Remember when? (Groton House.)

Remember when we were kicking patootiebootie at Groton House in 2009? Tied for second after this particular dressage test with a 31.5, broke the tie with a clean and very close to optimum time run on XC, and moved to first after a clean stadium round. The competition was so close that the leader after XC dropped all the way to 5th after one rail in stadium. That show was my favorite of the season and a highlight of my year, and watching these old videos makes me hurt all over wanting to do it again so badly.



You have no idea how badly I want to breed this mare. I kick myself every day over it. Nobody knows how that baby would turn out, to be sure, but if it ends up anything remotely like her at all, it will be my dream horse a million times over. A million and one times over.

(Edited to add: I am not going to get an OTTB. I'm just not. Nor am I looking to purchase another horse anytime in the remote future. I don't want another horse just to have one. Horses are expensive and a risk. The likelihood that I will get another horse while I still own Gogo (which will be until the end of her days) is pretty small, unless it's her foal. So no suggestions on what I should go out and buy! I'm not going out and buying anything.)

Remember when?

Remember when we were kicking patootiebootie in the dressage at every event? Found a brief old clip of Riga Meadow, where we were robbed with a score of 34.0, but were still in 1st after dressage anyway!
(Although, if you remember correctly, this was when she had Lyme and then unceremoniously freaked out on XC later on in the day and did 360s in front of the up bank, which prompted me to believe that this behavior belonged to a physical issue, not an emotional one!)



Sigh.... those were the good old days!


I really do hope I find some sort of a fun turnaround project once I am down in Texas. Something with a little surprise... a horse that needs some help. Something I can make better, and happier. Something that will look at me with great liquidy eyes everytime I come near and silently say, "thank you for giving me a chance."

Picture of the Day

Only seven months until Groton House ;) Is it too early to be dreaming about next summer?

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!

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?

Take a deeeeeeep breath....

..... and exhale. Staffing Crisis 2010 is NOT going to be resolved anytime soon. So it's time I just got over it, sucked it up, and went on with my life instead of fretting about it 24/7. I've been losing sleep over the problem for going on two months now, but as long as we are getting through the issue day by day, it's not so bad. That being said, this day-by-day living is horrible for me and I hate not knowing what the future is going to bring. It doesn't help matters much that I'm working Gogo a bit fly-by-night, and have no set plans, goals, or anything else in particular that I want to work towards. I am severely goal-oriented, so when I DON'T have a goal, I don't really know what to do.

What I DO know is that I currently have a sound and happy horse. The difficult part of all this lies within: how do I keep her this way while simultaneously strengthening her, having actual FUN, and NOT over-fitting her for the coming winter? It's always been about getting her to her peak fitness before. Now it's about strengthening her without risking reinjury while we are still only 6 months out. I have absolutely zero reason to rush anything, and right now all I want to do is have a little fun.

Only. That little bit of topline we put on? I am going to have to put up a fight to keep it, as I can already see it diminishing. It's the first thing to go on her, and when I don't want to do anything but trail ride around on the buckle, well... that's not so good for strengthening a topline.

Last week, I was a BAD MOMMY. On Monday, we did our typical bareback hack, 45 minutes up and down the hills on our property at mostly a walk with some bits of trot up small hills tossed in for good measure. Which was great! Except then, Tuesday happened, and more staffing and me being near-tears by the end of the exhausting day (and my honey being in the exact same position and needing a bit of comfort from me too) caused me to not do my scheduled dressage ride. Oh well, dressage is no fun compared to a trail ride anyway, right? Wednesday, my day off, I trailered Gogo out to the Larkin Bridle Trails, which some of you will remember from my conditioning rides last year. We walked, mostly, with a bit of trot and canter, and in general had a ball for about 1:30min. It was good exercise on a good surface, although I have to say that Gogo seemed to prefer walking on the grass next to the trails instead of on the actual path, which can be a bit rocky. I actually thought by the end that I might really want to invest in a pair of boots for the first time in our four-year barefoot career, but then again, I rather enjoy walking on squishy grass too when I can - more comfortable for my body all around. I let her choose her own path, as she does walk on gravel daily but not for any vast length of time and it's not really fair to ask that of her right now (and got forbid she get sore at this point), and gave her a good liniment bath and wrapped her all around when we got back to the barn. She was none the worse for the wear the following day, but I decided to give her the day to relax anyway. And that's when the rest of the week sort of fell apart, and I have her Friday off as well. And Saturday. And Sunday.

That trail ride was some good medicine though:






Love that big honking roping saddle. It's soooooo squashy and comfortable. She goes well in the tom thumb, but I think I'd really rather get her an Indian bosal instead, something bitless without any serious mechanical action. She always loved her hackamore as a baby. Until she, well, figured out how to run through it. Mares. (Bet she'd be super in it now.)

