Hooves of Steel: The Barefoot Journey, Part IV (Gogo's Competitive Barefoot Career)

((Continued from Parts I, II, and III!))

Eventing a horse without shoes had never been a conceivable idea in my youth. Much like the way I used to use the term "gay" to describe all things stupid when I was an 8th grader and then later found out ironically that I was in fact gay myself, I realized that there may be a new, higher level of horse and hoof care that I never even knew existed. With my last horse, who was dearly loved but insufferably clumsy, he experienced slipping issues while bare behind, and so I had him shod. (Looking back now, he clearly had a lot of unaddressed issues that at that time in my life I was clueless about, but he's an interesting example – not very sure-footed and definitely not graceful. What do you do in that case? Perhaps I should have looked a little further and realized his large amount of daily sweet feed and little hay, ulcery symptoms, wormy belly and my horrible unbalanced riding may have been a contributing factor in his difficulties. Perhaps he would have gained a bit of grace and concavity in his feet for a better purchase. Alas, hindsight is 20/20 every time.) Because he had experienced issues with slipping, and he was my entire eventing experience, I assumed that all horses would slip barefoot, and no one ever stepped up to disagree. Once I had Gogo, however, and I had worked through her eternal rehab issues, I set my sights on eventing – really eventing, really competitively. We had done a few dressage and jumper shows while bare, bringing home a good number of blues already, but why couldn’t she do eventing bare too? She was amazingly surefooted, and her feet were excellent. Why shouldn't I try?

And so try we did. Not only did we attempt, but we also triumphed. Our schoolings at local XC courses were always amazingly successful, and I found her traction to be superb. I never worried about where she was putting her feet, and she seemed to always know exactly where her feet were and how they were getting there. If there were rocks, she skipped over and around them at speed. If there was slippery grass, she balanced herself and made it smooth and effortless. If the footing changed, she figured out how to make it work to her advantage. I knew that as a barefooted alpha mare, she knew exactly where her feet were at all times, and she was going to take care of her body. I was a byproduct of her care simply by my location on her back – she wasn’t going to slip, fall or hurt herself, so I was in no danger either. I felt safer on her than I ever had on a horse, despite her kooky behavior.

At her first ever 'real' event, Encore H.T. in Michigan, Gogo was in first after dressage and went double-clear on XC. She did have a rail in stadium, and finished 3rd because of it, but we found shortly thereafter that the chips and rails she was having were entirely hock-related, and a course of Adequan oiled her machinery well. On XC, she was insufferably green but very game, making some squiggles over the first few jumps but never putting a foot out of place, even after splashing through the water. One thing about eventing and traction is that event horses WILL be getting their feet wet on course, and water WILL make things more slippery, and at a show like Encore which was on rail delay from major storms, it makes the challenge much more difficult. Courses out west tend to be much drier and dustier, making this less of an issue, but out in the Midwest and especially on the East Coast, wet + grass = slippery. Despite this, Gogo never put a hoof out of place, and I was completely tickled with her performance. At her second event, South Farm H.T. in Ohio, she was in first after dressage with a 22.6 (!!), and went double clear again on XC, but also had another rail in stadium (remember the hock issues, we hadn't really pinpointed the problem until this show happened). She still was best in her division with a 26.6, and we had our first eventing blue ribbon. (Her first blue ribbon ever was one for Training Level Test 2 in dressage the summer before, winning the class with a 69.7%!) Her third event was also a success, Hunter's Run H.T. in Michigan - a big show with a maxed-out course and an enormously huge day-long downpour that delayed our XC run by a day. She was in third after dressage with a 33.0, behind another mare and a huge clonking Friesian who eliminated out on the first XC fence. The course was a muddy, sopping mess, but despite it Gogo skipped around XC like she hadn't even noticed. I even glanced at my watch and read it wrong near the end of the course, hustling over the line only to later find out that our time had been 4:03.... and the speed time was 4:03. CLOSE! The stadium warmup was so miserably sopping that I only walked and trotted one crossrail, going into the all-weather arena mostly cold-turkey. She went clean, and our overnight leader dropped the first rail, giving us the win. So awesome! The last regular event before the Area Championships and the AECs was the Erie Hunt & Saddle Club H.T. in Pennsylvania, where Gogo was in second comfortably with a 32.5. We sailed around XC and stadium with a little too much speed, and video of our rounds is a bit funny and embarrassing to watch as I had to trot a large section of my XC.... a comfortable lope was WAY too fast! Our leader also went clean, keeping us in second place, but I was still thrilled. We even won a little prize money!

Two firsts, a second, and a third, and we were headed to the Area VI Championships for BN at South Farm. We were in first after a great dressage ride with a 28.5, and I headed cockily out to XC, convinced that we had this one in the bag. Alas, this was when Gogo decided to give me a little taste of humble pie, putting on the afterburners right out of the water complex to gallop at full speed right past fence 6. D'oh! Major rider error on my part, I stopped bothering to ride and she stopped bothering to listen! She loped over the rest of the fences like she was asleep, but obviously we dropped to the back of the pack. So convinced was I that something was wrong with her that I withdrew, taking her home to thoroughly check her over and make sure nothing was wrong. She was fine, but the message was clear - you gotta be there for me, and then I'll be there for you. Point taken!

The 2008 AECs were upon us. It was hard to believe, but after all our hard work, we were overqualified and totally ready to go. Once again, my mare delighted and impressed me - while our dressage was kind of eh (we managed to scrape a 33.0 together even though we scored a 2 AND a 3 for two very frightening movements right in front of the judge!), she was foot-perfect on XC, loping around the toughest course she'd ever seen with ease. Stadium was just as easy and smooth, and we finished on our dressage score in 6th place, taking our victory gallop just as the thunder started rumbling overhead. We were lucky to miss out on the worst of the "A-E-Seas," although I have plenty of pictures of Lamplight flooding and our perilous journey home which included a dam breaking and the entire highway shutting down!! My mare's feet had done it. They had handled all types of terrain, hills, dry hardpack, soft mush, and everything inbetween without so much as a slip. But this was at Beginner Novice, the slowest and smallest you could go. How would she handle the next level?

