Road trip!

Saturday we headed out to the Florida Horse Park for some cross country schooling.  We had a mixed group of 2 Training rides, 2 Novice rides, and me.  My goal was far different from everyone else, as it was simply to have a positive experience in a different place, probably just over the elementary level fences to keep it simple.  I was nervous, but kind of excited.

We chose the Florida Horse Park because 1) our cross country is closed the month of July and 2) there was a schooling show scheduled the next day, and the fences were marked, so we could follow the course.

In order to avoid the heat, we planned to be out of our farm by seven.  So that meant I had to head down on Friday night.  Saturday we were up early, got the barn chores done and the trailer loaded up and were on the road by 7.  We checked in, tacked up, and were heading out to the field by 8:32. Being as early as we were, we beat most others, but not by too much.

We started with a quick warm up in the field.  Violet being so worried about being left behind is easier to kind of do this alone, but not.  By that, I mean I warmed her up in the middle of the area, where no one else was, but where Vi could keep her eye on everyone.  I am very aware of her desire to chase, so I work very hard at not following anyone else.  When we stop by fences to school, I keep her separate from everyone else so she doesn't fight me when we leave the group.  We have worked hard on coming up with a workable solution for this, and it's not hard.  She was better than she has been in the past, so apparently it worked.

That's me in the middle

We started at a line of little houses.  Everyone else started at the elementary and circled around to BN, then around to Novice.  Then it was my turn.  We headed to the fence, planning on just doing the elementary, and Violet asked about 5 strides out if I was serious, and I said Yes?  With the question mark, she said, three strides out, yeah, I don't think so and stopped.  I took a breath, walked her up to the fence calmly and let her sniff it, turned away and popped her twice on the shoulder with the crop.

Note:  In the hunter world, I was taught you don't ever use the crop in front of the saddle.  However, Violet takes exception to what she considers a spanking.  If you want her to stop at a fence 10 strides out and refuse to go forward, pop her on the butt.  However, she takes the shoulder pop as a wake up and doesn't take it personally.  I know, strange pony.

We turned back to the fence, picked up a better canter, touched her with the crop on the shoulder to say "YES ma'am, I mean it now" and over she went.  We did it another couple of times to make sure she had the idea, and didn't have another issue.  I have to get that ride to the very first fence.

We moved on to a coop that lead to a bowl.  Lots to look at, no issue for the pony.

While the other riders worked on much more advanced tasks (fence to drop to skinny, etc.  One rider did the one handed drop ride, to which trainer says "you know she rides ponies, right?"), I walked in circles around my little fences.  I started to think, well hey, maybe I should just keep going from my one and do two in a row.  Not that we did, but the fact that my brain said "wouldn't that be fun!" is an improvement.

We headed to the bowl, where we walked up and down a few times.  Then I picked out my two elementary fences on the outside and stood and watched the other school their questions.  This took a while, as they were complex and required more than one ride through.  One horse required a different rider to get him through the question.  I have to say there is nothing more fun to watch than a pony rider get on a horse that is having an issue and negotiate through a question.  These two young women that we have riding our horses are fantastic and always a joy to watch.

Anyway, we got to me.  I took the little tiny house, rode around a right curve to the coop.  There may have been a whoop from me.  I'm pretty sure there was a whoop from those with me, since they all know where I'm coming from.  There is a video.  I, however, am not able to copy it to YouTube or here, because I fail at technology.  If you are industrious enough, you can find it on my Facebook page.

Then we worked on one that was in a shadow.  As Marcy warned, Violet stuttered up to it.  We did it a few times, and by the end it was better, but she always stuttered to it.  I can see we will have to continue to work on those light to dark questions.

There was one other fence, and then we headed to the water at the end.  This was really fun.  The water was murky, as it was not their normal water, but basically a swamp.  We walked through first, then everyone went through.  I was last.  We trotted through the water, picked up a canter as we came out and four strides later jumped another little house.  It was the best fence of the day and a great way to end a successful trip.  Next time, we'll start on the BN fences.

This weekend I'll head out for a lesson on Saturday and then on to my annual vacation at the beach. Since it's actually closer to the barn, I'll probably head over for a mid-week lesson as well.  Give my mom the opportunity to see her grand-pony, if she wants to.  It will be strange to be without both boy and dog until Thursday when he will join me for the last weekend, but it will be nice to settle down in my chair with my toes in the sand and the sound of the ocean in my ears with nothing else to worry about.

Jumping lesson

So Sunday dawned hot.  Surprise.  The high was officially 97, but I tell you, you hit the white sand of a ring, and it's about 10 degrees hotter than that.  Violet was not too excited about being removed from her fan.

