MOAR JUMPING

More jumping! I really want to try and jump Misty at least once a week to both try and get her endurance up and also smooth out our skills.

Also, I have the show bug. I'm going to sign up for an eventing derby on September 21st and we're going to go Novice! Or at least try.

Today's jump school was not as smooth as last week. I guess that's what I get for not riding her on the flat for two days beforehand. She was quite spunky and exuberant with the flying changes and head tossing "look how awesome I am!" moments.

But, we nailed every flying change and she was good. I set up a line with a vertical one stride to a swedish oxer. We'd never done a swedish oxer before and she thought it was quite suspicious looking at first. After a brief snorty introduction, she was over it and jumped it fairly willingly. The toughest issue we had was her sucking back in approaching the oxer meaning that she had to put in two strides in the one stride. Our last attempt was absolutely perfect though with just one stride, no chips or long spots and no brushing the jumps either!

My good pony

Canter adjustability is something that has been quite the focus lately since she has... barely any. Now the trot adjustability we've finally gotten down. (Shh, it took us a whole year) but now that we're doing First Level work, we need a lengthened canter and while she can do the lengthening ok, the transition back to a working canter sucks.

Anywho, it was still a great ride. She is just such a fun little horse. After jumping the line one last time, I asked for a flying change to the left lead, did a 20 meter circle and came across the center for another flying change and finished with one last circle. LOVE having flying changes.

Monogram All the Things

I've been pretty happy with the new barn I'm at. Well, "new" since I've been there 7 months now... Anyways.

Super attractive picture

Not so happy today. Little things just keep piling up and really bothering my. Sigh. First it was my treats disappearing. I had a large bag of treats that was divided up into small baggies. I went to grab one of the 10 different little bagfuls and found... 10 empty bags. That I had not opened. Not amused.

I still had a little plastic treat container that had a few crumbs in it sitting on my drawers which I always refilled. Then I came to the barn and found... all the crumbs dumped out onto the top of my drawers and the plastic container gone. Grr.

Then my dressage schooling whip went missing. Yes, it was bleached and frayed and grosss... but still. I need that thing.

Then I went to give the horses a bath and couldn't find my shampoo. Later I found it in someone else's bath bucket.

I've also had bags of bedding pellets go missing. And my sharpie that I've been using to obsessively label nearly everything is also gone. Sigh. I'm about ready to just lock everything in my trailer just to contain it all.

But something more happy - I am having an "attack of the horsey I-wants" so I decided I need to relieve some of my stress via a tiny bit of retail therapy, aka I bought a sticker for my helmet in order to join the ranks of all the cool people that have these.

Love

Personally Preppy Helmet Monogram

I really like it! I should have measured the gap in my helmet for the sticker because I probably would've gotten a 1.5" instead of a 2" but at least it fits (barely). I love it though. So classy looking. I really want to buy a decal for my show whip now (and maybe even my schooling helmet) to keep it from walking away since things of mine keep disappearing...

Informal Blog Hop: Transformation

I loved Niamh's (of Life of Riley) idea for a blog hop showing the transformation your horse has gone through. I wish I had better transformation pictures! I have a pretty good one of Jetta, but not that great at all of Misty.

Jetta's first show, Intro A just recently started under saddle

A couple months after bringing Misty home, still trying to put more weight/muscle on her

Finally Jumping Again

Yesterday was a great, productive ride. I finally got up the motivation to have an actual jump school on Misty because so many people have been wanting jumping videos. I've jumped twice maybe in the past month or two and they were just hopping over one little jump, not actually doing a course (albeit a small one).

You know you haven't jumped in too long when you set a course at 2'6" only to measure it and discover that it's only 2'. Wow. 

I set up a three stride line, a singe oxer and some barrels across the centerline on a diagonal. Misty was just so good. Not anywhere close to perfect, but I'll take it for what little time we've spent jumping.

We hopped around the course at 2'3" after a brief warm-up and stroll past all the jumps. She was great, save for a bit sassy. She gets so proud of herself she just has to toss her head a bit!



I bumped the jumps up to 2'6" and ran through it a few more times. And we had two refusals. She was being naughty! She ran out on the barrels the first time through, then the second time through she ran out on the second jump in the combination. She has NEVER run out on a jump. Refused yes, but usually it's a gradual rolling stop that I can feel coming from a mile away (just fail to prevent somehow). It wasn't a dirty refusal, I could feel it coming, but by then it was too late to fix.

I decided that the picket fence jump needed a ground line once it got raised up to 2'6" but, typical lazy me, I decided to just drag it over on Misty. Gosh this horse is awesome. (Apologies for the lack of video editing. I have neither the software nor the patience for it, so start at 0:15 and stop at 1:00)


The third time through however was great, but by this time she was getting tired. I ran through it once more just to make sure I had a good enough video. Of course, in the process I had a major brain fart and completely forgot the "course" I had decided on, so we had some fun squiggly work all over the place.