I needn't have ever been concerned. After a winter's worth of hard work and dedication, and a few jumper shows later, we were ready for the 2009 season and for our new competitive career on the East Coast, our new home in Connecticut giving us access to opportunity untapped and plenty of close-by events of a different caliber. Wow, these shows had some serious HILLS! And the courses were TOUGH! And LONG! And BIG! Our first event ever at Novice together, King Oak H.T., had me nearly peeing myself on the coursewalk. We had just gotten in our first real XC schooling of the year a week before, on slippery and rocky terrain in a downpour, and I wasn't sure how she'd be on a real course. But once again, my mare came through for me, handling the bright white chevrons, the ditch, the up and down banks, the water with a jump right after, the offset three-stride combination (!!), and the brush fence that was a maxed out 3'7". Swear on my life, when standing next to it the brush touched my boobs it was so tall! Not only was there a long section of grass, but in the woods we had some seriously rocky trails to handle, and she crunched down them at high speed like it was all business to her. She never put a foot wrong. We were in first after dressage with a 31.1, and stayed there through two amazing double clear rounds to get our first win of the season, and our first win at Novice, all at the same time. Three weeks later, I found myself comfortably loping around the XC course at the Mystic Valley Hunt Club H.T., the speed much faster than King Oak's (400mpm vs. 350mpm) but with an easier course. The water complex was a bit hairy, with a moving river full of rocks, but she knew exactly where her feet were and where to put them. First after dressage with a 30.0, we went double clear again on both stadium and XC to take our second win of the season. In June, my favorite event and most memorable weekend occurred - Groton House Farm H.T.! It was the biggest show we had attended so far that season, and I was in a large division chock full of professional riders. Despite that, we tied with a big East Coast pro for second place after dressage, our 31.5 putting us directly behind our leader, another big name pro with a 31.0. Gogo had some spooky moments on XC, most notably over the drop and into the water, but we managed to hustle over the finish line to unofficially break our tie and move into second (our time was very close to optimum, a little too close if you ask me!). Daun came out to watch us tackle the stadium, and she skipped around it like it was a cakewalk, sailing into first place as we watched our leader drop the first rail. The division was so close that it bumped them down all the way to 5th. That victory gallop was one of the sweetest moments of my life, and the win secured our necessary scores for qualifying to go to the 2010 AECs. Gogo's bare feet were easily handling anything I could throw at them, from mud and stones to slick grass and big hills. Sharp turns, high speeds, and big takeoffs (her specialty) were all in a day's work for her feet. I never had to worry about her tossing a shoe and frantically trying to get any showground hack to slap it back on, I didn't have to fret over my stud choices, I didn't have to deal with all the hassle. Nature gave my horse everything she needed, and she did the rest. All I had to do was give her a balanced ride.


((Club foot be damned, these hooves crunch rock!!))

But like all good stretches of time, eventually something bad had to happen to our lucky streak. Unfortunately from there, the season took a major downturn, and Gogo's unexplained spookiness and dull attitude became wildly worse. At the Area I Championships, we had a pretty good dressage ride, but she was lacking impulsion and we only scored a 34.7 to fall into 4th place, the first time she'd ever scored out of the top three aside from the previous AEC. On XC, right in front of everyone and their mother, Gogo locked on to fence four and approached with confidence. She then promptly got to the base of the jump, spun on one heel, and slung me right off over her shoulder, breaking my middle finger (ironically) on the way down. It was severely out of character for her, and we were eliminated for the first time in my life. If you've never seen a Gogo spin, I will tell you this: she could have a competitive career as a reiner, only she's faster. Disappointed, I chalked it up to rider error and slunk on home, ready to tackle another event at Riga Meadow H.T. the following weekend. I can do this, I thought. I just need to give her a better ride. Well, as it turns out, even though we were once again in first after dressage with another 34.0, she once again got to a simple obstacle - the up-bank, which couldn't have been more than two feet high, and something she'd been tackling since the age of 5 with ease and confidence - and she spun out on me, this time going in the other direction. I stayed on this time, and the rest of the course was fine, but I was very upset. It was obvious that this was more than rider error. Something was wrong with my horse.

And I was unfortunately right - Lyme disease and a mild case of gastritis were to blame for this behavior. Lyme is pretty much a given here in CT, and if you live here you will eventually get it, so it wasn't a huge surprise. We also opted to go ahead and inject her hocks at that time, thinking maybe if they were sore they could be contributing to the problem. A year of conservative treatments and lots of Adequan, Cosequin ASU, long warmups and cooldowns, Back on Track hock boots, and as much turnout as she could stand were finally not quite enough. With Doxy on board, and aloe juice twice a day for her belly, her behavior and outlook on life dramatically changed, and my cheerful and brave mare was back in full - if anything, she had a little too much vengeance. At Huntington Farm H.T., our last test before tackling the 2010 AECs, she handled the sopping wet hills like a total champ, but her newfound reach in her hocks bogged her down and caused some slip n' slide before the planks during our stadium round. One rail, and our 29.5 turned into a 33.5 and a subsequent 5th place. I was surprised at her carelessness. She doesn't like to hit rails, and here she was swimming through them like Superwoman. Despite that, I was pleased with her flawless performance on XC, and prepared for our final hurrah at Novice, the AECs, which I had worked so hard for all year long.

The rest is history. A quality dressage test (again, with another brain fart right in front of the judge which resulted in a 4 and a 5) and a score of 30.0 had us sitting once again in 7th after dressage. Walking XC, I was impressed with the excellent footing, which was perfectly manicured and aerated grass. I had been galloping up the wild, wet and wooley mountains of New England all season, so this footing seemed like a beautiful treat. Following my first coursewalk, I was alarmed to hear that one of the Prelim horses had slipped on course between fences and had fallen, breaking his scapula. He was subsequently euthanized. A bit saddened, I moved on to prepare for my own ride, and once on course everything else melted away. She was foot-perfect to the first few jumps, and then went I went to give her a half-halt before the fourth fence, and when she bounced up against it she slipped. It was only for a split second, and it was a fairly common reaction on her part, so I didn't think too much of it. The only noticeable things on the rest of the course were that she had no extra gas when I asked her to move out, and that she was very careful on downhill slopes. I thought perhaps she was just being cautious after her little slide, and the rest of the ride went amazingly. She was perfect, didn't hesitate anywhere, didn't look at a thing, and loped over all the maxed-out fences and combinations (two waters, banks, a coffin complex, a corner and a skinny included!) like they were nothing. I was so proud of her, and delighted to find we had moved up a place to 6th. It was then that I noticed on the way back to her stall after checking the scoreboard just how enormous her hind legs were. Somehow, during that slip, she damaged both hinds, and ultrasound revealed a small core lesion on her left SDFT and sheath damage to the right. We withdrew, packed up our gear, and dragged ourselves sadly home, prepared to begin what would eventually turn out to be a year-long rehab.

