Desensitization Extravaganza

No ride for the poor ponies yesterday. It's dead week which means I literally feel like death. Can this term be over pretty please? Today started off rather well with me waking up early (not a morning person) to get to my one class today. Only to walk all the way across campus and show up at an empty classroom. Huh, guess I forgot to remember that class was cancelled today? Oh well it was a nice walk I guess.

At least I got to see my favorite flowers blooming everywhere!

Anyways, onto the ponies. Goals for Queenie today:

• Mounting: She has no problem with me jumping up and down besides her, throwing myself at her or bouncing in the stirrup but as soon as I throw my leg over she has a minor melt down. Not okay, I don't particularly enjoy the feeling of sitting on a bomb about to explode nor will it inspire confidence in anyone who comes to look at her and the first thing she does is spook.
• How we're going to fix it: lots of mounting! Get on, wait for her to settle, give her a treat and lots of scritches, then get off. Get back on, wait for her to settle, give her a treat and lots of scritches, then get off. Rinse, repeat until she decides that it's not such a bad thing. 
• Halting: I don't know what was done to her but halting scares her. I pull on both reins, albeit gently, and she sucks back and stops suddenly then moves her feet all over the place. We established an emergency one rein stop as soon as I got on her for our first ride (thank GOODNESS I decided to work on that first, it's a lifesaver). The one rein stop doesn't bother her one bit, she stops and stands nicely. 
• How we're going to fix it: lots of stopping! I feel like this is something that just has to be done over and over and over again because there's not a lot else to do to fix this. Once she finally plants her feet she's fine, just the first 30 seconds to a minute she dances around and I don't want to have to rely on a one rein stop. 
• Spooking at Everything: She literally spooks at everything. Oh poor mare. I promise that not everything is out to get you. Hence my title for the day.
• How we're going to fix it: Expose her to lots of scary stuff! I'm going to go buy a little 5x7' tarp this weekend, going to bring a plastic bag to tie on the end of my carrot stick to work with her with, I'm going to set up a mini "trail course" with poles and barrels and flowers and such, and we're going to go for a scary walk outside over to the weigh station (I want to see how much this beast weighs!) During all of this we're going to work on ground manners because blowing through the halter is not okay. She's in a rope halter but she still doesn't listen to it and I hate chains so I never want anyone to feel like they have to use one one her so she needs to learn how to respond to a plain halter.

Goals for the Jetta monster:

• Steadier in the bridle: She was driving me nuts the other day with her playing with the contact. I told her last time I rode her that if she can act like a grown up the next time I ride her then I will set up jumps on Friday. We'll see how that goes.
• Desensitizing! Like I stated in my last post, Jetta has the spring spookies. She's not typically a spooky horse. So like Queenie, she's going to get the whole nine yards of desensitization. Remember the whole running away with the ribbons thing? Yeah, those ribbons are coming back and we're going to work on that. I am sorely tempted to just tie them to her bridle and set her loose in the arena until she figure out that they're not going to eat her but I figure that's unusually cruel so we'll just work on me rubbing and fluttering them on her face until she decides they're not worth the effort of spooking.

If all goes well with Jetta being a grown-up (she is after all almost seven so I can't pull the baby horsey card anymore) we will jump on Friday and then I will decide what classes to enter for the jumping show at the end of this month! It's actually an indoor event derby - they will have show jumping classes and indoor xc classes. I feel comfortable doing beginner novice at 2'7" both show jumping and xc, and I feel pretty comfortable doing novice at 2'11" for show jumping but I'm not quite sure if I should test the waters and try xc. I'm still a bit of a scaredy cat after she dumped me over that novice coop last summer. Plus I don't know if I should spend all the money doing all four classes since they're $20 a pop. Decisions, decisions.

And in a slightly more random note, please someone buy this horse:

This is Dusty. He boards at my barn and I'm in love/in serious want with him.

He's four years old and get this: he's a 1/2 Arab, 1/2 Missouri Fox Trotter. Now, I don't like either of those breeds typically, I'm just not a fan. I don't have anything against them, they're just not my thing. But I LOVE Dusty.

The owner just dropped his price to $2250. I wish I could afford him but my budget for horses tends to be $500 or free. And I can't rationalize another project for that much when I have several at my disposal that are free.

What I love about him: he has gorgeous conformation. That picture doesn't quite show it, but he's got a neck that's to die for. And he has lovely gaits. I was quite surprised to see him move, he's got a floaty trot and canter and he oversteps by several inches without even trying when he walks and trots. Dressage prospect!! He's only been ridden western but I think he'd make an awesome dressage horse and be versatile enough to switch back and forth from dressage to western.

Only thing I don't like about him is he's very mouthy. Not bitey, but just loves to lick and lip you at all times. Definite pet peeve of mine, but he's like a puppy. You can't get mad with those big brown eyes looking at you.

Another girl at the barn just started "working" with him cause his owner doesn't have time to ride him. She just posted on facebook about this new "colt" she was putting "training" on and "starting" him under saddle and that he'll make a nice horse for gaming. Oh dear, first of all he's already been started, second of all you aren't going to increase his value with gaming training. Please someone save this poor guy. He doesn't want to be a gamer he wants to be a fancy dressage horse!

Clinic Recap

Had a good clinic this weekend! I was super nervous about it, like always whenever I plan an event for the dressage team I stress incessantly all throughout the night.

The clinician was super nice (I'll call her TS) even though she had to fill out a ridiculous amount of paperwork through the university which I felt bad about, but I have no control over unfortunately. I feel like trainers and judges dread working with the team because it's so difficult! But TS was a good sport about it.

