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!

Completely weird.

I had a completely weird experience today, which I am not happy about. I swapped my regular Wednesday off so I could have this Saturday off instead, in preparation for the Area I Annual Meeting. For whatever reason, I woke up in a funk. I've been sick for almost two weeks now, with no sign of improving, and I struggle with wintertime anyway, so I wasn't surprised. I battled my way through the miserable arctic weather while cleaning stalls this morning, went back and forth about whether or not I really wanted to go to the meeting, decided not to go, then decided at the last second that I really DID want to go. I went all the way up there, found the place after getting repeatedly lost (Springfield is a GPS black hole), got to the meeting, and was suddenly overwhelmed with the prospect of my total alone-ness. People all around me were calling out to each other, embracing, talking animatedly to people they hadn't seen in a long time, and all sitting down together in their little groups at round tables. I wandered around, looking for a friendly face, anyone I knew. Nope, nobody. Not a single person. I felt very much like I was walking in on somebody's family holiday party, a total stranger amongst a huge group of friends. It was weird, and uncomfortable, though it was certainly no one's direct doing. Those of you who have met me know that I don't even know what being socially awkward means for the most part. I'm that weird person that just walks up to total strangers and introduces myself and makes new friends, it's just what I do. I've always been that way, I don't really get why people have trouble making friends or starting conversations because I never do. But for some reason, today I felt like I was interrupting. There were so many people seeing others that they hadn't seen in so long, and I just... wasn't a part of that. I felt weird, like I shouldn't be there. So... I left.

In retrospect, I'm really not sure what came over me. I've been feeling really weird about my ex-fiancee and missing her quite a lot, and I think that had a large part to do with it. She always came with me to things like this, and without her around it's been like a giant black hole when it comes to things like shows and banquets and travel and whatnot. I also felt kind of dirty, like I don't deserve the Year-End awards I'm supposed to be getting. I mean, my last act of the season was to break my horse, why should I get recognized for that? That's clearly not the actual case, but I feel odd about accepting awards in front of people when I clearly don't deserve them.

Have you ever felt weird about stuff like that? I've never in my life had that kind of an experience. Maybe I'm just having an off day.





But, in other news, I am happy to report that Gogo went on her first "hack"! It wasn't much, just a little wander around the barn on flat ground for about 10 minutes, but it was outside and it was very enjoyable. She was very quiet and happy to be out, and we even went over and looked at the little XC jumps that we have on the property:



I'm hoping to integrate a little "hack" into our daily workweek. I think it'll be very good for her brain to get out and just meander a little bit. Once she starts trotting for 15 minutes (this coming Thursday), we can start to add incline work on the treadmill, so I also hope with the vet's blessing to start walking up tiny little hills again sometime soon.



I dunno what's gotten into me today. But little hacks and things like that seem a lot more important to me nowadays than awards.

Back from OH!

The title of this post is a little misleading, actually. I've technically been back from OH since late Saturday night, but I've just been too busy and exhausted to possibly contemplate a post. I'll go over the past few days...

Thursday-Saturday: Gogo had this time off as a mini-vacation. She's not actually had a real break since..... well, it's been a very long time. She's not had more than a few days off at a time since probably last January, simply because she just goes INSANE after having time off. Which leads to...

Sunday: I figured it was a very good idea to just lunge in the chambon today instead of getting on, and I was right. I could tell she was on edge and ready to jump out of her skin when I walked into the arena, so I told the other boarder who was riding that she might want to stay down at the other end of the ring for a little while! I walked/trotted her for a few minutes without the chambon, then went to hook it up, and of course, immediate explosion the second she walked off. Or rather, she walked off, and then broke into a trot, and then hit the chambon and lost it. She backpedaled, completely sat down and almost flipped over backwards, then managed to somehow right herself and went galloping off, head in the air and mouth agape at the chambon which was now probably digging into her chest and mouth, poor thing. A few more similarly unnecessary explosions later, she finally settled down, and was fairly good. I wasn't expecting any miracles, given her mild insanity!

Monday: Hack day! Sad to say, this was not the nice relaxing conditioning hack I was hoping it would be. Still fired up from her time off, Gogo was hot and spooky, going so far as to even go leaping across the road when a different colored piece of curb came into view - VERY scary. So I finally had to take up a tighter contact (we had been on a nice loose rein, but apparently that was not the good idea that it usually is) and do the rest of our walking and trotting as real connected work instead of just long rein hack work. Bummer. She was cheerful as all hell back in the barn though, so maybe it did her brain some good.

