Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend was pretty good, overall.  My leg is good and I'm back to wearing pants, although still fighting to keep the dog from licking it after I put Mederma on it to keep the scarring minimal (hopefully).

Friday I left work just a tad early, and I don't really remember what I did, which means nothing, probably.  Except walk the dog.  I do a lot of that.  

Saturday I went to the barn and got an unexpected lesson from Marcy.  She taught three and was wiped out.  Her surgery is this week.  Violet was pretty good, although a bit distracted.  The schooling show was wrapping up and there were a lot of trailers leaving the property.  But mostly she was good. It's been a while since we've done a true dressage school and we worked on all the things we've been working on.  Getting the leg yield step into all transitions, up and down.  Sitting the canter.  Keeping hands closer together.  Using elbows more than you think you should.  Pushing into the contact.  It was good.

Sunday I slept in late, did laundry, talked to my mother, helped taste-test the goodies my brother was making for his girlfriend's birthday gathering, and cleaned the floor.  Luke (the dog) helped by eating an entire baguette, making my brother make another trip to the grocery.

 Monday we slept in a bit.  The boy worked close (his Memorial Day holiday is today), so we went to Waffle House for breakfast.  It was his first experience, and I think he liked it.  Hokey, I know, but how can you go wrong with eggs and hash browns.  Then we bought plants and mulch for the front walk and watched some of our current show, the Following.  Then he went to work and I went to the barn.

Where I was greeted with this as soon as I put Violet on the cross ties.

Yes, I forget, this is Florida, and you dare not put the ride off until the afternoon or you risk driving 4 hours for nothing.  The horses were not settled, and Violet acted flat out scared as soon as the rain started hitting the tin roof.  Now you cannot fool me.  I know she knows what rain sounds like on the roof.  But she was really freaked.  I had trouble getting her to walk back down the barn aisle to her stall.  She was all white eyed and freaky.  Not usual, so I listened to her and just put her away and waited.  Our help came about 45 minutes later.  It was still raining off and on, so I let Violet eat.

Can  you not see I'm trying to eat here?!  Or do you have something more?

When I finally called it and put everything away and was preparing to get in the truck to go home, it just didn't look so bad.  There was some thunder still, though.  But the girls feeding convinced me I could get on and just stay next to the barn in case the weather was not going away.  And they even tacked up for me.  Pony was out of her stall and dressed by the time I put my boots, helmet and gloves on.

She loves her fan

You dare interrupt the pony fan time?!?

And of course the weather did not come back.  It was gloriously sunny.  And hot.  And still.  And humid.  Gotta love Florida.

So we did a nice walk around the cross country fields and then did a little flat work/hack in the field closest to the barn, rinsed the girl off, cleaned tack and headed home.

Where I got home in time to take Luke out for a bit of a walk before dark.  We had a close encounter with a kitty for the first time.  Usually I cross the road to get away from the cats, but decided since he is getting better at not trying to chase them while on leash, we would keep walking.  Kitty was not moving.  Luke was good.  I think he really just wants to lick them.  Taste them a little bit.  Kitty was not impressed and Luke backed off on his own when it hissed.  The black one walked away before we got there.  A short mile and a half and we were back home for dinner, much chasing of lizards in the backyard, some TV for mom, and bed.

This week we are heading down to the boy's oldest daughter's high school graduation, and some riding this weekend.  I have to somehow get a full week's work done in two days.

My how quickly things change

Of course mere moments after I made my last post, things changed.

When texting Marcy for lunch instructions, I told her to have a great time at the show.  At which point she lets me know about an unplanned dismount that has resulted in her needing surgery to fix her broken clavicle.

Then Sunday morning during my morning walk with the dog, I turned my ankle off my own shoe and fell on the sidewalk.  I don't think there's anything really broken, but I have no skin on a good portion of my left leg. Yeah.  Ouch.

So that means no show this weekend.  Between the pony not getting worked and me not being able to wear pants, it's just not going to happen.  And no cross country school.  We'll get to it, it just won't be this weekend.

