30 Day Challenge - Explain the division you show in and why.

This a bit of a tough question because I show in a lot of disciplines...

Dressage - I am showing at Training with Misty and First with Jetta, with hopes that I'll be showing comfortably at Second level by the end of this summer on Jetta.

Jumping - I can usually be found doing classes from 2'6" to 3' jumpers. I don't do hunters unless it's just to add in some classes for experience, since I have never been competitive in those divisions.

Eventing - I've only ever shown at Beginner Novice. I'm a bit of a chicken on cross country and while I've definitely schooled Novice on Jetta, Misty and my old horse, Jazz, I still haven't gotten up the courage to compete at that level. I'll probably be one of those people who stays at the lower level of eventing forever. But then again, I hope that one day I'll make it to Prelim.

And lastly, I made a small foray into endurance riding last year, and while I wasn't able to compete this year, I really hope to stick with it. I am currently perfectly fine with staying at the LD rides at 25 to 30 miles, but hopefully someday I'll do a 50 mile ride.

Foothills of the Cascades Ride Part 2

Part 1 is here. 

This second loop was way harder. It started off the same. We went through this "forested area" (both loops had multiple forested areas that wove in and around that trees on narrow deer-like trails). Let's just say that Jetta will never make a pole bending horse. She only tried to kill me on one tree. After that, if it looked really narrow I hiked my legs up onto her shoulder. Some of the trees you had to go between were super close, I don't know how you'd do it if your horse was any wider!

Reached a wider road and stopped for a drink of water. Which Jetta wouldn't drink. She just gets distracted every time I think she's going to drink, she has to watch something or hears something that requires her undivided attention, so we moved on.

Then we came out on a logging road. The views were GORGEOUS. There was a very, very long downhill part, which obviously meant that there was going to be a long uphill part! I met up with a pair that I had been continually passing/getting passed by. A couple with a overo paint and gray QH or QHxArab. They were camped right next to me. I followed them for a while and chatted. Then once we finally reached the top of the hill of death (this was the generally referred to name!) I trotted off solo down the flat part. More gorgeous forest trails. It was just too pretty. I could probably put up with the horrendous hour long drive into town just to have access to those trails if I lived there.





Eventually we crossed paths with a ride and tie-er. One issue I've never thought about: how to deal with them tying their horse in the middle of the path? The lady was very nice and she chatted with me whenever we crossed paths whether she was running or riding. But the guy... every time he tied the horse directly on the trail even if there were good spot slightly off the trail just a few steps further. Luckily, the horse seemed nice. The first time I approached him blocking the very narrow trail, I talked to him and nudged him with my whip handle and he politely scooched as far over as possible so Jetta and I could squeeze past. It was a tight fit. The second time I encountered him tied on the trail between the tree line and a barbed wire fence. Lovely. He pinned his ears at us. Just fabulous. But another nudge with the whip and he grudgingly moved over.

My favorite section of the trail

We crossed a creek with no problem. The worst part of the trail was through a clear cut hill. There was literally no path. You just followed the ribbons through and over all the branches and rocks and lumpy ground. There was no possible way to trot, you pretty much had to walk the whole entire thing. And it was hot. There was no shade cover. This dead fall area went on forever it felt like and the footing was truly awful. Jetta got a couple scrapes on her back legs and one of the metal clasps on the easyboots got bent due to all the branches in the way. Somewhere in there I also dropped my whip which I was disappointed about since it was my "nice" whip.

Almost at the end of the 25 miles and I was still having fun!

Finally back on the real trail. Stopped for a drink of water (she FINALLY started drinking thank goodness) we trotted for a bit, but my legs were starting to get tired of posting so we cantered for the flat parts then walked the last half mile back to camp! My goal of coming in dry was achieved. Our initial pulse was 76, but after pulling her tack, letting her pee and drink she came quickly down to 48 and we vetted in. She got all A's except for a B on jug refill again and a B on gut sounds, which the vet said would probably be fine once she ate something. Overall, I couldn't have been happier! We came in just barely under time, while I let Jetta eat her grain/hay pellet mash I saw several horses who didn't pulse down in time.

Passing!

The rest of the day Jetta just got pampered and I ate and read my book. The weather was perfect and I sat out in the sun with my feet up. Jetta napped. It was adorable, I wish I had gotten some pictures! She rested her nose on the panels and her lower lips was droopy and her eyes half closed. Several people stopped to laugh and give her a face rub. Too cute.

Don't think it could get better than this

Come awards, I found that out of 41 LD riders (there may have been a few more, this count was from the evening before), 36 had finished and I was the 22nd! Not last, so I was happy. Got our coffee mug for completing it, found my whip in the lost and found (thank you, thank you whoever picked it up!) then packed up and headed home. Jetta was excited to be home and I was happy that I'd get to sleep in my own bed!

I must say, that I am SO SORE. I knew I'd be a little sore in my legs and my abs were sore after riding, but geez. My shoulders, calves, inner thighs and abs are all super sore. Sitting down/standing up is a challenge. I was planning on doing a dressage school on Misty but I think that's going to have to wait!

