RtR

RtR

Sunday, September 14, 2014

The many thoughts of Gunner

On the this thing called life:


Muh name esh GunNaaAh. Gun-Nah!

What?

Derp! I'm freaking hysterical!

Wait a minute...

Did you just derp me?!



The focus is food:

Why are you so short? Where's the treats?

They have to be here somewhere...

I can smell them....

Revelation in the round pen:

Am I a dressage horse or a pony-horse?

Because if I'm a dressage horse, you seriously need to do something about this mane.

Picture perfect:

Oh, so you want to take a picture of me?

I am not a pony-horse here, I do not just stand wherever you leave me anymore! I am a dressage horse! I shall follow you. *note the fly on his face.


Wherever you may go!

Self Image:

I have a great ass for my age!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Riding, showing, surviving

I haven't gotten much accomplished on getting posts up lately. I've been insanely busy still and no matter how much I intend to get one done, sleep inevitibaly becomes a priority. I spend my mornings at the track, my afternoons with the dressage horses, and my evenings back at the track. Any spare hour here and there is spent grabbing a quick nap or taking care of daily chores that normal people do. I pretty much spend my time hurrying from one barn to the next. I'm not complaining, just explaining my absence as of late.



Indy is doing pretty well, there are good and bad days. JL, my trainer, is going to ride her tomorrow and I'm excited to see how she goes for him. I'm kind of assuming that an Olympic rider will be able to get a hell of a lot more out of her than I can.




Barstow decided to ding up her hind leg and had to have some time off. She got shod a few days ago and my shoer said she had a hot nail in the right front. She about dropped to the ground when he pulled it and then sat there chewing and licking her lips after it was off. I knew something was there, but it honestly felt like it was up in her shoulder more than in her foot, but it still makes sense. I'm glad to know that it isn't anything major or permanent. I rode her on Saturday and she was still a bit sore on the leg she beat up. We just walked and trotted a few steps to see how sore she actually was on it. She was really well behaved! Back to work for her tomorrow.



Gunner is just happy to be away from the track. He's kind of low man on the totem pole when it comes to getting ridden, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he doesn't mind much. At all.

I took Beefheart to another schooling show on Sunday. He hadn't been going well the last week and I wasn't all that excited about going. After the fiancé watched me ride Beefs on Friday, he said that he would come out and do some body work on him on Saturday. Beefs is starting to get a little body sore and stiff with working harder. I also need to get him back on the Mega-Sel, as that seemed to help him a lot.



While I rode Indy and Barstow, the fiancé spent about three hours massaging and red-lighting Beefs! The fiancé likes for me to do well too and he isn't going to send me to a show without my horse being as sound and happy as possible. So thankful for him! After he finished working on Beefs, I put Blue Lotion on the tight spots then the fiancé took him to the round pen to roll.

I was sitting there cleaning my tack when I heard my horse tearing ass around the pen. Apparently, he was feeling better. The fiancé caught him before Beefs could kill himself and took him back to his run. Next thing I know, Ty is yelling at me to hurry up and put my stuff away, we had to get back to the track because our other shoer was leaving in a half hour. Okay, what the hell does that have to do with anything? Beefs had pulled a front shoe and the fiancé was a little panicked. Not because of the shoe itself, but I think he was a little worried about how I would react if I couldn't show. He knows I'm exhausted and stressed to the max, that the shows are an outlet for me, and didn't want me to be disappointed (even if I was pretty sure that we weren't going to have a very good one this time). Hence, his change from always being the calm one to getting a bit nervous. MB, trainer's wife, was trying to tell him that JL could put the shoe back on and asked the fiancé if he had seen him. Apparently, he misunderstood and ended up telling her that he hadn't seen the one dog, but the other one had just been laying by the truck. Eventually, it all got figured out. My fiancé was my hero for fixing my horse, MB was my hero for getting everyone organized, and JL was my hero for fixing the shoe.  I'm very lucky to have so many people looking out for me!

Oh yeah, the show. Anyway, the morning of the show I got Beefs loaded and unloaded (he can be a real ass about those things) by myself. He was a bit more awake at this show and I had to deal with a combination of whinnying and trying to eat every weed in sight to get him tacked up, but I got it done. I can't tie him to the trailer because it is obviously going to kill him, even if it just transported him safely from point A to B, and he pulls back. So, getting him tacked up by myself  when we haul somewhere is always interesting. As I finished tacking, MB and JL pulled in with the horses MB was showing. Beefs wasn't being an idiot, but he was tense and whinnying quite a bit. I led him over to where JL and MB were parked to have them hold him while I got on.

*Sorry, no show pics. The fiancé had to take care of things at the track.

