Free Jumping!

Look who is just the cutest!

We aren't doing any serious/under saddle/whatever jumping this year. Just occasionally little exercises to get her to think about her feet and her body in space.

trotting a vertical is very hard

It's so fun to watch her learning process!

What Are We Waiting For?

When I had Cuna and was doing unrecognized BN eventing, I remember telling a friend that I wanted really cool $300 breeches but I was going to wait until we were going recognized novice at least because I didn't want to look pretentious.

Friend, ex-marine, cancer survivor, and all around kick-ass person said "But you aren't guaranteed tomorrow."

Cuna ended up with laminitis in both front feet and we never made it to a recognized event.

I never bought $300 breeches.

I don't know that my life is poorer for the lack of overpriced sport-pants, but it's an interesting thought. Now I have Courage and eventing is definitely not in our future, but we're hacking our way through first-ish level-ish dressage-ish and starting to semi-think about second level. I'm riding in a bargain pair of field boots that make my legs look pretty ridiculous and I day dream a little bit about custom tall boots.

Which I said I'll order when I have second level bronze scores.

Why? I don't know. It's just an arbitrary line in the sand that I drew to differentiate when I'd be doing "real" dressage vs screwing around like I am now. I mean, I'm working my ass off (as much as is possible whilst not screwing up my rehab, ugh) and I have been for a couple years now.

And, yeah, if I was the "dressage or die" type, I'd be better served to sell Courage and get a horse with more natural aptitude for the sport, but I'm not. I'm doing dressage because it's what Courage wants to do and given his conformation and movement, he'll take me as far as I can go as long as I learn to manage him correctly.

So it's not that I lack commitment--it's that this is what equestrian sport is for me. It's relationship-based and daily, not big show goals and winter circuits and $$$$$$.

And I'm not guaranteed tomorrow.

or today, really

I'm super pumped to go hang out with Karen for Rolex and she's already informed me that shopping for custom boots while there is on her radar.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about it--I'm not planning any big shows with C this year for personal, non-financial reasons. And I keep wondering--why wait? I know I want them. It's not like if I'd sprung for the dream breeches back in the day that I'd regret having them now.

def would have regretted not getting this "synchronized peeing" shot

Why do I need to be doing "real dressage" to have a fun thing that would bring me joy every day? And just because I say 60% at recognized second level is "real" doesn't mean that the high and mighty dressage queens will agree with me. I'm sure there's someone who thinks custom boots before your first individual (not team) Olympic gold are pretentious.

A post shared by PS of Sweden (@psofsweden) on Mar 5, 2017 at 5:21am PST

But why does their opinion matter? They sound like an uptight bitch I wouldn't be friends with anyways.

And hello does that horse look like imaginary future Courage or what??

So tell me, people of blogland--when are beautiful custom boots a reasonable choice?

ROLEX OMG: Let's Buy Tickets #1

It's a lifelong dream for me to go to Rolex and OMG ITS HAPPENING. ROLEX 2017 BABY.


I'm planning to be there for sure Thursday-Sunday. I want to do and see absolutely everything. I've never done this before, so I figured I'd make a blog about the hows of getting there.

1) TICKETS

As fellow blogger Pony Express pointed out, advance tickets to Rolex go on sale Tues, November 1, 2016 for the 2017 event. This year's Rolex runs April 28-May 1.

Early bird (11/1-12/8) prices are:

$75 for Ground Admission. My understanding is that this gets you in the KHP and access to XC, but does not get you seats for Dressage and Stadium. There is a price break for groups of 6 or more, but at present, I do not have a group.

I plan to be there for both days of dressage and stadium, so I also need to order those.

Now, I've never been to the Kentucky Horse Park nor have I paid that much attention to it. Here's a diagram and last year's price breakdown (I think). My prices are coming off the RK3DE site for 2017.

 My understanding is that the 200s seats are covered, which is fantastic if (when) it rains, but also the views is obscured by giant pillars, which is super dumb. I dunno. I go to lots of football games and I'd be super pissed if there was a pillar in front of me at one of them, so I dunno why it's supposed to be ok here.

