Beauty and the Beach

It's way, way too hot to even consider venturing outside at the given moment. 107 degrees and climbing? I don't think so.

Instead, I dorked around with my Movie Maker and actually made a movie! I had no idea what I was doing (I am, at best, completely techo-challenged on a good day), but I did it! It's awesome, you should watch it. It might be the best video ever made on the planet earth.





I'd sure like to be doing any one of those things today instead of hiding in my air conditioning! I miss the beach!

Baby, You're a Firework

I've been totally silent all week since the announcement about leaving my job, and with good reason. I have news I wasn't ready to break until I had solid plans in place. The last thing I had written on Monday was, "I'm not unhappy, and I'm not nervous or upset. I'm just looking forward with rapt attention. It's foggy and gross out there this morning, but I'm not worried. Soon, the sunlight will break through." That very same day, I received a phone call from one of the clients, just as the rain outside literally stopped and a few rays of sunlight began to sparkle on the wet grass. (Literally, I'm not even kidding you. It was meant to be.) I have always tried my best to be good to the clients, and they in turn wanted to make sure I was taken care of after my time at this past barn. She has a friend who knows a BNT north of us who was looking for someone full time, housing/board/training/salary all included with the package deal. I of course jumped at this opportunity, went up on Thursday and Friday to interview, and really enjoyed myself. And wouldn't you know, here I am today with a new job and an amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train with an amazing rider. They are leaving for Southern Pines this weekend; I will be following them down after Thanksgiving and a little bit of a well-needed vacation for both myself and my pony.

Gogo's been awesome all week, so Beth and I decided today to head to the beach for one last low-ride ride:



She looks so amazing.

But.

Today she did not feel amazing.

She felt a little funny.

And when I got off, I thought perhaps her RH looked a little funny.

Maybe it was the footing. Maybe I am imagining things. But of course now I am completely panicked. She did work pretty hard yesterday. Maybe I am making things up. Maybe she's just tired after her work. She's been totally, thrillingly, amazingly, better-than-ever sound since last June. Maybe one day when she doesn't feel as amazing is not the end of the world?

I dunno. I hate days like that! It was so gorgeous and fun at the beach. I had such a great time. Damnit Gogo! You heard the words 'Southern Pines' and this happens? Come on woman, really?

I guess we'll just have to see tomorrow morning what she looks like. Once back home and in the barn, the legs looked the same as always. Maybe the right windpuff was slightly squishier than normal, but again, I could be imagining things.

Maybe I just need a Xanax. Leaving a job and moving is stressful in a lot of ways. I think a big pizza and some beer might be the only remedy this evening... but I better go see the Mommy first. Although honestly... I'm not sure what else there is to do for her that I haven't already done.

I guess we'll just have to see.

(But I can't lie.... VERY excited for Southern Pines regardless!)

End of October Analysis (AKA WTF where did October go!?)

Yay Blogger is finally letting me actually POST something! It pooped out on me three days ago and I've been unable to get to the homepage for some reason. No matter, it's back up now!


Anyway. How on earth it is already November? I believe I said the same thing when it suddenly was October. And September. And August. This year is blasting by at warp speed!

I am thankful to report that Gogo's lumpy bump has vanished. The following morning, underneath the wraps, the swelling was down nearly 80%. I put her on the lunge to look her over, and she trotted off with her tail over her back, snorting and prancing. The maintenance guy brought farm truck by the arena, which didn't help the matter. She finally settled, and looked as sound as ever. I didn't bother with icing and wrapping after the second day, and by day three the leg looked totally normal with the exception a small warm spot near the cut. I was not at the barn on Sunday - we went up to help out at the New England Hunter Trials and cheer on Daun and the Big Brego! - so I never actually got to look in on her that day. Secretly, this was all right by me, seeing as it was Halloween, and traditionally every Halloween Gogo gets possessed by demons. (But to counter the freaky, check out some adorable Halloween Picture Spam from years past.) I figured it was probably best to avoid opening that can of worms this year... and maybe every upcoming year for the rest of eternity.

