Wet Reins

Run Jasper, Run...

2012-01-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

Free lunging himself- no encouragement needed. He sure sticks his tongue out a lot! This video was taken towards end of his free lunging session (free lunging meaning I turn him loose and let him play)... I just got a new phone and was trying out the video mode. I think it works really well but won't upload to Blogger. I had to send it to Youtube first.

On another note, when I uploaded it to my computer it came out upside down. So if I try to watch it on my screen it's upside down, but when I published it to Youtube and Facebook it came out right side up...? Anyone know anything about this?

3'9

2012-01-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

3'9!

Happy Everything! Christmas Eve morning I decided Jasper needed a view of something other than his run and the barn so we went for a loop in the woods. There wasn't much snow but everything was frozen, so after cantering through the field we took it easy and walked on the trails. On the way home there is a steep little hill that opens up into the big field. He always fights me on this and wants to accelerate instead of slow down, only this time when I pulled back on the reins his head shot up and his hind legs slipped out from underneath him. He landed on his left side and my left ankle. It happened so fast I didn't have time to react, but at the same time was having a conversation in my head about letting go of the reins.

Should I let go? Should I keep hanging on? What are you supposed to do? I think let go. But I still have them. He will take off. Oh, that's his right hoof right by my arm, he's having trouble standing up. Oh, there's his back hoof right by my ribs, I hope he doesn't step on me. I still have the reins, am I pulling him off balance? He will fight me and pull back...

For some reason he didn't pull back, and I was able to keep hanging on to the reins and get into a squatting position before I felt my ankle screaming at me to pull the knife out of it. I sat there for quite a while breathing shallowly and considering my options. I couldn't walk, which left getting back on, which would require me to put pressure on my ankle no matter what. Or crawling back. In about 10 minutes the pain began to subside... it was really strange. I was able to get back on and ride home, put Jasper away, and drive my car (stick shift) home.

That night I was on crutches, but the next day after 8 hours of sleep it felt a lot better. 2 days straight of elevation really helped and a week later I was able to go xc skiing.

I FINALLY found a schooling helmet that fits! I have a very long very oval head. This is the Ovation Sync. It is very flattering, obviously.

New Year's Day: My friend Dale was visiting from Canada and wanted to see horses. After a lesson in "combing" them, we set up a jump chute. Started at 2' and worked up to 3'9! This is the highest he's ever jumped. Ok, the highest on purpose. It was pointed out to me that he jumped a gate about his high from a standstill once. It was supposed to be a one stride but he just kind of nonchalantly trotted the whole thing.

Go buddy!

Party on, Wayne.

2011-12-13T22:13:00.001-08:00

Whoa, can you say sensory overload? I did find out that Jasper does not have a future career as a petting zoo horse. To his credit, there were probably 200 people at the Arena Warming party and kids everywhere jumping off hay bales, riding the "bull", going for pony rides... He had to walk on a blue TARP to get to his pen. The horses next to him were NOT running away when he made his very meanest ears-pinned-back-I-will-kill-you face. They pretty much ignored him. He did some nice bucking in place...

Nom nom nom. I don't even want to know how many pounds of oats he was fed. And carrots. The horses were so saturated they quit eating them and the kids just threw them in the pens. At the end of the party it looked like a giant carrot graveyard.

The kids riding the "bull" were not as scary as when the music had people clapping in it.

Oats? Carrots? Small children? Don't mind if I do.

Serena and Roxie are borrowing my Konklusion treeless jumping saddle. Serena gave me her HDR to try even though it's a wide tree and she had it stretched even wider for Roxie. Uh, this is what it looked like when I set it on his back:

Really??? This is an X-wide tree???

Granted, after it was cinched up it did a little bit of a nose dive. But still. Either Jasper has some wacky conformation or HDRs are seriously narrow.

I really liked it. I felt like my leg was solidly in place and not moving around. I love the big knee blocks, and they saved my a** a couple of times when we did some sudden sideways airs-above-ground. I haven't had a chance to jump in it but am looking forward to giving it a try.

Newly Toothless

2011-12-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

The vet's reaction to me pointing out the lumps on the front sides of Jasper's hocks was, "Huh, that's weird." Which was obviously not quite the reaction I was looking for. She poked around, decided they were hard, and flexed each hock. He was fine. I'll keep an eye on them, she suggested Cosequin as a preventative measure, and that was about it.

The teeth, however, were a different story. He still had his WOLF TEETH. Apparently the vet that did his teeth two and a half years ago did NOT pull them out. She filed them down. Say what?? Which of course made them that much harder to extract. There was a lot of digging to get them out. Poor guy! Wolf teeth are sensitive and are right where the bit sits in their mouth. I wonder if I can blame them in part for Jasper's tongue problems. If he was trying to protect his teeth by putting his tongue over the bit...? Time will tell.

I've decided against getting the saddle. It's not a perfect fit, it's an older saddle, it has foam panels, and it's quite pricey. I would love to find a Jeffries JMX to try. Actually I did find the perfect one over in the UK and sent the gal an email. The saddle was already out on trial, but she recognized my email address from this blog and knew who Jasper and I were. Small small world. So cross your fingers it doesn't work out. :)

Alexandre has moved to his new home. I drive by there on my way to the barn (they're practically next door, they saddled up their horses and rode them home) and this morning they were all staring at something off in the distance. Then they all turned and pranced around, soooooooo scared of the Thing In The Woods. He's in a great big paddock with a little black Arabian about half his size. It's a breathtakingly beautiful place, every horse should be so lucky.

And, we're having a barn party on Friday. A celebration of the new indoor going up, sweet! I've volunteered Jasper to be in a corral in the arena for petting and treat eating- free desensitization experiences always welcome. Norm has been working on building a big wagon for hay rides, there will be a bonfire, horse rides for kids (not toothless Jasper, duh), food, and more stuff. And after that, a punk-ish band is playing at my favorite bar downtown. Life is good.

Saddle fit- help!

2011-12-05T22:02:00.001-08:00

I have this Jeffries Flyover on trial. It's a forward flap x-country jumping saddle. It's great to ride in, very balanced. It just doesn't look like it fits very well to me- it looks like the pommel is way too high. Like he needs a wider tree or something? (This is a medium, they don't come in med-wide).

Is it just me? I really like the feel of it.

Pre-ride.

After I rode in it and it settled a bit.

Good Things.

2011-12-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

Who knew that when I found an ad for Valley Chapel Farms two years ago on Craigslist that it would turn out to be such a great situation for me. Newly unemployed (and then soon back to school) with two horses to take care of had me desperate to find good, affordable board. VCF was a godsend with their options for pasture board at very reasonable prices, which turned into stall and paddock board at the same very reasonable prices. Trails right off the property. Alexandre has found a new family. Norm and Lisa have put in a brand new huge outdoor arena, Norm helped me build jumps, they've put in a little obstacle course. And the latest and greatest (and totally unexpected) addition... an INDOOR arena!!!

It has been SO long since I have had access to an indoor. I'm really excited. They're just finishing things up, Jasper and I had our first real ride today.

He, of course, is absolutely THRILLED.

The vet comes out on Wed. to check his hocks and his teeth. I'm no longer too worried about the hocks as we had a good ride today, although it's hard to tell if the "lightness behind" was from the sand hitting the panels, the light from under the door, or if there really is something wrong. I'm pretty sure it's excitement related.

Forgot about these.

2011-11-25T00:03:00.000-08:00

I got an email from the photographer that was at Aspen Farms Horse Trials (June 2010) today, offering discounts and deals on photos. I bought the CD but no prints and decided to look through them. I had forgotten about these...

This fence was the second in a combo and came as a bit of a... surprise.

You know it had to be spectacular when the photographer takes a shot of the LANDING.

Clear.

We were only jumping this fence. There is not another one outside of the frame that we were also jumping.

(Liverpool)

Actually, I like all of these. He didn't have much experience but he sure had a lot of heart that day.

Bog Spavins?

2011-11-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

On Sat. I went out to the barn to check on the hoss, check out progress on the indoor arena, and grab my saddle for Serena & Roxie to try out. (It's a treeless so it's supposed to fit everybody). I noticed that Jasper has small hard bumps on the front (flat) sides of his hocks. Were those there before? I don't think so, I 'm pretty sure I would have noticed them. Or maybe they're just bigger now and more noticeable. Later that day Serena looked it up in her horse medical book and figured out they're probably some kind of bone spavin.

I worried all last night and went out today expecting Jasper to be dead lame on both hinds. When I drove up he was out in his run bucking in place. I'm assuming it's because there's snow and ice on the ground so galloping around isn't so much an option. He can buck in place pretty high, heels waaaay over his head. He wasn't acting like he was in pain.

Even though the indoor doesn't have footing yet it has a roof and walls so I took him in there to lunge him around. He seemed verrrrrry happy to be on non-slippery dirt and cantered around throwing a huge buck every time he went past the big open space where a door will be. Seemed a little stiff to the right?

I decided to ride to see if I could feel anything. Nope. Not that that means anything. He was excited and forward but didn't feel uneven.

I don't know why lumps would show up on the fronts of his hocks. I'm going to have the vet out to check on his teeth so I'll ask her about it then.

On another note, while I was doing research I discovered there is a band called Bog Spavin. Their logo is "rock out with your hock out". It was disturbing to me.

Happy Halloween- Fantasy Costume Class!

2011-10-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Whoa!!!

Friesian people take their costume classes SERIOUSLY. How are these horses not spooking at themselves? Each other?? WINGS???

Friesian people are a little weird.

I feel I have the right to say that.

:)

Oh, and the Queen of Hearts was my favorite.

Don't bother to watch it to the end, it takes 20 minutes for the judges to decide then cuts off before the winner is announced. I think it was the Eagle though.

Oh oh and the yellow horse with the horsey LEGGINGS is a sphinx. Dude. Horsey leggings. The particulars behind those boggle the mind.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to come up with an outfit like the pink vegas showgirl's for the next time we compete XC. Or wait... wings...

The Beginings of Modern Day Eventing

2011-10-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, check out this video:

Calvary

These guys are flying.

I wonder if it helped the horses' courage to be in large groups while galloping at breakneck speeds over giant obstacles? Seems like if one stopped he'd pretty much be rammed from behind. Might instill a "go or die" element to the training?

It's sobering to think these horses were being trained to charge into battle under fire. I can't imagine doing a BN cross country course while dodging bullets. Not cool man, not cool!

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy

2011-10-16T08:49:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I was down in Portland, Oregon area for a training in EAP for work. It's a really interesting model and if you're in the health care field I recommend you take a look at it. EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Assoc.) puts on trainings throughout the US and abroad (for some reason my boss didn't think it was necessary for me to go to Europe or South America to get certified...???) and offer them pretty much year round.

It's a team approach, so there's a licensed Mental Health person, an Equine Specialist, and a horse or horses. The client (or clients) come in, are given a task (for instance, go get a horse and bring it over here), and the MH and ES step back and watch what happens. The MH person is watching the people, while the ES person watches the horses and looks for Shifts, Patterns, Uniqueness, Discrepancies, and/or Self-awareness.

When the client feels they are done, you process what happened. It doesn't matter if they complete the task or not. Questions are asked in the here and now, and always relate back to the horses. (In other words, it is not talk therapy). For instance, if the task is to bring a horse back to a certain area (probably without ropes, etc.) the ES might ask, "I noticed when you walked towards the horses, the one you were closest to ran very quickly down the side of the arena. What was that about?" I would ask this question because I'm interested to know if the client saw the horse running away as a success or a failure, and if it brought up issues for them.

-I thought it was good, the horse got to have some freedom and do what it wanted.
-It ran away from me like everyone else does.
-I didn't really notice when that happened.
-I just went on to a different horse.
-I felt like I failed, because I was going after that horse.
-etc. etc. etc. etc.

You can see that all of these answers would tell something about the client. Then the MH person comes in and either asks another question or relates the answer back to the client's life.

It's a great way for kids, especially angry and somewhat reluctant kids to start opening up. You're lucky to get some kids to sit across from you and talk for 10 minutes, while they can be doing EAP and processing for an hour.

Oh, and the horses are AMAZING. You would not believe some of the things they do in these sessions. It's like they know exactly what the client needs and take care of business. Pretty cool. I'm looking forward to getting this started at the Ranch.

Letting Gogo go.

2011-10-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

Andrea at Eventing-A-Gogo is letting her beautiful young mare go today rather than keeping her around to live in pain. One of the most popular blogs in our horsey community, most of us have been following Andrea and Gogo's adventures into eventing for years. Unfortunately the injuries to Gogo's hind legs are not healing and instead are breaking down further. Today Andrea lets her beloved mare leave her pain behind.

Andrea, Gogo's story has been inspirational to us all. I think every one of us out here in blogger land has shed a few tears for you today. Hang in there and just know you have a huge community of support to fall back on if you need to. Hugs to you and Gogo.

Pre-Green Division Champions!

2011-10-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

We came. We saw. We walked about 15 miles up and down and up and down the dirt road while everyone else sat on their half asleep horses and watched the competition. We won!

Jasper was... tense. I'd say he was high as a kite, but it gives the wrong impression. He wasn't rearing and screaming and spinning in circles, but he would not stand still. For. a. second. He was humpy and tail swishy and oh so in front of my leg, and I'm wondering if maybe he was a little bit sore. It's hard to tell because he was so excited. At the same time he would walk happily around the grounds on a loose rein.

The jumping classes got better as the day went on, the jumps are great because they give him something to focus on. We warmed up in the 2' division, ending our first class in a nice kick and bolt when the audience clapped. Luckily they were an attentive bunch and waited to clap from then on.

The classes in the Pre-Green division (2'-2'6) were by far our best, he was finally starting to relax a bit. In each division you had to ride a flat class at the end, and the judge suggested that perhaps my horse was "not fond of the flat classes". I don't know why, just because he broke into canter often, did hopping transitions, picked up the wrong leads, and even kicked out a few times!

The video shows our last and best class of the day. He's great once he's jumping. There were people on the hillside, horses in pastures on the far side of the arena, a road down below, and the usual show hubbub. He never thought about refusing anything and was very, very brave, especially considering he hasn't been out of the barn since April. He also does an automatic lead change, which I missed, so I made him trot and do a simple one. Doh!

Pam & the goods!

We won our jumping classes and got last I think in the flat class, putting us in first for the division. The "trophy" is a nice saddle pad from SmartPak with fancy 2 tone rope edging and the Post Falls Equestrian Center's logo on it. It is the nicest one I own. They're so... white when they're new...! :)

Fresh and Clean as a...

2011-10-01T17:22:00.001-07:00

(Ignore dirt and rocks on mat and slight holes in front of it, just concentrate on the er... calm expression and all four hooves in contact with the ground)

All cleaned up with somewhere to go. I had to take a picture for posterity since today was Jasper's first bath with shampoo this year. On the first of October. This is as clean as he gets. He was not happy about it and got in trouble several times. Clean horse, clean tack, ready to go have some fun tomorrow... Post Falls here we come!

The new indoor! They did all this structural work today. IN ONE DAY. Three guys and tractor type lifty machines. Yesterday it was just a flat expanse of dirt with some concrete & rebar footings sticking out. Today it has a ribcage. It's going to have lighting and a sprinkler system. Very exciting.

I heard that Alexandre's new people have bought materials to put in fencing and build shelters so they can put their horses on their property. What will I do when I drive up in my car and there's not a deep, rumbling Harley Davidson greeting?

We're going to a show... woot!

2011-09-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

I think we're going to head to the little Hunter/Jumper show on Sunday! Jasper's knee seems fine and we had a good schooling day today. I think we'll do a couple of 2' classes and a couple of 2'-2'6 classes. My friend Kodi came out this morning to play jump crew and take some video with my crappy point and shoot camera.

I've been trying to not jump ahead. When I watch the video frame by frame it looks like I'm jumping waaaay ahead on the way up, but then end up in a pretty good position over the top of the fence. He, however, looks pretty good to me considering the lack of schooling we've had this summer. There is a little more tail swishing than I like... but he's got a nice rhythm and isn't rushing.

I think he really likes jumping. He even started to do a flying lead change for me right as I was asking him to trot to do a simple change. Cool!

Whoooooa, Waterford!

2011-09-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Jasper was SO angry about having the Waterford in his mouth. He HATED it. Sure did listen though, a little too well. He tried rooting a few times, popped himself in the mouth, and about flew over backwards. I was being as soft as possible and trying to leave some slack in the reins but he still went around tense with his ears back. It wasn't all because of the bit... he was hyper and wanting to run and really just wanted to give all his attention to the horses in the nearby field. He would speed up and then realize the punishment was that damn bit and would throw his head up in defense. And then down in defense. And then get angry and begin to hop. So anyway I'm just going back to the KK Ultra for dressage and the French Link for jumping and am going to quit worrying about his tongue. I believe I'm going to try the Waterford on a horse at the ranch that pulls the reins out of the boys' hands. I think it might be perfect for him.

Today was a great ride. Same arena, but the middle of the day instead of dusk with all the horse eating shadows. I set up a grid, barrels, one stride to a vertical, one stride to a second vertical, 2 strides to barrels. I'd say the verticals were about 2'3, a little higher than the barrels. The first time we fleeeeeewwww through it and did the 2 strides in one. I second guessed myself... was that really a long one stride? I thought I measured 30'. So we did it backwards and lo and behold, it was two. I discovered something really important today. Jasper responds to half halts between jumps. I never even tried before because I totally assumed he'd be oblivious to them. We jumped the grid both ways, first from a trot and then from an easy canter. Our last time through we landed over the last vertical, I gave a half halt and a "whoa!" and got a nice 2 tot he barrels. He was balanced enough after barrels that he was able to stop easily and smoothly and I jumped off and gave him lots of praise. Good 'nuff...!

