New Faces, Old Problems

say hello to Bowie

I continue taking advantage of opportunities to sit on horses. Part of that is to broaden my skills as a rider. Part is because I want to suss out if I'm missing out on something in terms of horses. I mean. I know Courage isn't the easiest, but I need to know for me what I'm ok with. 

I'm learning a lot right now--for example, as much as I don't think Courage is an "ideal" rehab horse, other options aren't necessarily better. Courage is very much a horse where you need to sit still and stay out of his way. He's not a big mover and his back doesn't swing a lot naturally. 

and he really loves the velcro game his auntie taught him

It's not ideal for dressage. 

But. 

I think I got back to riding much more quickly because of it. The horse I sat on yesterday was a big-moving (for me, not compared to "big movement" horses) young warmblood gelding. And like. When said big, loose-moving horse loses his shit, it is very lost. VERY. Oh and also said horse is super quiet and normally totally fine, but horses are horses and sometimes you just have to run and buck and leap and spook like an idiot. Because horse.

and then i ride like a super defensive monkey

So it's not only a gauge of "what do I want to do" but also a range of "what nope responses am I okay with". 

Courage is a known quantity to me. I know he can't buck for shit. I know he'll bolt if he's scared, but I also know he's not a dick about it and he'll try to warn me first. He's not a spook. He doesn't spin (usually). I'm okay with those things (unless it's a show warm up in an open field by the road. Long story.) 

plus totes adorbs

Other horses certainly have less dramatic responses. The two lovely mares I rode were more like "ehhhhh I put my head up and nooooooo" and less "LEAVING NAOW BAI". That was a nice switch, but conversely, they were a lot more physical to ride. Which is not a bad thing. It's just a thing that rehab girl here has to think about.

oh no! she's a bit curled! 

I'm definitely becoming a better, more aware rider because of the opportunities I have right now. I'm incredibly grateful that I've gotten to sit on some legitimately nice horses and ride through my issues. 

And hours after my lesson, I'm sitting here trying to convince my back it doesn't have to be pissed about the big horse.  

It doesn't believe me. 

New Adventures, Part the First

Last week, I took advantage of some very generous offers by barn mates to take lessons on different horses. One of my goals this year was to ride 10 different horses and when people hand you the reins to impeccably trained personal horses, well, you don't say no.

especially not to this face

The first was this lovely mare from last week. She's completely adorable and basically perfect. I've seen her go a lot of times and always just assumed she was your "typical" stock-type paint that was a little bit dull.

Not so.

meet Cocoa!

She is absolutely the cutest, most sensitive little mare that is 110% solid try. Oh and her owner has done an AHMAZING job with her. Seriously.

Once my trainer got me on the same page with this little gal, I had so much fun. She's a training/first level horse that was a reiner sometime in the past. She also thinks like a pony, so I had to be careful to be very soft/giving with my hands, but keep her FORWARD and remember that she likes to drift to the gate. So honest. So fun.

And then while Courage recuperated from bodywork, I got to snag a lesson on a solid-first, schooling-second Friesian cross mare who is also super cool.

and Ms Nikki!

This mare has a ton of excellent training, but has primarily only had one rider. She's a bit suspicious of new people, so I had to sit quietly on her and help her believe I wasn't going to ask for more than she could do. She was super sensitive to my movements and very light off the aids.

This is what I love about having our trainer on board--she knows where I'm at and she knows where Courage is at and she's able to work on me on other horses without being down on Courage. He and I have a complicated relationship, but it's a little too intense right now and the best way to dial it back is to sit on some other horses and remember that yes, I can ride. Sort of.

Both the mares let me figure my stuff out without doing anything dangerous. They had their own ways of going and their own evasions, but they were straightforward and safe.

And then it was time to get back on my man C-rage.

The Catch Ride Experiment

I am a highly-motivated goal-driven person.

That personality trait is not at all conducive to dressage.

