Let's Talk Hocks

First off - still no word from Groton House yet. The suspense is killing me!! But in other good news, both my checks for Riga Meadow and for Area Championships were cashed today, so that means I got into both of them. Yes!


Now, here's the topic I worry about ALL THE TIME but still don't have any solid conclusions about, so advice and comments are all appreciated. As you may or may not know, last year in the early summer, Gogo started doing little things like chipping fences and taking rails in competition. She was never really lame per se, but there was something weird going on. Something wasn't right. I took her to the Equine Specialty Hospital in OH, and via flexions, blocks, and radiographs, we isolated the problem to her right hock (flexed 1 out of 5 on the lameness scale, so it wasn't bad!). I had one of two options, the first being hock injections, and the second being very proactive and less invasive maintenance. I opted for the second choice, seeing as she had only just turned 7, she was only showing BN, she wasn't really lame, and there were a lot of options to keep her comfortably going. I am anti-injection when I can be. So, we started her on Adequan and Cosequin, and the chipping and dropped rails disappeared. Her dressage work improved, and her overall condition and comfort level went way up.

Fast forward to now. She's in much harder work, and I worry about her comfort level. She's still on the Adequan, and we've switched to the Cosequin ASU, which is a good product even though it's damn expensive. When I put her on the lunge the other day, she looked outstanding. She's jumping really well, hacking really well, and doing dressage work really well. But there are little, subtle things that worry me. Today, her first day back to dressage work after the chiro adjustment on Tuesday, was similar to the last time she got adjusted in that she needed to figure her readjusted body out a little bit. She was very good, up until I did a few canter lengthenings on the left lead. She seemed a bit hot to trot after that, and I did a simple change across the diagonal onto the right lead. And, well, we kind of blew up a little. She didn't go crazy really, she just sort of did the head in my lap thing, and stopped steering for a few. We eventually got a few decent strides and then went right back to trot, but it was interesting that it was on the right lead, her generally weaker side (and mine too). When she was adjusted, through the applied kinesiology Dr. Amery found no hock soreness (he can tell where the horse hurts through certain points in the body, and it seems to be spot on as far as I can tell), but he need to make adjustments to her left SI as opposed to her right - compensating for the right hind? Who knows. The other thing she was doing today, very consistently, was when we would go to halt, she'd leave her right hind behind her, which isn't abnormal, but whenever I'd ask her to move that leg forward in the halt, she's comply, but she'd just rest it instead of bearing weight on it. Unusual. But then again, the most sore spot he found on her was beneath where the cantle sits on her right side, so maybe she was still sore from having that adjusted? Or here's one more option - I tend to sit crookedly to the right, and I'm very much so in pain and in need of an adjustment myself, so maybe it was me causing the crookedness? I don't know. Also though, when she was in the crossties, 90% of the time she was resting the right hind. She tends to rest both hinds a lot when standing around, but is that relaxation, or is that discomfort?

She's not lame. She's jumping really well. She's progressing fast in her dressage work. But I still worry. I want to delay hock injections for as long as humanly possible, just because a) I hate being so invasive b) anytime anything goes into a joint there's risk of infection and DEATH and c) long-term use of steroids can lead to cartilage degradation. There's a very good article here on joint injections and joints themselves, and there are bits of information on there like this:

"The lower motion joints of the hock are unique in that they are a major origin of subclinical performance issues (commonly sore back syndromes and poor movement and push from behind), yet are not essential for movement of the hock. For this reason they can be viewed in a radically different manner than other joints within the horse. In fact, if these joints were to magically be removed from your horse, they would maintain their full athletic scope and ability without the downside of persistent, low grade discomfort which often accompanies arthritic change.
For this reason, long term comfort of the horse and relief from the arthritis is the primary goal of lower hock joint treatment, NOT continued motion and flexibility of these low motion areas. This is a very important concept to grasp as joint comfort and treatment for joint function are not necessarily the same. Granted, high motion joint treatments such as Adequan, Legend (intravenous hyaluronic acid), intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA) and low dose, short acting steroids do play some role in creating comfort. However, all of these drugs are aimed primarily at restoration of a more “normal” joint environment. The primary goal being preservation and regeneration of healthy cartilage. In lower hock joints we often take a different approach. As these joints are not necessary from athletic performance, their more reliable comfort becomes the primary goal somewhat at the expense of the cartilage involved. For this purpose, long acting steroids (the most potent anti-inflammatory available) are used."

