We did it! Charles came to the barn with me on Monday, and filmed most of our 30-min workout in separate clips. I did a lot of the stuff I've been talking about here so you guys can actually SEE it. Of course, Lily had had Sunday off, and was UP, and somewhat distracted with the horses playing in the field outside and the comings and goings of the outdoor arena. So our figures are not as perfect as they have been, and she is slightly above the bit because she really wanted to ZOOM, but MAN her leg yields!!! Sorry-there is a lot of video with leg yields after I realized we were doing them so well! (We have mirrors in the indoor, but they are small and set in the far corners, so you can only see yourself from the front as you're coming down the rail.) It has taken us 8 months to own them like that-due to poor instruction, Lily had come to HATE them at the trot (see March in 2012 in Review). Now we look like a real dressage pair when we do them. :D My greatest pride in that is that I taught both of us how to do them like that, single-handedly.
But first, I want you guys to be able to also see how far we have come!
Our first (and only so far) show, back in October 2011. Dressage Intro Level C, riding in a snaffle with NO contact:
These were taken May 2012, after the clinic in Stuart, FL with Manuel Trigo. We had just started using the Spanish bit. I was having a really hard time with the double reins (they are flopping against her neck half the time), but she was pushing off from behind correctly maybe 75% of the time, and looking more like a First Level horse thanks to the low port on the bit. Thanks to that bit, she is also doing a lot of head tossing (why I never posted these videos on here before-I wanted to fix the issue before showing her off), and you can appreciate how pissed off she is about lateral work-she is constantly wringing her tail! Also, her body-she was just started to beef up muscle-wise. We had just started this more advanced stuff-collecting at the trot and canter (this was her at her most organized at the time at the canter, without getting flat and fast) and springing forward into a more medium trot when asked down the long sides of the arena. She was irritated with all of it because it was HARD for her! For this series of videos back in May I had her do a much more intense workout because I wanted to see what we looked like when doing all of the little exercises we'd been practicing. In our regular sessions, I was only asking for one or two of these and mixing it up with regular w/t/c work.
Fast forward to the videos below. This is a typical workout for us. Sometimes we do less, sometimes we do more. She is usually a lot more on the bit. I forgot to do the trot-halt-back-up-trot exercise-I wanted to see that one on video! But I had something else planned for us for later and I didn't want to wear her out. She was in the soft rubber pelham, and like I said above, she was responsive but fairly distracted-she usually focuses a lot better than this, and she usually looks a lot prettier, too-nose a lot more vertical. The open arena door behind Charles faces the big field, where all of the horses were clustered at the gate, and you can also see the outdoor arena from there-there were a couple of riders out there too. Lily kept looking that way, and at Charles himself where he was sitting on a stool with the camera. Judy had mentioned this a long time ago-from the ground you can't tell when Lily is nervous/zoomy. Actually, you can't tell when I'm nervous either, as you'll see in the videos in the next post. But you can certainly feel Lily's tension when she's "up"-you get the sensation that she's going to fly away from underneath you at any second, hence my old nickname for her "Lilybird". Judy never realized that this was a frequent sensation during my first lessons with her, until she actually got on Lily herself and got thrown. She was astounded by how cool and collected we look, even when we're both feeding off of each other's nerves. It was enough to make her change the entire way she had been teaching us.
I wasn't nervous in these videos in the indoor. Lily was distracted, but listening. If you pay attention, you can see a couple of times where she seems to try to get fast both at trot and canter, and suddenly slows down. Sometimes she swishes her tail or tosses her head in protest-this is because I've half-halted her to bring her back. I was doing a LOT of half halts with my seat in these videos.
As an aside, I can't get over how much I LOVE my Alta Escuela saddle-I've never had suck a kick-ass dressage seat or leg before. I always had a tendency to sit in more of a chair seat. You can see it in the videos from May 2012. What a difference a saddle can make!
One of the perks of living in South FL is the winter show season. The weather is mild, so some of the bigger shows in the country take place in Wellington, such as the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF).
Totillas himself was supposed to come to the US this year, specifically to Wellington, to show at the World Dressage Masters competition. Judy and I were about to buy the VERY expensive tickets to go see him in person, when we heard he had pulled out of the competition due to lameness issues.
However, Heather Blitz and Paragon were there, and took a second place in the Grand Prix Special.
She is now one of my favorite dressage riders. She is the first professional dressage rider that I've seen that actually wears her stirrups shorter than I do. She raised and trained Paragon herself. The horse is so expressive in his gaits that he almost doesn't know what to do with all that energy! Watch the video above to see what I mean.
There have been hunter/jumper and dressage shows going on every weekend at WEF this season, and Judy and I were trying to make it to see the dressage classes. We drove up one rainy Saturday but couldn't find the dressage arenas. So we watched the jumpers instead. I don't know when this happened, but apparently draw reins are now the norm in the warm-up jumper arena. We only saw 2 horses in the entire show that did NOT have draw reins in the warm-up! Wtf??!! I was horrified. I actually learned to use draw reins when I wasn't competing anymore; this was unheard of on the Puertorrican jumper scene and in the Tampa schooling show jumper scene as well.