Overall, I am so happy that I did this ride. Everything went perfectly and I can't wait for the next ride!

I love my pony

Foothills of the Cascades Ride Part 1

Wow, what an awesome weekend!

I still can't believe how everything just came together so perfectly.

After class on Friday I headed out. No address was provided, just some vague instructions to get off the interstate, go to Mollala then follow the signs to the ride. Hm. I called one of the ride managers and managed to get a little bit clearer instructions then after everything was loaded in the trailer, we set off!

It took a lot longer than I thought. Mapquest said it would take an hour to get to Mollala, but being that the ride was out of town in the middle of nowhere added an extra 45 minutes. Got there before the sun set and managed to squeeze my trailer in with enough room to set up a corral.

All settled for the night!

I signed up for the ride and got Jetta vet checked. She was quite good for the vet - she stood nicely for him to look in her mouth (she HATES having that done) and even lifted up all her feet without threatening to kick. Always a good thing right? All A's on our card!

I got everything set up for Jetta overnight. It was a bit of a challenge setting up the corral with just one person but I did it. I brought her slow feeder and stuffed it with hay. I also brought a big muck bucket to use as water and I filled it from the water tank in the trailer. I think she appreciated having water from home.

Sunset in ride camp

I slept in the bed of my truck. I have the camper shell on so it was nice and cozy. Except for me worrying about bugs. I cleaned out the back of the truck and found so many bugs. Ew. So I slept with a blanket over my face just in case... I actually slept pretty well. It was a lot warmer than I thought it would be. I was able to watch the stars before I went to bed and even saw some shooting stars! I woke up at 3am and saw Jetta standing and apparently staring directly at me. Kind of creepy. I briefly thought that she must be out of hay and that I should go refill her but decided on more sleep. She'd be fine for another 3 hours.

Morning view!

At 6 am, the truck I parked next to loudly roared to life and turned on their generator meaning I about jumped out of my skin/sleeping bag ready for whatever was coming. Only to realize that everything was fine and I could take my time getting out of my cozy bed!

Despite the ride manager's assurances that 6am is when it got light out, it was definitely still pitch black. Well, as dark as it got since the full moon was super bright. Got ready in the dark, even managing to put all of Jetta's boots on while she ate her breakfast. Her easyboots fit! I had been so worried about that overnight, but they fit perfectly and actually weren't all that hard to put on like I had been led to believe. I managed to eat a tiny bit of breakfast myself and loaded up the saddlebags. 7:15 am was the start time for the LD riders. The big main group left right at that time but I left a few minutes after just to give them some space.

Watching everyone get ready was interesting. I would say about half of us had fire breathing dragons on our hands, though I must say Jetta was a much "smaller" dragon than most of them... lots of them were rearing and bolting! Jetta was just very forward.

We started out on the blue ribbon loop that was 10 miles. Jetta was so amped up. Her thought process: "I am a thoroughbred race horse! I must beat all the other horses! I must gallop!" She was disappointed to find that we were NOT going to gallop and instead she must maintain some sort of rational horse trot. Which she did not. When she's super excited and trotting fast her trot gets sort of lateral. I swear she thinks she's part Standardbred. I wouldn't be surprised if she started pacing.

Around 45 minutes in we were finally able to have a four-beat walk rather than a jig and by an hour and 15 minutes we had a semblance of control in all the gaits. For the most part of this loop we had that "sweet spot" where we were in between riders but couldn't see the ones in front or behind us, it was just us. It was really nice. And the scenery was gorgeous! I couldn't get over what a perfect day it was. The sun was bright, it wasn't very cold, the fall leaves were pretty and the trails were awesome. We even passed a waterfall!

I was feeling good when we rolled into camp for our first vet check. We were right around our normal time of an hour and 40 minutes for 10 miles, actually we were 10 minutes fast probably due to her behavior at the beginning. She pulsed in at 80 which worried me. She usually comes in right at 60 so I think it was due to her being so amped up at the start. Spent a while trying to get her to drink (she wouldn't). I sponged off her neck/jugular area and fed her an apple, loosened her girth. She finally dropped to 48 and we did our vet check. She got A's on everything but jugular refill. I need to research what affects refill times, but I think it's because she didn't drink?

Had a 30 minute hold and then we were off on the trails again! This time for the orange loop. It was kind of hard mentally switching from looking for one color of ribbon to the next. I decided to be a little more conservative on this loop since a) she hadn't drank anything and b) I wasn't use to her pulsing in so high. The goal was to come in with her being dry and not sweaty.

Off the beaten path. I promise there's a trail in there somewhere...

To be continued...

Mostly Complete Update

Lots of little things all happening right now. School has been kicking my butt this week but I'm handling it. Unfortunately the ponies have gotten the short end of the stick through all of this. I rode Jetta on Monday. That was it.

But we had a really good ride. I think we're finally making progress!