On a good note, I had a wonderful time at the barn Saturday.  It was just me and the three redheads; Violet, Charlie and Finn.  I fed lunch, filled hay bags and water, gave scritches, picked stalls, then took out my redhead for a ride.  We took a good long walk around the property and then spent some time in the dressage ring.  Then back to the barn where I rinsed off the girl and gave her her apple, cleaned tack and gave the stalls one last pick and the ponies one last scritch.  It was fantastic.  And makes me remember that I always liked that part.  There was a reason that I used to dream of being a groom.  If I could give up everything, I swear it's something I would love to do.  I may not know a whole lot, but I love to learn, and I am willing to learn the ways of whoever I would work for.  It's hard work, I know.  I did groom for the Marshall and Sterling Finals in NY once (where I got the nickname Juanita) and it was the hardest I have ever worked in my life.  But I loved every minute of it and look back on it fondly.

So...here's to changing plans and wearing pants...

Oh so many plans

Sorry for the lack of posting.  Everyone has such exciting things to post, but I really haven't had much.

So...the dog.  He's a very good looking boy, he just gets an attack of the dumbs periodically that catches me off-guard.  He wants to lunge after everything on the leash (cats, squirrels, birds, lizzards, the occasional leaf), which drives me nuts, but we seem to be getting past that some.  Treats help.  This dog training thing is completely new to me. Vet trip this afternoon will be the first time I've had him in the truck, so that should be interesting.  We hope to get some training classes scheduled after the next couple of very busy weeks.

So handsome

Crate training is going well.  I say training, but it's really not training so much as reminding.  About two days ago, he decided to show me he knows where bed is and started going there himself when we say it's time to go to bed.  And then again he surprised me by doing it before we even said anything.

I have been tracking steps.  Since we got the dog, I am averaging between 10 and 15 thousand steps a day. I sit at a desk all day, and I remember days when I started wearing a tracker that I was pushing it to hit 5,000 in a day.  Now, I start my day with between 0.5 and 1 miles walking.  The dog goes on three walks if it's just me, four or five if it's a combination of the boy and I.  I'm getting intimately familiar with my neighborhood, which is nice.

We have a busy couple of weeks coming. Tomorrow I head to the barn to ride the redhead on my own and to do lunch and day care for the horses.  Marcy and Ginny headed up to Chatt Hills yesterday. The next week is a busy one at work.  Next weekend I am doing a combined test at the Rocking Horse Schooling show.  Then I am staying overnight to do my first cross country school in over a year.  I can say I'm a bit nervous about that, but Marcy says Violet is going better than ever.  Then the first Thursday/Friday in June we will be heading to Clearwater for the boy's oldest daughter's high school graduation.

Marcy also let it slip that she has a goal of me doing BN at the rated show in November.  Unfortunately, that is the same weekend that I had planned my wedding.  Since I haven't actually got the venue scheduled that might be flexible, but I don't know.  I still don't really know what I'm doing with the wedding thing.  I really just want to go to the courthouse and do it and have parties everywhere rather than a planned wedding, but my parents would never forgive me, and our courthouse doesn't actually do weddings anymore.

Marcy and I had a great talk at my last lesson about where I am now and where we are going. She admitted that the hardest part for her to teach, and the part that she has to teach very often when dealing with adult amateurs like me, is fear.  The reason it is so difficult is that she's never really had it.  She gets nervous, yes, but not afraid.  And I had a lot of fear to get through to even get this far. Like debilitating, I'm going to toss my cookies, let's ride in a fetal position kind of fear.  And now we have to get through some more of that with the cross country.  She figures that the way we got through the jumping fear was to break it down into little tiny chunks, and now I'm having a blast with it.  Since we have all summer, we can break our cross country work down to individual fences if we need to, and kind of add it on to the end of our other schooling.  You know, do a jump school in the ring, then head out and jump over a couple of rolltops or tackle a bank.

I am excited for everything that is coming.  It's very busy, but very exciting.

Our Foray into Jumper-land

First, media is limited.  I was too busy watching or riding to do much myself.  We had someone come and take pictures. Unfortunately, both my rounds were during lunch.  But I have the movie in my head, so it's all good!

So Saturday we made a short detour to Jumper-land.  Friday I got off early and went down for a short lesson over poles, just working on the balance, which is my biggest challenge (as I've said before, boobs). Saturday morning we did morning chores, loaded up and headed out for the 30 minute drive to the facility.

Rather artsy pic while waiting.