There were a lot of gorgeous horses that could have been just as good at dressage as they were at jumpers. Except their heads were cranked down into their chests by draw reins pulled taught in some of the heaviest hands I've ever seen in person. Both Judy and I were horrified.
However, I still get melancholy when I watch top level riders at horse shows, because I came so close to being one of them. I always wonder what my life would have been like if I'd been able to continue down that path. I commented this to Judy, and she turned to me and said, "You can still do it." "In dressage?" I asked. I have no interest in going back to jumping. I've completely passed that phase in my life. "Yes. You are very talented-if you really want to go to the Olympics, you could do it."
I can't begin to say how good it felt to hear that again. To hear a trainer I trust, that has ridden with some top riders and trainers herself, say that she thinks I'm that calibre of a rider. When I graduated from highschool, I tried to flip my life over to make that dream possible, but all of the doors were shut in my face: the one trainer that was willing to take me there moved back to the States, I was accepted into a very good university in Massachussetts with an intercollegiate riding team that would've gotten me out of the island and right into upper level competition here in the States...but my father changed his mind and refused to help finance my first year (after that first year, I could have had a riding athletic scholarship!) at ANY university, and without those 2 pieces to the puzzle, my family simply could not afford the monumental expense of taking me to that level. There were simply no other trainers like that in PR at the time, no exposure to sponsors because all competition was local, and to move up the ranks to eventually get to that level, I would have had to compete in the States regardless. I let the dream go without a fight, because it seemed to not be in the cards for me.
Judy was willing to go the distance to help get me there, but once we started discussing cost, the battle seemed more and more uphill. Charles would've supported me in this decision. However, I looked at this path long and hard for 3 weeks. Judy talked about breeding Rose to elite stallions (she is a registered Azteca, remember, with nice bloodlines-she is out of the Andalusian stallion Romerito II) and selling her babies to get the money together to get me a really good horse on whom I could get noticed. This would have taken a minimum of 3 years, assuming everything went smoothly, and that's just to get The Horse. It would've been at least another 10 years of training, competing in recognized shows (= lots and lots of $$$) to work my way up the ranks to the highest levels of dressage and competition, and then trying to qualify for the Panamerican Games, to then see if I would qualify to be on an Olympic team...the idea of the process was daunting, full of "what-ifs" (what if The Horse got injured, what if we didn't make the cut in one of the lesser competitions and had to start over, etc), and with a necessity for good luck to be on our side just to make it all the way there on the first try... We discussed creating a partnership, moving to a different state to be able to afford multiple horses (so I could keep Lily and this Wonder Horse), riding Rose up to 4th level in recognized shows to get noticed for a sponsor (or sponsors) in the meantime (the logistics of this was difficult-if a mare is popping out babies and was at Training Level to begin with, it would be very hard to condition her up to 4th Level in a span of 3-4 years in between pregnancies-I didn't see how this would work out). But then the chiropractor came out, and his diagnosis of Rose's problems was pretty grim. It would be very hard to take her to that level of competition without injuring her. If she could even make it that far to begin with, before her physical issues got in the way. So that kind of annulled half of the plans.
I continued riding Lily, willing to watch and wait to see what would happen, if we would get some big revelation from the heavens about whether I should dare to hope that money would somehow pour out of the skies and we'd be able to even think about shooting for this for real. Then one morning, I was going to take Lily on the trail for a nice relaxing ride, and the minute I got on, she started bucking. She had an absolute fit in the barn parking lot, for no reason that I could see or imagine. I somehow managed to stay on. These were mean bucks, too-not her happy crowhopping. She wanted me OFF. I couldn't understand why. I'd worked her the day before, and there had been no change in tack that day. Prior to me getting on this day, we had done some nice stretches in the cross ties, and she had been her usual calm sweet self up until the moment my butt sat in the saddle.
So I got off (once I was able to get her to stand still for a couple of seconds) and lunged her. She wanted to run, and run, and run. So I let her run. And when she didn't want to run anymore, I made her run some more. She galloped on the lunge line in both directions for a good 40 minutes, of her own accord mostly. She was extremely reactive, acting like she thought I was going to beat her, which I wasn't even hinting at with my body language. It drives me crazy when she does that-when Lily gets upset, she regresses.
Once she got to the point where she wanted to walk on the lunge and listen, and the sweat was just dripping off of her, I got on again and just rode her in the arena, mostly walk and a little bit of light trot on the bit. It took forever to cool her down. I still don't know what got into her. Maybe she was going into heat? Her back wasn't sore when I untacked her, and there was no pain anywhere that I could tell. I gave her bute for the next 3 days, just in case, which she had off anyway because I was back to work.
