My Fault

I jumped Jetta again today over some bigger jumps and it went ok. Most of the problems we're experiencing right now are my fault. For some reason I lack the ability to do three things at once:

• Sit up (chest open, sitting back so that Jetta can lift her forehand and not jumping ahead)
• Give a good release (not catching her in the mouth, especially on landing)
• Keep my leg on (both to keep Jetta from stopping and to keep my leg from slipping back)

I can do one at a time, maybe two if I'm lucky, but doing all three at the same time remains elusive...

Started off jumping a 2'3" vertical and asking her to land on different leads. Took a couple tries but eventually she got it and was very good about landing on the lead I asked for. Hey, if we can't do flying changes, maybe we won't need to if we always land on the correct lead!

I put the tarp over the barrels to make it more of a challenge and after giving it a hard look and spooking herself when she nosed it, she jumped that without a problem. I also set up a 2'9" vertical which she was okay about. It was closer to one end of the arena on the long side so I guess all that wide open space to her meant gallop!

Then I set up an oxer that was just a hair over 3 foot. The first time we approached she almost stopped and we had an awkward deer leap over it and I almost fell off lol. After that she was much better, the only problem is that she kept running out to the right when we circled to the left over it. Circling over it to the right was fine. Even when I sat up and really put my leg on to keep her from running out she did it anyways. Once I finally got her over it she jumped it nicely, but still. That was totally on her because there was nothing funky doing on in my riding to cause her to do that... I think.

 By the end she was getting bratty because she was tired and wasn't listening about slowing down after the jump and she kept putting her head down despite my efforts to get her head up. It's kind of hard to jump something if you're on your forehand and aren't really looking where you're going. Luckily I will pull out the segunda for the show so hopefully there won't be any of that nonsense.

Speaking of the show, I'm really excited and nervous for it. We haven't jumped at a show since last spring at the same venue. Jetta did really well last time, so I'm hoping she'll impress me once again! We entered 5 classes, most of them jumper classes, but one hunter and one flat class. One class is 2'6" and the rest are 3' so I hope I don't embarrass myself by entering something we're not ready for. But then again, Jetta's got the scope and can easily jump them. It's me I'm worried about...

What? I'm just cute. Not my fault my rider can't get her act together.

Anyways, plan for the rest of this week. I'm going to try and ride Tuesday and Thursday even though those are the days I have class all day.

Tuesday - dressage
Wednesday - dressage/cavaletti work
Thursday - ride in jumping saddle, work on two point and turning, maybe jump a little
Friday - no ride, bath time!
Saturday - ride in jumping saddle with show bit, work on two point and turning
Sunday - show!!!!

Jumping, Shots & Bits

Finally got around to jumping Miss Jetta yesterday. I decided to set out a jump (just a couple barrels) and then if she warmed up nicely, we'd jump them a couple times. She was super good warming up so I just put her on a 20 meter circle and started off to the left jumping the barrels. She was so good!

Usually with smaller jumps she still has a tendency to launch herself over for some reason but we didn't have any of that. I was able to see our distances and ride her to them. Jetta jumped the barrels quietly then was attentive when I asked her to return to the trot or halt. We started out trotting over the barrels then cantered.

When we went to the right it wasn't quite as pretty. Not our best direction. We had a hard time getting the right distance to the jump at the canter, especially as she got more and more tired. But overall, it was a really good ride and I was impressed with her quietness after not jumping in over a month!

Both girls got their shots yesterday too. Well, half of them. They got a West Nile shot and then I'll give the four-way shot next week just to spread it out. Both girls were fine for it. I'm so glad my horses don't freak out about shots. Especially because I like to give it in their butt muscle which is the prime location for you to get kicked. Queenie didn't even flinch.

Queenie was okay for her rides the past couple days. On Friday there was a brief break in the rain so all of the horses got turned out except for her since I was working with her. This normally isn't a huge problem, she gets a little worried then settles down. But the arena door was open and she was just losing it every time we passed by. "OMG there's a horse out there! And it's looking at meeee! OMGosh! There's a small child! Ahhhhh! OMYGOSH they let the dogs outside!" And on and on. Eventually we got her brain back inside her head and had a good ride where we worked on our canter transition with some very good results. It's almost to a normal canter! It's no longer an out-of-hand gallop, but more of an only slightly frantic fast canter.