Plus you can get up and move around during dressage and stadium doesn't take that long... I'm learning towards uncovered stadium seats on day 1 when it's not crowded, bleacher seats on day 2 when it is, and uncovered stadium seats for show jumping. That makes $11 Thursday, $12 Friday, and $35 Sunday, for a total of $58. Thoughts? Terrible idea? I just want to sit everywhere, ok?

There are hospitality tents and the Kentucky Patron club and all that, but let's be real: people in my income bracket do not drop $700 on tickets.

FIST BUMP

Another cool add on is commentary headsets. One day is $25, Two is $40, and three is $50. I like commentary on dressage to keep it from getting boring. I don't really see the point for show jumping--non horse people can figure that sport out. Add another $40 here.

You can pay to upgrade to premium parking, but general admission parking is included in your grounds pass. You can also pay for a tailgating package that includes 6 grounds passes, which is super cool, but since I'm not local and don't have six friends with a tent and a grill and prefer to be mobile, that will not be happening this year. There's also an option for "on site glamping", which means you and a friend pay $1800 for the weekend to sleep in a tent with no power. Sorta seems non-glamorous to me, but again, out of my price bracket.

There is a $10 service charge for placing the order, which brings my ticket total to:
$75 grounds fee
$58 individual events
$40 headset
$10 Convenience Fee
$183 in tickets

There are definitely more budget ways to do this. This would get me to all the same events but picking the cheapest options--here's what comes to mind:
$69 early bird grounds fee for group of 6 or more.
$45 individual events, always picking cheapest seats
$0 pass on headset
$10 Convenience fee
$124 in tickets

Or if you want to pass on Thursday entirely, there's the option to do this:
$57 three day grounds fee for group of 6 or more
$37 individual dressage friday and show jumping sunday
$10 convenience fee
$104 for three days of entertainment

Obviously, you can do a whole variety of these. I'm trying to make good choices. I don't want to spend money on things I won't use, but I also don't want to regret missing something on a trip like this. Weigh in, bloggy folks: what's to be done?

PS Show wrap up later!
PPS Apparently it's a holiday.

(definitely) Not Meant To Be

I got Courage three years ago with the idea that he would be my jumper. Maybe hunter. We could do hunter derbies if I was REALLY lucky.

Cough.

In a move that surprises no one familiar with my luck (I have none, ever), that plan didn't pan out. Courage has firmly opted out of any sort of career over obstacles on many occasions. He's a dressage horse now and I'm like oh, 80ish% fine with that. Except every once in a while I either go "OMG MISS JUMPING WAH MUST JUMP" or "OMFG DRESSAGE TOO HARD WILL QUIT AND BE JUMPERS".

That has happened three times this year. The first time was a massive shit show that's best described as "if you want to do something really stupid, at least remember to put your freaking martingale on, dumbass" and the second time was actually pretty great.

The third time was last week. It's possible that I had sort of convinced myself that now we were doing reasonably ok-ish dressage that everything would MAGICALLY click into place and C would be completely perfect and we'd be like "lulz y u waste time on dressazzz when could be world's most perfect hunter move over brunello".

ahahaha or something

I mean, I won't swear that's how it was in my head, but you know. It may have been rattling around back there. Because obviously a little first level dressage is all it takes to turn an anti-jumping OTTB into a six-figure warmblood with 1.5 decades of top level training. Obviously.

I'll pause to let your eyes recover from the stain of that collective roll. It's ok. I could hear it from here.

Anyways. Lindsey brought her magical French saddle out and played jump crew for the day. Now that I don't try to make her ride the beastie, she's actually way more willing to do that. Interesting. It started out great--we walked and trotted over poles and I just focused on keeping his topline loose and his brain engaged. He jumped cute both ways when we put up a tiny crossrail.

Then we did a wee little vertical and again, FABULOUS. Thrilled. So easy. Life happy. Perfect hunter. Daydreams.

ok maybe not "hunter" perfect, but i'll take it

And then we changed directions. Courage sucked behind my leg and got tense. I rode a couple circles and asked for some relaxation. It seemed sort of better so we trotted up to our tiny vertical, made a gorgeous jump over it...

swoon

...and landed flailing.

hard.

Hard enough that Lindsey completely missed the video because she had serious (if unfounded) concerns for my physical safety. I apologize for the lack of fail-related media. Alas, it (like my horse) was out of my control.