We headed out to the ring, where we warmed up lightly, counting the rhythm of her strides in all the gates, bending in and out.  Funny thing about hot horses.  They tend to be hot and cheeky when it's cool outside, and turn into deadheads when it's hot.  She was pretty lackadaisical on the flat.  And she was not happy with the footing, which was a bit hard after some rain that dried up.

Then we got right to it, starting on a grid with cross rails.  Three fences, 3 stride to a 4 stride.  She needed pretty good support to the first fence, as she wanted to slow down to that one, but once in the line, she carried me right through.  I worked on keeping my eye up.  After a few times, the last fence went up to an oxer.

After this, the middle fence was put up to a vertical, and then the first was put up to an oxer.  The technicality here was in my ride.  Violet was still sticky to the first fence, so I had to send her over that oxer and try to keep from breaking my position open as early as usual and then ride to the vertical, where I could break earlier to steady for the final oxer, where I could hold position a bit longer and then get the balanced canter after the fence.  It was tricky, but pony was game.

After that, we went on to working on some lines.  The first was an oxer to oxer line in six strides. Then a right turn to a left bending vertical to vertical line.

We had a little difficulty with this.  The oxer to oxer line rode pretty well, and Violet is getting really good at getting her simple changes.  The issue was with the bending line.  I was not getting back into position and getting her organized early enough, nor riding out far enough in the turn, and it made the out sticky.  Not bad.  She didn't really chip, but it wasn't fluid.

Then we tried to put it all together.

Yeah, that didn't get better.  So we went back and did just the two lines one more time.

This time I got the forward stride, and had the balance in front of me to the last fence.  On that, we called it a day.  We were working on technicality, not endurance, what with it being so damned hot.  Lesson time was little more than 30 minutes, but well worth it.

Thanks to Ginny for being videographer extra-ordinaire.

This weekend we head to somewhere that I have never been to cross country school; the Forida Horse Park.  Should be interesting, as I'm just getting comfortable jumping the jumps in our own field.  And again it is supposed to be hot, so we are rolling out of the barn at 7am to be done by noon.

Holiday lesson recap

Happy belated 4th!

So I headed down for a lesson on Saturday and stayed until Sunday.  Saturday was dressage, and we did a group jumping lesson with Ginny on Pearl on Sunday.

Saturday, we worked on many things we have been working on, but taking things a bit further. Instead of just working on getting the inside leg to outside rein, we worked on actually establishing a shoulder fore.  I can't really feel it, since Violet is so short, but Marcy said I got it some.  I do know that we did some of the best turns on the haunches that we've ever done.  In the past they have been rather stilted, but this time, she just kind of oozed around with the same four beat walk rhythm.

This all set up for work on canter transitions.  Push out into the outside rein, develop the shoulder fore around the circle, and then ask with the inside leg.  She goes UP into the canter, rather than falling into it.  It's very nice and controlled without being fast.

After this nice, fairly short, very hot lesson, Violet was cared for and put in front of her favorite thing, the fan.

This is where I found Violet.  In front of her fan, which is her favorite!

We picked stalls, made sure everyone had hay and water, and headed to Marcy's for the Market Street Equestrian Fireworks extravaganza.

Finn, Pearl and Charlie headed to turn out

Violet in her paddock

We got there, set out some snacks and worked on food prep, finally settling down for a few hands of rummy before having to head back to the barn for evening chores.  Ponies were fed and turned out, and stalls were cleaned before we headed back to the house.  There we tag teamed the showers before all the guests arrived.

Ginny and Peg observing setup

The food spread

The crew gathering on the porch before food

We had 15 people there, I think.  And 9 dogs, all under 45 pounds.  We had salad with blue cheese, green beans, mac n' cheese, coleslaw, ribs and cornbread for dinner, with brownies, key lime pie, and fresh berry tart for dessert.  There was goombay smash and sangria, and a few games of cornhole.  This was all followed by a fabulous fireworks display put on my Marcy's husband over the lake.  Unfortunately, the wind blew the best part of the show up behind the trees, but it was still really fun.
Sunday, Ginny and I teamed up for a group jump lesson, since it is getting really hot and raining in the afternoon.  This allows all the lessons to get done before the weather comes in.

Part of the Market Street team enjoying dinner.  Caroline, Allison, Peg, Marcea, Chris and Ginny

The only decent picture I got

This lesson was a good one, as well.  Violet was being very good.  We were working on getting the holy trinity of jumping, line, pace and balance.  As I've said before, I'm usually pretty good at line, but the others vacillate.  We started over a smallish vertical with a pole placed one stride out.  After a bit, Marcy added the V poles to create a chute of sorts.  This made the pony jump big.  Once we had that pretty good, we took that and continued to the right to another vertical with a pole placed two strides out.  The goal was to get the turn and develop the pace through a fairly short turn, using the placing pole as a place to know where to balance before the fence.  This was tricky.  I had a little difficulty getting the pace right and I got off my line a bit by turning late, which encouraged Violet to put in a third stride, instead of the two that were intended.  After this, we were to go down to the other end of the ring and come back over an oxer.