So, the news (fair warning - no pictures and very wordy post!):

I finally found out how Misty and I did at the trail competition. At the last competition we got third in the Open division! Wow, I was surprised that we made it all the way up to Open! At the show before that one we were 4th I think in Amateur? Like I predicted though, there was no belt buckle :( Basically I had to get First in Amateur or Novice, but since I got First in Novice at the first show, that knocked me into the Amateur division so I wasn't eligible to win Novice. Bummer... I ended up with an overall score of third in Amateur. So close! The lady that won the Amateur division definitely deserved it though. She's a good friend that I've known through JF for years. An older lady with two horses who does natural horsemanship/classical dressage (albeit western) and takes her time with her horses. She did a very good job with her horse Champ, even doing some obstacles that no one else was able to complete! And she's been competing in the trail competitions for as long as they've been going on and has never won a buckle.... So I guess I can gracefully concede the victory to her, seeing as I have 5 horse belt buckles ;)

In other news, I finally got my new dressage show breeches! I've been hemming and hawing over what to get and then ultimately decided my budget ($150) wasn't large enough to allow a purchase of what I really wanted and I didn't want to spend money on something I didn't completely love. Along comes ebay... I've been searching forever for the "right pair" to come up cheap enough. I found a pair of Tropical Rider breeches with the deerskin full seat, that I really liked. Higher waisted than I would have preferred... but for $40 I was sold! And then they came and the zipper was missing... Uh, yeah. Not in the description. But a quick trip to get it altered to have a new zipper put in, voila! New-ish. The seat is slightly stained from the saddle making it look gray, which is totally fine for me since I like white breeches with gray seats.

Then, the even cooler purchase... While perusing ebay I found a pair of Dove gray FITS for sale. Oooh, gorgeous! I liked them so much better than the white. Instant love. But they were the wrong size so I decided that I'd save up and buy them for myself when I had the money. But still casually perusing ebay I found a pair. Dove gray. In my size. Brand new! And in my price range :) And I won! I got myself some brand new FITS for $90.

Can you tell I'm in love with ebay? Two pairs of awesome breeches for under my original budget for one pair of breeches. Score!

In other pony news, I've talked to both Jazz and Tux's new owners and they're both doing well! I love so much to hear about them. I miss them both so much.

Tux's owner (older lady) was retiring in the spring and with all of that preparation didn't have time to ride so he got the whole spring off and just hung out in the pasture. Which I'm totally sure was completely fine with him. I can only imagine how rotund he became ;) Then she fell and broke her wrist at the beginning of the summer. So obviously no riding. But once she was almost healed she sent him off to "school" with her sister, a dressage trainer, and he's now getting ridden 5 times a week, 3 of those being trainer rides and he's doing really well it sounds like! She was telling me all about how he's now going in a KK Sprenger snaffle (vs the Myler) and seems to like it better and it really starting to reach down and out for the bit. What a good pony. I really hope she gets him going well and maybe shows him. Or she offered to let me come stay with her in Washington for a long weekend and visit with him/take some lessons with her sister. Um, yes please!

Then with Jazz I talked to the mom of her little girl and it sounds like things are going perfectly and that they love her. I was stalking pictures and someone commented on a pic of Jazz that they wanted to come learn to ride and Jazz's owner was telling the person how amazing their daughter's horse is and that she's "trained to the nine's" and would be perfect for them to ride. Cue proud mom moment! Then the lady that won the trail competition that I commented about above? She went riding at Elijah Bristow park where Jazz lives close to and was talking to this random lady riding a black mare... And the lady was saying how her horse has done everything - trail competitions, etc. And my friend looked at the horse and said "Hm, is your horse's name Jazz??" And it was! So I have from a second source that Jazz is looking good :)

So happy. I always worry when I sell a horse.

And the most exciting of all exciting updates? ENDURANCE RIDE THIS SATURDAY. Gosh, I'm so excited! Everything just fell together absolutely perfectly. I wasn't going to do this ride even though at the beginning of the year I was definitely planning on it just because they're were other events this weekend so I decided to do those instead. But as it got closer, I decided screw it, I haven't gotten in my goal of doing an endurance ride this year and this is the second to last ride and it's PERFECT so let's do it! Of course I decided this about a week and a half ago... Queen of procrastination I tell you.

This meant that I needed to find some way to contain Jetta overnight at the ride since I don't have anything. I talked to JF whose hubby sells portable corrals to see if I could borrow a set. Score! I went and picked them up last night. Her hubby was helping me load them and asked what the event was. I told him I was going to try out endurance. He used to do endurance a long time ago. His comment "Well if I had known that these panels were for such a worthy cause!" He does just cow stuff now and I honestly can't imagine him doing endurance but it sounds like he really loved it. He still has one of his endurance Arabs, an old grumpy guy named Lone Star. He gave me a few tips and wished me luck!

Then about a week ago I was perusing the local endurance FB page and found a thread about trail conditions at the ride. The general consensus was that it was so rocky that you needed to either boot all around or shoe with pads all around. Geez. And guess what? I only have front boots. Crap. Frantic search for boots led to the discovery that no where local stocks easyboots in my size and my farrier only had boots that were too big or too small. Last minute I finally found a place that could order boots in and have them in by Friday for me to pick up. Win! I went and picked them up this afternoon. Let us pray that they fit well...

Now just to go to my last class of the day then gather up all the last minute randomness needed for this weekend! I CANNOT WAIT. I am just too excited right now!

