Brooding - what would YOU do?

I seem to be stuck sick at home today. All our wet weather combined with the October chill has sent my already stressed self into the thresholds of sickness. I am not feeling THAT poorly, but given the fact that today it is only 52 degrees and drizzling nonstop, I opted to stay home and nurse this thing right out of my system. I've has plenty of bronchial stress in my life, not to mention a life-threatening bout with pneumonia as a teenager, so I'd really rather keep myself as healthy as possible given the situation.

All this time in bed has given me far too much to think about. I've gotten some good things done, don't get me wrong, but the rest of the time I've spent brooding over my horse's recent schedule, and what we are going to be doing in the near future. And once again, I'm at a loss.

Readers, what would you do?

I am at complete odds with myself when it comes to working my mare. One minute I am all for a six day work schedule, complete with bits of dressage no matter what (during hacks, jumping, etc.), and then the next I am completely backed off, wondering if I should only be trail riding and nothing more. Most of the time, I am somewhere in the middle, wondering if I really should be doing more arena work and less out over the varying terrain, or doing less work period, or more work period. I'm completely at a loss.

My problem is this: I want to strengthen her without over-stressing her limbs. I want everything to get stronger, tendon and muscle alike, but I don't want to do anything that might hurt her. How much is too much? How much is too little? If I do too much, I run the risk of over stressing and possibly reinjuring her. If I do too little, I run the risk of losing the strength I've gained and potentially hurting her when I start her back up in heavier work. But I would also be giving her extra bonus time to just chill and be a horse. But since she can't go out in a big turnout yet, is it worth it to do less, or is it better to keep her moving? And do I want to work on a consistent surface, like an arena? Or will the varying surfaces she's been on do better things for her and build better muscles which can help her general locomotion altogether? I just want to have some fun with her, but what are the risks of that? I also just want to do some real work with her, but what are the risks of THAT?

I'm so at a loss. One day I am so sure, and the next I have no idea. What is too much, and what is too little? How can I go about all this without worrying constantly about whether it is in fact too much or too little? It's just these next few months that I am worried about. Once we get to December, she'll have a let-down of two or three weeks, and then we'll start up in all seriousness for next year's season. But what do I do right NOW? If I only trail ride and dork around, am I risking injury by not asking her to work her body properly? She is such a naturally crooked horse that it takes serious and steady dressage work to straighten her out.... if I only trail ride, how crookedly is she going to be marching around? Will she stress her limbs if I don't balance her body? But if I DON'T get out of the arena, will THAT stress her limbs by only doing the same thing over and over again? And will it fry her brain? (Yes.)



I really don't know what to do. I plan on giving her a few days off to just hang out while I sit and mull this over. I've not had a personal horse that made it to this stage of rehab yet, and I'm so terrified that at any second, it could all come crashing down. All I know is that today, I have a sound and happy horse. From here, I really just don't know where to go. What would you do?

The Fresh Leaps of Go-Mare

(I do apologize for the temporary silence since my past post, but as you know, it is BIRTHDAY MADNESS WEEK so I've been out every single night raising a little hell. I finally had a rest night last night and spend it catching up on some oh-so-needed sleep. Tonight, we head into NYC for a big party and then I get to spend tomorrow sightseeing around the City. How is it that I've been in CT a year but haven't been??)






Spring is doing its very best to come to CT. It was nearly 60 degrees yesterday, and it will be today and tomorrow too. All the horses are feeling serious spring fever, and so am I. Not only has this week been fantastic for birthday celebrations, but it's been an amazing one on the Gogo front as well. She's done more and worked harder this week than she has since the accident, and those legs and her soundness are holding up. Since it's been so warm, the legs do tend to fill in funny, lumpy ways, but they're never unusually warm or big, and they're always variations on the same level of fill - AKA giant, ugly Windpuffs of Doom. Every day my favorite boarder and I run our hands down those legs, and every day find pretty much the same thing. Quite honestly, I think I just have to relearn what is normal for her. The legs will never, ever look normal again. They just won't. It's just a matter now of determining what the new normal is.

I hadn't been on Gogo in three days when I finally got back in the saddle on Thursday. I hadn't wanted to be off of her for that long, but that was just how things worked out last week, so I accepted it as such and moved on. I had a really fantastic dressage-y ride on Friday - finally, we are really approaching "real" dressage work versus just walk trot canter on the bit for X amounts of time. She was a bit fussy and a bit bouncy, but once she settled in, she gave me some really nice moments, including three broken canter circles to the right (she kept breaking at the same spot), and three CONSECUTIVE canter circles to the left! That's way more canter than she's been able to do, and she actually took a contact for part of it and maintained it. And she felt physically capable of it, stronger - like she could have kept going without a problem. I left it as that, did some more trotwork, and let her cruise around on the buckle for awhile. I've not really been able to do that much in the indoor since there are door monsters and a loose rein usually means it takes that much longer to stop her when she flees from the door monster. She's actually been quite good down there, but much like last year in March, she's just done with the indoor. Just... done. Remember when she did this last year? Very similar situation here, except we weren't really backsliding mentally, just physically. (Not anymore!) So my solution to that since it's been so gorgeous outside? RIDE OUTSIDE!
Saturday we hacked. We hacked way further off the property than we'd ever been - hell, it was the first time hacking off the property at all. I've been limiting her to the small hills and trails around our property, but since the grass has been so soft and went, I was unable to ride on it at all. Instead, I decided to challenge her a little with the lower-grade hillwork and try something a little more intense. We hacked for the same period of time plus 5 minutes, same as we always do, but went allll the way up the road on a small but steady incline to the first four-way stop, and back again. She was SO HAPPY! Ears pricked, big march in her step, loop in the reins. It was early - maybe 8:30am - and the sun was glittering through the trees, the weather still chilly. It felt just like old times, and it was beautiful. And I'll be doing it again today. :D

These past two days, I've continued to push, just a little, without actually pushing, if I can explain that. Our enormous and gorgeous outdoor has FINALLY thawed and dried enough for it to be ridden on, but is still a little wet and squashy - think giant turfy sponge - but I've been letting the boarders out there for some limited riding. I also got to ride out, much to my joy (and to Gogo's too), but instead of putting on dressage tack and continuing in that way, I decided to have a little fun. Out came the jump saddle, jacked up stirrups and all! Since the footing is still soft up there - by no means turf-able, just softer than the stuff in the indoor and much wetter - I decided to let her get used to it and buzz around with me in my half-seat versus stress her body our trying to compensate for correctness in new footing while the tendon is still in the final stages healing. And WHEEEEEEE! She was FRESH, but SO good. She had a huge park trot going - you knew she would! - and was shaking her head all over the place, something she never does. She also, of course, had to throw in a little Gogo flavor, and did what the other rider in the ring affectionately called a handstand: a backcracking vertical bronc buck with her head between her knees! She NEVER bucks unless she's feeling ridiculously good and fresh, so I was smiling as she went plunging down the long side from there, striking out with both front legs every canter stride. The other boarder's comment? "That was cute." Oh Gogo. She also displayed her more studdish side, spooking away from something and doing this (which I know because I saw a flash of pastel blue bell boot in front of me!), then did the Execute Stallion Rear Program and bounced up and down, shaking her head and waving her front legs like any colt at play might. She then came down and stood totally immobile with her ears pricked, as if to say, "Sorry mom... just, man! I feel like a woman." Oh Gogo...

