Do Not Forget to Communicate...

...your horse wasn't born knowing what you want! Try not to forget that you are riding something with a brain, not a machine...be clear, be fair, be considerate of what each horse need from you. Some horses needs a therapist, some need a mother, some need a boss, some need a professor...most need a mix. For example, today I had Alexis ride Bear, who is extremely anxious about jumping I set him up a little grid that really required some thinking hoping to get him thinking rather than just mentally yelling at the top of his lungs and charging the jumps. Since hes so anxious and tense and want to scramble through at top speed, the rider naturally wants to pull back to slow him down...but whats does that do for the tense horse? Makes them more tense. I wanted Bear to relax, realize that the rider would stay out of his far, and let him figure out his feet. So Alexis played therapist/mother today, talking to him, telling him he was the best pony in the world, telling him good try for each effort, and staying relaxed and calm to set a good example. No miracles today, but Bear started to act less anxious and panicky when Alexis loosened up her reins and concentrated on just staying relaxed and centered an talked to him calmly throughout the exercise.

So again I stress, if thing are not happening the way you want, stop and think WHY, and remember that you're horse is probably wondering what the heck you want from them, too.

Today was pretty productive. I rode Buster first. I reviewed lunging with him to see where his head was a and review voice commands and staying forward. He was very goo and let me swing on him with no fuss. He found his balance under me pretty fast and we had a nice walk and trot around ad practiced a few transitions and some steering. I asked of a canter and he took two strides, decided it was horrible and tried to turn and bucked, but I got him straight and got him forward again for several more strides and left it at that. He's a quick learner so I think next week we might be able to venture to the ring, maybe with a lead horse first to help him move forward with more confidence in a bigger space.

Pav came next. I need to try to get him in some sort of shape and see if there is any possibility of reschooling him how to jump more politely for a less educated rider. I took him out to the track for a warm up since the old boy is very stiff and it takes a good long time to get him to loosen up. In the ring I worked on cantering some small fences and tried to keep him in a steady rhythm all the way to the fence without holding onto his mouth...he reacts almost like a race horse to increased rein pressure when approaching a jump...more rein = more speed. So I want him to just keep the same canter the whole way to the fences and keep him stretching over his back. He did pretty well today, only one time did his do the infamous Pav Freight Train move, and it wasn't that bad. If he can jump like this all the time, he'd be a much more useful horse...I could use him in lessons or we could find someone who could lease him. But his brain is on a switch, someways he's great and others he's a spaz over fences. But I'm still hoping that he will finally just decide to act his age and get bored with jumping an stay nice and steady all the time.

I got to hop on Quigley today. He was very good and seems easy peasy to ride. Cluck to trot, kiss to canter. He's very balance through his turns and his canter was pleasantly well balanced and comfy. If he were smaller he'd be a great kids beginner horse, he seems very safe and sane and all around a good guy. I took him out to the track and had a little trot and canter to see how he acted and to help him start to lose some weight. He was very well behaved.

Moose had a dressage day...she's been so very frustrating these past few months. She's better now that she's back at Knights Landing and off all that food, but she is just going through a phase where she has zero interest in focusing on her work...I cannot hold her attention for longer than ten seconds at a time no matter what I try. I imagine she is feeling spring but still...it is really holding us back. And she's really just not settling in to the bit...even when I first put her bridle on he is chomping and crunching and trying to spit it out and she's never content to find a nice way to hold the bit and stay there when I ride. I've had her teeth checked and changed noseband an watch her like a hawk for back soreness again but I his cannot fin anything wrong. I really think I might experiment with a few different bits and see if she simply doesn't like the one she has now.

After a few lessons I pulled Trick out and round penned with him for a few minutes. Sadly he's still off but I got I demo to Alexis on how to work the newer ponies in the roundpen so maybe we can get them all working soon with a joint effort. I'd like to teach a few more of the older girls how to work the ponies!

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, but I will have a lesson with Michael. Hopefully Moose will be naughty so Michael can see what se does when she's not focusing and can help me through it. She is always pretty dang good at Hilltop and tells Michael she's a perfect little mare all of the time and not naughty at all. HA!

One down...too many more to go!

Today was lovely, and to my delight, I had a very productive day of riding.