I let her relax all weekend. I needed to reset our schedule, and my brain. This occasionally happens to me, but it's not too disastrous at the moment as I really have no deadlines, schedules or goals beyond by simple monthly ones. But her topline IS changing right now, I have to say, and it's not for the better. If you don't use it... YOU LOSE IT! But all I want to do right now is just have a little fun. I don't want to be in the arena at ALL!

Therefore, I have a compromise.

I will continue with this schedule for now:

Monday: 45 min bareback hack around property
Tuesday: Dressage
Wednesday: Trailer off property for hacking (Baxster Rd?)
Thursday: Jumping
Friday: Either trailering off property for hacking OR hacking up the road
Saturday: Either trailering off property for hacking OR hacking up the road
Sunday: OFF

(This is a severely rudimentary schedule. The complexities of day-to-day work depend largely on her at the moment.)

BUT. All that hacking bareback, off property, up the road? No more lazing around on the buckle dragging her toes. No ma'am, those days are over. You won't get any stronger working like that. I have to put her together and work her. I have to make that topline and buttocks do their share.

I have to do anti-arena dressage.



Yesterday, this plan went pretty well. She was hot and ready to walk me right off her back, but she held it together well and actually did some nice work for me up and down the wet hills in the rain. I was very careful give the footing, and hardly took a trot step anywhere, but the few bits that I did seemed to diffuse her a bit, and she relaxed. By the end, she was stretching fairly nicely, and the nice thing about not having a saddle is that I can really feel when her back muscles engage and round up underneath me. Today I will have to see if I can replicate this... for the first time since March, I will have to ride in the indoor arena as it is still pouring outside and the outdoor is temporarily underwater. How will she handle it? I'm not sure, but it might be pretty ugly. She has to get over it though, there's no two ways about it. She just is going to have to deal with the door demons at the far end.



And guess what happens on Friday. THE BEACH OPENS.

You better believe we're going the second I am out of work. Playtime, here we come!

Gogo Dressage Work 9/3/10

Gogo's progress continues....



Yesterday was the first day I felt like I did something dressage-like and productive. You'll see some yuck moments and some great moments in the video - she was still hot and a little fussy, alternating with moments of total laziness, but we'll get there. Weaning her off the drugs has been a mental challenge as well, but she has definitely stepped up to the plate, so I'm proud of her. And we did our first leg yields at the trot, and circles at the canter! Go us!

Tra La La Boom Di-Ay

It's hot. It's so, so, SO hot. Yesterday we finally got our first break in almost two weeks from the ridiculous heat and humidity - almost 100 degrees with 85+ percent nasty sweat factor! - and I've literally spent the past two weeks constantly sticky and wet. I've been moving like a slug, dragging my way through the daily heat and moisture, coming home every day and falling into the pool with a beer in hand for a few minutes before I have to get up and do some other busy work. Despite the disgusting weather, I've spent almost every waking moment outside, much as I do every summer, and I've been loving it. Unfortunately it keeps me away from the computer and my blogging duties, but that's all right. After working impossibly hard all day every day, I feel as though I deserve as much relaxation as I can possibly squeeze in to my ridiculously tight schedule. I don't sleep enough, I don't eat well enough, and I am perpetually exhausted, but I'm not quite sure what to do about it. It's very hard to come home at the end of a 10 or 12 hour workday and still have things I want and need to do and get them done before, you know, midnight or 1am... and then wake up at 4:30 in the morning to start all over. I've actually slept past \six daily alarms (on average) for over two weeks now, never actually getting up when I intend to. It's very frustrating for me (and gives me morning headaches), but I do know what honestly needs to be done. I need protein, and I need more sleep. I also need 12 more hours in my day in order to get anything done. I rarely, and that pretty much means never, get everything I need to in a day done.

Vent over. As an overly ambitious 25 year old, I assume that is how life is supposed to be.


In other news, the honey and I went up to Groton House last weekend to watch some XC action:



Which was awesome! But also horribly depressing. Groton House was supposed to be our first event of the year, our big comeback... obviously that didn't happen. But if you are interested in seeing how it might have gone this year, you can check out last year's Groton House dressage, XC, and stadium posts. It was definitely the highlight of the season, and it felt great to go up there again, even if it was just to watch. Aaaah, next year.... next year.


I've also been doing a little bit of general cleaning and organizing this month, mostly fixing up the gigantic messes that are my trailer, locker, and brush box. My trailer took several hours but it is so super organized right now!! Although I suppose from the picture on the left, it still looks ridiculous. Is that a western trail saddle I see?? Maybe! ;) I also managed to score a lucky find on the side of the road one day: a crappy piece of cardboard furniture for free, which I then took and put in my trailer for storage use! See how neatly labeled everything is? I win!


I also spent some time yesterday cleaning out my brush box. Ewwwwww.... what's that I see? Creeping old candy wrappers, spilled liniment and Showsheen creating some sort of weird liquid monster, old needles, and *gasp* ruined cookies!?



All together now: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!


Aaaaah that's better.


