Alexandre & Jasper settling in.

This morning the boys said goodbye to Pam's Paradise. Jasper said bye to Red, his most favorite playmate. I said bye to Mindy Lou, it was fun to see her so often! Alexandre didn't get to say goodbye to anybody because he was such a jerk while he was there.

Pam hooked up her truck to my trailer and we, plus my mom, drove out to Valleyford, WA this morning. Once you get off the highway it is a beautiful drive. Countryside with fall colors, fields, forest, and Hangman Creek. They unloaded well and we put them in the arena where strangely enough, Jasper ran around. Norm, the owner, is really nice and helped us unload stuff from my trailer into the tack room. He asked how many saddles I had and I said 3- the jumping, the dressage, and Alexandre's Aussie- an decided to leave the western in the trailer. I felt a bit guilty with how much space I was taking up with the saddles plus my big trunk plus Jasper's garbage can of supplements. Eek.

They're going to stay in the arena for a couple of days until he finishes making a few new corrals, when a lot of the horses will be re-arranged, and there will be room down in the big pasture for them. The trailer parking is down below next to the big pasture, and Norm showed us where one of the trails starts and GOES THROUGH THE CREEK. Yes! Water crossing! Think it's about a foot or so high right now. In that place anyway, I guess his daughter tried crossing somewhere else last week and her horse ended up in a swimming hole and swum. Literally. Woops. Brrrrrrr.

Unfortunately it looks like Al scraped his eyeball on something this morning and it was weepy and starting to swell. Luckily the vet was willing to sell me a tube of eye antibiotics without a barn call. $8.50 sure beats $100. I went back out this evening and gave him 2 doses. He was VERY good and held quite still. I think he actually realized I was trying to help him this time. That or he just remembered the cookies from last time.

They both seemed happy and content when I went back this evening. The place is way out in the country and is very peaceful. Al got goop in his eye and his forelock braided to the side. Jasper got groomed, his sheet put back on, and his bucket of supplements. When I left they were happily munching hay.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is a long-term solution to my low-income self. You can't beat $150 a month for board. Yay!

Phew...

Valley Chapel Farms

Today I drove out to Valley Chapel Farms in Valleyford, WA. It's about 15 miles from my house, partially on highway. I found them on Craigslist months ago, and wrote down their information because they were advertising board for $150/month, and I thought hmmm, if I ever lost my job I should check this place out. I actually called them when I DID lose my job but they were full. So today in the snow and sleet I made my way out there and checked it out.

Talk about pasture board. The "pasture" is acres and acres and acres taking up the entire valley of this place sectioned off into 4 gigantic pastures that 6 horses are rotated through. They have all-you-can eat grass hay and automatic waterers. Shelters in each pasture. There are smaller pastures and pens as well that are full. Most of the pens have feeders at the top, and they have a pretty steep downhill descent as the paddock area.

Jasper will LOVE the galloping space. I told the owner that I am concerned that he will lose more weight as he will not get supplements unless I'm out there. He seemed willing to work with me and that we will keep an eye on him and see how he does. There is one paddock by his house Jasper could possibly go in- it it the feeder at the top on a steep muddy hillside though so I don't know. We'll just have to see how everything works out. Right now there's still grass in the pasture, so between that and the hay, supplements when I go out there, and a blanket hopefully he'll be OK.

There is small outdoor arena, a round pen, a barn to keep tack in, and TONS of awesome cross country riding! Fields, hills, trails, and even access to Hangman Valley Creek- wouldn't that be awesome? Water training.

Moving this weekend.

Seriously...

- Click here for the funniest movie of the week

Alexandre for Lease..?

What do you DO when you're suddenly unemployed with 2 horses to suddenly take care of? Both my boys have lived at the ranch where I used to work. Unemployment did not take into consideration boarding costs- what were they thinking?

So what do I do? I promised Alexandre I would never sell him. And I won't. We've been together 10 of his 17 years, he's my boy. He likes trail riding. He'll do dressage. He can't jump anymore. Jasper is a 4-year-old OTTB. A dime a dozen. Sell him? He can jump. He has the potential to event. But he's all potential with not much to back it up yet. I have much more of an emotional connection to Alexandre. And my dreams lie upon Jasper's back.