Drowning in Physics

Gah, I feel like I'm drowning. In physics that is. Challenge homework, Mastering Physics homework, Recitation homework, Lab homework... It's not fun. All of this homework has made for very little pony time and even less for blogging time even though I've got several posts in the works.

Things coming up:

• Endurance ride this weekend? Still have to find some back boots for Jetta in order to ride, but I've wrangled up a portable corral. Time crunch for sure.
• Possibly a dressage show at the end of the month
• I've got some tack for sale that I've been meaning to post on the blog!
• Some good-ish/bad-ish news and some definitely good (well to me...) news. 

Speaking of physics, I was laying in bed thinking of the portable corral I'm borrowing. It has 5 ten-foot panels. Cue me, trying to figure out the diameter of the corral... Gah, definitely too much physics.  

She's Baaack

Jetta is back in action! I've lunged her a few times in side reins then finally got on and rode Wednesday. She was pretty good. Nothing that I didn't expect. Lost most of what we'd achieved last month but she wasn't completely awful. Nice to be back on her though.

Then the next day, Thursday, we went for our first endurance ride back. Only 8 miles this time around and we were slow pokes about it because we played in the river! Jetta started off her normal spooky self - leaping at leaves, sticks and stumps. At one point I thought she was going to buck me off when she humped her back at a blackberry vine, but luckily no theatrics. But the amazing part... the walked through ALL THE MUD AND ALL THE PUDDLES. This is a horse that will do everything, including walking straight through a blackberry bush, to avoid puddles.

But with just a short look at the first puddle she went through everything I asked her. Not so when we first caught sight of the river... Then she refused to move forward and I had to ponyclub kick our way down to the river. Such a pill.

But when we got to the area that gently slopes down into the water I decided to ask her to go in the water. I've been jealous of friends and bloggers going pony swimming! So I decided to see what she'd do.

Checking out the water plants

Chillin. The water was up to her belly here.

And she went for it!

We even went deep enough that she had to paddle a bit, but I didn't really want to get my tack wet so we didn't go any deeper. Maybe next time I'll ditch the tack and we'll go for a real swim. But it was so much fun!

8 miles in an hour and forty minutes. Usually we do 10 in that time.

We ended up doing two loops of the trails. Usually I do three, but since this was her first endurance type ride back we kept it a little bit shorter. She was good for the most part but started out really heavy and too fast at the trot for the first half of the trail. Once she had a good gallop she was much better.

Our route

Then on Friday we went on another trail ride with my friend ML. We used to board together and were roommates but now I don't get to see her that much and this was our first ride together again in a loooong time. It was awesome to ride with a great friend! Also, she goes our pace on her horse so I didn't have to worry about that. We rode for a good two hours, probably around 8 miles and did lots of galloping. Our horses were AMPED. I thought after the previous day's ride Jetta would be a little more laid back. Ha. Even after we galloped flat out all the way up the hill she was raring to go after a short walk break.

The bestest part of the trail ride (besides our great conversations, lol) was that Jetta's renegades stayed on! She wore them on her fronts and only the right one twisted a tiny bit. I was so glad because we were doing some serious moving with them. All the trails that we went on are graveled so she definitely needed them on her fronts. Her hinds did fine, though they'll need a bit of a rasp to smooth things out.

Saturday I was supposed to go on ANOTHER trail ride, but I um, may have flaked on that one. Oops. I was really wanting to do it but I just didn't feel up to riding. I feel super bad though because I'm the sort of person who says they're going to do something then does it - I show up prepared and on time and ready to go! But hopefully AR will accept my rain check and we'll go another time.

Awful Adventure

I had a no good, very bad, rotten day yesterday with Jetta.

I was feeling kind of down so I decided that I needed a trail ride and a good gallop to lift my spirits. I still want to do an endurance ride so I need to get back to conditioning Jetta so I decided to take her to Silver Creek Falls for a ride since there are some hills (we've only been doing flat trails so far) plus it is almost all in the shade which is nice when it's 90 degrees out!

Loaded Jetta up and got there without incident. There were a ton of trailers in the parking lot. The one time I had been there with Queenie, we were the only ones there.

I started off on the trails and near the very beginning you have to cross a creek. I figured it would be no big deal since it's a fairly big stream (only small puddles are scary, ponds and large creeks are okay in Jetta's mind). But, there are a bunch of logs and a large stump off to one side so Jetta thought those were too scary to approach and wouldn't go in the water. Sigh. So I had to get off and walk her through the stream. As soon as I was off she was perfectly happy to follow me across. Luckily I wore my Dubarry's which are waterproof. Unfortunately they are not Jetta-proof as she gave an enthusiastic splash into the water, making my legs all wet and filling one boot with water. Ugh.

I got back on in the middle of the stream, emptied my boots and then continued on. The first part of the trail is really rocky so I had her new renegade hoof boots on for their first trial run. I've tried them in the arena to make sure they fit and they stayed on so this was their first trail ride. They squeaked awfully at first but once they went through the water they quieted down. Unfortunately Jetta got one twisted all the way around, how I have no idea, so I had to get off and fix it.