And of course I had to clean out all the brushes. I also realized I have a million old ones in there that I don't use, so I removed all the old uckies and put them in my trailer for backups. Left is the Dream Team.... right are the Losers about to take the Walk of Shame to the horse trailer. So long suckas!!



Trotting is going super well. She's feeling stronger every day, and as of today, we start trotting for 15 minutes, and can finally add huge walking circles to our work. We've spent the past week doing 25 minutes of on the buckle walking warmup, staying on the rail or crossing the diagonal in straight lines only, and walking over poles:




Then at 25 minutes, we pick up the reins and do 15 minutes of connected work, including very tiny bits of lateral work (i.e. small, shallow leg yields only, as per vet instruction), still staying on straight lines only.


Then, we trot for 10 minutes! Same rules still apply, straight lines and crossing the diagonal only. As our arena is so big, I feel comfortable enough trotting through the corners so long as she stays balanced. In the indoor, if you remember, I was circling a lot (it's a lot smaller and has demons at one end), and that probably wasn't very helpful. The outdoor is much easier for rehab work, and keeps her brain fresh.




Yay trot! We then go back to 5 more minutes of connected walk work, then 5 minutes on a loose rein, and call it a day. Total times: 30 minutes on the buckle with poles, 20 minutes connected walk work with small leg yields, 10 minutes trot work. Total collective time: 1 hour. As of today, it will be 15 minutes of trot, so we will be up to 1:05. As of next week when we bump up to 20 minutes, it will be 1:10. Then it's back to the vet for a checkup!


Speaking of all things BAMF, check out my amazingly awesome new helmet:




Love it!! It was a Christmas present that finally just now got ordered. I wasn't sure that the Charles Owen would a) fit my head properly, or b) not look like a mushroom (but I have a small head so it kind of works out), but I am happy to report that everything is snug and great. My old International, the one the company sent me to replace the one that got cracked when Gogo fell on my head in 2007, just didn't quite fit me the way the original IRH did, and I've been wanting a new helmet ever since that time. I finally have it! Hooray!


Gogo also had her feet done on Monday, which deserves a complete post on its own. I meant to write about it here, but I got so caught up in writing around all these other awesome things that I just don't have room! It's a total struggle to maintain good rock-crunchers while on stall rest, but somehow I am making it work. It ain't easy though, that is for sure.

Yay trot! Yay July! Yay life!

A Year Ago I Was...

.... getting some nice dressage work going. Wow, this video was taken a WHOLE YEAR ago. We've come SO far since this was taken.



And THIS year, I am.... sitting on my butt wistfully thinking of the season that never was. Sighhhh.

SNOWMARE!

There is no possible way to properly describe the nasty weather we've had these past few days beyond a few choice words like "UGH" "CACA" and "DEATH". The horses have been stuck inside for days, and thankfully are all outside now getting their bucks out so they can stop attempting to sling all of us into walls. Tuesday, the first round of turnouts got out, but then it started to sleet in a sideways fashion, so everyone else got stuck inside. Wednesday, it continued to sleet/mist/snow/rain all day, so everyone stayed in again. Thursday, it freaking POURED all day long, torrentially so, and so once again, they were all stuck inside and doing all sorts of unpleasant things like colicing and getting cast, I'm fairly convinced, on purpose in order to spite Mother Nature. Unfortunately their colic/cast/rearing/bucking/bolting dances were not enough to appease her, and yesterday the snow came in sideways at 50mph for a large part of the day. We don't have TOO much new accumulation - maybe 10 inches? - but enough to send cars shooting off the road and panicked CT residents to the store to horde food and gas. I was with a few friends of mine last night at someone's house, and on her way home one of the girls flipped her car upside down off the road. O.O That marks the point of the season where I think I am DONE with winter and am quite ready for spring now, thanks!

Despite the snow, the horses really were climbing the walls yesterday, and so I kicked a choice few out into the weather, one of which was Gogo. I'm not doing her any favors by keeping her inside at this point (or myself, because with her high-as-a-kite attitude I might get killed if I don't find an outlet for it), so out she went. The medical turnout is small enough to keep her from doing anything ridiculous, but big enough to let her walk around a little and just be OUT in the fresh air. She definitely appreciated it but came to the gate in two hours and was like, all right bring me in now!




Horses did go on the treadmill as usual....




Here, Rahlo and Gogo demonstrate how even though your treadmill is covered, sideways snow can in fact interrupt your nice stroll.