Now, from this you can derive a few things. The lower hock joints are not important in a horse's mobility directly. Horses with fused lower hock joints perform effortless and, more importantly, pain-free. BUT, the road to a joint actually fusing is a painful and long one. So, the primary concern of a joint like this isn't to maintain mobility, but to maintain comfort and minimize inflammation. By injecting the joint with powerful steroids, you can dramatically reduce inflammation and drastically increase the horse's comfort, BUT you also take the risk that the cartilage will sustain gradual and permanent damage. Osteoarthritis doesn't heal. It doesn't go away. It's there for life, and it can only get worse over time, which is why the diagnosis was horribly depressing. There's no reason Gogo won't be able to go on and lead a rich and fulfilling competitive life, but it needs I need to be careful.

And careful I am. I use bute before and after hard workouts. I wrap, cold-hose, and use liniment and poultice regularly. I maximize turnout time, encourage movement, and provide lengthy warm-ups and cool-downs. She's on Cosequin ASU, and gets regular Adequan (and Pat says I can have some of her Legend too). I rarely jump her over 3' at home, and I rarely jump her more than once every two weeks. I don't lunge her anymore (well, there's a more complicated training issue behind all that but regular lunging also compounds the arthritis issue). I handwalk all the time. So is she still uncomfortable on some days? I don't have an answer for that. I honestly don't know. It could be this, it could be that. She's going so well that I have no reason to suspect hock pain, but when she does things like rest her right hind a lot, I still worry.

Shannon and I brainstormed all afternoon. Joint injections would mean relief if she is feeling discomfort. They might also add to her long-term soundness and performance. But, they also might contribute to her long-term unsoundness. I feel as though they are inevitable, and I'm okay with that - it'll probably have to happen next spring. But for now, we came up with some other ideas - using HPQR gel on that hock, using poultice on that hock, continuing the use of bute before and after a hard workout day, possibly looking into Surpass, adding Legend to our arsenal, and looking into the Back On Track hock wraps. I've heard nothing but totally positive things about their products, and we have a horse here who has the mesh sheet and the leg wraps. It does seem to make a difference. I'd rather try this than traditional magnets, because I dunno how I feel about magnets in all honesty. Back On Track, on the other hand, seems legitimate.

I just want her to be comfortable, happy, and able to perform her job pain-free for as long as possible. I don't know if she's achey, but I sure know that I myself get pretty ouchy on some days. She's not lame (and is moving better than ever really), is jumping great, galloping well, and hacking perfectly. So am I just creating bigger issues than need be? I don't have any idea. But I do want to avoid invasive actions until I feel that what I'm doing isn't helping enough.

Any other ideas? Opinions? Input?



PS - I apparently got some special award from Mystic for being the Area I Adult Rider with the second lowest score. Dunno what it is, but I'll set you know once they send it to me in the mail!

Nervous!!

I just got an e-mail in from the secretary at Groton House saying they have all my stuff (and that the recieved my other check for the correct amount, because the first check I sent in was overpaid by $19... how did I add the fees twice??), and that she's keeping her fingers crossed for us in the draw. Wait, what?? I might not make the draw?? I sent in my entry online at 12:01am on the opening day! Well, apparently what the organizers have to do for such a big show is take all of the entries on opening day (from 12:01am to 11:59pm) and do the draw from that group. That's it. And they're oversubscribed. So there is a very real possibility I won't get in. It's such a special and huge show that everyone and their mother wants in, and I imagine that with Groton House combining their I and II events into one big horse trial, the number of people who don't get in is going to be big.