We continued on and trotted. Jetta snorted and spooked at every log, branch and large rock she came upon which was quite irritating. We came to the first bridge and she stubbornly refused to go near it so I had to get off yet again and lead her across. I got back on and we cantered down a long flat stretch that doesn't have any rocks. Then her other boot got twisted and I had to fix it. But after fixing each boot once, they were good for the rest of the ride.

The hills came and I let Jetta power trot up them. I lost my crop somewhere along the way. We came upon a couple riders and passed them and then had a great gallop. We came up to a large rock in the middle of the path which Jetta thought was impassable so I had to get off for a third time to lead her past. This was the point in which I should have taken a hint and gone back to the trailer. But I kept riding. We walked for a while and had to go under a low hanging branch so I shortened my reins so that I could make Jetta walk slowly underneath it so I wouldn't get hurt by it. Best laid plans... she instead raced underneath it and the branch caught me in the shoulder and then scraped its way down my back. Owwww. And now I have a lovely scrape mark down my back, even through my shirt.

We continued to trot up the hill and then I heard a funky noise from her hooves and looked down to see only one hoof boot, her left one was missing. How it came off her hoof I have no idea. When I went back down the trial it was no where to be found. I went all the way back to the scary rock in the middle of the road because that was the last time I was absolutely sure the boot was still on her hoof. We walked back and forth, back and forth. I even got off and walked it on foot but the boot was no where in sight. I looked in the underbrush and beneath the bushes. We walked that section of the trail 5 times and I could not find the boot for the life of me. Now I know why I should have gotten them in bright red or orange... I was beyond bummed. My first actual trail ride with the boots and I lose one. And they're really expensive too.

We walked all the way back down the hill instead of continuing on the loop. I was kind of done with our ride. Jetta was a pain in the butt about walking back at a reasonable speed. She was most certainly not done with our ride, despite being quite sweaty. Luckily I found my crop on the way down, but still no boot. Jetta crossed the bridge and the water with only slight hesitation which was good, because by that time I'd about had it with her spooky obnoxious self.

Untacked her and put her in the trailer with no treats and took her back to the barn. Upon unloading her from the trailer, I simultaneously slammed/pinched my elbow into the divider and now it hurts to bend it.

I'm still really upset about the boot. I don't know how it came off her hoof since it has two straps, one to actually hold it on her hoof and the other around her pastern as a back up. I can only think that when we were trotting it got flung off into the forest. I don't think I'll be buying another set of Renegades since they're just too expensive to lose. I'll probably put the other set I bought (for her hinds) which are slightly smaller on her front feet and she'll just go bare behind, then maybe I can sell the one larger hoof boot. Apparently it was too large, even though I tested it out in the arena. I'm still bummed.

Overall, a really rotten ride.

And Nevermind

So, I had a post written up and waiting to be published about all the endurance goodness that's going on in preparation for this weekend. And the ride that I have been looking forward to FOREVER that was supposed to happen this weekend got canceled which was a huge bummer. So disappointed. Apparently something happened with their permits, so they're not able to hold any rides there until possibly this fall which sucks because it sounds like such a nice camp!

Goodies! A saddle bag for my dressage saddle in the most wonderful color, a phone holder and some electrolyte tabs

So now to figure out another ride that I can actually make. All my weekends are super busy with other shows that I really want to go to, so it's sort of an eenie-meenie-miney-mo game for which show I want to do. Dressage? Jumper? Endurance?

The next possible date looks like maybe the 22nd of June which just sounds so far off now...

It does look like this is going to be the summer of dressage, which I'm super excited about. Even with our lackluster scores at our past two shows, it still means that we have enough to go to the League Championship in my area which is kind of exciting. Us, in a championship? I mean it's not too fancy, it's just a league show and the requirements are fairly minimal, but it sounds like fun. The only problem is that you can't carry a whip in a championship class. At first thought, this isn't a huge problem since we haven't been showing with a whip and only schooling with one rarely. BUT, they don't offer First Level test 1 there, only test 2 and 3, both of which have leg yields and we still need a bit more encouragement there, so I may have to test out my spurs and see if that helps.

Then we are pretty much for sure attending our first recognized show in July! I'm so excited. We will definitely be a little out of place with all the fanciness that occurs there, but I don't care. It will be fun! I'm planning on making the League Championship our first "overnight" show, but at least I've been to the barn where the recognized show is being held. We attended a JR/YR camp there almost two years ago that was several days long.

We will have a show or clinic almost every weekend in June which is insane to me. Since our dressage team ended up not being able to show in IDA (Intercollegiate Dressage Assoc.) we have a lot of money to spend on sending members to shows so otherwise this would not be possible!

The plan for Jetta is to focus a lot on dressage because it's just been kind of lackluster. I want better work, especially because our last couple arena rides have been awful. Jetta had a date with the side reins yesterday which will help a little bit with accepting contact, but she just really needs to get steadier. I'm hoping to squeeze a dressage lesson or two in with TS because I know that will help a ton. Then some more jumping of course. I'd like to go school xc at least once before the one-day horse trial. Then we have an xc clinic the week after, then probably go school at least twice before the big Inavale show. So much to look forward to!