Yesterday I continued on the theme of doing-something-productive-without-feeling-like-being-productive, and used my jump tack again, letting her have a looser rein and moving at fair speed around the ring. No smaller circles, no complicated movements, just power and speed. She offered a canter at some point, and I got up in my half seat and let her. And she felt GOOD. She felt SO good. Our outdoor is enormous and she went once, twice, three times around with no problem before I pulled her up. We went the other way and same thing - a big, powerful canter, bigger and stronger than ever, no hesitations anywhere. I know we weren't actually going that fast but to me, it felt like flying. It felt like nothing in the world. She even started to consider breaking a sweat, and so did I, the first time that's happened since September. We finished the ride with a hack on the buckle up the driveway... I haven't been able to let her have such a loose rein outside yet.

Truly a good week. Truly, truly.

As for today, we hack again, and then Gogo get her Rabies and Coggins pulled. I am feeling really paranoid about spring shots this year - who wouldn't after all that reaction nonsense - but we are going to seriously space everything about and take every precaution we can. Yeesh though... not looking forward to it, not at all.




You won't hear from me for a few days since I am off to NYC, and then Friday is my actual BIRTHDAY! Who's excited I'm excited!

The first clovers are coming up, birds are chirping, sun is shining... spring is almost here!!

Three Great Rides (Official AEC Countdown: ONE WEEK!)

First thing's first. Since she ragged on Gogo's not-ambition to go win next year's International Hunter Derby, I declare today National Embarass Your Best Friend Day! However I shall also post an equally embarassing picture of me to not make her feel so bad. Ha!

Second, you'll have to forgive me for not doing my End of August analysis yet. I have other things to write about first so you'll just have to wait!


These past three days have been fantastic. I've been very productive and busy in terms of getting things together for the trip, and our rides have been equally as good. After two days of good dressage on Sunday and Monday, we headed out Tuesday evening for our 2-hour conditioning hack, the last one before the AECs. I had an absolutely HORRIBLE day at work, and ended up getting on much later than I had originally planned (it was 6pm by the time we left... and it's been getting dark by 7:30!), but a great ride on the Mami was all I needed to feel better. The hayfield had just been mowed (a stroke of good luck!), and after the hack out to it, we started out 25 minute trot. WOW she felt great - 20 minutes into it and she was STILL powertrotting along, so big that I could hardly post to it, and still breaking to the canter pretty much every time we rounded a corner of the field. So I said, what the hell, let's burn off a little energy, why not? and let her go. And the afterburners kicked in - I've never gone that fast on any horse in my whole life! (And I've had some pretty hair-raising gallop moments in my life - the one that stands out in my head involved crazy New Zealand ponies and crashing at breakneck speed through the wild underbrush... one of those just-hold-on-and-cross-yourself rides!!) The sun was low at that point and I watched her shadow as we flew along, admiring her huge reach and laughing as we left the crappiness of the day in the dust. I brought her back to trot as we rounded the corner of the rectangular field, and let her go as we reached the long side of the field again. And she FLEW again, top speed! We rounded the next corner at the trot and as we came back around to the first long side, she exploded into a full-out sprint with hardly any prompting from me, going even faster than before. We must have galloped at absolute top speed at least 6 times like this around the field, which is pretty huge. I didn't intend for her to work this hard, but we were both having so much fun neither one of us could help ourselves. Finally, I looked at my watch and realized it was high time to continue on with our walk work, and brought her back. She came right back to me, ears pricked, marching right along, happy as a clam, hardly winded and still with a ton of extra energy to spare. Boy she is AWFULLY fit for just Novice! (I fitted her up for Training, anticipating that we'd be running one or two at the end of the year, but July and life got in the way of those plans, so now I have an over-fit Novice horse... oops!) She just felt SO GOOD. We walked up the gravel road for a little while before heading back to the pavement, and I was quite delighted to feel that, despite the fact that she's hardly been on gravel anywhere at all this year, she was quite comfortable on it. When it was very wet earlier in the year and she was on a different ration balancer, she was slow and overly-cautious when walking on rocks, and I avoided the gravel road. Now that her feet have dried out and toughened up, and given the fact that she has amazingly dropped almost an entierly new foot in three months (not kidding.... I can't even BELIEVE how fast she puts out hoof, it's kind of scary! And hair too for that matter... her bridlepath, clipped just two weeks ago for Huntington, is already nearly 2/3 of an inch long.), she is quite comfortable again. I know everyone has been having hoof trouble with this wetness all year, so I'm glad to see that my own small version of it is under control. Anyway, so we ventured back onto the pavement and continued our walk hack for our remaining time, enjoying the gorgeous sunset and contemplating returning as it steadily got darker. Determined to not cut our time short despite the rapidly dissapearing daylight, I headed back to the orchard to finish our walk, where we were treated to a nearly full moon and a subsequent moonlight walk. Fabulous, and beautiful. She was bright and chipper when I finally dismounted at the two-hour mark, still with plenty of gas in the tank. I kept her legs unwrapped given the creeping crud still stubbornly hanging on to her front legs, and checked them first thing in the morning the next day - if by some horrible off chance there WAS an S-word problem there despite all the signs pointing to otherwise, it SURELY would have presented itself after such a hard ride. But, success! Her legs were tight and cool as always, and she jogged out perfectly sound on the way to turnout. Sweet! All systems go!

Yesterday and today, her cheerful, overly-fit self was raring to go for some dressage.... or well, I was and she, after some convincing, agreed with me. She was, at first, being very subtly stubborn (If I stretch out to your contact, I will disengage my hind end. Oh you want me to go forward instead of disengage my hind end? Then I will, but I will disengage from this contact. Back and forth.), but eventually she settled, and we had a very good workout, complete with some fantastic counter-canter. Today's work was equally as excellent, and she had some OUTSTANDING trotwork in the end, and some absolutely fabulous walk-canters, which I haven't schooled that much as of late. Mostly we worked on LEFT BEND, which she has an aversion to, and once I finally broke up the locked tension in the midsection of her neck and connected her a little more thoroughly (you can see it visually, the area in her neck she most obviously resists the bend... it feels a little like when you need to take a frozen solid ice pack out of the freezer and massage it with your hands for awhile to make it flexible), suddenly whoa! Her shoulders came up, her work became way straighter and she developed some serious push from behind. Sweet! The work was high quality, all of it, and she worked very hard. Dare I say we had moments of real collection? I do dare day it. I'm not about to go run out and try a Second Level test anytime soon, but on days like this, I feel like we're approaching it, maybe even next spring.

Tomorrow, we gallop, and after Tuesday's hack I am VERY excited to get out there and boogie our guts out!


The AECs are now officially one week away. Can you believe it? I can hardly even wrap my head around it. I was going back and rereading posts from these past nine months since I moved to Connecticut tonight, laughing at all our ups, bemoaning all our downs, and realizing just how far we've come. We've worked so hard for this, put in our all, struggled through all the challenges thrown at us, and come out on top every time. We have fought hard for this, and we're ready. The pre-show jitters are starting to set in... ahh!! We leave in five days!!




(2008 AEC Picture of the Day: After some SERIOUS flooding, I try and swim my way to the Bit of Britain tent, because I inconveniently forgot to pack my canoe.)

Udder Madness (or, How Gogo Got Felt Up by a 10 Year-Old)

Gogo and I have had a fabulous couple of days. Call it luck, call it diligence, call it a miracle, call it whatever you want, but Gogo's making a rapid turnaround. She's been absolutely marvelous these past two rides, and her attitude has completely brightened. Either the Doxy has finally started to really kick in, or the addition of the aloe juice and MSM has made her feel right as rain. I started her only two days ago on the concoction (1/2 cup aloe juice + 1 tsp. human-grade MSM mixed in and poured over breakfast and again at dinner), and perhaps it's just coincidence, but when I pulled her back out of her stall after breakfast on that first day, she was brighter eyed than she's been in some weeks now. I couldn't believe it.