Did she slip because she was bare? I can't say it wasn't a factor. Would studs have stopped the slide? Possibly, but probably not. They would have either saved her or severely compounded her injuries. Hooves do need a little bit of give to them in order to preverve soft tissue and joint heath, so glueing a foot to the ground isn't a good option. Why did such a tiny slip cause such extensive damage, especially since I had spent a year conditioning her so carefully? We think we can trace it back to the hock injections, which were less than a month out from the AECs - when we gave her a brand new level of movement in her hind limbs, we were already in heavy training, and her legs did not have enough of a chance to compensate and strengthen. If she had any sort of microdamage that was undetected at that point, the slip had to have pushed it over the edge into real injury. If she hadn't slipped in just this right way, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And clearly, this is all just speculation. We will never know what really happened. Any way you look at it, this isn't just a matter of adding shoes and studs to the equation and ignoring the rest. If shoes were really the answer, I would do it.

But it's so much more complicated than that. So what do I do now?

((To be continued!))

Mush Brain

Ever wonder if secretly in the night, aliens come into your room and sometimes replace your brain with tapioca pudding? That's kind of how I felt yesterday.

((Right: The big rig.)) In all seriousness, I am very worn out from my recent hip issue and the subsequent heavy doses of Naproxen and Vicoden I've been on in order to keep it all at bay. I was feeling much better, but had to drive to Vermont yesterday in a small car to pick up the big rig and four horses from the Vermont Summer Festival, and sitting in a car for a long time aggravates the issue. Not only did I have achey hips on the journey, but I also was driving a strange car I knew nothing about, had to leave at 6am, almost ran out of gas, was nearly an hour and a half late upon arrival, killed my cell, was totally panicked about my lateness AND didn't realize at one point that I was speeding because of this and subsequently got pulled over and was given a COURT SUMMONS because I couldn't find the insurance and registration on the vehicle and was going fast enough to be considered reckless (anything over 85 in the entire state of CT is "reckless driving" and the cops in Torrington HATE that). To add insult to injury, our working student gave me a burrito for the road that gave me the worst heartburn of my LIFE. I seriously wanted to DIE. My poor groom was so exhausted that he passed out for the entire four hour drive back to the barn, so it was on me when I realized an hour into the drive that the working student (following us in the small car that I drove up to VT) had forgotten my boss' Yorkie at the showgrounds!! She had to go all the way back to get him. As for me, I had no music and no phone for the entire four hour drive home, and three squealing mares, one poor gelding, and one snoring groom to deal with all the way back. Summary of this story: 6am + stranger's small Subaru + no gas + no gas stations open at 6am in small town + this making me VERY late + speeding + pulled over & given court summons + getting to showgrounds late + four tired horses, three trunks, three saddles, 8 bridles, and god knows what else to be loaded into trailer + burrito of death + major stomachache + four hour trailer ride home with no music, no battery on phone, squealing mares and snoring groom = not the best day of my life.

Needless to say, I did NOT ride when I got home.


That being said, Gogo and I have indeed survived our first week of canterwork, and are neither crippled nor dead! YAY! I am in ultra-paranoia mode, seeing as cantering is where it all went to poopoo last time, but so far, we are ok. In typical fashion, as soon as our canterwork started, the legs all began to fill in the mornings. Of course, right? There's nothing alarming about the fill at this point. It's a little funny looking, but not ugly like it was in the spring when something was really wrong. The right is vaguely warmer every day than the left, which is usually filled and pretty cold, but not hot by any stretch. Both front legs are the same temperature, and are warmer than the left hind but cooler than the right hind. It's kind of weird. The fronts have some fill to them as well, which is why I'm not too worried about it. It is August and the humidity is disgusting. All the horses in the barn who are prone to it have some level of fill in their legs. I'm still keeping a wary eye on it, and am jogging her pretty much daily, just to make sure. Whenever she jogs out, the fill dissapears, which is a really good sign. And she looks really, really, really good when she jogs out - the most important thing.

Last week's schedule went something like this:
Monday and Tuesday: 20 minutes of loose rein walk in straight lines, walking over ground poles. 15 minutes of walk on contact, 30 meter circles and a few small leg yields. 15 minutes of trot in straight lines. During trotwork, Monday: one long side of canter on each lead (actually, more like 1.5 going left on accident... picked up wrong lead!). Tuesday: two long sides canter on each lead. Cooldown: 5 minutes on contact work, 10 minutes loose rein, straight lines.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 20 minutes of loose rein walk in straight lines, walking over ground poles. 15 minutes of walk on contact, 30 meter circles and a few small leg yields. 20 minutes of trot in straight lines. During trotwork, Monday: canter one whole time around arena on each leads. Tuesday: canter two times around area on each lead. Friday: instead of during trotwork, add time additionally to trotwork... canter three times around arena on each lead. Cooldown: 5 minutes on contact work, 10 minutes loose rein, straight lines.

I made the very bad mistake of not drugging her on Friday. Three months into the riding portion of rehab, we've come so far that I'm not comfortable weaning her off her 1/4cc of Ace just yet for fear that she's going to do something incredbly stupid and reinjure herself. She had been SO quiet for weeks though that I thought she'd be all right now that she's cantering and getting her energy out, and opted to go without for a day. I was wrong! She was okay during our walk work, and then we moved into the trot.... and the head started to come up... and the snatching at the bit began..... and the teeth gnashing and eyerolling..... and the snorting and prancing..... and the bucking, taking off, and leaping with all four feet off the ground......! Hmmmmm. Oddly enough, I still managed to cross myself and pick up the canter, and she was outstanding in both directions, despite being a little bit more forward than usual. The resulting trot and walk work was also excellent. Needless to say though, I am still going to continue my light sedation routine. I just can't risk it at this point. She's just a little too fresh and we've come so far!