Under saddle, Gogo has been hit and miss a little, given how hot she's been. Thursday, she was really quite excellent, starting out spooky but really settling in to some decent work at the end. She did about half an hour of walk, and 15 or so minutes of trot before I called it a day. It wasn't without a few reining spins away from the A end of the arena where the Door Monster lives, and a few ridiculous leaps when the other rehab horse in the arena squealed and went leaping around, but once she settled in I was very happy. The interesting thing is that I tried the cyprium eggbutt again, not willing to give up on it, and lo and behold she was fantastic in it! So what changed? Only one thing: I lowered the bit in her mouth. Historically, for whatever reason, when you put any bit Gogo wears at the regular bit-wearing height that you'd expect her to be comfortable in, she fusses. Not really sure why, and we've not found any dental or vet reason for it - she just does. I blogged about it once, talking about how my last boss always wanted to adjust the bit in her mouth and raise it to where it belonged, and we finally tried it one lesson. She held all her tension in her mouth, gnashing away at the bit and being completely resistant... until we lowered it again. Then, she was perfect, as if she was saying "UGH! THANK you, now I can really go on and do real work!" So, thinking back to that, I dropped the bit so it was hanging in her mouth, way lower than I'd ever really expect it to be but keeping in mind the fact that this is Gogo we're talking about here. And tada! No more fussing, no more fighting the bit. She reached for it and was light and responsive, much more so than in the mullen mouth. Hooray!
Yesterday, she was not as good. She fussed a little, threw her head around some, made like she wanted to body slam into something, then settled in to some mediocre work. I wasn't unhappy with it per se, it just wasn't as nice as the day before. Perhaps this was her way of telling me that she was NOT happy to find that she is now required to go down to the Door Monster end of the arena whether or not there is a Door Monster waiting for her down there. Gogo... you are a special girl.

Today I think we will be hacking. All this new snow is so beautiful, and I think it will be good to go along with the way we do things in the summer: two days of dressage, one day of something else, two days of dressage, one day of something else. It's much easier on her brain that way, and quite frankly, mine too.

And OH MY GOD. WHAT IS THAT STRANGE BRIGHT YELLOW ORB IN THE SKY THAT JUST CAME OUT? MY EYES! MY EYES!

Crab Cakes

It's been onward and upward for Gogo and I this week. After Friday's fantastic jog-out, I got back on her on Saturday, a little nervous but hopeful that all would go well. It was, after all, the true test of how she was actually doing - whether or not she looked good on the ground was going to all be for naught if she felt off at all under saddle. I walked for about half an hour, doing simple work at one end of the arena, then went, okay... here goes.

And we trotted.

And...... she felt great!

My set of eyes on the ground, the same boarder who has been there to watch her all week, told me she looked fantastic. I kept the trotting to a minimum, going somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, a little both ways. She was still pretty fussy with the contact, which I chalked up to being fresh at the time, but it was interesting - I've been trying a new bit these past several rides, and while I attributed the ridiculous antics she was doing immediately before coming up dead lame to pain in the RH, it was odd that she was still doing them but without any hint of ouchiness. It seems like there had to be a different cause, and the only thing that had changed was the bit. With it, she'd just been a total CRAB.

The new bit:


While we all love the famous blue bit (the mullen mouth Happy Mouth that happens to match everything else we own), she really tends to get quite heavy in it, and it's difficult to isolate the different sides of her body with such a cumbersome mouthpiece. I wanted to use something that still had the eggbutt rings, but had a more versatile double-jointed mouthpiece. This was my try, with an addition on top: a new metal that I haven't used before with her, a copper alloy called Cyprium. She was going so well in the KK Ultra Aurigan eggbutt snaffle that I thought I would try the knock-off version of it (because I really can't justify spending $200 on a bit!!). It DID make her salivate quite a lot, I am happy to report, but... in all honesty, I think that irritated her, as odd as it sounds. She went in it just fine, fine, fine, and then... BRAIN FART! Head tossing, sideways leaping... not ok. It just seemed so excessive. I took Gogo for a 20-minute outdoor hack on Sunday, and was surprised to find that when faced with something scary (the hay truck), she spooked, hit the bit, and about launched into outerspace with her head in my lap. Just a little bit, well... excessive! We all know she's fussy, but this was a little bit much.

So, I went back to the other bit, thinking that if the new bit was what was actually causing the issue, it would be resolved by going back to the one she already likes, and if not, then there was still an underlying pain issue we needed to address. Back in the blue bit yesterday, Gogo was super. Just SUPER! All the fussiness was gone. She was salivating plenty, and was predictably a little heavy in the contact like she normally is in that bit, but I think she really just likes the steadiness of it - it gives her something really solid to take and doesn't have all those annoying movable parts to it. Or well, if I was an obnoxiously fussy mare that's what I would think.
The weather yesterday was ridiculous - a mini Snowmageddon - but somehow I managed to shlep through all 8" new inches to get to the barn safely, even while the snow was still piling up. (For those of you that just got 3' of snow, I know 8" doesn't sound like a lot, and it isn't compared to what we get at home, but people in Connecticut just can't deal with this kind of weather and everybody freaks out and drives like grannies or crashes into stuff!) We stayed at one end of the arena and didn't do too much in the way of complicated things, mainly because every time we'd go down to the scary end of the arena she'd start leaping around, but for what we had to work with, she was excellent. And the best part was that she felt so good that we tried a little bit of canter - she was amazing! Going left she felt fantastic, but going right she was still pretty crooked, albeit much better than before. Oh well, we'll get there. We've got time.

