a couple barn chores before going home. Today I think I actually get to ride, and a friend of ours should be coming out with us. Izzy may give a pony ride!! If she does, I promise photographic evidence. (Note: I will not be making our friend ride past the barn. That would just be mean, though I bet I could get some fabulous photos.)

PMS Pony

After Izzy's spectacular effort on Sunday, I thought Monday should just be a light, easy dressage ride and some turnout. Good plan, right?

Izzy didn't think so. When I went to get her, she walked to the back of her pen and wouldn't look at me. I got her anyways and off we went. She started out ok. On the way to the arena, I met another boarder for the first time, so we stopped and chatted for a while. Izzy actually stood really quietly for me. Then we went to the big outdoor. She was actually pretty good.

I just walked her around a little, then we trotted a couple laps, cantered a couple laps, changed directions, and did the same the other way. The end of the whole thing was that I just wanted to ride her by the barn, over the bridge, and once around the track at a walk. Why? Because I've been getting off at the barn and she's decided that she doesn't want to go past it now. My bad.

We had a brief discussion about whether or not she could walk by the barn. She only threw herself around and ran backwards once. I had a lot of success with just letting her go forward until she felt uncomfortable, then standing for a minute, petting her, and trying again. Basically, when I'm asking her to do something hard mentally, I need to let her process. If I rush her, she gets frantic.

So far so good. She walked over the bridge with only a very minor hesitation and we we off to the track. Little did I know, the challenge was just beginning.

Izzy is in heat. That's never been a problem before, but there's a very studdy gelding in the stall next to her and she's in love with him. Combine that with the healthy amount of turnout she's been getting, and I have a very clear-headed mare who is all of a sudden herdbound. She barely wanted to move when walking away from the barn and then would rush and whinny going towards it.

I was more amused than anything. She couldn't have picked a better time (for me) to be a twit. I had already been to work and literally had nothing to go to aftrwards. I had all the time in the world, and I decided that she was not done until she could walk around the track with pitching a fit and tuning me out constantly.

We had several discussions about that. When she realized that I wasn't going to let her go back to her beloved Petie, she told me she was going to rear. Given her history, I took her very seriously and made her spin in some serious fast circles and then (the horror!) trot away from the barn.

I did try to help her along. I knew she was distracted, so we didn't just walk. We did little serpentines. We did trot/halt/trot transitions. We did not back up under any circumstances because she does need any help with that... she tends to use it as an evasion to get behind my leg. When she would finally at least flicker an ear back at me on the stretch towards the barn, I rode her back over the bridge to the barn, then turned around and rode her to the bridge and got off there.

I finished up by doing some ground work with her on the track. Poor mare thought she was very abused, especially since everyone else had been fed by then.

Jumping Report

Let me begin by saying, I love love love my horse with turnout. Yesterday, we took her to a facility that neither she nor I had ever been too. She was a little up at first, in that she wanted to look at stuff, but she did not spook one single time while we were there. I didn't even feel the need to lunge her before hopping on. That's how awesome she is.

Ok.

Clinic with pictures.

We trailered in with Irie the Halfie and his mom.
He is adorable. He isn't as clean as his mother would like--we had a flat on the trailer and some maneuverings to get there on time.

On to Izzy! (Thanks to Irie's mom for taking all the pictures with my finicky camera.)
Doesn't she just look fabulous with that hand-picked tail, clean tack, and fancy lil' bonnet? I'm also decked out in some of my dover clearance spoils. (Kerrits GRASS breeches and ariat half chaps ftw!)

We started out cantering a circle of poles set 40' apart. We were to half halt directly after the pole, then ride positively to the pole itself.
Izzy is a rockstar.
As I mentioned before, I'm counteracting my tendency to ride with my hands in my laps. Apparently, thanks to doing oodles of dressage, I always end up doing too much and not just letting Izzy find her own balance and develop some responsibility for herself. Stephanie Goodman told me to ride like McLain Ward and "equitate". I laughed, but I got my butt out of the saddle and my hands up and things went much better. Now I just need to watch some McLain Ward videos. I know him by reputation but I haven't really watched him.

