Almost Famous

The lighted horse with the dark background has always been an attractive picture to me. When a friend told me that a photographer was coming to Scottsdale that does this type of photography, I couldn't turn down the opportunity. After all, when you have a horse that is as much of a diva as Indy, professional portraits are a must.

Indy in her dramatic diva pose.

The Portraitures were done by Giana Terranova Photography and she is fantastic! She is very patient with the horses (Indy wouldn't be a true diva if she didn't make getting a good shot at least a little bit difficult) and professional. Giana made the trip to Scottsdale, but she is in the Orange County, CA area. Her prices are very good and she does a great job. If you live in that area, I'd highly recommend her. Even if you don't, it'd be worth looking into getting enough people together to pay for her trip to come to you. Check out her website to see all of the services that she offers. I plan on doing a photo session of Indy and I with her next time as well as another Portraiture session. I want one of Winn too.. I am also considering booking her to do some of the horses at the track as a gift for owners. I almost did it this time and am really regretting that I didn't now.

Love this one!

My pretty girl!

Also, it's a pleasure to introduce Indy's boyfriend, Stewart, to all of you. And what better way to introduce him than through the the beautiful portraits done by Giana! 

Indy definitely has good taste! She LOVES Stewart and is SO much nicer to ride when he is around.

Seriously though, isn't he beautiful? A huge thanks to his owner, Jill, for letting me post some of Stewart's portraits!

I'm so happy to have these pictures of Indy! Next time I will probably braid and, if she needs it, body clip. I like that I went with keeping it simple in these first ones though. She looks how I know her and there are no words that I can use to describe Indy that will sum her up as well as these photographs do. They capture everything about her. Thank you so much Giana!

I'm going to order a canvas of one of the portraits. Which one do you guys like?

November Ramblings

Key- Shapes in the left hand corner are days that I rode. I'm using the vet symbol for lessons. The ribbons are shows. I haven't quite figured out what combo of symbols to use for clinics yet. The app I am using is okay, but has a lot of room for improvement.

Anyway...

11/1-Arrived home late in the evening from our trip to the Breeder's Cup sick.

We flew in and out of Louisville because it was way cheaper than flying to Lexington. Can you see Churchill Downs in the picture? Seeing it made me want to go to the Derby again.

11/2-11/7- Full-fledged death flu. Every time I fly, I pick up some form of illness. EVERY. TIME.

11/8- Wherein I drug my sick self out to the barn because I had a show coming up. Indy rewarded me for her nice vacation by having a tantrum and acting like she was going to throw herself on the ground. Over walk/halt, halt/walk transitions. 

11/9- Repeat of the day before.

11/10- A much needed lesson. After the previous two days, I had abandoned all hope that it would go well. Indy suddenly decided to act all angelic right after I told my trainer how big of a hag she had been for the previous two rides. 

11/12- Another lesson, this time in the arena on the hill, where Indy decided to behave.

11/13- Indy had filling in her left ankle, but was sound on it. We had a very light, quick ride.

11/14- Her first show. Not great, but not a disaster. She was calm and behaved for the most part.

My trainer taking pics because getting Indy to that first show took a hell of a lot of time and effort.

11/15-11/18- I didn't ride in hopes that the flu from Hell would finally go away.

11/19- Another lesson. I didn't lunge and Indy was fresh from the four days off, but settled down fairly quick for her. We ended up having another good lesson.

11/20-11/21- Two more good rides.

11/23-11/24-Two VERY good rides.

11/25-The lesson where Indy tried to buck me off.

11/27-An okay ride.

11/28-Light ride.

11/29-Tracey Lert Clinic. No serious mishaps, learned a lot. Loved riding with her (post coming soon)!

If you take out the days I was sick, I actually rode 15/20 days and Indy only had one day off between rides otherwise. Obviously, 15 rides a month isn't going to be enough, but I'll give myself a pass considering the ten days that I felt like I was dying. I would have liked to have gotten a lesson or two more in, four of them still helped a lot though. Add the show and the clinic to those and this turned out to be a pretty good month when it comes to learning.

I liked the three days of being ridden/one day off schedule for Indy. For the most part, it seemed to work well.

This is Aggie, one of the horses in training at the track, who Indy seems to be the dressage version of. Aggie ended up being worth all of the extra time and effort, hopefully Indy will too. 