So back to the blue bit for now, I suppose. We shall see if I can find anything more suitable that she likes. Probably not, but you never know!




Don't worry, I wasn't moving when I took that picture - everybody was piled up all trying to get down a hill safely. Like I said, Connecticut people can't drive in the snow!



Tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday, we dressage. Sunday, we hack. Monday and Tuesday, we go back to dressage, and if that all goes according to plan, it will be our first 6-day workweek in 5 months. I think she's looking forward to it, don't you?:






(PS: Make sure to go peek in at the blog's new chatbox on the sidebar. Leave Gogo a message, and she'll leave one back!)

I CAN HAS CANTER!?

WE DID IT. WE CANTERED!

My original plan was to give it one more week of trotting for 20 minutes before starting our 5 minutes of canterwork next Thursday, but realistically I realized that there was no way we were going to be able to maintain a full five minutes of canter at this point. Just like when we started our trotwork, I began a few days early just to test out how she felt, just a time or two around the ring. So today, when everything felt right under saddle, I gave it a try. She had spent the morning doing little mini-aerials in her paddock (much to my dismay), so I expected her to be hot and spooky under saddle. She must have gotten her little itch out though in turnout, because she was quite quiet under saddle.

She felt weak. Like she wanted to buck and play and throw her head around and be silly but she didn't have the strength to. She was bopping up and down on both ends so it was a little bit of an ugly ride on my part, but Rome was not built in a day... everybody's gotta start somewhere!




And of course, when I say quiet under saddle, I mean not completely. There was a ray of sunlight that came in the door at the scary end of the arena that was VERY scary, so she of course had to terrify one of our other boarders by trotting past her, seeing the ray of light in front of her that then fell ON her while she was passing it, assuming that the ray of light was EVIL and made of poison, and doing an amazingly athletic courbette that looked exactly like this but even bigger. Well, god forbid the killer ray of sunlight get us, right..?




It's a loooooooooooooooong road ahead until we're back to this again....



................. but we're on our way. And no more incidents like the one in the video on course. Ever. Again.

End of January Analysis, Ultrasound Updates, and Awards

It's February! I am happy that January is over, but I have to say, I am NOT a February kind of kid. January isn't so bad because I usually am still riding out the excitement of a new year and all the new hopes that come with it, but February is just bleak and cold and dark with nothing interesting to break up the wintery crappiness. (Don't even say Valentine's Day cause that doesn't count.) I am quite convinced that this February won't be the same though. I am in a much better place now than I've been compared to the last couple of years career-wise, future-wise, and money-wise, so I have plenty to buffer me against the crappiness of the month. Hey, it's already the 3rd, we've already got a good start!

Onto our January goals...



January Goals:

1) Continue sound trotwork and build to 20 minutes of trotwork - 50 minutes of riding total a day (we are at 40 now with 10 minutes of trot a day)
Success! Except for the fact that she had a voluntary week off this past week, due mostly to the fact that my boss was coming back for a few days and I get paranoid before ultrasounds, we did in fact build all the way up to a 50 minute ride with 20 minutes of trot, and she feels fantastic.

2) Talk to the vets about when to schedule her next ultrasound (I'm thinking instead of mid-January, we want to shoot for mid-February before we start to canter)
Success! I actually just went to the vet yesterday for another ultrasound but that will be for later in the post ;)

3) Take our first little hack outside (flat ground, around the barn)
Success! This one was my favorite! She's taking tiny little hacks around the property on flat ground and she LOVES it. I went on four - count them, FOUR! - little hacks, two of which were with company, which was very nice. I like having boarders to ride around with.

4) Set up show budget and breeding budget - how much do I need to save, how much each month, etc?
Success! I tend to do this on a lot of these cold wintery nights when it's far too miserable to actually go out and do anything interesting, or I'm too tired to bother doing anything interesting beyond hanging around under blankets on the couch with a cup of our apartment-famous spiked cocoa ;). It's good for me though because instead of sitting around unhappy because it's too cold and dark to be outside, I get to dream about the coming warmer months when it's awesome and warm outside and I don't have to be stuck indoors! My budget this year is quite larger than it was last year because I can actually afford it this year, hooray! It's all down on paper - how much I need for each show, how much I have already saved, how much I need to actually put away a month to meet my end financial goal - so now it's just a matter of execution. I have a baseline total budget for breeding too, based on the information everyone has given me concerning how much money they ended up plunking into baby from pre-conception to year two, but I will still need to do local research for how much individual procedures cost here in CT. Because you know, EVERYTHING costs more in CT.
But it's quite helpful to know things like that the breeder already told me she'd knock $1000 off the stud fee for my chosen baby daddy because of the special consideration that they give to performance mares. That $1000 will definitely be helpful going towards all those OTHER things you need to pay for in breeding.