I was incredibly frustrated with this episode, and almost irrationally angered by it afterwards. To the point where, when Judy sent me pictures of this wonderful little colt from an ad on Craigslist, I told her I wanted to go see him that same day. He was half Hanoverian, 1/4 Paint, 1/4 TB. Gorgeous little guy, and very unusual coloring-he was a red roan sabino! He had Donnerhall in his bloodlines, and was out of a lovely eventing stallion. We went that afternoon and I fell in love with him. He was a stunning mover, completely uphill, with good bone in his legs, beautiful conformation, and a quirky, playful personality. I LIKED him, and the feeling seemed to be mutual, because he kept following me around the paddock, despite his owner and Judy being in the paddock with us. On this horse, I would've really gotten noticed riding into an arena, and the best part was that he was just under a year old-I could have done all of his training myself and turned him into whatever I wanted. He also fit my "unusual breeding" requirement. His price was extremely affordable for the superb horse he was, but not something that I had sitting in the bank at the time.
I put up a "For Sale" ad for Lily that week. The colt, however, sold to someone else before I had my first inquiry on Lily's ad. I followed along with the inquiries just out of curiosity to see what would happen (I have never sold a horse) and also because I just had this weird sense of separation from my mare. It felt like I was just watching everything from a distance, with absolutely no emotional involvement. I had 2 inquiries. The first was disastrous-a girl that said she rode First Level came and tried Lily out. My first concern when I met her was her weight-she was not a thin rider, and Lily's abusive experience was with at the hands of a heavier man. I was afraid that Lily was really going to act up.
After going over how Lily should be ridden (with soft hands, letting her reach for the bit on her own), the girl got on, my mare walked off, and the girl immediately started snatching at Lily's face, trying to force her into a frame. Lily did not like that AT ALL, and proceeded to do a beautiful leg yield to the left at a trot of her own accord, throwing her head up in a way that almost unseated the girl. I had advertised my mare truthfully as the hot and sensitive creature she is, and this had been discussed with the girl and her trainer prior to allowing her to get in the saddle. This girl was afraid from the get-go, and unbalanced. The ride lasted all of 10 minutes, with the girl just walking Lily in a corner of the arena thanks to her trainer's coaching. Watching her made me mad. She was NOT a First Level rider-she had bragged about this repeatedly in her communications with me prior to having her come out. Maybe she can get a First Level horse to do what he's supposed to, but she was not at that level herself. If she's First Level, I'm Prix St. Georges!!
The second girl was actually a good match, and rode Lily beautifully and calmly. To make it even better, she had a Selle Francais gelding that she was trying to sell, and I went to try him out, considering a trade. The horse was fun to ride. The way the girl had described him, it sounded like he was dead to the leg and a giant brute, but he was actually quite responsive and a fairly big mover. However, I wasn't terribly impressed while riding him (despite having a decent stride length, he was stiff as a board laterally, and while I liked him, I didn't feel that "click" with him) and even less after watching the videos of us together-Lily was a nicer mover than he was, and he would have required a LOT of work to get him to the point where I have Lily now. After riding the gelding, I hand-grazed him while talking to his owner, while watching one of the barn lessons. Some of the students in the lesson using big bits, martingales, and hauling on the reins to get difficult horses to obey. This is when I woke up from my Hanoverian colt-induced stupor: I immediately started worrying about Lily's destiny, and wondered what the HELL had been going through my mind when I'd decided to sell her! It was a no-brainer: I went to my barn after trying out the gelding, rode Lily, confirmed that my mare is so much nicer (just in case I hadn't noticed before...), realized I really couldn't imagine my life without her, and went home to take down the ads.
Phew! I'm glad I realized what a huge mistake that was before it was too late. Whatever got into Lily that day she tried to buck me off must have affected my brain, too. I talked to Judy about the whole thing afterwards, and my final decision was the original one: I don't care about being an Olympic-level rider anymore, I just want to take an unusual horse and turn him/her into something outstanding. It was nice to revisit that dream, and to hear again from someone I respect that I have the talent to get there, but I choose to use that talent to train an unusual horse to do something big. Maybe a USDF bronze medal? That would sure be nice. :) And even if we never get there, competition, like life, is more about the journey, not the destination.
We'll see. In the meantime, Lily and I continue to work hard, play hard, and wait for the jump.
Friday morning was even chillier than Thursday. :) Love, love, LOVE this weather!! I wore a long-sleeve thin cotton shirt under one of my microfiber workout shirts that I normally wear to the barn. Elisabeth is out of town for the weekend, and she asked me if could ride Christa Friday for her. My lesson wasn't until that evening, so I tacked up Christa and rode her down to the field.
Christa just went into heat and has been particularly sassy (trying to bite passers-by when she's in her stall), and actually bucked for Elisabeth under saddle Thursday when asked to canter (she never does this for her mom). She's been particularly sensitive to touch on her lumbar back, flanks and belly. So my plan was to just take her down to the field for some walk and trot to exercise her, but not instigate her crankiness/soreness with cantering. Plus I've never ridden her myself outside of the arena, and I wanted to see how she'd behave for me. I know she's an angel for Elisabeth.