It's the first time we've jumped since he injured his knee. He seemed very sound to me. He'll have tomorrow off for sure, then I'll go out on Tues. or Wed. to see how he's doing.

Musings of no real relevance.

2011-09-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

The guilt was getting to me even though I've been fatigued lately and only had one day off this weekend. I forced myself to drive out to the barn to at least clean Jasper's run-in and give him carrots. Then I got there and he had his head over the door of the stall, all bright eyed and expectant and adorable. So we went on a ride, I thought it would be good to get him out of the barn area and hit the trails since it's been a couple of weeks.

He was really amazingly well behaved. Soooo out of shape though. We saw deer and 3 flocks of turkeys. As usual, the last field I make him walk through on the way home got him all amped up so by the time we got back to the driveway leading back to the barn he was more excited than when we left.

I'm thinking of taking him to a little jumper schooling show on Oct. 2. It would be our one and only competition this year. I figure we could to the 2' division without much practice or need to get in shape. Just kind of go and pop around, see what happens. I don't want him to forget how to do it! I would like to start competing again next year... hopefully with a horse trials or two thrown in there.

I LOVE his color, especially now that his dark winter hair is starting to come in. All three of my horses have been bay with no white. Mindy was very red, almost a blood bay. Alexandre is a dark bay with red highlights. Jasper is a dark bay with golden highlights. He almost takes on a grulla-ish buckin-ish look in the fall.

A Bit of News

2011-09-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

Look what Kacy over at All Horse Stuff sent me in the mail! She's been reading about my bitting woes and sent me this Waterford to try. I've never used one before and I'm curious to see how Jasper reacts. My only concern is that it will be too harsh for him and he will avoid contact with it. We will see! He may love it because it's nice and flexible. Fingers crossed it is the miracle cure. :) I love our blogging community. There are some very generous people out there.

In other news I got my old job back at the boys' ranch. Without saying much over the internet, two years later I am back to running the horse therapy program for boys with histories of abuse and neglect. There are only four horses left, and three of them are angry and resentful of their jobs. Hopefully I can turn them around. Send them good vibes if you'd like. I'm almost certain I'm going to keep Jasper at the barn where he currently lives... it's such a great place and they're building an indoor. It would be great to see him everyday but I'm not ready to bring him to the ranch. It does mean that I'll see him even less if that's possible. After working all day with horses the last thing I want to do is drive out to another barn and do more horse stuff. Ugh. I dunno.

In unrelated news I went to the doctor's office today and left with a $1000 bill. And I thought vets were expensive. The CT scan experience was very strange. They thought it was appendicitis but I just have a cyst which is good because it will eventually burst and heal on its own, and the pain will go away. Too bad it couldn't have waited 6 months until my health insurance kicks in. D'oh! Oh Canada...

Happy??? Mouth

2011-08-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

After spending a week on the Oregon coast and in Portland, I came home to find my Happy Mouth bit had arrived. It was pretty much my last ditch effort to find something that Jasper doesn't stick his tongue over the top of.

Ha.

I actually stood there with my finger in his mouth holding it in place so he couldn't get his tongue over the top for at least 5 minutes. Realizing it was a battle I was not going to win I decided to go for a ride. Maybe he would figure it out.

No.

Granted, I haven't ridden for a long time. Gave his knee time to heal and went on vacation. It was one of the worst rides I've ever had. He is usually light and responsive but today he put some weight into it. Chewing and crossing his jaw. Rooting. Tongue hanging out and waving in the wind. He was so concerned about the bit he forgot how to go forward and I actually had to use a crop.

So I'm wondering if these are signs that this is NOT the bit for him, or is he figuring out that it's not comfortable to have under his tongue? I'm thinking about tying the tops of the bit rings together with a piece of leather over his nose so he can't fit his tongue between the bit and the roof of his mouth. Also, I'm pretty sure the bit is too wide. Apparently a 5" mullen mouth is not the same thing as a 5" snaffle. Oh well, at least the insides of his lips aren't being squished into his teeth.

The bee's knees & Al's new life

2011-08-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

Jasper got his groove back yesterday. It's pretty obvious when he's feeling better, he gets the (...ahem obnoxious) sparkle back in his eye. I borrowed an equine ice pack and iced his knee which had much better results than cold hosing. The swelling was already down and the ice pack took it down even more. I walked him up and down the driveway and he didn't appear to favor it at all, of course he was giving all of this attention to the horses in the outdoor arena so who knows if his brain was just completely distracted.

Every time I get the hose out Alexandre comes over and stares at me until I squirt him with water too. He usually starts off this way, then turns sideways so I can get his side then backwards so I can get his butt.

Alexandre's new life

Yesterday a whole pack of adults and kids came out (Alexandre's extended family) and started saddling up horses. I caught this image with my phone as they were heading out for a trail ride. If you would have told me 12 years ago that two little girls would be riding him double out on the trails someday I wouldn't have believed you.

Bad bad bad bad bad

2011-08-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

horse owner.

Yesterday Jasper decided he didn't want to be caught. This happens every now and then, a flashback to the first two weeks after I brought him home and he wouldn't let anyone near him. He was in a pasture when I worked at the Ranch and the only way we could get our hands on him was to strategically position people throughout the pasture and keep him running until he decided he'd rather be part of the "herd" than to be exiled. Kind of reverse psychology, chasing him around with a halter and lead rope and cookies was useless. If he wanted to run away, we made him RUN AWAY.

It worked and he's hardly ever hard to catch anymore. Until yesterday. It didn't start off as a big deal, I entered his stall and he calmly turned around and trotted out into his giant paddock. Not wanting to play the game, I tied a rope across the opening in the fence that allows him into the smaller paddock area leading into his stall and swished the lunge whip around. Alexandre heard it and panicked (forgot about him being next door and being terrified of whips) and got all excited. Jasper bolted for his stall, picking up speed every stride and didn't see the rope until the last minute. He tried to stop and all I could see was a giant cloud of dust when he then decided to jump it. Luckily the rope was not tied tight and came undone, but not after pulling the fence post sideways. When the dust cleared my horse was standing on 3 legs.

Besides a few rope burns on his legs he didn't look too bad. He was limping horribly but putting weight on it. I gave him a couple grams of Bute and started cold hosing the hurt leg. I couldn't see the source of the pain until about 45 minutes later when his knee started swelling up.

Sigh. I called the vet and she said cold hosing/ice Bute was what to do. She's pretty sure it's a soft tissue injury and said to plan on taking care of it for the next week. If it got worse she'd come out and take xrays.

I drove up today and was really surprised to see he had two front legs. I thought he would have a leg and a tree trunk. The swollen knee looks almost exactly the same as when I left it yesterday. More cold hosing and Bute, although I didn't notice any difference after 20 mins. of cold water running over it.

I was planning on taking him for a x-country schooling on Thurs. Then possibly doing the XC/stadium/dressage clinic with Karen O'Neal on the 13th & 14th. And THEN possibly signing up for the Stanton Farm Horse Trials the 26th-28th. It's a "real" (USEA) event and the only one on this side of the mountains in Washington.

So now I don't know, even if it heals up in a week I don't know that we'd have enough time to get ready. The last time he did XC was last summer. The closing date for Stanton is the 9th and I'm sure not going to send an entry in if there's any chance he's seriously injured or in pain. I've never dealt with a knee injury although strangely the feeling I get from people is that it's not that big a deal since he's walking on it. We'll see.

Jumping lesson!

2011-07-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

We trailered out to Busy Bee Ranch & Landfill (I always have to type that out, it cracks me up) for a jumping lesson this afternoon. Jasper, as usual, was a sweaty shaking mess when we got there but surprisingly he calmed down after I walked him around for 15 minutes. Like really calm. Like standing tied at the trailer without pawing or screaming. He let me groom and saddle him without knocking me over.

I dunno, it was hot.

Walked up to the jumping arena and there was no mounting block so I got on from the ground. And he stood there. First. time. ever.

It was hot?

We warmed up and Regina asked me if when I'm posting the trot if he likes it when I'm sitting or standing. Huh? She repeated her question and I admitted I didn't know, but that I've always tried to stay off his back because he's a baby. Um, was. Is?

So I started posting the trot sitting heavy like I had a 200 pound weight on my head pushing me down. He started using his hind end, back legs coming up underneath him. Then I switched it up and put all the emphasis on the rising part of the trot. He went back to his normal choppy trot stride.

THAT was a big breakthrough. All horses are different. Some like you to sit, some like you to stand. He responds when I sit and tries to bounce me out of the saddle.

On to trot poles and I got in trouble for not sitting in the down part of the posting and letting him bounce me out of the saddle. The second time it totally clicked. Connection.

We did some simple low stuff, talked about position when jumping which I totally needed (man it's nice to have eyes on the ground)!!!

We ended by doing trot-canter transitions. He had a lot of trouble with these before when I was riding with Jessica, and we found something that worked. I would kind of let him trot into them by giving him "get ready" cues for 2 or 3 strides then sit and ask. By that time he was ready to canter and would simply fall into the canter simply and smoothly. Success meant he didn't come off the bit. Yes, it's a good way to teach babies (especially TBs apparently) how to canter. I found out we're not a baby any more, and he basically does the transition and 3 strides later is on his forehand.

We would trot, and canter 2 or 3 strides or until he went on the forehand, then transition to trot again. Trot a few steps and ask for canter by sitting (there's that sitting word again), rinse and reapeat. And... he got it. He really did. It was easier for him to canter using his hind end than to do all those dang transitions. We got at least 3/4 of a circle each direction in the end.

Gooooooooood booooooooooooooooooooooy!!

It's great because I feel like I have lots of homework I can do on my own for quite a while. I am an eventer, after all. :)

As far as the tongue over the bit, Regina suggested something made out of rubber. Possibly a straight type of bar. Anyone have any experience with these? Is there really a difference between the Happy Mouth and the Nathe (besides $50 and that they're shaped slightly differently)? I know people rave about the Nathes.

I'm also looking into the Australian noseband.

Happy Mouth $25

Nathe $75

Bit FAIL

2011-07-06T22:11:00.001-07:00

Two years later and Jasper still sticks his tongue over the bit. I've been on every horse chat board known to mankind and no one seems to have any real solutions other than tying his tongue down. I've tightened his bridle up, made it loose, used those rubber ports, and tried all kinds of humane bits for his pathetically small mouth. He has a nice thin KK Ultra ($ca-CHING$), a nice thin French Link, and even a Myler. He goes about the same in all of them, nice and light with his tongue sticking in and out of the side of his mouth. I don't use nosebands other than for shows. I don't believe in clamping horses' mouths shut and it's not a solution to the root of the problem. Plus he gets his tongue over the bit with the anyway, they just don't stick out of his mouth as far. (I use a flash for dressage).

I found this bit and decided to give it a try. It's a 3 piece bit with a piece that sits on top of his tongue so he has to keep it in place. I put it on pretty snug.

It looks like a big D-ring when it's on.

He chomped and chomped at it trying to get his tongue over the top. After awhile I got on and walked and trotted around on a loose rein. Gradually I took up pressure on the reins and he slowed waaaaaay down, to the point I was pony kicking. A thoroughbred. We went around like this for a while and I finally asked him to stop.

What? What is that sticking out of the side of his mouth?

I jumped off.

Fail.

Get in meh BELLY

2011-07-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

Came back from a couple of weeks away and my horse has a BELLY. B-E-L-L-Y. He was galloping around the arena like a mad man and I couldn't even see any ribs.

I don't see no stinking hip bones.

^SEE? Belly!!
Oh, Mr. Hard Keeper... I knew you'd break someday.

Running when you're this fat makes you have to take a lot of rolling breaks. It doesn't stop you from running, just requires more breaks. We're at about 4 layers of sweat and dirt, sweat and dirt, sweat and dirt here.

Quick Update.

2011-06-17T00:14:00.001-07:00

It's still raining. It's the middle of June and we haven't hit 80 degrees yet. I don't mind the temperature, I'd rather have 65 than 95, but the rain makes riding without an indoor difficult. So between the weather & the virus outbreak, we've not done much. The Icebreaker jumping show and the Deep Creek Derby were both canceled due to EHV, but we wouldn't have been ready anyway.

In recent news Jasper's legs have decided to swell up. It started with both of his hinds, then moved to left hind and front, and now is left hind and both fronts. It seems to get better with exercise but doesn't completely go away. The only change has been that he's now in a paddock with grass, but the vet didn't think that would be the cause of it. At first it was like his legs were stocked up, and now they're more swollen higher up. He doesn't seem at all unsound or unhappy so it's a mystery. I did get shoes put on him because he is so footsore from all the moisture.

In Alexandre news, he is still in rehab. Being ridden at the walk now, maybe a little trotting. He still has a big knot right above his left hind pastern that looks like it's permanent. He doesn't seem to favor it. As he will be a trail horse for the rest of his life I think it's going to be OK.

Grace came out to help rehab both of them- walked Alexandre around the round pen then out and around the arena, and walked Jasper around bareback with a halter & lead rope. (It was one of Jasper's mellow days- he DOES have them every now and then).

Grace & Alexandre- they're both smiling. :)

Bryon came out and helped rehab too.

Rehab is hard and requires a lot of fuel replacement.

Jasper's mug is in the news today.

2011-05-19T16:41:00.001-07:00

Of all the crazy things... there is a picture of Jasper in the news today.

Spokesman Review

Valley Chapel is an out-of-the-way little boarding facility off the beaten path, not even listed in the phone book. I have no idea why a reporter went out there, or of the 40 horses why he was chosen for a photo shoot, but it's Jasper's 15 minutes of fame! (The story is about the herpes virus, Jasper is not sick nor are any of the horses at Valley Chapel).

I am quite fond of the completely random. This definitely tops the list.

ETA: Fri: Aaaaaaand made the front page of the paper today.

(ETA ETA: Apparently today he's in the Wall Street Journal- Sat.)

Front Page

Lisa Talbott of Valley Chapel Farms checks on Jasper, one of her boarding horses, on Thursday. A virus has forced many horse owners and boarding operations to keep their horses away from events until the health issue passes.

May 20, 2011

Deadly equine virus hits Washington

Horses, alpacas and llamas at risk of disease

Three cases of a virulent strain of the equine herpes virus have been reported in Washington state, prompting horse owners to take precautions against spread of the disease.

The Spokane Lilac Association reported Thursday that seven of its 15 equestrian entries in Saturday’s Armed Forces Torchlight Parade have canceled as a precaution.

Some of the area’s horses were exposed at recent competitions in Ogden, Utah, and Clarkston, Wash., said Mike Dedmon, vice president of parades for the Lilac Association.

“I’d rather stop the spread than have them coming here,” he said.

One of the Washington cases occurred at the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

That horse was admitted to the hospital for unrelated problems, but the virus was later detected. The horse had competed at the National Cutting Horse Association Western National Championships in Ogden about two weeks ago.

In a recent letter, state veterinarian Leonard Eldridge said the infection was a variant of the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) known to cause extreme neurological complications and death.

Voluntary quarantines, veterinarian monitoring and other precautions are recommended for horses that were exposed, he said.

Confirmed cases must be reported to the state veterinarian’s office at (360) 902-1881.

“This is a reportable disease,” said Charlie Powell, public information officer for the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine.

The WSU veterinary hospital has been under a voluntary quarantine, not accepting any new equine or camelid patients except in dire emergencies. Camelids include alpacas and llamas.

“This virus is so contagious,” Powell said. It spreads through sneezing, whinnying and other contact. The virus can survive on tack gear or even shovels to infect other horses.

Its incubation period is two to 14 days.

Powell recommended that horse owners limit their animals’ travel for the next few weeks so the outbreak can be stemmed.

Humans, livestock and pets are not at risk, Powell said.

In Colbert, the McKinlay & Peters Equine Hospital treated a horse that had symptoms of the disease, but that horse was sent home for quarantine and the hospital is under quarantine and taking precautions.

The horse had been at one of the competitions to which the virus was traced, a spokeswoman there said. The hospital was awaiting results of a lab test to determine if the horse was infected.

Lilac Parade officials are taking steps to protect horses during the parade. A veterinarian will be on hand. Equestrian entries will be spaced at least 50 feet apart in staging areas.

Dedmon, in a letter to equestrian entrants, asked that horses that attended the Ogden event stay home.

In the Spokane area, stable owners are taking steps to halt the spread of the disease.

At Valley Chapel Farms south of Spokane, owner Lisa Talbott notified horse owners that the facility was closed to incoming horses and asked that horses at the farm be kept there for the next two weeks as a precaution.

She said she is not concerned about the virus spreading there because “we are more of a recreational facility” rather than a stable for competitive horses.

However, she noted in an email that almost all horse events have been canceled for the time being and many stables have been “locked down.”

The Kitsap Sun reported that equestrian entries were pulling out of Bremerton’s Armed Forces Day Parade on Saturday.

One of the confirmed Washington cases was reported in Snohomish County.

The neurological strain of EHV-1 was first identified in 1971. Treatment is available, but may not always be effective, Powell said.

For more information, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a guide to understanding the neurological form of EHV infection. Also, visit www.vetmed.wsu.edu/.

Jumping!