Queenie has been doing well, which I will post about later!

Too Much

Queenie Update:

Went out to ride tonight and examined her ears. She was fine with me gently handling them, but any pressure made her panic. I shined a light in and felt everywhere and didn't find anything - no ticks, plaques, bugs or anything else. I lunged her and she was fine except for being super head shy, so we worked on that for a bit then I tacked her up and lunged her again. She was perfect so I got on. I decided to treat any head shaking as a behavioral issue and we had only one instance. I kicked her forward when she started sucking back then made her stand still without throwing her head everywhere. Finished out our ride cantering both ways with absolutely no problems. She had a little bit of "airplane" ears going on like she was uncomfortable and thinking about bucking, but whenever I felt her make that move I shortened my reins and pushed her forward.

I feel like something happened with her head/ears and now she's just anticipating it. She kept acting like I was going to whack her on the poll while riding which I've NEVER done. She was pretty head shy on the ground so I wonder if something either happened with the barn owners or maybe she got spooked in her stall and whacked her head on the overhead beam of the stall front and is just sore from it. Regardless, by the end she was much better about having me play with her ears or run a rope around them, so hopefully it's nothing. And MB is not going to be buying Queenie, though she said the reasoning is because she and her husband decided it wasn't worth it since he probably wouldn't ride much anyways. Lame excuse, you would have thought about that prior to asking me to hold her for you for TWO WHOLE MONTHS because you were sure that you were going to buy her. Whatever though, I'm over it.

Anyways, I've been getting my entries together for stuff and there is just too much paperwork! We're entering the Inavale recognized Horse Trial, a recognized dressage show and the endurance ride. I sat down today with all of Jetta's info and got to work.

I am now an AERC (American Endurance Ride Council) member and Jetta is registered with them. Jetta is also registered with the USDF (United States Dressage Federation) and USEF (United States Equestrian Federation), not to mention her being (actually) registered with the Jockey Club. Since I'm only doing beginner novice at the horse trial we don't have to be USEA (United States Eventing Association) members, so I'm going to put off that membership fee for now. I'm a member of my state's dressage society which also gets me a group membership to USEF. I also got a TIP (Thoroughbred Incentive Program) number for Jetta. Then I still need to sign up for the PNER (Pacific Northwest Endurance Ride) membership. Geez, we've got too many registration/membership numbers now!

 I'm sooo excited for everything coming up. We have our first endurance ride on the 25th and everything's coming together. I finally got my saddle bags in and my new hoof boots are on their way. I bought a neoprene girth to use instead of the fleece one.

We are doing a one day horse trial on June 2nd then maybe another endurance ride on the 15th (we'll see). Then the Inavale HT starts the 28th! I'm super happy that my dressage club ended up with too much money this year since we couldn't do IDA so they're paying for part of Inavale and for the recognized dressage show. Yay! This means that I will still have money after Inavale to do a couple more shows over the summer, which is always a good thing.

Trails and Stuff

After our cross country ride on Wednesday, both girls got Thursday off and then I rode them both Friday. In the aftermath of my fall on Wednesday my butt still really hurts from where she whacked me with her leg, but there's no amazing bruise to show for it. There's just a tiny one. But it HURTS. Luckily it doesn't interfere with riding though.

Jetta was a NIGHTMARE. Oh my goodness, it was ridiculous. I'm not sure that there was anything positive about our ride, except for the walk-canter transitions because she was so hyper. I guess she was still in "go go go" mode from schooling cross country and she was mad that I didn't allow her to run.

We even had a buck/rear in the middle of our ride which was just SO naughty. With the exception of the rear on Wednesday, we've virtually eliminated that sort of naughtiness from our rides so she was being exceptionally awful. So basically that ride was a total scrap. She was just super amped up so everything was awful and I didn't even want to ride Queenie afterwards.

Luckily I sucked it up and had one of the best rides on Queenie ever. She just keeps getting better and better. I didn't want to ride her so I just got on bareback and with her rope halter. It took a couple minutes to agree on a form of communication with only one rein (she's still figuring out the whole neck reining thing so it wasn't really working for us in the halter). But we figured it out and walked and trotted around the arena in both directions even with the arena door open and the stallion hollering at Queenie.

Bonus of riding bareback when it's hot out = sweat makes you more sticky, lol.

Saturday was a trail ride day for Jetta. We went to the same place as last time since there's plenty of room to condition for our endurance ride. Jetta was very well behaved, for which I was greatfull because the park was super busy.

I knew it was going to busy since I was going on a weekend and the weather was beautiful, but there was a ginormous group doing a ride together plus other random riders. Luckily I didn't really run into anyone on my ride, save for one endurance rider. I kept running into him and after about the fourth time when I popped out of the forest and his horse spooked, we stopped and chatted and let the horses graze. We talked about different places to ride on the trails and some good rides that I should go to, then talked about our horses. He used to ride a TB in endurance and now has an Anglo-Arab. But the horse he was on was a little gray Arab. He commented that Jetta looked fit which made me happy, I hope that she won't have any problems with the 25 miles!