Tacking up, she stood with a wrinkled nose, which I thought was funny. Cranky mare. As soon as I stopped what I was doing and approached her head, her nose would relax. So I would pet her and talk to her, and continue what I was doing. Wrinkled nose again. *lol*
Wrinkled nose
I expected her to be sassy getting on, too, so I tightened the girth, placed the dressage whip in my right hand, and put weight on the stirrup. She whirled her head and swished her tail in protest, but no buck-I figured out she bucks if the saddle shifts when I put weight on the stirrup. I tapped her with the whip on her right hip, and she stopped. I only had to do this 1 more time, and she allowed me to get on. We then walked down to the field. She was a little "up" going down the driveway, and looky, but once on the street she relaxed into her usual easygoing self. I like Christa. She's a good girl, but she's got some personality.
We had a great workout. After a nice relaxed warmup, I asked her for more collection and we worked on shoulder-ins, circles, spirals, and then doing long diagonal and straight lines using the entire field at a good energetic trot while still maintaining a frame. She did excellent! She only complained once while I was asking her to extend even more, but a tap with the whip corrected that. We only worked on walk and trot, as her feet were long and I didn't want her straining anything. As if on cue, when we arrived back at the barn, Elisabeth's farrier had shown up to do another horse and Christa, so she did get a nice pedicure.
My lesson was at 6:30pm. The weather was a little warmer than that morning, but still cool (for us) in the low 70s. I returned to the barn early to set up part of the dressage arena (corners, and a couple of rails on the sides to create an illusion of an arena). I also clipped Lily's legs, face and bridle path, and tacked her up afterwards. I already had show jitters. We were going to practice our tests today.
Judy arrived and I took Lily outside to get on. She became very fidgety at the mounting block, which is highly unusual for her. July held her while I got on, and then Lily tried to walk off before I had my right foot in the stirrup. I'm not really sure what happened next. Apparently Julie quickly reached for the reins to halt Lily, and Lily panicked. She gave 3 enormous and completely unexpected bucks, slamming me to the ground. I jumped back up from the concrete-like footing (after all the rain, the sand in the arena was packed as hard as cement!!), fine but already feeling the ginormous bruise I was going to have on my right thigh. Immediately the entire barn was standing at the arena gate. One of the girls anticipated that I would need the longe line and brought it out for me before I could ask for it. I clipped it on, and proceeded to longe Lily. Calmly, quietly. She was still skittish when approached, and extra-willing to trot out. I had her canter, and then do a balanced, controlled gallop, but she did not offer to bolt or buck anymore. We changed directions and repeated the same process. She relaxed enough where I felt better about getting on again. Mounting up was uneventful, but Lily was SUPER tense, a stark contrast to the relaxed willing mare I'd ridden the day before! Judy had us walk around the arena, working on some light bending, and then pick up a trot. Her trot was a total reversal to day 1: like riding a pogo stick. I could not get her to push forward and stretch. We tried this for a few minutes, but any leg pressure caused her to jump, a touch on the reins made her pop up her head. And then Judy told me to just stroke her neck. Lily instantly gave a big long snort and dropped her head. The tension in her body was reduced by about 50%. Wow. And duh! I know how well she responds to praise, but I was so tense myself that I wasn't thinking either. Ater that, the lesson improved. With a lot more praise, Lily almost relaxed to where she had consistently been the last few weeks. Then Judy wanted us to canter. I made a face; I didn't feel comfortable. We discussed it. Judy really felt it would help her relax more. I asked if I could do it in 2-point-it's the only way I can safely canter her when she's this jumpy. Judy said this was fine. She also said we didn't need to canter if I didn't feel confident. But after thinking about it for a minute, I felt better about the idea. So we cantered. I brought her into the gait from the walk, and asked her to canter with the verbal cue, "Up." She popped right into the canter, and we did a lovely canter around the entire arena, me in 2-point with a light contact on the reins, stroking her neck, her snorting happily with every stride. It worked: her following trot was a lot more relaxed. We then changed directions and repeated. She was just as good. Afterwards we practiced Intro A & B. Lily didn't want to bend, but we at least finished the lesson on a good note. By then, night was falling, nad Judy and I ended up agreeing to practice Intro C Saturday morning at 9:00 am.
I was at the barn early Saturday morning to longe Lily before the lesson, and she was back to her normal self. We longed fully tacked with side reins on, and she did very well; the best I've seen her so far on the longe. Judy arrived when I was half-way through, and she was impressed with Lily's movement. After a brief warmup under saddle, we practiced the dreaded C test: I was afraid Lily was going to take off when asked to canter on the circle. She surprised me by keeping her cool, picking up the correct lead and relaxing into the circle within 2 strides. I felt much better about our test. As it turns out, you CAN show in Open and Novice in the same level, in the same show.
So with my strep throat I was in bed for 3 days straight, woke up on Monday to go to work and it started to rain, then on Tuesday I woke up coughing up a lung (still raining), which resolved by Wednesday when a lull in the (continued) rain finally allowed me to exercise my mare. Yup, Lily had a whole 6 days off. Probably a good thing-she had been working hard.