Plans for December riding-

I'd like to get on a four days on, one off, three days on, one off schedule since she is getting more fit and stronger. There are no shows or clinics that I know of yet, so I'm going to try to get as many lessons in as possible.

Indy is getting laser therapy and a chiro adjustment on Saturday. We will do thermal imaging too, so it will be interesting to see what that shows. 

On Sunday, she has a Portraiture session that I'm super excited about! I was going to body clip her, but she is already starting to shed out and one of my rules is to never body clip after they start shedding because it always seems to make their coats look nasty once it starts growing again. Of course I would own an elephant that hairs up in 100°+ weather in September and starts shedding when the low gets down to 35° in December.

What's it like to have a normal, predictable horse? I've forgotten.

Should Have Known Better

First off, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Of course, the day after writing a post about why my horse isn't in full training, Indy would pull the worst shit she ever has.

I should have known that it was going to be a bad day when Hirsch made a solid attempt at dislocating my elbow which caused it to make an incredibly disgusting popping sound. The temptation to just cancel the lesson after that was pretty high, but I have a clinic this weekend and figured that some riding wisdom was probably needed beforehand. I thought that as long as Indy was good, it shouldn't hurt too much. 

I didn't get to the barn in time to lunge, so I just tacked Indy quickly and headed out. She hasn't really needed to be lunged lately anyway, so no big deal right? That was mistake #1.

Mistake #2 was opting to ride in the arena on the hill instead of the covered. I'm trying to be better about riding her outside of her comfort zone, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Mistake #3 was thinking that she would be pretty chill since she had been ridden hard the last couple days. I forgot that she inherited the thoroughbred stamina and not only doesn't get tired easily, but also recovers quickly if she does.

This was from the night before.

So I walk her around while my trainer finished her other lesson and I'm all sorts of proud of Little Miss Sweet Pea because she's gotten so much braver and more confident in the last couple of months. She didn't even spook at the guy dragging the garbage can on a cart on the hill above her.

The lesson started off well enough with some pretty nice walk work. Then we started trotting and that was pretty good too until a lady brought a horse to the barn above us. Indy got distracted for a bit, but went back to work. Then another lady came to grab her horse out of the barn and let it away. Once again, Indy got distracted but went back to work again.

Mistake #4 was heading towards the letter S, which my little darling decided that she should suddenly be terrified of.

It unfolded like this:

Indy spooked at the evil S.

Me: What the hell?

Indy buck #1.

Me: Shit!

Indy buck #2.

Me: That should be the end of it, but I can't get her head back up.

Indy buck #3.

Me: That one was even bigger than the last two.

Indy buck #4.

Me: Did my always calm and collected trainer just sound worried? I'm so screwed!

Indy buck #5.

Me: At least the footing is soft out here.

Indy buck #6.

Me: If I come off today, it's going to be a full year of dealing with this crap.

Indy buck #7.

Me: I am NOT coming off!

Indy buck #8.

Me: I wonder if she is going to take a flying leap over the rail of the arena or turn.....

Indy buck #9.

Me: At least she turned.

Indy buck #10.

Me: There goes my stirrup, it's official: I'm going to hit the dirt today.

Indy buck #10.5 (because it was about half the size of the rest).

Me: Please! Noooo moooore!

End Indy's bucking spree.

Me: I'm gonna kill her!!! And why the hell wasn't there someone around to capture that on video?

Me to my trainer: "Did I at least score a ten for that?" She kind of chuckled and said that I did. "I think that I need to lunge the living piss out of her!"

Whatever.

Trainer asked if I wanted her to go grab a lunge and the side reins. I gratefully accepted her offer because let's face it, the chances of my riding Indy  until she was tired without getting bucked off was slim to none. That bucking episode already had me exhausted. I'm not a bronc rider and I don't want to be and I find absolutely no shame in that. I rode Indy around in her "safe" area waiting until the trainer was almost back because there was no way in Hell that I was going to immediately jump off of her. Heifer is a smart one and she would have put two and two together pretty damn quick.

My trainer came back with the gear and then left to feed lunch while I lunged the princess. I made Indy canter A LOT. And no, I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about it. The lungeing worked in that it got her a bit tired, though most horses at her stage of training and fitness would have been exhausted. It didn't work in that not being able to escape the contact of the side reins REALLY pissed her off.