So Monday, it was back to work. We had a birthday party to attend that evening, so the only thing I had time for was a quickie bareback hackamore ride with the woman around the property before it got dark. We even managed to cruise up to the stopsign and back. Beyond that, all I could do was toss on her heavyweight blanket and tuck her in for the night. Yes, it really is that cold at night, with temps dropping into the 20's!
Tuesday morning was no warmer, and I showed up to the barn bright and early at 7:30am, just as the sun was rising over the frost-covered property. Bundled in my polarfleece britches, two shirts, a sweater, a puffy vest, a scarf, and a puffy jacket, I climbed aboard, and despite the fact that I looked slightly like the Bumble from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, my toes and fingers went instantly numb. Thanks for the nice weather, New England! I was amazed to find that the frigid air did nothing to make my little monster fresh or wild, and she bopped along lazily on the buckle while we warmed up in the outdoor. The more we did, the more energy she managed to find, but it was a nice balance that resulted in freshly forward momentum that was easily kept in check. She was losing some of her responsiveness to my half-halts near the end, but a series of transitions helped remind her of our collective braking ability. She was so good! She really is a different horse this year. Trying to figure out all the new things about her is a total learning process, and the things I needed to do last year in order to get her mental cooperation are no longer applicable. She moves better, is stronger and more fluid, and happier to do her job now that she has a whole new level of comfort and strength. Whatever this long period of rest and subsequent structured work did for her body overall was so good. I'm still icing her after every hard ride, just out of habit, but at this point I don't feel the need to coddle her too much anymore. So long as she stays relatively well-behaved in turnout, then she's going to get booted OUT for as much time as I can give her, and be given the chance to just be a horse for once. I think it will do nothing but help her at this point.

Wednesday and today, Gogo had off. This wasn't exactly my intention, but circumstances involving very crabby people prevented me from doing much in the way of anything with the Mamacita. Despite that, Gogo DID get her yearly Halloween treat, albeit a bit belated this time around - a tiny pie pumpkin, stuffed full of apples and a smidgen of caramel. The first year I served this to her, she gobbled the whole thing. The second year, she ate all the insides and about half of the pumpkin. Last year, she ate all the insides and snuffled around the pumpkin itself. This year, she refused to eat any of it at all. I had to pick up pieces of scattered apple and shove them forcibly into her mouth after she had rolled the pumpkin all around, dumping all its contents onto the floor. She did end up eating most of them, but I think only because I started to offer them to the other horse in the crossties instead. She did NOT find that amusing. Fine, whatever Gogo. Next year I'll make you bob for apples instead. How will your dignity like THAT?





Despite being an Ice Queen, she's still the best.

The other thing that happened today was that Dr. R, our amazing dentist from Virginia, came for his six-month visit. He checked Gogo over even though she got done six months ago, and rounded off a few sharp areas. He also found some hardcore plaque buildup on her top incisors. This was a bit odd, as nothing in her diet had changed at all, and none of the other horses had any sign of it either. Dr. R said that it sometimes shows up with very hard water or feeds chock full of molasses, but she's getting neither. Hmm! He had to scrape it off with a nail file, it was so hard! She also had a bit of gingivitis to go with the plaque, so I will need to clean the area with Clorhexadine solution one a day for the next week in order to get it to quiet down. Remembering her obnoxious performance last time we did dental work on her, we didn't even bother trying to put the speculum on until we had sedated her heavily. Mares... gotta love them.




And now, onto our October goals, which were pretty much a big giant fail.

October Goals:
1) Go trail riding on the BEACH! (Safely, of course... no mad gallops, no deep sand riding... the rule is stay below the high-tide line anyway so I think we're good for footing!)
SUCCESS! Definitely one of the biggest ones of the month. We went to the beach THREE times, and each was more awesome than the last. I had wanted to find a day warm enough to actually go for a real swim, but alas, those days are long gone for the season. Maybe in March!