Wednesday I woke up feeling giddy with excitement at the thought of riding again but when I opened the curtains at 7:00 am, it was raining buckets, with thunder, lightning and gusts of wind not unlike those of a tropical storm. I puttered around the house until 10:30 am, when the rain finally stopped and the wind died down a bit.
This is what it looked like outside. Lovely weather, right? *sarcasm* At least it was not hot-around 76 degrees.
It was dreary at the barn-dark and quiet, no one else there, but still not raining, so I kind of threw Lily's bridle, surcingle, boots, and rope halter on her and dragged her out to the arena. Actually, not really "dragged"-she was perky and alert coming out of the barn, walking animatedly beside me. The poor baby was still chewing on a stray piece of hay leftover from her breakfast, but seemed as eager to go out and work as I was.
We started with a short walk on the longe to warm up, no side reins, but Lily was feeling frisky, so I let her begin trotting. Today's session was simply with the purpose of letting her get all excess energy out of her system, if we didn't get to achieve anything else with the weather. I had to smile when she started head-tossing and doing a snappy extended trot that almost had suspension to it. Of course I didn't have my camera on me to capture it-I had left it inside the barn for fear it would get wet if it suddenly decided to rain. Lily picked up a canter, and I allowed her. We then switched directions. I asked for a trot. She trotted for one circle then moved up into a canter. It started to drizzle. Lily cantered faster. All of a sudden, she bucked and took off in a mad gallop away from me, making a beeline in the general direction of the gate. She caught me so by surprise that the longe line escaped from my hands. This was not a problem, as she did come to a stop at the fence between the two gates, and allowed me to catch her. Right at this moment, it started to rain hard. So we had to run back inside. I stopped by the truck to grab my raincoat, then promptly put Lily up in the cross ties to wait out the rain. The minute I had snapped her in, the rain slowed to a sporadic drizzle. I brought her back outside, raincoat on. Back in the arena, I had her walk again, but she was still frisky, so I allowed her to trot and canter. She crowhopped once when asking her for a change of direction, and was acting weird and nervous like when she first arrived at the barn, but I attributed it to the horrible weather, the cooler temperature, and my sense of urgency. We moved across the arena in 30 meter circles, and in the far corner, she decided to take off in another gallop, but this time maintaining the circle around me. I slowed her down, and it started to rain harder. I figured out that Miss Priss doesn't like to get wet! *lol* She kept bolting to run away from the rain! I made her walk under the pelting rain before walking in, just so she'd learn to keep her cool despite a little water, then brought her back into the barn. This time I had actually taken all of her equipment off, when it stopped raining entirely and the ominous darkness of the sky lifted-it wasn't going to rain again for awhile. So again I put all her equipment back on (I have a very tolerant mare; she didn't even make a face at the idea of working again! Dianne had showed up at this point to take care of Pink and she laughed at us-"You're attempting it again?!") and brought her out to the arena a 3rd time. This time I snapped on the side reins, and we started over, walk/trot/canter/trot/walk in both directions. By this time she had settled down entirely and we ended up having a productive session after all.
Warmup walk with side reins. This was our third attempt at a workout session, after she'd settled down.
Yeah, her head. But she was stepping up under herself nicely.
Cool down free walk, sans side reins. I love that she actually will do this too under saddle now.
We worked for maybe 15 minutes in both directions, then I cooled her down, hosed her off, and put her on the cross ties with her ice boots on her hind legs. Reason? I lock her in her stall when it is this rainy, because she'll go out in the walkout and destroy the footing-it gets very deep if the horses are allowed outside when it rains. Her stall is large-14'x14'. But she does stock up a little when cooped up in the stall with no walkout and no turnout, especially after having been exercised. I've found that if I ice her legs after a workout when she's locked in the stall, the fluid buildup in her legs the next morning will be negligible.
It rained and stormed the rest of the day, but that night it cleared up, and a wonderful, beautiful cold front came in! I woke up at 6:00 am Thursday morning just to open the sliding door of the living room and feel the wonderful outdoor cold. It was 62 degrees. In South Florida, cold weather = beautiful weather. I was supposed to work today but had been called the day before requesting me to stay home because there were no patients in hospital. My paycheck is going to majorly suck, between the 2 days I took off due to the strep throat (we get no sick time) and this, but at least I got to ride in this beautiful weather.
The sky this morning. Gorgeous, huh? :)
Lily's legs were minorly stocked up this morning, as expected. I removed the stall chain from the walkout so I wouldn't forget later, and tacked her up. I changed out my awesome Parelli-type rope reins for the more traditional web reins that originally came with my bridle that are still brand new. I have to get used to the feel of them again for the show Sunday.
I longed her for about 10 minutes total, first without side reins to warmup, and then with. Just walk/trot/canter. No signs of the previous day's spazzing out; just relaxed and loose. And for the first time ever, she was holding herself in a frame at the trot with the side reins clipped on, tracking up and her head vertical instead of above the bit. Now I just need her to do this with me on her! :)
Pretty!