And lest you think I was abusively jumping the legs off an unfit horse, we had trotted in/cantered out over a teeny crossrail and vertical about 10 times. Total.

Sigh.

because i dared to trot him over a pole

Rest assured, I am in no rush to run out and purchase my own magical French saddle. And I guess, I do appreciate Courage's commitment to his cause and willingness to be upfront about his life goals. He's happy as a dressage horse and he's willing to play jumpies maybe once a quarter, but he definitely didn't want me getting any ideas about an alternate career trajectory.

I even compiled a fails video to remind myself of this fact.

So yeah. We dropped everything down to ground poles and slowly worked back up to our tiny vertical and ended on a good note and I actually don't think I broke the steering or the brakes this time, so that's cool.

it keeps his head from going over mine

But when people ask me why I don't jump and why a certain bay someone always goes in a non-dressage-legal standing martingale, well, that's why.

Sinead Halpin & Tik Maynard Clinic Write Up

I had the good fortune to audit a clinic put on by Sinead and her husband Tik this past weekend. They taught at separate arenas in the same facility. I managed to catch several sessions with each and I'll write them up separately.

this is a video still from a video i took, so i'm stealing it

First, Sinead:

She is great. 

Oh you wanted more?

Ok here's what I love about Sinead: she has an amazing ability to read a horse and rider in about 3.5 seconds and then give them very specific feedback on how to improve. She's kind, encouraging, and dead on. I saw nary a tear or a frown and lots of people had ground breaking experiences even in long-term partnerships with established squabbles. I never saw a horse look overfaced or a rider look afraid and I saw lots of good riders get better. If I had a horse that jumped, 10/10 I would ride with her no questions asked. 

Things I did not love about Sinead: um.... really reaching here, but I generally avoided standing next to her because she's freaking gorgeous and I'm just a dumpy old adult ammy who didn't need any contrast there. She was mega nice though and even took a selfie with us after the end of a long day teaching. 

apologies to Alyssa's face

And Tik:

Going in to this clinic, I heard Tik was doing some sort of groundwork thing (?) and I'd watched his winning freestyle from last year's Thoroughbred makeover competition. It was cool, but presented me the same basic problem that I see in most things like that: it has no utility. I don't want to ride around with no bridle. I'm not competing in the "follow the leader" olympics, and frankly, I don't have a horse that would excel in the makeover context so like... good for you? 

i both staged and took this photo, so i stole it from lindsey

But. Give the man a chance, right? 

I attended his lecture Friday evening before the riding started. When I arrived, he was talking about Pat Parelli and Clinton Anderson and Tom Dorrance and Jonathan Fields and again, good for them and they are certainly capable of affecting good change with horses, but all of those people live(d) in the western world, and so ultimately what they're getting horses to do is not something I'm super interested in. Besides, while I've never so much as dabbled in the natural horsemanship/western world, I have come up around a bevy of excellent horsemen in the english world. So? 

But here's the thing: when I attended the Mustang Makeover this summer, I realized that all these 100-days-off-the-range horses were doing something my horse simply was not capable of. He couldn't stay with me for a simple dressage test at a show with minimal distractions and here these semi-broke feral horses with no history in front of crowds performed well. I wanted something from that, but again, I have no interest in riding my horse into the back of a truck or shooting guns off his back or riding over a teeter totter (all actually things that happened). Like... nice idea, but not super useful to me. 

did want this horse. Alyssa said no. Bank account sided with her.

And then Tik moved on from talking about the showmen of the natural horsemanship world and said something that gave him my 100% full attention. It was along the lines of "If I had to quit riding tomorrow, but could still work with horses from the ground, that would ok because I'm less interested in technique and more interested in the philosophy of how a horse learns." 

BAM. Hello. Now we're speaking a language I want to learn. 

He went on to explain a simple progression: As horse lovers, we start by learning riding technique from our trainers. Then we try to incorporate theory. As we improve and ride on our own, we develop instinct to deal with situations. Many people stall out there, which is fine but the next step is the philosophy of training. Asking no longer "how", but now "why" and understanding how to motivate horses. 

