Horse show insanity...

About noon I was SUPER excited about the lesson and show this weekend. After looking at ride times and creating my schedule I'm horrified to see that I need to be leaving at 4:15 with horse in-tow in order to make this crazy plan work! Why do I do this to my weekends???

Outing number two!

We had a second scary outing this week, and, aside from some bug-eyed giraffe impressons, we survived!

I hauled Bear out to ride with a friend where she boards her horse. They have lights in their covered arena, so we could manage this after work even with the short days. It was just dusk when we got there, and the place is a bit chaotic for a greenie. The train tracks go right behind the property, and since the communter train passes by it is a pretty regular distraction. So it is dark, there is a loud train, its a new place, add to it pigeons flitting around in the fairly low rafters, a man with a bike and trailer zipping around in the dark past the arena, a very unruly teenage girl/mare combo out of control or out right defiant in the arena, and a donkey braying in the dark pasture on the other side, and you can imagine Bear's alarm with the situation. Luckily he gets over anything with time.

We just walked around the arena, or stood in the middle for quite a while. I basically decided to wait out the dangerous horse. With a total of four riders in an arena only slightly larger than a dressage court, I didn't want to get in a bad situation if I found myself next to the pissed off mare. So by the time we started riding, he was calm and focused. We took it easy and worked on some walk-trot transitions, walk to free walk transistions, and plenty of bending to ask for more contact on the bit. He was a good boy, and we finished the evening by standing in the middle of the arena while my friend practiced the dressage tests for the show Sunday.

It felt so good to be on him. He is built and moves so differently than Lola, it is a weird feeling! He is narrow, where Lola was round, so my leg hangs differently. He's so easy and pokey most of the time that's it hard to create the energy at first, but he's got bigger and more relaxed strides. With Lola I was working to turn her energized strides into slower longer swinging steps, with Bear I'm trying to energize his lazy jog into his long swinging stride! He's also so ignorant! He is an easy horse to ride, so its hard not to treat him like a dead broke lesson horse. But he is just getting the idea of accepting the contact and from there we'll be working on stretching to reach for it. A work in progress. He did start to get the idea of stretching his nose down at the free walk. Getting it, but not quite there yet!

I have a dressage lesson on Saturday and I think we'll make some good progress towards tidying things up before Sunday's show. Can't wait!

And then there was one...

Yes, that is right, down to one horse! It is quite bitter sweet. Lola and Bear acted like such a sweet old married couple, that it was heart breaking to split them up. Lola is off on a lease with a junior rider who will be taking her to more competitions this coming year than I would have had the time or money to do in five years! It is a fantastic situation, but I will miss her. So...how do you get over missing your horse? Ride your OTHER horse! Bear doesn't even know what hit him!

Immediatley after sending Lola on her way, I loaded Bear up and took him off to a local western schooling show. Their trail classes were marked english or western, but I'm sure I was the only one in an english saddle! I squeezed in two walk-trot trail classes and then went and worked in the warm up arena for a little bit. It was good to get him out and exposed to the world again. He hasn't been anywhere without Lola for about a year, and he hasn't been to show grounds for probably two years. He was not exactly his lazy and laid back self, but he wasn't a complete wreck either. Good start!

We even took a fourth in one trail class! (I was disqualified in the other for being off course.)


Just look at that silly sweet face!

I've got big plans to keep him busy and me distracted from missing Lola. We will be hauling out to a friends this week after work to ride. I have our first dressage lesson in probably 2 1/2 years on Saturday. AND we will be going to a dressage schooling show Sunday! We're off with a bang! I'm looking forward to it!

Working equitation

I've been riding my entire life... well almost... a pony at the age of 4 should count for "all my life". As a horse obsessed, kid, teen, college student, and now adult, I have made a life of reading about horses, horse products, horse disciplines of all types and around the world. I've participated in western horsemanship, trail, barrel racing, trail trials, endurance rides, hunter/jumper, IHSA, dressage, and eventing. So when I come across something that I've never heard of, working equitation, I was surprised. But when I looked into it an thought it sounded right up my alley, like it could be the coolest thing that I'd ever not hear of, I was amazed! Its a crazy combination of trail obstacles, jumping, livestock, with lances and all. Seriously, it sounds really fun!

Not sure how I find a place to compete in this obscure discipline, but it would be fun to try to find a way!

Oh the weight of it all...

If you don't read Lola's blog, take a look at my last post here. I took Lola to our first Horse Trials at Beginner Novice level. This was a HUGE step for both of us. We prepared as best we could, we schooled the cross country course prior, we have been working over fences that size all summer, and now that we've sorted out canter departs, our dressage was good enough for the test. Should have gone fine, right? Except we had an epic FAIL. Now you really do want to go back and click on that link don't you!!! Really, I understand! I while I like hearing other bloggers talk about how well they did at shows because I can learn something from it, I LOVE getting hear everyones' sob stories about terrible shows! Ok, maybe not truly terrible, I can't ever stomach hearing about riders or horses injured. But boy does it feel good to hear that there are other people out there like me, just trying to make it, and feeling just as awkward about it!

So please, if you have a bad show experience to share, leave it in the comments. I would LOVE to hear that all the bloggers who really seem to have it all together have also fallen off at shows at one point or another! Yes, that's right, after a embarrassing dressage score, and a refusal and rail in stadium, I was eliminated from cross country for a falling off at our third refusal.

I completely psychoanalyzed the ride on Lola's blog, and it was a very cathartic exercise, but there is one more aspect I need to vent. Since Lola is a sale horse, I feel personally responsible for her future. Riding poorly when I can just come back stronger next year on a horse I'm committing life-long ownership to is one thing, but riding like I did at the last show that I can afford to take her to for the season is fairly devastating to her sale promotion.

I am feeling the weight of not giving her a good enough ride, the weight of the tediously slow work it takes to get Bear back into shape after almost a year of extremely inconsistent work, and the weight of the reality that summer is gone and my evenings are fast disappearing. And then I remember that having a horse at all is a blessing! Owning TWO talented horses is a stoke of extreme fortune! And really, compared to many of the winters other bloggers face, I have an extremely mild and short season of bad weather! I may not be managing them to their best, but how dare I allow horses,such a positive area of my life, to bring me down? Well, I'm a perfectionist, and I get frustrated when I can't manage it just right.

So now that I've vented on failing my mare, I will focus my energy positively. I will trail ride more, even in the rain. If time limits us, I will take Bear for walks in hand (I'll get fit too!). I will remember horses need time to develop as much as they need good training. And I will definitely still find other bloggers out there who have bad days at horse shows every once in a while!

New (used) saddle fail

I've been shopping new jumping saddles, but have been at the mercy of what is available in my budget at the local tack shop. I stopped by on a whim last Thursday and found... drum roll please... a Pessoa for $300!!! Some minor issues from regular wear and tear, but seriously, only $300? I don't know a ton about the different models, and maybe this started out life on the lower end, but it seemed like a great deal for me if it worked. "If it worked out" was the problem.

It fit me great! Loved it. It fit Lola alright. She seemed to go fine in it. There was as a little bit of dry hair under the wet saddle pad that made me question it though. But on Bear, it was a total fail. I didn't even need to go in to the saddle fitter to decide. Not nearly enough wither clearance. Sat right on top of his withers in fact!

Oh well... guess I'm waiting for the next great deal!

A moment of cuteness to brighten anyone's day!

So the question is... will I ever think the baby is cuter than the horse?? Does that maternal instinct kick in at some point and give me the desire to pinch chubby cheeks? For now I just want to pet the pony! And I'd rather scoop poop than change a diaper any day!


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