That is one happy face. Compare that to this picture taken a few days ago. Astounding, really. With that change in attitude in mind, I tacked up yesterday for my conditioning hack, VERY interested to see what her attitude would be under saddle. Given the fact that we've had more rain and I was scheduled to gallop today, I didn't want to tear the fields up, so I opted to do something I've been avoiding - doing the trot part of our hack on the road. I worry, with all the roadwork that we do, about excess wear on her bare feet, so I try to be careful about it. Her feet have held up to to it just fine, but they're maintaining themselves exactly where they want to be and have not grown excess, so there isn't much wall to wear down. With that in mind, I attempted something decidedly out of the ordinary for me. A former boarder and fellow barefoot enthusiast had a pair of Easyboot Epics for her old horse, and they didn't remotely fit her new horse but did fit Gogo when she gave them to me to try. I've never used them before and wasn't really all that keen to try. I didn't like the design of the boot in back - it seemed like the area below the heels inside the boot had a weird raised edge that looked like it was going to crush her heels once she really got going. Preemptively, I wrapped all four feet in vetwrap and duct tape, making sure to REALLY make it secure on her hinds. I expected them to wear off at some point but I figured we'd give it a try anyway.

Well, of course my ingenious design.... fell off of both hinds before we even began our trotwork. So much for that. Oh well, on with the show, right? Right from the get-go, she strode right out, marching happily away from home, seemingly eager to get to work. No hesitations, no slow walk, no spookiness, no nothing. It felt unrelated to boots... it was more of an attitude thing. I was delighted, but we had far to go. She trotted out well in the boots at first, and all seemed well. Hell, she was striding out better than ever before, even! Yay boots! Except then... she started feeling funny. Then she started limping. Then she started seriously hobbling! I, of course, went OH GOD WHAT DID SHE DO, and stopped and jumped right off. I pulled off both boots, and examined her feet. No damage anywhere, thank god, but she seemed much happier with them off, so I trotted her in hand to see - and she was fine. I got back on and trotted out, and tada! No more hobbling. She moved out in an increasingly forward and happy way without them, so NOT yay to the boots! I abandoned them on the side of the road and left them there, though I did go back and retrieve them today. Safe to say, I will NOT be using them again. They'll go on Ebay and some other person can deal with them. I DO want to invest in a pair or two of boots at some point, I know I will need them SOMEDAY. But until I can afford some Renegades I think she will just go on with her bad bare self. She has yet to give me indication that she can't get along without them just fine.

Our 25 minutes of trotwork ended with a happy, bright, and forward horse. We continued on our merry way for some time, walking along with purpose, enjoying the cloudy, grey afternoon for its lack of serious heat and mugginess (two things we've been getting a LOT of lately!). We ventured down a sideroad we don't often take, and that was where things got VERY interesting VERY fast.
I happened to pass a house with a pool in the backyard, as many of the houses in our area do, but this one on this particular day was filled with a whole bunch of kids having a pool party. When they saw me, all I heard was "HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!", and turned just in time to see these kids multiplying and come pouring out of the woodwork - kids streaming out of the house, kids flying up from the pool, kids running up from behind the house... there had to be 30 of them all in all. And here they come, SPRINTING at top speed, ALL of them all at once, all SCREAMING at the top of their lungs. A lesser horse would have quailed at the very sight, but Gogo stopped and stood like a rock and ignored them for the most part. They all ran up in front of me and started shouting nonsensical questions all at the same time, like "What's that thing poking out of her foot?" Um... that's her hoof.
While I am answering all these millions of questions, unbeknownst to me several of these little hellions have snuck up directly behind my horse and are all now gathered mere inches from her hind end. Had Gogo been any other horse, it would have been Kiddie Massacre, but she did not even flick an ear to give me any indication that somebody might be back there, so I noticed nothing until I heard a smack and felt her butt vibrating. I turned out to see the kids were now taking pictures of themselves slapping her on the ass, and apparently the look of horror on my face was hysterical because they all started laughing maniacally. And before I could even open my mouth to say anything, suddenly there's another kid who appears on the OTHER side of her with a dumb question. I couldn't make this up if I tried: the kid asked, "Is this a boy or a girl?" and REACHED UNDERNEATH HER and GRABBED HER UDDER. AND HE PULLED. And bless her lil' Gogo heart, she did not move a muscle. As I am trying desperately to herd their little barefoot selves away from my horse's rear end (pool party remember? about to get their feet crushed!), one of the little ones asks if he can give her a handful of grass. I said yes, somewhat absentmindedly as I am rather flustered at the fact that NONE of the kids are listening to a word I say when I tell them to back up (I was literally completely surrounded on all sides by tiny bare feet), so what do they do? They ALL started ripping up HUGE chunks of their lawn and started shoving it in my horse's face. So now, Gogo is in heaven and going from kid to kid to kid to kid to kid to kid to kid to kid eating their handplucked grass. Her lips brushed one of their hands apparently, because he started screaming that she bit him, but when I asked if it hurt, he said no, so I told him, "then she didn't bite you. Be careful." Now, one of the kids is asking if I'll run her up and down the road. I said no, but I did agree to trot her for a few steps down the road so they can watch. No sooner had I agreed to this and moved off into a trot than they ALL STARTED RUNNING AFTER HER, and were running up to her and SMACKING her on the ass WHILE SHE WAS TROTTING, all the while screaming and cackling at the top of their lungs. Gogo's eyes got pretty big when the entire pack of horse-eating children started chasing her at high speed, but she was completely sensible about it otherwise, and didn't flinch in the slightest as they tried to get themselves killed behind her. I finally was like, okay I havve to go now, bye!! and wheeled away and trotted off in the other direction, towards a big hill. THEY CHASED AFTER US! So we park trotted off as fast as we could up the hill, until we had left the tired kids far behind. We didn't stop til we got all the way to the top, where I then sat and laughed until I almost cried.

On our way home, we marched past the gallop field and the subsequent rocks and scary staircase at Lynnie's house. These have been a source of complete terror for her anytime we've passed them this past month or two, but I was completely astonished to find that she didn't look at them, ANY of them. Nothing was spooky. She didn't even look at the storm drains, and those are ALWAYS very scary. I couldn't believe it. We reached home with plenty of energy left, and a happy, bright horse. Amazing. Really amazing.


