Show FAIL

Okay, let's review this show year. I think I've made it to a grand total of two shows this year - an eventing schooling show and a jumping schooling show, both in late spring/early summer. I signed up for four dressage show - #1 I scratched because Jetta got an abscess, #2 I scratched because we thought ML's horse had strangles (which she didn't), #3 that was supposed to be this Saturday, even though I sent my entry in on time, the show was full so I didn't get to ride and then show #4, today, got cancelled. Such a bummer!

Of course it didn't get cancelled until 7pm the night before, so I had already pulled Colton's mane completely, ridden our tests a couple times, bathed him and gotten him completely clean. I even got blisters from pulling his mane! Though it was totally worth it, he looks awesome with a short mane, especially now that I can braid it! I had the trailer packed, tack cleaned and show clothes washed and ready.

Such a huge disappointment when the show gets cancelled so close to show time! This morning, since I had spent so much work on getting Tux ready anyways, I got my mom to come take pictures of us! I love seeing pictures of us, he is doing so awesome! He's such a handsome boy, my mom and I were discussing how easy it's going to be to sell him, but I don't want to! I feel so lucky to be his rider :)

This boy can move!

Turning miscommunication, lol.

All dressed up and nowhere to go!

Looking at these pictures, I can tell I need to work on getting my leg back in a more secure position in line with my hip and shoulder. It's just hard with his huge girth to get my leg in the right spot! I had the same chair seat on Katy too. But I couldn't be happier with Tux!

Fall Love

While spring is definitely my favorite season, I also (secretly) love fall. Sure, fall means back to school and the unfortunate transition to winter, which includes chillier weather and shorter days. But, I love the fall colors and all the ripe fruit, etc. And it doesn't hurt that I have a fall birthday either :)

Today was one of those beautiful fall days. It started out chilly this morning, but after class the sun came out and it started to warm up. It didn't reach the 80 degrees predicted, more like 70, but it was perfect. I went to the farmers market this morning and bought some veggies. I love that I live in an area where things like this is popular as I like supporting the local farmers. Afterwards I went out and saw my pony. I didn't go yesterday because I already had too many things to do. I really should take my real camera with me next time because the scenery on the drive out is gorgeous.

She was awesome. A little more fresh and sassy, but I didn't ride her yesterday and she didn't get turned out yet. She had just been put out when I got there. I finally got to meet someone at the barn. I still think it's weird that I've never seen anyone out there, but that's fine by me. I met the stall cleaner this morning. She seems really nice and talkative :)

Jetta was soft and steady in the bridle, forward but not rushing, her back was loose. She was balanced and it felt so good! Someone left some poles and cones in the arena for practicing trail - I actually love it when people leave stuff in the arena because then I get to play with it without the issue of getting it out then putting it away. I practiced my "bridle-less" riding where I drop my reins to the buckle and steer Jetta with just my legs and seat. She's so good at it and I had fun with it today, weaving in and out of the cones, walking and trotting into the "box" and making her halt, etc.

We worked a lot on trot-walk downward transitions. She was coming above the bit and hollowing her back when I asked for a walk and with her, it's such a delicate balance between not enough leg to keep her together through the transition and too much leg and she'll just keep trotting, albeit more slowly.  She eventually got it and we had some very nice transitions.

We only had one little snafu where she was being so good that I thought "Why don't I ask for a canter from the walk?" This hasn't been something we've practiced at all since I don't want Jetta anticipating and I don't think she's quite ready for it. We've done it at shows and such but never really at home. Anyways, I broke Jetta's cardinal rule about not moving my leg back. I always thought it was silly when a clinician would tell me not to put my leg back on a mare because I was riding Jazz and she could care less. It wasn't until Jetta that I discovered that some mares really do care. She kicked up at my leg and didn't even put in an effort to canter so I corrected her (then she tried to bite me, naughty mare) and tried again minus moving my leg back. She was on the bit, relaxed but good energy for a transition, stepping under herself and... she kicked up again. Finally on the third try she leaped into the canter without kicking up. Despite being the ugliest transition ever, once in the canter she softened on the bit and slowed down and gave me a really lovely canter. I made her canter for a while and it ended up being a good note to end on. She had worked hard after her bad behavior so I had to forgive her :)

I think it's probably time though to at least work on the walk-canter transition a little more. I will have to dig up my dressage whip, I think that might be a big help! And hopefully this weekend I'll bring up my jumps and we can work on getting the correct leads with them as that's another big goal.

Learnin'

Well, summer has officially ended and the school year has begun.

I always look forward to school for the first few days until the sheer amount of time I spend on it starts to get to me.

Anyways, there are three areas in horse care that fascinate me (besides training of course). They are nutrition, rehabilitation and breeding. This term should be good for at least two of those areas.