When I say facility, this place is no joke.  The Grand Oaks Resort, home of the Florida Carriage Museum in Weirsdale Florida is just breathtaking.  I think the guy driving the beverage cart (yep, beverage cart.  Just sodas and water though) said it was 124 acres in the "lower" portion that we were using, like 350 acres total. There were 5 or 6 rings going.  I couldn't really tell because they are so spread out.  We parked as close to the jump ring as we could get, which was half a mile away (thank you Garmin step tracker, 9 miles on Saturday alone).  From there, we could see three rings in action, the novice ring (you know, walk trot), the big hunter classes in the indoor, and the jumper ring, which started with "pea green walk-trot crossrail jumpers".  Goodness.

Such a pretty girl.  Even with her fly mask on.

I was not nervous.  Until we signed in and I went to the jumper ring to see where they were and check the courses.  And realized they had watered the ring until it was soup.  But soup with good footing.  It wasn't deep, just wet.  They had to overwater it because they had too many trips to stop in the middle of the day to water it down.

Marcy and Violet checking out the warm-up.

Then we went back to the trailer and got V ready to go.  Marcy was riding her first in the 2'3" to get her in the ring.  It's been a while since we have been anywhere, and a very long while since she has jumped somewhere unfamiliar.

When we got back and they set the fences to 2'3", I believe I did say a couple of times, oh no, they look big.

B element of the 1-stride - photo by John Clark

These courses were no joke.  The fences were maxed.  I watched them measure.  And they adjusted width's as well.  And they were technical.  There were two combos (1-stride and 2-stride to a related 5-stride). There were broken lines and rollbacks.  And I had no idea what a "power and speed" class even was.  But I was riding one.  At the highest I have ever jumped in a show as an adult.

The lollipop jump - photo by John Clark

So, for those of you who have not done jumpers, there are power and speed and there are just speed.  Just speed is fastest and clearest.  You stop after you are done, and if you went clear, there is another buzzer to start the jump off.  There were too many riders, so no jump off in this show, it was just speed.  We don't care about speed and cutting corners and all that, so we were just using that as an opportunity to do all the rollbacks and stuff.

Waiting for our turn.

Power and speed is a different thing.  You go over the first 9 numbered elements and if you are clear (power) then you immediately jump another 4 numbered elements (speed) without stopping.  There is no separate buzzer.  The timer is only for the last 4, but only IF you are clear on the first 9.  That means 13 numbered elements.  With two a/b combos, one of which you jump twice.  Which means 16 jumps.  In a row.  Without stopping.  Good lord, I'm going to die.

So Marcy does just the speed and has a nice round.  Violet didn't really look at anything at all other than the wall of the practice area before the class.  And she got the distances for everything.  It was really nice.  And now I know she can do it, so now it's my turn.

We head back, get tacked up, walk down to the ring.  We start schooling.  The schooling area is very small, but Violet is really jumping well.  She's forward, but listening and really jumping around the fences, it feels like.  Then at the end, Marcy says "ok, I'm going to set this one hard for you so the others are easy" and sets the fence up.  I think it was the vertical, but truthfully, I don't remember.  She said jump it, we did and it wasn't hard at all.  Keep the triangle up with your hands above the pony's neck to keep the balance up, and ignore the fact that they just put a liverpool under fence #6 and don't forget to keep her in front of you and GO!

Oh...my...god.  It was...it was FUN!

Course 1.  Blue was power, red was speed.  Red X is the fence I went over instead of #11.  Whoops.  It rode well to 12, though, lol.

I got the bending line from 1 to 2, did the rollback to 3, headed on the broken line to the 1-stride at 4 and nailed it.  Back around to 5, broken line to the liverpool at 6 where I just put inside leg on and the pony said "GOT IT".  Zoom around to the 2-stride at 7 where we put in a pretty 3 strides, then 5 strides to the oxer, that was sitting in a puddle and was easily the biggest oxer on the course.  Last rollback to another vertical, and we completed power CLEAR!  Right turn rollback back to the 1-stride where I dropped my hands because I felt my saddle slip and needed to hold on, and we dribbled 2 in there and it was not pretty.  I also lost my stirrup.  I actually slowed to a walk to pick it back up and gather myself because this is not for winners, it is for training.  Then I got a beautiful forward bending line.  Except I jumped the wrong fence to start the line so I was done.

No biggie.  I wasn't even upset, and neither was Marcy or anyone else that was there with us, because I had fun!  This is such a huge thing for me.  I was confident, I actually was able to remember some things, and when I had not the best jumps, I was able to recover and make the next ones better.  I was finding the forward stride to the fences and I did not go fetal, and and and...it was just fantastic.