Today, our ride went like this: 20 minutes loose rein walk on straight lines, walk poles. 15 minutes walk on contact, circles and a few shallow leg yields. 20 minutes trot on straight lines. 5-6 minutes canter - 4 times around arena on each lead. Cooldown: 5 minutes walk on contact, 10 minutes loose rein walk on straight lines. She was still kind of obnoxious during her trotwork, occasionally throwing her head straight up in the air in that special way that she does, and I asked the working student to watch her trot in case she was acting out because she was hurting. She said nope, she looked just fine. And she FELT just fine too... I am just such a nervous wreck over the idea that something could go wrong at any moment during this whole rehab nonsense that I can't help but worry. Any little thing might mean something bad, and I can't ignore anything. She continued to feel better and better as we went along, settling into a nice rhythm and quieting down, and we bumped up into canter. She felt great! We went four times around the entire arena on each lead, and even though she thought about fussing for a moment going to the right, she settled into a super canter, even better than the left, straight and strong. When we were cooling out, I still had my mind on her fussiness, and figured I should really get a better look at her from the ground in case I could see something subtle going on. One can't be too careful. I hesitantly broke out the lunge line, and sent her out going left first - all looked good, but I expected it to. If there was going to be anything subtle, it was going to be to the right. I turned her around, sent her out, and she EXPLODED! Thankfully, her bit of gaga rush canter was shortlived, and she settled into a forward trot. Oh my god... she looked AMAZING! Absolutely stunning. I've never seen her so good and loose going to the right.
A hose-off, 20 minutes of grass, 30 minutes of ice, and two trimmed hinds later, the legs were icy cold and staying that way. I wrapped her anyway, just to see if that might help the excess edema in the morning, but I came away from the evening feeling much better than I had all week.

Also, the Princess got ANOTHER new halter.... I need to do another post covering Four Years of Ridiculous Halters.



Amazing. Nameplate and all.... it says Gogo Fatale in large letters with a smaller "Gogo" underneath it, and it also had two rearing horses on either side of the name.... true to form!



One final note: the Millbrook H.T. was last weekend, and I managed to score a Saturday off so we could watch the Advanced XC! Katherine at Grey Brook Eventing was also there with her fabulous mare Kiki, but alas, we did not cross paths. (She came in 2nd in her division with a 26.5!) It was outstanding and I got some pretty good pictures with my little camera:













Buck Davidson and Titanium:



Dude how many horses can that man possibly ride in a day? He didn't run Bobby, much to our dismay, but he still rode THREE other Advanced horses, plus all his other I and P horses, and I'm sure there were lower level ones on top of all that. I guess if you're going to come all the way from Ocala, you go big or go home!

Does that ever make you want to show or what!!

End of September Analysis (and a video of XC)

As I sit down to write this post, I realize that this is going to be a bit of a harder thing to work on temporarily, my goals, because I can no longer fit them to myself and what I really want to do. One can set them, and a timeline too, for a recooperation; in the end, however, it is up to the body. I was so diligent and dedicated to Metro's recovery, and still he ended up in a hole instead of back with me as a riding companion (or even a pasture companion). Gogo's prognosis is a million and one times better than his ever was, though. She has a minor lesion in her LH SDFT that we caught the same day it happened. He has a black hole the size of Jupiter in his low LF suspensory that went undetected by vets for four months, maybe longer. With the upcoming PRP, Dr. C said she expects Gogo to "heal and never look back." And I am very hopeful.


September Goals: 1) Successfully complete the AECs on our competitive dressage score, and have a total blast doing it. (I still want to be top 10.)
Well... what can I say about this goal? In all honesty, in my heart, I feel like we achieved it in an indirect way. Had we finished on our dressage score, we would have been 4th out of 40. Had we even gotten a rail, we still would have finished 6th. Even with our, erm, not so excellent dressage test, we still put some of those four-star riders to SHAME! We would have been the top finishing adult amateur by a huge margin - the closest adult ammy behind me finished something like 11th or 12th. I was totally surrounded on all sides by professionals - me, the kid who tried her hand at an unrecognized Training years ago with Metro just once, and that's it. And what I still can't believe is that Gogo seriously hurt herself out on XC, but she kept going. I know there was the adrenaline factor and all that, but after viewing the video and seeing the labored-but-determined look on her face in all the photos, there's no way she couldn't have been hurting. Which I will feel horrible about til my dying day, but at the same time, she really proved her guts and heart of gold to me out on course that day, because she just kept going. She went to the AECs and she gave it everything she had and more, negotiating what was far and away the most complicated XC course she'd ever run, and she never so much as hesitated anywhere. The injuries she sustained were horrible, and a bit freakish (it was the last thing I'd expect on totally flat, aeravated ground from a horse who'd been galloping XC on soaking wet, slippery hills all summer with never a slip), and we had no choice but to pull up after them. But we didn't go and bomb or suck or fail. She gave it everything she had and then some, and tried to keep going even when her body couldn't. We proved that we really were worthy of playing with the biggest of the big boys. I've never, ever been prouder of this mare.


October Goals:
1) Travel to Tufts and have a successful PRP procedure performed
2) Keep Gogo'a life as interesting as it can be while stuck in a stall!
3) Transplant once again, this time from CT to MI, safely and successfully