The other day, I had a lesson on Courage. He was SUPER. He let me ride. I learned so much about how little I actually know how to ride. The next time I rode, Redheadlins came out to do media. She's always happy to remind me what I need to fix in the saddle, which is priceless when you can apparently remember nothing. NOTHING. I used to be a smart person who could ride. Now I'm like... a strange lump that is stiff in weird places and can't both post and steer. RAWR EXISTENTIAL ANGST.

Anyways. If you're super bored and like watching me walk, trot, and canter in a circle, here's video.


If you don't like video, here are the highlights:

Sometimes I ride like this, which I am ok with.

Most of the time I ride like this, which I am less ok with.

I mean. If you look at how Courage is going, he's obviously improving in general and that's great. But like. You don't have to be God's gift to riding to see that I need help.

But then I went out to our old barn and hoped on a fun fancy jump horse who looks like a teeny pony when I ride her.

FLOOF

She's very out of shape, but she's broke broke broke, so we played dressage pony with long stirrups and sitting trot. It was FASCINATING. I could feel things changing underneath me so easily and actually make corrections that were useful. My hands didn't bounce because I was just sitting and wow. It was (almost) paradigm-altering.

The next day, I dragged a pony friend out, dropped my stirrups two holes, and tried to ride Courage like he had 5 more years of training than he really does.

This was good.

proof I can perch in any length of stirrup

This was less good.

See, I was kind of hoping that the difference was the saddle or the stirrup length or the sitting trot or basically anything I could fix without spending YEARS training my horse to get to that point.

Fun fact: it isn't.

A large part of the problem is that I'm still working to develop a correct seat, which (just like jumping) is the foundation for everything else. A less-large-but-still-substantial part of the problem is what my trainer keeps pointing out--Courage just isn't ready to be ridden like VA VA VOOM DRESSAGE HORSE. Even if I had that skill set right this instant, he can't handle it. Remember how we're trying to eradicate the flailing instead of make it worse? Yeah.

one hole down from normal

I put my stirrups back up a hole so I could actually reach them, and then played with sitting trot a little bit. It's not amazing. I can do some well and more poorly.

But hey. It was an interesting experiment. I learned that Courage can handle a little more pressure now than he could even a few weeks ago. I learned to be more aware of my position. I learned that I an create an existential hormone-driven crisis out of nearly any situation and I learned that the cure to most crises is still a fantastic outfit, wine, and a good night's sleep.

it's never a bad day for argyle polos

Because no matter how much I want it to be, the answer is never DRILL DRILL DRILL and ride C into the ground. It's time, patience, and harmony. It's relaxing, letting go, and taking my time.

And you know, all those things my trainer told me in the first place.

And that's really hard for a goal-driven person to accept. 

Schooling Show: Not as Planned

Right before he tried to kill her

Last week, I was freaking out about signing up for the Very Expensive Clinic, and I decided to help calm my nerves by scheduling one last round of bodywork for Courage and signing up for a little schooling show where we could run through intro B and C and hopefully have one last positive, off-property experience before embarrassing ourselves in front of all of local dressage land. 

The good/bad news about the bodywork was that Courage REALLY needed it. We have a new plan of action for him and I'm optimistic. Sort of. 

See, it looks like every time we have a meltdown about turning right (yeah, more of that) it's actually a pain issue related to a low back issue related to 6 years of racing. We can fix it and build correct muscle.

Yeah. Good thing I never liked my bank account anyways. TTFN, dolla billz! 

but he's really shiny

So anyways. After all that and a day off, I showed up after work to prep for our little schooling show. And naturally, my usually clean horse was completely soaked in urine. 

Sooooooo I hosed him off.

And found fresh blood on his side right under where my leg should go. 

Horses. I swear. 

Since my trainer was taking two other horses that she had to ride one after the other, I left Courage at home and went to the show to play with this lovely thing:

She's a 12 (?) year old holsteiner mare doing 4th level with my dressage trainer. I piddled around the warm up with her in a double bridle. It was super fun, but probably hilarious to watch. I had no ideas what buttons to push and I could barely get her to walk a straight line. We had some sweet lateral work at the walk, some maybe ok trot and a fun but entirely accidental canter. 