5) Add incline work on the treadmill
I actually opted not to do this one just yet. I was cleared by Dr. Chope over the phone to do it but I ended up wanting another ultrasound before we put this one into the mix. But I am happy to report.... well wait, I can't tell you just yet, I have to finish the goals first!



February Goals:
1) Start canterwork, building from 5 minutes for the first two weeks to 10 for an additional two weeks, then resume regular flatwork sessions in the beginning of March
2) Map out a hacking plan - where to start with little hills, how to gradually increase... building over the course of a couple months to our regular 2-hour hacks
3) Add incline work on the treadmill
4) Wean gradually off the nighttime wraps to just every other night
5) MAYBE if everything goes according to plan and we are back to regular work at the end of the month, a trip to the beach!? (Just to walk around in the water and smell the salty air!)




So this all leads me now into our vet visit yesterday. I trailed Gogo in the morning up to see Dr. C instead of going alllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way to Tufts, which is much farther and literally about 10x more expensive (seriously, my ultrasound yesterday was only $85 and my last only ultrasound without anything added on trip to Tufts was $800!). Dr. C was the one who referred me to Tufts in the first place so she knows the case and knows the mare.


We jogged her out first and I got a terrible video of it. From this angle, you can't tell a thing, but she jogged out really well, whether or not you can actually tell in the video ;)





Back inside the clinic, we got down to ultrasounding, and one again found the RH to be totally clean. We obviously didn't expect to find anything, but we wanted to check the margins of the tendons from the residual tenosynovitis and found them to be all normal and looking great. Sweet! We also looked at the left and found the leftovers of the lesion, now completely filled in. I got to look at the ultrasound from yesterday and the ultrasound from the first time Dr. C looked at her, and WOW what a difference. And the original lesion wasn't anything shocking in the first place! The biggest difference was the size of the tendon from then til now. Back in October, the tendon at that area was quite enlarged. Now, it's back to normal size and I am happy to see that!! The area on ultrasound may never look perfect again. In fact, it probably won't. What is important at this point is her soundness. If she is sound on that leg and improving, that is what matters. We'll look at it again in two months on ultrasound and see what we have but all in all we're all thrilled with this progress. We're not quite 5 months out from the original injury and she's expected to make a full recovery and continue on as a competitive event horse. Not many tendon injuries have an outcome like this, especially in this amount of time. (Knocking on wood right now as I type.)

I am seriously overjoyed at the news. This is fantastic! Clearly there is still a ways to go but there is light now at the end of the tunnel. The tendon is strong enough now that I have been cleared to begin canter work and small hills, and can start incline work on the treadmill. I'm going to take the days that I "hack" her and start building them into real hacks, gradually increasing over the next couple of months to our full two-hour conditioning hacks with included trotwork. Excited! I outlined my season and what I'd like to be doing month by month, and Dr. C agreed that it sounds spot on. Yay!



Not only did I get that good news, but I stopped by my old barn yesterday on way home to say hi, and they gave me all the mail that had been accumulating there. Included in the pile was a Year-End award and yet another USEA award, this time an extension of the Rider Achievement award I'd already received. It appears they'd changed the Rider Achievement awards at some point last year to the Blue Ribbon Award program, so I'd actually earned BOTH without knowing it! AND I got my 4th place Year-End award




Although when I hang it up next to all the Year-End awards I won last year.... it looks a bit silly. What is it with Area I ribbons being so tiny compared to Area 8's? I love it just the same, of course, but I adore looking at my ribbons I won in 2008 every night before bed because they're just so big and fancy!





Shine on, my mare, shine on!

Wahe Guru

Gogo and I out for our "hack" on Wednesday.


Do you ever swear that horses know when things are up? I think sometimes they pick up on our emotional disturbances and make an extra effort to let us know we're appreciated. I know that's totally anthropomorphizing, but... sometimes I really feel like it's true. Regardless, Gogo was in a stunningly good and sweet mood today, the best I can remember her being in since the injury. I walked in the barn and first went to a client in the grooming stall who was worried about her horse because he hadn't finished his grain (he's fine). I heard a very demanding nicker behind me and turned around to see Gogo standing with her head out, staring intently at me. Normally she always pokes her head out whenever she hears my voice, but this was different, very insistent. I went over to see her, and scratched her neck over the stall door. She started grooming me very, very insistently, very thoroughly, just with her lip. She hardly EVER does this, even when I try and get her to reciprocate a scratch. When I stopped scratching her and tried to walk away, she wrapped her head around me and pulled me back in! She even ignored her hay for a good 10 or so minutes while watching me walk back and forth in the barn, just staring at me the entire time. She was in a ridiculously good mood all morning, watching everything around her while in her turnout, nibbling her hay, ears pricked the entire time.

This past Thursday, she graduated to the next size paddock (yay!!) AND to 15 minutes of trotwork. Very exciting! The paddock size (this was the first day out):




And today:





Ooops I've been spotted.