And then my little heart will break. Or well, be very very very sad anyway.

So keep your fingers crossed for us. Send along all of the blog reader positive energy you can muster, because you never know.



EDIT: I do have good news though; I have a backup plan! So that Gogo and I still get to an event this month if we don't make the Groton House draw, I went back and checked the Omnibus, and good news! The Great Vista H.T. is on June 28th, that same weekend, and is going to continue to accept entries until June 22nd. It's not that expensive ($175 including stabling versus Groton House which is $429 including stabling... that one was a birthday gift from my mother, or else I'd NEVER be able to afford it!!), it's only one day, and it's still points towards the Leaderboard. It's probably a three hour drive, but so is Groton House. So hey, I've got something to fall back on, right?

The Return of the Chiro Man

I am very thankful to report that Gogo's little puffiness in all four legs disappeared with poulticing, and all throughout the day there was no return of it nor was there any heat, so my guess was that it was just hot and stressful, and her little bit of time off was just the fix. Yesterday I wanted to give her a light workout on the soft, rubbery indoor footing, so I revisited this old exercise, but left the vertical as a big X. I figured if she felt at all strange, I wouldn't go beyond a little flatwork, but she felt brilliantly sound, so we progressed with the exercise a few times. You canter in to the big X, and then have four strides to transition back down to a trot, trot over the poles, and then halt. Again, I rode her in the snaffle (second time I've ever jumped her in it as opposed to her Waterford), and she was BRILLIANT in it. She did the exercise VERY well, and was very quiet and responsive to every half-halt and every transition. I worked hard on staying up in a respectable two-point right up to the base of the fence (it's soooo hard...!), and keeping her round throughout the entire workout as well, including right up to the fence. She performed beautifully (and I did all right too!), and we finished our quick 20-minute workout with a hack through the orchard with Harrison and Shannon. I cold hosed both fronts and re-wrapped her that evening, just to be safe.

This morning, her legs were still tight as a drum, and I had a lesson bright and early at 8am (which meant I was up at 4am cleaning stalls... blarg). Right off the bat, she warmed up well. After some walk-trot work, which she was very malleable for, Vicki asked, "Does she do reinback?" Well, in the past, reinback was a source of major fear for Gogo - something about confining her in front after Jeane ruined her brain just scared the daylights out of her, and before she realized she could go backwards away from the pressure, asking for reinback caused her to rear uncontrollably. I'd reintroduced the concept to her with the help of a groundperson, and schooled it VERY occasionally, but haven't pressed the issue. I've been re-re-introducing it over the past few weeks, so I took up Vicki's suggestion to see if we couldn't unlock the area behind the saddle a little more. And what do you know, after the very first reinback, we praised her like crazy, and she visibly perked up and stretched perfectly into the bridle when we walked off again. She just adores being told she's perfect! We did loads of transitions after that within and between all three gaits, and continued to halt, then reinback. We did then without Vicki's help either, and by the time we finished, we were getting clear and light steps of reinback (she tends to want to shuffle backwards in a walk-type footfall sequence instead of with diagonal pairs). The work inbetween asking for bits of reinback was quiet, relaxed, correct, and forward. I called it a day with one final, lovely reinback and a few steps of walk out of it. She was delighted with herself, and she should be!

