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!

Teaser

A quick teaser because I am a bad bad blogger this week (but I have reason to be, given the Staffing Crisis which continues to be eternally neverending and horribly stressful, and is now entering Month Two):




Is that a..... ROPING SADDLE?




And.... SOME TIGHT LEGS?




And.... SOME ROCK CRUNCHERS?




You better believe.... more later!

Fun in the setting sun!

Just a little video of Gogo and I playing around at Baxster last Saturday evening:



She's so silly. When we were cantering, she was like NO I MUST PUT MY HEAD IN YOUR LAP KTHX. But other than that, she was perfect.

Our schedule is as follows: Sunday OFF, Monday bareback hack for 45 minutes around the property and up the hill at a walk/some trot, Tuesday dressage, Wednesday hack out off property for 1:00+ w/t/c, Thursday jumping tiny little things, Friday hack up the road for 50-60min, Saturday hack off propety for 1:00+ w/t/c. It's a bit lucid, and it's not very serious. It's just fun, and good for both our brains. My only goals are to strengthen her body all over, give her a good fitness baseline going into the winter, and putting her brains in place for the upcoming cold indoor arena seasons. Other than that, it's all just fun and games, and I like it that way.

Although it's pretty clear that I'm going to need some LESSONS sometime in the next century. That equitation leaves plenty to be desired.

Quickie Picture of the Day

TOO BUSY! Staffing Crisis 2010 has taken over my life for the past four weeks and it is only getting worse. I am struggling to find time to do anything other than worry about it. Things I wish I could do a little more of instead of worry about it: sleeping, eating, blogging, smiling. Not doing much of any of that these days.

Anyway, I do have things to write about and am working on putting up the next Hooves of Steel bit, but for now I will leave you this adorable picture from our ride at Baxster yesterday:



Me n' my hound. Yes, that is a greyhound off leash, oh noes! They said it can't be done, but I do it every day and she doesn't leave my side even if rabbits are jumping out of the bushes in front of her. She is very respectful of the horses and Gogo leaves her to do her own thing, only pinning her ears if she gets too slow when she's in front of us. Which is a habit she'll need to break if she wants to ride out with REAL hounds!

A Lovely Day for a Hack

WE DID IT!

We went on a real trail ride!

I know it doesn't really sound like it's that big of a deal, but this is a huge victory for me. This morning, after a year's worth of trailer rides to nowhere but the vet clinic, I loaded up the Mother Marester and ventured into NY to the Baxster Land Preserve, known around here as "the Racetrack," where the locals condition their field hunters. Over a hundred acres of seemingly endless rolling green fields awaited us there, filled with stone walls, coups, ditches, and even a water complex. We obviously weren't going to be jumping any of those things, but when we are ready, they are there and open for public use. I've been salivating over this place for nearly a year now, and it was worth the wait. I can't wait to come back here and condition, I think you could gallop forever!






Gogo has a hack day on the actual pavement on Monday of this week, and I am delighted to report that not only did she (mostly) behave herself, but I also trotted her for all of 10 seconds and posted on both diagonals, checking her soundness. She felt exactly the same left to right - perfect!! When she broke so seriously in March, the day before it happened was the day I felt she wasn't quite right on the road. It was nice to feel how amazingly sound she is on a firm surface. She followed up this lovely performance with a 'meh' sort of dressage ride yesterday, giving me some serious snark in our canterwork and doing two outrageous reining spins whilest spooking at imaginary beings. It doesn't bother me when she spins that fast - shows she's catty! - but I'd really rather she didn't do that to her legs, and I told her so. She told me to go fall off a cliff, in fewer and less pleasant words. In the end, I got a pretty nice canter left and right out of her, but it wasn't without tension. She may have been a little tired from the day before, but she felt as sound as ever, so I figured that a nice walk in a field was probably the best medicine I could offer. Much to my delight, this morning under her wraps her legs were actually tighter than I ever remember them being since the injury and ICE cold, so all systems were go on our end. She was cheery and happy to hop on the trailer and see where we were off to.

Her behavior could not have been better. Once she got past the baying hounds in the kennel across the road (her first encounter with them, and certainly not her last!), she stepped out and really relaxed. She cried only once, and as if by magic a man conditioning his hunter came cantering over the hill and past us, so I think that settled her too. After he disappeared, we saw no one else, but even so she stretched down into the bridle and picked up her pace from a small, hesitant walk to a rolling, marching one. Really, after the first 10 minutes of being a little unsure (XC jumps! Wind! Chilly weather! Roundbales! Squirrel!), she melted into the most relaxed trail animal you could ever have wanted. That's my girl.