Yesterday, I opted for spa day instead of riding, because it was warm enough to do so. She was just hairy and gross, and as I'm accustomed to having a nice clipped horse in the winter, I just couldn't stand her nastiness anymore. Not to mention a more concerning factor: she is FAT and I have a half-hearted hope that maybe now she'll use calories trying to keep warm. In a heated barn with a haircoat on light work.... it's not easy to stay trim. Once I got to clipping, what I thought was a big nasty haircoat ended up being hardly any hair at all, so it was a quick job. The lighting wasn't the best, so I realized today that I REALLY missed some spots! It wasn't quite the freakishly good clip job that I did last year, but it's not so bad. We stood her up today for pictures:





Holy CRAP is she ever fat. I'm practically starving her and I still can't get her to shed those pounds. I guess they probably won't go away until we get into real gallop-type work... but that's a couple months away yet.

But isn't she pretty. Look at the bionic tail!


Under saddle today, Gogo continued her freakishly bright, cheerful, happy streak, and was nothing less than amazing. She was light, responsive, connected, and best of all, NOT spooky at the scary end of the ring! She's finally stopped leaping around whenever the door moves at the scary end of the ring, but even up until a few days ago she was still putting her head up and scooting past the door quickly every time we passed. Not today! Today she was just feeling GOOD. I let her pick a trot rhythm that was comfortable for her, and off she went, power trotting around the ring like Superwoman, still connected and using her entire body with every step. It felt great, and she felt so sound and strong. I didn't let her go at the bigger pace for very long, but instead experimented to see how much she'd stretch - she practically put her nose on the ground, still in the big trot, still swinging and connected. I haven't been able to try and stretch her at the trot for a LONG time for fear that if she went bolting off I wouldn't be able to stop her in a timely manner. Not only did I get to ride her long and low her today, but she gave me that extraordinary stretch. I think all this walk work is really quite helpful. It gets us both to slow things down and take them piece by piece, ironing out the kinks and figuring out exactly where out bodies need to be. She just felt AWESOME today.


Not to mention the weather was a balmy 45 degrees today, and the scenery around the barn has just been amazingly gorgeous:






I dunno why Gogo was in such a fantastic mood all day, but it made me feel great. I can't not be thankful for Metro's sacrifice today, and remember what he gave to me when he died: the barefoot cause, an undying drive to help the injured around me, and a chance to let a little Gogomare into my life. Thank you Cookieman. I really appreciated today.

The World's Ugliest Tack

First off, I can't say enough thank yous to Bre from G is for Greta. She made my most awesome new banner and I am eternally grateful. IT'S AWESOME ISN'T IT!


I am very happy with Gogo's progress. She's been consistantly going outside like her good old normal self, standing around and eating hay while the other horses run and play like idiots, paying no mind to them or merely casting an ugly look whenever one of them runs too close to her fence and subsequent haypile. Even after being trapped inside for two days (we literally had an ongoing blizzard with 60mph gusts, sideways snow, and negative degree windchills), she went outside yesterday, and when released, she did a tiny hop, all four feet of the ground, and then went and ate her hay quietly for two hours. Nice.
Also due to the horrible weather, I didn't ride her for two days. Our indoor unfortunately had 5 doors, all of which rattle in the wind. I've propped stuff against them but she still had it in her head that horse-eating door monsters were lurking behind every one, something that isn't helped by the fact that our barn cats like to randomly pop over the top of them in front of horses and go streaking across the arena. The horses, of course, are all now quite convinced that we have a horde of cheetahs lurking behind every corner. You've seen the ridiculous video of Gogo reacting to the door moving - that's why I've been lightly sedating her before every ride! Today's ride, though, brought some changes. Today was the first day I didn't drug her in quite some time, and she was excellent. No spooking, even when the door jumped and rattled! This is good progress. I think now that we're up to 40 minutes of work, she's finally relaxing and realizing that we are in fact in a program and she will be able to get her energy out. Or maybe she's just waiting to catch me unawares, I'm not sure.

Something else changed today, just experimentally, and I like how it went. Gogo normally goes in a flash, but she's not really fond of it. She tends to be a bit of a jaw-crosser, primarily working her jaw to the left, which goes along with her general one-sidedness. The interesting thing, however, is that with no noseband at all, she doesn't do this, so it seems less a pain issue and more of a feeling restricted issue. With a noseband, no matter how loose or tight, she tends to 'bounce' her jaw off of it. I rode her without one yesterday just to see how it went (I rode her without one quite a lot in 2008), and as usual, it went fine. However, you need a noseband for dressage - it's not legal without one. She goes well in a figure-8, which helps with the crossing, but I wanted today to try a drop noseband on her to see if it made a difference.



