How Equifit Boots Saved My Relationship

pretty sexy

I'd normally give a horse a day off after two days of dressage clinic, but yesterday marked exceptional circumstances:

My hind t boots showed up over the weekend and OBVIOUSLY they must be put on. I have waited literally years to complete my set and it finally happened.

this outfit=love

I've been making a lot of lists lately and trying to figure out what I want, and the #1 is always a horse I can have fun on. Which means hacking (among other things).

So yesterday I got Courage all dressed up like a respectable jump jump horse and we hacked. 

It started out a little rough. Courage was tense and spooky and distracted.

good thing i love straps

I kept things simple: you stand on a loose rein or you go forward in tiny circles. You don't back up or fling yourself around.In the midst of one of his mini tantrums, I realized that I was right where I needed to be. Courage and I have been together long enough that I know I can handle him. Even when he escalates, I'm comfortable.

In about five minutes, I had my horse back. We wandered around the barn area and looked at stuff and took pictures and had a good time.

I needed that ride. Apparently, I also needed those boots.

Surprise! Dressage Clinic

the bad boy halter

About a month ago, I told our dressage trainer that I'd ride in a clinic this past weekend, then promptly forgot about it.

Then right when I was like "I AM SELLING THIS G******** F****** COW", I got an email with clinic times.

What the hell, right?

The clinician has seen our more um... interesting? Facebook pictures and so when it was time for our ride, she asked me about the fireworks.

I did my best to explain it.

Courage must have thought I did an insufficient job, because he gave her a solid demonstration.

when a horse takes a selfie

I rode through it (again) (and again) and we worked very very had and went way over our time and I had a few good strides here and there. In essence, the clinician thinks we have some basic training holes, so we literally dropped back to "right rein means go right" annnnnnnnd then we sort of demonstrated how fast we could run around the indoor. But I digress.

So that was upsetting.

Then came Sunday's ride.

Well no. Then I showed up for Sunday's ride and Courage was turned out and basically he galloped around his field for 15 minutes while biting, kicking, and charging at his vastly-more-cooperative herdmates.

I'm sure being tired didn't hurt

He was soaked when I finally caught him. He was a complete nut when I brought him in to the arena and the clinician was like "yeah shorten your stirrups, change your bit, and put a martingale on."

We mostly worked on my position relative to him (we are both too still--I need to move around/stay loose to encourage him to do the same). And we worked on his not turning right. And some transitions.

And none of it was mind blowing, but he stuffed most of his brain back in his head and was almost entirely reasonable. Reasonable to the point that the clinician was like "I really have no idea what your problem is", but she definitely helped make us better that day sooooo whatever that comes out to.

All of this leads me to the grand conclusion that I need more lessons. And/or I need to cancel the schooling show+sleepaway camp I scheduled for him this week. And/or I need to get over myself and get out there. And/or I have absolutely no clue.

Sunset Discussions

It's been a rough week. Couple of weeks. Past month or so. As several of the comments on my blogs this week alluded to, I'm not upset with Courage because he wouldn't get on a trailer one time (truth: I was livid about that, but I'm moving on). The deeper issue is that Courage is a really challenging horse. He doesn't scare me and I can ride him and I do like him, usually.

But the stunts he's been pulling lately are making me seriously question my commitment here. Yes, I can ride him, but on a lot of days, it isn't very fun for me.

The answer might be in the pie. Or maybe I need a different pie entirely.

a tasty foot

I tried turning Courage loose in the arena to see what he'd do. Maybe he'd glue himself to my side and act needy and want me or we'd have some sort of magical connection or I'd feel something or know something or learn something.

Or you know, maybe he'd wander around the arena and scavenge for weeds while completely ignoring me for an hour, then come say hi and wander off.

Because he's a horse. And that's what horses do. They horse.







Sometimes they horse in ways that we like.

Sometimes they don't.












They aren't thinking ahead. They don't have plans. They live in the moment and they react.

And sometimes they hold a grudge.





Some of them are easy.

Some of them are not.

And just my luck, I have one that isn't easy, but that I can handle.

If I want to.

I either need to woman up and JUST DO IT, or I need to let him go and find something that isn't quite so frustrating to deal with.

I don't know what the answer is. Pass the pie.

STRAP IT ON: Girth Innovations!

looking so fly

I'll admit I'm really more of a bridles and boots blogger than a girth girl, but there are some very interesting innovations running around out there right now and I thought I might as well share of list of the cool things I'm looking at.