I'm not really sure what gait we're demonstrating here. Half a flying lead change maybe?
The next exercise was to canter down a 4 or 5 stride line of ground poles. That is why you should not be alarmed by Izzy's form in the following photo.
Stephanie pointed out that the reason our horses were jumping the poles instead of just cantering over them was that we were telling them to. We need to do a little less.

I guess I have this weird notion that I need to do something over fences, but I don't really know what. Due to my lack of understanding, I do lots of unnecessary stuff and mostly confuse my poor horse. Instead, I need to focus on figuring out my distance, but I'm absolutely not allowed to tell Izzy where to take off until I'm 100% sure (you know, in like a couple years).

Then we put the poles up to crossrails and did the line in 4 strides.
Finally, they were set up as a large cross rails to an ascending oxer. We cantered in, which I have never intentionally asked Izzy to do before. She was amazing. I have an undesirable tendency to lose my lower legs back and then my upper body forward after the jump, but we can work on that. In the mean time, I'm totally thrilled at how amazing Izzy was.
She was bold and brave and forward and fabulous. She never thought about stopping or running out, regardless of what stupid things I was doing on top of her. I dunno. I think we're great for each other. She's an even 16.0 hands and just right for me.
The final exercise was vertical to oxer in 6 strides off the right lead. Look! The back rail of the oxer was like 2'6". That is the highest we have ever jumped!! Izzy made it feel like nothing. Stephanie commented that she kept the jumps low because Izzy isn't 100% on where to put her feet yet. Just think how great she'll be when she's solid.

I was totally pumped. What a great lesson.

More Pictures!

I realize that I never really finished giving y'all a walking tour of the fabulous barn we're at.

Here is Izzy having a lovely time in the turnout next to the arena.
While she was eating (this is several days ago), I took more pictures.

This is the scary aisle we have to walk down to get to the indoor. It's way, way less scary than the bubble of doom from last year.
If you don't go down that aisle, you'll come across the outdoor small court dressage arena.
Yes, there is a tree in the middle of it. I'm told that most visiting dressage instructors like that feature in the summer time. ;-)

Next to the dressage arena are some runs with three-sided shelters for boarders. One of the horses is almost a ringer for Izzy.
Seriously. Minus the stocking, it's totally her. Well, that, and I think this horse is a gelding.

Keep going around behind the indoor and you'll come across the big outdoor arena.
It's pretty sweet.

Continue straight and cross the road--here's our third and final outdoor arena. It's also the only one Izzy and I haven't used yet.
It's somewhere between the dressage and the large outdoor in size and it has nicely groomed dirt footing. We'll ride in it soon as a matter of principle.

Ok, now we're on to picture from today. (If you're tracking with the walking tour, we have now crossed the road, walked by the green grassy turnouts, and are back to Izzy's barn.)
I love the pretty flowers.

Here is the darling mare herself, showing off in the cross ties. She was being absolutely adorable and sweet when I was taking these.
I actually had some time this morning, so I went ahead and did what all the good horsey-care books say to do: I hand picked her tail! It didn't take as long as I thought it would and she looked fabulous afterward. I'll have to do that more often. I mean, she lost less than 10 strands of hair. Yay!

This is our only cross-tying hangup: she turns back to look at me, then can't figure out how to straighten out.
Oh well. Someday, right?

Today we were taking advantage of the track that is right behind the barn, just over the canal. To get there, you have to cross the scary bridge:
It's even scarier when water is rushing by underneath, but irrigation is mostly over for the year. Izzy did great. She looked at it a couple times, but she went right over.

After the bridge on the right is the massive hay barn. This is where they store the hay they grow themselves.
And then the track! It's only .2 of a mile I think, but it's fun and way better than nothing for sure.
Izzy and I did a sort-of conditioning day today. We're trying to follow the schedule laid out in Jimmy Wofford's book, but that requires keeping track of time. I don't own a watch, so we just did a few fast laps, then walked one, then a few more. By fast I mean forward trot or slow canter; I'm not trying to run her off her legs. We'll get this hammered out a little better.

When we were done, Izzy got turned out in the pasture in the middle of the track. Happy mare!
Also, she's making a funny face.