And today? More of the same goodness! It was about 965724959322734 degrees outside with somewhere around a thousand percent humidity, so I ended up waiting until around 7pm to do my gallops. And she was INCREDIBLE. I kept them on the slightly lighter side of tough, as follows:

15 minute walk hack/warmup to field
5 minutes trot
1 minute walk
5 minutes trot
1 minute walk
5 minutes trot
2 minutes walk
4 minutes 350mpm canter
1 minute walk
4 minutes 350mpm canter
1 minute walk
5 minutes 470mpm gallop
15 minute walk hack/cooldown home

She was incredible. She moved right out in her trotwork and made it seem like a breeze, and hopped up into her canter, completely willing to cruise along on autopilot while I worked on the position changes Ann had me do last Friday. They worked remarkably well, I have to say, and I'll tell you what, my thighs were BURNING by the time I was done! The real test was moving up into the 470mpm gallop. Last time we galloped, she was completely spent after only the first canter set, so we finished with a second canter set and chalked it up to feeling crappy after just starting the Doxy. This time, she sprang forward into cruising speed, and maintained it almost entirely on her own. The only times I had to ask for rebalancing were when we came around the corner and down the steeper part of the hill, and when we had to move out again at the bottom of it. She would flick her ears back at me as I asked her to keep going, and pulled away with the lightest of aids and her ears pricked. The 5 minute mark rolled around, and definitely compared to last week I had TONS of horse underneath me still, but sensibly so. When we went to walk home, fresh in my memory was how she has been spooking like crazy before/after our gallops at the rocks and Lynnie's staircase (particularly this ride), so I was completely amazed to find that the rocks were NOT scary, the mailboxes were NOT scary, and Lynnie's staircase was also NOT scary at all. She didn't look at a single one of them. And the one or two things she did look at, she did the exact kind of spooking I've always loved - puts her head down, gives it a good eyeball, and then moves TOWARDS it instead of away from it to get a better look. When she's been spooky lately, she's been doing the typical run away from it kind of spooking. But not yesterday, and not today. Yesterday and today, she was back to my good ol' Gogomare.



We're on the upswing, and it feels so good. I putzed around with her for a good hour or so after we were done, including giving her a liniment bath and parking her in front of two enormous fans while I trimmed her feet (which look gorgeous, by the way). She's one happy chick right now. I don't know if it is the Doxy after all or if the aloe really is the miracle that Tamara said it was for Aaruba, but one thing is for certain. Something is working.


The uptrend is making me REALLY excited for Huntington, and for the AECs. I always had planned on pulling from Huntington if it seemed like it wasn't in her best interests, and I haven't even entered the AECs yet because I need to know that I can get through another full XC course without mishap before I take her all the freaking way to Chicago, but it feels like it's all falling back into place again. I'm starting to get the show bug again too. I was a little burnt out before from all the work I'd been doing around here and all the sleep I had not been getting in return, but life seems to be working itself all out. The vet is still coming Thursday, and we still have yet to see how her dressage goes with this new regime. But I am feeling really, really good about all this. Horses are a rollercoaster, right? There will ALWAYS be ups and downs. Now, we just have to time this particular up with reaching the highest peak on the coaster right at the AECs, and we'll be all set. ;)

Countdown to Old Chatham: Five Days!!

Oh man. Area Championships are just five days away. FIVE DAYS PEOPLE. That's completely insane... wasn't it just January like five seconds ago?

On a totally unrelated note, you guys HAVE to check out these pictures from Grand Strides Photo, particularly this one, which is my favorite. ISN'T SHE GORGEOUS. There were a ton of professional photographers at this event, but wow, these are by far my favorite. These ones are going to get ordered for sure!

While large parts of my life are all under major construction, karma has been very apologetic and helpful when it comes to Gogo. She's been punky as all hell this week, and I love it because it means she's feeling great. After a nice day off on Friday, we went for an early morning two-hour conditioning hack on Saturday, and spent our 25 minute trot in the orchard cruising. She stretched out to the contact and took it on her own, and was POWER TROTTING around. Now that's what I like to see! THAT trot will build stamina and muscle! We then headed off, as is our custom, to Dunkin Donuts for a nice Strawberry Coolata. Of course, when we arrived, the entire Dunkin crew came out to take pictures of us, and they said they're sending them to the bosses with that great "America Runs on Dunkin" caption. Now that's marketing!
Of course, then punky lady decided on the way home that the bugs were outrageous, and she head-tossed the entire way home. It was so bad that I actually went into the dressage arena and cantered around for a few minutes to get her to focus on something else when I got home, but she had other ideas and danced around on her hind legs for a few minutes before settling down. Punky, punky, punky.

Sunday was a riot. It was HOT and GORGEOUS out, and I had just gotten word that my gallop field had FINALLY been mowed and was being baled (more good karma!!), but it wasn't ready for use yet, so instead I waited for the temperature to cool down in the evening and set this weird little thing up in the orchard:



Two haybales = XC schooling? Well, not really but you know. It simulated a very skinny fence AND it was something we could practice at varying speeds. She did awesome with it! We got a pretty good clip going and she jumped right out of stride, something she'll really need for Training when we move up. And she never once hesitated even though it would have been very easy to run out. Nope, it was lock and go baby! After we finished, I hacked up to the big gallop field and discovered that the hay was all baled and gone. YES!

Gallop city!! Yesterday, after it cooled down in the evening, we hacked up and began our gallop sets again in our big field. The sets went as such:

15 minute walk hack to the field
5 minutes trot
1 minute walk
5 minutes trot
1 minute walk
5 minutes trot
1 minute walk
4 minutes 350mpm canter
1 minute walk
4 minutes 350mpm canter
2 minutes walk
5 minutes 470mpm gallop
15 minute walk hack home

The footing was beautiful, and she was on fire. My GPS, however, was not. It continually gave me faulty reading, and I spent so much time looking at it during my 5 minutes of 470mpm that I didn't pay any attention to how she actually felt. It took me awhile to realize my GPS was totally faulty, so I spent a fair amount of time booting her onward when I probably didn't really need to. As a result, she had an ENORMOUS adrenaline rush at the end, and came out of that field prancing and pop-eyed. SPOOK at the rock! SPOOK at the jogger! SPOOK at the mailbox! And then she saw Lynnie's stone stairs. And she turned on her heel and BOLTED. She obviously didn't get all that far, but I made the mistake of turning her around and booting her forward. Oh great, NOW she thinks it bit her! Now she REALLY won't go near it! She wouldn't get ANYWHERE near the staircase, and was trembling all over.. she really was that terrified of it! I had to dismount and lead her over to the stairs, where I then stood on them and convinced her that they were not, in fact, horse-eating stairs. It took at least 10 minutes though. I finally mounted back up, and the stairs were no longer scary. Gogo... you are a punky little critter.

Today was a giant collapse of... well, life. I was utterly exhausted after a horrible night's sleep, and couldn't manage to get up at 4am, which I needed to do in order for my 8am lesson. As it turned out, I did not end up having a lesson at all, but went out for a walk hack because she tends to be SO gallop-y during our dressage lessons if she's galloped the day before... not what I want the week before a show! As I was thinking about tacking, I happened to check the radar, and noticed we were under a severe thunderstorm watch, and that a huge storm system was moving across New York right at us. I though, well, I've got time, and tacked up. I checked the radar right before I left, and WOW, it had gotten a lot closer. No worries, it wasn't predicted to get anywhere near us anytime soon. Well, I was wrong, and it was almost a very bad and very dangerous judgement call on my part. The storm ended up picking up dramatic speed across Connecticut, and halfway through my walk hack loop, the sky turned black. BLACK. The wind started to pick up, and thunder started to rumble. I was getting close to home when an ENORMOUS bolt of lightning made contact with the ground only a few miles away, right in front of me, and I decided we needed to haul our way back to the barn. It had been my plan to have a nice relaxing walk hack, with no trotting at all, but the situation was quickly becoming dangerous and I had to move. We FLEW down the road at a park trot unrivaled by anything, Standardbred style!! Man we had some serious suspension going, I tell you. It was like Motor City Dragway in the driveway. She felt fresh as a daisy - maybe it was the adrenaline again - and showed no signs of being tired AT ALL from yesterday's gallop. I dismounted and we ran back into the barn just as the sky opened on us. We missed the worst of the hail, but I hear there was some damage not too far from us. It was pretty scary... and thrilling at the same time. Not safe at all, but thrilling. Won't be making THAT bad call again.