We were out for a little under an hour, just walked with about a minute of trotting on a flat patch of grass just because. For her first real trail ride in a year, I could not have asked for better behavior, and could not have asked for a nicer day.

I can see that this is going to become a common autumn event pretty quickly.




Staffing Crisis 2010 is slightly less of a crisis than it has been for the past three weeks, so I MAY have a little time to breathe (and blog) now, hooray!

Free Radical, Part II

I am sad to say it seems our Sunday Success Stories have faded out. No submissions for three weeks now, so I guess I will sadly say goodbye to them. Oh well, they went well for a couple of months, I tried!

In more exciting news:


SHE'S FREE!





Or well, kinda. As of yesterday, Gogo is officially getting turnout! It's only in the medical paddock, which is only 20x20, but hey, it's a start! I did sedate her lightly, just because it would have been stupid for me not to, and let her cook on the treadmill for 25 minutes before declaring her sleepy enough to go into turnout. She munched her hay, walked from her haypile back to the waterbucket (she always slurps the entire bucket down in turnout, every single time without fail), walked back to the haypile like a drunken sailor, swatted a front foot at the horse next to her, and went back to eating hay. She was only out for a little over an hour, but she came to stand by the gate near the end and nickered to me when I went to get her. Even with her hay and water and flysheet and flymask and flyspray... she was ready to come in. Damn finicky girls.

She was perfect. Perfect! She followed up her amazing turnout behavior by giving me one last amazing bareback hack around the property. My tall boots are getting repaired AGAIN for the 492175069th time, but I was happy to 'settle' for just a hack. We even trotted on the grass for about 10 steps, and I can honestly say she's never felt so strong and even behind.

Today, back to something resembling an actual dressage ride. Nothing complicated, nothing intense, but I will start to focus my energies on quality versus time, and will start to gently use transitions again to get there. Instead of going for a nonstop 20 minutes of trot, we will do some walk-trot transitions, some circles, some big serpentines... things her legs are strong enough to handle at this point without pushing it too far. It's all a very delicate balance, and it's an art trying to perfect that.

And on Wednesday.... our first 'jump' school, where she will be trotting a pole on the ground. Trotting a pole!!!!!!


I never thought there would be a day when I would be that excited to trot one pole on the ground. It's the simple things in life that make me feel the best, that's for sure.


Her feet are looking great (thanks to Keratex, which I will write about later), her body is getting stronger every day, and September is looking very promising. The leaves are starting to change around here, and I have a feeling we are going to have a magnificent New England fall. Fall is by far my favorite season, and I can't wait to get off the property and go for an autumn trail ride. Soon, so soon!!

Bareback Hacks and In-Hand Attacks!

As planned, I have spent the past week hacking out around the property at a walk, slowly and gradually introducing different footing and little hills now that Gogo's legs are strong enough to do so. To add a little flavor to the mix, I've ridden every single day bareback. Her first time out of the arena... and I'm going bareback? And... I'm not using Ace anymore?

You heard right!

What is this world coming to??

I am actually not surprised by this fact at all, but all it seems my little princess needed in order to keep four on the floor was to do something different besides ride round and round in an arena every day. Gogo is not, nor has she ever been, an indoor horse. Every year around March or so, after two or three months of indoor riding, Gogo boycotts the whole idea and pitches royal fits until we go to ride outside again. This seems to now have transferred to the outdoor too, for the time being. I think she's honestly just sick and tired of the same old boring rehab routine, and I really can't say that I blame her. I am too! I have to say though, Gogo is the only horse I've ever met that does NOT enjoy a set routine. She is better and more relaxed at shows when everything is new and fresh, gets surly if we do the same thing too many days in a row, and goes like ears-pricked gangbusters the moment I shake up her routine a little bit. I guess she is just weird.