Jumping Day Take II

We jumped again on Tuesday. I confess... it was cold (like 35 f) and windy, so I set a couple jumps in the indoor to get out of the wind. It's fabulous that I pretty much have the place to myself. I set the jumps and turned the lights on to warm up, then went and got Izzy ready, then came back and the whole setup was just waiting for me. Sweet! (I know, jumping alone isn't safe.)

Anyways. She warmed up pretty well. I asked for a little more angle in the shoulder fore and she totally fell apart. I brought her back to walk and broke it down for her, then tried again in trot and she was fabulous! That was pretty exciting. I'm doing a lot of lengthen/shorten type work because both as a dressage horse and a jumper, she needs to be adjustable. I try to bring her back to the shortest and most collected canter she can possibly hold, and then ride her forward out of it so she doesn't lose her balance and break to trot. She seems to be getting the hang of it.

I set a little 18" crossrail and about a 2'3" vertical. We haven't jumped a vertical in ages, so even though it's super tiny, it looked absolutely MASSIVE to me. Lame, but true. Izzy totally demolished the crossrail the first time we went over--even the standards hit the ground. Apparently, she didn't think we could jump indoors.

I hopped off, fixed the jump, and we tried again. Much better! She went over it nicely both directions, so I convinced myself taht I really wanted to jump the vertical and pointed her at it. She backed off a bit as we came in, so I put extra leg on and clucked to her, and over we went.

Except we knocked it down. I think I sat down early (bad habit) which made her knock it.

Anyways. It was fabulous and fun. It was also our last jump until this coming Sunday when we have a real and actual jumping lesson!!

I will try to get pictures on here again soon... been too lazy/busy lately.

Jumps!

I managed to sneak in a ride Saturday morning before taking off to visit the in-laws. As promised, I pulled out the jumping tack and trooped off to the arena.

We've been doing so well with dressage in our lovely treeless saddle that I think I was afraid I'd lose all that softness and back-lifting and whatnot. My fears were obviously not justified.

Izzy was fabulous! She moved the same as she does with the treeless saddle and we did some basic w/t/c canter work with some lengthen/shortens, leg yields, and even a little bit of shoulder fore thrown in. Then I hopped off and set up a crossrail that was probably about 18".

As I circled to come to the jump, I focused on staying balanced, with my hips pushed back enough to allow my shoulders to come forward and then...

We jumped! It was smooth and rhythmic and easy and fun! We did it a couple times each way, then I let her be done for the day. What a difference all our hard work has made!

Tomorrow should be a jumping day again. I'm excited already.

Jumping

It has been resolved. The next time I ride, I will pull out the jump tack and do some super-fun work in two point. Then, maybe, I will let Ms. Izzy actually jump over something.

That is, after all, the point of eventing. (Mostly.)

I've been putting it off because 1) she's been doing some fabulous dressage work and we're really starting to click and 2) I don't know a ton about jumping. I feel like I've hit this massive learning curve this year. I used to be a "good" rider, in that I had decent instincts and stayed on well, but I didn't really know much about what I was doing. I sort of thought I did, but I was wrong.

Now that I'm trying to learn to do things the right way, I guess I'm realizing just how much I did wrong.

That's depressing, but it's also a start. I can usually feel when something's "right". I sort of know when Izzy's engaged. I can feel when I'm balanced. I'm working to build up my fitness and strength. I'm figuring out our weaknesses and trying to focus on them. I've been having a blast just doing dressage, but I'm hoping to take some actual jumping lessons this month. To be fair to the instructor and to ensure I'm getting my money's worth, I need to go in just as fit and ready as I can possibly be.

Plus, Izzy looks way cute in jumping tack.

Tall Boot Gripes

I want nice tall boots. I have a pair that I got really cheap; the foot sort of fits and the leather is so cheap that I'm afraid if Izzy ever spooked even a little while I was riding, I'd just slip off.

Here's the problem. I have absolutely no idea what size I wear in American sizes. I know I'm a 40 European--both my Vibram's and my ballroom shoes are 40s. I have no idea what size my calf is, either. I measured a couple months ago and thought I was 17.5. Then I measured a couple days ago and was 16.5. It's possible I lost an inch in my calves despite running more, but it's more likely that I don't know how to measure.