2) Possibly take a few dressage lessons? And maintain last month's weekly schedule
Well... lessons didn't happen. With the escaping incident, Gogo ended up having two whole weeks off when I didn't know what was going on. Once she got cleared by Dr. C to keep on trucking like we had been, we went back to the weekly schedule, but I wasn't violently strict about it.

3) Have Gogo adjusted chiropractically
Again... fail. I had hopes of trucking her in to Vicki's when Dr. A was over there, but it just never worked out. Hopefully this month if I can arrange it, although I have to say money is very tight. I know I'll manage somehow, like I always do... but you know.

4) Move into the next size paddock (step up from medical paddock)
This is THE biggest success of the month. She stepped up from the medical to the small paddock, then stepped up from the small to the medium sized paddock. When we started having issues with turnout juggling (it is heading into the winter season after all, and the grass paddocks are now closed), I bit the bullet and tossed her out with the ladies in the big field. Best. Decision. Ever. Her legs look amazing, her demeanor is highly improved, and her behavior is stellar. Also, by removing a horse from the solo turnout list, I managed to free up space in the smaller paddocks. Everybody wins!

5) Be a better record keeper!! (I was a slacker this month and my day-to-day written record keeping was not very good. I am normally great at this so I need to get my butt in gear!!)
This was a TOTAL fail. Near the end of the month, I scrambled to get my act together and reorganize, and did much better for the last week or so. But even now, I find that I've already missed three days of my records in this new month. Bad girl!!



November Goals:1) Make this the Month of Dressage! Lots of dressage work, focus on correct and confident work, start to add bits of collection back into the mix, practice tests, take lessons, etc!
2) Do records - EVERY day!
3) Have Gogo's teeth done
4) Hopefully have the chiropractor work on Gogo
5) Map out a rough game plan for the next two months - I hope to really get back into real, planned, structured work in January in hopes of eventually conditioning for eventing, but I want to keep it simple and easy (and fun!) until that point.

I still can't believe it's November already. In two weeks, the Eventing-A-Gogo blog will be TWO years old. We just reached our 250th follower TODAY! We should have a party!

The Waterhorse

I would like to know when November decided to cut the rest of October off and just jump right in the game. It's been freezing and cloudy all week! Also, WHAT is going on with my "posted at" times? Pretty sure I am not writing some of these posts at 3:45am. Maybe I have it on the wrong timesetting, but I don't think I am techno-savvy enough to figure out how to switch that.

Anyway. I've been a bit of a slacker when it comes to writing this week... I've been very busy and a bit mopey due to the cold weather. I seem to be making my yearly transition from violently active warm-weather athlete to cuddled-in-warm-armchair cold-weather hibernator. I did manage to squeeze in five great rides on the woman this week, and gave her two days off, despite wanting to do nothing more than ride and sleep (mmmm.... warm bed). Starting with last Sunday, I hopped back on Gogo bareback for a 45 minute jaunt around the property, just to start her moving again after two weeks of being off. I tried her in something new, a rope indian bosal from the same lady who makes Tamara's tack, just to try something for light trail riding that doesn't involve a bit. I thought for sure she'd love it, given her history with contact issues, but I was wrong. Apparently, and thankfully, those days are long gone. I can honestly say that she really just seems to do better in a bit. She was responsive to the turning aids in the same sensitive way that she always is, and stopped with a verbal "whoa", but as for actually stopping from a rein aid? Nope. Didn't get it. In her usual way, when we got to trotting up the far hill, she broke into the canter and frisked about. However, with the hackamore, she had enough the ability to put her head between her knees and get halfway up the hill before I managed to slow her down. I thought they had a little more sting in them... apparently I was wrong. Oh well, it will be good for trail riding at least...



((Gogo says, uhhhhh....))