I'm going to pretend my complete lack of skills came from having to stay in the top of the arena, so the greenie my trainer was on wouldn't think she was getting abandoned, but LOL. Yeah really it's just that I don't know how to push dressage buttons. 

Anyways. After the greenie went, I switched horses with my trainer and then ambled around on the greenie, a Friesian X. She was nervous but manageable and I probably looked a lot more appropriate on her anyways. 

And that's the story of how Courage did not get one last outing before our big clinic, but I still feel more confident and prepared. 

A little bit.

Maybe.

Ride Well Without a Trainer

My fashion sense is spot-on, though

My downward transitions on Courage are abysmal.

Period, full stop.

His upwards are usually decent as long as I keep him moving forward. It's actually a really funny problem for me, because I've just always had horses that sucked at upward transitions and did nice downwards.

I've tried a couple of different things to try to fix them, and while they maaaaybe aren't as bad, they still pretty much suck. Now I realize that this is a green horse thing and nothing is fixed overnight and all that, but usually I can at least feel like I'm making progress.

Here's the thing with green horses--they don't usually know the "right" answer to any given question, especially if they are a race horse who is just learning about this whole sporthorse thing.

So huge

That's why I've been enjoying some recent opportunities to ride nice, broke horses. I can't take lessons right now and I certainly can't put Courage in training, but I can ride and break down what I'm doing. 

Meet Jasper. He is an absolutely huge warmblood of some sort. He's forward and bendy and supple and ridiculously uphill and totally broke. He put up with my pathetic attempts at dressage, and then we did walk/trot transitions until he was beyond bored.

He didn't need the schooling. I did.

I needed to know that I could still ride a good transition. Check.

I needed to know what elements Jasper brought to the equation that made him more balanced. Check.

I needed to know what I was doing that hindered him in the first place. Check.

We are the best at working on stuff

It's not just his general hugeness and brokeness that make Jasper easy to ride, although those help a lot. He is a forward going horse, so I'm able to change his gait without causing all his energy to go crashing into the sand.

It also helps when I focus on you know, RIDING through the transition, instead of just sort of shutting down and inhibiting him. Think about how I'm using my legs and core, what my posting is saying, what my hands are doing. All that.

I'm back in the irons on Courage today and I'm excited to play with these concepts. I have no illusions of turning him in to Jasper overnight, but I can set him up with more good experiences and start tuning him in to the life of a proper sport horse.

Little Man Has Mad Hops

Given the sort of gut wrenching awful that we dealt with last week, I really needed Courage to step it up. I guess the little man knew it. He brought me 110% every ride, even when all I felt up to doing was just walking around the arena. He's so self assured and cocky and adorable. He forces me to pay attention and laugh, even when I don't think I can.

Not actually me riding

We rode at dusk the other night, and he was jumping like a rocket ship. We'd get right under the fences, and then he'd LAUNCH into the air. I had to laugh at him, but for Sunday's ride, I put redheadlins in the tack for the fences. I do enjoy him immensely, but sometimes I think it's useful to let him figure life out with someone who knows a little more what they're doing.

Plus, I haven't actually seen him go since he figured out jumping. Check out his awesome below!!



Redheadlins not only rode him for me, she also made the video. Yay awesome friends!

How cute are they?

In case you're like me and rarely watch videos, here are a couple of stills from the day.

It was so much fun to watch my little guy go around. He feels amazing when I ride him, but I have to say, he looks even more amazing. He is SO.PROUD. of himself for figuring out jumping.

I don't think height is an issue

I do need to probably do more ground poles stuff and get him used to grids and seeing multiple jumps in a row. That said, we're going in to winter and I'm in no particular hurry.

He's a quick learner and a hard worker and with his brain, I'm really not worried about doing anything other than building up a reservoir of positive experiences for him to draw on. We keep it fun and easy and he is thriving.

And frankly, if you think his jumping is coming along, you should see his flatwork. Someday, we will be respectable. We will also jump things more than 2' tall, but hey, he's three months off the track.

PS Check out the fun contest over at Forging Fiction.

Life of a Cuna

We aren't doing much exciting unless you count turnout.