Today we did almost 11 miles in an hour and fourty minutes which I was happy with. We only walked in the areas that were a little more rocky, but I think we cantered less this time. Jetta was super happy just cruising at her massive trot. She was definitely a trotting Standardbred in her past life, lol. She was great about rating at the trot for the most part, even when she rolled into a canter I was able to bring her back to a trot with a little half halt.

We got back to the parking lot, untacked and let Jetta drink and sponged her off. I took her heart rate and she was at 48bpm which I was surprised at, since I barely let her walk on the way back to the trailer, maybe just the half mile before the parking lot. I trotted her out and took her heart rate again and it was still 48bpm so that was a good sign! I plan on doing one more long ride, hopefully closer to to 20 miles just to see how it goes on Wednesday, then we'll stick to dressage stuff until the ride. Can't wait!

I rode Queenie around a bit after we got back and rode over to the weigh station and found a little trail and creek. I was pretty sure we were trespassing obviously though it was unmarked so we just meandered in then hightailed it out, just in case. 

Overall, I'm just loving this amazingly beautiful weather we've been having though it makes studying very hard :)

Onion Breath

First trail ride of the year for Jetta! The weather this week is AMAZING. It's supposed to be in the 70's all week and for our trail ride today it was a perfect 72 degrees. Love it.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a trail ride so I asked my BO where some good trails were that are close and she recommended this place that was 30 minutes away.

It reminds me a lot of Elijah Bristow where I took Queenie a couple weeks ago, it's also a state park on a river. It ended up taking me 50 minutes to get there because I took the long way, but only 40 minutes on the way back so I feel like Elijah Bristow is worth going to instead just because it takes the same amount of time, the drive is easier and you don't have to pay a day fee.

With that said though, it was a nice park and I had fun. It's good to try someplace new. Two other places we're going to try in the near future: a BLM property that's supposedly 5 min from our barn but starts out rocky, and Silver Creek Falls which, obviously, has waterfalls!!

Jetta was great. She's usually pretty spooky in the spring after getting shut inside all winter but she was barely spooky and was quite the good girl. I was proud!

Here are your complimentary ears photos:

Starting out

Jetta says "I iz not water pony" notice the tell tale ear flicked back

I made her walk through a puddle, oh the horrors

Shaking it off after our ride

My "endurance pony" after our ride

I set my run keeper app to track the ride, my first time using it and I really liked it. We went 7.5 miles in about an hour and forty minutes. We slowly walked the last two miles behind another pair of riders which was okay since Jetta needs to learn that it's ok to walk slowly behind others, lol.

But this marked our first conditioning ride for endurance! Supposedly you're able to just take any horse out of the pasture to do a limited distance ride, but I'd like to make sure Jetta's in tip-top shape even if it's unnecessary since it will help with cross country too. We mostly trotted with a couple canters thrown in and then spaced each trot set out with some walking. Jetta was very well behaved with just her Myler snaffle which I had been worried about, thinking that I might want to put in her cross country bit just for a little bit extra security but we probably won't end up needing it.

The dressage saddle and pad configuration worked out perfectly. The only thing to do before our first ride on May 25th is to swap out my regular irons with my MDC ones since my knees were aching towards the end of the ride. Then I would also like to find a cushy neoprene girth instead of the fleece one since the current one soaks up moisture like a sponge. 

So basically a perfect way to spend the afternoon! Oh and the title refers to Jetta grabbing a mouthful of onion grass when we were back at the trailer. Apparently she thought they tasted good even through in large amounts they're toxic to horses apparently. After loading her in the trailer she gave a big sigh and she smelled like she had been nomming on some onions.

Wonderful Weather

The weather has been so nice lately! I can't get over it. Usually this time of year it's warming up, but it's still super rainy. Not so for this week! It has been sunny most of the time and warm, today it was in the upper 70's which in my book = perfect weather.

I've been cramming as much stuff as possible in my last few days of spring break. Sad to think that I go back to school on Monday.

The girls were both waiting for me!

I had a fairly good ride today, it was nice to pull out my light weight breeches and ride in a tank top. Love this weather. Both girls are shedding like crazy now that it's warm and light out. I rode Jetta first today and despite being silly spooky at some stuff she was really good. Both mares have been super hyper lately so the goal for the day was to tire them both out.

I'm still planning on trying out endurance this year with Jetta and doing a couple limited distance rides. I'd like to do one in May possibly, so I've been trying to figure out what stuff I need to do it and one of those things was a new or different saddle pad configuration. I've been looking at pads and oh my goodness. I really don't want to spend $200-300 on a saddle pad. I don't think I've ever spent over $50 for a pad. So, I sorted through my ridiculous number of pads and found my eventing shaped pad that I got last summer. Perfect! It's shaped so it's got a little less coverage than my dressage pad which will make it cooler, plus it's thin so it will breathe better and not soak up so much water/sweat like my other dressage pads would. It's a little small because it's made for a jumping saddle, but it will work. 

Looks much better on her now than it did last summer when she was so fat!