Ewwwww!!! That HAS to be the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It was a little hard to fit because she has THE smallest mouth you've ever seen, and trying to fit the noseband below the bit was hard because there's not much room there! Now, here's the interesting part and I wonder if this isn't the root of the problem - see the weird lumpiness where you'd normally have a halter across the bridge of her nose? That is leftover scarring from where the Crazy Trainer shanked the bejeesus out of her. She had big white scars across her nose when we first got her back, which have thankfully all gone away, but the indents and lumps remain. Perhaps this is some weird residual mental or physical issue? (I'm considering borrowing one of these and seeing if that does anything.) I also wanted to try that bit in particular (a KK Ultra eggbutt) because she likes the stability an eggbutt provides. And actually, she was great. I dunno if the drop was really all that helpful - I think her mouth is just too small and short, it sounded like it was restricting her breathing a little - but the bit is definitely something I'd like to invest in. I'll try the drop for a couple more days and see if there's any difference, but we'll play around with nosebands to see what I want to stick with. The thing that annoys me about the drop? IT'S SO DAMN UGLY! Which is, of course, why it fell out of favor with today's DQs and why the flash became popular instead: drops make heads look plain. I love my dear horse, of course, but she has an exceptionally plain and lumpy head, so I certainly don't want to showcase lumpiness if I don't have to. We'll keep playing around with it and see what happens.


I saw four of my boss' show horses off to Florida this morning at 5am, so after they left, Gogo moved back to the New Barn to her old stall. And promptly, of course, settled in and took a nap:




Mmmmmmmmmmsleepytime. Sleepytime for me too, I'm exhausted, and still very ill. Bleugh.

American Eventing Championships 9/11/09: Day 1, Dressage

An astonishing thing has happened here at the AECs. Out of 40 of the best Novice competitors in the nation, Gogo and I are sitting in 7th after dressage with a 30.5, even with mistakes in our test. Our score without the obnoxiousness would have been somewhere between 26 and 28. Which would have meant we almost were kicking Philip Dutton's but!! Oh well, Gogo had to show her snarky side, as usual :)




She and I were dressed to the nines and ready to rock and roll by 9am yesterday morning, and were on by 9:10am for our 10:12am ride. And I have to say, she warmed up faster and better than she EVER has. She was just right there for me. Well, minus the lap around the warmup where she screamed like a maniac for her neighbor, lol. Cracker. Anyway, they had us warmup in the lower ring, then go up and warmup in the upper ring, and THEN go into our test. Last year I think that would have probably melted her down. This year, she was a little looky when I took her up there but behaved perfectly well otherwise, because she was feeling so good after our warmup. She was ready and raring to go, still hot to trot after a solid hour of warmup, and I was ready too even though I had another wicked calf cramp (which was eased by an overdose of calcium chews. Nice...). We were in Ring 1, and she trotted in like a champ, looked around, and went hmmmm now this is the time to really behave! I think I shall NOT! But only a little ;)

The whistle blew, and down the centerline we went. I felt a little all over the place, and realized as I went to make the first turn to our first trot movement that I didn't have a half-halt. At all. There was nothing I could do at that point because giving her a stronger one would have made her fling her head all over th place, in perfect Gogo fashion, so I just put on my game face and fudged it a little bit. The first part of the test was great other than that, although it felt a little stilted, and she made a very nice transition to walk, and even had a pretty nice freewalk for her, all of which scored exclusively 7's and mostly 8's. And then I had to pick her back up from the freewalk, right in front of the judge, and it got ugly for a second. I apparently offended her for whatever reason, and she grabbed the bit, gaped her mouth, and rooted outward as hard as she could, swinging her head around like a madwoman. RIGHT in front of the judge. Nice. Somehow I managed to get it back together enough to pick back up the trot, and then immediately the canter, without any major further incident, but that walk movement scored a 4, and the following trot transition a 5 because of the fact that her head was still in the clouds. Oops. However, our canter DID get an 8, so there you go! I felt like we were sort of losing it at the end, and our right canter got a 6 to show for it because I was sort of hanging on for dear life ("losing energy" was the comment I think), and we came down the centerline and ground to a half. Awww maaaaan, I though. That test was horrible! Won't be competitive, it'll score mid 30's, it was easily the worst test of the entire year.

Scores weren't posted for 3 hours. But when we finally got back to see, Alex shrieked, "You're in 7th!!" Yes ma'am, despite getting a 4, 5, and 6, AND a 6 for submission, we countered those with enough 7's and 8's (including 8 for rider, I think because I was as tactful as I could be given the circumstance!). Our final grind-to-a-stop halt even scored an 8. It obviously didn't look as wild as it felt!! We scored a 30.5; the top score was a 25.








I have more pictures, and I'll post them when I get them all sorted :)


As for right now, it's on to XC. You can follow the live feed on the USEA website, check out the blog, and see full coursemaps with pictures too. What you CAN'T see in the coursewalks is the approach to some of the complicated questions we have. There are jumps leading to both waters, a step out of the water, a downbank to an offset skinny, a corner, an offset two stride, and a FULL coffin complex (not numbered as such but rides as such). I will have a full coursewalk for you as soon as I can :) The course is challenging, long and FAST, and I am REALLY excited. Wish us luck!!!