Obviously, Cuna does not count turnout. This is what he does. Well, he doesn't drink the whole time, but usually he just stands at the gate and flips his head. Doesn't matter if he has acres of grass to roam or a buddy or a drylot.

At least he's cute. 

Very, very cute.











Also cute? Meet Ms Song. She belongs to another boarder who had an accident and won't be able to ride for a few weeks.

I'm stealing all the rides I can get. She's absolutely the opposite of Cuna, so she's very, very challenging for me, but she is a super cool horse and I am enjoying the opportunity to learn from her.

That said, I want Cuna back PRONTO. He is best.

Ammy Hour: Meet Nicku!!

It's time for a new series! I want to spotlight some adult ammies and how they make it work with horses. Let's face it: we all know the challenges. We all know what gets in the way. Here are some people who do the horse thing, the life thing, and still have to pay the bills.Without further ado, meet Nicku of the Polka Dot Periodical. I've always admired her--she balances a passionate horsey love and mad skills with a real person job, while being very social and staying involved with her church. She's never mentioned having a superwoman cape, so she's going to kick off our series in which we explore just how a successful adult ammy makes everything work.

1) You’re at dinner with work colleagues. How do you introduce yourself? I love working full time so very much, there's no where else I'd rather be tonight than this! Oh, what do I normally do after work? I ride horses. English style, no that's not the saddle with the horn, jumping colored poles, you've seen that on TV probably when you watched the Olympics this summer, no? But enough about me, did someone order wine yet?
 
2) But what you really meant to say was this: If I could make money in horses, you bet your bottom that's what I'd be doing, but since that's nearly impossible to do here in Northern CA and not live out of my horse trailer I work my tail off so that I can afford to own a horse, take lessons and compete here and there. I actually am at the barn for at least 2 hours a night after work while you're home eating a nice dinner and watching American Idol with your kids, I am (and always have been) an Eventer, I jump stuff on my young horse that I trained myself that is solid and scary at high rates of speed, you'd actually think I was insane if you saw it. 
 
3) Tell us about your horse: Pongo is a 16.3, 6 year old, LOUD leopard Appaloosa gelding out of the Confetti Farms line of eventing appies. He's competed BN eventing successfully and schools at Novice/Training level. He's snuggly, sassy, bossy, proud, brave, smooth, smart and just all around fun to look at and be around. TOTAL momma's boy. Definitely not a beginner's ride, but he's appropriate to my level of riding experience. 
 
4) How did you meet him/her? We met in upstate New York in September of 2007. I found him on dreamhorse.com. It was true love at first sight. He was 1 year old and had an incredible presence about him that was so fun. He galloped full-tilt around his paddock, tail flipped over his back like an Arabian showing off and jumped a bush for absolutely no reason, that's when I knew, he HAD to come home with me immediately. I remember my parents asked me "...and what exactly are you going to do with a yearling stud?", I said, "I have no idea, thank goodness I have a few years to figure it out, eh?!"
 
5) What have you done together? Pongo and I just do life together. Having him since he was a baby meant I really never had an agenda for him. I always wanted him to tell me what he wanted to do versus me tell him what to do with his life. I got lucky though and the eventing genes from his granddaddy are strong, he is a cross country machine! We've competed BN eventing, schooled through Training Level, jump ~3'-3'3" at home and at jumper shows too on occasion, we do a lot of natural horsemanship work and love a good trail ride. Some of our highlights this year were getting a 29.5 in dressage at our last show (earning us 1st place out of 17 riders), schooling Training Level cross country jumps and clinicing with two-time Olympian Hawley Bennett. 

Kypped from recent youtube vid

 
6) Where are you going together? This year, Novice level, possibly Training by end of year. I would really like to do a Training 3 day on him maybe in 2014, but I have a super busy, full-time professional job, 45 minute commute to work both ways, wedding coming up August 2013 and God willing, we really want to have kids in the next couple of years. I try not to make too many plans in my equestrian life and just take what comes, I only have one Pongo and I really want him to last a long time for me, I just love riding him so much, so we're just going to see where the road takes us, no rush! 
 