Tomorrow.... dressage. Thursday.... dressage. Friday.... dressage. Saturday.... off. Sunday.... WE KICK BUTT AT AREAS.

Oh yea. And Colleen gave us this to use:



Awesome.

End of June Analysis

It's been some hell of a week kids. Gogo is the only thing in the world going well at the moment. But she is oh-so-satisfying to just get on and forget about the rest of the world.


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June Goals:

1) Complete our AEC qualification requirements (one more event, obtaining a completion with no XC jump penalties)
SUCCESS!!! I consider this the greatest success of them all. Not only did we complete our AEC qualifications, but we went above and beyond by winning our last event at Groton House. I really can't believe our luck so far. I keep not wanting to say that because I'll jinx myself!!! The opening date for the AECs is at the end of this month, and we're all set to enter now that we have all our scores. SO. EXCITED.

2) Start to introduce new dressage concepts to her, and continue to ask for more moments of collection
Success!! While I'm not quite at the point of asking for more collection within a gait just by asking for it, I can do certain exercises and movements that develop it on its own, and it comes to us in increasingly long moments. She's getting stronger and more supple in both directions, and we really are getting some amazing moments. I've also reintroduced the concept of reinback to her, as well as walk pirouettes, which are difficult so far but she's starting to get the idea more and more. She's done it all before, of course, when I introduced it all to her as a youngster, but now it's time for finesse. And when the crazy trainer got to her, things like reinback became enormous sources of fear for her. Any backwards pressure on the reins - any contact at all really - sent her into a rearing panic. Now, we work on it a little bit every day and praise her lavishly, and she's come SO far.

3) Start fine-tuning our gallop speed and fitness via GPS
We've done the best we could with this. I've really only been able to use the GPS twice now, and once, it couldn't keep a signal. The other time that we did get to use it - and just barely, because it's been raining so much - I was interested to find that I was spot on for my 470mpm, but I was WAY slow for my 350mpm. Weird! I sped up a little bit, and have a better feel for it now. You'd think I could rate a regular canter by now, seriously!

4) Continue ironing out the kinks in our Novice test - transitions, freewalk
Working on it, always working on it! Our transitions have really sharpened up, and our freewalk isn't quite there yet but it's coming. It will take a long time, that's for sure!

5) Continue to strengthen and improve my position over fences, on the flat, and during gallops - there is always more to work on!
As I sai, there is always more to work on! But I think I've improved tremendously in my gallop position. However, my position over fences has faded a bit. I've been ducking and letting my leg swing, something that I thought I had eliminated. Apparently, I just haven't been practicing enough. More dilligent work is in order, I feel!




July Goals:

1) Place Top 5 at the Area I Novice Championships (my real goal is to WIN them, of course, but I know that that is a pompous goal to make and that I'll jinx it if I do!)
2) REALLY focus on my position over fences - stop that leg swinging and upper body ducking!
3) Continue to fine-tune our gallop speed and fitness via GPS, and, if possible, work at higher speeds over XC fences (not really a goal for this month, but definitely for next)
4) Continue ironing out the kinks in our Novice test - transitions, freewalk - and continue to work on more complicated Second Level movements (and develop collection further!)
5) Figure out exactly what I want from the month of August, our last large span of time before the AECs in September


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Boy I am exhausted. The mold guys came and found that there is a significant amount of damage to the apartment, so they need to gut it, tear up all the carpet, and completely replace a wall. Which sucks, because now Shannon and I are not going to have a place to live for a little while. We're thinking about borrowing someone's camper and live in that for two weeks, but man that SUCKS! Stupid handyman, flooding the house! My mold allergies are OUT OF CONTROL, and I've been sleeping on the couch (VERY poorly), and am completely mentally and physically exhausted. Couple all that with Alex problems, and my entire life is pretty much crap at the moment, except for Gogo. She's an excellent way to stay happy and sane in a trying time like this.

But life is still beautiful, no matter what happens to us all.

Countdown to Groton House: Four Days!!

Sorry for my lack of updates these past few days. Ever since the great flood on Friday when the pipe burst in my closet (effectively covering my entire floor with two inches of standing water), I've been a bit out of my mind. Today, actually, I was planning on giving Gogo a light jump school, but I've been suffering some pretty awful mold illness (between the leaking, flooding, and high humidity, we seem to have a mold explosion in here, which is making me rather sick), and my vertigo and nausea were overwhelming (no puking, thank god). I felt it wasn't particularly safe to get on my horse when I could hardly walk a straight line, especially when I was planning on jumping, so she got a light lunge instead. She did break a sweat, and we did plenty of trot-canter transitions, so I'm happy with what we did. I certainly don't need to school her hard the week before a tough show, and there was nothing over fences that I could have done today that would better prepare her for this coming weekend, so it all worked out. I am thankfuly feeling better now, but I'm back in the apartment... so I probably will feel like crap again tomorrow morning.

Saturday and Sunday were great fun. On Saturday, Anne and Salute and Gogo and I went back to the Larkin Trails and up into the Middlebury Bridle Land, where we did our 25 minute trot, which was the real conditioning part of our hack, popped over some XC fences, cruised for a little while at a brisk canter, and shared some good laughs. We were out for longer than expected - three hours - but neither Gogo nor Salute seemed any worse for the wear afterwards.






Some liniment, a long afternoon turnout, some wrapping and a good night's sleep, and she was bouncy and cheerful as could be when I went out to feed breakfast yesterday morning. And even though it was crappy and rainy all day, after work I still tacked up and rode to Dunkin Donuts to get myself a nice hot cocoa :) I carried a dressage whip this time, and just having it there encouraged her to WALK instead of saunter! We seem to be making friends along the way... people love to stop and pet her! Which, of course, strokes her ego and makes her strut along like, "yes, my admirerers are all here... come, flock to me humans!"

And then today, of course, was an epic moldy fail.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better, less vertigo-y day. Dressage lesson tomorrow, dressage lesson on Wednesday, day off on Thursday, and then we take off Thursday night. I've already packed all my show clothes, cleaned out the tack room, and stripped the back of the trailer, so we're under control in terms of packing. Ride times should be up soon!

FOUR DAYS!!


EDIT: Okay, Groton House is the best ever. Not only did they already post the results from the Summer Classic (this past weekend's schooling event) already, but on the same day they also posted our start times. GO GROTON HOUSE!
Dressage: 8:36am
XC: 8:28am
And stadium is... whenever stadium is. This is a tentative time schedule, mind you, but that's pretty awesome - I'll have tons of time to watch the rest of the divisions go!

Sun: Making Do (and a Mess); Mon: Gogo's First Corners!

It's been a rather successful two days, interspersed with some, erm... happenings. Well, one main happening really. Yesterday, I decided to bite the bullet and try my gallops in the orchard, hoping that it was dry enough, so armed with my GPS for the first time, we set off.
First thing I noticed was my GPS's fitfulness in the trees. It seems to get confused when you're anywhere that doesn't have a direct line right to the satellite, which, when you're in an orchard, doesn't really seem to work all that well. I spent the entire span of my trot sets circling the field in all directions, looking for the best possible route for a faster rate of speed. And, well.. there wasn't really a good route anywhere, honestly. I chose as best I could, and used the GPS when we were under open skies. It ended up working all right - we were on a big oval that was only really under treecover on one end (the dangerous end, where I got attacked by tree branches when we were going 470mpm!!). In the open area, I was interested to find that was I thought was 350mpm was actually more like 300mpm, and what I thought was 470mpm was actually more like 500mpm!! That's very nearly Prelim speed kids! I adjusted slightly (speed up and slowed down, respectively), and was pleased to find how easy it was for Gogo. She was awesome! We got pretty sweaty by the end because of how humid it was, but back in the barn Gogo was bouncing around on the crossties like an energetic and very naughty pinball, so it doesn't seem to have worn her out much.