I don't do a lot of warm up with Beefs because he A) gets tired and lazy or B) gets hotter and more tense. Either way, a short basic warm up focusing on getting him engaging his hind end and coming through seems to work best. You know, quality over quantity type of thing. He was tense at first and things weren't looking good, then JL came over to coach us. You know you have a good trainer when the second he starts talking, you instantly relax and things start coming together.  The warm up went well and I was starting to feel more confident. *Also, Beefs felt way better, as far as soundness goes, than he had the last week. Thanks Fiancé!

The training 3 test was our first class. I'm pretty sure it was the best Beefs has gone for me. Ever. The only things I can fault us on was that he lost focus on me and was way too interested in the judges booth, we lost impulsion a couple of times, and our right lead canter transition sucked (our left was so good that I about fell off from pure shock). Other than that, I was extremely happy with the test! We scored a 73.8 (the highest I've ever scored on any horse, even the much more talented warmbloods that I've shown when I could actually ride a whole lot better than I do now)! We won the class. There was only me and one other person in the Open division though.





Lunch break was after our first ride, so I untacked Beefs, put him in a pen, and chilled for awhile. He happily relaxed and ate his hay. When I started to tack him back up he was all like "Oh, Hhhelllll nah heifer! I was good, I'm done! WTF?!!!". This is the first time that I've taken the tack off and put it back on in the same day. He's used to being untacked meaning finished for the day. Putting it back on and getting on again was confusing for him.

Needless to say our short warm up started off pretty shitacular. He was tense, stiff, and tired. The warm up arena was rocky and he was starting to feel a tiny bit stingy. Once again JL came over, talked my dumb ass through it, and things started to come together right before we went in for our 1-1 class.

Going in, I knew there were things we suck at (trot lengthenings specifically) and tried to focus on really going for it on the things we could do well. JL had told me to think about setting Beefs up for the movements correctly rather than the movements themselves and I really tried to do that. I didn't always succeed, but I tried. Maybe too hard. The test was pretty fluid, but Beefs had some moments of tension. He lost focus in the free walk, jigged in our medium walk, and must have forgotten how to do a stretchy trot somewhere along the way. Of course or trot lengthenings sucked. His canter lengthenings were pretty nice, our 15 m canter circle to the right was good, the one to the left was okay, and our canter/trot transition across the diagonal wasn't bad at all. I was kind of proud of myself in that I ignored our mistakes and didn't let them translate onto the next movement of the test. We scored a 68.79 and won the class. Oh yeah, I was the only one in the class. Whatever. The best part was that JL seemed much happier with this test than the one we rode last time and what he thinks is much more important to me than what the judge does.


Way too many 5s for my comfort...

                           I'm pretty sure that says tilting (as in Beefs was tilting his head) not titting. Apparently, collective marks can really save your ass.

MB said she thinks we probably won high point again. I had to leave right after my class because we had two horses running and she didn't get a chance to check, so who knows. I'll find out eventually. It doesn't really matter anyway, I had fun.

These last couple of shows have taught me a lot when it comes to riding, but also about myself in general. For some reason, I ride better at shows than I do at home usually. Necessity brings out my best/better maybe? I'm bolder at shows (occasionally, my  reckless "Screw it, I have nothing to lose. Just go for it" attitude can come in handy). Showing really does relax and focus me. I don't get nervous anymore, just content. Things usually seem to come together when I'm in the show ring. Part of the confidence that I used to have returns. I'm not worried about what could go wrong, just what I need to do. Basically, I'm just happy to be out there and nothing else matters. I love it!

After the races, we met JL and MB for dinner at a restaurant that is all organic and serves grass fed beef in their burgers. I'm a rancher's daughter from Idaho, of course this was my type of place! Good food, good company. All in all, it was a pretty good day. Even if I am in Hellbuquerque.



Sunday, August 31, 2014

August 10 Questions

More fun from L at Viva Carlos!


                         
                            As you can see we are both looking pretty ambitious

1. Is your horse spooky or bombproof? Beefheart isn't really spooky. Occasionally, he will react to something if it's windy or cold out. Indy can be pretty spooky at times. I sometimes wonder how well she sees. Gunner is pretty bomb proof as long as he isn't fresh, on the track, or in an indoor. He HATES indoors. Winn isn't spooky and if he does spook it's because he is just being an ass that day. Princess (my racehorse) isn't spooky at all other than she gets reactive in the gates. Barstow (not mine, but I'm riding her so she counts too) is a little spooky, but I think she will get over it fairly quickly.

2. Does your horse have a long or short stride? Beefheart has a medium-ish stride. Gunner has a long stride. Indy has a long stride, when she is right. Winn has a really long stride, but he is extremely tall and long bodied with long legs so he should. Princess has a medium stride. Barstow will have a long stride when she learns to use herself better. She did on the track, so there is no reason she won't as a dressage horse.

3. Describe your current barn in 3 words? Peaceful, relaxed, fun

4. If you could switch barns, would you? No, but I have to since I move all of the time. 

5. Favorite brand of breeches? Eurofit

6. How many blue ribbons do you have? (Red if you live in Canada or Britain).  I've been showing some form or another since I could sit up on a horse by myself so I have absolutely no clue. I do have one red ribbon from a dressage show in Canada though.