2011-04-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

We went to a Pony Club benefit jumping day at Busy Bee Equestrian yesterday. They had a great idea- we paid $10 to enter and bought tickets for $2 a piece. Every time you wanted to take your horse in for a round you gave a ticket and could either follow the course that was posted or take 90 seconds to jump anything you wanted.

Jasper jumped right in the trailer yesterday morning, and by the time we got to my friend's barn to pick up her horse was sweating and shaking, as usual. He is so nervous in trailers and seems particularly nervous in mine. It's huge- I had to get an extra tall extra wide extra long 2 horse straight load so Alexandre could fit in it. Aluminum so my dad's wimpy truck can pull it. Maybe it's too big for him? I don't know, it does seem loud. I've duct taped all loose parts down to reduce noise. He's much, much better when there is another horse by him. He rode in a 2 horse straight load almost every day last year at this time when I was grooming for Jessica in order to get from her house to the barn, so I don't think it's a desensitization issue. I drive like a snail. I just don't know what else to do to make him more comfortable.

Melissa's horse loaded right up and rode great and by the time we got to Busy Bee they had started the trot pole class. Which went on for hours, literally. I had the lower enormous sand outdoor all to myself to warm up in- NO MUD!!! That was worth the trip right there. Our warm ups usually go like this:

Me: trot
Jasper: canter?
Me: no, trot.
Jasper: canter?
Me: no, we're trotting now.
Jasper: canter here?
Me: trot
Jasper: canter now?
Me: no.
Jasper: canter, right?
Me: no.
Jasper: okay, canter...
Me: no.

In Jasper's warm-up world, there are many cues for canter. A weight shift, a circle, a leg yield, a spook, a loud noise, a moldy hay bale, an eye twitch, a leaf floating by...

And then finally we canter. The arena is HUGE. I got in 2 point and let him canter the length of the arena right down the middle. By the 3rd or 4th time he had finally relaxed and I called it good. Maybe I should start out cantering, it just seems like we should have some sort of connection and responsiveness to leg first. Something to think about.

By the time we got up to the jumping arena the trot pole class was still happening. I took him in the warm up amongst lots and lots and lots of horses and he was great. We must have walked 50 laps until it was our turn to go in. I was thinking trot poles, schmot poles but hey, it was only 2 bucks so why not. Turns out there were horse eating jump parts set out for later use in the arena and he wouldn't even go near the far end. The trot poles themselves were not a problem, but going near the grey wall was. Eventually got through the course and then went around again leading Melissa's horse Mister who had never seen a jump course in his life. He was fantastic and didn't spook at anything.

The 12" course also took hours. Seemed like it anyway. We led Grace and Margie through once and they did great. Cantered around a second time and the spooking got a little better. After the 12" class things started thinning out and we jumped up to 2'3 basically over the same course as they raised the jumps. At 2'6 they put in a roll top, barrels, and a brush box. I really wasn't sure about any of it, and we had some hard looks and a few hesitant strides, but he went over everything the entire day without any refusals. Didn't always get our striding right and I did ask him to chip in rather than rush and leap. I am beginning to trust him more, and I'm sure the reverse is true as well. It's starting to feel like we might be developing a partnership. :)

Wettest spring EVER.

2011-04-07T09:32:00.001-07:00

The other day someone asked me if I blog a lot. Lately every blog would pretty much read "it rained today" thrown in with a little "I cleaned Jasper's stall" and "I let him run around in the muddy outdoor arena". This week I could have added "hurricane force arctic wind is fun". Riveting, I know.

BUT, this Saturday might be blog worthy! A pony club is offering their arena for a jumping practice day. Ground poles on up. You pay $10 and then $2 a round. The question is, am I crazy to take a horse I haven't ridden all spring to this? Maybe. But it's in an indoor arena, and I figure at least I can actually ride! Maybe we'll just do lots of trot pole and crossbar rounds. It's not judged or anything.

One of my friends from high school just got a new horse and she wants to go so yesterday we hooked up her Suburban to my trailer and filled up the tires. I also took a look at Jasper's mane:

And realized how horribly out of control it is. It's super thick and grows equally on both sides. I really didn't feel like pulling it (especially in rain and wind) so I took thinning shears and chopped it off. There is a reason you should NEVER DO THIS. Think cross between a Thelwell's pony and a Norwegian Fjord. Yeah. Do I care enough to fix it? Probably not. Not until I actually have to put it in braids.

This could be fun!

Um.

2011-03-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2011/03/105.shtml

Tack Swap Score

2011-03-12T20:06:00.001-08:00

Went to the annual 4-H tack swap this weekend. It's a HUGE event around here. I took a bunch of stuff in on Friday to sell, and got up at the butt crack of dawn on Sat. to get there early. I got a "get in an hour before everyone else" ticket for $20 it was SO worth it. They only let 100 people buy them and it was like having the whole place to ourselves for an hour. You are literally elbow to elbow once the masses enter.

I actually found an eventing saddle. I couldn't believe it when I saw it sitting there in all it's forward flap goodness. Most of the english saddles there are cheap all purposes made in Argentina. It's in good shape and fits Jasper pretty well. It has a spring seat and I was surprised when I sat on it that it squished down quite a bit, but still clears his withers.

I can't believe how clean he looks in this pic. I was too excited to try the saddle on so he's not even brushed.

Unfortunately it doesn't fit me. It has very minimal padding on the flap and nothing underneath, not even blocks. My knee didn't come close to making contact with it and my lower leg kept scooching forward so I was in chair seat position.

But, I have velcro knee blocks on my Ansur Konklusion. I took those off and took everything to the saddle shop. They're sewing velcro underneath to I can attach the blocks and see if it fills in the gap between my leg and the saddle. Has anyone else ever had that problem? I used to ride in a Crump that had a plain flap with no padding whatsoever on my QH mare and it was fine. Maybe it's his conformation and skinny shoulders or something?

If not I'm pretty sure I can get my money back, it was a steal! (I'd really like a Jeffries Flyover.) I also got a pair of Ariat full seat breeches in great condition and a pair of Tropical Riders that are a bit too big but nice if you fold the waistband down. Oh, and a pair of Tailored Sportsmans that were too big but were only $5!!! I gave them to a friend. Plus I sold almost everything I took, I got back more money than I spent. :)

One Trick Pony

2011-03-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

This is Grace. She is teaching Jasper to give at the poll, something I never did with him. Yay! Jasper now knows a trick. We will probably celebrate with running and bucking when the ground dries out. Which could be in a million years.

Grace is my new student, but not in the horse world. She is taking all of her Freshman high school classes online this semester, and I'm helping her get through them. Yesterday she came with me to the barn and started working with Jasper while I cleaned his stall. Luckily we have a horse connection...! She just started her own horse blog called Bucks-A-Penny featuring Margie, a 13.2h palomino POA pony she's taking dressage and jumping lessons on.

She has offered to work with Jasper on the ground. Teach him a thing or two.

Goooooooood boy.

A Snowy Gallop and ...Trails?

2011-02-28T16:05:00.000-08:00

Winter wonderland has returned here to Spokane. Saturday's high was 17 I think so I didn't really even bother to leave the condo. I'm staying with my mom as my house has mold issues and the insurance/contractor are trying to get their -stuff- together so it can get fixed. Stalling? Noooooooooooo, surely not. My parent's have cable tv, which is about a million stations I've never even heard of before. It's like crack.

Sunday was a little warmer and I thought I could ride around on the driveway that loops around the barn as the arenas are slippery and full of snow. Unfortunately the driveway was really slick from cars packing the snow down, so the only option was to head out on the trail and through the frozen snowy hay fields.

We hit the first hay field at a very brisk walk. He asked to trot. We trotted, he asked to canter multiple times until I let him. There was about a foot of snow but he didn't seem to be slipping or sliding around, and by the time he was allowed to canter we were at the base of a hill that connects to another hay field. I let him stretch out a little, which was pretty exciting for both of us, and once we hit the top of the hill he very reluctantly came back down to a walk.

The next field is a lot bigger, and instead of following the trail that loops around to the left he chose to head for the biggest, longest, steepest hill at a trot. Then a canter. Up, up, up we went... I braced my hands at the base of his neck and he settled into a nice rhythm through the field. Until the terrifying pile of brown stuff showed up. He spooked, but I'm pretty sure it was just an excuse to take off. It's the first time he's taken off with me. With each bound I'm sure the 100s of acres were calling to him, telling him "look at how much space there is, go faster! faster! faster!" Luckily he's really not that strong (as in determined) and I got him pulled up before things got really out of control. We circled back and oh, the brown stuff is not that scary after all. Here, let me step through it. Then we cantered NICELY for a little bit more to prove we could. Then had a discussion about walking and NOT prancing. One of my biggest pet peeves, the prancing thing. After we got out of the field and onto a narrow trail in the woods he relaxed quite a bit.

All in all the ride was probably 20 minutes. The last 10 were on a loose rein through the woods and back to the barn. He walked through the last field, down the hill, and back to the barn with no problems. Got lots of and lots of praise. Gotta end on a good note.

What are your trail expectations? When you are on a trail ride or out hacking do you have a different set of rules for your horse than when you're in an arena?

My expectations on trails are that my horses walk on a loose rein. I don't care how fast they walk (mine always seem to be speed walkers), or if the meander around a little bit, but they may not prance or break gait without permission. Alexandre (not mine anymore) often stops to take in the views, especially when he's on top of a hill or overlooking a valley. He stops on his own to catch his breath on hills and will continue on when he's ready. He also "S" curves down the trail and sometimes chooses to walk through the woods. He's always happy and interested in his surroundings. I know I could keep him on the straight and narrow, but I let him choose his own path cause he enjoys it.

Jasper is not as confident as Alexandre, and is still learning how to stay on a trail. When he wonders off into the woods, which happens often, it's because he gets distracted by, well... everything. I try to use leg pressure to keep him on the trail rather than reins. I let him meander off into the woods every now and then, and he often gets himself in situations that he can't get out of (uh, gee, there's a big downed tree here and bushes on all sides, uh, duh. Or hey, I'm on top of a cliff of shale, can't really walk down that, uh...) but I figure he'll learn how to plan ahead and find a path eventually. I like to let horses use their brains and make decisions for themselves as much as possible. Alexandre can be in the deepest, darkest woods and can always find a way out. Jasper's just learning to walk through the woods and not get stuck.

And I almost always have light/medium contact at the trot and canter as the need for speed requires half halts.

Do you ride on a loose rein? Keep contact? Are you in control of your horse's every move? Let them make decisions and think for themselves?

Running and bucking and riding, oh my...

2011-02-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Jasper's scar is pretty much as healed up as it's going to get. You can still see where line where the skin was stitched together and there are a few extra folds here and there, but the hair is growing back and after that it will be almost invisible.

Last weekend I wanted to ride, it has been almost 2 months and we needed to start out slow, like walking for 10 minutes at first and building up. The problem was that I wasn't ready to head down the road and the smaller arena is still muddy and slick with a few areas of super muck. I decided there are two ways to look at it. One is that the arena is dangerous because it is muddy and slick, and if Jasper freaks out/bolts/bucks/etc. he has a high possibility of slipping/falling/injuring us. The other is that the arena is muddy and slick and Jasper would have enough self-preservation to NOT freak out/bolt/buck/etc. I decided to trust him and go with the second train of thought.

He was basically a good boy. Tense but good. Couldn't stand still after mounting (nothing new here), and had a few moments of feeling rein pressure and shaking his head and rooting. Even did a few trot steps on the dry stretch. He was trying really hard to be good. The horses in the pasture by the arena started trotting around and he totally jumped inside his own skin, then stopped himself from reacting, jump stop jump stop jump stop. I know my adrenaline was through the roof but in the end he kept it together and walked off.

This past week I only got out to the barn a couple of times and took him to the larger outdoor at the bottom of the hill. He went ballistic. Sprinting down the sides, sliding and hopping and bucking around the short side, then gathering speed into a full out fast-as-you-can-go sprint down the long side again. Throw in many bucks and kicks, grunts and squeals. I don't encourage him. I just stand in the middle of the arena and watch in awe, and cringe as the end of the arena gets closer and closer and he hasn't checked his speed yet. And as he hits a slick spot and slides around.

Since he was free lunged yesterday, and because there were other people around, I decided to try riding in the larger outdoor. The smaller one is a swamp. It was... exciting. He was pretty much looking for any excuse to increase speed. Many, many, many very nice but not asked for canter transitions. There are lots of reasons for cantering. Slight inclines, circling, slight declines, going down the long side, going down the short side, cues for leg yielding, tripping, sliding, going by the pole bending poles, going over the trot poles, going by the barrels, going by the people sitting at the picnic table. A gust of wind. Another horse trotting. Someone opening a gate. I found myself laughing out loud a couple of times, I mean come on, doofus!

For the most part I ignore the bad and praise the good. I ride through the small bucks and crow hops and back legs kicking out. I ride through the head shaking and spooks. When we are heading for complete meltdown though, I circle. When he stops, the head goes up and and shakes and he starts jackhammering with all 4 legs I pull his head to my leg and circle. It works for me. It allows him to keep moving but keeps him on the ground. Usually he stops on his own, I release, pause for a few moments to regroup, and then continue on in whichever gait we were in before meltdown. I'm pretty sure I would be criticized for this by many people except cowboys... but I feel like it keeps me from getting into battles with him.

And he feels sound. This was reinforced when he was good for an entire circle so I got off and removed his tack. He ran and ran and ran, (dripping with sweat and foam in a full winter coat, ugh) and for the first time since the injury stayed on the right lead for extended lengths of time. It was his right fore that was injured, and up till now would canter and gallop around on the left lead only.

So now I need to start riding consistently and start building muscle back up. Start treating him like an out of shape horse rather than an injured one. I believe that Jasper is back. Woot!

I'm not exactly what he's doing here other than frantically digging. When he's bored he walks up to you, enters your space bubble, and starts pawing. Soooo (ahem) 'cute'.

Freedom & an Indoor!

2011-02-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

I wish I would have had a video camera the day Jasper got his run back. It was lightly raining and muddy, but I decided to let him out anyway since it was supposed to keep raining for the next couple of days and it was time for him to get out of his stall. The vet did give me the option of riding him at a controlled walk before turning him out, but when I explained it would have to be down the driveway or out on a trail we both agreed to let the little velociraptor have his run back first.

I put him back in his stall after rearranging the fence line. He calmly walked out and it took him a minute to register there wasn't a gate holding him back from freedom anymore. His run is huge, kind of a small paddock and runs the entire length of the outdoor arena. Have you seen those cartoons where the character spins out, dirt flying up behind them but they don't go anywhere? I was plastered with mud and dirt chunks while he tried to grab hold of the footing and accelerate from 0 to 60 in 2 seconds flat. The bucking, crow hopping, squealing, grunting, sliding, and airs above ground that followed were definitely video worthy but I didn't even bring a regular camera. He looks good to me, granted it was a little hard to tell but he didn't seem to favor the right shoulder at all.

It's about a week later now and all of the swelling has gone down. I've taken him on a few more walks and velociraptor has turned back into brontosaurus. Still alert, but more interested in trying to eat the moldy dead weeds along the driveway. Seriously mellowed out.

And I got the best news ever from Norm, the barn owner. They're putting in an indoor arena!!! I think it's going to be 70x120 or close to it. It will completely change everything in terms of training when the weather is crappy. I can't imagine being able to ride all winter and spring, even when the footing is a big sloppy mess.

Sweeeeeeeet

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-01-25T22:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone that gave me this award... The Jumping Percheron, The Many Misadventures, Chasing the Dream, Living a Farmer's Life, and From Bones to Beauty.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

Hmm, 7 things about me? I think I've went over this before with the Honest Scrap award, so I'm going to try not to repeat myself.

1. Sometimes I like to think of myself as a bit of a "bad ass" but really I'm just a white girl who grew up in a middle class neighborhood, loved animals, and got good grades.

2. I like to go to punk rock concerts. (See #1)

3. People always think I'm younger than I really am.

4. I don't have kids. (See #3)

5. I love rocks and the metaphysical qualities they have. I can spend hours at rock shows. I got a Herkimer 'diamond' for Christmas, it's so cool!

6. I'm a down-to-earth Taurus with "woo woo" tendencies. (See #5)

7. I really appreciate this blogging community. I love all of the support I've received and the online blogger friends I've made. Writing things down helps me organize it in my head. Plus I like to go back and look at the progress Jasper and I have made. Sometimes it's hard to remember how far you've come until you go back and look at the picture of your horse jumping a 6" crossrail at about 3 feet. And how it took 6 very patient people and horses to get your horse close to the creek he has to cross to get to the competition grounds. I like that there's a place to post my photos, I'm a very visual person and a picture really does say a thousand words.

Here are some blogs I like, and I wanted to acknowledge those who leave awesome comments here. I know I don't always get back to you. Some of you have already gotten this award and written about it. Some are new, some are not. If your blog is listed here, consider yourself tagged. I tag you! Collect your award! Write about yourself!

Mugwump Chronicles
I is Roxie!
The Jumping Percheron
Eventing-A-Gogo
Always there are the Horses
The Many Misadventures
Mountain Music
Chasing the Dream
All Horse Stuff
Cross Country Dreamin'
A Year With Horses
The Equestrian Vagabond
Nina's Story
Living a Farmer's Life
Texas, of ALLLL Places
MiKael's Mania
Bobbie No Socks
Golightly Sport Horses
Adventures with an Ex-Racehorse
The Only Shining Star

And non-horse related but very entertaining:
Hyperbole and a Half (a MUST read)
The Blog of Becky: How Not to Live Your Life (sometimes she blogs about horses, excellent writer and very funny)

And we are hand walking.