Stats:
10 minutes walk warmup
4 minutes trot
1 minute walk
4 minutes trot
1 minute walk
4 minutes trot
2 minutes walk
4 minutes 350mpm canter
1 minute walk
4 minutes 350mpm canter
2 minutes walk
5 min 470mpm gallop
15 minutes walk hack cooldown

We galloped in the snaffle and she was amazingly responsive, light, balanced, and delighted with herself. And then, of course, the happening: I went back up in the field to check out the footing and.... I turfed it. Of course. Not badly, of course, just left a steady trail of small dents, but that's more than I expected. So I tamped everything back down to where it was before and am just hoping that the grass recovers. I thought it was dry enough! (Later edit: Thankfully, everything recovered just fine. Grass rocks!)


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Today, Gogo jumped her first corners!



With quite a bit of success I might add.

Her introduction to corners was simple enough, just three poles up on Bloks in the center of the arena, creating a simple triangle like this:



But here's the catch. There's nothing to frame the horse in - no standards, no nothing. So it's all about straightness and honesty. Not an exercise for a green horse, but I felt she was up to the challenge. And she was:



Woo hoo!! Actually her first and last jumps were the best (video is of the last). We had one run-out going the other direction the first time we approached it (I'm sure I just created a hole somewhere for her to slip through), and after that had no problems. She definitely was straighter and more honest approaching it from right lead to left, which is odd, because whenever she's wiggled in the past (and had the single XC runout of her life), she's always run off to the left. I did have to give a few strong corrections here and there, mostly when approaching on the left lead (why was she wanting to run out to the right for the first time ever!), but we ended on that lovely last jump, calling it a day. I'll revisit this one for sure, as corners are a vital part of the upper-level XC experience and we're going to need to be able to school them properly out in the open when the time comes.


Tomorrow, it's back to dressage, then more dressage, then MORE dressage... and then a good gallop, a conditioning hack, and a day off!

ELEVEN DAYS TIL GROTON HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When Creativity Turns to Desperation

The main disadvantage of being an eventer at a dressage barn is this: lack of space and land to do everything I need to do besides dressage. There are enough standards and poles around to sort of create a tiny course if I need to, or some nice gymnastics, but there isn't really room to do anything large. I can hack all I want... on the paved neighborhood roads. There aren't any trails. And now, the final straw: the field I've been doing gallops in has finally completely overgrown, and has become impassable at the walk, much less for gallop work. I'm going to ask the owners if they ever mow, but let's face it, it's their land and they have ever right to keep it a big wild field if they want to. So where does that leave me? Desperate for a place to do conditioning and unsure of where to turn at this point. We have the orchard behind the barn, it's true, but I can't say that it's going to work to gallop there. Why? Well first, it's full of young trees that have low to the ground branches! I don't know if it's going to a) be good to her legs to do tree slalom at high speed or b) good for my brains if I get scraped off by a tree branch at high speed. There's really not much room out there, and I don't know if I can pick up the appropriate speed I need and actually maintain it through the trees. Also, it's been raining for honest to god three weeks now, and with the orchard boardering the owner's house, if she spots a sign of the grass getting turfed I will be in BIG TROUBLE.

Where do I gallop now? I don't know. My creativity has completely turned to desperation. I'm frantically wracking my brains for places to turn now. I have some ideas:

1) Leave a note in the field owner's mailbox asking if they ever mow, and if they don't, if they don't mind possibly either mowing the field completely or maybe mowing a wide path around the perimeter of the field. I would pay for someone to do this!
2) Gallop in the orchard. Again, possibly impossible and difficult to do, for the reasons to explained above.
3) Trailer to the White Memorial park. There is a big, well-groomed field there that could easily be used for gallops. But, it's a good hour away, and I feel like I might possibly get in big trouble for picking up speed there.
4) Anne and I today discovered a giant, GORGEOUS field off the Larkin Bridle Trails where we went hacking. She has been there before and says they usually mow it, and in the middle, they plant corn. Well, the corn was planted, but the field wasn't mowed! It was up to our knees! If they mow it, however, it's open to our use and I could definitely gallop there.
5) Ask the nuns down the road to mow their field for me.. but I think they use it for hay and probably don't want horses on it.
6) Ask Mystic Valley? Ethel Walkers? Frazier Farm? King Oak? All these places are over an hour away though... and the closest, Frazier Farm, is rocky and I don't think I'd want to pick up any sort of speed there.
7) Gallop on the Lark Bridle Trails... but the ground is very flat, straight, and hard. Great for trotwork, not so great for speed work. Also, there are lots of bikers, hiker, and dogs, and I'm not about to go trample people. But it's a possibility.


The field today (sorry, crap picture taken with my phone.)

So I have no idea what to do.
Anne and I had an awesome conditioning hack out at Larkin today, and it ended up being two and a half hours instead of two. We trotted for our first 25 minutes, and then went up and 'discovered' the big field. Beyond the field we intersected the Middlebury Bridle Land, which is actually private (but we didn't know it until later!) There we picked up some cross country fences (sweet!!), and picked our way through the realllllllllly rocky trails. It was gorgeous, and lots of fun. We did a bit of trot and canter on the way back too, just for fun. So I guess Gogo SORT of got some gallop-y work in today. But it's not the same.

What to do, what to do. Here's the kicker: I found a potential move-up Training event. If you go check out the virtual coursewalk for Training, you'll see nothing too complicated - and as a bonus, most of the course is downhill, so we'll be able to maintain a rolling gallop with minimal energy, making it more likely to make time. I'm going to call Sarah and ask her if she thinks it's a good move-up or not, and decide from there if I want to give it a go. This would be in late August, so we have plenty of time to decide if we're ready or not.

BUT, that makes it all the more important that we keep up our gallops. Oye, frustration. Honestly, I don't know what to do.



PS: I have the best readers EVER EVER EVER. Thank you all SO MUCH for all your helpful comments, tips, hints, and encouragement concerning Gogo's hocks. I'm just a worried mommy, and I need reassurance that I'm doing the right thing. And I'll take all your suggestions into consideration, and add them to my arsenal of soundness-keeping-tricks. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Running on Dunkin

Gogo and I had an excellent adventure today. It was our two-hour conditioning hack day, and given that it was gorgeous and hot out, I decided to make it a conditioning hack with a purpose beyond fitness.

That's right, we went to the Dunkin drive-thru.



Of course, it wasn't without work. We started off with a 10-minute walk warmup through the orchard, and then continued on with our 25 minutes of trotwork around and around the orchard. The orchard's not really all that big, so we went around through the trees many times! I considered taking her out on the road and doing trotwork, but I worry about how quickly several hours of work on pavement wears a foot. Gogo is back on Gro N' Win now (yes!! I will write about that adventure shortly), which is far superior to any ration balancer I've found on the market, so with luck, she'll start rapidly putting out foot (my past experience with it). I actually put her together at some point (because she was doing the gravitational pull back towards the barn and almost ran into a tree), and she actually ended up doing spectacularly with that, reaching down for the bit and giving me a decent bit of stretch through the entire workout. We were both sweating by the time we were done, and from here, we headed out on the journey.