Then I got on. We did a long walk warmup for about 15 minutes (I used to be really good about looking at my watch before a ride, but lately I just get lost in the flow of it), first on the buckle, then a collected walk, then some shoulder-ins, haunches-ins and small leg yields. As soon as I asked her to trot, she asked to stretch down! This was a first. The rest of the session was like this-Lily continued to be relaxed, reaching for the bit constantly and holding it for a couple of strides. We had a nice canter to the left, but to the right, she threw her head up, took off at a gallop down the long side of the arena, swapped leads midway, and then I slowed her down carefully before we came to the corner. This happened twice. We did some more trot work to get her relaxed again, then I asked her for the canter again and rose into two-point. Nice, relaxed easy canter. This confirmed that it was me, not something bothering her. I am horrible with the right canter cue and tend to ask for it too strongly from years of riding OTTBs-I was cueing for the lead with my seat, then driving her forward, hence the head in the air and the ensueing gallop.
We trotted a little more to end on a good relaxed note, then I hosed down her neck, legs and hindquarters to take advantage of the cool breeze, and got back on to stroll down to the field. We did a couple of circles at the front end of the field, and returned home, where I gave her a good bath. Every time it rains she starts to get rainrot on the fronts of her hind cannon bones, even if I keep her indoors. So I scrubbed her down with Eqyss Microtek shampoo, left it on for 10 minutes, rinsed, and poured my vet's leave-in antifungal medication over her legs. This usually takes care of it within 24 hours. When I first bought her, she developed the nastiest fungal infection I had seen in a long time-it looked like she had mange. The skin over her hindquarters, gaskins, and around the entire hind cannon bones was crusty and painful. She lost all her hair over these areas. A round of antibiotics and the wonder antifungal medication took care of it within a week. I wish I had "before" pictures.
Her coat has pretty much grown back in 2 weeks! Arrgh! Oh well. I'm not body-clipping again before the show; my body-clipping skills are less than stellar at this moment, and I like her coat at its current state-it's just slightly long, and has turned into a deep dark chocolate brown. We'll do some face & leg trimming today or tomorrow, and that will be that.
This photo was taken last week. She's already fuzzier than that! But you can see how her coat has darkened, and the area under her flank looks redder.
After the barn, I ran over to the tack shop to pick up a pair of black gloves, another detail I need for the show. I laughed when I opened the door and the store owner (and show manager) was standing there
waving my show times with a big smile on her face. They were supposed to have been e-mailed the day before, and I had e-mailed her Wednesday night kind of frantic, automatically assuming that there had been a problem with my registration. (Yes, I'm a worrywart). As it turns out, entries had been delayed, so posting of the times had also been delayed. My turn in Intro A Open is at 9:16 am, Intro B Open is at 9:48 am (I go second in both) and Intro C Novice is at 10:36 am. I go first in C, and it's only me and a guy riding a horse named Hansel (Warmblood much?) The one thing here is that I thought I had requested Intro C Open, and apparently there is no such thing; it's not even listed as a class on the show times sheet...so now I have to find out what happens with Intro C, as I thought I couldn't go in a Novice class if I was showing in Open. If I have to scratch C I honestly don't mind, because I don't think we are quite ready for that class yet, and it's only $15 down the drain (a much needed $15 right now, but still)...I had been counting on having that extra week I lost due to being sick & rain to practice our canter departs. We'll see what can be done the next 2 days. I have a lesson tonight with Judy, so I will find out. Ahh the ins & outs of showing...Jumpers was so easy! You just show up, have a clear round without time faults, and that's it. *lol*
I hate South Florida summers. You will hear this a lot. It is the #1 reason why I keep pushing for us to move further north. It doesn't have to be outside of the state, just a couple hours north. Today was typical. 95 degrees, with a heat index of 105. Humidity at 62% (actually lower than it felt). The husband and I used to live in Tampa, and yes, it would get hot, but not like this. I was at the barn at 9:00 am and already it felt like you were breathing through water, it was so hot and humid. On Monday we had taken the horses down to Wolf Lake, a Davie park with a lake set up specifically so you can take horses swimming. It was Lily's first time being trailered anywhere with me, and she handled it SO WELL! She behaved like a long-time trail horse, going right into the water. She did not like the bait fish nibbling at her belly hairs, and had a small bucking fit in the water over that. lol But she stopped as soon as I yelled "Whoa!" She learned that tickling did not equal hurting, and after the one time, she did not buck again, and by the end of our outing, she had learned to enjoy being in the water, staying in, one hind leg cocked, until I asked her to come back out again.
Her first water adventure!