7. How many saddle pads do you own? Probably about a dozen. Two of those are BoT, I have two half pads (Christ and Ogilvy), and the rest are pretty much just regular dressage pads. This question makes me wonder how many saddle pads I've lost/misplaced with all of the moving I've done in the past decade. Not to mention the ones that are in my storage unit that I haven't even looked at in the last six years.

8. Is your horse your phone background/lock screen? No. My mom's horse and I at a show is.

9. Do you go trail riding often? (weather permitting) Not much, unless you count riding in open areas at the track in Denver. It's not that I don't like it, I just don't get a lot of opportunities. Once the bugs die down a little here I probably will. 

10. Favorite horsey movie? Sylvester with Melissa Gilbert. I must have watched it at least a hundred times as a kid. Back then my big dream was to be an eventer.



Barstow

I had this whole great and witty post written up about Barstow along with a recap of each of my rides on her. Then Blogger ate it. It's late, I'm tired, so here is a very much condensed analysis and an extremely boring video.



*this is only her fourth ride since retiring from racing. You can see where she wants to get behind my leg or drift out a little. This usually happens when she gets distracted. Considering we could barely walk a circle and looked a bit like a drunk trotting the first time I rode her, this is actually pretty good. She had also had a few days off before this due to getting cast. While this video is far from impressive, I'm really happy with how she progresses with every ride and remembers what she has learned.




She's very green in that she doesn't know how to move forward off of my seat and leg, bend through her body, or even steer very well. No big deal. Lots of horses coming off of the track don't. She doesn't know how to balance or go forward without being held together or pulling. Once again, that's usually to be expected from a horse off of the track. She's really funny in that you can tell she is waiting for you to take ahold of her so that she knows what to do. Now that B is starting to understand that is no longer part of how she is ridden, she is beginning to relax a lot more.

As far as mentally, she has a pretty good mind. Barstow is sweet and personable. She wants to please and isn't moody. She can get a little distracted and worried over things at times, but this is all really new to her. Every ride, Barstow understands a little more what I want from her and becomes more confident. She may get a little upset over something new initially, but she has the ability to get over it in a reasonable amount of time.

When it comes to soundness she is very clean legged. The only thing I've noticed is some tightness/stiffness on her right side, especially in the shoulder. I'm not concerned about this because she warms up out of it and she feels better every time I ride her. Barstow last ran about three weeks ago, it's not like she has had a significant amount of time off. Most horses coming off of the track are going to have some form of stiffness, tightness, or be a little body sore somewhere. The fact that it is going away as quickly as it has is a good sign.

In short, I REALLY like this mare. She is a good height (I originally thought she was around 16 hands, but I think she is actually closer to 16.2). B is fairly broad and a very comfortable ride for me, I don't hurt after I ride her and don't struggle very much at all with my crookedness. She is comfortable.

We'll see how she progresses and hopefully I can get a sales video that will do her justice soon. Right now I'm trying to just focus on establishing rhythm, going forward, and bending from my seat, weight, and leg. I'm leaving her face alone as much as possible other than just working to develope a steady contact where she is reaching into it without pulling or coming up to avoid contact. Right now she just needs to understand those things and then the rest will start to come. I could force her into the frame and make her look like she is going right for the most part, but that wouldn't be in her best interest.

* I am not allowed to have another horse. I'm not allowed to buy her. No Jodi! It doesn't matter how comfortable  and painless riding her is. The fact that my saddle fits her perfectly is not a sign. I have too many horses already. Horses are not like shoes, a girl can actually have too many. Those suckers are expensive to keep, shoes are not. I'm not allowed to get attached. I can detach myself from anything. Really, I can. She is a sales project. I'm doing this because I like finding OTTBs second careers, not to find me more horses. There's no way I can ever own her. Not happening. Ever. I have to be professional, not behave like a horse-addicted child. I will repeat these things to myself until I get them through my thick head.

I'm sure you will all agree with me. Right? Perfect. Thanks.


Thursday, August 28, 2014

Slacker

I had every intention of getting all four horses ridden today. That is until I finished the morning at the track and seriously debated on whether or not to lay down on the ground and take a nap halfway on my walk out to my truck. My legs felt like lead and I thought I was going to collapse. Okay, not riding. I'm not going to be doing the horses any favors when I am that mentally and physically drained. So rest it was. I slept all afternoon and it was spectacular. I don't even feel all that guilty about not riding.

The plan was to do a more detailed Indy or Barstow update, but that can wait until tomorrow too. Until then, here are some of my favorite pics of Indy growing up.




Spring of her two year old year. The first time I saw her in person.

Her and AJ sunbathing.


Indy and my mom.


One of the first times she had a saddle on. Late in her two year old year.

She loved this bull. At least cattle won't be a problem.

Summer as a three year old.