I tried out a curb bit on her yesterday. We've been working on neck reining and she's starting to get an idea of what that is. Nothing too exciting happened. She wasn't a huge fan of it, but not bad for her first time. The main problem was getting the whole set up to fit. My curb strap wasn't big enough because I specifically bought small curb straps for my horses because all "normal" curb straps seemed to fit my horses like they were made for draft horses. And now I have a draft horse... But I found a chain that fit just fine.

What is this thing in my mouth?

Started out just asking her to turn and stop from pressure on the bit on the ground and then got on. She doesn't need a whole lot of bit use. She knows to drop her head when I raise my hands an inch or two, even without touching her mouth. She stops when I say "whoah". Mostly it's just steering issues because she's still not the straightest horse and will sometimes cut the corners or randomly decides to go off on the diagonal.

Out of Shape

Ugh, I am so out of shape. I've been good about riding consistently recently, but I haven't done anything in my jump saddle, much last jumped, in the past month. I'm taking a Physical Activity Course (PAC) class that's required at my school and it's kicking my butt. Then deciding to maximize my amount of pain, I decided to ride in my jump saddle and do some two point practice.

I hurt all over.

Plus, my ride on Jetta was just a super bummer. She started out fairly good, it was mostly just me. I felt out of balance and insecure in the saddle which is mostly a result of how little I've been riding in it, but also the fact that I want a different style of saddle. And any of the saddles I want are in the $3000 range, sigh.

Anyways, since Jetta's becoming more balanced in her canter and will occasionally do a clean flying change, I decided to ask her to do one just to see if she would. Mistake. Jetta got very upset and was tearing around the arena on the wrong lead. Lovely. It took a while to settle her down and get back to a nice-ish canter again, but it made our ride more tense and not as nice as it started out.
 
We took a walk break to regroup and ended on a good note, but it just made me realize we have sooooo much work. I really need to figure out some sort of lesson plan. The KO lesson I was looking forward to on the 20th got canceled (OMG PEOPLE QUIT CANCELLING THINGS!) and the trainer at my barn I don't really like her methods so I'm scared to ask her for a jumping lesson... I think I'm going to call up the trainer at another barn somewhat close by and see what she charges for a lesson. I've taken a lesson with her before at an eventing clinic and while it wasn't an amazing lesson, it was really good practice for us, I didn't disagree with anything she said and it was challenging. Then the main part is just taking the time to set up jumps at least once a week and practice. I need to get back to doing some a ton of two point!

fresh arena

With Queenie, she has been good. I love having a project horse because ever ride you can see visible improvement in leaps and bounds.

I turned Jetta out in the arena while I rode Queenie the other day because I didn't have the time to ride both of them. Plus it was good practice for Queenie to be in the arena with another crazy horse. Every so often Jetta would take off running and bucking for no good reason. Plus she would follow us around, ride up on Queenie's butt and cut us off, so it was good practice for riding in a warm up arena, lol. We had one big spook, but mostly Queenie just had her cutest alarmed face on. It's kinda adorable.

Heyyy pretty lady

Jetta was in major heat so she would trot up in front of us, then stop and position her butt towards Queenie. Sorry girl, wrong gender though.

Musical Horses & Some Organization

The horses got rotated around in their stalls this week. And I don't like it.

I mean, it's not bad, Queenie gets a stall right next to Jetta instead of at the opposite end of the arena and Jetta got moved to the giant stall, but still. I think there needs to be another rotation. Originally, they put Queenie in the giant stall (obviously because she's giant) and the new gelding on the end stall. Well, this gelding, named Roddy, likes to pop his head over the stall wall to say hi. And this freaked Queenie out, so they swapped Jetta and Queenie around. Now Jetta is next to obnoxious Roddy and he pops his head over the stall wall and hassles her, she squeals and kicks the wall. Oh the joy.

You can see his orange beak going in for the bite

What really needs to happen in this line of four stalls, is that Jetta stays in the big stall (second from the barn door), Roddy needs to go from the first stall to the fourth stall, Queenie needs to go in the first stall next to the door, and the quiet little withdrawn gelding named Mocha needs to go in the third stall next to Jetta. Problem solved! I'm going to ask the BO if another musical horses can be done...