I also have happy news: the chiropractor came back and readjusted Gogo this afternoon, and I am very happy to say that it was nothing at all like the last time she was adjusted. Three months ago, everything in Gogo's body was majorly out of alignment, and it took some really serious adjusting to try and get it back to where it belonged. I wanted to follow up with another adjustment sooner rather than later given how major the work was last time, so I chose this time to go at a three-month interval; with luck, we'll go six months next time, although I will probably want her adjusted before the AECs. Let me tell you, Dr. Amery is a genious. Not only is he a skilled veterinarian and a skilled chiropractor as well, but he and his wife do a lot of acupuncture and applied kinesiology, which is completely fascinating to me. I've only seen him do it, never anyone else. He, being the wonderful guy that he is, patiently answered the millions of questions I always ask him when he's here, and even let me help do some applied kinesiology while working on her poll. For those of you who haven't heard of it (I hadn't either!), here's a Wikipedia article on it. Applied kinesiology is a sort of controversial alternative medicine form that goes along with chiropractic work; the point is to tap into the horse's energy, which can tell where there are weaknesses in the system. The concept is difficult to explain, but the idea is when there are disruptions in the neurons in a muscle, energy escapes, creating a weak response in the 'testing' the chiropractor performs. In the horse, it requires two people to do this: one person touches the horse and extends an arm, and the other puts their hand on the other's arm and touches the parts of the equine body in question. By both having their hands on the horse, they can create a closed circuit. I tried this with him, and he had me push up strongly with my arm, while he matched me with a downward push. That was a 'strong signal.' When he found a weakness, I found that I really had no ability to push up, and he could press my arm right down with no effort on his part. It was really weird! He then went on to adjust whatever he found was weak. While it sounds a little kooky, I totally buy into the thought that we all have a sustaining energy force in our bodies that we can tap into, and that can get disrupted, so hey, it makes sense to me. The actual adjustment went really, really well, considering how awful it was last time. Given the fact that she's just come out of heat, he found reactivity in the T-L junction (place where the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae meet) on the right side especially, which he expected was secondary due to soreness in the quadatus lumborum (which runs under the spine and connects with the ovaries). He found some reactivity in her left SI, oddly enough - I was sure it would be on the right! - but it responded well to adjustment. He did minor adjustments all the way down (some mid-lower neck, a sore spot on her poll where she banged her head, some mid-lower back), but found nothing seriously major besides some sore ovaries and a little reactivity in her left SI. She was WAY more relaxed this time about it all, and I was totally thrilled with the response she had to the treatment. PHEW. I was terrified there might be something horribly wrong and she's just really stoic!
Another thing he mentioned, when I told him sometimes I have difficulty with left bend, is that she's more upright on that foot, so her body sends differing signals to itself due to the fact that she loads that side of her body differently. There's nothing really that can be done about it except continue to work on improving her balance, and keeping the foot trimmed properly. I'll probably always fight an uphill battle to keep her as symmetrical as possible on both sides, but really, what horse (or rider, for that matter) is ever totally symmetrical? None, that's for sure!

I feel like everything is sort of falling into place before Groton House. I was worried about her hocks - now that I've seen her move and seen how sound she is, I'm not worried anymore. I was worried about her back and maybe there being problems I didn't know about - now that I've had her adjusted and there's nothing major this time, I'm not worried anymore. She's been so outstanding under saddle lately, and equally as cheery and lovey on the ground, and it just makes me feel like she's comfortable, happy, fit, healthy, and ready for a challenge. Knock on wood, but I think we're really ready to play with the Big Boys at Groton House, and have a good chance at doing well.

(Hunter's Run, 2008.)