So anyways. My best bet is just to go to the local tack store, get measured, and try some on to make sure I like the fit and the leather quality, but I don't really have money to throw at it right no, so I'd just be wasting the time of the nice salesperson who would not get any commission.

That is, I would have some money for it, but I have two pairs of Kerrits breeches and a pair of Ariat half chaps on the way from the Dover clearance section.

That Silly Mare

After yesterday's antics with the farrier and today's continued cool weather, I made a new plan for today. 1) We will put a stud chain on the halter and do some basic ground work. 2) We will tack up and go lunge Ms Mare's butt off in the outdoor. 3) We will have a decent ride and 4) Ms Mare will have about an hour for turnout before I have to leave.

1 went well. I only had to remind Izzy once or twice that she was to STOP when I said stop and not run all over the top of me. She had a very penitent look on her face, too. I think she knew what that was about.

2 started well. She was the best she's ever been in the crossties and I got her put together in good time. I thought about pulling out my cool climatex polos and (normal) bell boots, but I was on a schedule and wrapping takes time. Instead, I clipped on the lunge line and took her across the street to the arenas. I decided to walk her through the aisle next to the indoor becaue we're going to have to start riding in there soon. It seemed like a good decision at the time.

As we turned into the aisle, a cat leaped out and ran almost under Izzy's feet. Izzy is not a fan of cats, things under her feet, or dark aisles, so she leaped sideways. Her left foreleg slammed into the side of the indoor. She wouldn't even put weight on her right leg.

Oooooooh. I made her walk down the aisle anyways when she decided she apparently hadn't broken her leg off. In fact, she seemed ok. We went to the outdoor and I watched her go around on the lunge line. She was sound. Thank God. When I stopped her, I noticed blood on her leg. She also noticed it, so she stuck her nose in it and looked at me like, "I can't work today. I'm clearly about to bleed to death."

I didn't quite believe her, but it did merit further inspection and I didn't really want to get sand in a bloody wound, so we walked back to the barn, untacked, and then cold-hosed her leg for about 10 minutes. A closer inspection revealed that she skinned the back of her right front fetlock, but there was nothing dangling and there wasn't really much blood.

I turned her out in the pasture and she ambled off, munching grass.

Izzy 1, Aimee 0

Rainy Day

I was going to do this great post about the fabulous ride I had yesterday. I mean, it was amazing. Those of you who assured me that I'd have more time for my horse once I quit working at the barn were totally correct. She's doing some great dressage work.

But then there was today. All I can say is that I'm so thankful my farrier doesn't charge by the hour. I would be totally broke. The weather has been changing. This morning was cool and rainy. I showed up at the barn with just enough time to do one thing before the farrier arrived. I chose hand grazing over lunging, since I thought Izzy would like the grass and I probably shouldn't use the turnouts, since they were wet.

Right?

Wrong.

The farrier was a half hour late (standard for them, so I expected it), which would have given me enough time to at least lunge the silly mare.

It proceeded to take a full two hours to put front shoes on her. Not even kidding. She wasn't "bad" as in kicking or striking or refusing to pick up her feet; she just wouldn't stand still, kept trying to bite stuff because she was bored, and that sort of thing. Fortunately, he'll just take as long as it takes and doesn't get upset about it, but I was getting irritated. She wouldn't want to stand, so she'd throw her head at me and keep her shoulders going. Grrrrr. I was mad at her, but I knew if I made a big deal out of it, the whole thing would just take longer.

Note to self: lunge the mare next time.

He was not at all pleased with her front feet. She has some serious long toe/low heel on the left front. Apparently, the only way to stimulate hoof growth is concussion, but she's not really concussing that heel because it's so low. He'd hoped it would get better after her trim and shoes last time, but it didn't. Sooo... next time we're doing resins on the front feet. Apparently, that will allow him to build her heel up enough to get it to concuss and therefore grow. It also allows her feet to contract and expand a lot more than shoes do. I'm excited to see how that goes.