So I left the ring, got lots of praise from Marcy and her husband, and the other rider that was with us, and 2 rounds later, I went back in for the speed class.

Course 2. Just speed.

Ok, I was tired.  And after my saddle slipped I should have checked my girth.  But I didn't.  This class, we started with a broken line to the big wet oxer, which again was fantastic.  Then left rollback to a vertical and right rollback to the 1-stride.  Here my saddle slipped, hands went down, we got 2 and it was not pretty.  I was able to sit back up for the right turn to the kind of zig zaggy line of 5-6-7, which was fantastic.  Again, that inside leg was instrumental. At this point I was saying to Violet in my brain, only two more numbers, please just two more numbers.  We got the left rollback to 8, but again I felt insecure in my saddle and clutched mane which dropped our balance in the right hand rollback to the 2-stride, which again had 3 strides, but these were not pretty.  I was still grinning like an idiot as I left the class, because I did it!  WE did it!  We didn't drop a single fence, Violet felt fantastic and did not feel like she lost confidence in me at all, and we did it!

Marcy was so happy.  She said you could see my demeanor change after I got over the first fence.  It was like, ok, we got this, let's get it done, and she said she could tell I was trying really hard to remember all the stuff that we have been working on, and she was even more proud that I was able to keep going when things weren't perfect.  Because that is what this is all about.  We have to keep going.

We went for a walk, and went back to the trailer for a quick rinse off before heading back up to the ring to see the other student with us do the 2'9" class.  As I was walking up, they were reading the results for my classes, but I wasn't listening.  Remember, this wasn't about winning.  I had already won, so I didn't care what color the ribbons were.  I knew I would get one because I was in the smallest 2'6" division (open) and completed at least the second course, but it just didn't matter.

Except I won.

I won the class that I didn't complete.

Violet says "This some b-shit.  Where's my dinner, hooman!"

I got a third in my speed class and Marcy got third in hers.

Um, yeah, so apparently no one else was able to get through the power part, I guess?  I was the only one to go clear?  So yeah, this show gives out prizes.  Yay for prizes that are useful!

Our winning's for the day.  Yes, that is a stemless wineglass in the center bottom.  I will drink out of it daily.

After that, the other student was done, we pulled Marcy's horse off and loaded Violet in the trailer to eat hay while Marcy did the 3'3" classes with Riley.  She won both of her classes, the other student got a second and a fifth.  So here's to the eventers invading hunter/jumper land and showing that if you are working on the basics, which was our plan all along, the ribbons follow.

Fence 1 - photo by John Clark

Marcy and Riley getting some Training level jumping mileage. - photo by John Clark

Marcea and Riley conquer the 1-stride in the background.

And it was fun!

Proud pony.

Happy Friday!

I say I really don't have much to report.  The fact is that I have way too much to report, although none of it is horsey.  I got a new roommate in my brother.  We have been working to get some of his items taken care of so that he can actually pay me some rent.

The boy got the vehicle of his dreams.  It has been a logistical nightmare.  The dealer called the boy as soon as it hit the lot, before it was cleaned or anything.  He went to look at it after hours (like 2am after he closed the store) and decided it was the one.  We went up there 2 days later and did the deal.  Brought it back two days after because they hadn't detailed it yet.  They had it for 24 hours and did a half assed job, and when we got it home, we discovered it was leaking some fluid on the driveway.  Because the detail was half-assed, how likely that the inspection was as well?  So back it went.

After two texts from the salesman basically telling me they aren't going to do anything because it's used, and that he has other customers that are more important that me, I contacted his manager who got me a rental.  The boy is driving my truck, I'm in the rental, and they have had the jeep for two days.  Turns out there was a leak in the radiator that should have been picked up in the inspection.  So I'll be going to pick that up this afternoon.  Not the most practical of vehicles, since it does involve having to crawl up into it, but he's happy, and so what?  He's paying for it.

The new ride.  As yet unnamed.

Then the boy got a new puppy.  I say he's the boy's puppy, but...um...I really like him.  And he is a puppy. Big, but a puppy.  I happened to overhear a co-worker talking about two labs that washed out of a program down the street at her house, K9s for Warriors.  The boy went and took a look and decided he liked both the program and the puppy.  He has some lab in him, but he's mostly hound, I think.  He's from Georgia, about a year old, and obviously came from a neglect situation before he got to K9s.  He was in their program for 3 months, is crate and house trained, does well on a leash.  They say he washed out because he barked at the bus that they use to go places, and that could be a problem for someone with PTSD.  So far, with me, he has not barked at all.  The boy says he did give the little yippy dogs on the other side of the fence what-for the other day, but I understand that.  They say bad things, those yippy dogs. 