7) How do you finance the addiction? I am blessed to have a good paying job. But, that is really a result of my Dad teaching me that to have horses, I'd better have a solid career, so I had to focus on school and work 100% for a few years and not own a horse. I had to catch ride/take group beginner lessons (OUCH to the prelim rider ego), do whatever I could to ride on the cheap/free until my paycheck was big enough to afford to lease and then eventually own a horse again. Even then, that meant buying a nice baby horse in 2007 and waiting *patiently* for him to grow up/be the trained horse I always wanted. I also am marrying the most wonderful man who has his act together and is extremely supportive of the horse addiction both emotionally and financially. I ask for evententries.com gift certificates and other various horse things at every holiday. My parents are trained that Pongo gets a Christmas gift every year :P This year he asked for a Back on Track blanket.
 
8) How often do you ride? 2-3 days during the week and 1 weekend day usually, then my trainer rides Pongo 1 day a week
 
9) What’s the single biggest thing that helps you achieve your goals? Keeping my goals very flexible and reasonable. 
 
10) If there was one thing you could say to people getting ready to join the ranks of riding (or re-riding) adults, what would it be?  Buy, or ride a horse that is appropriate to your current skill level (take an excellent cue from Aimee and snatch up the oldie, but goodie schoolmaster, have some dang fun, get your confidence sky high). If you work and ride, you probably (honestly) cant afford to fall off and get really injured riding a flighty horse or a project horse. I've had a few little things happen here and there and it is miserable trying to focus at work after a concussion, or sit in a meeting with a stiff back from getting bucked off. Safety first - and that means being properly matched with the right horse, doing activities that are appropriate to your level and working with a trainer who can help you. As a result of my falls I really dont ever ride other people's horses that often or horses I am unfamiliar with - I just cant risk something happening to me and it affecting my job/livelihood.
 

11) Bottom Line: Dont get caught up in what everyone else at your barn, or on the blogs are doing (I mean for reals, how DO THEY go to EVERY SINGLE EVENT offered and every clinic and schooling and not go broke?). Own it that being an adult-ammie rider, especially one who has to work full time, means you probably arent going to play by the same rules as someone who doesnt work, or has oodles of disposable income and that's OK. You'll probably always be either short on time or money or if you're like me, both time AND money AND oh yeah, most days energy too...but that doesnt diminish your passion and ability to excel at the sport. Do what you can each day (whether that's having a great lesson, or just realizing you need a night at home with no riding because work kicked your butt) and if you feel like it wasnt enough, try again tomorrow or the next day! Always go at your own pace, this is supposed to be fun, right? Oh and wear your helmet, every single ride, no exceptions. 

 

Many thanks to Nicku for taking the time to share! 

Any tips? Special ways you make it work? Things you have to give up? Want to be the next featured ammy? Hit me up in the comments or through our contact me page (just under the header). 

PS Don't forget to enter our contest!! Entries are open through 12/31.

Different

Learning to breathe

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cuna, (taken by Ellie) when he and I were a brand new partnership. I was just learning to trust him, and he was so wonderful to me. At the time, I was busy working for my trainer and riding horses (any horses) was a cause for anxiety. Cuna helped me to realize that I did this for fun, and it actually was. 

Fast forward six months. I've been riding just Cuna all summer/fall and loving it. He is so much fun to be around and work with. He and I just connect and he's completely rekindled my love of riding. :-) I couldn't be happier. 

Not Cuna, but still cute

Today, I had two other horses to ride as well as the Cunafish. I was a little nervous/curious to see how I would do on "horses not cuna".

Answer: just fine. I started both of them in the arena. It was actually pretty fun to remember what horses that bend and move laterally can feel like. After some good solid arena work, I took them out in the hills.

They weren't nearly as fun as Cuna is for me, but I had a good time. It was good to know that I can still ride other horses.

It was also a reminder of just how much fun Cuna is. Not all horses gallop up the hills on autopilot. Some make you kick. What is that nonsense??

A Jumping Fool

Haha. I call him "the light at the end of the tunnel".

Cuna, post lesson today.

Despite my only missing a single blogging day, we have a lot to catch up on! I have had two (count 'em) jumping lessons on the big red man.