Gogo's road rules are incredibly defunct. She believes that she really ought to be able to walk all over the road, wherever she pleases, and why should she stay far to the right, those cars aren't scary and they would NEVER hit her, she's too important! There is a lot of pinball-esque channelling when it comes to her walks - she bounces back and forth between my legs just because she wants to look around and go in all directions at once, in a totally eager way.

And then.... there it was!





One Strawberry Coolata and one blueberry muffin later, we were back on our way, and made it home just in time to watch Mine That Bird get his butt kicked by his own half-brother, Summer Bird.

She's the best, that silly mare.

End of May Analysis, and Happy Belated 8th Birthday, Gogo!

I've been away this week in OH visiting my fiancee week. I left Monday night, and came back VERY late last night (went to bed at 2am, was up by 4am to go clean stalls, bleugh!), so I'm understandably tired! Gogo had Sunday off, and got a nice groom and some handwalking to go along with her loooooong turnout, and on Monday, she hacked lightly around the neighborhood, up all the big hills at a trot.

And very tragically, I missed her 8th birthday on Tuesday, because strangely enough, June 2nd is not only her birthday, but my kitten's birthday (well, she's an adult now I guess!) AND my fiancee's birthday too! Before I left on Monday, I carved up an apple into the shape of an 8 and left it in her morning grain, and tonight, I made her a special birthday cake:



Mmmm! She, of course, thought it was delicious:






And she was nice enough to share a bit with everyone when she was done :)
Happy 8th Birthday sweetie pea!! Here's to many, many more birthday celebrations, cakes, and years together! :D


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And now, June begins!!


May Goals:

1) Attend our first two recognized events of the year, and obtain two qualifying scores for the AECs and for Area I Championships
Success!!!! And this deserves many exclamation marks!! Not only did we get our qualifying scores, and are now entered in the Area Championships (and just need one more completion to go to the AECs), but we WON both of Gogo first Novice runs, on our very respectable dressage scores. Awesome!!!

2) Continue to develop our gallops, and my gallop position
Success... mostly! Our schedule wasn't quite on the week-for-week that it was the month before, but during show weeks, I tend to back off on the gallops in order to save her for the galloping she'll need to do during the weekend. We have defintely developed our fitness further, and I definitely think my position has improved thanks to working with Kerry. I shortened my stirrups one hole already, and I'm going to shorten them again when we jump on Monday. We'll likely end up galloping tomorrow or Sunday, depending on how the footing is after all the rain we've had today.

3) Continue to develop better stretch, and trot-canter transitions
Success, slowly! We're still steadily improving this, the same as we have been these past few months. It comes along very slowly, but it's certainly not something we're going to perfect in a month. Progress, steady progress!

4) Start to work a little more collection into our schooling dressage work
Sucess! Again, this is not an end-all goal. We're starting to work more in shoulder-in and counter-canter work, and starting to gather her gaits beneath her a little more. She's given me exceedingly promising moments, and we'll continue to work on introducing new concepts. I've been playing with some baby walk pirouettes (very rudimentary ones), reinback, and more advanced counter canter work, but we have to be in the right level of relaxation and the right frame of mind in order to try new things. It's quite remarkable though, because things like reinback used to cause her to panic, fling her head in the air, and rear uncontrollably. I think now that she understands that she has an outlet when I ask for it - backwards motion - she's not so totally freaked out by it. I imagine when Jeane had her, a good yank backwards on the reins was all it took to flip her over. Ugh.

5) Have a little FUN out there ;)
SUCCESS! We are having a blast :D That weekend vacation we took with Salute and Anne and Kerry and Jen? Awesome. Just awesome. None of it is worth it unless you're having fun doing it.



June Goals:

1) Complete our AEC qualification requirements (one more event, obtaining a completion with no XC jump penalties)
2) Start to introduce new dressage concepts to her, and continue to ask for more moments of collection
3) Start fine-tuning our gallop speed and fitness via GPS
4) Continue ironing out the kinks in our Novice test - transitions, freewalk
5) Continue to strengthen and improve my position over fences, on the flat, and during gallops - there is always more to work on!


As for exercising myself.... I fail. A lot. If I am to start running with more regularity, I need to get up at 4am every day, because I just don't have the time or energy during the day or after work. Which is a horrible shame, really, but there is only so much a person can do before they collapse completely.


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Like I said before, Gogo's had the better part of this week off (Tuesday-Thursday). I got on her today to do a light, stretchy dressage work, but discovered that since she had just been starting to come into heat last Sunday, she's finishing up her cycle now and OYE it's a strong one. When I went to get on her, she scooted off underneath me - totally unlike her! I went to get off and try again, and she scooted off again! Rude! When I went to get back on her, she held perfectly still, like she normally does, but the second I shifted my weight to pick up my other stirrup, she tweaked and went bolting around the mounting block in circles. Which, of course, made me crack up. She stopped and stood there quietly for a second, and then we walked off nicely, but the rest of the ride wasn't all that productive. We finished with a lot of really quiet walk-trot transitions, but it was obvious she was completley cramped up through her back, and there wasn't much I could do about it. Oh well, these next few days will be filled with galloping, hacking, and jumping, so hopefully by the time dressage-ness comes back around on Tuesday, we'll be quiet and comfortable and non-hormonal and ready to go again!

Namaste.

What a fabulous weekend I just had. Okay, I know that it's the Memorial Day weekend, and it's supposed to go through Monday, but my holiday ended yesterday. It was so needed though, and I feel exceedingly refreshed. Everything went beautifully, and while I hope to do it again sometime soon, I feel like vacations like this come long only once in awhile. I can accept that fact though, as I get to appreciate them even more when they do happen.

Friday, after getting my repaired boot back (AGAIN), I washed the truck, packed my stuff, bathed my horse, and loaded Gogo and Salute onto the trailer. I was headed off to my lesson with Kerry Millikin at Hillden Farm, set for 3:00, and I was excited. The trip was uneventful, and Gogo and I looked pretty classy if you ask me.



That's Gogo's flybonnet signed by Jennifer Wooten-Dafoe and The Good Witch! But she was unimpressed.




I found Kerry to be really, really refreshing. She tells it like it is, but not harshly. I was later told that if she doesn't like your horse, she's going to let you know about it, but she had nothing but good things to say about Gogo - a real compliment. Right off the bat, she honed in on my equitation - "you ride like a dressage rider!" - and helped me get out of dressage mode and into jump mode, something I've never really been able to make the transition to fully simply because I've never really been taught how. I tend to sit up instead of really getting into my halfseat. Kerry helped me close my hip angle, turn my toes out a bit, and take the brunt of my weight into my heels and calf instead of stalling out at my knees and thighs - more of a dressage thing to do. The other thing we worked on was keeping her round instead of letting her cruise around with her head in the air. I usully leave her face alone while we're jumping, but by keeping her round to a fence, it helps to influence how she uses her body over the jump. She's tidy with her legs when she jumps with no bascule, but it does her no favors otherwise to jump so flat. So, instead of doing what we usually do, we tried to go around a little more like this:



Which, in turn, caused her to jump more like this:



The picture isn't at the best moment of the jump, and she's sort of trying to figure out where her legs need to be, but you can see she's actually using her body over the fence. Bascule what? We have that?