It was a long day though, and we also spent a long time on the trails, so she received a nice liniment bath once back home and had 3 days off in a row. I longed her on Friday but she had Saturday off again (I work from 6am to 7pm, and was exhausted after work), so I wanted to longe her a few minutes before getting on to head out on the trails. It was way too hot and humid for "real" work. I hosed her down prior to her workout, to keep her cooler. We did w/t/c as a warm-up, then I attached the side reins for more w/t/c. She was beautiful on the longe with the side reins, the best she's been so far (of course I didn't have the camera on me!). Judy has me working on getting her to relax her entire topline under saddle-she has a tendency to go hollow-backed after her bad experience with the cowboy, but is learning to relax sooner and sooner with each workout. She's just starting to learn to relax on her own with the side reins. She was cute-when she's relaxed, her head swings a little to each side with each stride, and she nods with the beat of her canter. It was so humid that even after 15 minutes of working, the water had not dried off from her shoulders and rump. I hosed her down again, squeegeeing the water from her shoulders with my hand as I continued hosing her, until the water was running cold between my hand and her skin. She's such a good girl she just stood there, no restraint, without even trying to eat grass or dance away from the hose. Mark had just started tacking up Beau, his bright bay Quarter horse gelding, so I got on Lily to do a little arena work.
Pretty girl!!
Baby face
We trotted, doing large circles, until she was extending her trot and relaxing her back and neck. I really want to take her to a dressage schooling show later this fall when it gets cooler! Mark walked out with Beau as I was hosing Lily down again. We rode out. Beau led the way; Lily hadn't been outside of the barn area in over a week and she always gets a little hesitant to leave when she hasn't been out in a while.
Mark & Beau
Beau jumped at a branch cracking in one of the trees as soon as we turned down the street, so Lily led the way down to the park. The baby pro trail horse! A lot of things had changed on the street since the last time Lily had gone out-a guy on the street had torn down his 4 stalls and was working on getting all the wood out, there was a pile of garbage by the hedge lining another property, and lessons going on in the arena outside one of the barns. Lily had to stop and look at everything. I urged her on each time, because if I let her decide, she'll say, "I'm not too sure about this" and will quietly try to sneak back home. I didn't want to be circling her all the way down the street. Since Beau was a little more uppity than usual (he normally plods his way down the street), I took the back way into the park, down the powerlines. Beau relaxed, and walked along next to Lily while Mark and I talked. This park is one of the only ones in Broward County with a public riding stable. They give guided trail rides on the weekends. One of our barn buddies, Dianne, who also owns Pink Slip, the barn goddess (she is a TB ex-racer, and one of my faves in the barn after Lily!), works at the park on the weekends. Our goal for today was to go to the park barn to say hi. It was too hot to do much more, but long walks are still a great way of keeping horses fit. It's so hard to keep a horse fit in South FL summers! My previous horse had stopped sweating when it started raining every afternoon back in late May-high humidity is a big risk factor for anhydrosis. Lily is hypohydrotic, but with temperatures now 5 degrees cooler (believe it or not!!) and hosing her off prior to a workout, she will be sweating nicely by the end of a session without panting like a dog. We rode down to the barn. There is a side road that leads to it. The first time we took that route, there was a storm coming, and I was tense thinking where we would take cover if we got hit by the rain. I hate riding in the rain. I wear glasses, and when they get wet, I can't see with them on. Everything is a giant blur without them on, so taking them off when it's raining is out of the question. Lily must have sensed how tense I was, because she was jumping at everything on that route that time, very unlike her. We did get hit by rain, and we took cover under a nearby parking area for the park trucks, and afterwards she was fine. But I chose to head out this way again this time to test her, and see how she would handle it. There are palms all over the park, and their leaves fall all over the place. Most horses think they are giant horse-eating octopi lying in wait for an unwary hoof. Lily is funny about them-she'll completely ignore them if they are on a route she's familiar with, but if I take her down a new route and there's a palm leaf on the ground anywhere, she'll turn her head to look at it sideways (she cocks an ear at it and looks at it with one eye-it cracks me up when she does that), and she'll kind of dance away from it like she's never seen a palm frond before. It had stormed last night so one side of the road was strewn with them:
I made her walk right down the center, and step on all the leaves. She didn't give a hoot. :) She did do the cocked ear & one-eyed glance act at a large puddle next to the palm trees, so I made her walk into it. She liked that once she realized what it was, and her ears went up as she splashed through the water. Silly mare. We made it to the barn and I texted Dianne to let her know we had arrived. There was a lot of people in the barn area in general, and people walked past us warily, trying to stay away from the horses' hind ends. Lily looked at everyone and everything and didn't budge.
Watching the people on the pony rides, on the other side of the barn
We hung out for awhile with Dianne, talking, then headed back home. We cut through one of the paths between the horse fields, and into one of the trails to get some shade before heading back out onto the powerlines. I've only recently started to take Lily onto the actual trails. The first 2 times she would get a little claustrophobic and would start looking into the bushes, searching for some unseen tiger hiding in the trees. She led the way this time, no hesitation.
The powerlines. Awesome fun to gallop down them!! The footing is always smooth and fast. Haven't done it with Lily yet, but yes with Pink, the ex-racer :)
The rest of the ride home was uneventful. We bathed the horses and turned them out in the parking lot to graze (turnout space at our barn is limited to the arena and a large side paddock, so of course there is no grass in the official turnouts). Lily always enjoys this.
I cleaned her stall, soaked her beet pulp, tossed 2 pads of hay in her stall, and brought her in for her lunch.