Roddy is already in love with Jetta. He gets super upset while I ride Jetta, rearing and pacing in his stall and nickering to her. He just bothers me - typically he's what I like, a big chestnut appendix QH that looks more like a TB but I hate his personality. He's seven, but he acts like a baby and he's not the sharpest crayon in the box. Basically he's just annoying. I miss the little palomino Arab gelding I liked :(

Speaking of horses that have gotten sold and keeping on the topic of musical horses, boy do my barn owners go through horses fast! Here's a list of horses they've owned in the almost eight months I've been there:

• Baby - only horse not for sale, they've had him this whole time
• Sampson - on again, off again for sale or not
• Cool - had her when I was first there, then sold her, then got her back, then sold her again
• Sissy - got her and sold her shortly after
• Nugget - had her before I was there, sold her, then got her back and sold her again
• Ellie - the yearling, got her, had her for several months, then sold her
• Jake - the mini, sold
• Toby - nice solid paint horse with blue eyes, sold
• Logan - partial trade on a horse they sold? barely there for a week before he was sold

And they helped two boarders sell their horses, Dusty and Legacy. I've pretty much been one of the only constants this whole time with Jetta! Geez, they go through horses more quickly than anyone I know, but I guess they like the whole buy/sell process. I love having buying horses and doing project horses, but I hate selling them. Too much legal nonsense. And of course they sell all of the horses that I like. If I had the money, I would have bought Dusty and Sissy in a minute. Sissy was a very pretty bay roan paint that had just the right markings, sweet personality and nice conformation and movement. She was pretty much the complete package and could have easily transitioned from western events to dressage.

Anyways, I have a question for readers: I need some organization tips. Since there's only three of us boarders, we have a whole tack room to ourselves. I have a ton of stuff and already take up enough room, so I need to figure out better ways of organizing my stuff before I take over the entire room. Any thoughts?

Right now I have my big plastic "tack box" with various spare bridle parts, vet stuff, my quarter sheet and whatever other bits and bobbins there might be. I have eight bridle hooks, all taken (not pictured is Queenie's western bridle and my helmet). Spare english saddle pads that don't fit in the big plastic box in my trailer that's specifically designated for pads go on top of my tack box. Surcingle, extra reins, breastplate, side reins, etc go on the little round dangly thing. I just put up hooks for my bits, but I also hang my spurs there. Then there's two shelves for everything else: treats, extra browbands, polo wraps, tack cleaning supplies, etc, etc. Then there's a hook for my cooler and everything else goes in the corner: supplements, my bucket full of wash things, and my boots.

I'm thinking of asking if I can put a blanket rack on the wall to the left behind the door to hold all my pads which will make it a lot easier to access stuff in the tack box. Then maybe bring a three drawer plastic container from home - one drawer for bits and random tack, one for boots and wraps, and one for vet supplies? Any other/better ideas? I also have a vet box in the trailer and it's too small for my stuff, but I need something that doesn't take up much more room - does anyone use a tackle box or tool box and think that that is a better choice than a plain plastic box?

Better

Well, things are better. I found a jumping show to replace the dressage show that got canceled and in addition entered the other dressage show that's on the 27th.

Queenie is no longer footsore so I rode her today. I just got on bareback - I am the epitome of laziness, but she sure made me work today! She was a little squirrley today and she's so round that it's very easy to just slip off and I found myself grabbing mane a couple times to stay on. She's like a couch though. So comfy.

I looked around for a little schooling show to take her to, but there's nada. I just think it would be hilarious to enter her in a couple W/T western pleasure classes. She can look the part! Today we worked on haunch turns. I don't think she was ever taught them, but she's learning. She still gets mixed up sometimes when I cue for it and moves her hip, but she's getting there. If only she could move her forehand around as fast as she can move her haunches... she'd make a reiner yet!

I thought this was amusing, her perfect pivot hole.

I don't have to use spurs with her any more, she's learned what all the leg cues are and doesn't blow through my leg near as often. Now we just need to fine tune the canter and teach some neck reining. She's getting more and more comfortable in the canter, but it's still in its "bunny hop" stage (aka still tense and slightly lateral). Love having a project pony :)

Seriously?