After all, as he pointed out, "People tend to confuse motivation with intelligence. Your horse isn't stupid. He's just not interested in trying for you." And also, "The better communicator you are, the less motivating you have to do." 

tell me more

The next morning was all that and more. 

As he worked with different people and their horses, he continued the conversation. He talked about always starting from a point of success for the horse--catch them doing something right, if you will. He explained using your body language to communicate with horses. This wasn't super new information to me until he added the part about where you place your line of direction. 

excellent paint graphic by me

It made so much sense--he was having handlers do #6 to get their horses to back away from them with progressively less stimuli, but then when he asked them to walk up and pet their horses, the animals shied away. Why? Because horses aren't afraid of predators. They're afraid of predatory behavior. When the handlers learned to use #5 to approach their horse and arc their line of direction so it was not through the horse, they stood solid. (Also changing body language obv). 

But this wasn't a how-to of simple natural horsemanship techniques. He summed it up very well when he used the term "thinking laterally". Humans tend to think in linear terms. This, then that. Horses don't usually. So if you try this, but don't get to that, you need to be mentally flexible and think laterally. What are other approaches? How can you break this down in steps that your horse will understand? 

There was another exercise--asking a horse to trot in a small circle around it's handler, keeping it's shoulder about 4' away. The lead line was short enough to encourage that, then the handler held a stick at hip height to keep the horse from encroaching on the space. This was a moment of truth for a lot of pairs. The exercise itself wasn't really the point--there is no prize for trotting tiny circles. The exercise was 1) to highlight problem areas in handling and 2) to teach the horse how to learn. 

Problem areas were simply--many handlers gave ground to the horse and back up, allowing the horse to push them around the space. Horses frequently overreacted to the sight/feel of the stick. Most of the horses had one side that was ok and then had meltdowns about the other side. 

we tried it later at home

There was so much going on here--the handler needed to be very, very clear with their body language what they wanted the horse to do. It was critical that they kept stepping towards the horse. This made the circle bigger so it wasn't hard on the horses, but it also established who was pushing who out of whose space. They had to really figure out their line of direction--obviously if you push straight into the horse, it blows sideways (if it's even listening to you), so you needed to establish your space and step in the direction you wanted to go.

As the horses learned, Tik emphasized that at the beginning, there needed to be no right or wrong answer. First they just needed to be rewarded (with a release of pressure/break/treat/whatever) for trying, then gradually you could introduce a harder answer and an easier answer. Basically, don't punish the try especially as the horse begins to learn. You want them to work with you, not fear you. 

basically the bible for this horse omg

This exercise also introduced the idea of the same stimuli meaning multiple things. He'd alternate holding the stick at steady hip height to keep the horse away and setting it on the horse's back/neck/withers and asking the horse to ignore it. Again, a question of communication and trust. 

As Tik explained it, he's not doing groundwork for groundwork's sake. What he wants is to work with a horse until he gets what he calls "the look"--not just licking and chewing, but the horse giving him an intelligent look saying "we're here together. What are we doing next?"

If you never do groundwork again after that moment, that's fine. You always need to feel like you can get that expression if you need to though--that's what tells us the horse is mentally with us. That trust is what everything else is built on. It's not about the follow-the-leader olympics--it's about becoming the leader that your horse looks to so that you can progress together.

plus adorable

What I loved most about learning from Tik Maynard as a clinician was his emphasis on learning how a horse learns and then using lateral thinking to teach the horse in a way he can understand. As an under saddle clinician, he was fine, but his abilities to understand the way a horse thinks and encourage his students to be mentally flexible was where he really shone. 

I didn't sign up for this clinic because I thought it was all jumping, but now that I've watched, let me assure you, Courage will be first in line for a session with Tik next time we get a chance. 

PS He also highly recommended books by Mark Rashid, who is basically my horse training idol, so that was awesome.

PPS I apologize if this is drivel--my mind is still pretty blown and I'm severely sleep deprived while writing it.

Death Knell for Modern Eventing

Every time I open my mouth about eventing, I get bombarded with angry emotional tirades by people I don't even know (who frequently don't actually event, but are strangely emotionally attached to it) and every time, I swear I'll never do it again. But proving yet again that I might not be the smartest person on the internet, here I go.

the pinnacle of my "eventing"

I assume you all heard about the tragic passing of both an event rider and a horse in unrelated incidents at a US-based 3* last weekend. I'm not here to sit in judgement on specific incidents--by all accounts, the world is now short one amazing woman and a completely irreplaceable animal. There are a lot of articles circulating the internet about them right now--I think the best is this one, by a young woman who was deeply impacted by Phillipa.