Reproduction: I'm excited for this term because I'm taking an applied reproduction class. Of course it's not specifically about horses, we use dairy and beef cattle for our labs, so of course the whole process of AI is completely different, but I'm excited that it's so hands-on and I hope I'll enjoy it. I took the precursor to this class last year, Domestic Animal Reproduction, and I learned a lot but that had to be one of the hardest classes I have taken and supposedly it's the one Animal Science class that you take as an undergrad that is similar to what you'll take in vet school. This class isn't supposed to be as hard because there's not as much info, you just have to be able to put the material into practice which should definitely be interesting... I'm also taking an Animal Genetics class which I hope will be good too. Of course first we'll have to get past the whole review of mitosis/meiosis, but since genetics play a large part in horse breeding, I'll be interested to see what we learn about and hopefully we'll cover topics of coloring as well because that fascinates me (if you haven't been to The Equine Tapestry blog yet and you're interested in color, it's such an interesting site!)

Love learning about horses, even dorky ones like Jetta :)

Nutrition: I'm not taking a class at school for nutrition this term, I took the intro one last summer and am taking the next in the series next term. But, I am going to be taking an outside class on nutrition, specifically forages and pasture management which I'm super excited about. Luckily it's only on Wednesday nights so I don't think it will be too hard to balance with all of my "real" school work!

Hopefully next term I'll get to take an actual Equine class, though that's not as important to me as some other classes, just because I don't think much of the one and only equine professor...

In the training area, hopefully this will be a good year too. The dressage team is hopefully going to be a lot more active. We are really trying to start an IDA team so we'll see if that ever gets off the ground. We have all sorts of clinics planned for us to ride in and audit so hopefully Jetta and I see some good improvement this year!

Finally

Finally back to the star of this whole show - I got to ride my pony today! After a nearly four hour "training" for the dressage team (the most worthless four hours I have ever spent...) I finally got out to the barn. I got out there at 7pm and had the whole barn to myself. Of course, then I had to figure out the important stuff, like where the light switches all were and what the code for the tack room was. Luckily I had a nice little ride on Jetta.

Pretty sunset at the barn

I like the arena, it's a pretty good size, not huge but not tiny either. The footing is good too, save for one area around the outside door that's hard and has some rocks. Jetta was actually pretty good for not having been ridden in several days (at least a week, sadly enough) then also being in a new environment. The BO said that she has settled in really well so I hope that means Jetta is behaving herself!

See that little crest to her neck? She has a neck! But unfortunately not muscle, that's just fat. Poor pony looks half wild - she's fat, her mane has grown out, mohawk bridle path going on and long whiskers.

Owwww

Ohh boy am I going to be sore. I didn't fall off or anything thankfully, I just rode three horses today. And I'm not used to that so my body is saying ouch!!

First I got to ride my neighbor's handsome boy Wes. She's been having some soundness issues with him and he just got his hocks injected a few days ago so she asked me to watch her ride to see what I saw and then I hopped on and put him through his paces so she could see what he looked like, plus I've never ridden him so it was fun for me. He's a Friesian/Saddlebred/Warmblood cross I think? Very well put together, but has the tendency to be short-necked and not want to stretch down so I just worked on that. His go-to defensive position is with his head up and he's not really accepting of the bit. He's shown up to 3rd level so it was fun to kind of play with him and see what he could  do. He did feel a little short on his left hind, but I think it's more muscle memory than soreness.

Next was Colton, or rather I should say Tuxedo or Tux for short. My mom and I finally settled on a name and I think it fits him. Now just to figure out a show name... I'm leaning towards something like All Dressed Up while my mom likes RoyalT (a play on Royalty and a shortened version of Royal Tuxedo). Hmmm. He was so good today! He remembered his lesson on being soft on the bit from last time and was very good with that so this time we worked on getting him off my inside leg. We were having a lot of trouble to the left last time, it's definitely his harder direction and he likes being counter bent and coming off the wall. I think I asked him maybe 4 times to move off my inside leg, backing it up with a little tap with the whip then giving him a big release and a pat on the neck when he moved away in the slightest. By the 5th time I asked, I put my leg on and he moved off as easy as if he'd always done it. We worked on it in both directions at the walk and then in the trot and he was such a good baby. We took a walk break and I'd ask him to move off my left leg for a couple strides, and then off my right leg for a couple strides, then left again. He was so good! Then I trotted him up and down the hill next to our field. He was awesome and we even cantered. I think hill work will definitely help him build the muscles necessary to have a nice canter and he tried so hard. I wanted to canter again in the arena to finish off our ride but he was so sweaty and tired, I guess I'll leave that until tomorrow. Such a good worker boy :)

Then was Jazz. Boy did she make me work for it today. I don't think I've ever had such a hard ride on her and it's sad to say that I got a little frustrated. I don't think it's her fault, just the result of a year with a different rider, especially one that is a beginner and rides western (not that there's anything wrong with that) just that she wasn't expected to be on the bit or carry herself correctly, so all those muscle groups are unused and she's just overall going to take some time to get back to her normal self. It's just hard because she was so resistant today. I don't know if maybe she needs to be adjusted because her neck is out or if maybe she's developing some arthritis there, but it was really hard for her to bend to the inside and keep it there and she didn't want to stay on the bit. We've always had trouble with her softening through her jaw, but she's never actively resisted me so today was rough. She had some really good moments, but I think it's 90% just not having the muscles for it. I know it's not her mouth because she just had her teeth done two months ago. I think next week I'll bring my side reins and pop those on her on the lunge so she can figure it out herself. Definitely not going to take her to the show next weekend because she just won't be ready.