Ugh, looks like my bad show luck from last year may be making a return effort. The show that I just entered on the 20th got canceled :( So bummed, I was really looking forward to seeing this facility. I tried to go to this same show last year but had to scratch because Jetta had a hoof abscess. We are going to sign up for another one on the 27th or 28th, but I'm just not so sure about the facility. I had a lesson there on Tux a while back and there's almost zero parking and I'm not sure there's a warm-up arena... I'm sure that there has to be somewhere. At least the footing in the main arena is super nice (it's beach sand but it's not too deep).

Sigh. So bummed. And Queenie is lame. I'm not worried about it really since she just got her feet trimmed, I think she's just sore because she's getting used to having her toes so short since they were long for such a long time. I went to ride her yesterday and she was noticeably lame on her right front, so I put some Keratex on it (love that stuff! except for the $) and today she was almost 100% fine, maybe still a little short when I lunged her to the right, but just in case I rode her lightly around bareback and then reapplied the Keratex. I'm hoping she'll be back in action by tomorrow!

Jetta has been fairly good for riding, it's back to pouring down rain (gotta love spring!) so she doesn't get turned out, so she's been a busybody under saddle but we've had some very lovely moments. Her trot work, except for lengthenings which suck right now, has been awesome. Her left lead canter transition is fairly amazing if I do say so myself, but we're still struggling with that right lead. Someday we'll get it.

Pretty girl

On a happier note, the BO got a new puppy and I'm in love! While they have two French bulldogs that they plan to breed (also love them, even though I'm not a fan of brachiocephalic dogs theirs are quite adorable) they randomly decided to get an Akita puppy.

Is she not adorable? Her name is Pie

She's so cute and fluffy! Like a teddy bear. While I haven't necessarily heard good things about this breed (I have no personal experience with them, so I can't judge) they're already taking her to a puppy training class and I have to say this is a gorgeous breed. I especially like her color. She "talks" too. I may be forced to steal her...

Untitled

Lots of little things happening this week and I completely lack inspiration for a relevant post title. Oh well.

I decided on a spur of the moment to enter a dressage league show on the 20th. Hope we'll be ready for it by then! It's fairly close and even though I missed the closing date they still had room for me. I've never been to this facility so I'm just hoping the footing is nicer there than at the last place I went to.

I'm just so excited for this spring and summer. There are so many shows I'm hoping and planning to go to, I can't wait! I'm doing a jumping lesson with KO on the 21st after our dressage show and I have possibly two or three shows that I want to attend in May. Hopefully I just don't run out of money - shows are such a drain on the finances.

Short toe, long toe. Looks so much better trimmed now!

Both ponies got their hooves trimmed. Queenie was in desperate need of a trim, her hooves were quite long. My trimmer AC could only come out Tuesday or Thursday this week and since I didn't want to wait, I decided I could squeeze in on Tuesday in my hour and forty minute break between classes right? Not a very smart decision on my part - it's a forty minute drive both ways and trimming Queenie took longer than I thought it would since her hooves were so long, whereas Jetta just needed her back feet rolled with the rasp and her fronts trimmed a tiny bit. Luckily, my twenty minute tardiness went unnoticed for my class so it worked out ok :)

My two girls had the big grassy pasture all to themselves

I rode Jetta and lunged/bathed Queenie yesterday. Jetta was very good. I did Queenie first and so when I left Jetta in the big pasture by herself she stirred up the geldings next to her and pranced/galloped back and forth along the fenceline. It was pretty funny - she was having a grand old time and the geldings were huffing and puffing to keep up with her. She was barely warm when I brought her in :) But at least she got all her excess energy out.

Queenie was also very good. I cross tied her for the first time in the wash rack. I've just been having her ground tie since she was scared of the hose touching her so every time I needed to wash her right side she'd panic. We've been working on that a lot so I felt that she'd be fine for today and she was! She eyed the hose whenever it touched her but there was no spooking. I also clipped her bridle path for the first time. She was perfect up until the point that I thought "Wow! She's being so good for this, I bet she wouldn't mind me doing her ears." Ha. After that she didn't want me touching her poll period so we'll need to work on that a few more times. 

I tried to get a nice conformation picture of her, but taking pictures by your lonesome isn't the best way to go about it...

This one would be my favorite, if her nose didn't get chopped off.

"You want me to pose?"

"Hey look, a penny!"

"Don't I look purdy?"

"Meh. I don't like this whole picture taking thing."

"Om nom nom"

I'll take it! Ears forward and mostly standing normally.