No one with any sense is saying that either the rider or the horse was at fault and a lot of people with a lot of sense are fighting about how to fix the obvious and glaring problems. I don't have the answers and I'm definitely not here to chair a wholly-unqualified mob commission from my seat on the internet. Suffice to say, if you think you have the answers to fix a problem we can't quantify at this point, I also think you are an idiot.

That aside.

Eventing is digging it's own grave at an incredible rate right now. I've never evented above beginner novice and at this point in my life, it's unlikely to ever progress beyond that point. I cannot speak to what happens on course and that's not what this is about. I'm talking about the business model the USEA and PRO and modern American eventers have worked so hard to create. From a business perspective, this model is completely unsustainable.

Let's face it--eventing is the grass roots, common-man, Olympic-dreams sport in the way a pay-to-play discipline like show jumping or dressage can never be. International show jumping is populated with celebrities and billionaires. Want to go to the Olympics? Just drop 15mil on the literal nicest horse in the world, hire the best coach in the world, build the best facility in the world, and the competition will come to you. It's somewhat the same in dressage--all y'all rocking those $90 kastel sunshirts--do you know who Charlotte Jorst is? Facsinating story there.

good thing they're nice shirts

Eventing is the only FEI discipline in which a starry-eyed girl can buy a horse off the track for a few hundred dollars and make it to the elite upper levels. That is a beautiful thing, in a lot of ways.

But you know what it's not? A business model. That's why at the USEA convention, there are whole seminars on convincing rich people to be "owners" of upper level horses and allowing the real athletes to ride them. Of course, here's the thing--while a few people certainly own horses because they love horses and they love the sport and their version of collecting Breyer models is owning 7 horses at Rolex, that pool of people is very, VERY small.

For everyone else, they need to get something out of it. Obviously, eventing is a lot more dangerous than show jumping or dressage and requires a pretty specific personality type and a skill set that cannot be bought. That rules out most rich people who can afford to self-finance an international competition schedule. They themselves cannot compete at the top levels.

Ok, well what about event horses as an investment? I mean, Doug Payne sold Running Order and another horse (sob not over it) to not-figuratively buy the farm. I don't know or care how much money changed hands, but you'll notice even WFP hasn't taken that horse to a 4* since then. Of course he did almost metaphorically buy the farm last year, so who knows how that figures in.

What I'm getting at is this: according to this study commissioned by the FEI, one of the biggest indicators for a rotational fall (which is how people and horses die) is the age of the horse--meaning the Marilyn Little school of "ram em and jam em up the levels for a quick resale" is literally punching your ticket for a scary ass fall and if William Fox Pitt can't take a made 4* horse to a 4* event, well, then there really isn't a resale market for a 4* horse. Period. Eventing takes trust and a relationship between horse and rider and you can't buy that. Michael Jung makes his own--wonder why?

So essentially, an upper level event horse is rapidly becoming a dud as an investment. No matter how many times Visa tells you something is priceless, what that means in real terms is that it has no value. Can't sell it.

And if you can't sell it, you can't insure it. Insurance is a business and it runs on actuaries putting real values on things and then betting that the thing won't just fucking die at an event. Which they are doing. Right now.

Well that leaves an interesting conundrum, doesn't it? What's the incentive to own an un-saleable, un-insurable so-called "investment" in a high-risk sport?

There isn't one.

That leaves two options:

1) The moneybags would-be owners walk away from the sport--it drops out of the Olympics and off the public radar. Professionals struggle harder than ever to make it, course design naturally degenerates to the scary-ass stuff they jumped in olden times because there's no money to pay designers and build fancy fences and so on.

2) The sport makes serious changes in terms of safety and accessibility so that the Olympic buy-a-medal program remains a viable option. The risk is greatly reduced, the prices of horses jump up another few notches, the ability of the girl-on-her-ottb to make it to the top becomes less than zero. The purpose-bred $$$$$$$ horse dominates, the sport professionalizes to the point of being unrecognizable, and the Wellington eventing showcase is your new feature 4*. The sport you think you love no longer exists.