Being Conservative

Today, Gogo and I were supposed to do gallop sets. "Supposed to" is the key phrase. Gogo, however, had some other ideas. While turned out today, she went galloping all pell-mell around and around the field (because she does not believe in heat, bugs, cold, snow, rain, or anything other than 65 degrees and partly sunny with a light breeze), running herself repeatedly into the fence until I came to rescue her. This is not actually an abornal thing - I think she's done this every single day for the past three or so days, but usually stops after a few laps... and then starts again in a few minutes, but hey, what can I say - but she was particularly sweaty and breathing today. After a cool shower, I parked her in front of the aisle fan to cool down and dry. The day was just so impossibly hot that I felt that riding her during the prime daylight hours was just cruel, and as it worked out, I had to go trailer out and rescue a stranded horse on the highway (one of our boarders had a wheel incident with their trailer while coming back from a show, and I came to save the day), so I decided to for sure wait until it cooled down in the evening to go out and do my gallops.
Well. I pulled Gogo out of her box at around 6pm, and started grooming her, new GPS strapped to my arm and ready to roll. Of course, I get down to currying her legs, and realize that the inside of both fronts are warm and a little puffy. Her hinds were a little filled too. I palpated the crap out of all four legs, and nothing is painful anywhere. I then went to stick her on the lunge to see how she was moving, and of course, she's totally sound, and the swelling went significantly down with a bit of brief exercise. She's done this before, the mystery leg swelling, so I'm not all that worried. Nothing hurts, nothing is blisteringly hot, and there is no lameness, so my impression is that by tomorrow, it'll all be gone. I poulticed and wrapped her, and I imagine by tomorrow morning she'll be right as rain.
In all honesty, while I'm sure she's totally fine, why take a chance? We lose a day of gallops, but she got plenty of galloping done out in the field (well, she did!), and really, why on earth would I take that chance in case she's NOT okay? I believe in being conservative when it comes to health. There is no reason to risk it, and if something like this were to happen before a show, I'd scratch, even though I'm 99.9% sure she's fine and will be totally great tomorrow.

Oh mare.



But I have to say this. Last summer before Gogo was diagnosed with having very mild arthritic issues in her right hock, when you put her on the lunge going to the right, you could see that it just wasn't quite the same as going left - she wasn't lame, she wasn't short striding, she wasn't hiking any hips, but she just wasn't moving quite the same way she did going the other way. I was worried today when I put her on the lunge - how would she move? She's working so hard, what if her joints can't keep up? - but not only did she behave herself perfectly, she looked honest to god sounder than I've EVER seen her. She was striding forward with power, she was smooth and even all the way around, and she just looked amazingly confident, comfortable, and SOUND. It's been a long time since I've seen her really moving without it being hidden underneath a blanket, on a poorly shot video, or through a semi-warped mirror, and I was completely in awe of just how good she looks right now. Gogo looks SO. GOOD. She's lost a tiny bit of that flub since we've pulled her off the Ultium, and hidden beneath that little layer of dissapearing fat there is rock hard, glistening muscle. Her coat is gleaming, and for the first time ever, she has dapples. GOGO HAS DAPPLES. They're just under where her saddle goes, so you can't actually see them while she's being ridden, but it's all right because I know they're there. I can't belive the amount of muscle she has on her either. Her whole body is rippling, and she has more topline than ever before. I couldn't help but smile watching her trot and canter around me in big circles. She's strong, she's brave, she's really matured over the winter and she's ready to take on the world.

After I poulticed and wrapped her, I let her loose to graze in the yard while I read a book nearly and lazed in the setting sun. I feel better than ever about Groton House, the Areas, and the AECs. We're fighting fit and we're ready to take on anything any event can dish out.


Now, I just need to get my lazy butt up away from this computer and go running. Tomorrow before work, I will! I swear! I mean it!

Running on Dunkin

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

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



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




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

And then.... there it was!





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

She's the best, that silly mare.

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

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

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



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






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


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And now, June begins!!


May Goals:

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

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

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

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

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



June Goals:

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


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


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

Photo Adventure Fridays

This week's Photo Adventure is a good one.







The Tongariro Crossing, Tongariro National Park, NZ.
Quite possibly the most amazing thing I've ever done. We spent an entire day crossing the volanic region on the 19km alpine crossing, marveling at the colors, the steam from the volcanoes, the way the ground beneath our feet was so hot it burned, the glistening green of the Emerald Lakes, the frozen lava flows, the deep valleys.... amazing. If you ever go to NZ, it is a MUST if you are fit enough. But is definitely is exhausting, and don't go when the weather is crappy!