I already reviewed the Total Saddle Fit Girth. If the price on that one made you gasp or the contouring didn't get you excited, well, this may not be the post for you...

Here we go.

Fairfax Performance Girth

Fairfax Performance Girth - short or long

It was actually JenJ who brought these to my attention. This is the first time that I'm aware of that the market has seen a girth backed by interesting scientific research. In fact, the British Olympic team was so in love with this girth that the company actually waited to publicly release/market the product until after the London Olympics because the riders thought it would be such an advantage.

Or so the rumor goes. It obviously didn't hurt them.

At any rate. The girth was tested with the Pliance testing method and claim to improve horse relaxation and comfort.

Curious? You can test it out for yourself for a mere $330 + shipping from England.

Stubben Equi Soft

Stubben Equi-Soft Girth - short or long (I think?)

Here's another fascinating entry. Stubben created this girth to allow the horse more comfort and a lower respiration rate, which translates to more relaxation and better scores in dressage.

Or that's the theory.

I have to admit, the design kind of fascinates me. I like the segmentation to allow it to wrap around the horse almost more like a bra than a belt.

Buuuuuut at $429+shipping (Dover), I'm unlikely to give it a go.

Wow H Soft Girth

Wow H Soft Girth

It sounds trippy and it is.

The idea behind the Wow H is that it distributes pressure along the horse's sternum instead of focusing it in one place. This contributes to greater equine comfort and great increases saddle stability.

In fact, you may have noticed one of these in the dressage at Rolex on Francis Whittington's horse, Easy Target. I'd post a picture because it really is fascinating, but I just cannot go stealing pictures from the Chronicle like that. Follow the link to read the quote and see the picture down below the dressage results.

The Wow H is surprisingly the most reasonable girth of the group, ringing in at a mere $280 + shipping from England. It also offers the most customizable options in terms of color and fit, it that matters to you.

wants $400 girth. still can't turn right.

I am a huge fan of innovation in equine accouterments and I have to admit, these girths fascinate me. I'm not in the income bracket that just leaps right in with a $400 girth (srsly wtf stubben), but I'm curious to track how they catch on and keep appraised of when affordable knock offs come along.

At the end of the day, we all want our horses performing well, and if a double strap spider looking girth is the key to the perfect free walk, well, who am I to say no?

When in Doubt, Wine. Also Pie.

distracting myself with cute pony horses

Thank you all for your kind words, support, and profanity yesterday. It all resonated, mostly the profanity. And wine. There was a lot of wine.

And how do I feel?

• Completely humiliated. Really and truly, I thought there was nothing left for a horse to do to me that could make me feel that way. There's just a special sort of awful when you call a trainer you respect and are like "yeah not coming because not a good enough trainer to get horse on trailer" and she's like "wait what?" and I'm like "yeah you heard me". 
• I do realize this is a completely human emotion that Courage is incapable of conceptualizing. Unfortunately, I can conceptualize the hell out of it. Yay humanity. 
• Pissed off. I've needed a day off for months and it hasn't been forthcoming because I needed to earn money to make sure adult responsibilities were taken care of. I planned to take Tuesday off completely. Or like, you know, go in to work for a few hours and spend all afternoon in nasty, gusting wind writing big checks for that horse who thinks getting on trailers is a purely optional exercise. 
• Pretty sure he knows I'm pissed. I mostly just left him alone. 
• Frustrated. I've had Courage almost two years. In that time, he's hauled all over the place in many different trailers and never taken more than a wave of a hand to get him on. 
• He does occasionally have temper tantrums. I win this round, but it doesn't change his personality. Or get me any money back.
• Confused. Really, really confused. I'm completely honest when I say I'm looking at other options. I halfway don't ever want to see him again (or write any more big checks for him) and halfway feel like I'm in this up to my neck already and might as well see it through. I cannot reconcile those feelings right now. 
• you should (not) have seen my stress shopping grocery cart yesterday. Why yes, I do need THIS ENTIRE PIE. 

android horse is on time out

I don't know what to say. I'm still hurt and angry and not processing well. I'm not afraid of Courage, but I'm really, really tired of his antics right now. Would I be happier with something less dramatic? I don't know. Do I just need to stay the course? I don't know. 

Am I just setting myself up with another Izzy? 