So I have decided (I think) to try to lease Alexandre out on a care lease. I was firm on this decision a few days ago. I made a slideshow of pictures of him. I called the dressage trainers in the area and even put an ad on Craigslist. And Dream Horse. One lady even came out and rode him. She used to game and wants to trail ride. He kind of took off with her but she didn't seem scared. She had a lot of trouble trying to post his trot. I was supposed to look at her place today but I am procrastinating. I guess I'd prefer if he was at a boarding barn and whoever was leasing him was taking lessons... it that unfair? I think HE would prefer to trail ride. Although he prefers me.

I asked Jessica Wisdom (awesome dressage trainer in Yelm, WA) if she would like a working student for a couple of months. She said she's working on it, but they are short on space. I'm considering calling boarding barns tomorrow and asking if I can work off board...

Update

This morning I went back to ranch and got my final paycheck. I also got the rest of my stuff, Anke's bike, and the elk and buffalo skulls that Anke, Annie and I brought back from one of our camping trips.

The ranch has told us we can not have any contact with any of the boys, past or present. Our attorney said they're blowing smoke up our asses and we can have contact with all of the boys, past and present. They can't make up rules AFTER they fire us for no reason. Obviously we can't go to the ranch and trespass. We are working on it. These boys' lives have been full of neglect, abuse, and abandonment. We refuse to let them think we've left them without warning or a goodbye and have gone on with our lives to never think of them again. It seems like child abuse to me.

Karlin's (who trained Porsche) dad called the ranch to try to get information. He sponsored Porsche this year. He was told the equine program is going in a "different direction" and now they have enough money to hire Catlin (the board member's daughter) AND an assistant for her. Isn't that great? And I had to fight to get $400 tarps to cover the hay. Looks like mommy is paying someone's salary and doesn't want her to work too hard.

Anyhoo after that I stopped on my out to Pam's (have I said thank god for Pam? The boys will be staying at her place a little longer as I'm searching for mega-cheap board somewhere) and picked up some Equine Senior for Jasper. He's decided to strike against really eating anything, but for some reason he looooooves LMF Equine Senior. He's now on a beautiful irrigated grass pasture 24 hours a day, plus he gets supplements AND alfalfa hay all night. I hope after he settles in he'll gain some weight.

I'm ready to shoot Alexandre. He's driving me nuts. He's decided he's a stallion and is after one of the mares in heat. He is completely nutty/bonkers/beside himself. He has NEVER acted this way before. He's lost a ton of weight (a good thing) because he continually paces the round pen trying to attack horses over the fence that get close to Rosanna. Even when she's out in the pasture with them. SHE is quite a witch when she's in heat and had double-barreled him more than a few times. We decided they deserve each other and stuck them in the round pen together. Alexandre runs over to attack the horses on the other side of the fence when they get close to her, and Rosanna intervenes and attacks him. He's slowly learning to stand on the other side of the round pen away from her. At least I don't have to listen to the sound of horse crashing into metal the whole time I'm out there.

I rode Jasper today and he was high as a kite. Trotted around in the pasture and he continually broke into canter, and I would halt, back, and go on to trot again. He did lots of head scooping and even did some baby bucks. He did settle down towards the end, and we practiced leg yielding at the walk and some little walking pirouettes using outside rein. He's so light and responsive (while bobbing his head and neck up and down, swishing his tail, and chomping the bit). Lots of praise when he stood still for 5-10 seconds, a blanket to cover all his bones, and a bucket of mush. Hopefully I'll be able to catch him next time.

I'll get some pictures of Pam's place and the boys' new roommates. Jasper has really taken to Pam's gelding Red. He's testing the waters to see if he can be dominant over someone. He slowly walks up to Red, stands real close to him for a while, then pins his little ears back and sometimes Red steps away.

And... I'm sleeping in tomorrow!

Tulip Springs Show and XC clinic

Jasper and I arrived at Tulip Springs at about 4:00 on Friday. It was very strange to pull into a place and not know anyone. I was glad the 3 hour drive went by without incident but was still unsure of what to expect for the next four days. Jasper got to stay in an outdoor 12x24 pen that was very nice, and I got to park the trailer with all my junk in it right in front of it. I put his hay net up and filled his water tub and set up camp in the back of my trailer. Swept it out, put a horse blanket down, my air bed with sleeping bag on top. I made the mistake of leaving the door open. The next time I went in there I found a kitty and about 5,000 flies buzzing around.