Trainer came back and I got back on. Indy was still looking for an excuse to get set off, but was at least tired enough that I could talk her out of it. She was a cow about contact and never really relaxed, so once we got a few good circles of trot work in, we called it a day.

I'm pretty pissed for several reasons. One  is that I finally just got to the point where I trusted her not to do anything really bad. Another is that I can understand a spook and a buck or two from a young horse, hogging it across the arena isn't acceptable. I'm also mad because I'm pretty sure that she still wasn't tired even after that. The last reason that I'm pissed is because I'm pretty sure that I would be hurting a lot less right now if I actually had come off. Being pissed is probably a good thing in that it makes me more determined. It's better than being scared.

It feels like some one beat me with a bat and I definitely need to try to get a chiro appointment tomorrow. The elbow isn't feeling so great and now the shoulder is right there with it. On a good note, my neck seems to have come out mostly unscathed. It's stiff, but I can get out of bed so that's a good sign that I didn't injure it again. Apparently, I'm getting old or something. By the way, you would not believe the amount of ab strength that it takes to ride a bucking horse for that long. Though those being sore is probably a good thing. The gym has nothing on Indy.

It's not that Indy bucked super hard, kicking in the hind end and/or twisting in the body, but she bucked plenty hard enough. It was those head down between her legs, four-legged bucks. At least she stayed straight for the most part and wasn't doing the side to side crap. However, she bucked for a LONG time. It was a nasty move on her part. Indy probably could have tried a little harder to get me off, but she also could have tried a lot less. 

What bothered me most was her eye. Usually, it's really soft. While I was lungeing her and before I got off, it definitely was anything but. It wasn't a frightened eye either. It was a mean one. It probably sounds crazy, but I swear that she was giving me a death look for the rest of our time together that day. I've seen horses that naturally have mean looking eyes, but I've never seen that drastic of a change from soft to evil in such a short time. It was a bit disturbing. 

Do not be fooled by her prettiness!

I ended up promising the trainer that I will lunge Indy before I ride for the time being. I don't like lungeing very often or for very long, but I also don't like getting bucked off. So, for now she will get lunged. 

We have a clinic on Sunday in the lower outdoor where they have the vinyl tarp-like signs that flap in the wind. Pray that it isn't windy on Sunday. I will really not be happy if I waste $150 to spend an hour just trying not to die. In the meantime, Indy is going to experience lots of flapping things in an attempt to get her over that stuff more. Unfortunately, it usually takes her a year to get over things. Wish me luck.

Before I go, I should say that I have a much deeper respect for those that can really ride broncs. Holy muscles!!!

TRM Blog Hop: 25 Questions

Thanks to Cathryn at That Red Mare for a fun blog hop!

1. Mares or Geldings? Why?

I think that the training process typically goes smoother with geldings, but that mares are really amazing if/when they start working for instead of against you. As a long term ownership and/or project, I'd go with mares.

2. Green-broke or Fully Broke?

Green. It's easier to fix your own mistakes than someone else's. I've ridden a lot of "broke" horses that still weren't fundamentally correct.

Because this is obviously so much more fun.

3. Would you own a "hotter" breed (ie. Arabian, Trakhener, etc).

Give me a hot horse over a dull one any day.

4. What was your "dream horse" growing up?

Anything that looked like Betamax from the movie Sylvester, hunter bump and all. ;)

I still love a big, good looking bay. Though I prefer them without the hunter bump these days.

5. What kind of bit(s) do you use and why?

Both the dressage horses and the horses at the track go in some form of a Stubben or Sprenger snaffle. Winn goes in the Sprenger KK Ultra Loose Ring and I recently switched Indy from that into a Stubben Eggbutt. All of the racehorses go in Sprengers right now, though we will sometimes use the Stubben Wing Bit LR on them. I guess I use them because the horses all seem to like them and I like simple good quality. Gunner, the pony-horse, is the only one that goes in anything more severe than a snaffle and that's only when he's being ridden on the track.

Nelson in a Sprenger.

6. Helmets or no helmets?

I used to not be 100% strict about helmets. When my friend died from a head injury, I vowed never to get on a horse without one again and haven't. I'm not sure how that will go over the next time I go to move cows or brand with my dad, but I'll still wear it anyway.