That's the really disturbing question in the back of my mind that I can't answer. None of these are easy questions and they can't be answered overnight. Apparently. Or else I would have answered them by now. 

Maybe the answer is in the pie.

Disappointment. Tears. That Stuff.

empty barn

This is going to sound overly angsty and it is.

And I'm not apologizing for that today.

Yesterday was clinic time. I had the day planned down to the minute, including an hour+ of wiggle room for "unforeseen adventures while hauling". I've been stressing about this clinic for two weeks, but once it was a concrete thing and not just on an amorphous horizon, I felt really good. I was excited. I was ready.

And Courage wouldn't get on the trailer for love or money. I thought I'd been embarrassed by a horse in every possible way--I mean, even if he bucked me off and took himself on a tour of the dressage barn with AK watched, well, it wouldn't be the first time that had happened to me in public.

We used every bit of my hour of wiggle time. We used more. I had to call the host and tell her we weren't coming because Courage would.not. get. on. the damn trailer.

Yeah, my horse who's loaded and hauled across the western states his entire life? The one I can take places by myself because he's so easy?

a turning right day?

It was not his day.

Not our day.

About halfway through what would have been my clinic time, we had him standing quietly on the trailer with the back door open. We didn't even try to close it. He was completely lathered. (And when I say "we", I mean Alyssa did most of it because she was least emotionally invested and very good at groundwork.)

He's not an easy horse and why he picked yesterday to make a difficult day, I'll never know. He probably doesn't know. I know we put the horse first. That's why it turned into trailer loading day instead of "just jam him in, slam the door, and go day".

I'm angry and disappointed and confused.

Is cute enough?

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure why I'm doing this.

I'm seriously considering selling him and buying some sort of ranch broke thing that gets on trailers and turns right reliably. It isn't rocket science.

Horses are supposed to be fun for me, but he's been a challenge every step of the way. Thoroughbreds are notorious for how hard they work for you, but he... doesn't? I don't know.

Is this even worth it? Tell me we're going to turn a corner or send me ads for my damned ranch horse. (NO MARES). 

PS The only positive lesson I can take out of this is that maybe we aren't meant to do dressage. Mounted shooting, here we come?

CAN'T. JUST CAN'T.

sort of like dressage, right?

DEEP BREATH DO NOT FREAK OUT MORE

It was a busy weekend here--I volunteered at the local (super fun) H/J show all day Friday and Saturday.

That sort of thing always inspires me to jump more, which is definitely something we're working towards.

But um.

Hello.

I AM RIDING WITH HE-WHO-SHALL-NOT-BE-NAMED THIS AFTERNOON.

him

it's cool. maybe he thinks fat legs are attractive?

ME. IN A CLINIC. WITH DRESSAGE.

I spent the past week reading through his book and trying to absorb enough of it to be cogent. I've been working on some of the stuff that makes sense to me (ie, look where you're going). I spent Sunday auditing a good chunk of the clinic so I at least have an idea of what to do/wear/say.

AND I RIDE WITH HIM IN A FEW HOURS.

Courage, on the other hand, has spent the last five days actively trying to kill/maim himself. And he doesn't even know who we're riding with. It's not helping my stress level, that's for sure. 

If you need me, I'm over here breathing into a paper bag.

It's Junk Science Time!!

the novelty stirrups of training

Some months ago now, I was lucky enough to meet Roxie's mom in person. She is like, WAY WAY cooler than I am, but she's also cool enough that she can hang out with uncool people. So I'm a fan. (Also her blog is hilarious. Read it.)

Anyways. We got talking about the junk science of "swirlology" or "whorlogy" (snort) and that while it is OBVIOUSLY AND DEFINITELY JUNK, it also can be sort of strangely true for inexplicable reasons.

You doubt?

This article in the Horsemanship Journal tries to make it sound mildly credible and is probably your best bet at preventing eye strain from extreme rolling. If you want to go more in depth (put an eye brace on), the full description is here.

wtf

It's an intriguing idea--can we read important clues to a horse's personality in just the seemingly random swirls of hair on their bodies?