2011-01-25T21:33:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd use this title in case anyone thought this might actually be an interesting post. HA! On this day, day 2 of rehab, we made 4 loops of the road around the outside of the arena. For the most part we walked, got excited, stopped, backed up, stepped sideways, walked again. On the far end of the arena, on the opposite side, are pastured horses. They saw Jasper coming and ran to the fence. THIS was very exciting to him. Then they proceeded to run down the fence line. It was more than he could take. However, he really only got in big trouble twice. I don't mind a few prancing steps or a few small leaps, but threatening to rear is a big no-no. I gave a few very hard yanks on the rope halter, a smack on the chest, backed him up, and told him to knock it off. The first time didn't seem to have much effect but the second time did. On the last loop he HELD IT TOGETHER the entire length of the arena (in a bug eyed quivering kind of way) while horses galloped, bucked, and snorted up and down the fence line next to him. I was floored. I really thought this was outside the realm of possibilities for this horse.

I think I may have hurt his feelings. He truly wasn't doing it out of defiance. He's been in a stall for 3 weeks. He's the horse that looks for any excuse to run and play, and when he runs he runs hard. Many times he doesn't need an excuse, he'll just be out there running. But he feeds off of other horses, and if there are horses in a pasture 2 fields away that are playing he feels it's his duty to join in. In his own way. I feel bad for him, I wish he could function in a group turnout.

The funny thing was that he THOUGHT about doing naughty things more than he actually did them. We would be walking along (at a brisk pace mind you), and all the sudden he would stop and throw his head in the air. In anticipation. Even though he didn't do anything. I ignored him and kept walking while muttering endearing things like "dopehead" under my breath.

Wow. That was a lot of writing about a 10 minute walk.

And the vet says...

2011-01-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

Alexandre & Jasper: "It's cookie time, right? As in NOW, right?"

The vet took Jasper's stitches out on Tuesday and said he's healing well and really fast. She said she was surprised at how good it looks and that she was expecting it to look a lot worse at this point. It looks like he is always going to have a bump there where the muscles pooched out, but it doesn't look like it is in a place that will bother him or rub.

So... phew.

He's stallbound at the moment, but hopefully the BO will be able to make him a little makeshift "run" off his stall this weekend. We're talking 8x8 or 10x10, just enough space he can get outside and to the waterer. It's mostly to help him transition to being outside again without going ballistic. Uh, we'll see. On Monday I can start hand walking him 5-10 minutes a day. I have mental pictures of me flying a kite, my horse floating above me over treetops and in the clouds...

Though I have to give the little guy a lot of credit. He has been a star patient. This is a horse that flinches and acts like you've just beaten him when you pull a scab off or even just a snowball off his fetlock hairs. He requires a soft gooey curry and soft brushes. He can stand in one place for about 10 seconds before moving sideways.

He let me clean out the wound every day. Because it was so deep I had to squirt syringe-fulls of saline solution into it to help it drain and heal. I used warm water and rags to clean around the stitches and wipe up all the drainage, it was not pretty. I used freezing cold water from the hose and a lot of soap to clean up the rest of his leg. He didn't move a muscle. He put his head down and went into a zone and didn't move until I was done. It was amazing.

Alexandre got a lameness exam. He's now on 3-4 months stall rest (4 months because he technically has a small 'run' off his stall), and his new owners got Adequan for him. I think this is awesome. He really, really, really objects to shots so that part could be interesting. He is also on 5-10 minutes of hand walking, although only if he actually walks. If not back into his stall he goes.

I highly recommend Dr. Jackie Anderson. She's excellent.

Alexandre has a new family.

2011-01-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite pics in Glacier National Park where we led trail rides for a season.

Alexandre officially has a new family today though they've been leasing him since summer. Kerstin, Jens, and their daughter Sharon have won over Alexandre's heart with love, cookies, and trail rides. I was initially not sure how a lease situation would work out since I'm pretty much the only one that's ridden him (with some exceptions- thank you Karlin and a few others) in the past 11 years and he is VERY particular about which humans are allowed in his space. Very, very particular.

We decided to give at a try and throughout the summer Alexandre went on a trail ride almost every day, sometimes two. They rode him. Friends and relatives from Germany showed up and rode him. Exchange students rode him. Everyone loved him, but how could you not? He is gorgeous and huge and impressive and has good manners. He has 11 years of semi-professional-ish training. He loves trail rides and walks along on a loose rein, interested in his surroundings and happy to be alive.

About mid-summer they asked if I would sell him and my immediate answer was "no." I didn't even hesitate. Too many memories, too many hurdles hurdled, too much trust build up between us. Too many horror stories of horses ending up in bad situations after they're sold. Even though it was a perfect situation for my 18-year-old guy. Even though I didn't have time for him and he is waaaaaaaay too good of a horse to be retired in a pasture somewhere. Even though he would be staying at the same barn as Jasper and I could still see him everyday and could take him out on a ride every now and then.

Then one day they pulled up and as they were getting out of the car he nickered to them. He doesn't really nicker, but makes a "huh huh huh huh huh" sound like a Harley motorcycle starting up. He was theirs already. We talked logistics and they wanted to continue to ride him and would then eventually retire him. They are in the process of buying a house practically next to the barn with 20 acres that can be fenced. They are willing to make payments on him even though he pulled a tendon and is on 3 months stall rest.

So. It was not an easy decision. I battled with it for a long time, but he is going to an awesome, loving family and it really is the perfect situation for him. There is a right of first refusal in the contract, so if anything goes awry he will come back to me. Man, it is hard to give up that last little bit of control though. Lots of big life changes for me lately. I'm glad this is a positive one even if it's brought a few tears. So here's to his new official family, congratulations on being Alexandre's new caretakers. He is truly an amazing horse and I know he will continue to bring you joy and many, many memories.

More about Alexandre

Mindy Lou, April 28, 1984- Jan. 8, 2011

2011-01-09T17:50:00.001-08:00

Jet's Paradox (Mindy Lou) & me at WSU in the early 90's.

At age 26 and after 25 years together, Mindy was put to sleep last night. She laid down and didn't want to get back up. Her legs were arthritic and she was tired. Pam, Chuck, Jackie, Bridgitt, Anke and I surrounded her with love and let her go.

Mindy

A wise old soul with a huge heart. You raised 2 little girls and helped us become who we are today, while touching so many others along the way. My life was changed forever the day I saw you standing in the pen with your big eyes and the bottom of your tail chewed off. We made it through junior high, high school, and college together, I don't think I could have made it through college without our midnight bareback rides through the fields while I told you of some tragedy or another, usually about boys. I'm glad you're in a place where there's no pain. I look forward to seeing you again when we can gallop down dirt roads so fast tears blur my vision and the pounding of your hooves matches the rhythm of my racing heart.

Look Ma, Four Legs

2011-01-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

...have weight on them. Pain meds please.

WARNING: graphic picture below.

The white stuff is just Neosporin. It's draining really, really well.

At what point?

2011-01-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

At what point do people just not want to hear anymore? I know everyone has their limits to how much "stuff" they can handle from someone else. In some ways I feel like I should just start keeping everything to myself, and in other ways it seems to help to be able to talk about it. So I don't know. It's not about sympathy, it's not even 'poor me', it's like things build up to a critical mass and something has to give. I'm lucky to have some friends that don't seem to be too overwhelmed by me right now and are pretty much willing to talk whenever. A lot of the time it's not even talking about my dad, who had a massive stroke the day after Thanksgiving, but just talking. It's good to sit and listen to someone else's day. It really seems to be the only thing that can get my mind off of things.

My old girl, Mindy Lou, is 26. She was my first horse and I got her when I was 13 and she was a yearling. I wrote a tribute to her here. This winter has been hard on her, and she had a bad night on the 23rd where she laid down for too long and her body temp dropped to 94. It's supposed to be 100. Her back legs weren't working very well. The vet said it's up to her to stand up before morning. With an electric blanket and comforters and blankets from Pam's house her body temp got back up to normal and she stood up on her own a little after midnight. She seems to be doing OK, kind of back to just being an old horse, although is going to be in a stall with hand walking until the temperatures warm up. I remember when I was overseas and couldn't sleep I would think about showing Mindy to relax. That point in a class where you've scoped out all the competition in your peripheral vision and KNOW you've won the class. And know that your horse won't take a wrong step, will go through all the puddles, and will do a halt to canter transition if need be. Made even sweeter by the fact that your dad, who knew nothing about horses, got up at 4:30 every horse show morning and hooked up the old orange truck to the 1968 green 2-horse to get you there. And carried water buckets. And mom would show up to "help" although her version of holding a horse was following it around letting it eat hay from hay bags tied to other people's trailers. And that you trained your own horse through a lot of trial and error, and often placed higher than the trainer you took lessons from.

Poor Alexandre had 30 days of stall rest because he was off on his left hind. After 30 days he was let back out into his paddock and re-injured it. It looks like he's back in a stall for but for 3 months this time. Luckily the people that are buying him are caring, patient souls.

Jasper's stall and paddock look like Armageddon. There are bloodsickles everywhere. The stretch of white vinyl fencing is dripping with frozen blood, there's blood on the electric fence, there's blood on the walls and floor of his stall and in his feeder. A LOT of blood. There was not a scratch on him. No dried blood in his nose or cuts in his mouth. He had to have sneezed it out due to the spray patterns on the fence. Hopefully it was just a bloody nose. He was not appear to be in any distress at all. Bright eyed, eating, drinking, playing, and doing his normal running and bucking up and down the fence line when people took their horses into the arena that shares a fence line with his paddock. (The other boarders realllllllllly like that).

Today he really and mysteriously injured himself. He has a huge gouge in his right front arm pit. The vet was able to stick her whole hand up in it. She had to suture muscle and skin. His whole shoulder shakes. He's not putting any weight on it. He rears back, loads his hind end, and hops forward on his good front leg. He's locked in his stall, and I'm going out in the morning to see if he's putting weight on it. If not we'll do x-rays to see if there's a fracture. The problem is that the high today was 17 degrees and the x-ray machine's readout screen doesn't work in these temps. If there is a fracture it would be his Humerus, which is a major weight bearing bone in his leg/shoulder. There wouldn't be anything we could do.

I don't know. It seems like this would be enough, without stuff like my source of income ending sooner than I thought, or my (practically new metal) roof leaking, or the fact I hit a deer with my dad's car and knocked one of the mirrors off. Or the fact that school is starting tomorrow morning. Don't get me wrong, I know I have a lot to be grateful for, it's just that I'm feeling kind of numb at the moment.

And I think I may erase this pretty soon after I put it up.

I haven't been doing a lot of riding lately, but took Jasper out for our first walk in the snow yesterday. He loved it.

Photo Art

2010-12-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

The final project for my Visual Communication & Design class was to create an 8 page booklet with a corresponding poster about an event that was important to us. Guess what I did? Besides taking the instructions literally? The photos (except the last one of Jasper rolling) are from the event at Aspen Farms this spring. The poster is the last photo, it's pretty big in real life. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Theme song?

2010-11-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

So I was driving down the road yesterday listening to a remake of the song "Lollipop" and it became overwhelmingly obvious that this is Jasper's theme song. Not because of the lyrics but because it's simple, straightforward, and silly. And cute. I am learning to really appreciate these traits.

What would your horse's theme song be?

.

Rockin with Roxie

2010-10-17T19:20:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning I took pictures of Serena and Roxie jumping at a show. Roxie was a gooooooood guuuuuuurl. Then she came to Jasper's barn to go for a ride. Check out pix of the day here on Roxie's blog. Yes, she really is that big. (The horse, not the girl).

After a month off, Jasper was... BOING.

You know that riding-a-powder-keg feeling? I decided we'd better burn off some steam in the arena before we hit the trail.

hello? brains?

ahem.

Jasper & Roxie. All 8 feet not moving. Push the button fast! This feat was not difficult for Roxie. Jasper's tail is caught in mid-swish and head in mid-bob. But, all 4 feet still so WIN.

The barn manager and the barn owner's daughter were busy setting up a trail course. It included a horse-eating mattress, a horse-eating tarp, and horse-eating streamers. When you jumped the tarp and cleared it with miles to spare (because there is no way in HELL you're putting your little feet on a TARP, even though you've had tarp training up the ying yang after breaking your owner's finger over a TARP), you stop instantly upon landing for fear of getting too near the long flapping streamers. Oof says rider.

The streamers are alive.

They reach out and try to grab yer face.

They try to wrap their tendrils around you.

They shock yer nose with the power of a thousand suns.

After you have firmly made your point about how completely deadly they are it's best if you close your eyes and hold your breath and just go.

Phew.

Riding in South Africa

2010-09-12T23:25:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything about riding around the world... since last winter? I think I left off in Thailand which means South Africa is next. Why would I be writing about stuff in the past when the weather is PERFECT for outdoor adventures and we were supposed to be competing in our second recognized horse trials this weekend? Jasper cut his leg, then I got a "touch" of pneumonia so I've basically been in bed for the past 2 weeks somewhere in between going stir crazy and being in the lethargic drug induced state of not caring. I'm on day 2 of antibiotics so things should be looking up soon.

While living in Thailand my (then) boyfriend was a professional photographer and got an assignment in South Africa. I met him in Cape Town for a week or so before his assignment. This is Tower Mountain. You took a very long, very steep gondola ride to the top and then had unbelievable views.

Tower Mountain, Cape Town at the bottom.

When we got to the top, there were people actually rapelling off the side- the longest rappel in the world. The ropes went so far down the mountain you couldn't even see the people at the bottom. In the pic above if you look carefully you can see someone on their way down.

Of course I had to go, and Gordon being a good sport came along too. Here he is on the way down. It felt to me like we must have rappelled at least half way down the mountain. That was a huge error in judgement. When the rest of our group walked back to where the gondola picked them up, I told Gordon we should hike down the rest of the way.

Gordon, being a good sport, agreed after pointing out that there were no trails and the mountain was really steep. The guides could have cared less since it isn't America and they're not used to being sued. So we started off, clamboring over and around huge boulders and sliding down rocks. It was pretty fun for the first hour or so. After the third hour, it didn't look like we were any closer to the bottom than when we started. By the end of the descent all the muscles in my quads were a shivering mass of jelly and I could hardly walk for days.

What did I want to see (besides Cape Town) while in South Africa? Elephants. African ones. At the time I was completely and totally enamored with elephants (still am) and found a wild elephant reserve that we could get to in a couple of days by driving down the coastline. This was a great plan until I was sitting in the passenger's side of a rental car with the steering wheel in front of me. To make matters worse it was a stick- how exactly does one use their left hand to shift? And you have to WAIT to turn right? I got a little nervous and told Gordon he should drive first, being from Scotland, where they all drive on the wrong side of the road. Gordon informed me that he was from Edinburgh- a big city. You don't need to learn how to drive in a city, you take public transport.

Between the two of us, Gordon learning about gas and brake and me helping him shift and me learning to keep from driving into oncoming traffic, we made it to the reserve. People are very nice drivers in S. Africa and very forgiving. And what kept us from seeing wild African elephants for the first time? Horses, of course. Right next to the entrance to the reserve were horses for hire. Gordon didn't say a thing and pulled into the stable. Gordon doesn't ride horses, never has, and man did he get the ride of a lifetime.

It was just the 3 of us, me, Gordon, and the guide. The guide figured out I could ride and that Gordon was a good sport (a recurring theme here) and could hang on. We did a 3 hour ride in less than an hour and a half, walking, trotting, and galloping down the flat parts. The guide and I were both thrilled with how fast we had gone and Gordon was... stoic.

Gordon patting his horse and thanking him for getting it over with quickly.

Me happy that my addiction had been filled for a short time.

The next day we drove to the park and actually went in. We paid our entrance fee and got maps. You basically drove your car around on the dirt roads and looked for elephants. There were no guarantees you would see anything and a lot of the roads were closed due to water damage. We only had one chance since we'd spent the previous day riding and needed to head back to Cape Town the following day. We spent the day driving around, taking in the scenery, but no elephants. The sun was starting to go down, and although I was a little heartbroken was plotting a way back to the entrance when Gordon slammed on the brakes. There before us was this:

HUGE. Huge is really the only word that doesn't even begin to describe this creature. She was coming out of the bushes and onto the road and Gordon backed the car up so fast you couldn't tell he was a new driver. We sat there, mesmerized, and watched her watch us. Then more started to appear. One had a baby. She stopped in the middle of the road, looked at us, and started flapping her ears and making noise. I have never seen a grown man look so terrified. Or swear so loudly. "WHAT DO WE DO?" I told him to turn off the car, turn off the car, turn off the car it's making too much noise she doesn't like the noise but then how do we get out of here?

He turned off the car. It was a car very similar to my parent's old Volkswagen Rabbit, and the minute he turned off the motor the engine fan came on wheezing and whirling away. Again more swearing. By this time we were surrounded by about 10 elephants on all sides and more were appearing. I think at some point Gordon reached over and pushed the lock down on my door, which I found to be extremely funny but was too afraid of making noise to say anything or laugh. The standoff probably only lasted 5 minutes but felt like hours, and just as silently as they came they left back into the bushes.

I think the next country is Spain...

My Pretty Pony

2010-08-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a while! I can't get enough riding in the fall, winter, and spring. And then summer hits and it gets hot. And dry. And dusty. And all I want to do is be at the lake cabin.