Insert me wearing my helmet into this picture of my dad and his friends and you can understand how awkward I would look. Maybe I'll just stick with being ground crew....

7. Favorite horse color?

Black. There is nothing prettier to me than a horse that is a true black.

8. Least favorite horse color?

I'm not that picky about color.

9. Dressage or Jumping?

I'm a huge fan of jumping, but dressage is where my heart is.

Riding a horse that makes me look a lot better than I actually am.

10. How many years have you been riding?

About 30 years.

It was bad enough that they made me wear a pink hat, they could have at least got me one that fit.

11. Spurs/whip or no spurs/whip?

It just depends on the horse. I don't like carrying a whip or wearing spurs, but I'd rather have them on me and not need them instead of the other way around.

12. Your first fall?

I was 4 and it was either the time my barn-sour pony ran of with me and swiped me off on the barn door or the time he started getting attacked by ground hornets and bucked me off.

Bad pony!

13. When was the last time you rode and what did you do?

I rode Indy last Sunday in a dressage show. I normally would have ridden on Tuesday, but I have a flu that won't go away and I'm trying to rest so that I can get rid of it once and for all.

14. Most expensive piece of tack you own?

Custom Saddlery dressage saddle.

My precious horse and saddle.

15. How old were you when you started riding?

My mom would sit me in front of her in the saddle when I was an infant. I've been riding ever since.

My first english saddle.

16. Leather or Nylon halters?

I typically use nylon, but love to have good leather hatters around too.

17. Leather or Synthetic saddles?

Leather. Always leather.

18. What "grip" of reins do you like?
Web with grips.

19. English or Western?

English, but I've ridden western a lot throughout my life.

Back when I figured that I'd follow the family tradition of being a rodeo queen. Or Jr. Queen in this case, I was 13. This horse was out of the mare in the pink hat picture and he was awesome. I showed him western/english pleasure,  jumped him, queened on him, barrel raced, did reining, he was broke to pull a cart, and had been roped off of.

20. How many horses do you currently own/lease?

I own two dressage horses along with one racehorse. I'm half owner on another one too.

21. Do you board your horse? Self-care/full board? Home board?

I board.

22. Have you ever had to put down a horse that you loved?

Yes, my OTTB, Beefheart. I'm still heartbroken over it.

23. How many saddlepads do you have?

About ten dressage pads and a couple of western pads.

24. Slant-load trailer or straight haul?

We own a slant, but I prefer straight loads.

25. Why do you ride?
I was born into it and apparently inherited the horse addict gene. Riding means the world to me.

Indy's First Show

I'd like to say that I just love showing, but the fact is that I NEED to show. In the sandbox in front of a judge is where I'm happiest, where I'm the most confident, and where I seem to learn the most. I don't know why, maybe it's because I've shown in one form or another since I could sit on a horse by myself. Maybe I just like to try and show off. For whatever reason, a show is my happy place.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but she seriously seems to love her bonnet.

When my trainer told me that a schooling show was coming up at our barn I decided that we should sign up even though I didn't feel that Indy and I were quite ready for it (my idea of being ready is being confident that we can score a 65% or higher). However, it was the best possible experience I could give her for a first show. I'd rather bring the "scary stuff" to her than take her to it in a completely new environment for her first outing. To feel like I wasn't completely taking advantage of the situation and making it too easy on us, I did only ride her twice in the arena we would be showing in beforehand. It can take dozens of rides for Indy to get over things she doesn't like, so I thought that was reasonable.

The beginning of the week before the show had been rough. I had a left for Kentucky and came back with the flu, so Indy had about ten days off after having a lesson where she was a raging cow. Not good. To top it off, I only had six more days to get ready for the show.

From awhile ago, laughing at her shenanigans.

Fortunately, I have an awesome trainer that is very good at giving me confidence when I need it (I'm not scared of my horse, just of sucking). We had two pretty decent lessons on Tuesday and Thursday which left me feeling like I could at least make it through the tests. I prepared myself to get scores in the 40s because Indy is Indy and decided that was okay as long as she wasn't a complete psycho.

Then I came out the day before the show and Indy's leg looked like this:

Of course it did, because Indy.