Overall, I'm pooped. I was planning on riding Jazz and Tux tomorrow then heading up to school and riding Jetta but I think I'll skip on riding Jazz, she's probably going to be sore as well! The BO texted me and said that Jetta's settling in great so I'm thankful for that. I can't wait to ride her in our new big arena!

Superstar

I have my superstar pony back! Gosh I love this horse. If there was ever a horse that felt like "home" (besides Grady), Jazz would be it. I was so excited to ride her today, I missed my rock solid girl.

She's actually looking pretty good. I'm so happy with how she was cared for. She's relatively in shape (though has her hay belly going on as per her usual when she's not in heavy work or limited pasture) her feet look great, she just got her teeth done recently and is all around healthy. The only thing that I could see "wrong" is that she's got bumps on the front of her left knee and ankle. They're from scrapes that she got and the one on her ankle is slowly healing. When Jazz got her teeth done, I guess the vet took a look at them and said they were fine, just going to take a long time to heal since they're on the joint. They look a whole lot worse than they are. The knee scrape is all healed and just has a slight, soft bump. The ankle is just a small scab, doesn't look like there's a bump and it's just the scab pushing the hair up making it look like it does.

Anyways, onto our ride. I only have Colton's oversized bridle or a western bridle to ride in since everything else is moved up with Jetta, so instead I pulled out the double bridle. Probably not the best welcome home ride, but she's fun to ride in it and I wanted to push her a bit today to see what she needed to work on. Definitely a bit rusty, but that's to be expected after a year with someone who didn't expect her to work off her hind quarters instead of being heavy on the forehand.

My list of to-do things with Jazz are:

• Transitions. Boy, are they ugly. 
• Canter, needs more jump and impulsion
• Bending through the corners
• Straightness
• Needs steadier, softer connection

 Overall though it was an awesome ride. She didn't bat an eye at the double bridle, even though it took me forever to adjust it. We mostly rode on the snaffle but I picked up the curb a couple times in the canter and then rode with it the last 15 minutes of our ride. We did some lengthened trot and canter and for a QH, she can definitely move! Practiced my sitting trot, did some nearly perfect walk pirouettes and some great leg yields. The half pass was not there, but I didn't bother working on that since it will take a while. By the end she was remembering to bend through the corners, was on the bit for the most part and her canter had improved a ton but it will be a couple more rides until she's back 100% to her awesome self. I'm glad to have my baby back though I am wanting to find another lease situation. We'll just have to see.

On the 1st of October we could ride with TS. She'll be going to my neighbors to give lessons so either I could haul Jetta down or I could just drive down and ride Jazz, that way we could get a lesson in the double bridle so I actually might know what I'm doing with it (novel idea right?) So far I'm still trying to decide what to do... Thoughts?

The icing on the cake though is when I got off and went around the arena picking up various things and scooping poop and she followed me around or ground tied when I asked just like she always has, then I untacked her sans halter and she followed me to the gate and I let her back to the pasture. No halter and lead needed :) Such a lovely lady!

Missed this beautiful face!

Pretty girl

All At Once

Well it seems like everything is happening all at once today!

First things first, the horse's had their feet done this morning. Jetta was the only one who really needed it, but AC cleaned up Colton's back feet a bit and Grady's front feet. Jetta was a pain in the butt for us - that's what I get for riding Colton all the time and not her I guess. I was planning on riding her this morning, buuuut I slept through my wonderful alarm. I was talking with AC though and its amazing how much Jetta has matured. Last time AC came out and did Jetta's hooves by herself and she didn't even halter her and was able to trim all her feet so easily. Such a difference from when I first got her and AC had to come out several times a week to trim her hooves, one each day. She had to dodge kicks and we had to keep Jetta from laying down because she didn't believe she could stand on three feet (though I think she figured out how that was a good method to make us stop, lol).

After that, Jazz's lessor came and dropped her off. Definitely bittersweet. I'm happy to have Jazz home but at the same time it's really sad because she was so good for her lessor and I want her to be used, not just hanging around in the pasture. Jazz definitely knew she was "home" because she whinnied in the trailer and then power walked her way to the barn. Grady recognized his girlfriend but it will be interesting to see how the herd dynamics change. Colton tries to be bossy but it doesn't work very well, he just ends up getting beat up and Jetta has taken over the position of boss mare. I can't wait to ride her. I think I'm going to take her to the little dressage schooling show down the street and maybe do some second level for fun. I really wish they offered third level, but nope. Maybe we'll have TS come and give us a lesson in the double bridle! How cool would that be?

Then I moved Jetta into her new barn. I dragged my mom with me so that she could see the barn and she approves :) I really do like this place. They're re-doing the fencing in one pasture this weekend and have hired someone to till the outdoor arena. So they're making good on their plans unlike the other barns I boarded at... Got all my stuff unloaded and turned Jetta out in the arena. She pranced around a bit and then followed me back and forth from the gate to the tack room watching me unload all my stuff. Cute stuff. I'll get to see her again on Sunday when I move back up to school! Looking forward to riding in a big arena!