Because there are SO MANY amazing photos that I can't possibly put up here, I'm going to link to my Facebook albums of this crossing here and here. Any any true tramper of the world will notice our jeans... don't ever climb mountains in jeans. We were stupid and lucky. But other times we were miserable, and I even became very hypothermic when we were dumped in the ocean by a wayward kayak in the Abel Tasman National Park, and ended up hiking for about three hours in the pouring, freezing rain in our soaked clothes (jeans included) to get back to where we needed to be. By the time we got back to shelter, I had nearly collapsed and they practically had to carry me in. I am quite lucky I didn't die.

Mystic Valley Hunt Club H.T. 5/30/09 (Cont.)

We did it AGAIN, oh we did!!!

While I feel it is slightly tactless to start going on about our big win in the face of big problems like Daun's annoyances with a defunct schooling show, I don't think I can contain this excitement any longer. This is Gogo's second ever Novice, and second event of the year, and we've won both of them on our dressage score. We are high atop the Area 1 Leaderboard already, and are chipping away at the top riders on the USEA National Leaderboard (the ones that have been showing in California and Florida since January!). We are overqualified for the Area 1 Championships, and just need one more completion (we don't even have to place, we just have to obtain a final score!) in order to solidify our trip to the AECs this year.

The day started out FREAKING EARLY. Woke up at 4am, staggered out to Gogo's stall in my PJs with her breakfast in tow, staggered back in to get dressed and gather my final items, staggered back out to the barn, threw her shipping boots on, and tossed her and the dog in the truck and trailer, departing at roughly 4:35am. We made it to the showgrounds at around 6am, and I was thankfully much more awake by then due to a Monster and a delicious Clif barn :D


Bright eyed and ready to go!

We had a leisurely hour to get ready, and I got on with a little less than an hour to warm up. Well, apparently it wasn't quite enough! Gogo was showing some of her usual magic show-heat signs - total distractability, talking to other horses, etc - and I spent the entire warmup feeling like she was being okay, but was ready to jump out of her skin. The actual test was a total blur, and I hardly remember it at all, but I halted, saluted, gave her a pat, and groaned inwardly. The whole thing was a tense mess, I thought. So much for a good placing!


Hi mom!

Back at the trailer I untacked (she hadn't even broken a sweat and was still raring to go), groomed her, put on her boots, and plopped her back on the trailer while Ti and I went to go walk the two courses again. The water jump looked just as hairy as it did the day before (it wasn't anything other than a TON OF ROCKS that made me worry about it... not that we wouldn't make it through, but would we make it through without major injury?), but everything else seemed inviting still.

By the good grace of some higher being, I happened by the scoreboard on my way back to get ready for stadium, and the dressage scores were up. I thought my test was rather caca... well what do you know, apparently it didn't LOOK caca even though it felt caca because I ended up with a 30.0, and was in first after dressage! Woohoo!

And off we went again for our stadium and XC, after getting all dolled up. They ran the format back to back, which is tiring but efficient, and I went into my stadium all dressed for XC, vest and pinney and all. I only warmed up a little, mostly just stretching out her muscles and bopping quietly over a few warmup fences, and then I went into the big grassy field, a little ahead of schedule. This course flowed VERY well, and the fences were beautiful - props to Mystic. I was much more relaxed than I was at King Oak, even though I drove her a bit to the first fence and got a little bit of a big spot to it. Second fence went smoothly, third fence went beautifully, fourth was even better.... and we settled into it, rode quietly to each fence, got an appropriate medium spot to everything (not long anywhere!), and cruised over the final big yellow oxer for a double clear round. Gorgeous, and FUN. Yay!