Tuesday: Today, I was inspired to go outside and ride in the outdoor - the first time I've done that since I've been here. There were still some huge puddles, but those weren't a problem. Our outdoor is in a raised area (so why are there puddles...?), so that two whole sides of it are flanked by hills that fall sharply away, and it is not fenced in, so you kinda need to be careful with volatile bouncy tigger mares like mine, lol. She started off all right, a little kinked in her neck and back right in front of the saddle like she does when she's avoiding work, but she started to develop some swing through her back and all was looking up. And then she did something I don't think she's really ever done before... she grabbed the bit and started leaping and plunging and rearing on purpose, just to be naughty. Not because she didn't understand, not because she was frustrated. She was doing it just to be a wenchy punk. Bad mare!! She wasn't anxious or worried or concerned, she was just... being bad. A few thumps in the ribs got her going forward again after her little balky nonsense, and she then settled in for the rest of a very nice ride. She was still a bit on the forehand by the end of the ride - we never achieved the sort of lightness and freedom in her shoulders that I've been getting as of late - but I figured I wasn't about to push the issue since she was giving me such a nice workout anyway. Not to mention the fact that tons of birds were flying, wind was blowing, Amos was galloping around the field with his tail over his back, cars were zooming in and out, etc. She was focused the whole time, even if she was being kind of a dweeb during the first 20 or so minutes. The remaining hour? Pretty damn good!


Something interesting is happening to my horse - she is shedding out in a very odd way! Check it out - she's growing in what looks to be either more winter coat or perhaps the beginnings of a summer coat (notice how dark she is now, compared to when I first clipped her) and she's shedding.... only around her eyes. She's got raccoon eyes!!

That's her 'stop taking my picture' face. Ignore the sweat marks... this is post-workout. Her neck actually looks kinda.... fat here.


And also, we got the rest of our year-end awards in!!!! These are from Area VIII (for eventing); Gogo was the 5th place BN Horse for 2008, and I was the 4th place Adult BN Rider for 2008, and was Reserve Champion BN Adult Ammy BN Rider for 2008. Awesome!




One final thing: remember my post about Riding the Shod (and Previously Foundered) Horse? I've been riding Rowena (Rena for short) a lot lately, so I thought I would get a picture of her crippled self and her completely terrifying feet up here. She's an upper level schoolmaster - specifically to what level I'm not sure, but I know she was very successful to at least 4th level competition-wise and has her passage and piaffe. She's also totally crippled and I feel kind of like I might break her if I play around with some of the things she knows beyond little bits of lateral work.

Rena...


... and her FEET. Twenty minutes after getting shod. SERIOUSLY.

Wow.



It's been gorgeous here....







Gogo says, you wish you were here too.

She's not emaciated, come on!

Everyone is going to drive me nuts talking about how skinny my horse is. SHE IS NOT TOO SKINNY! There is NOTHING about her that says "skinny" to me right now. Hell, I won't even give her "thin." I'd say she's a 5.5 approaching a 6 on the BCS scale, and I DON'T want her fatter than that!

PEOPLE. FAT HORSES ARE NOT HEALTHY HORSES. Why do so many people equate a wobbling tub of lard on four legs to an athlete? A big, fat horse is going to have a hard time dragging its big, fat self across the diagonal doing tempi changes, and at the end of them it might very well break and be crippled from carrying all that extra weight around.

Yesterday, Gogo was clipped and had a bath (because it was *almost* warm enough to do that... and I'm cruel), and today I took a few conformation pics of her. Now tell me, dear readers, is this an emaciated, starving animal or is this a perfectly healthy, musclar athlete?





Yeah. That's what I thought.
By the way, do I do a DAMN good clip job or what? I made hundreds of dollars last year clipping horses... and then my clippers exploded and I haven't been able to fix them. I used a borrowed pair this time. And just look at how fuzzy her ears are, I love it!


Well at least yesterday Gogo was wonderful under saddle. Vicki had attempted to see what would happen if we raised her bit a hole on her bridle, and Gogo seemed to just be holding all her tension in her mouth for the first half-hour or so of the lesson. I asked Vicki to lower it a hole, and instantly I had a soft, supple, and relaxed horse. Weird how it works that way. We worked on a few nice shoulder-ins, some steeper leg yields, transitions, some canterwork, and near the end, lengthenings. Her lengthenings are getting HUGE.. so huge in fact that Vicki has taken to calling them mediums instead of lengthenings. She also went so far as to call my trot immediately following my lengthenings collected. YAY COLLECTION. The transitions between the two are becoming crisper and more defined, and the trot following the mediums ALWAYS is improved from whatever it was before. We tried something to, a whisper of shoulder-fore going into the mediums, maintaining it through the mediums, and maintaining it through the downward transition, and it really helped, both ways. Vicki said that was the most up she'd seen her in her shoulders to date. Yes!
The interesting thing about Gogo's lengthenings is that when they are done at the right time, meaning when she is totally relaxed, they ALWAYS refresh her and improve her trot and canter, and everything about her becomes freer and fresher. When done at the WRONG time (when she has tension), it causes her to invert, rush, and blow past my half-halts, creating more tension and the desire to rush. So I have to be careful... or else everything falls apart. Just one more reminder that especially with Gogo, everything fails without relaxation.