How could you not love this face?

We actually think it is more likely that he washed out because he has some...what we in the horse world would call mouthiness.  He is definitely a chewer, and when he plays he nips.  And he steals food.  When eating and drinking, he acts like he has never seen water or food before and never will again.  He's not aggressive if you try to touch him when eating or anything, but he does guard, and his food is gone in about 10 seconds.  

Unfortunately, while I just deal with it, and he is well behaved with me, the boy does not have much tolerance for it.  He does not seem to like this puppy as much as the last one.  But this is one I can see going places with us, and I'm sure we can get better about food and mouthiness as he grows up and as we continue his training.  Right now, he's really good at sit and stay for me, not so much for the boy.

Going for a long walk with mom.  Starts off tugging a bit, but that's just because mom is slow.

And this is one goofy boy.  He's all legs and big feet.  He currently weighs about 70 pounds, but he's still got growing to do.  So say hello to Luke.  I think this one is a keeper.

Lastly, I am heading down to the farm early from work to get a ride in.  Tomorrow we are showing at a very large local hunter/jumper show down the road from the farm.  Marcy will do a 2'3" jumper class with V to get her in the ring, and I'm doing two 2'6" classes.  Here's to staying on top, and keeping the poles in the cups.  Have a great weekend!

Surprise jumping lesson

I headed to the barn on Saturday like usual, but this week I had some other things I needed to do so I couldn't stay overnight.  I figured that was fine, we would flat and next week I would school the day before the show and it would all be good.

Marcy had other ideas.  I headed up to the barn to be met by her halfway in the golfcart, where she told me to turn around and get the right gear on.  Violet thought it was the shortest (best) ride ever.  Not so much pony girl.

Because I have no media and she's cute as hell.

I got back up to the ring, which was in the process of being groomed.  There was a big group of paints that were also on their way, but I got there first, and Marcy came in the other entrance to set fences. The tractor left and I entered after trotting around outside the ring a bit.  We trotted and then cantered, and then started cantering a pole.  Then we changed that up to pole, turn to another pole.  Then we added a cross rail in the middle.  This was not a circle of death exercise, it was simply a pole, like 9 strides to a crossrail, another 9 strides to a pole, going back and forth, left lead, right lead, etc.

I have no idea what happened.  It was hot.  Like 90+ hot.  And still.  And I sounded like a freight train.  And the group on the paints actually came into the ring with me like they were going to use it at the same time. And I just could not do the exercise.  I could not canter those damned poles to save my life.  It's like the brain said "nope, too much".  We were splitting legs over poles left and right.  Always got over the cross rail, though.  When the brains finally decided to let me do it right a couple of times, we moved on.

We then worked down the 5 stride line, back and forth, first as both verticals, and then both oxers.  I did pretty good at getting the forward stride.  We do better when they are bigger, I think.  I still need to work on looking UP over the fence.  Not just to the next fence, but UP.  My chest (not something most riders have to deal with) gets forward and puts the pony onto her forehand, which many times causes that chip in a line. Damned boobs.

I mentioned to Marcy that I thought of Reed Kessler when she said that, and she said no, go look at pics of Kent Farrington, cause he does it best.  And of course, trainer's always right.

Like here.

And here

And he chews his lips like I do.

Then we did the line right turn rollback to a fence.  It is so nice.  I can actually simply pick up my inside hand and look to the next fence and she just goes there.  After we did that a few times, we did the line the other direction to a left rollback to a one stride.

Yep, the one stride.  The old "in-and-out".  I've done them a couple of times in the past.  But it always took me several tries to get her forward and her stride long enough to actually get the one stride.  Or the two stride, for that matter.  And we haven't done anything closer than 4 strides in like a year and a half.  At least I haven't.

So you can imagine the whoop that came out of my mouth after we handled that bad boy on the first and only try!

And with that we were done.  I washed her off, cleaned my tack, and headed home.

We wee going to go to a baseball game, but it was too hot, so we went to the beach for a walk instead.  Sunday I had planned to do nothing, but my brother had the day off, so we worked in the garden and with the plants outside, and then I went and played softball.

Oh, and we may have gotten a new member of the family. 

Hi Luke!