Here was day one. Two single verticals and a one stride. The goal was to work on waiting with your position for your horse while remembering a small course.

It was my first time to actually jumping Cuna over anything more than 12" tall, so it was kind of an adventure. The awesome thing about Cuna is that he actually knows his job, so I would put him on a line and sit there and he would take me to the fence. So cool. I could trust him to go, so we could come in long or short or just right, and he'd take care of himself as long as I stayed out of the way.

Oh, also--old man can buck. I grabbed his face over one jump accidentally and he had a head-flipping, bucking fit about it. Right. Do not grab face. Grab mane instead.

He's a super balanced sort of guy, so we could really crank around the turns (which was NOT the goal of the exercise, but did happen a couple times). All in all, it was educational and get this, fun.

Yes, I just said a jumping lesson was fun. The only unfun part was that my lesson buddy is working like a maniac on fitness so we did jumping position at all three gaits for like 10 minutes. I can barely walk today.

DAY TWO

Here we go! I had a couple hours notice that I would have another lesson today. About 30 minutes after finding that out, I thought "Huh. This is the point where I should be mind-numbingly afraid and just want to die."

But I didn't. I can't quite say I was looking forward to it, but I wasn't afraid of it.

I came better equipped this time--I put on my brand new spurs of my very own (they have rolly balls. be jealous) and a better fitting bit on poor Mr. Cuna.

We had a good warm up with a new lesson buddy, then got ready for what is fondly known as "the circle of death". I drew a paint diagram for those of you who aren't familiar with it.

Four verticals set six comfortable strides apart. It can be five long, nasty, sprawling strides, or even seven or eight pogo-sticky strides.

Each of us took a turn. Pick up a canter. Start your course. Jump! Land-one, two, three, four, five, six, jump! Land-

And so on. We had to make a circle with six strides between each fence with the four outside jumps set as 2'6"ish verticals.

Cuna is super mobile and super straight. Also he jumps. Hence, I have no idea why y'all think this is so hard. :p

I'm kidding. It was challenging, but we made it through.

Then it got hard. You see the blue fence in the middle with the blue groundlines? The new course was Top red, Yellow, Bottom red, around black jump, over blue jump, left to Top red, Black, Bottom red.

Whoa.

Those are not easy turns, even on a straight, jumping kind of horse. Oh, and the center vertical? That is taller than I have jumped in a really, really long time. My mind pretty much just exploded, and I was supposed to go first. I told myself that Cuna was just fine at this height and I aimed for the top red. Boom, boom, boom. Got the three. We careened around the black fence, but I got my eye on the line for the vertical and never even noticed how tall it was. Boom. Flying change and left now! Boom, boom, boom.

It was engaging, but I didn't feel terrified or overfaced. Stephanie put the jumps up a bit for our lesson buddy so they were 2'9"ish all around. I felt a twinge of nervousness wondering if we were going to do that, but then I remembered: hey. I just jumped this whole thing without freaking out. What's a few more inches on the big guy?

I was a tiny bit relieved when Stephanie told me that the old man had done enough for the day and we didn't end up going over the bigger fences, but it wasn't that knee-knocking relief that it used to be.

A quote keeps floating through my head. It's from "Afraid to Ride" by C.W. Anderson, which was one of my favorite books ever when I was a kid. (Ironically, it's about a chestnut TB.) "A bad horse took her courage away, but a good one can give it back."*

Anyways. It's not that Izzy is so very bad, but Cuna is being very good.

*I almost cried writing that. Weird.

A New Phase

As y'all are aware, the pony mare is on 30 days of stall rest. I'm not even pulling her out to trot and check soundness because the point is for her to do absolutely nothing so she can actually heal. It could hardly be at a worse time for us--we're in the middle of the most concentrated lesson access we have ever had and she's not sound. Some of you mentioned that it's winter time, but where I'm poor and don't really show, the "season" is irrelevant for the most part.

Anyways. I was and am catch riding where I can, but since the weather has been lovely, most people are riding their own horses.