And yes, it's true. Gogo, Ti, Greta and I are moving back home to Michigan for some well needed R&R time. I am financially wrecked at this point after all these unforeseen vet bills, and while I was certainly prepared as much as I could have been for whatever accidents might have happened, the culmination of hocks/belly/lyme/emergency vet calls for violent vaccine reactions/tendons have set me back thousands of unforseen dollars that I struggle every day to earn. I'm literally starving at this point, because as a working student/barn slave, I just can't make it work any more. I mean, I'm living on tea when I'm hungry because I need to fill my belly with something, and I have nothing else left. (The pets, however, get the best food money can buy.) These kinds of positions are not designed to make it work financially. They really are much better suited to kids whose parents still pay for everything under the sun (gas, food, etc), but not for fresh out of college and dirt poor kids like me. And my parents do more than enough for me, much more than I deserve financially at this point, and I really can't thank them enough for it. I'm wrecked enough as is. At this point, a working student job is just not what's best for me, or for Gogo, or for my other pets. I need a real career. Just what exactly I'll be doing immediately, I don't know. We'll be back in Michigan sometime between mid-October and early November, depending entirely on Gogo's PRP procedure and how soon I can safely transport her a long distance after it is done. I might go back to Ohio, I might not. I might go to New Hampshire for all I know! We're taking it one day at a time temporarily, just trying to keep her stable and everything intact. But the time for future planning is now, so I've got some real soul searching to do. A dressage barn is not a place for an event horse going above Novice, it's just not. The people here are great and I love them, and I'll miss this place a lot. But I just can't make it work here, and I'm going in circles trying to keep my finances intact while not starving (obviously the starving part is currently happening... so it's failing). My parents are gracious enough to let my loser self stay at their place for a little bit while I sort out my finances and get myself back on track, and I count myself pretty lucky in that regard. We'll get it back together, I've no doubt in my mind. We just both need downtime for our bodies to heal. Right alongside hers, my own is failing me a little more every day, and even yoga today couldn't unkink my back. I'm in pain right now, just sitting the way I am. I need a good chiropractor, a supportive bed, and some time off. Then it's back to, well, the rest of life. I need to be careful though. My back needs a lot of work, and if I want to go into the alternative farrier field (which I really do), I'm going to need it intact and pain-free. Yes, R&R is exactly what we both need right now. I'm looking forward to a few weeks of just relaxing and getting it all back on the right path again.



And now, without further ado, the video Alex shot from the XC at the AEC. And in this little blurb, right before the 4th fence, you'll see where we think she did the damage. You have to pay close attention, because it happens so fast it's easy to miss, but she slides while voicing her minor objections to my half-halt. But then, voila! She keeps going like it's no big deal. The first thing you'll see is the 3rd fence, which goes well (I gave her some stick action but didn't need it), then we lope down to the 4th fence, where the slide happens, but then she hops over the 4th like it's no big deal. She sets herself up nicely for the 5th fence, the FISH!, does a perfect change before it, and then bops through the water and sort of heaves herself awkwardly out of it, but makes it just fine. She hasn't schooled an upbank out of water in well over a year, just because we haven't been able to. (Remember being at a dressage barn during a very, very rainy summer.) If you listen closely, you might be able to hear the announcer say something about 'of course they're through the water, this mare likes to play in the kiddie pool at home!' I heard her as I was going through, and it cracked me up. Not sure what got picked up on this shotty video though... I dunno if you can hear me out of the water giving her the repeated "Good girl, good girl!! either!





Oh mare. She's the best.




One last little thing - comparisons of her legs the day after the injury (9/13), and on 9/19 and 9/20:





They're by no means normal, but considering that was just one week out from the injury, that's a pretty amazing change. Yikes.




I also got a little pick-me-up from Jennifer too, but I haven't actually gone yet to, well, pick it up, so that's for the next post ;)

American Eventing Championships 9/12/09: Day 2, Cross-Country

XC day dawned bright and early for all of us. I was wicked excited about the course (it was SICK!) and made Alex get up early so I could walk it one last time. It was foggy and WET out there, but I didn't think much of it, as I expected a lot of it to burn off by the time I rode at 9:55am. We headed back to the barn, took off Gogo's Sleaziest, and cleaned her all up so she was sparkling and gorgeous again.





Yep, Mom got the BAMF picture of my arm. We suited up, mounted up and were ready to ROCK THAT COURSE!




Okay so how awesome is that picture. That is me walking to XC, and Jennie Brannigan and Phillip Dutton walking next to me!!
She warmed up great, and I was very happy to see that there was an XC jump in our warmup line of fences. That is SO HELPFUL, because I think it really gets her brain thinking about forward and solid obstacles. Sometimes when we warm up over little dinky looking white poles and then have a massive flower-covered coop as our first fence, she gets a little backed off at first. We set off on the XC right at our alotted time, and she was in instant cruise mode.

First fence rode well, as did the second, which was around a tight corner but framed in on both sides by trees, so it gave us a nice channel and was confidence-building. (You know, they look tiny on the coursemap but I am pretty sure they were all close to maxed out). Third fence was the Seat of Power, which was a big rampy thing that I had had a lot of fun with the previous day:



The Seat of Power curved around to the far edge of the field where the Lamb's Creep was, which was short but very wide, and right before this fence, she slipped. Not dramatically, not violently, but when I asked her to come back before it, she came very up in front like she does, and went to slow herself with her hind end.... and whoop! Both hind legs lost their purchase for a second, and she slid with both of them underneath herself. It was a split second thing, and she regained her footing and jumped the Creep fine, and then made the tight turn to THE FISH! This was the first real test of the course. We had four fences to really get ourselves rolling, and then we had this freaky looking fish right before the water, and had a step out of the water, which she has not schooled in over a year. That coursewalk picture did not have water in it; here are some more accurate pictures of the fish and the water:





Pretty sure Brant Gamma got an awesome picture of us jumping the fish. She bopped over it, splashed through the water (wait til you see how those HOCKS were going!), and slightly awkwardly hopped up the bank, but nothing too dramatic. And I patted her and told her what a good girl she was, and she pricked her ears and galloped on. Only, we started down a little tiny hill just then, and she felt like she was totally unsure of the ground beneath her. You know how when you walk on really slippery ice you take little mincing steps to keep your balance? It felt a little like that. But we got to the bottom of the hill, curved around to the Sawtable, and took it totally awkardly. No matter, on we go to 8A and 8B, the offset two-stride. Which looked a lot like this:




Slice that baby! We came at it at an angle and it rode beautifully. She skipped over it like it was nothing. Novice height is really just not even a challenge to her. She hardly even had to pick up her legs, she can practically canter over most things. We headed through a path in the woods to fence 9, and then had a long gallop through another path in the woods. Here, another interesting thing happened - I asked Gogo to gallop on in this section of the woods, and she just... didn't respond when I asked her. She cruied on at her same speed. Unsusual, I thought. Maybe she just really doesn't want to move out because of the slipping and sliding. I let her take her own speed, which was agonizingly slow, but I felt it better to keep her confident. We finally came out of the woods to reach the Corner, which was HUGE and rode just like any average vertical would. But technically, it WAS a corner!:



And then came THE COFFIN COMPLEX! I don't care what they tell you, it was flagged seperately but it was SO a full coffin. Here is the actual flagged half-coffin part. And wow, she just cruised through it like she was sleeping. I was grinning ear to ear after she loped over the ditch (my previously ditchy, ditchy horse, LOPING over a ditch!) and got three perfect strides to the last element. From there it was onto the Gnome Cabin, but what you can't see about that fence in that picture is this:



The big f-ing TREE right in front of it! I took the left approach to it, as I imagine many other did, as it didn't add sigificant time to take this slightly longer way. Once again, she questioned absolutely nothing. I hardly had to do anything but sit up there and smile. From there, it was the second water complex! The first element was a roll top right before the water, and then you had to splash your way through on a broken line to the roll out, which from the pictures it looked like she half though was another step out! She was a little bit awkward, but nothing too outrageous, and we landed further out than I expected. We lost a little time there as I had to awkwardly navigate back to the 15th fence, all decked out in Buckeye feed bags, our favorite! At this time, I felt like we were really, really going slow, and she did a few more too-careful-with-my-feet movements. But nothing else felt WRONG about it, is what kills me. It felt like she was being overly careful. Aah, had I only known! We were in the homestretch at that point in time, and bopped down the drop easily to make the hard right turn to the skinny log, our final fence. It looked a bit like this from the top of the drop:



It rode beautifully and I meant to trot it, but she cantered right off it easily (no launching yay!!) and we hopped over the log for the sweeping turn left to the finish flags. At this point I looked at my watch and went "oh crap!!!!" and cranked around and came flying pell-mell around the corner at top speed. She did have that one last burst to give me, and we flew across the finish line at the time of 4:53. The optimum time? 4:53! THAT'S CRAZY! She was crawling along as slow as could be, and she still was going the perfect 400mpm speed. Needless to say, we had one of not too many completely double clear round, and I was so excited I jumped off my horse when she was still walking, and had jelly legs and fell flat on my face. People around me were like oh my god are you okay!? And I stood up and was like yeah, yeah, I meant to do that. I checked all her feet in case she had a rock and that was causing the hesitation, but they were all clean, so off we went to celebrate.








Yay mare!!!!!!! Now I know these are not the most flattering pictures of me ever (my mom seems to get a lot of me sitting in the saddle and unnecessarily driving to fences), but I like them anyway.








I took her back with Alex, and we bathed her, grazed her for a good long while, walked her, and put her back in her box to rest before we wrapped her up for the night. She's been getting nasty scurf on her front legs from all the liniment wrapping I was doing the week before, so I wanted to let them breathe and rest before I put more wraps over them. And I am glad I did, because I wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong until the next morning.

To be continued. As for now, I need some bed.

Official AEC Countdown: 10 (Nearly 9) Days!!!!!

Okay. First of all I thought you all should know that Gogo has a secret ambition to be a show hunter. Why? Oh I dunno. I have to say, I think that's as correct as I've ever seen her form be. She is always very tidy with her legs, but doesn't often have that kind of bascule, nor are her front legs so evenly matched usually. Lovely. And as for me? Let's just say I need to get it together because I am the STAIN in that otherwise GORGEOUS photo! As you can tell I was on DEFENSIVE OVERKILL. I guess you can't blame me given the entire month of July. Well, at least it's better than it was earlier in the summer, that's for sure. But I have not regained my former poise over fences that I was almost achieving last year. But just look at her go. That was a nice lopey canter for her, really. Can you just imagine when she's actually galloping?

Gogo is back to serious work as of yesterday and has been a right snot about it, followed by a dash of fabulous. Generally, after a bit of downtime I start back up with a hack, but I wanted to get on her and test the gears, and get down to a bit of work given our dwindling time before the AECs! She was understandably a bit body-stiff when we first started out, but some w/t/c on the buckle sorted her out and loosened her up. It took awhile, but she eventually unkinked her body and became quite supple. We didn't do much beyond w/t/c, transitions, leg yields, and a few very minor lengthenings, but that was enough. She didn't have a lot of adjustability within gaits, but she was starting to tire a little by the end, so I called it a day on a perfectly square halt. Today, we went back out for another dressage session and she, for whatever reason, was NOT in the mood to play at first. Given the fact that she's, well, Gogo, I gave her some room to be herself, and she fussed, fussed, fussed, fussed. After about 45 minutes of mediocre fussy work, I finally halted and had her stand there on contact for a few minutes. Sometimes, this is all she needs to really let go and relax for whatever reason, and it worked today. She then gave me about 15 minutes of absolutely LOVELY work - incredibly supple both directions and very adjustable within gaits. We schooled some very nice leg yields, played with shoulder-in, did rapid-fire transitions (which completely blow her mind when she's not relaxed, but really engage her when she IS relaxed), and played with shallow loops in canter. To my great delight, she swelled like a sail and filled both reins during these, and gave me some very good ones going left. Now, given our previous difficulties going right, and our previous difficulties with counter-canter to begin with, I haven't done a successful shallow loop in canter going to the right on her.... well, maybe ever. Today, with minor trepidation and curiosity, I attempted one going right after a few going left, and lo and behold, she gave me an absolutely magnificent one, better than the ones going left, and as we rounded the corner I asked for a canter-halt, and BAM! Perfectly balanced, perfectly square. I ended on that, how could I ask for better? It was like she was gearing up over the past two rides to be perfect at the end of this one. We're dressage-ing for the next two days as well, and then HOPEFULLY getting an XC school in as well as some conditioning work. Valinor is holding open schooling on their course this week and weekend, but - alas - it is three hours away. That sounds like GREAT fun, but three hours....? That's a bit far. I've tried to get in contact with Mistover, but haven't heard back via e-mail, so I will try to call tomorrow instead. Maybe back to Red Rock? I dunno. I need WATER! Real up-down, in-out WATER!