We then went right off for XC, and literally my warmup was the walk over there, and one lap around the warmup ring at the trot. That's it. We were already all geared up and ready to go. And for the first time in her life, Gogo didn't oogle at the first few fences, didn't take a little while to settle into the course - she was locked on and ready to go right from the very first fence. That's incredible.. she's never been that ready before. Our pace steadily picked up from there, and fences one through five went beautifully, five being the big ditch that a year ago would have probably had me slung off over her head! (Major phobia of Gogo's last year... this year she cantered over it. CANTERED PEOPLE. Even at the end of last year we were still leaping over them!) Our spot to fence six was a little bit off, and she knocked a toe on it, but picked up her pace in the three strides to the next coop and clear that one beautifully. No problems over the next set of logs and no problems in the woods either - we came at the water from a brisk trot, slowed to a sort of fast walk in the middle of the water (which she peeked at because it was moving but it never felt like she was going to stop at it, she just wanted to see what it was doing!), trotted out, and hopped over the log out of the woods just fine. Everything else went totally according to plan - picture frame, down bank (which she took overly enthusiastically as usual and we landed pretty hard!), bench, stone wall, and big curved white log at the end, which slowed her down a little but didn't cause any problems. Double clear again to TAKE THE DIVISION!


Gogo says, I won okay grass now please.

The only crappy part of the day was that it then took 3 hours to pin the division, and they had announced that there would be a mounted awards ceremony 10 minutes after each division's scores were final. Well, idiot me thinks that isn't going to take very long, so I kept her tacked... and waited. And waited. And got back on, and rode around. And waited. And got off, and kept her tacked but unbridled her and let her stand around and eat some hay and drink some more water. And waited. And got back on. And waited. Forever. And finally, even though our scores had been finalized for OVER an hour, they went oh wait, yeah! And there were only two horses that showed up to this mounted awards ceremony, and I was the only one actually mounted. Only four people in my division showed up to get ribbons at all! The other girl that actually came up to the awards ceremony with her horse (untacked, of course, and I wish I had done that too, poor Gogo!) and I had a good long chat, and shared a victory meander around the field (mostly it was me cantering around her in circles while she lead her horse around and laughed at me, it was very fun).


You know, our sport has a lot of things to work on right now, and a lot of glaring holes and problems, but the core of this entire sport is held together by the people that love it. I had so many people approach me, so many people offer to help me when they found out I was alone, and SO many people come running up to me with a smile to congratulate me after it was all over and ask how my day was. Everyone was smiling, everyone was friendly, and everyone was there to lend a hand whenever anyone needed anything. This is why I won't - why I can't - give up on this sport, no matter what happens. The heart of all of this beats with the people who live and breathe eventing, and do it for the love of the game, and the love of their horses and the partnership and satisfaction they find there. There will always be bad eggs, but there are so many good ones out there too. We are such a loving, wonderful community, and together, we will find ways to make this sport safer and better.


My favorite part of the day came when I was tacking back up to go get our awards, and a big wind came through the trees. We were parked in a shady spot, the sunlight trickling through the leaves, and a whole shower of helicopter seeds burst from the tree directly overhead. As I mounted and started back on the walk to the awards ceremony, the seeds all came floating down gently around us, settling all over us like confetti. It was as if Nature itself was celebrating our win, giving us our own private little ceremony, validating and praising all the hard work we've been doing all year long.

Life is surely beautiful and good.

Mystic Valley Hunt Club H.T. 5/30/09

R-E-P-E-A-T WINNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!

Finished on our dressage score of 30.0!
More later, but for now... BED! :D

Tomorrow comes EARLY!

Oh man, tomorrow is an EARLY START for Gogo and I. Plan is to roll out of bed at 4am, stagger into the barn to give her brekkie, stagger back into the house to get dressed and ready to go, stagger back out to the barn with a Clif Bar in one hand and a Monster in the other, and load up and be off by 4:30am. I better set like... 25 alarms. 4am is eaaarrrrlllyyyyyyy.