I did mess up with the ride scheduling unfortunately. TS said she wanted 45 minute lessons so I scheduled them for 60 minutes so that no one would feel rushed and there would be time for warm-up and cooling off since there was only a small indoor arena. Oops, I guess that was not what she wanted! But it ended up running smoothly, especially since I was hauling three horses so we all rode in quick succession so we finished earlier than originally projected.

I have a three horse trailer but I've hauled three horses in it a grand total of three times (including this weekend) and all of the horses were from different locations and lots of backing and turning around in small spaces was involved. But I handled it like a pro if I do say so myself :) ML moved to a new barn, which I'm not a huge fan of because it's pretty far from my barn and there's no turn around, it's at the top of a tall hill = not fun at all! Essentially I have to back up a large hill to turn around without falling of the cliff. With three horses in the trailer. Yikes.

The hauling all went smoothly, though Jetta did get nicked on her hock, but I believe that was from her trying to kick the gelding in the slant next to her. Mares...

When it was my turn to ride, we warmed up on the loose rein like usual but didn't get a whole lot of time. TS had me work on getting her to slow her rhythm down and have a lower neck set so that she'd use the muscles in her neck closer to her withers which is where she needs development. Jetta wasn't awful, but she was trying to rush around on her forehand and I think if I had just given her a couple of half halts, it would have gone a bit better.

She really liked Jetta. She thought she had good conformation (she commented that she had good bone!) and that I had found a good horse. I'm proud of my $750 horse :) And, get this, she told me that she believes that Jetta has FEI potential. Wow. That is the best compliment that I have ever received about Jetta, though everyone who sees her tends to like her ♥ I've never even thought about ever being able to go that high. I was hoping to get to third level! And this is coming from a Grand Prix rider. She commented that she had amazing gaits and her movement allowed her to mask her improper carriage - holding her head correctly and tracking up, but not lifting through her back.

We worked on getting Jetta off of my left rein as she tends to hang on it in both directions. With lateral work, she had me do a shoulder-fore down one long wall to prepare her to do a leg yield down the quarter-line on the opposite long wall, keeping her inside hind leg engaged as well as slowing her rhythm.Another helpful tip on the cantering front - transition up as I go towards a wall, which will help back her off and not rush as much into the canter. She thinks that her sloppy transitions are just due to a growth spurt which is why we have so many ups and downs in our training. Not that its a good excuse for her bad behavior though!

The neat thing about TS is not only does she have Grand Prix experience and has worked with trainers of international fame, but she's also a veterinarian who does chiropractic work and will do minor adjustments during your lesson. She told all the riders in the clinic that she wants them to do carrot stretches, tail pulls and pelvic tucks on the horses on a regular basis to help keep them in top form. Unfortunately, probably because of this, she's quite expensive. She regularly charges $100 per lesson, though she reduces her rate to $75 for the dressage team. Definitely not something I can afford on a regular basis! But we've got three clinics left with her, so I'm really looking forward to them.

I did get some pictures of the other riders during their lesson, but apparently I've exceeded the picture storage on this blog??? Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do?

Naked Ponies

Well, they're not completely naked! Just partially :)

Yesterday I clipped Miss Katy. She was such a brat! Naughty girl, she's learning some bad habits... She was acting more like Jetta and just would not stand still in the cross ties. Though it was very bad timing to do it at dinner time... She got a semi-trace clip, sometimes called a chaser clip I believe? She looked pretty good and it only took me an hour and a half. She had such thick fur though! Of course I didn't get any pictures of it, but here's what it looks like.

Her owners were in a bit of a hurry so I didn't get to make it as nice as I'd like, but it still looked really good. She seriously lost a hundred pounds by getting clipped :)



My "after" picture. At least you can see all the hair
she lost! We could make a miniature pony out of all that!



Favoritest clippers ever!



The hardest part for me is definitely clipping the shoulder and the armpit. It just doesn't work very well! But I'm glad I was able to clip her, as it almost didn't work out. I showed up at their new barn (they moved, which was sad, but now I get to give them lessons!) and pulled out my clippers. The mom said that she didn't think that they were going to work, because they're not body clippers. I assured her that they'd be fine since I've used them the past two years to do body clips. I had charged both of the batteries the night before. I turn them on and put it to Katy... and it cuts a two inch square before refusing to do any thing else. Hm. This is not good. The mom kind of says "I told you so", but I switched batteries and tried again. Nada. So the last option is to switch the blades, luckily I had another set in my car. I put those on and voila! Who says these babies aren't body clippers???

So it all worked out and Katy got trimmed as planned.

Today, well, this morning, was Jetta's turn. I decided to leave her in her stall and tie her loosely so she could eat her hay while I trimmed. It would be harder to get her neck, but easier because she would actually stand still. I did a bit more of a clip on Jetta, though it still only took an hour and a half, probably because Jetta's hair isn't nearly as thick as Katy's, but it was almost a little bit harder because her skin was thinner and it got all wrinkled up more easily. Of course, I meant to do a high trace clip, but chickened out so she got a low trace clip. I like it though I may touch it up a bit tomorrow because I'm a bit of a perfectionist like that.



The worst "before" picture you have ever seen



"Why you do this to me?!"

"Ok, I'm going back to sleep now..."
But doesn't it look good?!

I think if I change anything, it will be that I clip about a blade's-width more higher along the whole length, and clip the hip portion so that it is more level on top instead of slanted. But not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Afterwards, I put her other blanket on (she has two sets, spoiled pony) and it's the heavier of the two, plus it's actually clean so she should be nice and comfy tonight.

  



Noms?

So today was nice and productive and I now have a shiny new clipped pony! I'm excited to see how it looks with the saddle on and how she sweats with it now.

Sidenote, what do you think of the blog theme changes? I decided I needed something a bit more cheery since it's so gray and cold oustide, but after having it the same for so long it looks a little strange to me now!