Kerry helped me stay up in two point all the way to the fence and away from it, staying quiet the whole way. She was totally pleased with how quietly Gogo dealt with the little challenges we set up for her, including a jump on a circle and some gymnastic exercises. She did super well, and I felt that I did do.
After the lesson, I went with Anne and Jen (and Salute and Lucas) for a nice relaxing hack. Or so I thought! We went all the way down the mountain, and trotted all the way back up! It was another hour before we were back, so Gogo and I were both pretty tired! We turned out our horses for a few hours each on grass (a REAL treat), and then tucked them into their stalls at Jen's place for the night.

And we rounded out the evening with a whole mess of people enjoying wine and cheese and dinner on the porch, watching the sunset:





Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh yea. A lot of wine and passing out on Anne's couch followed. Yessss.

The following morning at 7:30am sharp (oye!) after delicious smoothies, Anne and I headed off to yoga. I LOVE YOGA. I never get to do it anymore because I don't have the time or money to go to a studio and take classes, and lack the religious inspiration to actually do it on my own. I find the practice of yoga to be enlightening, refreshing, and rejuvenating. And not only does it stretch every part of your body, it tones every part too - I woke up this morning and EVERYTHING hurt. The classes at this studio run for an hour and a half and are only $15, and they're on Saturdays too, so it would be totally possible for me to go to them. On my way to Moksha, one yoga practice at a time.

After changing and helping a neighbor load some horses into a trailer, we cleaned out our stalls, let our horses out on grass again for awhile, groomed them up, and then loaded up and headed out for White Memorial Park for a few hours of trail riding goodness. The day started off with a downpour, but nature must have been happy with the positive energy we sent out into the universe with our yoga, so everything cleared up beautifully by the time we got out there. The trails were perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and the company was hilareous. We laughed the whole time we were out there.







Just perfect.
We finished the day with some lunch, and then cruised on to take the tired ponies (and our tired selves) back home. One of my favorite parts of the day is taking care of a horse's needs after a hard workout. Putting a freshly linimented, rubbed, and wrapped horse into a softly bedded stall with buckets of clear, cool water and a mountain of fresh hay in front of them just feels so good.

Today was a well-deserved day off for both of us, complete with some stretching, grooming, walking, and turnout. Tomorrow, it's back to work, and prepping for the show on Saturday!!




Breaking the daily cycle of Samsara and achieving a little taste of Moksha is exactly what you need sometimes. Thanks, Gogo. Thanks, Anne and Salute. Thanks, Kerry. Thanks, Jen. Thanks, yoga. Thanks, life.

Snafu

The title of this post doesn't have much to do with anything really. I just like the word 'snafu,' much as I like the words 'jabberwocky' or 'catawampus.'

Yesterday we jumped! It was more of a breath of fresh air for her than an actual school, something other than boring ol' dressage. We did a simple gymnastic, set like this:



The distance was set pretty short for her. She definitely favors the long spot, so exercises like this help her be very tidy and quick with her body, as she must tap the ground pretty cattily and come right back up again. She had one time where she came in a little quick and shimmied through it a little awkwardly, but every time before and after it, she put it together pretty easily. I had Shannon help me put the whole grid together as we steadily warmed up through it, and I also had her put two poles together to form a triangular chute propped up against the top rail of the final vertical. I really like what it did for her straightness and tightness up front. We didn't go for too long - about half an hour - but I felt that she was excellent and saw no need to continue. As Shannon said, she's not a horse that needs to really be schooled per se over fences. She, as this point and at this level, is point and shoot. There isn't enough I can set up at the farm that'll really challenge her. I do want to, in addition to the jumping lessons I'll be taking, set up a few steep slices and a few really narrow skinnies for her, just to see how honest she'll be. She really seems to have grown up over the winter, and she's being more honest on her own than she ever has. Last year, I felt very strongly that I had to be there to hold her hand for her to every fence, and this year I feel like as long as I'm pointing her sort of towards the right fence, she'll take it no matter how we get there. I've been really, really impressed with her.
The other thing I did yesterday that I haven't done in well over a year is jump her in her snaffle. I usually have her in the waterford, but really and truly, she just LOVES that blue plastic bit. She was dead quiet, completely response, and took a half-halt like you don't know. Maybe I was just being softer, but seriously, I think that's as responsive as she's ever been to a rein aid while jumping. I'm not about to go gallop XC in the thing, but man, blue plastic bit is my friend right now!

Today, more boooooooooooring dressage! Or well, that's how she sees it :) Gogo actually came out feeling AMAZING and completely responsive RIGHT off the bat, and was giving me awesome trotwork and leg yields right from when I first picked her up. I thought about just getting off and calling it a day, but I went on to work more. And, of course, the more we worked, the hotter she became. And she got HOT. Not sure exactly what happened, but wow, she was HOT AS HELLFIRE by the time we were nearing the end. Our second canter was, in fact, a large disaster, although for some reason this didn't really bother me. She was racing around a 20m circle completely inverted, flinging her head in my face, completely in gallop mode for whatever reason. I just sort of sat chilly and waited... and waited... and waited. Finally, she quieted down and gave me something resembling a quiet circle, and I went back to trot and cantered the other way, which was much better. Much, much better, actually. I dunno if her brain just finally settled down or what, but after that, we did a little more nice quiet trotwork and called it a day on a perfect halt. Mares!

This is the eternal dilemma with a pretty fit event horse like mine. It might be only Novice but the fitter she gets, the hotter she gets. I wonder how confusing it can get for her doing everything in the plastic snaffle. She now hacks, gallops, does dressage AND jumps in it, which is great and kind of bad at the same time. She has no real way to differentiate between what we're doing based on tack alone - and she's the kind of horse that would definitely know what different bits mean. I don't ask her to come round while galloping, as I want her to have her own head for balance, and while actually doing a course I don't bother to mess with her head while I'm jumping either. Hacking is usually done on the buckle or a loose rein. This is the other problem - I'm working all sets of muscles, the bad ones included. I'm no fool to think that all this dressage is going to eliminate her ewe neck, especially when her natural balances lies within a high head carriage. I'm not going to fight nature when she needs to balance that way. Her neck looks awesome for her right now, but in the grand scheme of things, it's a pretty unimpressive neck. We do what we can, and I try my hardest to make sure she knows a distinct difference between everything we're doing. King Oak was proof enough that if you leave her alone, she'll go there on her own. Home is for trying to school her through that mindset. Dressage is slowly and steadily becoming more of a conversation between the two of us as opposed to me quietly hoping she'll decide to play the game that day. Now, I feel as though I can ask her a little, and while she'll have moments where she's not totally connected, she'll go where I ask her to go, and she'll take my corrections instead of fighting them, although sometimes it's with a grain of salt. I like this new direction.


And... um.... Gogo's fat. I mean really, I look at her and go oh man. Fattie. I tried and tried to tell everyone here that she's an easy keeper, and nobody believed me until now. I put a little weight on her over the winter seeing she was on the thin side after the long trip out here, and that seems to have backfired as now she won't LOSE the weight! I've cut out all the Ultium except for a tiny cup of it at nightcheck just to give her a little something along with everyone else, and she's now eating 2lbs a day of the Triple Crown 30% ration balancer, which I actually don't think I like much, and about 10 flakes of okay-ish quality hay. Not sure what else I can cut out, as she's at the low end of the Triple Crown's recommended poundage for a horse doing her kind of work! I MAY have found somewhere to get Gro N' Win though.... here's hoping that works out!! I thought about putting her on Platinum Performance instead of the ration balancer, but I'm pretty sure she won't be getting all the protein she needs on that system. Nothing replaces a quality ration balancer in my book.





Vroom vroom!!