Also, I'm clearance shopping on Dover. Someone stop me!

World's Bravest Pony

Saturday I just got Izzy out and lunged her. She was actually really quiet (and didn't even spook!), but I was grooming and tacking up in the crossties, which she's never had before, and it was stressing her enough that I didn't want to take the time to put the saddle on. She's doing really well figuring them out--it's just that sometimes she turns her head to see what I'm doing, and then she shifts around, and then she can't figure out how to get back to where she started.

Still, she was lovely. We lunged in the indoor and the large sand outdoor and aside from being annoyed by the gnats (which are really bad right now), she was totally fine. Afterwards, we walked back behind her barn and looked at the scary bridge over the irrigation canal. I didn't make her go on it, but I thought she should at least see it.

Ok, so Sunday. I showed up and turned Izzy out in one of the pretty pastures. She was antsy because I was out of sight and she felt alone. Fortunately, another boarder showed up and turned out her horse and a friend's nearby so Izzy could see them. Peace was restored. We talked for a while and then caught our horses and went across the street to the big outdoor. Izzy was fabulous!! She's really starting to get the dressage work we've been doing and it feels amazing.

The boarder commented that Izzy looked really relaxed. Before I could agree with her, she said that she was riding down the road to the ditchbank and we should come, too. Yikes! Izzy has never been on a road or a ditchbank, but we had to start sometime and the other boarder's horse was a SUPER quiet draft cross.

We did it. We walked down the road and Izzy was really good, aside from wanting to stop and see the horses in the pasture next to us. Fortunately, no cars came by on her first trip out. Then we turned and went down the ditchbank. This is no ordinary ditchbank; it's the New York Canal. It's bigger, deeper, and faster than most rivers in this part of the country. People drown in it. Needless to say, it made me a little nervous. Izzy just stuck her nose in the draft x's tail (her name was Joy) and we were fine. The other boarder is used to going with spookier horses, so she warned me about scary parts and even yelled at some ducks to get them to take off before poor Izzy walked by.

Next, we went down the bank and into the hayfield the barn owns. We walked around the cool irrigation overflow pond and saw a blue heron, among other things. Izzy was worried, but she behaved nicely. We did dismount before coming back to the barn because the scary bridge had been oiled recently and it was somewhat slippery. Still, Izzy marched right across it (with me leading her) because Joy crossed it and she didn't want to be left behind. All told, I was in the saddle for just over an hour and my super brae and amazing pony did not spook at a single thing despite it being our first ride in a totally new place.

You see what turnout does to her? I love every minute.

MOVED!!

As of 1pm this afternoon, we are officially all out of our old place and settled into the new barn. I was quite impressed with how well Izzy did. I put her in the stall while I labeled my feed bin and did a few moving-in things.

This is the barn we're in. The picture above is a converted dairy barn that the owner's horses live in.
Her stall: (Why yes, we're number 1. )
I gave her a handful of senior with her new ulcer meds just to see if she would eat them (and I figured double-dosing on a stressful day wouldn't hurt) and she gobbled them up. They don't look appetizing (brown powder), but they smell like caramel.
Her view from inside the stall down the row looks like this:
A new horse moves in next to her Monday. All the other stalls are full. Oh, and there's a very-productive apple tree across the parking lot.
Happy ponies. While I unloaded tack, I decided to turn Izzy out. Nothing usually settles her down like green grass and open space. To do that, we had to walk down this aisle.
And turn her out in a lovely, green place with shade trees and safe fencing (smooth wire and electric.)
It worked. Happy pony.

The goofy mare missed me, though. How weird is that? I didn't think she was that attached. She was pretty happy for about 20 minutes while I set up. Then she started whinnying every time I was out of sight. I went over to see her.

She waited for me, then walked next to me by the fence.

I went in and wandered around with her for a while, then put her back on the halter and we went exploring. I didn't take my camera for this part, so I'll take more pictures tomorrow or Monday. We went across the road, by the other horses, into the indoor arena (which apparently isn't that scary), through the dark aisle (which was a little scary), by both the outdoor arenas, and even stopped to chat with a boarder who was excited to find out that we'd love to go trail riding with her.

Good times.