There are some appealing things about option 1--it's something Denny Emerson and Jimmy Wofford seem to advocate for, and obviously they've been around a while. There are some horse friendly outcomes in this and there is certainly an emotional appeal--you return the decision making to the horse people instead of handing it to the entertainers and accountants. There are also some really glaring drawbacks.

The first thing that comes to mind is simply the visibility--it's amazing how sports have to clean up when everyone starts looking. I think visibility is a huge part of horse and rider safety. If eventing were to drop off the map of the international scene, a lot of things could happen that otherwise wouldn't if there was more oversight. In addition, I really really don't understand all the people claiming that somehow going back to early-era eventing is a good idea. You think Vicarage Vee was terrifying? LOOK WHAT THEY USED TO DO. That's a nope. There is no question in my mind that with all it's drawbacks, the modern form of eventing is safer for horses and riders than whatever that horrifying bloodbath was.

So let's think about option 2. Money talks. Let's face it--dressage and showjumping, our equivalent international-level FEI-regulated events are essentially tests of which horse is the fanciest and most expensive, which means 99.999% of humanity cannot afford to compete. Obviously, horsemanship still plays in, but no one gets anywhere (on the international scene) with their OTTB. On the other hand, it's glamorous, fun to watch, and safe.

Moreover, there are also some horse friendly features to this model. Namely--horses stop dying in preventable ways. Public scrutiny is at a maximum and there is nowhere to hide a (metaphorical or real) body. The very real drawback is of course that when you can literally buy an Olympic medal, then you expect to and the welfare of the horse can be overlooked. Does this balance the increased scrutiny? Maybe?

Eventing is theoretically different because instead of being a fancy horse competition, it offered us the ability to test the sheer grit and heart of the horses and riders involved. The problem with that kind of test is failing it can mean death for horse and rider. We live in a safe, protected modern society that isn't comfortable with death and thinks that sacrificing good people and good horses on the altar of sport is disgusting bloodlust.

And frankly, I agree.

Modern eventing is going away. It cannot and should not survive.

What rises from it's ashes will be an interesting beast indeed.

Learning Lessons: Part Three

I've had Courage around 2.5 years now.

It has been a bit of a rocky road. I mean, I got him the end of July in 2013. He went to a show and did ground poles that fall, but that was it.

Then 2014, we did one show. And it was... ummmmm yeah I'll go with horrible. And then we didn't even bother to try again.

2015 saw a lot of show miles and our oh-so-memorable championship of ground poles.

I'll be real with you: there are parts of me that are not proud of winning the ground poles. We all know Courage can jump like this:

swoon-worthy

And dressage like this:

yup

And it's so, so easy to get down on myself for only having Courage as far along as I do. I always blame myself. I feel like if he just had a better rider, he'd be running Novice eventing by now or show jumping respectably or really, anything other than almost-first-level dressage and sketchy-ass ground poles.

It's not that I think he wants or needs to be farther along--obviously, he's a horse and he doesn't even know that "farther along" exists, much less that it's something he should want. It's that as a high-achieving adult ammy horse person, I feel inadequate. I feel like we scrape by doing the bare minimum and that most of our hold ups are my confidence issues and not him at all.

And yeah, that's hard. Those things are real. The amount of courage (ha!) that it took for me to get around an XC course, even at poles on the ground, was staggering. I can talk all day about the tactful ride that Courage requires, but the truth is, I don't want to kick him in the belly either because I don't want to get hurt. Not now. Not on this horse.

this still doesn't look fun

 But then Alyssa ran across some old videos the other day and sent them to me. After our one really horrible show in 2014, I sent Courage to an xc schooling with Lindsey in the tack. I thought I was the problem. I thought I was screwing up my horse, and I knew Lindsey didn't have the emotional baggage with him that I did.

I've told the story a hundred times--Courage was so naughty that the trainer (pro who's gone advanced on multiple horses) had Lindsey get off and he got on. And then 15 minutes of the "group lesson" was the pro getting Courage to go through ground poles. And even after that, we ended up just getting off and lunging Courage because he Could.Not. that day and that was it.