One of Stephanie's clients has her own place in addition to keeping her show/training horses with us. She is rehabbing poor Zymon (of broken patella and EN fame) at her house. Saturday, she mentioned that she has an old, experienced eventer just sitting around and would be happy to bring him out for me to ride and take Izzy back to her place to hang for a bit. Because I am ridiculous, I told her I would think about it.

I went home, took a nap, then smacked myself in the head. WHAT AM I THINKING? I COULD FRICKING RIDE A TRAINED HORSE FOR FREE WHILE IZZY GETS THE BEST OF CARE FOR FREEEEEE!!!!!!!

I called her and said I would do it as long as the horse didn't buck excessively, rear, or bolt uncontrollably.

Meet Cuna. (Koo-nah. Koo-nah.) He's a 19 year old OTTB gelding who doubles as a novice level packer and would like to be an eq horse. He's spent the past few summers leased out to teenagers and packing them around. This winter, he was just hanging out in the field.

Don't let his fuzzy face deceive you--this boy is taller than Izzy and way more bony. No warmblood meatiness here.

His owner got on first and rode him around. This was his first time back under saddle in three months. She trailered him to a new place, saddled up in a strange barn, took him to an arena he'd never seen before, and just hopped on.

And he was fine. A little looky, never spooked, not silly. They walked, trotted, and cantered both ways and even hopped over a couple of little crossrails. It wasn't high quality work by any means--the old man needs some time to recondition and loosen up--but he was sane and sound.

Here they are, going around and doing a tiny jump. Cuna was a trooper about the whole thing. I hopped on after his owner to see how I liked him. Answer: the only thing he could have done for me not to like him at that point was pitch me headlong into the ground with no warning. Instead, he merrily went along, walk, trot, canter, and tiny jump (OMG I JUMPED SOMETHING!!!!) and was a good boy.

I thanked his owner profusely, then took Mr. Cuna back to the barn and shaved off all his hair and pulled his mane. Awww. Isn't he cute?

He was super to work around. Very quiet, very much a been-there-done-that kind of guy.

Izzy kept giving me the evil eye. I think mareface had a slight inkling something was up and this wasn't just another clip job for a client.

We made the switch. I packed up Izzy's stuff and ugard and she was off to her month long stay at what I told her was essentially a day spa. She'll have her own box stall at night and a little run to hang out in during the day.

In the mean time, Cuna's hanging out with me. I miss seeing Izzy's face in her stall in the morning, but Cuna is plenty cute in his own way. I'm taking advantage of my time with him to learn to ride and jump better than before, so when I get Izzy back, I'll be more the rider she needs.

Not gonna lie--I am having little fantasies about keeping them traded for the summer. Cuna could pack me around BN and N while Izzy learned the show ropes with a much more experienced rider. There are a ton of reasons why that won't work out, but it's a fun idea.

stay tuned!

i may have some very exciting news regarding my riding situation tomorrowa

Just Can't Shake It

I haven't talked much about confidence lately because I've been feeling really good. I do fine in company for the most part, am ok taking some horses on the trail along, and haven't had that nasty, gut-wrenching fear in a while.

Until today. I was the only one on the schedule to ride and I was alone at the barn except for the morning care crew. The schedule had me riding two relatively uncomplicated horses in the indoor and lunging one. I lunged first--lil' guy was pretty good for being four.

Then it was time to tack up my first ride for the day. I tried to think of any excuse to not do itm but I kept coming back to this: when Stephanie comes back, how are you going to explain to her that you were too afraid to ride one easy horse in the indoor? How are you any help as a barn worker if you can't execute simple tasks?

You're not.

I decided to do the easier horse first. Audi may be green, but she's a black mega bitch mare, which is exactly how I like them. Because she's a total bitch, I know she doesn't mind being alone in the arena (although she very seriously minds being left behind). Besides, some of her issues are similar to Izzy's, so I'm familiar with how to deal with them.

I tacked up and headed to the indoor. She was good and quiet when I led her around it, so I went ahead and mounted. Lil' mare was a star. After a quick reminder, she remembered the lightness off the aids we'd worked on last time, so we started to adjust her downward transitions. Instead of letting her just drop all her weight onto her forehand and crash through the downwards, I started asking her to stay up and forward through the whole transition.