Jetta was being a dork and spooking on the lunge line at the reins flopping around on her neck. Every so often she would catch sight of one of them flapping around and she'd give a little leap away from it. At first I thought she was getting bit by something, but then I realized she was just being silly. Then when I got on, the BO brought in her daughter's Easter present - chicks. She put them in one of the recently vacated stalls and Jetta thought they sounded terrifying peeping away in that stall. She decided that that whole end of the arena was now off limits as there had to be some sort of monster lying in wait for her, making peeping noises.

But we still had a productive ride, I did a lot of lateral work both in the trot and a little bit in the canter to get her poor spooky brain occupied and work those muscles. By then end we actually (both of us) worked up a sweat so she got hosed off and put away.

Then Queenie. She's been really good lately, save for getting a little attached to other horses. She was in love with the BO's little yearling filly that got sold the other day which she is still upset about. She's settling back down but it's just midly annoying to have a horse that gets upset when her friends "leave" meaning that they're going from their stall to the arena, but hopefully she'll figure out soon that it's not the end of the world.

Our milestones of the day: cantering without bucking for the first time ever and opening a gate without me having to get down (though it did take us forever and was a little rough, but we did it).

With the cantering, she's learned my cue for it (kissing) so she goes into a little more easily. But she still gets really scared about it and right now it's more of a barely controlled hand gallop than anything. There's a little but of steering and we're getting the hang of it so we can now go about two laps around the arena, so there's improvement. The cool thing about her though is that she doesn't always pick up the correct lead, but when she doesn't she will automatically do a clean flying change to the correct lead. Cool!

My highlight of the ride - deciding to test out our "whoa" vocal cue when we were cantering and I was surprised that she instantly halted right when I asked. And it was a nice halt too, light and not heavy on the forehand so it was easy to sit. When I did the same thing in the other direction, she literally tucked her butt and slid a few inches. What did I say - reining draft horse here we come! The thought makes me giggle but seriously, once we get this canter under control she would be a fun horse to play around with reining on.

I was actually toying with the idea of taking her to a schooling show and doing some W/T western pleasure classes just to see how she'd do in a show environment plus she's doing great just poking around on a loose rein at a nice slow jog. It would be funny too to see what everyone thought of the draft horse doing western pleasure :)

No ride for the girls tomorrow, but Monday I'm planning on taking Queenie trail riding! So excited and I hope she behaves for it.

The Endurance Bug

I went to the horse expo yesterday. I hadn't really been sure all week if I wanted to go or not, I didn't go last year just because I was disappointed in the year before and I knew it would be the same old stuff. But I was bored and I noticed that a certain speaker was going to be there, so I went.

I've always wanted to try out endurance but never really got around to it. Partly because I had no idea how to get involved and also because I don't have any close horse friends who do it. When I had Jazz I wanted to do it with her because when she was fit, she could go all day on the trail, nothing phased her, she had awesome feet, etc.

Now with Jetta, I still want to do it. She's not as bombproof on the trails as Jazz was, but we could manage it. She loves being on the trails almost as much as she loves jumping. I love trail riding and I am a very goal oriented person, plus gorgeous views from horseback, sign me up!

AareneX over at Haiku Farm released a book on Endurance for people just getting into it and I've been eyeing it for a while... and she was speaking at the expo! So I woke up earlyish (for me - hey it's spring break!) and headed over to the fairgrounds.

First of all, geez it's expensive to get in. $12 entrance fee plus a $3 parking fee. I'm sure it's expensive to rent this fairgrounds because it's super nice, but holy cow, I wasn't planning on spending $15 just to get in.

Anyways, I walked around the booths and had fun window shopping but didn't buy anything. My favorite tack store was there with some good sale stuff, but nothing that I particularly needed in my price range. There was also a really neat booth with vintage equestrian fashion, some new clothing and used quality saddles. Drool. Everything was way out of my price range but fun to look at!

After finding the conference room (it's hidden!) I really enjoyed Aarene's talk. She's funny and a good speaker. Plus she showed some amazing pictures from endurance rides, the scenery was awesome. Nice to put a face to a blogger that I've been reading! Her presentation made me want to do endurance so bad! I ended up buying a book from her (autographed to boot) and talked to the local endurance group about how to get started. Everyone was super nice and the lady at the booth didn't live too far from me so she told me which rides were the easiest to drive to.

Can't wait to get started. My summer plans are still up in the air so I have no idea what rides I'll be able to make it to, but hopefully we'll get to do one or two limited distance rides. Already planning what things I'll need to for endurance (oh dear, more things for the tack whore to buy, though I'm not going overboard yet and buying a new saddle or replacing my leather tack with biothane, lol) - but I do need saddle bags that fit my dressage saddle since it's the most comfortable saddle I have, need to make sure the camper shell for my truck is still alive (it's hanging out somewhere in the forest at home...), new saddle pad that won't become an absorbent mop for our ride, some sort of way to keep Jetta from running away from the trailer overnight... and of course we need trails to practice on so I need to get to work finding some local trails that allow horses. I know of one (need to remember how to get there first) but then I also need a trail buddy.

Definitely bitten by the endurance bug so I hope I actually get to do at least one ride this year!