Today the saddle fitter came, and she took a look at my Prestige. I have a Prestige 2000d which I bought when I first got Gogo. I was lucky enough to find a used one at Rick's Heritage Saddlery (BEST TACK STORE EVER for used saddles, they have HUNDREDS!)for only $900, and it was in AMAZING condition. I was also lucky enough to be living close enough to Rick's to be able to do that! It fit her amazingly when I first got her, mostly because she was morbidly obese, and it still fits well now but not *quite* as. Colleen (the fitter) checked it all out and said it was a hair wide, but that because I use a Supracor pad with it that it shouldn't be a problem. Vicki had originally wanted me to have the saddle looked at because the back of it seemed to be bouncing a little, but Colleen told me some very interesting things about Italian saddles versus German and English made saddles. Prestiges are designed by a man who sees the back of a horse like a clotheline with two pillars of support at each end - if you put something in the middle of the clothesline, it sags, but if you put it closer to a pillar of support, it holds it up much better. Therefore, Prestiges are designed to have more weight distribution over the front end of the saddle. German and English saddles are designed to have even weight distribution throughout the entire panel. She told me that we don't actually know which is the more correct fit, and that every horse is so different anyway that it's more imporant to focus on individual fit as opposed to sticking to a certain school of thought. The back panels of Prestiges are also rounded as opposed to gusseted, which does cause for a little rocking and rolling sometimes - a fact which apparently is not cause for concern. It doesn't seem to bother Gogo any, so there you are I guess. She also found a knot of wool in one of the panels that she went in and pulled out, and found that my used saddle had been reflocked no less than three times, with three different kinds of wool - a huge no-no in the saddle fitting world! My panels thankfully are all still flat and smooth, so it doesn't seem to be causing any problems, but I will keep my eyes out for further issues. The best part - she refused to be paid. "You're a working student," she told me. "I didn't do enough to get paid!"

I also asked her about jumping saddles, and how I had narrowed my choices down to a County or another Prestige. For those of you who don't know, which I assume is all of you, I was promised a new jumping saddle from my parents for my graduation last May. Guess what... no new saddle yet! I think if I pester my mother a little more she'll remember this gift and maybe I can actually get a jump on this. I currently have an ANCIENT County that outdates me by at LEAST 10 or 15 years, and just doesn't fit Gogo all that well. I got it for $600 when I was 17, and I bought it because it was black and I liked black tack, no joke. Colleen told me that she has yet to see a County model that really works with a horse like Gogo who has higher withers, so that solidifies it - we're going with a Prestige Eventing model, in black of course! Problem is finding a used saddle that fits her, fits me, AND comes in black. Can it be done? Well, I got my $3000 other Prestige for $900, so....


One final thing before bedtime - my USEA year end awards arrived today!




I'm ranked as the 4th place 2008 Adult Beginner Novice Rider and the 4th place 2008 Adult Amateur Beginner Novice rider in the entire nation. That's pretty freaking sweet, especially considering I only got points at four shows and still managed it. The people who were in first and second did like, 15 shows, not even kidding you.
I also have awards from Area 8 which will be on their way in February probably. SO AWESOME.


Tomorrow we have Pony Club kids coming in for a clinic ALLLLLLL DAY... so I won't get to jump until like 5pm. Or I have to do it at 6am... which is just not gonna happen with stalls and turnouts and feeding to do as well, all before 8:00am. Ugh... now I need sleep.

Christmas A Go-Go

Well, Gogo and I have survived our first Christmas alone (and working). It wasn't all bad... it was bright and sunny (and warm), but we had enough snow on the ground from the two storms before to still have a white Christmas. I was lonely, to be sure, but having her here took the sting out of having to work all day by myself. Here's a few pictures of our little Christmas together:

Taking an evening stroll:

Mmmmmm Christmas dinner... (They get their dinners mixed in these little blue buckets, and I didn't realize how much caked on supplement scum is in my bucket until the flash went off... ewww!):

The contents of Gogo's stocking!:

Enjoying her Christmas mash (grain, hot water, candy canes, carrots, apples, mmm!):



Aaaaah, the holidays. It feels SO strange to think that they have already come and gone, and without nearly as much hype as I wanted (and tried) to give them. I LOVE the holiday season, and I really hate to see it over with. On the other hand, I've been feeling a bit depressed every time I hear songs about how there's no place like home for the holidays, and that the holidays are for being with friends and loved ones. This year, I just don't get to have that.