By the end, I'd say her trot/walk transition was at least 80% better. I rode for around 25 minutes and mostly felt good. When I started to get nervous, I'd intentionally relax my hip flexors and ask her for more forward. This would ease the tension she was feeling and make me more confident because she was ahead of my leg instead of ducked behind it.

Then I took her back to the barn and trimmed her face up so she'd look more like a real horse and less like a yak. Success! Mare didn't seem overly familiar with clippers, but she was sensible about introducing them and let me clip away merrily.

Overall, I feel good about today. I can't expect those feelings to just magically disappear and since I'm now riding well enough that I don't really -need- to be afraid, it's time to conquer the vestigial feelings and move forward.

Treading Water

This is Tommy, aka Giant Gelding #4. He comes from a dressage background and is a ridiculously fancy horse. This picture really doesn't do him justice; I'll have to round up one that does eventually. I purloined a ride on him on Saturday. We did a little tiny bit of work in the arena, then headed out for a trail ride. He was a little snippy with the other gelding, but otherwise was super quiet.

No rides for me Sunday or today. That's the problem with not having my own horse available--I can catch ride when other horses are available, but when it's 55f and sunny? Ha. Everyone else rides. Get well soon Izzy!

My poor old phone finally bit the dust last week, so I excised some of my pent up nervousness about the pony situation by upgrading to some sort of fancy, newfangled smartphone. It's not an iphone. It's red. I had to have someone help me set it up, but now it's working brilliantly.

The good news about that is I can now check email when I'm at home. I haven't figured out mobile blogger yet, but it will probably happen. Eventually.

And Izzy's flooffy butt. She's still on stall rest until February 26th, so I made a list of things I am going to do with her. In fact, I used the "memo" function on my new phone. I am so classy now.

-Remove chestnuts

-clip bridle path

Wash tail

-Trim Fetlocks

-Touch up trim jawline

-Tidy up mane

-Wash legs

-Clean up hocks

-Watch for thrush

-Clean/condition halter

-Replace lead rope.

Nothing too exciting. I keep telling myself that this is just a phase. I'm learning and riding other horses and it's killing me not to ride my own horse, who really is the prettiest one there. Hopefully, she'll be back with a vengeance at the end of February.

Giant Gelding, Round 3

In keeping the my theme of riding giant geldings, today I decided to tackle Foster, the giant Irish spotted boy. By "I decided" I mean "the schedule most conveniently allowed".

I think most of you have seen his face before. I rode him a month or so ago, and could barely get him to move. At all. I was sore for days afterwards.

I didn't have high hopes for today, but he was on the schedule and there was no particular reason why I couldn't ride him. I decided that my goal for the ride was to get him to canter.

Also, I put on really sharp spurs.

To my advantage, there was a jumping lesson going on the in the indoor at the same time. Foster LOVES jumping, and he was pretty sure we were part of the lesson. He was actually fairly forward. I got a nice walk, a decent trot, and shockingly, he has a lovely canter. He gave me all three of those gaits with a minimum of grunting and kicking and humping the saddle on my part, which was awesome. He is completely unperturbed by people cantering by right next to him and was only minimally bothered by the other boarder's horse that was acting like a complete loon.

For the first time in my riding career, I had to manage two sets of reins--Foster's early training was... laughable... so he goes in draw reins about two days a week (down from every ride. yay!). Anyways, it wasn't pretty. I couldn't seem to keep the reins at reasonable lengths while going forward and steering. It wasn't like one set was a little wonky; no, I just pretty much had no reins. Clearly, we need to work on this.

IZZY UPDATE: Mareface has figured out that stall rest is way less awesome than she thought it would be. There is no wrapping, no mashes, no pool boy, greatly reduced attention, and NO COOKIES ANYWHERE!!!!! Scandalous, really. She got a funny look on her face when one of the girls went in to clean her stall, and apparently came bursting out when the girl tried to leave. Wondermare escape #1. I'm pretty sure it won't be her last attempt, either.