But no matter how many times I've told the story, nothing quite compared with seeing the thing again. Here's part one:

Part Two, Three, and Four if you're deeply interested.

It was so therapeutic to watch those videos for me. I'd forgotten what it looked like. I mean, if you go through the videos, you can watch the trainer try several different approaches. He gets after C for leaping and pissing off, but that makes it worse. Then he tries pushing him forward when he runs off, and that makes it worse. He tries changing the topic with lots of little circles, and that sort of helps but sort of results in C trying to shut down.

And he ends by walking through the poles because that is all Courage could handle at that time.

It wasn't a rider problem. It wasn't a training problem.

It's just that Courage needs things explained to him at his speed. If you try to force things any other way, it gets ugly. You can watch him pop the trainer out of the tack, time after time. Courage isn't bucking or rearing (really) or doing anything "horrible", but he's putting the rider wherever he wants him because he CANNOT take the pressure.

not how ground poles are supposed to be negotiated

It wasn't pretty. Looking back, I feel kinda bad for the guy riding. Sorry dude. Not your fault. At the time, I thought Courage would just get over it. I thought if we kept trying, if we did SOMETHING, that it would get better.

I felt the pressure of all those magical "3 months from track to BN" success stories. I wanted Courage to be brilliant and high achieving. I wanted everyone to see how special he was, the same way I did.

So yeah. In 2015, my horse and I were the champions of ground poles. In 2014, even a pro couldn't get him through ground poles without completely losing his shit. Maybe ground poles don't matter to you and you're going to make mean, snitty comments to me about how I'm less of a rider (I will delete those comments and leave my snide replies. You have been warned.)

best ribbon

But maybe I don't care. Maybe I'm enjoying my horse at my speed and maybe the fact that he NAILED his leg yields last week was good enough for me.

Scratch that. Not maybe. It is.

Courage and I have made incredible progress together. Our first dressage test together looked like this:


I don't have recent video of a test, but last time I got riding video, it looked more like this:


Just because our progress doesn't look like your progress or a professional's progress or whatever, it's enough for me. Courage and I aren't going advanced or grand prix and we don't want to. I want him to be a fun horse for me to ride and chase my goals on, whether those goals are a bronze medal, a fun jump course, or going to a goofy trail competition (or all of those).

So yeah. My horse is sensitive, complicated, and (barely) proficient at ground poles. He's also a boatload of fun, a challenge every day, and damn good looking in all the outfits I put on him.

so attractive

2016 will be our third/fourth year showing together and I have absolutely no idea how it's going to go. We probably won't be the champions of anything. We probably won't blow anyone's mind. I'm hoping we make a respectable showing at first level. I'm doubtful that we can also make a run at the crossrails derbies.

But whatever happens, this is the face I see every day and that makes it all worthwhile.

Maybe Maybe XC Boots

A couple times lately, I've talked about jumping Courage. Or rather not. ;-) But then Amanda did her XC Boot Write up. And Cob Jockey. And I have a boot problem. And then I did a show schedule for us, and realized it was technically possible to make it to some derbies and if we do derbies this year, we're moving up to cross rails, which is you know, ACTUAL JUMPS.

or at least they are the way we jump them

And that almost justifies real XC boots. 

But not quite. 

Sob.

I (barely) kept my hands in my pockets through Riding Warehouse's various sales this winter when I could have gotten a full set of Majyk Equipe boots for $120 shipped. GAH WANT SO BAD. (Not gonna lie--it helped they didn't have white.) 

But some of the terrain we derby on is less-than-ideal and it seems cool to have actual(ish) xc boots and I don't want to tear up my pretty open fronts in a field. Or get the fluffy dressage boots all full of stickers.

too pretty for stickers

 But $120 that I decidedly don't need to spend (at least not on boots. Memberships, on the other hand...)

I got looking around. I really wanted white boots, probably as some sort of psychological overcompensation for being terrified of having to find an acceptable pair of white breeches BY MAY (have I even looked? no). Because you know, thick white boots over attractive non-fatty legs seems WAY SAFER than white spandex+my ass.