We were both a little weary after months of rehab work. Now that we've been cleared to start gradually returning to regular work, it's time for a little fun. The plan was to start riding around the farm property a little bit every day this week, introducing different footings in five-minute increments every day. Monday was 10 minutes, Tuesday 15, Wednesday 20, etc, all the way to Saturday which is supposed to be 35. This is all at the walk, and for added fun, all bareback. For all I've needed to Ace her every ride for the last three months, I knew that once we left the arena, she'd be fine, even without tack. And I wasn't dissapointed. Gogo's has her attitude cranked up to 11, and not only has she been nonstop bright-eyed and cheerful all day long in her stall, she's also had a horrible snotty attitude in the grooming stall, demanding my attention non-stop and lording over her space like it is her kingdom. One moment, she is doe-eyed for my boss' 6 year-old boy who loves to pet her and brush her, standing perfectly still with her head low for him to kiss her nose. The next, she is lunging at passing horses while standing in the crossties, puffing herself out in all directions as if to say, "back OFF, this is MY grooming stall and MY pampering time!" She won't do this if I am standing there with her, but god forbid if I have moved away to momentarily attend to something else. Then she is dancing, snarling at the other horses, and swatting a front foot at the errant barn cat who mistakenly wandered too close. She normally loves cats, but yes, she did in fact pitch a right fit when I went from brushing her to bending over to pet the barn cat for a moment. Suddenly, I saw flying front hooves as she barged forward, ears pinned and steam shooting out her ears. My god! Take it easy your Highness! I will return to dote on you momentarily! (This is why we work on manners so very often. I have a feeling if I let her get away with things, it might turn ugly pretty quickly.)

I've written about it plenty of times before - we know she gets a wicked big ego and a 'tude when she's feeling great, so secretly I love it. When she's sweet and loving, something is wrong. When you can practically taste her hugely inflated self-opinion when you walk in the barn, all is right in the world.

Hacking out bareback has been the ridiculously fun part. It's not all been games and fun this week though. Bettina showed up early for a different lesson on Monday, and came to seek me out, saying, "I thought you might like to work on your mare some more, so I came early!" No freaking way. I need to go buy her a nice bottle of wine! She showed me a few more exercises, namely using both reins to move Gogo in a square. At the end of the square when I go to turn her, she is to do something akin to a turn on the forehand, rotating her hindquarters out to the new edge of the square. This is very difficult to do... I am having a hard time figuring out how to hold both reins and the whip so as not to confuse her! The lesson went well, and we continued to work on moving her laterally back and forth, stretching down and sideways at the same time. I still left the lesson feeling a little confused, as there is so much to absorb and my brain just doesn't work that fact. I want to strengthen and supple her on the ground as much as I safely can, so as per Bettina's instruction, I decided in addition to my bareback hacking, I would add in-hand work before riding every other day.

WELL. Wednesday wasn't really our day for in-hand stuff, even though I did my best. I really just think we're both still a little too green at this to do anything more complicated than the simplest of exercises that Bettina showed me, because Gogo pitched a right fit and bucked when I rapped her a little too hard with my whip on her haunches. I never see Bettina's horses confused, and I never see her get after them aggressively, and here I was both simultaneously confusing my horse and accidentally using my whip too much, which I am sure she percieved as an aggressive move on my part. I went back and did the most basic of lateral movements, which she is understanding well (and I am also understanding well), then did a little more regular groundwork with her on top of it. This seemed to put her head back in a good place, and I went ahead and hopped on bareback afterwards for our hack. Interestingly enough, when walking up tiny hills, her back rounded up so amazingly that it felt like I was literally sitting on top of a barrel. Her spine dissapeared underneath all that muscle! I've never felt that with her bareback before, ever. Perhaps related to the groundwork? Maybe! The next day when I hacked without the groundwork, it felt similar while going up the same tiny hill but not quite as startlingly amazing. Yesterday, when I went back to do more in-hand work, I made a serious effort to make sure I was as clear as possible, and we were both thankfully much better. There is so much to be learned - I clearly need more work with Bettina! And once again, I felt her back really LIFT and carry me up little inclines, and down them as well. She marched around the farm like there was no tomorrow, feeling very confident after actually making sense of the in-hand work we did.



We also tackled the little bridge for the first time yesterday. She didn't want to go near it at first, but when I got off and led her over it, she followed right away the first time. When I hopped back on, she proceeded to walk confidfently back and forth over it twice, as if to say, "psh, I knew it wasn't a bit deal."






It's been such a fun week. And on top of all of that, her legs are ice cold and beautiful every morning, even without wraps. That's what I like to see!

What's the hurry?

You know, I woke up this morning and found myself thinking about all my specific daily plans for my horse, and how all of a sudden it just seems like a LOT to be doing every day at this point. 15 minutes of canter gets easier every day, but lord have mercy, it's still 15 MINUTES OF NONSTOP CANTER for god's sake. No mere mortal is capable of this. (I mean, we all know Gogo has some Pegasus blood in her, but still.) The prospect of 20 entire minutes of canter loomed over me in the form of next week's forecast, and I found myself thinking, now really... what is my big hurry?