A doctor told me recently that people with low blood pressure have trouble handling both heat and cold. That certainly explains a lot. And that we should eat lots of salt. Which I already was doing, I pretty much douse everything with salt. So the cabin is a haven from the heat of the city and is pretty much where I want to be when the temps. get over 80*.

Plus we had our annual family/friends week-long reunion the first week of August. And I've been taking an online computer graphics class that took about 20-30 hours a week to complete. Just finished that up Wed. (phew), so Jasper has had some time off.

I decided last weekend that I would move him from his stall with giant run down to the big field so he could run and play with the other horses and eat grass while I finished up my last big project.

I got a call from the barn owner yesterday morning. She was concerned because all the horses have been really mean to him and chase him away from the herd so he has to stand 200 yards away from everybody. Apparently when they go to get water Alexandre chases him halfway down the chute. I went out and he has chunks of hide missing. His right hind leg has a huge gash and is swollen from hock to hoof. I really believe in letting horses live as naturally as possible but this is ridiculous. He may just be too submissive to be in a herd situation. So he's back in his stall with run attached and is getting cold hosed every day. If his leg hasn't improved by Monday I'll call the vet. Of course I sent my entry in for the Stanton Farm Horse Trials (Sept. 11-12) the day before.

On another note I see Alexandre almost every time I go to the barn, the (extended) family that's leasing him loves him and takes him out on the trails almost every day. Sometimes twice a day. He seems happy and gets lots of cookies. There was a little girl out there yesterday riding him. Her mom said that there are tears if she doesn't get to ride Alexandre. After she got off he got a bath, groomed, and his long mane brushed out. You could tell she LOOOOOOOOOVED him, you know, that young girl infatuation for a horse that we all had when we were 12. It kind of brought up a few tears. Happy tears.

Stanton Farms Jumping Derby

2010-07-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Three jumping rounds- one jumpers, one cross country, and one stadium. No refusals, no poles down. A hugely successful day for the baby horse!

Instead of a dressage test, there was a jumpers round to start. In order for everyone to get ranked, whoever went the fastest set optimum time regardless of faults. Everyone else got time faults- every second over optimum time counted as a fault. Of course it would have been completely unfair of me to ask Jasper for speed and tight turns, so I rode it as a hunter course, used the whole arena, and tried to give him as long of an approach as I could to each fence. Sometimes it wasn't much as the course was curvy and there were some tight lines... but he got himself over everything often with room to spare. We had tons of time faults. Some of the jumps were completely covered with flowers which was new.

Round 1- Jumpers

The second phase was cross country. It was a nice course, inviting, and there was a very small bank, water, and a big deep dark ditch. I think Jasper realized it was a ditch after his front feet had already left the ground and it scared him. It was kind of like a cork coming out of a champagne bottle. The rest of the course rode really well, there were some some spooky things and he chose to trot into some of the fences but didn't suck back or act like he was going to refuse. It's almost like he just wanted more time to get a better look at things.

Cross Country

The last phase was a stadium round based on the rules for eventing. This round felt way better than the first.

Stadium

And Roxie was there for her first jumping show! Jasper recognized her from when we went to take a lesson with Betty last week. It was love at second sight and he had small fits of bucking and kicking in place when she left him. Which meant he stayed tied to the trailer longer than normal on multiple occasions. Hopefully her mom will post her videos because she was SUPER CUTE.

My parents and niece came to watch, my dad has become quite the videographer and took all the videos. We got a picture taken at the end of the show:

Ummmmmmm...

Hopeful Pics & Stanton Farms Derby this weekend...

2010-07-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

A few pics from the Hopeful HT...

He looks so shiny! And you can't see the giant bald spots and teeth marks all over his butt from when I tried to turn him out in the big field with all the other horses for a couple of days.

Serena and I are heading down to the Stanton Farm Derby this weekend. No dressage, all jumping. I'm not exactly how it all works, but the first round is a jumping round based on time and faults. I think there is a jump off if you go clean. Then a cross country round, then a stadium round based on the rules for eventing.

Jasper's had quite a bit of time off in the last couple of weeks. I plan on riding the stadium like hunter rounds (well, if you've seen us go maybe not hunter rounds exactly... but using the whole arena, hopefully a nice steady pace, and giving him a good approach to everything).

On another note, I had a jumping lesson with Betty Hirst last week. I started riding lessons with her when I was in the 3rd grade. I rode with her (on her lesson horses and then on my horse Mindy) through high school and hadn't been back in 15 years. It was crazy how much things were the same, so many memories from that place. Jasper was great and did his first bounces. She commented that he's pretty brave, apparently he didn't look at one of the jumps that a lot of other horses do.

Aspen Horse Trials XC & Stadium Videos

2010-07-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

The video arrived from Aspen today, yay! Both rides look about like they felt- XC was sketchy at first and then smoothed out. Awesomely smoothed out. Stadium started out sketchy and stayed that way. Ugh. Those fences look huge to me even in the video. He doesn't seem to have trouble with the actual height, but man they were intimidating and you can tell by how he leaps over everything. I think it proves how much heart he has! What a good boy. I do have a tiny bit of guilt, I think he was overfaced and maybe I should have pulled out. If I had, though, we wouldn't have gotten a chance to go XC as the stadium round was first... I don't think he was scarred too much as we had a pretty decent stadium round two weeks later at the Hopeful trials.

Stadium

Cross Country

Videos by Moving Images NW

Hopeful Horse Trials for the WIN!

2010-06-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hopeful Horse Trials put on by the Palouse Hills Pony Club (unrecoginzed)
June 25, 2010
Sat: BN Test A, XC, then Stadium

We pulled into the show grounds Friday evening after having a stressful 3+ hour trip due to truck problems. I was a nervous wreck and was ready for Jasper to be stressed out. I unloaded him from the trailer, he looked around, and started grazing. He wasn't exactly "ho hum," but was very chill in comparison to past trips. Found his corral, walked the XC course 2 times because I got lost the first time, and got a quick ride in as it was getting dark. Set up camp in the back of the trailer with a flashlight and Saturday morning came early.

My parents drove down to watch, it was great to have them there and neat that they got to see all 3 phases in one day.

Our dressage test was at 9am, had plenty of time to warm up and he seemed good. Spooked at the brick jumps set outside the dressage arena (this comes around again later in the day), spooked when he kicked up sand that hit the white vinyl arena markers and made a scary noise, and didn't pick up the left lead canter until about half way around the circle. I'm still not sure what happened there, he seemed forward and in front of my leg. He just wouldn't canter. I now wonder if he wanted to pick up the right lead instead and realized it was wrong, and then couldn't get his feet situated. My dad started video taping right after all this had happened, so here's the good half:

We got a 27. A 27! That's a 73% in regular dressage. It also confirmed that our score at Aspen wasn't a fluke. She didn't mark us down for any of the spooking and we got a 5 on the canter transition.

So THAT was fun, and we were leading. XC was next, and due to the torrential amounts of rain the TD decided to take one of the jumps out that was in the middle of a muddy bog. I was glad, I know it's cross country, but still. They also took the water complex out because the water level was too high for regulation levels. I was glad about that too, it was muddy and boggy all around the water and there was not a straight shot for BN. The course was really fun, mostly a single track trail up and down hills through the woods. Most of the jumps were inviting logs, with the bigger questions strategically placed in the warm up arena and the dressage arena where the footing was good. It was a great confidence builder for both of us. It was cute, I could tell when he saw the next jump- his head would go up, ears forward, and a hint of hesitancy. Then he'd just roll into it. They didn't time any of the XC due to the muddy footing in areas, and we were clean and still in the lead.

Showjumping was a twisty course that included our last XC fence. The jumps were not crazy maxed out like they were at Aspen, it seemed to be a 'normal' 2'6 course. He was great. Took quite a few long and I grabbed mane often, but overall was really great. You'll see him spook at the brick fence when we were supposed to be turning for the line down the diagonal and trot, I was yelling, "no, that one- THAT one dummy!" he saw it at the last minute and jumped it from a trot. It was his first time jumping flowers, there was a rainbow jump combination with lots of flowers, he took a GOOD look at that one!

When the announcer announced "Clear, no time penalties" it took a moment to realize we had just won! Woot!

Dad and Mom as support crew. Dad holding our new leather halter. Jasper expressing what he thinks about standing still for photos.

And then, get this- they give out an award at this show for the overall lowest score. We won! We got a blanket!

Jasper sporting his new halter and blanket, I think he looks good in periwinkle.

Anyway, if you're near the area, (Deary, Idaho) I highly recommend this event. It's very well organized, the people are friendly and accommodating, the footing in the arenas is excellent, and the XC courses are inviting and confidence building with some good questions built in.

Gearing up

2010-06-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

for the Palouse Hills Pony Club's event derby this weekend. It's about 2 hours south, and the BN division does all 3 phases on Saturday. I suppose we're ready, since we've been home I haven't gotten much riding in due to the footing. Eternal spring in the Northwest has been dumping rain and turns the arena into wet slippery goo. I actually just found out about this event and mailed my registration in at the last minute, it will be good miles for us. We're driving down Friday and staying the night, hopefully Jasper will eat. (Please eat buddy, it's good for you!)

Opportunities like this are few and far between on the dry side of the state. There's another event derby in July in the same area, (Serena and Roxie might come with us... woo hoo!) and then Stanton Farm's recognized event in September. Rumor is there might be a few XC schooling opportunities out at Deep Creek this summer as well with Karen O'Neal.

Jasper seems quite happy and content to be home and settled in quickly. He has a new next door neighbor that's young and spooky so they spend a lot of time running up and down the fence line pretending to be scared. Actually, I'm amazed at how much he's grown up. Not too long ago, if he was tied up at the hitching post and another horse was in the arena he would have mulitple meltdowns from the stimulus. To the point of bucking in place. Yesterday he was tied up and a horse in the arena was being lunged over a big blue tarp and bubble wrap (yes, bubble wrap). He couldn't have cared less and turned his butt to it. Now, this gal said that when he's loose in his paddock (that shared a fence line with the arena) and she moves the tarp around he gallops around in a frenzy. I now believe it's because it's fun and not so much because he's really afraid anymore.

Aspen Farm Horse Trials 2010

2010-06-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

Aspen Farm Horse Trials, Yelm WA
Recognized by the United States Eventing Association
Area VII
Division: Beginner Novice
Participants in division: 20
Friday: Dressage, BN Test A
Saturday: Stadium Jumping
Sunday: Cross Country

Jasper: Just turned 5.

Jasper's first recognized event. Really, his first event period. Mine too.

All photos courtesy of Action Taken Photography

I felt the dressage test went pretty well. It's a very simple test. I completely forgot where I was and what was next on three separate occasions, bent out in a corner when I was supposed to be circling, had some pretty speedy transitions because man, those letters come up FAST in a small arena! He felt pretty good, I think I was too nervous to even really notice. He didn't argue and was fun to ride because he was excited and "on his toes" but still paying attention.

After our test I loaded him up in the trailer and took him back to the house. A while later Terri calls and the first thing she says is congratulations. "For what?" I ask. "For winning!" she says. "Yeah, right. We totally blew a bunch of stuff." Silence. "What... are we in last?" "I'm looking online at the scoreboard and you won! With a score of 29.5!" More silence. "I don't think that's possible..."

Proof:

29.5 is 70.5 in "real" dressage. In 3 Day Eventing, the lowest score wins. So, for instance, for every rail you knock down in stadium jumping you get 4 points added to your dressage score. For every refusal on the cross country course you get 20 points added to your score.

The stadium was BIG. I went to the arena to walk my course in the morning and asked where the BN course was set up. "This is it" she says. "The fences are HUGE! And there's huge combination (I swear it was a one stride) and a bending 3 stride line!" "Well," she says, "you can trot it..." One of the trainers there said that if I could get my horse through this course I could get him through a Novice level course.

As they were calling my number to be on deck, Jessica asked where my medical armband was. Uh... for stadium? She's a good sprinter. They had one at the Gallop's saddlery booth.

Grab mane and hold on. It was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

The first jump on course. He... cleared it.
My stirrups felt really, really short but in these pictures they look too long.

Yep, cleared this one too, think? It was problematic, because he also landed galloping. So it really shortened up the distances between the fences- the fact that he landed way beyond the landing area and was already galloping, but not necessarily balanced or ready for the next jump that came rushing toward us at a thousand miles per hour.

You don't have to have good form if you just overjump everything.

Look at how hard he's trying. He thought some of these were really scary. Plus the fact he really hasn't had much experience with oxers. Thre were a freaking lot of oxers.

The combination. It was a sea of blue and white rails. I swear it was only a one stride. I'll be able to tell once I get the video. He was very surprised there was another jump so close and on landing over this one veered right to go around it. I pulled him left which resulted in:

"Skyrockets in flight..."

And a discombobulated landing.

The last fence. Whew. Through all of that we only had one rail down. I was pretty pleased after all of the adrenaline wore off. There were only 6 clear rounds out of 20.

Cross country was just such an unknown. He hadn't seen anything like some of the fences on course, I had no idea what he was going to do. We had a refusal at the second fence, (the first "real" fence on course) I believe he was just too overwhelmed by his surroundings. We had just galloped through a path in the woods that opened up to a big field, there was a big dark scary jump next to ours, and at the last minute he noticed the jump judge.

He took it the second time just fine, took the 3rd OKish, took the 4th pretty well, then found his stride. I found myself pulled to the rest of the jumps. I tried trotting into some of the really scary ones so he could get a good look at them, and he would pick up the canter on his own. I think he started to have fun about half way around, it's always fun to gallop.

(If you don't see your distance you just close your eyes)

I checked online when I got back to the house and it looked like we dropped to 13th after the refusal on course. Then Terri called. "You got 8th!" "No, I got 13th." "No, they did the scores wrong, I'm looking at it right now and you got 8th! Get back over there and go get your ribbon!" Needless to say, I got back over there pretty quick and now have a giant brown ribbon to show for it. And a gift certificate to a tack store that I already used to get a white all-purpose pad and a pair of socks.

I couldn't be more pleased. Not only did we complete all 3 phases without getting disqualified (my goal), but I have an official event horse. Plus (and this is kind of a big plus) he didn't scream the whole time we were there. He was relaxed enough to GRAZE. He did do some landscaping when tied to the trailer, but who needs nice grass when you can have churned up sod chunks, rocks, and dirt. He didn't pull back while tied to the trailer, the halter and lead rope are still in one piece. We've come a long way, baby! Should have the video of the stadium and xc in a couple of weeks.

On Tuesday we came home, and next weekend we're going to a one-day horse trials put on by a pony club. On July 17th there's a combined test/derby I think we'll go to, then one last recognized horse trails in September down in Idaho. I think a lot of trail riding will be had from here on out! Oh, and I'm making jumps. Going to set up some grids, see if we can figure out how to jump. :)

Aspen Farms course walk

2010-06-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

XC course walk at Aspen Farm Horse Trials, Beginner Novice...
(I took these after the event, was too nervous to do it before!)

1- Baby logs into the deep dark woods.

The deep dark woods

2- Logs next to a big dark scary jump. He was overwhelmed by his surroundings and we had our only refusal here...

Log jump in the speckled shade, I was worried about this one because the lighting was really harsh and the jump was hard to see. Wasn't a problem.

Around a bend and... Spooky slatty thing. I was nervous about this one because of all the light coming through it, it almost seemed to move as you approached it. I believe we cleared this one by about twice the height and depth needed.

After the slatty thing he found his pace. He pulled me to these big logs on a slight uphill slope. Up the hill, bend to the right and...

What the hell? This was dark and slatty. I decided to trot from a long ways away so he could get a look at it as long as possible before we got here. He came to a trot, saw the jump, broke into a canter and sailed over it.

Bend left and... huge barrels. The worst part was that it looked like you were jumping out into space as it was at the top of a hill. You couldn't even see the landing until about 2 or 3 strides out, so I chose to trot to this one as well. Jasper, however, was having none of the trotting stuff and about here picked up the canter and popped over it out of stride.

After the barrels was a pretty steep downhill gallop, then back up...

The approach to the next fence. This one was big and intimidating and at the top of a pretty good hill. Right before you got there the water complex appeared on the right, white land marking tape in front, and a big downhill on the left.

I didn't want to trot because I was worried about losing power on the hill and felt we needed a pretty strong canter to get over it. This was one of my biggest concerns. Jasper didn't even hesitate.

Left bend down a long hill to this jump hidden in the hillside. Cantered part way down, lost balance, and trotted. Picked up the canter, steered off the main thoroughfare and he pulled me to this one.

180 degree turn and back up the hill. Left bend to the up bank. I wasn't worried about this and he sailed up it. Maybe a bit fast...

Closely followed by this one on a downhill slope. We schooled this one at the clinic, whew!

Little log rails headed toward the water complex. Isn't the ship cool?

Cantered toward the water complex. Cantered through the water complex. Nuff said.

180 degree left hand turn and over the kayak. He took a good look at this one but didn't hesitate.

Last fence on course- giant black jump of doom. At 1:08 in the afternoon it was in the shade. It was a giant dark imposing shadow. It was huge, no one could believe it was on a BN course. This was a big concern as well due to it's size... needed a big canter/gallop. I started preparing for this one a long ways back, pulling his head up, leg on, clucking... he didn't seem to see what the big deal was.

OK, more later, finished up my working student experience and the pony and I got home this evening. Woot!

One more day...