After work on Monday, I tacked Gogo up for our weekly road hack, and set out to try and beat the sun before it went down (so early these days!). The best way for me to really assess Gogo's soundness is by sitting on her and trotting her on a hard, flat surface, and I take advantage of my time on the tarmac by spending a minute or two trotting on a loose rein on both diagonals. Even though she was doing her typical look-around-side-to-side-nonstop while trotting, which makes it a bit awkward for steering, she felt exactly the same going from one diagonal to the next. Sweet! I kept the trotting to less than a minute or two, and spent the rest of the time cruising around on the buckle, admiring the fall foliage. Gogo was a crazy half-saint as always: at some point, she and I walked around the corner near a house that was flush with the road, and in the yard was a GIANT blow-up ghost, RIGHT there, hissing with air and waving its giant arms around. It couldn't have been more than three feet away from us. Did she even bother to cast it a passing glance? Nope. What DID she spook at? The yellow mailbox, a few feet down the way. Mares. The whole ride totalled an hour, and it was perfect.

Tuesday we had an excellent work on the flat. Warming up in the early morning chill, we walked around the hills of the property for 15 minutes, and then moved into the outdoor to do some walk/trot work. It wasn't complicated, and I didn't canter due to her level of fresh (didn't want her to go galloping and leaping off after two weeks off), but we did some basic lateral work and some bending and stretching. She also gave me some amazing moments of suspension and lightness when I asked her to move out in the trot down the long side. Every lengthening prior to her injury always had a bit of a rushed, groundbound feel to it - not bad per se, but more covering ground without cadence. These were UP and forward, with power. I think there's a lot to be developed here!

Wednesday, I had the best day of all. Despite the fact that I was off and had every right to sleep in as late as I wanted, I bounced out of bed at 4:30am for no reason at all and woke up a sleeping Chris with, "I am going to go take Gogo to the beach for a sunrise ride!!" (I am lucky to be dating someone who takes my totally random early morning whims in stride) Somehow, I managed to get myself, my trailer, and my horse ready and out the barn door by 6:30am, when it was still dark. When I showed up to the barn, I fed Gogo, and then collected all her tack outside of her stall. She saw me coming in with the halter and had OTHER ideas, promptly turning her butt to me and slowly backing in my direction, which is exactly what she did the morning I went to take her to see Dr. C. This brings the grand total of times she's done this behavior in her life to two. Both times, she got the snot beat out of her in response, so hopefully this will be the last... bad, bad mare. Not tolerated. She was on her best behavior after it though!

Unlike the last two times we went to the beach, this time she was totally relaxed, and she plowed right in to the water like she had plans to swim across the Sound to NYC. Running dogs, people casting fishing lines, drydocked catamarans... nothing phases this mare!








If you turn the sound waaaaaaaaaaaaay up on this video, you can hear me yelping when she went in deeper than I expected and soaked my feet through my boots. Salty wet fail!





Just look at that sunrise. It was amazing! And yes, I MAY have been wearing a scarf at the beach.... it was not quite 40 degrees.

Two days off, another light 45 minute bareback hack yesterday, and one final day off today in order to get us back on track, and we are back to our regular schedule. Stay tuned for more adventures, there are some BIG ones coming up!

Seahorse A Go-Go

Yesterday afternoon, Gogo made her triumphant return to the sea! The last time she went was in February of 2009, so it had been awhile. Her behavior this time around was much better, although she did freak out my honey by threatening to bounce up on her hind legs for no good reason while she was being held and I was going to retrieve my helmet. (Honey has no horse experience... so I can imagine this wasn't much fun. All I saw was a swinging tail from behind my trailer while I peeking out of the tackroom.)

But after that little blip, she was exceedingly well behaved. Or well, mostly. Our little team of Gogo, myself, Ti, and honey all trooped down to the water at Penfield, and while at first Gogo wasn't so sure...