We went for a hand walk to stretch out his legs. He is not a good traveler and arrives covered with sweat (and sometimes shaking) after his rides in trailers. We went out on the cross country course and jumped things I could jump too- like logs, ditches, baby banks... he seemed quite happy to follow me over anything. I couldn't help thinking of when he broke my finger because I stepped on a tarp and he flew backwards. What an improvement.

Carol, the owner of Tulip Springs, showed me a trail that led to some nice fields to ride in so I saddled up and headed out for a hack. He was in power walking mode but responsive. Trotted and cantered around the fields. What a good boy.

That night I headed to bed to find my air bed flat. I also found kitty claw holes in it. Tried to Duct tape them up but ended up sleeping in the cab of the truck. Luckily Serena's truck (Bessie) has a bench seat.

Saturday was a stadium jumping clinic and we didn't ride until 1:45. Did I mention that Jasper whinnied pretty much the whole first two days? Even when there were tons of horses right there in sight. Ugh. We did a lot of hand walking and grazing while watching the other riders. He hand walks himself as he takes a bite of grass and walks in a circle or two, then takes another bite of grass. My lesson was interesting. We did a lot of transitions and flexing for the flat part of it which wound Jasper up a bit (just because we've never worked at that intensity before) and he refused to pick up his right lead. I'm not sure what was going on with the other 2 horses during the flat, but one was having trouble and the other one ran off with his rider. Didn't bolt or anything, just cantered off past the dressage arena and kept going. The jumping didn't get a whole lot better. One horse refused to even attempt to go over the 2' jump and the other one ran off with his rider again. Unfortunately it took up most the instructor's time, but at the end Jasper and I got to do a little course- our first one! The clinician, who was also the judge for the show the next day, told me to trot in and canter out of combinations. And to take him in as many classes as possible for miles.

AFTER that though was one of the best parts of the weekend. Carol was out on the cross country course with some girls who were schooling so I went to join them. I had no idea what he would do about the big jumps and about the water- especially after the last time he "met" water and cantered sideways up a hill until he ran into a fence. We warmed up over some little logs and then did real BN jumps. He jumped everything without hesitation. I tried cantering in to one but he got confused and brought himself back down to trot to jump it. He even went over a jump that had big scary spaces in it. The water wasn't a problem and I got him to canter through. He jumped the ditches with water running through and went up and down the baby banks.

I guess that Cindy (my next door "neighbor") told Carol about the popped bed and and she offered to let me put my sleeping bag on a bed in the cute little house on the property that they rent out for people to stay in. That was above and beyond accommodating. She had already given me permission to sneak into the bathroom and use the shower.

Early the next morning we were saddled up and ready to enter out 18" class. The trot pole classes had just started and I decided to go in one so he could see the arena- which was a good thing because there were horse-eating roll tops at the end of the arena and they got a good hard sideways look. We won the class and after watching the video I can see why- he totally looks like a little Hunter Under Saddle. Hmm. Jasper, we are NOT doing Hunters.

The 18" division went well (2 jumping and a flat class). We trotted in and tried to canter out, and in one class he was on the correct lead a few times so we cantered around some. He picked up his right lead in the flat class and did very well in spite of being cut off a few times.



The 2' division went really well too- same thing. He never hesitated at a jump and was straight in his combinations. I just sat there quietly and let him figure things out. You're supposed to canter your courses at 18" and 2', and even though we didn't do that it felt quite smooth. Apparently the judge thought so too, because we were the 18" division CHAMPIONS and the 2' RES. CHAMPIONS. Now normally this may not be a big deal, but the champion ribbons are amazing. They really went all out for this show. This may be the fanciest ribbon ever. Pretty fun. And as Terri pointed out on his future Rolex resume' I can now put down "2009 Cross Rail Champion".


Karlin took the pics of Jasper and I and his huge ribbon. She is moving to California (boo!!!) and stopped in Kennewick on her way down. It was great to see a familiar friendly face and she and her cute dog spent most of the day watching the jumping.

Have I mentioned how nice everyone is at this place? Carol is great and wants everyone to have fun. Kate ran the weekend and despite being overloaded with things to do was always friendly and helpful. She even videotaped my jumping clinic for me. My neighbor Cindy was helping out with the show too. She gave me wine and videoed all my jumping classes in the show. Debra was also staying in the house and was very supportive. I also met a few eventers from the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area.

After the Hunter classes were done all the jumps got moved out and new ones brought in. I should have taken a picture of the jumper courses. Bright poles, roll tops, and they started big and kept getting bigger. Very fun to watch. The best part of the show was the Derbies. They are set up in the cross country field and are a combination of cross country jumps and stadium jumps. Fastest time wins. They also started at 3' and went up- zoiks!