2010-06-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

and then Aspen.

Here are our ride times.

Some day I'm sure all of this will seem like no big deal.

We had a stadium jumping schooling today with a gal named Terrie Hook. She was kind enough to fit us in on very short notice. Jasper was a star. He did his first combinations (3 in a row!), his first oxer, and his first roll top. He did a really hard short left hand turn to a pretty substantial fence and nailed it each time. Had a few stops but always went over everything the second time. Terrie really liked him and thinks he'll be a great eventer, and warned me not to try to move him up the levels too fast. No problem. Events are few and far between on the dry side, and are not cheap to enter. Josh let me borrow his Jeffries Flyover (my stirrup fell off my saddle AGAIN yesterday when we were schooling cross country) and man what a difference a saddle can make. I felt much more secure.

One more dressage schooling day tomorrow. I sewed the buttons back on Janaira's old dressage coat I've been borrowing for the last, um... years. It monsooned rain today, so do a little sun dance for the weekend.

The "draw" is up and we're in.

2010-05-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like seeing your name in print to give you heart palpitations. The "draw" (or list of who is officially entered) for Aspen Farms is up and we're on it. It's a fairly prestigious event to enter as a first timer, not exactly low key. But gorgeous. It fills up every year with a wait list. And very close to the barn, I will be able to bring Jasper home every day and won't have to stable him there.

Me. Jasper (show name Calcedon). Beginner Novice. 18 other people in my group.

June 12-14, Yelm, WA
Thur: Cross-country course open-3 pm.
Fri: Dressage
Sat: Show Jumping (N/BN)
Sun: Cross Country (N/BN)

I'm actually most nervous about the show jumping. He's never seen anything but poles, and I know there will be flower boxes, picket fences, etc. Come to think of it, I don't think he's ever really seen an oxer. We are planning on taking a stadium jumping lesson next Sunday, but I don't think the jumps are much other than poles.

Our dressage has improved greatly. I join in on one of the lessons every chance I get and have learned a ton. I am grateful to have an athletic horse who's pretty balanced and very willing. He's done very well despite me up to this point. I knew I was lagging in dressage skills, and the more I learn the more I realize I don't know. Right now we are working on his trot... I am posting with "purpose" and not just following him with a passive seat. It encourages his inside hind leg (well, both hing legs really) to come underneath himself with greater reach. We're also working on transitions, I must not just think it and then quit riding. Push through in downward transitions, tickle his mouth before upward transitions. This week I also need to work on quick transitions, the dressage test is in the small arena and I imagine things are going to happen very, very quickly. We're definitely not quick at the moment. ...Woops, didn't get canter on THAT circle, let's try another one! <-- don't think that's gonna work.

We're going cross country schooling at Northwest Equestrian Center tomorrow, pray for sun. Or just 'not rain'. I had to go buy knee high rubber boots last night in order to keep my sanity in all this mud.

Into the Sea

2010-05-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

The ocean is a spiritual place for me, when I am on a beach with sand and crashing waves I feel like I can breathe again. Calm, meditative...

Not so much when you take your horse there.

There are many things horse threatening things between the trailer and the water. Blowing sea grass, blowing sand, dark sand, light sand, deep sand, the sand that comes off your hooves, driftwood, tire tracks, seaweed, your own shadow.

The foamy stuff left on the sand from the last wave. The waves coming in. The waves going out.

It was very exciting.

Jasper got to accompany Jessica and Josh's 3 stallions that were going to Long Beach, WA for a professional photo shoot.

Luckily he had a big strong (pony) stallion to lead the way...

(Photos courtesy of Carolynn Bunch, check out her website. Thank you Carolynn!)

Cardi providing moral support.

CARDI! Do you not SEE those waves coming STRAIGHT AT US??

Oh, the foam...

During a very athletic head-down-sideways-4-feet-all-at-once leap 10 feet above the horse eating waves, my cell phone fell to the bottom of the sea. I'm just glad I didn't end up there too.

Horse vs. ocean was a very cool experience. And I figure if he was able to set foot in moving ocean water, water complexes on cross country courses shouldn't be a problem. Right? ... right? ..?

I took a few candid snapshots of Josh and Jessica. Here are a few beach pictures of Cardi from last year.

Heading down to the beach through the parking lot.

Jessica & Josh

Nothing like the pro photos, but you get the idea.

Check out Jessica's website Equi-Librium later on for the pics.

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No show.

2010-05-14T21:29:00.001-07:00

I am not going to the show on Sunday after all. Instead, I am back at home dealing with my renter situation. You would think that by the age of 40 someone would have figured out how to pay (incredibly cheap) rent. You know, you put a check in an envelope and mail it at the beginning of the month.

ANYWAY, just wanted to thank everyone for all of their well wishes and support. It looks like we might be going to a *-real-* recognized 3-Day in June at Aspen Farms. I was really hoping for a test run this weekend but it wasn't meant to be.

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1-Day Event on Sunday...

2010-05-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

We're signed up to compete in a 1-day event this Sunday at Northwest Equestrian Center. I think there are all three phases in one day- dressage, XC, stadium. Beginner Novice level... we can trot into the stadium jumps, right? And wrong leads in dressage are only one score, right? I'm a little nervous, but we're past the 2' division...

Cross Country jumping at Aspen Farms

2010-05-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

Jasper went to his second cross country clinic early Sunday morning! My friend Terri called earlier in the week and said there was room in the Steuart Pittman clinic for a Beginning Novice horse. It was part of the Area 7 Adult Rider's Eventing Camp that lasted over the course of 3 days, but there wasn't enough stabling available to fill all the clinics so they needed some people to haul in every day. She brought her horse Jed up from Portland and they rode in a rating clinic with Jonathan Elliot.

We hauled Jasper and Jed over very, very early in the morning. Both of us wanted an hour or so to hack around the course before the clinic started. We unloaded and Jasper didn't scream, spin in circles, or kick in place. He didn't pull back when tied to the trailer and all halters and lead ropes stayed intact and in one piece. He didn't run over anyone and send them to the first-aid tent. In fact, he stood at the trailer and ate hay out of a hay bag. Is this MY horse??? I was ready to load up and leave 15 minutes after we got there and call it a successful day.

Aspen Farms is beautiful. Rolling hills of green grass, lots of galloping trails, and the jumps are awesome. Terri and I hacked around at a walk and Jasper slightly spooked going by most of the jumps. He did go over a ditch though, no problem.

Steuart is a good instructor and a very nice person in general. Jasper was an absolute rock star. It's like he's been thinking about our other time out at XC and figured things out in his head. He was forward to the jumps and didn't suck back like last time. Instead of breaking down from canter to trot to jump, he accelerated from trot to canter. He jumped most everything out of stride and I didn't do a thing to help him other than just staying still and keeping some leg on. He STOOD STILL for short amounts of time when it was someone else's turn. Baby's growing up!

(YIKES! Turn off your sound)

The only refusal we had was the logs right before the water. He actually jumped it awkwardly the time before, but somehow I lost my stirrup and leather off my saddle and it landed in the pond.

Better it than me.

I was really, really lucky to have the Andreas show up and offer to take pictures and video for me. Andrea and Andrea are clients and friends of Jessica and so kindly got up at the crack of dawn to come to the clinic. Maggie (the organizer) also took some nice shots. I am a little aghast at how bad my leg (and body) position is in some of them... always stuff to work on I guess.

Contemplating the down bank.

Jed & Jasper

We jumped this today. It was big.

Anyway I really couldn't have asked for more. It was a total blast. A possible horse trials in our near future??

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Yelm

2010-04-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

Jasper on the right when he lifted his head up from dead horse sleep.

Jasper lives at the house in a pasture with another OTTB named Robbie. It is really his first ever friend, because they were both the lowest of the low in the pecking order until they were with each other. Even though Robbie has decided he's the boss, he doesn't really bite Jasper or remove huge chunks of hair. (Thank you Robbie). They are inseparable in their paddock and eat, sleep, and graze together. You can tell them apart because Robbie naps with his head and neck up while Jasper sleeps flat out and looks like a dead horse.

Jasper in one of the turn out pens, arena in background.

In the mornings Jasper gets loaded up in the horse trailer and trailered about 10 minutes to the barn. There, he has to be in a stall which caused a lot of stress and whinnying at first, but is starting to get quieter. I think he's exhausted at the end of the day because he never lays down and is not used to standing up all that time. He's being a good boy so far. I'm working on posting the trot with a 'purpose' and being able to rate the trot just by slowing or speeding up posting. He already was pretty good at this before we came, but now I'm purposefully posting all the time not just when I want him to slow down or speed up. Apparently I ride like I'm always trying to stay out of the horse's way, which makes sense if you look at a lot of the horses I've ridden in the past. We're also working on canter transitions. We're really powering up the trot, almost to the brink of canter, then giving a very obvious scooping cue to pick up the canter. He's really "getting" the cue, but not always the correct lead.

Yelm is in the center of most things eventing. Aspen Farms is right down the road, and Northwest Equestrain Center isn't much further.

Josh (assistant trainer & eventer) takes stadium lessons on Merlin at Caber, about an hour away.

Everything is very close, especially compared to Spokane. I just wish Jasper was ready for a BN level horse trail to be able to take advantage of everything here... but good news. There is a big 4-day clinic going on at Aspen this weekend, and it turns out that they have space on Sunday morning at 8am for a Beginning-Beginning Novice X-country lesson with Steuart Pittman. Not only that, but my friend Terri is bringing her horse Jed up on Sat. to stay overnight at our barn so she can ride in a clinic as well. I'm hoping I can talk someone there into videoing or taking a few pictures.

Jasper's not gonna know what hit him...

2010-04-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

Jessica and Cardi at the jog in LA at the Festival of the Horse.

We head to Yelm tomorrow to train with Jessica Wisdom for 2 months. And by train I mean work. Jasper, my 3 birds and I are being picked up around 9 in the morning to make the trip to the wrong side of the mountains. Poor little guy has no idea. Every time I go to the barn he's doing dead horse. Although he completely blew a gasket today when his 20-something-something neighbor got taken out for a trail ride. The world as he knew it was coming to an end. Well, buddy...

The dressage shows in Los Angeles and Sacramento went well. Cardi the PSG & I1 Welsh pony was a star and the two 4-year-olds were very well behaved. It was a long time to be on the road and I don't know if I'm exactly cut out to be a show groom, but well worth the experience and I'm glad I went. Jessica is a true professional. Honestly the highlights of the whole thing were Cardi's musical freestyles. If Jessica posts one I'll link it. He won at the I1 level in Sacramento with a score in the high 60's. Oh, and the sushi place we went to in Sacramento was worth the trip. AMAZING sushi. I think I'd fly to Sac just to go back there.

Day one was a 12 hour drive. We followed Kari and Rick all the way to LA. Here we go by Mt. Shasta.

LA with 6-horse trailers? Egads.

Day two was about 10.5 hours. Finally made it.

Cardi the super pony.

The very handsome 4-year-old stallion Diamond.

4-year-old Rio warming up for her test.

Puh-leeeeeeeeeeaaaaase can I have a taste of your camera? I won't hurt it I pwomise...

Guenter Seidel and U2

Rick and Kari and their tiny little horses after a trail ride hack.

Festival of the Horse

2010-04-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Equestrian Center

Cardi & Jessica, extended trot.
Pony Power.

more later... :)

Sleeeeeepy Poneh

2010-03-17T15:58:00.001-07:00

Karlin sent me this picture of Jasper today from her phone. I like how his back hooves are balanced on top of each other and that you can see his teeth. She said he didn't even raise his head until she actually touched him. Sooooooooooooooo sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy...

Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-03-09T20:13:00.001-08:00

Merri of The Equestrian Vagabond tagged me with this award. Apparently I have to list 7 things you don't know about me. Huh. The problem is not listing 7 things, but 7 things that might actually be interesting. Probably not that I'm eating rice noodle soup. Or that my birds are 'singing' to the TV and I can't hear it. Or that my car window decided it couldn't roll up yesterday, so off to the shop it goes. Or that I have a date with a pilot on Thursday. OK, maybe that one's interesting...

1. After about 4 years of riding lessons at the local hunter/jumper barn, my parents let me buy a horse for my 13th birthday. After months of searching, I ended up with a yearling Quarter Horse filly named Mindy. She turns 26 this year.

2. A couple of years later a friend and I decided Mindy could pull us across the snowy pasture in a round saucer sled. We tied it on with lunge ropes. I rode, and my friend sat in the saucer. The first few steps were fine. Then Mindy realized their was a predator behind her and started trotting, then cantering, then my friend fell off. And the sled began hitting her on her back legs and biting her. Full-out blinding panicked gallop towards a barbed wire fence, I bailed and got my first concussion. Mindy jumped the fence, the sled got caught in it, the ropes broke, and she was fine.

3. They Might Be Giants is one of my favorite bands. I feel an instant geeky bond with anyone who likes them.

4. I don't eat wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, chicken, peanuts, or almonds. Not because I am uber health conscious but because of food allergies. My lips are nicer looking when they're not all swollen up.

5. I am considering going back to school (again) to study Graphic Design.

6. I could eat Thai food everyday and live in a state of bliss.

7. I live in a studio house. It is 16x20, or 320 square feet total. It's on a regular sized lot, with regular sized houses on either side. It's super cute, warm, and cozy. Plus nothing is too far out of reach!

OK, everyone who reads this, consider yourself tagged! Copy the pic above, post it on your blog, and list 7 things about yourself we don't know!

Working Student

2010-03-07T22:19:00.000-08:00

So... I am going to be a working student for Jessica Wisdom soon. Jessica is a dressage trainer that comes to Spokane and gives clinics, and every time I've watched her teach someone else I've learned something. I think she is a really amazing teacher and told her I'd like to work for her since I can't afford to ride with her. 6 months later I got a call, and committed two and a half months, starting mid-April and ending at the end of June. It's kind of a no-pay no-expense deal, I get room and board for me and my horse in exchange for working for her. There's no stall cleaning, just working with babies, lunging, riding... I'm taking Jasper with me and am really grateful to get him started the RIGHT way, so I don't have to go back and fix all the mistakes I made later. I have had a total of one lesson in the last 4 years and to have eyes on the ground is going to be amazing. Plus her assistant trainer wants to event, so loading 6 horses up in the 6-horse trailer and heading to the local cross country course will be part of the experience. The great thing is that she's near most of the big events for Area VII, so at least I'll be able to go watch!

Then she called me up a few days ago and said her current working student has a chance to go overseas sooner than expected. Could I come 2 weeks earlier and go to California with her? Um, yes. So today an awesome family that has another horse at the barn agreed to lease Alexandre for the next 3 months minimum (By "leasing" I mean paying his board). And Jackie, who is one of Mindy's (my first horse) other "moms" agreed to stay at my house and take care of the yard.

In local news we've been having unbelievably warm, sunny, dry weather for the past few weeks and Jasper and Alexandre have been spending a LOT of time on the trails. Jasper may not be in arena shape by the time we leave, but he'll have some trail muscles. He's also -finally- begun to gain some weight and his hip bones don't stick out so far. Some of the divots are starting to fill in. Everyone remarks on how tall he is, but with his baby head and... slenderness... he just looks like a tall gangly baby to me. He'll be 5 in June, aren't they supposed to know a lot of stuff by then? Maybe by June he will. :)

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PHOTO 101 (2)

2010-03-04T00:22:00.001-08:00

Some more prints from my Photo 101 class...

Alexandre

Valley Chapel Farms II

Self portrait

Jeddidiah

Serena and Roxie dressagin' at a Jessica Wisdom clinic.

Roxie workin' it...

Rockin' Roxie.

Portrait: Low key. Serene (a classmate).

Statue

Poop and ferns

Liberty Lake loop hike. We didn't realize you had to do all 7.5 miles up to the top of a mountain and back down. 4 hours later we got back to the parking lot in the dark...

In All His Winter Glory

2010-02-18T18:19:00.001-08:00

Jasper has been moved to a pen with an attached barn. He's by himself and I'm hoping with all he can eat grass hay, plus a couple flakes of alfalfa a day, plus Equine Sr., oats, and Cool Calories he'll start to gain some weight. He has one neighbor, a little black Arab named Monsoon, that he keeps an eye on. As in stands at the 8 feet of fence that separate their corrals and watches his every move. All day.

He can trot and maybe even canter a little in his corral, but he can't stretch out. Today he had been in there for two whole days when I let him out in the arena... I didn't cluck once or twirl a rope. I stood in the middle and snapped pictures as he ran himself so hard at the end his sides were heaving with rapid, shallow breaths. It took 30 minutes to cool him out, and he wasn't dry, but man all that running must have felt good.

PHOTO 101

2010-02-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a black and white film class at the local community college. We're supposed to figure out how to use all of the manual settings- how to set the aperture and shutter speed and man is it confusing. Then we process the film to make our own negatives, and make prints from the negatives. The prints take me between 1-2 hours each, it's a loooooooong process to get it right. Apparently if you have good (correctly exposed) negatives the printing process is easier because you don't have to go back and correct so much. I'm hoping I get to discover what it's like to have correctly exposed negatives by the end of the class.

I think my scanner has some gunk on it, woops.

My favorite subjects, of course, are the horses...

Portland Meadows, jockeys up...

This one is blurry, partially due to the fact it was taken from behind a chain link fence. Also, the film speed was wrong for a dark, overcast day. I put it in anyway because it tells part of a story.

The finish line. The ground shook, hard to explain the raw power and adrenaline galloping by.