That afternoon, I decided to work with Bella. It was the first sunny afternoon in at least 2 weeks. I have been trying to work with Bella even longer than that, but could never accomodate her either because of bad weather or because I was at work.
Bella is the cutest pony. She is a double-registered Arabian/Welsh pony cross, the perfect mix of the 2 breeds. The barn manager bought her as a lesson pony from a lady that was selling her in Orlando at a big hunter/jumper show barn. Bella had a different opinion as to what her purpose would be when she arrived at our barn.
Despite her beauty and excellent ground manners, under saddle she can get quite testy. Nothing to scare an experienced rider, but enough to terrify a beginner/intermediate rider. She can get spooky if you're nervous, and if she's in a bratty mood she'll refuse to go faster than a walk, or will simply refuse to go altogether! If you insist, she will probably toss her head and try to pop up. You have to spin her around once as soon as she tosses her head, and send her straight into a trot. She usually won't test you again after that, and will be a perfect pony for you. Good luck explaining this to a beginner. I had an intermediate student that was infatuated with Bella. Bella would give her hell each lesson. I'd have to give orders and smack a crop against my leg to get her going. Basically, the kid wasn't making Bella move-it was me with voice commands. The girl still had fun jumping her, because Bella LOOOOVES to jump, but it sucked for me knowing that this girl wasn't really controlling the mare on the flat. Oh well. Bella hurt her shoulder one night in the turnout and was lame for a month, and in the meantime I had this student ride Pink Slip, with whom she had a blast. They were a good match. But I ramble-back to Bella.
About a month after she arrived at the barn, we took her to one of the small local shows. I didn't realize it was a hunters only show until a week before the event, when I had to scramble to get a cheap hunt coat and show shirt. Then I had to review the hunters rules. I have always competed in jumpers, and in Puerto Rico the hunters division didn't even exist-we just had equitation over fences, which I guess is similar enough. I hated equitation-too subjective, and that whole thing of counting strides was so difficult at the time. I was 14.
Counting strides between fences now was easy, so I figured we could do it without making total fools of ourselves. All we wanted to see was how well Bella would behave at a show, so we could use her for the kids. My one concern was that all we had at the barn to jump were 4 cavaletti. I would stack them up to make two 1.5' jumps, but I knew that the smallest jumps at the show would be 2'. Bella was so confident over fences that I figured she must've jumped at least 2'6" regularly, but it felt weird going into a show not knowing for sure. And without a trainer!! I had never shown a horse all by myself.
Bella in perfect form at the horse show
As it turned out, we had a great time at the show. Bella was awesome, and we won grand champions in the 2' adult division...against ourselves! There were no other competitors! Even the judges joked about it over the loudspeakers.
Bella,Grand Champion
After that, I started the new job, and then Bella injured her shoulder, and it's pretty much been 4 months since the pony hasn't been used regularly. I always feel bad, because she's a good pony, she just needs a firm confident rider.
About 6 weeks ago, I started working her on the longe to get her used to having a job again, and she was SUCH a BRAT! She had gotten into the most annoying habit of divebombing (also known as yanking your arm out by plunging her head down suddently to eat grass), and of course I had the brilliant idea, the first time out, to longe her in the front pasture by the street. She would NOT go, and was completely disrespectful, refusing to obey commands and trying to eat grass like she hasn't eaten in a month (she's fat, too, btw). Until the longe whip came out. That got her going, and she had a good workout. By the end of the session, she was bright, perky, relaxed and enjoying having a job again.
After that, she had a dose of discipline every day I was off from work. And then my work schedule changed again, I had less time, and then it started raining every afternoon. So no consistent work for Bella for 3 weeks. Today I tacked her up and longed her for about 10 minutes prior to riding her. She doesn't go into the arena except when she's ridden, and if she hasn't been ridden for awhile, she will be a little spooky. Today was no different-we warmed up in the center of the arena with walk and trot, but as soon as I moved her close to the arena wall, she would randomly bolt & take off at a gallop, continuing the circle. I worked her in both directions until she was calmly trotting by the wall. Then I got on. By then, pretty much everyone in the barn had tacked up and had walked into the arena, a highly unusual event-it is very rare when those of us who ride are able to ride at the same time. There were 4 of us in the arena at once, this hadn't happened since the Christmas holiays! It was fun-Dianne was on Pink Slip, Matilda was on Big Boy, Elisabeth was riding Crissy, and myself on Bella. Bella had a couple of hissy fits, but we know each other and she knows she can't get away with stuff when I'm riding her, so she would always keep on working as soon as I put her in her place. We had fun-w/t/c, and then Elisabeth and I started riding around the arena like a pair, trying to keep Crissy & Bella next to each other at the trot & canter. While doing this, a couple showed up at the arena entrance, and I heard the barn manager telling them about Bella. As it turns out, those people wanted to lease a horse and a pony, and were so impressed by Bella under saddle, that they paid for her lease right on the spot! Of course, when I asked the barn manager later, they were leasing the pony for their 13-year-old daughter. Who's a beginner. And who gets to give her lessons? Oh! That would be me.