Oh well. There's no point in crying over spilled milk. The holidays for me don't end until January 1, so I get to enjoy this last little bit of Christmas-ness until then, I suppose. I still haven't sent out a few packages (oops!!!!), but I haven't gotten all my packages yet either, so there is more yet to enjoy. I made out with the presents this year too.... Gogo got a new full-body Sleazy (someone stole my last one and the other one she Incredible Hulked right out of one night) and some Pony Pops, Ti got a lot of cookies and chewies, Greta got a bunch of toys, and I got a lot of money ($850 total from my parents, grandparents, and the people at the barn), a GPS for my car (sweet as!!!!), a new digital camera (because I keep breaking mine), some clothing (and more furry boots), WALL-E on DVD, and a bunch of other, smaller gifts. That money is all going towards show fees next summer, I can tell you that right now!! I was doing finances tonight, and figuring out what I need to earn and put away for show fees next year. Exciting!

I also thought, since it is the end of the year after all, that I would put together my yearly goals for Gogo, and go over the goals I set for us this past year.


2008 Goals:

1) Qualify for and attend the American Eventing Championships, and top 10 in my division
Successful! Gogo and I qualified very easily this year for the AECs. For BN, you need to get 1st-5th at two recognized events. We were 3rd at our first event (in 1st place after dressage, but we had a rail, d'oh! This was before starting the Adequan and Cosequin, which made quite a difference), and 1st at our second event (where we got a 22.6 in dressage, and had another rail in stadium to finish still in 1st with a 26.6, d'oh again!) We were entered in the BN-H division, and finished 6th on our dressage score of 33.0. We WOULD have finished 2nd, or possibly 1st, had we not gotten a 2 on one movement... one more time, D'OH!

2) Break 70%
Successful! Well, technically. I never actually specified whether or not I meant in a dressage show or at an event. I got several scores of 69% in regular dressage scores, but never broke 70%, BUT at events I got a 22.6 and a 28.5 (and a 26.0 at a combined test), which TECHNICALLY means I broke the 70% mark!

3) Show 1st level
Successful! I only took her out at two dressage shows this year, mostly due to finances. One was in March, her first time at 1st level (tests 1 and 2), and she scored a 69.7% at First 1, and was Reserve Champion, her first time out! She also got a 66.3% for First 2. The second show was way less successful... the judge was VERY low scoring and she was in SCARY heat, which led to some... moments. And some throwing herself and her head around. And some more scores of 2 and 3. Hmmmm.... well, she's solidly 1st level now, I can at least say that! I've still never shown her at First 4 though...



So what are my goals for this coming year?

2009 Goals:
1) Qualify for and attend the AECs at Novice – place top 10
2) Break 70% (at First Level or Novice/Training)
3) Show First Level 1-4
4) Hopefully show Second Level 1-2 (not an official goal, due to money constraints)
5) Show Training Level eventing


The other thing I want to do is create monthly goals... things I want to have accomplished within a particular month. I think that will give me some short term, very strong focus, and I like that. I'll have to really think about January's goals.... and I'll get back to you on what they are!


Vicki was talking about seeing if we can hook me up with a sponsor for 2009. THAT WOULD BE SWEET. If I come up with anything, I'll let you know, or if YOU come up with anything, you let ME know! I wish I could hook up with a hoof boot company, but a) I don't use hoof boots, b) I doubt I will need to use hoof boots anytime soon, and c) what hoof boot company would bother sponsoring some kid showing Novice/Training? I mean, in 2010 it's onto Prelim (if all goes well) which is actually a big deal for a barefoot event horse, but I'm sure there are plenty of horses showing at Novice barefoot. Maybe not Training, but we'll see. The idea is to qualify for the AECs at Novice this year, and then move onto Training after we get our qualifying scores, so we'll see.

One last thing of interest... we made the Leaderboard, both nationally and in Area 8! On the USEA Leaderboard for BN, I am ranked as the 4th Adult Rider and the 4th Adult Amateur rider, and on the Area 8 Leaderboard, I am ranked as the 4th overall Rider, the 2nd Adult Amateur Rider, and Gogo is tied for 5th for BN Horse. YAY!

Hurry up, 2009! I want to be done with 2008!