Cardi, owned by Jessica Wisdom

Diamond, owned by Jessica Wisdom.

Valley Chapel Farms

Seaside Oregon

With the enlarger: Focus on owl, focus on reflection.

Riding in Thailand

2010-01-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

...was tough. There really aren't horses there, and the only place I was able to ride in the two years that I lived in Thailand was at least a couple of hours away. In 1997 I signed a 2-year contract to teach elementary Art and P.E. at the New International School of Thailand, which was located in the heart of Bangkok. There was a little stable in a place called Khao Yai, and you could stay there and hike or rent horses.

Again, my friends, who did not ride horses were up for adventure and agreed to go on a few rides with me.

With sneakers and without helmets they were ready to set off into the jungle.

Even in the jungle there are things to jump!

My flatmate Linda and I on the second trip.

Living without horses for two years was really tough. I wouldn't do it again. In my second year there, I found out that the stable was having a jumping competition. A showjumping course, and then a cross country course that included getting off and shooting things. I decided to enter and was given a very lazy horse and a protective vest.

I had a choice of doing the little course or the big course. I chose the big one, how many opportunities did I get to ride? Might as well make the best of it. I now wonder if this horse had ever jumped this course. My friends overheard the locals saying that I was fearless. Now why would they say that? The horse was sluggish and backwards. I had to get off and shoot things at one point, which went well, but I think I fell off before the last jump because I was so exhausted trying to get him to go. The jumps were pretty big!

I think I actually got a second place ribbon for the showjumping phase. I took a tight turn that no one else tried and made up a lot of time but took a rail.

Luckily there were things to ride besides horses. Living in Thailand began my lifelong fascination and love of elephants. Linda and I going for a ride in Chaing Mai. I loved sitting on their necks even though their hair was like toothpicks sticking through my shorts.

Linda and I at the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

A member of the Longneck tribe and I in Mae Hong Song.

Next country: South Africa. (A short one)

A trail ride in Budapest

2010-01-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

Cairo American College is an excellent school, pays it's teachers very well, and has excellent benefits. The teachers who work there have years of experience. It's very hard to get a job there, unless you were like me and walked into a part time gig with no benefits. I was just out of college and didn't "fit in" with the CAC crowd. However, over in Heliopolis was the American International School. Didn't pay too well. Not so great benefits. And full of teachers my age, out to party, see the world, and have a good time.

They became my social group and I was able to tag along with some of them on a trip over Christmas break. We flew to Budapest, Hungary and stayed there a while. Then took a train through Slovakia to spend New Year's in Prague, Czech Republic. Everyone in my group except for me and Brian were kicked off the train in the middle of Slovakia because they were Canadian and didn't have the right stamp in their passport. Man that was a mess.

Anyhoo while in Budapest we all got to choose one thing we REALLY wanted to do. I, of course, wanted to find horses. I think the family we were renting the house from knew somebody who knew someone's uncle's cousin's brother, and a trail ride became possible. NONE of the people I was with rode so it just showed how good of sports they were when 3 of them agreed to come with me. They didn't know enough to be nervous about riding in english saddles.

I was the one with the camera, and it was hard getting shots through all the trees. Here are Kelly and Sandy. Almost all of the trail was winding through these woods. They were giggling the whole time, and not screaming but kind of making "oooo" panicky sounds when their horse would take a big step or something. And then Sandy's horse took a really big step, or tripped, and...

Here is a portrait of a good sport. It was cold and wet. Sandy was SOAKED to the skin in mud, and she just laughed it off. It probably didn't help that Kelly and Cheryl were laughing so hard they were crying. Never mind we were traveling and didn't have easy access to a washer and dryer, and she had to ride home in this guy's clean car.

Adventure, right?

Next country: Thailand.

Bee-yootiful Beaded Horseshoes!

2010-01-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

Look what came in the mail today!

They are even more spectacular in real life. Mindy from Always there are the horses made these. I ordered the girly purple one as a gift for my friend Elizabeth, and there was a little something else included in the package for me! Love it!

You can't tell from the pictures but they're done on pony sized shoes and are the cutest things EVER.

THANK YOU MINDY!

(Mindy can be reached at pinkcurlytail@yahoo.com)
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Riding in the Eqyptian Desert- Freedom!

2010-01-09T18:35:00.000-08:00

My first sighting of the Pyramids on "Sugar".

After getting fired from my job exercising racehorses in Ireland, I spent a week working for a different trainer and then decided it was time to leave cold, damp, sleeting Ireland. Although I was just planning on going home, my mom told me that as long as I was over 'there' I might as well go visit my uncle who was working in Egypt.

My uncle Keith had been living and working in Maadi, Egypt (an expat suburb of Cairo) teaching Choir at Cairo American College. CAC is a K-12 school for kids who plan on attending college in the States, the student body is a real mix of expat's kids and locals. When I got there I found out I could substitute teach and make $50 a day. (Even though I SWORE I would NEVER set foot in another classroom after my student teaching experience). Fifty bucks was a lot of money at the time and I ended up staying from January until school got out in June. In June I accepted a half-time position the following school year teaching elementary P.E.

One of my favorite parts of Egypt, and the reason I would return in a heartbeat, was riding the incredible Arabian horses through the sands of the Sahara Desert. Endurance? Check!!! We would drive through the complete mess of traffic that was Cairo- cars, busses, donkey carts, and motorcycles packed like sardines and constantly honking and fighting for space on the road. There are no lines on roads in Cairo, everyone drives with inches of each other.

Once you get over the bridge that goes over the Nile things thin out a bit. You drive by the Sphinx and the Pyramids down the last dirt road before the city ends and the desert starts. Along this road are stable after stable of horses for rent. All of the stables have 2 letter names, like "FB" stables or "MG" stables- usually the initials of the owner.

My friend Barb and I drove out to the horses and on the recommendation of a friend rented horses from FB stables. You ride out into the desert, then gradually work your way to the right until you see the Pyramids off in the distance. Just ride towards the Pyramids and then complete the loop back. There are no roads or trails.

Cario

The Sphinx is always being repaired.

How big are the blocks that make up the Pyramids? This big.

Zeeku! This was one of my favorite horses, and I pretty much exclusively rode him the first 6 months I was there. One of the best parts about the desert is that there are no fences. Or trees. Or anything else that you would have to watch out for in a full-on gallop with tears streaming out of your eyes.

Zeeku.
Look at all that galloping space!

Baby camel making ungodly noises. Some of the stables in the background.

Cairo American College campus. It was surrounded by a high concrete wall and 'protected' by Egyptian soldiers with guns.

My second year and one of my second grade P.E. classes. Swim unit.

The all-day ride to Sakkara. It was 3-4 hours one way. At first when we would do this ride a guide would come with us but after a while they let us go on our own. I have absolutely no sense of direction and it was disconcerting to me to not have a guide. We rode under power lines for quite a while.

One of my friends rode a new horse that the stable hadn't named yet. When she was done she said that she'd been through the desert on a horse with no name...

A boy holds some of the horses for us at Sakkara while we eat lunch and explore the step pyramids there.

My friend Mike on a feluca ride on the Nile- relaxing! Just don't touch the water.

Aseala and her groom Abdu Nabi. Oh Aseala. I ended up leasing her my second year in Egypt. She was one of the most amazing horses I have ever ridden. Her endurance and speed were beaten by none. Often we were asked to race while riding, usually friendly "you wanna race?" type deal. She blew every single other horse out of the water.

This was the area where there were more hills and varied terrain.

Aseala jumps over the sand bank.

One of my favorite pictures ever.

Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.

The Red Sea has some of the best snorkeling in the world. In Dahab (little hippie town) I rode a camel into the water much to the owner's aggrivation. I could only get him to trot for a few steps at a time.

Me and Bob Marley.

Life on the Autostraud- the main highway to the Airport.

Donkey cart.

Mom comes to visit! Just leaving the stables. The little mare they gave her (because she was a beginner) was slow and stubborn. We ended up switching horses half way through and mom had a great time walking through the desert on Aseala.

Donkey

Aseala
It was really cool riding at night because everything was dark and the horse's shoes would send off sparks when they stepped on the rocks.

Next country: Hungary! (A short one).

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2009, The Year in Review.

2010-01-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

At the end of January 2009 I decided that Ellie, the horse I had been working with for 9 months was not ever going to be the partner and possible event horse I was looking for. She was a gorgeous bright bay with a star and snip and 3 big white socks. Super athletic uphill conformation. Sweet as pie puppydog on the ground. And a nutcase under saddle. She was purchased for $15,000 as a 3-year-old and went to a hunter/jumper barn on the west coast. She came to me at 6 because when they tried to sell her the best offer they got was $1,000 from a guy that said he'd breed her. I figured I could work with her on all of her spooking/rearing issues by keeping her out of indoor arenas and letting her be a horse for a while.

Let's just say she came a long way. She went from not being able to walk through a field (she would spook violently at weeds, holes, rocks, shadows...), could not step from one surface to another, and could barely be ridden on trails even when she was in the middle of the pack. I took her out in the field every week. I took her on trail rides and on camping trips. I rode her bareback with a halter in the arena to try to build trust. I took her to two event derbies where she reared before the dressage test but completed a cross country course. In the end, though, she was still neurotic. You had to ride every step because there was no telling what she would do at any given moment. I never had a relaxing ride on her. I could tell that though she was much, much better about things in general she would never enjoy eventing. She was challenging and I was determined to make her better. I thought she needed me because who else would put up with her behavior? At the end of January out on a ride in the middle of a frozen field, she freaked out, spun, and reared at the same time. I came off and landed lower-back-first on ice chunks. It was months before I could ride again, and after a lot of soul searching and guilt and tears told her owners I didn't want to buy her.

But the eventing bug had bitten, and I was determined to find a horse with potential for the sport. I put up announcements on eventing blogs and the Area VII chat page. I figured with the economy there would be tons of horses to choose from at rock bottom prices. People were desperate to give their horses away, right? I wanted something between 3-6 years old, if it was 5 or 6 I wanted at least walk/trot/canter. Between 16-17h. Warmblood or TB type. 0 to $3,000. Training not important, I could do that myself. I was sent info on nice horses that were out of my price range. And horses that were not what I was looking for at all- yes, your pinto Appy Saddlebred cross that's been in a field for 8 years might just have potential but I don't care to find out. And if your warmblood is so completely fabuous and uber talented and worth so much money, why is she barely green broke at 15?

I started checking out the OTTB rescues in Washington and even told one of them I was interested in adopting one of their horses. On their website they said they were desperate and needed help due to the amount of returnees and the economy. After one email they quit responding...??? I think it was just supposed to be that way because I found out about Katie at Hidden Fox Farms on the internet. Her husband was a trainer at Portland Meadows track in Oregon. She answered my email and phone call right away and sent me info on a couple of horses from her website she thought would be good at eventing (she events herself). Then she said that the following weekend there would be a LOT of horses for sale from all of the trainers at the track as the season was ending, would I like to come down and take a look?

Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences) I was heading to Portland that weekend anyway. One of my friends was helping out by being a 'test dummy' rider at Brian Sabo's ICP training. She was riding 2 horses so his students could learn how to become certified event instructors. I was to be Terri's groom and to check out the training.

Katie had a list of 11 or so horses with the names of the trainers and the stall numbers of the horses on a piece of paper. We walked down the shedrows peeking in stalls. "There's a young bay horse in stall xx I havn't seen yet but everyone tells me to go look at him". He was technically only 3 as his birthday wasn't until June. He didn't care about going fast and wouldn't "hook up" with another horse to race. You know, it wasn't exactly love at first sight. It was more like good feeling at first sight. I had a good feeling about him. He had nice eyes. He looked sound trotting up and down the pavement. He had horrible feet and long pasterns. I really didn't think too much about it, the whole experience was a bit overwhelming, I just said "I'll take him".

My dad and I brought him home to the Boy's Ranch where I worked on April 2nd. He didn't need the 2 months to decompress from the craziness of the track that everybody talks about. I was ready for young, hot, and crazy and I got a pretty mellow baby horse. He lived out in the pasture with other horses and was brought into a large pen at night to get supplements and his own hay. Even thought the pen was large, when he got back out in the pasture he ran. And ran. And ran. Lap after lap, all by himself as the others watched. And I realized that THERE was my young, hot, and crazy horse- self regulating. If he had been kept in a stall and had to contain all that energy every day I think he would have been nuts. But given a chance to move all day, and run, and play with the other horses, he got rid of his extra energy all on his own and I was able to start riding (without lunging) within a week.

He was so... balanced. And athletic. After spending 10 years with my oversized warmblood, it was like riding a feather. Cantering was easy. Transitions were easy. He was (and is) just so light. That's the best way to describe riding him- light. The first trail ride was a complete success, and that was the day I finally realized I had made the right decision about Ellie. She would never have been as relaxed or as confident as he was on his FIRST ride out.

Some highlights of 2009:

April, Jasper leaves Portland Meadows and arrives in Spokane. He is ridden in the arena and goes on his first trail ride on the property.

In May I set up the camcorder and video him jumping his first cross bars. He takes everything in stride and doesn't seem to think it's a very big deal. We go to a dressage show at Post Falls Equestrian Center, and he pulls so hard while tied to the trailer I can't get the knot undone. Pulls again and stretches out his leather halter. Pulls yet again and stretches out the new nylon halter and makes it too big for his head. He can't stand still and trots in circles around me. I get on and once we start moving everything clicks. He happily walks around the grounds. He happily trots around the indoor and outdoor arenas. We complete Intro Test B under a tough judge and score a 64% and get 3rd place. I was beyond thrilled with him. We don't try tying him up again.

He breaks my finger when I ask him to step on a tarp.

In June we compete at the Deep Creek Derby, Rockhopper Division. Intro A test, and a course of 12" or less "jumps" set up in a field. Includes a water crossing. We're late to our dressage test due to the fact he ran one of the boys over that was holding him and got away, and then absolutely refused to get anywhere near the creek we needed to cross to get to the competition grounds. The test goes well, and the boys get video of him warming up before cross country. He is leaping over the rails with one or two feet to spare. We have a lead rider on course, and Jasper wants to keep as close to them as possible. Until the water. Luckily we were one of the last riders and everyone was really patient. At one point the lead rider grabbed a rein to try to encourage him to get in. Eventually he did and we completed the course with a dressage score of 34 and 8 (??) jumping faults. Brought home a pretty purple 6th place ribbon. And a lot of compliments- "After watching you I have hope for my Thoroughbred!"

Later that month we go to a schooling show where we do Intro test B and Training test 1. Jasper gets the wrong lead 6 times on Training 1. We also compete in the trail class where Jasper conquers his fears and crosses a bridge. Perhaps some lessons from the tarp incident come through. I take him in some english pleasure and eq classes with 15 -18 other horses in a smallish arena and he does great until we line up and have to stand still at the end.

In July we haul him to Slavin Ranch for his first trail ride away from home. We meet up with friends (who have the same misconceptions about OTTBs that I did) and everyone is impressed with how good he is.

In August I take him on our camping trip to Farragut State Park. I find out just how fast he can powerwalk. He can be in the lead, in the middle, or in the back of the pack. However he is nervous constantly has to be checked so he's not too close to the horse in front of him. At every opportunity he tries to pass the dumb slow horses in front of him. WHY are they walking so slow?? He can trot and canter in front. He actually seems the most relaxed and happy when canterning in front, and doesn't try to increase speed.

We go for our first dressage lesson (my first lesson in 4 years) and he does very well and gets complimented by our instructor. I learn my position sucks and have things to work on.

In September we go on an all adult camping trip to Farragut (yay!). found a big field with pine trees at one end and galloped in and out of them and all around the field. It was like cross country without the jumps. Had a few moments of relaxation towards the end of the trip.

We also go to Tulip Springs and stay for 3 days. We participate in a hunter/jumper clinic that was... interesting. The next day he has his first jumping show. We enter in the 18" division and the 2' division. He gets champion in the 18" and a HUGE tri-colored ribbon, and res. champ in the 2' and another HUGE tri-colored ribbon.
The next day we jump our first real cross country jumps in a clinic with Jil Walton. He does banks, ditches, and up and down into water. The hardest thing for him was the height of the jumps since he's never jumped that high before and is trying to figure it all out.

At the end of September I am involved in a mass-firing from the ranch and have to find a place to take Jasper and Alexandre immediately.

In October my two horses stayed at my friend Pam's place. Pam takes care of my retired Quarter Horse mare Mindy Lou. She was very kind and a lifesaver in a horrible situation.

In November Jasper and Alexandre are settling into their new home, a 20-acre pasture at Valley Chapel Farms.

December brings some trail riding and silly santa hat pictures.

And... hello 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

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Exercising racehorses in Ireland

2009-12-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

Ireland

I've spent some time living and working overseas, and the best parts were always searching out horses to ride. I thought I would to through my old pics, scan some in, and post them here.

Country #1: Ireland

After graduating from college in 1994 I spent the summer running the horse program at YMCA's Camp Reed and then decided I needed to get out of Spokane. In October I spent all my money on a ticket to Ireland because I figured they spoke english there. Ha! Once I got there I had no money, so I lied and said I knew how to ride racehorses. I got a job as an exercise groom at Rathbride Yard owned by D.K. Weld in Newbridge, County Kildare. This yard (and all of them) were near the Curragh- which was a huge, huge, huge open grassy area that all the race trainers took their horses to to train. The grasses grew sideways and into each other and made fabulous footing.