I am happy to say that the weird mystery swellings in Gogo's front legs finally have an actual cause - NASTY SCURF! She had a rather extended bit of time off last week, long than I wanted, because I was so paranoid about the S word and the residual puffiness. It didn't seem to make sense though, her weird puffiness in relation to the S word, because she's been sound this whole time, and literally within 10 seconds of walking out of her stall, all the puffiness vanished. No heat, no residual swelling... just excess fluid, so it seemed. As it turns out, she had scurf forming under her hair, and linimenting and wrapping only served to make it explode. GROSS. I ended up clipping all hour lower legs today (which I didn't really want to do but I HAD to get it under control!), and scrubbing them with anti-gross shampoo. Most of the scurf went away - yay! - but you could tell when I was clipping her that it was REALLY bothering her. She spent most of her time jerking her legs away from me when I went to clip the scurfier spots, which was just tons of fun for me, let me tell you. So PHEW to that. We'll see tomorrow morning if it made any difference in the puffiness. I also managed to pull her mane in a way that thinned it without shortening it at all. Mad skills. Her buttons require a slightly longer mane than typical hunter braids would call for, but it needs to be fairly thin at the same time to really look good. Her mane would really love to be THICK and all over the place, so it's a constant uphill battle of epic proportions. It's actually been laying down all on the right side this week all by itself, so I must be doing something right.


Saturday I managed to get ALL THIS STUFF DONE!:
Take everything out of trailer tack room and vacuum the floor
Go through all boxes in trailer
Remove dirty blankets from trailer
Go through all buckets in trailer – clean everything in them!!
Call IL Ag Dept
Put health papers in CAR!
Organize show clothes
Don’t forget show BELT
Put show pads in trailer
FIND STOCK PIN! (Which was a fail... I seem to have lost it.)
Put show clothes in trailer
Pick up coats from drycleaners and put in trailer
Go through all stuff in trailer, figure out what I need to replace
Get SAFETY PIN for my dressage coat (I need a new one... this one fits horribly!)
Clean safety vest

Sunday I was much less productive:
Get new boot shine for tall boots
Wash/clean Gogo’s boots

And today I managed to get these few things done:
Wash sheets
Put boots (inc. new bells) in trailer
Order needed supplies (Showsheen, poultice, hoof polish)
Clip legs
Pull mane



On our merry way, we are. Once the clock rolls over to midnight, 9 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!




(2008 AEC Picture of the Day: Gogo and I getting ready for one booty-kickin' XC run!!)

Huntington Farms H.T. 9/23/09

BACK IN WINNING FORM!!

Or well, almost ;) Gogo and I took 5th in our division at Huntington this weekend due to a bad ride to the planks on my part and a subsequent slip in the mud during stadium, which cost us a rail even though Maresie did her very best to get us out of a bad situation. Oops! Rails happen, and when they're my fault combined with Mother Nature... oh well!

Huntington was GREAT fun. The drive wasn't nearly as bothersome as I expected, and I spent it cruising along with good music enjoying myself. It got wilder and more woodsy the further north I went, and I was reminded of driving through nothern Michigan. Except for the "Bear Crossing" and "Moose Crossing" signs. Bears?? Moose?? I've never even seen a moose, I don't think. I almost hit a bear wearing a giant radio collar with my Durango when I was driving through Sequoia National Park in California. I saw bears once outside a restaurant in the Yoop (that's Michigan's Upper Penninsula for those of you not from there... believe it or not, yes, Michigan is actually two states with one name, separated by water.) But it certainly felt like I was heading into the Wops the further I went.
Gogo settled in like a good girl upon arrival - we were in the upper barn on top of a hill, overlooking the rest of the valley we were in. Huntington has a ton of land, it seems, or at least had permission to use an awful lot of land! The barn had a narrow little entrance door and low ceilings, but the stalls were big and roomy and she seemed very comfortable there. She even only tried to attack her neighbors once or twice, how sweet.

As for me, once I got her settled I headed out to walk XC, where it promptly started to rain on me. From that point on, I'm pretty sure I didn't dry out until I got in the car to drive home the next day. After getting a good look at the course (and getting thoroughly soaked), I gave Gogo her night check, and settled into the trailer for the night. I had one of her blankets spread onto the floor of the trailer (after it was cleaned out of course!!), a sleeping bag and pillow on top of that, and my cooler of snacks, backpack of stuff, and Harry Potter to keep me company in the rain. And it rained alllllllllllllll night. Lights were out by 10pm (unusual for me!), and I awoke the next morning on my own at 6:30am feeling refreshed and ready to roll.

Dressage went well. I did not achieve nearly the level of relaxation that I usually do, even after an hour of warmup (easy there beast... still hot to trot after an hour? Well... here goes nothing...!) but she put in a very solid test even though it felt like if I had needed a half-halt anywhere, I wouldn't have been able to get one! We came away with a test of solid 7's, two 8's, and one deserved 6 for our freewalk. Still, that gave us a 29.5, our best score of this season so far, and putting us in 3rd behind a tie for 1st with two 28.5s. Pretty respectable! A friend I had made at Mystic was in 5th with either a 31.0 or a 31.5, I can't remember, but that gives you an idea of how close the scores were! I can't rememeber where our winner was sitting after dressage, but it must have been right around there. I was pleased with the score and the test, but still got the same old comments as always - needs more activity behind and needs better left bend. Well... I guess the hock injections didn't exactly solve that issue either. Guess it's back to a rider problem... d'oh!

Onto XC, which I was understandably a little nervous about. It had been drizzling on and off, and I was feeling a bit anxious, because how could I not after our past two shows? But I needn't have worried. The course was quite long for Novice - optimum time was nearly 6 minutes, I think Groton House's was a little over 5 minutes, for comparison - and it was very long and gallopy, like a lot of people had told me ahead of time. The first fence was very inviting, enclosed on both sides and simple to look at:



And she jumped it like a champ. From there, it was a nice long gallop to fence 2, another attractive brushy fence with a turny approach to it, which she took slightly crooked but showed no hesitation to. Up into the woods from there, down a long road which put you back out into a small field where fence 3 was:



Again, fairly sizeable, very inviting, and she gave it a very good effort. Up into the woods and down the dirt road again, and around a corner to the biggest field where fence 4 was waiting, which again gave no problems:



Fence 5, which barely missed being included in that picture, was a big swing around to the left, easy for her, another simple palisade/coop type jump, and from there you headed to fence 6, a very sweet tire jump which she looked at in a sort of curious way but never hesitated to on approach. It was like she was going oh, that's nicely built isn't it? And on we went. Fence 7 was a simple palisade, and on we went to fence 8, which was our first real question:



That's the backside of it. Notice the funky hill right before it? I know that seems uncomplicated, but Gogo has this tendancy to gather speed going down hills, and I was not about to be going a thousand miles an hour at the bottom of this little speed bump here only to have her go hmmmm I am going too fast and can't POSSIBLY be expected to jump this! What I had planned to do was come down the short side of the hill at a trot and risk a steering issue rather than risk a speed issue coming over the hill. I needn't have worried, however, because even though she simply would not trot, she came around that shorter side of the hill and was completely game to it, jumping it just fine. Hooray! From here, I don't have any more pictures (it was raining pretty hard at that time and I didn't want to get my camera all wet), but I will describe it as best I can. I wish I had gotten to take more pictures, there are some things I wish you guys could see! After fence 8 was a hard right turn to a one stride combination of simple logs, and fence 10 was a white barn/doghouse, all of which she handled easily. It got trickier from there - fence 11 was a set of airy logs at the top of a pretty steep hill, which you had to jump while you were still going up, and she gave it a mighty effort which I was very impressed with - I'm pretty sure she's never jumped anything quite like that before. The meat of the course started at fence 12, the ditch, which was kind of weird looking. From the ditch, you had just a couple of strides to make it to fence 13, an offset coop off to the right, and then it was onto the upbank, with another offset approach to it - it was basically arcing around these three all going to the right in a circle. The bank was interesting - it was set at the top of a hill in a circular shape, and they called it The Castle. In the middle of The Castle was a chevron from Training the day before, so you had to crank left in order to not run into it when you reached the top of the bank. From there, it was down a fairly steep little section of hill to a set of brushy logs at the bottom, which was complicated to get to because you had a fairly narrow path going left off of The Castle (so you didn't fall off the other sides), and then you had to go right down this steep-ish hill to the brushy log. Complicated for her, to be sure, but she took all of it in stride and was completely game and relaxed through the whole thing. She never hesitated once, even though it went so fast I don't think I had time to register hardly any of it! It was a loooooooooooong gallop down a dirt road from there to fence 16, a set of logs set on a downhill slope, which she hopped over easily. Down a pretty turfed up hill we went, at the bottom of which was the water complex. I had planned on trotting this hill, but again, she came back to me instead in a very controlled canter and so I let her cruise comfortably down the hill that way. She looked at the water for a second - it was a large puddle mostly - but a couple pops with my beater and she trotted right in, and out over the logs right after it. Wheeee down the final hill to the big white at the end, and I came home whooping and hollering like a backwoods redneck at the Friday night hoedown. My friend came in behind me and was equally as pleased with her ride, and we walked back together to stabling discussing our rides. I was thrilled. THRILLED! She was perfect!

I have no pictures of stadium either - bummer. The course was very turny, with rollbacks and some tight turns, and I think it would have been great fun if it hadn't been raining like crazy. Even though the XC footing had been fine, by the time we went for stadium, the ground there was very turfed and very slick. You know when the ground is so saturated that giant clods of grass just come loose when you step on them? It was that kind of slick. The first fence Gogo took in the warmup she knocked, which should have been my first clue that I should take it conservatively. She handled the course well through the 5th fence, but felt unstable in the footing, as did most everyone else, I think. It felt like it didn't have anything to due with her barefooted-ness either, because I know that question will get asked! I saw a shod horse with big ol' studs go sliding vertically into the first fence of the combination, simply because he said no after he had had a rail at the fence before it and just couldn't stop himself in the muck in time to not crash. I saw some earlier crashes too, while I was checking out the course for a second time. Ohhhh well, sometimes Mother Nature has some tricks up her sleeve! Anyway, it was onto a sort of awkward bending line onto fence 6, the evil planks on flat cups - o horrors, flat cups! - which I gave her a decidedly bad ride to. She landed on her right lead, and when I went to ask her to switch left, she cross-cantered. I'm not sure if she ever switched, really - the fence was approaching and I stopped paying attention because I didn't see a spot and I don't think she did either. As a result, she tried to save both our butts by leaving long, and just flopped through it, taking it down with her as we landed. The rest of the course she jumped her GUTS out though, which was super sweet and I was very proud of her. I came out of the ring feeling crappy about the injections - after all, this was the first time in the past 9 events we've gone to that she's had a rail, and this was the first post injections, you know. That theory didn't seem to make all that much sense to me though, and when we went back into the ring for our victory gallop, I took another look at the fence. Yep, there they were, skid marks from two hind feet losing their purchase as a horse tried to take off! Ohhhhhhhh I get it, she likely just slipped in the footing while trying to cover my butt for me and just couldn't quite manage it. But she tried, and that's all that matters to me.

We finished 5th on our final score of 33.5. That's pretty respectable if you ask me for our first time back out, and in very stiff competition too. The top 5 places ALL moved around after stadium, it was crazy! The girl that was in 1st also had a rail, so had we gone clean, we would have moved into 1st for our 4th win of the season - d'oh again! - but as our winner pointed out in a comment on my last post, karma was throwing her a bone after a very bad week, so I will totally agree to the universe's choice here ;) (By the way, I DID notice your horse's huuuuuge ears... I LOVE that, my last gelding had MONSTER ears so I have a soft spot for them, lol). I also have to say I think I would have keeled over dead if we had actually won another one. Winning three is freaky enough for me, and winning three in a row? TOO freaky. Winning FOUR? If we do win another I think I'm going to die of a heartattack.


I can't believe how amazing she was. This pink ribbons means a lot more to me than all the blue ones it's next to. She galloped her heart out, jumped her guts out, and did her very best through some very tricky coursework and some very ucky footing. She wasn't spooky, looky, hesitant, or balky in any way. She really gave it her all for me, and I couldn't be happier with how she was.

The best part? Look at this face after we were done:



That is one happy horse with energy still left in the tank. She was plenty tired today, but yesterday she was still buzzed after we were done and searching for more cookies. She's back to her old self, and I am SERIOUSLY excited for the AECs. The official countdown is 15 days starting tomorrow (Tuesday), and we leave on the 7th. Gogo had a chiro adjustment today, which I will write about tomorrow cause this is getting LONG, and because of it she'll have a couple of days off. It's back to work on Thursday with a nice long hack, and then it's down to business. The wire is approaching, and I can't believe it. How are the AECs right around the corner already??

It was a great weekend, and I'm so glad to have my horse back to her good old self again.