But then, the adrenaline will kick in! I spent the entirety of today getting ready for the show - cleaning tack, clipping, trimming feet, bathing, braiding, loading gear, hooking up the trailer, getting snacks, etc, etc. She is dressed and ready to hit the road tomorrow - she's already in her Sleazies and her shipping boots and halter are right outside her door. Poor thing was out of her stall for a very long time this evening while I was bathing and braiding, and when I left her alone in the aisle to dry while I was outside finishing packing, she peed all over the aisle. Seriously, it was the Niagara Falls of pee. I felt pretty bad, I had no idea she had to go like that!

I also spent time out at Mystic Valley Hunt Club today scouting out the lay of the land and the courses. Ti did not come with me this time, as her corn is bothering her again, but she'll come with me tomorrow and play not-guard dog at the trailer. The place is pretty nice, and pretty big - lots of horses. The dressage rings look pretty nice, even though they're a bit murky looking after all the rain we've had. No giant puddles, though!




Stadium looks pretty straightforward and nice. The fences look fabulous! It's relatively simple and not too big, and in a nice big field instead of a very tiny arena like King Oak - more room to breathe. It starts with a simple vertical at the far end of the field to a nice big oxer, curving around to three jumps on three sweeping curves in opposite directions, and then onto 6 and 7a-b, which are set as a triple combination, three strides to two strides. Then it's onto something resembling ANOTHER triple combination, but all numbered as single fences. I think it was a four stride and a five stride.. maybe it was a three and a four. I need to walk it again tomorrow. Tricky!





We have to ride our stadium in our XC gear, because it's immediately onto XC from there, 20 minutes after each individual's stadium finishes up. I was supposed to ride at 8:00am, 10:30am, and 10:50am, but I've been bumped back 6 minutes as the last person in our division needs to go ahead of me. Oh well, fine by me, 6 more minutes I can sleep in! The XC course looks nice and inviting, with a couple of little challenges, namely the speed. It's set for 400mpm instead of 350mpm (both reasonable Novice speeds). The speed time is 4:07, and the optimum time is 4:38, leaving a small window of 30 seconds to come in. There are some nicely built fences to start off, two simple loggy-things to begin with. It then goes on to these two very pretty fences:





Very well built. 5 is a simple ditch, and 6 and 7 are set as a combination - 6 is a very solid, very long brown coop that is a two stride to 7, which is a much narrower brown coop. 8 is a pile of logs painted green, and then there's a long gallop into the woods, which is where we come our first really tricky thing - the water crossing OF DOOM. Seriously, it's around a corner, down a hill, and through a whole MESS of giant, slippery rocks. There's nowhere to get around then, you just have to hope your horse doesn't slip all over them, even though they block the entire path. The water crossing itself is a running stream, and it has big rocks in it too, and the footing also seems to be inconclusive - I'll be sure to get my feet wet tomorrow when re-walking the course. It just doesn't seem all that safe to me, and I don't want Gogo to go running in with gusto and hurt herself. I think we'll be trotting this part so she can get a better foothold. There's also a log a little ways up a hill, exiting the water area.





You can't really appreciate the rocks because I didn't seem to get them all in the picture. But oye! 11 is a nice confidence building set of logs, 12 is a funky red table, and 13 you have to figure out how to turn yourself all the way around to get back to the famous picture frame fence - it's actually pretty narrow in the middle, but it looks very straightforward (and professional photographer worthy!).




From there, 14 is a funky elevated area in the middle of a flat field that leads to a drop (don't fall off either side please!), 15 is a biiiiiig table, 16 is a stone wall, and 17 (final fence) is a gorgeous curved log jump. The fences are quite nice, and dressed well. Area 1 is awesome!


I am sorry to say it's unlikely that I'll get any pics or video from this show, aside from the ones I take, and the ones the professional photographers get. I'll be going it alone, except for Ti and Gogo of course. Here's hoping for a R-E-P-E-A-T of last time!!!

Mystic, here we come!!!!!!