Me on the old and seasoned 4-year-old Royal Carlton. Billy is next to us, he started the babies. While I was there a filly flipped over when he was driving her and broke her pelvis. Rather than euthanizing her they propped her up on hay bales so her feet could barely touch the ground. When I left she was still there healing, the vet said she wouldn't ever race but might be used for something else.

Who's riding who in which lot. I almost always rode Royal Carlton and led the pack. Problems would arise when I couldn't understand a single word the trainer was yelling at me to do- have you ever heard a thick Irish accent?? I'd have to turn around and ask one of the jockys behind me what he said. As we were galloping figure 8's out in the field.

We'd ride one lot, have tea (which Rene packed for me. It consisted of a thick butter sandwich with a piece of cheese in it), ride 2 more lots, have lunch, then chores until we left. Then I would often end up walking home 1-2 miles in sleeting rain in my rubber boots.

We'd muck the stall, then get our horse ready. Royal Carlton in his box.

Part of the Yard.
Me & RC on the 7 furlong long track.
This is Bernie on one of the babies. She was mean and snarky (like most of the girls there) and took every opportunity she could to point out how I didn't fit in.

The babies didn't have real names yet, they were just called their sire's name and then "colt" or "filly". This was the "Bluebird colt".

Trainer Jack Coates. He seemed like a pretty good guy even though he eventually figured out I didn't know what I was doing and fired me. I lasted 3 months though! We were galloping around the track and one of the new kid's horse got away from him and passed us. Royal Carlton figured it was time to race and I couldn't stop him. I rarely get scared on horses, but I was then. I couldn't stop or even slow down, and I knew if he spooked or went sideways even a tiny bit I'd be thrown off and die. I just hung onto his mane and prayed for him to keep going straight as he gathered speed with every stride.

Steamy horses after a workout. The jockeys that helped ride the babies were really nice and would always ride next to me for a chat as we were walking around cooling them off. J.O. is on the bay with the blaze, charming ole chap.

Newbridge

Got sheep? Don't have fences? No problem! Just spray paint them so we know who belongs to who.

My diggs. I rented a small room out in Rene and Dennis Reed's home. It's the one in the middle with the car.

The view from my window.

Their daughter Jeanette and her boyfriend Stephen would come and pick me up on weekends for all kinds of adventures. Here Jeanette and I are with John in Belfast, Northern Ireland. John rode for Ireland's National Showjumping team (or something like that). He took me cross counry jumping one day on little matching chestnut sporthorses- what a blast!

Stephen, me, and John. Going for a hike on the "mountain". Which was really a big hill.

THIS WAS FUN. Stephen, John, and I rented horses out in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Look at their feet!

Back again- Me, John, and Stephen heading out for a ride in the park.

John and Stephen. Wearing helmets while on horses is the law in Ireland. Now that I look at this picture I notice that John's helmet doesn't even have a chinstrap... cheeky monkey.

Don't let the rangers catch you! Jumping was not allowed in the park.

Next country: Egypt

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Near the river and through the woods...

2009-12-29T17:41:00.001-08:00

Taking full advantage of Karlin's time in Spokane, we head out on a beautiful, sunny, freezing (26*) afternoon ride. Alexandre's always ready to go.

I think it's nice that Alexandre was cooperative and smiled for the camera this time.

This may be the first picture I have where Jasper's feet are all on the ground and his ears are forwards. And he's not head bobbing. Caught him in the split second when all of these things came together, I should frame it.

Hmm. This angle is not flattering to Al's belly.

In and out of frostiness.

Hangman Creek covered in ice.

Awesome views.

Heading home. I'm actually pretty pleased at how far behind Jasper can get without getting upset. Now sure, if Alexandre disappeared around a corner it would be a different story, but still.

You can see part of the pasture where they live and the horse trailer parking area through the trees.

Merry Christmas! Santa Hats!

2009-12-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

Riding with Karlin

2009-12-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

There really hasn't been much to write about lately. We had a couple of weeks of insanely cold weather (-10 at night) and I was sick for a couple of weeks, and the boys have just been hanging out with the herd being horses. We had 4" of snow this week, then above freezing temperatures and rain for 2 days, and everything is wet wet wet.

The good news is that Karlin is back in town visiting her parents and we decided to try to go for a ride if the forecasted rain didn't appear. (Yesterday it didn't rain at all which gave the ground a day to try to soak up some of the standing water everywhere). I was excited because I hadn't ridden Jasper in... a month? and although I don't get nervous about getting on him after a hiatus I am always interested to see what he will do. I knew that with Alexandre in the lead he would probably be just fine. I was also excited because Alexandre hasn't been ridden since my friend Val came out, and he hasn't seen any of the trails yet.

We put on our neon-orange "don't shoot me" vests and headed out into the woods. The ride was fabulous. The footing was a bit slippery, which is no problem for the super-surefooted Alexandre, but Jasper lagged behind a bit taking little steps and being careful.

Gotta love cell phone pix.

I literally rode on the buckle 95% of the ride. He was my western pleasure pony for a day. I'm sure it was a combo of his Idol Alexandre leading the way and the footing... and maybe he's finally relaxed into his new home. And is starting to trust me more. I am the food lady, after all.

Alexandre was SO happy to go on a ride. He is always alert and interested in everything. He often stops to take in the view if it's a good one. We saw HUGE flocks of wild turkeys and some deer. Karlin noticed that it's hard to see the trail when he sticks hit head straight up in the air- camel style. Yep. He's a very forward mover and usually leads just because he walks out. He also has the endurance of an Arabian, and I learned early on that trying to tire him out doesn't work.

Alexandre's just waiting for someone to go into the tack room- treats magically come out of the there after a ride.

Let. me. eat. that. hay. down. there. now. please.
Jasper gets alfalfa the whole time he's at the hitching post. Trying to get more calories into him. Note new rubber mat. Nooooooooooooo, MY horse did not dig holes to China while tied up there, noooooooooooo...

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A REAL Dressage Test

2009-12-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

I laugh out loud every time I read this. Just had to share.

A REAL dressage test.

A --Enter extraordinary serpentine.

X --Halt.

G --Try again.

C -- Freeze in horror at judge's stand. Take opportunity to salute quickly.

E --Track left in counterflexed bolt.

FXH --Change rein unextended jig.

H --Canter. Or counter canter, or crosscanter.

M-F --Working out-of-hand gallop.

A --Just try to walk.

KXM --Tesseract, stopping at each corner to rub nose on foreleg.

C --Down center line, working trot bouncing.

X --Pulley rein. Halt. Salute, exhale.

Leave arena in free walk, loose language under breath.

Attempting Shoulder Fore & Haunches In...

2009-11-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

Mud: 2 Jasper: 2 Megan: 0

Today we attempted haunches in and shoulder fore, something we've dabbled in in the past but haven't worked very hard at. I was very impressed with his willingness to give it a try and thought he put in a good effort at both! Especially since I'm just kind of assuming I know how to do it. I really need a lesson from someone who can watch my position and hands.

Haunches in is easier, probably because the fence is a physical barrier. I thought he actually ended up doing shoulders in (which is a harder, increased angle from shoulder fore) in parts. You can't tell in the video, but the green fence bows out and he is traveling downhill both directions, and the track by the white fence is muddy and a little slick.

I don't have a huge amount of contact. I don't have a huge amount of contact ever, though, so it was consistent. This spring we'll start working on it and connecting from back to front more.

He was very relaxed today, almost lazy...!

Turkey chasing mud ball.

2009-11-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

What? You don't see my gleaming show horse, my exceptional event prospect, his beautifully clipped head and bridle path and perfectly fitting shiny leather halter?

It's there somewhere, I swear.

Yesterday it snowed, then sleeted, then rained, then snowed again. Serena and I were going to go for a ride, but by the time we got to the barn everything was soaked including my horses. For some reason they were out in the field, soaked to the skin, and shivering in the wind. When I called Alexandre's name he came trotting over. I don't know why they weren't hanging out with all the other horses where there is shelter, but they both got their winter blankets on yesterday and last night.

Today they were dry and hanging out with the herd again, so who knows. I had a great time with Jasper today. The ground was slippery in a few places but OK in others, so I decided to go on our first solo trail ride down the gravel driveway and up a trail to a field. How many four-year-olds do you know that you can just saddle up and head down the trail on? Especially that haven't been ridden consistently for months. On a light/loose rein to boot. We walked up the trail to the field and there were wild turkeys EVERYWHERE. I even got him to trot after a flock of them- he was a little unsure about the whole thing but obediently trotted after them until they really started running through the field and got kind of scary. We saw lots of deer and a HUGE 3-point buck in the field as well. Trotted through the field up a looong hill and into the forest to another field, where we turned around because it had been tilled and was gooey and slippery. It wasn't a long ride but a very successful one. He self-regulated and walked and trotted on a loose or light rein. He took everything in stride. Gave some hard looks at some things but kept his cool. When we got back to the barn he walked through a big puddle without much fuss and stopped when I asked him to so I could dismount. Other than that I didn't work on stopping today, I wanted to have a really positive, successful day and I was also thankful when he stood tied without pawing, kicking, or pulling back.

I think he's finally starting to settle in and relax. He still needs to gain weight, but he's holding his own and not losing weight either. Now that the stressful part is over and he has all-you-can-eat grass hay, plus his supplements, I have hopes he'll maintain. Once it stays below freezing I'll probably leave his winter blanket on as well. Right now the temperature fluctuates so much it's impossible to leave it on.

He is such a good turkey-chasing baby.

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Mom, Harry, Horses

2009-11-16T19:13:00.000-08:00

My mom and Harry (her grand-dog) came to the barn today. Neither one of my parents has much experience around horses, but Mom offered to hold Alexandre's bucket of oats and big rocks. She now has a friend for life.

She did a good job holding on as he really pushes the bucket into you!

Harry is a city dog and was REALLY excited to be around all the horses. He kept his distance though so all was well.

We just found out Harry has glaucoma and is completely blind in his right eye. It's extremely painful for him, so he's going into surgery tomorrow to have it removed. We wanted to get some pictures of his last day as a two-eyed dog.

Always smiling. Harry is the epitome of pure joy.

Jasper was especially good today and didn't paw or weave back and forth when he was tied. What a good boy! I think Alexandre is like a security blanket for him. Alexandre has taught him to come to me for cookies when I arrive in the pasture, which is awesome. Alexandre also spends 95% of his time eating which is bad for him but good for Jasper as Jasper is his shadow and does everything Al does. They are both such awesome horses.

WHOA dammit!

2009-11-15T17:50:00.000-08:00

OK, so the ground is really REALLY slippery when wet out at the barn. I don't know if it's some kind of clay or what, but even just walking around your feet slide a little. I feel sorry for all the horses that have paddocks on the hillside- how do they not slide down like skiiers?

My friend Janaira loaned me an older dressage saddle to try on Jasper. It's a Crosby and has short billets- weird! Great shape, though. So for the first time since they've been in the big pasture, I brought Jasper up (without his fearless leader Alexandre) to the tack room, groomed him, yelled at him for standing sideways, pawing, and pulling, and tried on the saddle. It appears to fit him great. Took him to the arena and walked around looking for non-slippery ground. Found a little section and rode around without much success as he was still sliding. Decided to go ride in a small field by the arena, it had grass and weeds growing in it so the footing was better. There wasn't really anything we could do besides walk around, so I decided we'd work on stopping. And standing still. And thus began a 2+ hour battle.

I'm out of ideas. Help anyone? What would you do? Is he too young/ is he too hyper/ too stubborn? It's not just under saddle. He can't stand still while tied either. He paces from side to side, paws, and dolphin kicks out with his hind legs.

I would sit deep in the saddle, he would sort of stop for a microsecond, and then would do a myriad of other things involving moving of body parts. First I tried circling. When he refused to stand still I let him walk in circles and he got to pick when he stopped. I was hoping he would realize it's easier to stand than walk in circles. Nope. After a while I would pull him in a circle and he would stand still with his nose to my stirrup. He would stay still until he got his neck straightened out and then would begin moving again. I also tried an assortment of other tactics. He would back up (got nudged forward) go sideways (got nudged on one side until he was back where he started), go forwards, (got pulled back), pawed (got a quick tug on a rein), bobbed, shook, and threw his head (um, usually nothing- I just wanted his feet still). The instant he stood still he got rewarded, got praised and stroked on his neck, all was calm, and then after a few seconds got to walk forward. Usually he stopped moving because he saw something in the distance and was focusing on it. Obviously by the end I was frustrated. Usually the instant reward works after a while. They realize, hey, when I just stand here everything is good! When I move my feet everything is bad. Choices, choices. It's like he doesn't have it within himself to keep all four feet in one place. Maybe I just shouldn't ask him to stand still at this point, it just seems like kind of an important thing to be able to do.

What would you do?

Assimilation

2009-11-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I went out to the barn to give Jasper his 50 pound bucket of supplements, the the herds were still segregated. My two were out in the 20 acre pasture, and the other 6 were hanging out around the barn/feeder/waterer. The problem with this is that the barn is at the end of a long wide chute, and I figured my 2 guys wouldn't stand a chance against Jake, the mean old boss gelding. So after they got done eating (Alexandre gets a little bucket with a handful of complimentary oats and a bunch of big rocks in it) I led Alexandre down the chute and into the barn area. Jasper follows him like a shadow, and I shooed the other horses away and led mine to the water. They drank and I guarded them until Alexandre decided hay was more important than safety, walked out of reach, and Jake chased him out of the barn area and back into the chute with Jasper right on his heels. Norm, the barn owner, said that he was going to move 2 of them up to the new pen that he had made but hadn't done it yet. I sighed, decided I'd just lead them to the water every time I came out, and they would have to eat pasture grass until some switching around could be done.

I was home for about 20 minutes (a 30 mile round trip) when Norm called from Yakima or somewhere at his daughter's volleyball tournament, said he was concerned about my guys not getting near the food/water, and told me if I wanted to I could move Jake and a buddy to the new pen. Or he could do it this weekend. I of course drove straight back there and caught Jake and his buddy the pinto. The pinto is 4 and huge. Not so much tall, but wide. And as it turns out, not real halter broke. If I had to do it again, I would probably lead them one at a time and take a lunge whip to smack pinto when he planted his feet and refused to move forward. Eventually though they made it up the big hill and into the new pen, had a fit over the 2 horses next to them until Jake got snapped by the hotwire fence, then all was well.

I am happy to report that today my two were standing under the shelter with the remaining four. I wouldn't say anyone is friends yet, but just being in the same area is an improvement. The four that are left are so uncertain what to do without their aggressive leader that it seems quite calm at the moment. Lots of ear pinning and threatening, but these guys take 3 steps and stop like normal horses. It snowed this afternoon and I was thinking that it might be Jasper's first snow.

Muddy around the feeder, but I noticed today there was a load of bark dumped there. Note how Alexandre eats off the top instead of pulling the hay through the slats like everyone else. This way he can get giant mouthfulls and inhale as much hay as possible in the shotest amount of time. Nevermind that there is hay 24/7. Will he figure this out? No, no he will not.

I, however, wasn't able to watch Jasper in possilby his first snow because I went out to Post Falls Equestrian Center to watch Jessica Wisdom teach. She has a training facility in Yelm (Yelm is pretty much in the middle of nowhere near Olympia). She is now my favorite instructor (dressage at least) becaue I actually GET what she's saying, and have SEEN the improvements in the horses and riders that she teaches. She's also quite entertaining. She says a lot of things that are pretty funny, mostly when she's trying to describe something. I guess her students at her barn in Yelm are putting a book together called "Words of Wisdom". At one point we were all standing in the aisle of the barn watching her ride a grey mare doing haunches in down the long side, and the mare was not cooperating. Under her breath as she camly went by we heard her mumble "c'mon mare, it's not fu**ing rocket science," which sent the onlookers into fits of giggles. I was so impressed with her last month when she was here I asked if I could be a working student for her for a couple of months. How cool would that be? Unfortunately she doesn't have room right now but until I get a job I'm going to keep asking.

I'm thinking about riding again. I didn't want to stress one out by leaving him behind, but now that they're semi accepted into the herd I feel I can take Jasper away it will be OK. I don't think I can take Al away, I'd be afraid that Jasper would try jumping out or something. I really need a friend to come out and ride Al with me...!

FREEEEEEEEDOM (part 2)

2009-11-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

A wet, drizzly, grey day.

Alexandre getting ready to go down to his new diggs- the 20 acre pasture. Now with reinforced fences.

Jasper's getting ready too. He may be distracted by a bucket of mush, but he is not pawing, digging, or dolphin leaping/kicking while tied. That was for after the mush was eaten. My mom was in charge of watching him and calling me if killed himself while I helped Norm reinforce the fencing a little more.

Norm and Jasper part 2.

Didn't we just break out of this place?

Norm and the herd while J & A look on...

The herd gallops around while J & A trail behind.
Don't wanna get too close, but don't wanna be left too far behind either.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee! Jasper could leave Alexandre in the dust. He's nervous but at the same time really happy everyone's galloping around.

Jasper in the back cantering around and tossing his head every which way while Alexandre's at the very back in his full gallop trying to keep up...

And THIS is what happened twice yesterday. They break away from the herd, switch direction, and charge full speed ahead towards the gate...

Luckily my brave mom stood there and twirled a rope which made them think twice. Success! No broken fences!

With the herd on the other side of the field, it's time to see what there is to eat.

Even on 20 acres, the grass is always greener...

The herd eats and rolls and watches the newcomers.

And all is well.