She didn't react when I pushed on it and seemed to be walking sound. I didn't have anyone there to jog her for me and didn't want her tearing around on the lunge if it was something serious, so I hopped on to see what she felt like. She wasn't sore. I decided to ice her and just wait to see what it looked like in the morning figuring I should probably scratch just to be safe. 

It was almost back to normal the next day. I decided that I might as well at least warmup and if my trainer said that she didn't look right then I would scratch. I lunged her more than I wanted to, but she was just a little too fresh. This show was all about keeping her calm and relaxed. She worked on the lunge until the kink in her tail was mostly gone and she was listening well enough to do lots of transitions, about twenty minutes, and headed for the warmup. *Note: she was sound lungeing.

Miss Lumpy

More than anything, I was worried about the warmup. Indy can get a pretty amped with just one or two horses working in the arena with her, I didn't know how she would react to the increase in traffic.

She was so good! Which is a good thing since the warmup at a schooling show, especially this one, can be quite unsettling. In the words of the ring steward, the warmup was "about like trying to herd cats". Poor lady. 

Indy stood quietly when I wanted her to. She looked at some things, but never did anything bad. When the psycho rider on a really short Appaloosa (Indy finds little horses quite intimidating) come barreling towards us head on, we didn't have the room or time to get out of the way. Indy jumped sideways and spun to avoid having a head on. Honestly, I froze and she saved our asses then settled down like nothing had happened. After that, she was just a bit hesitant to get too close to horses. No big deal, I didn't blame her.

She's a little distracted, but I was just happy that she managed to control herself and her head didn't end up in my face at any point coming down the centerline or in the halt.

Our first class was Intro C. Indy was looking at some things and ducked just a bit a couple of times, all green horse stuff that was expected. I was mostly just wanting her to stay calm and she did that. She was a bit of a witch for the canter work, tossing her head to evade the contact some. That was also expected. Other than that, the bad parts of the test were my fault. I was only aiming to get around there with no serious mishaps and didn't ride for the quality that I should have. We scored a 59.7, which was probably on the generous side. I figured it was a lot better than the 40 I was expecting and was happy with the experience gained.

Posing after her first dressage test ever.

Our second test was Training 1. This one started off a lot better. Indy was more focused and I was riding better. Until I was coming out of our canter circle and some other guy was standing his horse right at F talking and making hand gestures. It distracted me, it distracted Indy, and she broke into a trot. I looked straight at him and loudly said "Damn it!" which the judge didn't hear, or at least pretended not to, fortunately. She gave me an error and I got to do the movement over again. The rest of the test went well, the canter work was a bit better, and the trot work was pretty good. We scored a 60.8 and I was happy with that.

On my way out of the arena, a lady decided to stand literally right next to A, waiting to go in, so that we had to walk within a foot of her to get out. I told her that Indy might overreact to her being that close, but she didn't try and move until I was right next to her. Indy jumped sideways and hit the flowers boxes at the entrance then jumped forward. I just ignored the lady, accepting that the world has apparently gone stupid. 

My trainer was warming up on another horse and said "You would have thought she could have at least let you out of the arena!". I readily agreed and then proceeded to ask her what kind of fucking idiot (meaning the guy) stands their horse right next to the arena while they are talking during someone's test? She said that stuff wouldn't happen at a recognized show and I agreed again.

The fact is schooling shows are meant for green horses and inexperienced riders. Some of the other riders were excessively stupid that day (I learned that men are the absolute worst in the warmup), but all of the craziness was really good for Indy. I couldn't be happier or more proud of how well she handled everything. This is a horse that will still spook at her own shadow (she literally did that the day before the show), the dressage letters, the mounting block, short horses, etc. etc., if she isn't in the right mindset on any given day. Her behavior was extremely good for where we are at right now.

Most importantly, she seemed to enjoy the experience, approaching all of the activity with the curiosity that I love so much in young horses. It was possibly her inner diva enjoying all of the attention she was getting in her bling bonnet too, which is fine with me. Good horses like to go out there and perform. I think that Indy will be like that. For now, we'll just keep chugging along and working more on submission.

Good girl!

My trainer said that maybe Indy likes to be a show horse. Please, let that be true because finding things that Indy likes isn't the easiest thing to do. So, our first show wasn't exactly a record setting performance. That's okay. It's a good baseline to work from.