Cough. Wow. That went a little deeper than I meant.

you'll note they don't jiggle

 I stumbled across a full set of white woof boots for $40 shipped. They ticked all the boxes, were 1/3 the cost of the original idea, and are already at my house. They aren't glamorous and technie and cool, but they'll protect Courage's legs if and when we get to the crossrails derbies this year, and hey, if the ground ever thaws and I'm riding in the mud, GREAT. 

Teach Me Tuesday: Living the Dream

I'm really very lucky. I don't generally think of myself that way because I have a hearty helping of Murphy's law to go with it, but I remember laughing with redheadlins and Alyssa this summer as we struggle-bused our way through our first derby of the year (ok, Lindsey and I struggle-bused and Alyssa dominated). Whatever happened that day, we were living out our little horse-girl dreams:

We had beautiful thoroughbreds. Pretty show tack and clothes. Friends to ride with. Dreams to chase.

It didn't matter that I got 120 time penalties on xc (because yes, they do time ground poles. oops.). All that mattered in that moment was my thorough realization that I had achieved everything my young self always wanted.

So teach me this Tuesday--what childhood dreams have you achieved?

On Jumping (or rather, not)

As I'm sure all of you have noticed, I really don't jump my horse anymore, which is weird considering the whole plan was to do jumpers together.

I mean. He jumps like this:

SWOON

I must be crazy not to jump him, right?

Sigh.

I wish it was that simple. I was trying to explain it to Alyssa the other day and it goes kind of like this:

Courage is an incredibly brave and honest jumper. He's not a stopper. He doesn't really rush, he won't charge off after, he doesn't generally buck, leap, rear, or fart around. If he jumps you out of the tack, he just canters in a straight line until you haul your sorry ass back into the saddle. He's not dirty.

Like... what idiot wouldn't jump this clearly talented and awesome horse?

Me.

Because that's not all there is to it. I mean, yeah, he requires a VERY specific ride. You will get your ass OUT of the tack and you will HURL your release at his mouth, or you will have a massive problem exploding directly under you. It's a bit unnerving for my eventer-background self who's used to being a little behind the motion for security's sake, but since he WANTS that ride and really doesn't stop, it's actually quite safe. I can deal with that.

and this is why he needs that release

But there's more.

This part is harder to articulate. I didn't realize what it was at first, because I've done 99% of the rides on Courage and I haven't been riding a lot of other horses in the time I've had him, so it was very hard to contextualize. Courage is an older horse (10) who's been ridden all his life. He's very opinionated and he knows what he wants.

So if he wants to canter through an exercise on the left lead, no matter what you do and whether you're me, a prelim-level eventer, or a strong seasoned pro, he will put you where he wants you. If you're weaker, he'll do it subtly. If you're stronger, he will literally pop you out of the tack and put you where he wants you to be.

horse has OPINIONS

And that makes him not a very fun ride.

He's too green over fences to really know where you ought to be, so sometimes he puts you in the wrong place, which puts him in the wrong place, which he then thinks is your fault. Oops. That's why last summer we spent a long time lunging him over fences--he had to learn how to jump on his own, because he really couldn't with a rider up. He wouldn't listen to the rider (no matter who) and then he'd interpret jumping problems as "ABANDON SHIP", which is no good.

little fences

and big ones

So it's really weird--on the one hand, he has good technique and an attractive jump with no actual vices. On the other hand, no one who jumps him is like "that was fun, I want to do it again". Honestly, I really believe the reason he hasn't developed a stopping/rushing/bucking problem is precisely because of how careful his formative jump training has been.

He is a really attractive jumper with a lot of talent. He's super scopey and fun to be around on the ground. He's really turning in to a fun horse to ride on the flat. Part of our dressage foray is simply to get him more broke to ride. Maybe, just maybe, I can get him to be ride-able enough that we can make jumping fun for both of us.

It's not completely crazy--late this fall, we jumped two courses over 2' fences with like, brakes, steering, and actual control. It was super fun.

finally convinced him that not all jumps are 3'6"

I'm very serious about my bronze medal in dressage goal and most of the time, that makes up for not jumping. Sometimes (like writing this post and looking at these pictures and any time I see a jump set up), I want to jump SO BAD RIGHT NOW OMG OMG OMG.

I keep reminding myself that maybe we can. Next year. Sometime. Maybe. Until then, I've got to get this horse broke.