My cross country clinic with Jil Walton was at 1:00 the next day. I was feeling pretty confident from Friday and was looking forward to it. He did really well despite some refusals. At first I was so surprised I didn't really know what to do. The jumps were high and he has never cantered in, so we eventually figured out that he just needs to trot in for now. Going from a 2' vertical pole jump to a 2'6 cross country jump is a big... jump.



Jil was great. I agreed with everything she was saying and doing, not just with me but with all of the riders. I would ride with her again. There seemed to be a lot of positive feedback from everyone.

We made it home without incident last night and Jasper is VERY happy to be back in his pasture with his buddies. Unfortunately he lost a lot of weight this weekend even though he had all the hay he could eat day and night and was getting buckets of supplements. I even put a blanket on him at night so he wouldn't have to use energy to keep warm. He stresses out and loses weight so fast. Not sure what to do about that one. He is not food motivated. When I got him out of the trailer his hay wasn't touched and his tub of cookies, apples, and carrots wasn't touched either. Oh, and he also rubbed out a nice 2"x 2" bald spot in his tail. My butt strap in the trailer is useless and he apparently leans on the back door. It's a nice addition to the battle scar look.

He's going to have some easy rides for a while until he gains a few pounds back. Then we're going to up the intensity of his rides a little bit. More transitions, more right lead canter, more contact. Mixed in with lots of trail rides and canters through the field. I think I need to make some standards to we can practice jumping something other than fence posts balanced on buckets.

What a GOOD boy.

Getting Nervous...

For my first solo outing with Jasper. And my first solo outing where I stay overnight with my horse. Over the years I've taken solo day trips with my horses- shows, trail rides, etc. but I've never taken them somewhere alone and stayed the night.

On Friday morning we're heading to Tulip Springs, an eventing barn in Kennewick, Washington. It's about 3 hours away, maybe a little more with a horse trailer. I'm camping in my tent and Jasper gets a 12x24 paddock. I'm borrowing Serena's truck again. The weather forecast is excellent-70s.

On Saturday at 1:45 I have a stadium jumping clinic with Karina Hogan. Somehow we got put in the 2'3 division... so I emailed Carol, the barn owner, said she not to worry about it. As it turns out, she's in my lesson and we're the only 2 so far. I really don't think the height will be a problem, it's just that he's never gone that high in an arena and I didn't want them to think he had.

On Sunday is a Hunter/Jumper schooling show. The judge is Karina Hogan from the clinic the day before. I entered the 2' division with the option of moving up or down a level depending on how Saturday goes. I'm not too nervous about the show, I figure if nothing else we'll just trot into everything. If he can jump 4'7 from a standstill he can jump 2' from a trot with someone on his back.

Then on Monday, well MONDAY... Monday is a CROSS COUNTRY JUMPING clinic with Jill Walton who was in the Barcelona Olympics. Now do we really need someone of that caliber for our first exposure to cross country elements? Probably not. I was clear that this would be Jasper's very first exposure to a cross country course and that he's not jumping BN height yet, and I was assured that there are 10-12 obstacles that are Elementary level. And WATER. Oh yes, I hope we spend time at the water complex. My dream is to gallop into water and out of it. Which means he has to actually step in it first. But we've been building trust in the last 6 months and he has gained quite a bit of confidence in himself.

I think my horse is beautiful. And athletic. And talented. And smart. But he lives in a pasture with 3 other horses that he annoys constantly. He has huge chunks of flesh and hair missing all over his body. The hair that finally started to grow back in is darker than the rest of him so he looks like he's been in a battle. He has a nice moon shaped cut above his right eye. His tail is short and scraggly, he's tall and gangly and even with all the supplements still too thin. After a ride he's hosed off and turned back out in the pasture where he joyously rolls in the dirt. Compared to the immaculate horses that are kept in box stalls he's kind of a mess. I don't know if I even have a sheet or blanket that fits him.

I've had one lesson in the past 4 years which was a couple of weeks ago, and it was fabulous. I feel like a bundle of nervous energy right now which is very unusual for me. I know I should just relax, but this trip seems... big. Maybe because I'm taking jumping lessons. I think more because it is proof that I'm really, truly going to do this eventing thing. It's the first big step towards a big dream and it's giving me butterflies in my stomach...

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