Lastly, I bumped the oxer up to 2'9" and jumped it a couple times for good measure. She didn't bat an eye and jumped it easily. What a good girl :)

Ho Hum

Basically nothing interesting has been happening. Work, work and... oh yeah, more work. I've been counting myself successful if I ride three days a week.

But the pony time that I have been getting has been good. Misty's been getting most of the attention since she is the one for sale right now. Our last dressage ride was fantastic.

Yesterday, both girls got lunged and bathed. Then the farrier came and trimmed their toes and they got wormed. Fun day I'm sure for them, lol. It's been forever since they got their hooves done since I've just been touching them up every so often when they look long or rough around the edges. It's been maybe five months?! Partly why I love having them barefoot! But Misty's hooves like to grow in a weird fashion because of her scar that I'm not comfortable with "fixing" plus they both had a lot of false sole going on and some wavy/overgrown bars which I don't want to deal with, so farrier it was.

In other news, Misty is learning the ropes of doing more bridleless and liberty work. She's catching on a lot, but we haven't quite progressed to absolute freedom in the saddle with no bridle, I still have the halter on as back up. It's so fun though! I miss riding Jazz and Grady bridleless. Well, I miss them in general.

Anyways, after Misty got lunged I stuck her in the wash stall and didn't cross tie her. She was perfect and didn't move a muscle, save making some grumpy faces when I got the water too close to her face. I wish Jetta was as trustworthy! But I've done four clicker sessions with her in the wash rack and now she walks in without even pausing (we were previously bickering for a couple minutes before she'd get in) and now she mostly stands still 90% of the time without pawing or bobbing her head. Success!

Sneak peek for my next post. Super blurry video still, but hey! We both have fairly good position!

Beachin'

Love living close enough to the beach that we can head over for the day to ride!

PM, the one who has taken 99% of my awesome eventing photos, said that her repayment would be a beach ride on Misty. So of course I had to repay her!

It ended up being a beautiful day at the coast. It was warm without being sweltering like it's been at home. I forgot my sweater but ended up not even missing it!

More Catch-Up

So, what's been happening recently?

My cousin came for a visit and had never ridden a horse, so of course I had to take her for a trail ride. It was a lot of fun! She was really brave and even trotted a bunch, giggling the whole time.

I take awful selfies...

Of course, it wasn't the best idea, because right after the trail ride I had someone come out to look at buying Misty. They ended up deciding against purchasing her, though she was really good, just tired by the time the actual prospective buyer got around to riding. (First my cousin rode her on the trails, then I rode her for the buyers, then the trainer rode her, then the buyer rode her. Poor pony).

Not a whole lot of riding has been happening due to work. Still haven't quite figured out how to juggle work and pony time. But, I did get to hop Misty through her first baby grid! I've been wanting to do it for forever, but have been too lazy to set it up. It was a lot of fun and after a few tries she picked it up perfectly.

Not impressed by the grid. But she did well and it was fun!

Jetta whacked her leg on something and had a lovely swelling going on. But she was never lame. A few days of wrapping and a poultice has made it a lot better.

First day. It has gone down a lot, but there's still some fill

She actually stood politely to be cold hosed and wrapped!

Of course, I couldn't find my poultice paper and I didn't have any paper bags... except for a McDonald's bag. Oh yes, I am just that classy.

Buy hey, it worked nicely!

Other than that, things have finally started happening around the barn. The manure pile (that awful awful thing that I hate) got taken out. The fields FINALLY got hayed (no wonder the barn hay looks like straw this late in the season) and now we're allowed to ride outside! And tomorrow, I'm going riding at the beach! Can't wait.

Pacific Northwest is Best

I'm sure there are lovely parts of every single state, but I love this state I live in! Previously the past couple weeks when I had time off I went on a waterfall hike or floated the river. Now, I finally a day off with no plans so I decided I was going for a trail ride in one of my favorite places.

Geez, I forgot how far away it was though. I used to board about 45 minutes away and today the drive took an hour and a half. Oops. But it was worth it for a one time kind of deal.

Of course as soon as I got out to the trails I realized I had everything I needed... except my bridle. Dang it. The one item that is arguable the most important piece of tack! I usually have so many extras in my trailer, but this time I had only two. The two options: the segunda I jump with and the sidepull hackamore. Hmm. Last time I rode in the segunda it was WAY too much. It's been an awesome bit for us in the past using it for shows and clinics at different barns but it was too much bit last time. So that left the hackamore. I've been wanting to try it out on the trails since it would be neat to use it for endurance. And Jetta responds really well to it in the arena... so we gave it a try.

Let's just say I won't be doing endurance in the hackamore. But, it was a great trail ride. I didn't die with the hackamore, though Jetta did lose her cantering privileges. After two perfectly behaved canters, the third time in an open field she completely ignored me and I had to use a one rein stop to get her back down. I haven't done that in forever with her.

Minus the one baby brain episode, she was great. It was so hot though that mostly we just walked (not to mention we're both really out of shape). Even after walking a couple miles she was still super sweaty so after stopping to pick blackberries (YUM, so good) we went for a dip in the river.

splish splash

BLACKBERRIES. She always steals the best ones off the bush.