On Tuesday, Gogo felt fabulous. Her tendency to be stiff as a board left and Gumby horse to the right seemed far less dramatic, and I actually got some outstanding moments out of her. We did our scheduled 10 minutes of canter, and I even took exactly 2.5 minutes of my warmup time to hack her once around the barn before we began our work - success! First, um, 'hack,' kinda! I mean, not officially... but everyone had to start somewhere. Yesterday, however, while she felt just as sound as ever, her general inability to produce a consistent left bend without some serious dressage work had returned, and she gave me some crabby head-tossing whenever I took a little too much on the left rein and did not add enough supporting left leg. To me, that screams "I am TIRED! This work is HARD!" The last thing I want at this point is a tired horse, because tired horses have tired muscles, and tired muscles dump their share of support onto tendons and ligaments. Fatigue is a huge cause of athletic injury, or reinjury in this case, and I am not about to take that chance. She's been using her good dressage muscles quite a lot over the past few months, and while this had given her a significant muscle boost (yes, even the Ewe-Necked Wonder can have something resembling muscling over her topline!), now that we are cantering she is using her muscles twice as hard. 15 minutes of canter made her feel like she had jelly-legs by the end of it all, and she was clearly a little tired.

Today, I considered giving her the day off, but thought long and hard about it after seeing just how bright and perky she was (and how nice the legs looked), and decided to come up with a new plan for the day - ride in jump tack, and do everything on the buckle so long as she is quiet and balanced. She completely surprised me by being totally relaxed and lazy about the whole ordeal, bebopping along in the trot with her ears pricked and her head low, despite the fact that it took some encouragement to get her to go at a speed somewhere beyond western pleasure jog. Despite all her freshness, when she's under zero pressure she really is quite lazy! We had a total blast during our canterwork, Gogo loping along completely on the buckle, stretching down to find the contact (she stretches in the canter?? That is new!!), me chit-chatting with the other boarders riding while we loped around and around the ring. Nose practically in the dirt as we were finishing our final trotwork, Gogo felt sort of like she had legs of lead, but she was clearly pleased with herself even if she was still tired. We even hacked a little outside of the arena again once we were cooling out, and I wished I had brought my camera... it was so gorgeous out. Obligatory day off for Gogo tomorrow, though. She needs it.

At this point, the level of work we are doing is clearly a lot. When we were just trotting, so long as the legs were good it was easy to get on 6 days a week and keep pushing just a little bit more every day. Now that we are cantering and the rehab as far as technical tendon structure is essentially complete, I find myself going wow... what is the point of cantering for 15 minutes around the rail of an arena? All I want to do this fall is just be able to trail ride. That's it! No shows, no AHHA approvals, no nothing. Just trail ride! And maybe hilltop if she's ready. And maybe hack on the beach. But that all sort of falls under the same broad umbrella category of 'trail ride.' That's all I want to do! In reality, wearing her out in an arena is a very silly thing to do. I know she can stay sound under this large workload, and that's great! But now it's time to make a change in the routine.

What I want to do is this: give her tomorrow off, work in hand in the clinic on Saturday, give her Sunday off. Next week.... little tiny hacks outside the arena all week, just at the walk. That's it! No trot, no canter. Just letting her to relax and enjoy herself outside of the ring, even if it's just for 15 or 20 minutes a day. That will bring us to September, and to a new schedule. It is time to very carefully start splitting up our weekly workload instead of just do rehab/therapy w/t/c work in an arena 6 days a week. I am hoping to do one day of just in-hand work (instead of our typical going-into-winter lunge session once a week), one day of exclusive hacking out at the walk (maybe adding trot somewhere?), one day of 'jumping' (trotting over poles, cantering over poles, eventually starting to actually jump again!), and two or three days of light dressage. It will all be baby stuff at firs, but this way her muscles will have a chance to do varied activity and have some active/passive recovery time, and we will both not be bored out of our skulls as we enter the fall season. Who is excited for September? I am!

And I can't wait to do THIS again:


((Remember, always wear your HELMET!!!!))

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!!

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.

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.)

A Good Karma EXPLOSION!

Today was one big giant WIN! It was as if karma went, well all right, you've done alllllll the things you needed to do to get yourselves back on track, here's all your good luck back now!