Pearl conserving energy

So as we did the first two fences, they got higher each time we came through.  By the time we got to adding the third fence, I came around that corner the first time and thought "holy crap, that looks big" and put my hands down to grab mane right before the fence.  Unfortunately, this was enough to mess up Violet's balance, and there wasn't enough room for her to add a stride.  We crashed through the fence like we have never done before.  Once we were through the fence, I was off balance and seriously thought I was going to end up on the ground.  I managed to pull myself upright, but then started hopping up and down.  I think she thought I would be mad, so I gave her a pat and told her she was a good girl, because she tried her hardest to keep me in my seat.

Marcy asked me was I did wrong, and I said "I don't fucking know!" because I was frustrated and trying to keep myself from shaking like a leaf from almost falling off.  Her answer to that was the best thing for me ever.  "Quit cussing about it and tell me what you did wrong!"  "I dropped her balance."  And she says, "yes, what else?"  "I didn't have pace."  Ok, so I lost two of the three of the trinity.

Marcy dropped the fence down to a smaller vertical and sent me to canter a pole for confidence, and then we went over the little vertical back to the first fence with the V on it.  This, too, was big, but we did that one pretty good.  The next time through, it wasn't as good over the V vertical.  I was talking to Ginny about it and telling her she seemed to be going fast enough so I just sat on her and didn't really balance her because she was going, but we had enough pace that she got us over it anyway.  I said that part loud enough so that Marcy could hear me, and she replied "Thank you for answering that question!"

We went through the pattern a few more times, and eventually went over it twice set back to full height and width. The last time was really nice.

Ginny and Pearl went on to complete the full course, adding in the two combinations.  Pearl can get to trucking on through, so she has to be balanced pretty good.  They did a really good job and Pearly was jumping great.

This was my "course" of four fences

When we were walking out on the cross country field going back to the barn, Ginny confirmed what I thought.  Those two fences in particular were pushing Novice height.  That's like 3'!  I always said if I could be confirmed at 2'6", I would be good with that, but this was fun and exillerating!

This was Ginny's much bigger course

This coming weekend is a one lesson weekend, and next weekend we are heading OFFSITE to cross country school!  We're heading over to the Florida Horse Park on Saturday, because our cross country field is closed for the month and all the fences have been pulled.  I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited.  I've never actually schooled there before.

Because, how can you not love this face?

Hot walks

This was one of those weekends that I can honestly answer "it was nice" when people ask how the weekend was.

The boy had to close Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and was off on Monday.  So the days kind of lined up for what we could do.

I came home from work on Friday and took Luke out for a long walk.  We hadn't gone for one in a while because it has been hot.  But it had rained and cooled off, and was cloudy, so I figured it was good.  We went across to another part of the neighborhood that is nice and shady.  When we were almost home, Luke decided he needed a break, so he laid down in the grass.  Curse of a black dog, I guess.  He was cute, I took a picture.  Little did I know, the picture would invite comments from people who have no idea.

Does this look like a puppy that is being tortured?

After posting the pic to FB, I got one comment from a cousin's boyfriend (who I have never met). Unfortunately, they are PETA types and he went off about how he doesn't have the ability to take off his coat, and how could I take him out in the heat with that on.  How would I like it?  This from a man who has no pets and doesn't know me.  Anyway, I deleted his comment, but not before some people saw it.

Now it is truly too hot to take the dog for a walk, other than a short walk before I go to work, and an even shorter one right before we go to bed.  When it is 100 during the day, and 85 degrees at 11:00 at night, it's too hot for black dogs to go for 2 mile walks.  But I will get his pool out this evening and see if he wants to play in that.

He does love his pool!

Saturday I headed to the farm and took lessons on Saturday and Sunday.  Market Street Equestrian had their party on Saturday night, which was really fun.  I headed home Sunday and hung out with the puppy.  More on this part later.

Happy 4th, from my house to yours!

Monday, the boy and I slept in a bit, and then went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  We went to Home Depot and bought furniture for the front porch.  We unloaded that, sat at the house to cool off a bit, then went back out to see if there were any antique stores that were open.  On July 4th?  Not so much. Then we went to the store for watermelon, because what is July 4th without watermelon, and headed back home for an evening of Shameless (new on Netflix!), leftover ribs and green beans, and this non-cooked berry pie thing I made.  We spent a bunch of time keeping the puppy calm when the neighbors put on an impressive fireworks display.  He was good, but definitely wanted to be touching his people when the boomers started.  He's really turning into a sweet puppy.

Anyway, that was the weekend.  Nothing major, but it was a pleasant weekend.

So has anyone out there been accosted for stupid things like walking their dogs in the summer, and how did you handle it?