So let's take a totally annecdotal look at what Courage's swirls say about him:

He sports a high, double side-by-side swirl. As per the Fox Point Farm site, this means:

• High swirls usually goes with a more active mind
• The more focused the swirl, the more possible focus in the mind.
• Double or triple swirls indicate multiple personalities. Horses with multiple face swirls can be more complicated and can be more difficult to initially read and address appropriately... They may require more patience, time, skill and understanding to train/develop. They may surprise/let you down at an important moment by switching personalities, especially by going from confident to unconfident in the blink of an eye. Confidence must be diligently developed in every horse, but these especially.
• Many Grand Prix horses in both dressage and jumping have very high, very tight side-by-side double swirls. This type of double swirl seems to give the ability to hyper focus. These horses are challenging and gritty, like most double swirl horses, but the ability to hyper focus and not back down from a challenge can be an asset in professional hands.
• Double (or more) swirls will not take the pounding and criticism that many single swirl horses will accept/endure. One must be fair and just in all requests. 
• 'Double and Triple Swirl horse' has an uncanny ability to 'mirror' its rider to a degree most single swirl horses do not.
• Body position of the rider and mind/emotional control of the rider is of utmost importance, these horses can change in a moment, much faster than their single swirl friends... for the rider/trainer who functions at a higher level of physical and emotional fitness, these horses can be amazing.

TOYS OUT NOW

I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. It's junk science at it's finest. Eye roll away. 

No really, I'll wait. Get it out of your system. 

Ok. I really don't think I believe all this stuff, but at the same time, it pretty much describes my horse in a nutshell. I want to make the argument that it's like horoscopes and if you squint a little, they literally describe anyone in an entire population, but... 

peaceful

But I've watched people ride through all kinds of things that would make C Rage THROW HIS TOYS OUT OF HIS CRIB and not even bat an eye... and yeah... he's my easy, lazy, dead head OTTB until he's not, and then he's REALLY not. 

Soooo... anyone else want to check out what the swirls mean on their horses and tell me if it's total crap? It really is an entertaining way to spend 10 minutes.

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.

Tack Review: Total Saddle Fit Dressage Girth

If you ever use the horse-y part of the internet (RAISE YOUR HAND, ALL OF YOU), you've seen ads for this girth. It claims to be anatomically correct and better for both horse and saddle (and other things I didn't really read). Unlike other anatomic girths, it rings in at $125, which is a drop in the bucket of the $200 straps you can also buy to hold your ass platform on your horse.

I have one. Is it time for a review? Yes. Yes it is.

Total Saddle Fit Dressage Girth in Black, size 26".
Retail price: $124.95 + $9.95 shipping
What I paid: $85 shipped from a used site
Note: new price includes 110% money back guarantee, so if you need beer money, well, you do the math.

saddle is a hair back in this shot

I don't know how much I buy all the anatomic marketing going around right now, but I definitely kow tow to basic physics. Courage's dressage saddle first him well, but the billets hang a bit awkwardly.

I can either launch a multi-national search for THE MOST PERFECT SADDLE or I can buy a contoured girth. I chose option B.

There are some mixed reviews of the TSF girth online, so I didn't know what to expect.

Let's be real: it is a $120 strap. It serves to hold the saddle on very well. Some people are like "OMG BEST LEATHER I'VE EVER FELT" (which is sad) and others are like "THIS IS ISN'T FRENCH" (which is true)(but if it was French, it would cost hella more than $125).

Look at your Dover catalog--this is pretty reasonable for an all-leather, double elastic girth with roller buckles. Consider the contouring a free bonus.

Things I love about this girth:

1. Elastic and roller buckles. It's 2015, people. These things should be a given.

2. Nifty attachment ring in the middle. I haven't used it, but I like to know that I could if I wanted to.

3. Keepers. Dressage billets are notoriously long and hard to corral. I feel like the keepers on this girth hit the fine balance of looking tidy while not being a massive PITA to use.

Things I don't love:

1. Not really anything. I mean, it's a girth. As long as it serves to hold your saddle on without unduly rubbing, pinching, or irritating your horse, what's to dislike? I don't adore the leather quality, but I already covered that. I don't worry about it rubbing. It cleans up nicely. The construction is solid.

2. Sizing? I dunno on this one. The girth measures a 28". It's sized as a 26", which means if you're between sizes, go down. I'd probably rather have a slightly smaller size, but at that price, I wasn't going to quibble over details.

Conclusion:

If you're in the market for a decent dressage girth that doesn't break the bank, this is your ticket. I can't speak to it's supposed magical abilities at making a saddle fit better, because shark fin withers=my saddles stay put.

I have lots of other things on my to-buy list right now, but I'm certainly interested in playing with a TSF jump girth when the time comes. :-)