... she soon stepped right in. She was a little bit up at first....



... but she held it together. After a little splashing in the water and some reassuring pats, she settled right in like she had been to the ocean a million times before.






And she tried to drown herself.




We didn't do much, and I wasn't on her for too long - about half an hour. I felt that it was plenty, and I dismounted after we had had our fill of walking and splashing in the water. Honey and I tried to get a cute picture of us standing with the ocean as our backdrop while I was still holding Gogo, and this was the point when Gogo decided to be really really REALLY naughty and lay down in the sand with ALL my tack still on.... bad girl!!!!!!!!



My tack is no worse for the wear... just a bit sandy.


Other than that, and a bit of eye rolling and head twitching when a roaring boat came way too close to the beach and sent huge waves rolling towards us, she was perfect.

And the legs? Ice cold and tight.

I love it.








It was perfect.

Gogo and the Ocean

Hahaha! So Gogo and I made our first trip to the Big Water today. The day was absolutely gorgeous, and as I walked outside I thought to myself, this will be a day to remember. The sun sparkled through my window as I cruised down the freeway, the radio blasting and the prospect of a day playing in the surf just ahead of me.

Well. New England beaches are not quite like other beaches. There aren't woods and trails and wilderness, there are houses right up to the waterfront and then, the ocean. She had never seen anything like it and was remarkably calm when we first pulled up and she peeked her head out the escape door. Of course, right as I was arriving a HUGE black cloud showed up and poured on us for a few minutes, but thankfully passed pretty quickly. I was disappointed that it was not the miles and miles of wooded shoreline I was expecting, and that the beach was about a quarter of the size that I had imagined it to be, but I was not to be daunted. The beach, the ocean Gogo! What do you think of that! She immediately set the tone by standing right up on her hind legs while I was tacking up for absolutely no reason at all. Literally, I wasn't even touching her when she did it. All right... well, on with the show.

The receding storm clouds.

Off we go down the beach. The sand! The.. well, not quite white sand, but it's SAND. And it's the ocean! The gulls were calling, the ocean waves were pulling at the shoreline. And Gogo... well, she wasn't so sure about all that nonsense. She wouldn't get near the water at first, and when a bigger wave would come rolling in, she would run away sideways from it. I finally got her feet in it, and she relaxed, realizing it wasn't going to eat her, but we did many a Signature Gogo Move - rearing and doing a 180 pivot on one hind leg to get away. That is her favorite evasion, all thanks to Crazy Demon Trainer. She's recently re-added it to her repertoire of Bad Behaviors, even though I thought we were through with it all. I REALLY do blame it on the Ultium for making her hot and irrational. This will also come into play later.

But anyway! Oh, the beach! I met up with a nice lady with a bichon who offered to take my camera and get some pictures of us:


Cheesy smile.
Gogo not wanting to cooperate.


And let's not forget the GOGO SIGNATURE MOVE!




Lovely.
AND some action shots:







And everybody gets at least one "oh shit!" moment:


This is why we use a martingale when we jump.


We gallop, we play, we streak along the beach like a blur and hug the lapping waves. The gulls swirl up and around us, and the wind whips our hair. We splash in the water, we dance, we laugh and we revel in the glory of the sea. We, after much joy, finally decide to call it a day and head on home after a morning full of fun and happiness.





And then. Then, we are walking back along the breakwall, like so:



And as you can see, she is suddenly being startled by something. Yep, a pit bull and another huge dog came bounding up over the wall directly at us just at that moment. What did Gogo do? A 180 and galloped STRAIGHT INTO THE OCEAN. NOT STOPPING. We were literally mostly underwater and swimming by the time I managed to get ahold of her again, and turned her around back towards the shore. WE WERE SOAKED.



All my tack, clothing, tall boots, and both of our entire bodies DRENCHED IN SALT WATER. Oh my god, it was a RIOT.


Oh Gogo. You are something else, that is for sure.