First, I want to know who exactly swapped Gogo out for a Ferrari overnight? I did expect her to feel better after her hock injections, but WOW, it's a WORLD of difference. It was noticeable from the get go - she was standing way more comfortably in the aisle while I was grooming and tacking, hardly resting that right hind (or the left) at all... she just stood there, four square, looking cheerful. She hasn't done that since she was 5 or 6. I got on her with the plan to lightly hack, but at the same time test the machinery and see exactly what we had. Right away, she marched off with a purpose, and we headed out to the orchard. After a nice walk, I picked up a trot, and WHOA! I didn't even realize how much she's been pulling herself along with her forehand as opposed to really pushing with her hindend, and today, she was PUSHING. It felt fabulous. I asked her to canter, and she sprang lightly into it, no moments of inversion or hesitations. She moved and turned with the slightest move on my part. She accelerated and decelerated smoothly. I moved to the driveway, most curious about that part - she has always felt different when posting on the left diagonal versus the right while traveling in a straight line on pavement, not lame per se, but different from when you post on the right diagonal. Now? Uniform, straight, and comfortable. I kept hacking up through the neighborhood, and asked her for a final test: walking down a hill. One of the things that led me to believe she did need her hocks done was her increasing aversion to traveling down hills. She was starting to shuffle, insist that we switchback instead of go straight, and slow dramatically. Today? She marched down that hill at top walking speed, in a perfectly straight line, marching with utmost comfort and confidence in herself. Wow.
So it is very clear to me that I did do the right thing. I can't remember her ever feeling this good. She must have as a 5 year old, but wow. Seriously. She was all hot and looky today, probably because she had just had three days off and magic juice squirted into her hocks, and she also spent a good part of her day trying to push the envelope with me. When Gogo isn't feeling her best, she easily relinquishes her alpha role to me and lets me run the show without her input. When she is feeling good, however, she starts trying to reassert herself in little ways, like taking a step forward into my space after I've asked her on no uncertain terms to cease movement, or moving away from her non-negotiable spot at my shoulder while I'm leading her. She wants to run the show, and she would take over in an instant if I let her. Not in a mean way, certainly, but she is the alpha mare, after all. So I have to keep on my toes with her and make sure she minds her manners. I do enjoy when she gets punky like this though, because it DOES mean she is feeling really good.

Second, USEA put out their summer edition of the Eventing 2.0 online magazine today. All thanks to Daun, Leslie contacted me about a month ago and asked if I would write for USEA's blog, which I was very excited to do. However, when I sent in my first blog piece, they liked it to much that they decided to make a whole article about us in Eventing 2.0! If you flip through the online magazine to page 28, you'll see our article and get to read a bit more about Gogo's history. I've already had a flood of e-mails about it. They even went so far as to add in additional pictures of her and I at last year's AEC that I didn't even know existed! The article looks fabulous - the bolded captions are even in baby blue! The only thing I would like to add to it was the final line of the original piece, which was removed from final copy of the article: "And nobody can stop us, any of us, if we really believe in ourselves." Add that on mentally ;) THANK YOU Leslie, and THANK YOU Daun, because I would never have made the contact if you hadn't suggested me to her. Awesome!!

Third, my awards all came in the mail today! I earned a Rider Achievement Award at the Novice level, and qualified myself for the Medallion Club level of this due to having placed in the top 5 placings at three horse trials this calendar year. Gogo and I also each earned a Gold Medal at the Novice level in the new Medal Program, due to having finished three times with a score below 35 at Novice. You can read more about the Medal Program here.





Sweet!!

Fourth, look what else came in the mail today! My custom helmet cover! It's black with light blue stars, although it's hard to tell in this picture. I got this (and Gogo's BoT hock wraps) using a gift certificate from Bit of Britain that I won last year at the AECs. Can I even say how much I LOVE Bit of Britain? I had to use the paper order form you find in the catalogue so I could send in my gift certificate, and I couldn't have sent that out more than two weeks ago. My BoT wraps? On my horse in about three days. My custom helmet cover that I doubted would even get here before the AEC? THE fastest turnaround time ever, here in about two or possibly two and a half weeks at most. I expected at least four to six, minus shipping time. You go, Bit of Britain! Eventers all over the nation LOVE YOU, and THANK YOU for sponsoring the AECs this year!



And fifth, and most exciting of all, my entry for the AEC went out today. YES. I had been stalling on this just because I wanted to make sure she was feeling back in tip top form before I sent off all that money, but everything has just seemed to fall into place so beautifully this past week. It was time. Our official countdown to Huntington Farm is 5 days, and our official countdown to the AECs is 23 days. Guys, that is a little over three weeks away. THREE WEEKS. I AM SO EXCITED YOU HAVE NO IDEA.



Tomorrow, we start back with our dressage, and will be dressage-ing through Thursday. Friday, I will hopefully have another XC lesson with Ann to really see where she is now that she's feeling so much better. And then on Saturday, we leave for Huntington Farm in Vermont, and show on Sunday. I can't help but feel positive and excited about this show. I just feel like it's going to go well.

Life is good.




Gogo and I schooling XC last year at Bath Pony Club, looking like happy clams.