To kick things off, I hopped on Bubbles. I'm still using those draw reins, but I die inside a little everytime I use them...because I know I could train him the right way, with patience and without shortcut gadgetry...but time constraints are sadly making shortcuts occasionally necessary. I need a lesson pony come summer! Luckily though, they do seem to be accomplishing what I want...he's learning to telescope out his neck an not tighten up and put his head straight up whenever he feels rein pressure. A dentist will be out tomorrow, I'm hoping he needs work...maybe some of his tension roots from years of protecting an uncomfortable mouth. We also got both leads today and he didn't get quite so jumpy when I'd make noise for transitions. He's a really good pony he's just not quite sure what's expected.

After Bubbles, I got Bubbles out and put him through the routine...he was really good on the cross ties today so I even tried going out of sight a few times and he was great. I groomed him and tacked him up and went to the roundpen. I skipped free lunging since he seems to have that down and went right to lunging on the line and he did great. I played with the mounting block today and he wasn't bothered in the least, and didn't mind me putting my weight in the stirrup. So I laid over him and rubbed him all over and told him what a good smart boy he was. He was so content and mellow and there were few distractions around so I made the decision to get on...it felt like the right time, which I wasn't expecting to happen today, but he told me today was the big day! So I laid on him and quietly swung my leg over and picked up my stirrup, and slooooowly sat up while petting him and talking to him. I usually like a ground person for the first ride but I just felt like he didn't really need one. I asked him to walk and while it took him a few confused minutes to figure out how to balance as move with me on him, he settled in really well. We practiced whoa and walk on, then when he felt more confident and I felt happy with his whoa, I clucked him up to a trot. He figured it out fairly quickly and was a very good boy. He didn't seem to be too upset by my legs on him and really never had any outbursts. I just encouraged him forward and tried to stay quiet and balanced. We worked a little on some steering and transitions and ended. He was such a little champ and seemed to understand that he did a good job. I plan to hop on him tomorrow again to reinforce today's adventure. Maybe we will have a canter...we will see what he has to say about that! I do have a feeling that he will start to test his boundaries as he gets more comfortable with being ridden...I have a feeling he will become fast friends with Mr.Crop in the not too distant future! Hopefully not but that's the vibe I get from him!

Evil is still feeling his youth/spring and is one ornery boy! We got some good long and low work at the trot but his transitions stink...his head instantly goes up, no matter how hard I try to ride transitions off the seat and leg. I he will come around, I think he's just going through a naughty phase/his lack of education is shining through.

Moose was next. I rode her yesterday too. I put her in a simple eggbutt copper snaffle yesterday hoping that the increased stability would encourage her to carry the bit quieter and make my aids feel a little more straightforward...sometimes I suspect that the super wiggly KK loose ring is just too muddled and distracting to her. She did really well in it and did seem more forward and accepting of the bit. I jumped yesterday and she did fairly well. I'm still using placing poles and setting my jumps at a height that really requires her to arc around them, since she likes to jump flat. I also jumped some of the jumps with fillers and set up a fairly wide cross rail oxer...stuff that would make her give the jump plenty of room and respect. I only jump her over each jump until she is just STARTING to feel at ease with it..if I let her get too comfortable with a jump she starts getting sloppy and pulling rails without batting an eye.

Today I put the eggbutt on again with a figure 8 with intentions of doing work on the track. She still is just to whiny about the bit sometimes as I want her to just stop complaining and figure it out...so I was hoping shed accept the figure 8 noseband and start to realize that fussing with the bit isn't the answer...and she obviously hates the drop. She was very good on the track and seemed very happy to be out of a ring for the first time in months. We did a lot of long and low work at the trot and then did some canter work, just focusing on forward and straight and soft in my hand and striving for self carriage. She was a little distracted but did well overall. I let her stretch out for a gallop twice and really was surprised that I had to push her hard to get her into it...I guess even though she's been hot she's still out of shape! I was very happy when I asked her back from the gallop and she came right back to me so easily.

Bear was last, I've had him very low on my priority list lately so he hasn't had many rides, but he was very good. A little speedy at the canter now and then but not bad. We popped over a few small fences. He wasn't bad but still would like to rush in and away, so sometimes I will walk him to the jump or walk it an let him trot a few steps away and make him do a nice canter circle after and he comes back pretty easy.

Tomorrow won't be as warm but at least it's supposed to be sunny!

Horse Expo

I'm sitting waiting for Theatre Equus to begin so I thought I'd write some quick notes on some of the clinics I saw today at the horse expo.

First I watched the trainers from the Ex Racehorse Trainers Challenge. I saw them in MD 5 weeks ago. There, three trainers picked one of four fresh off the track thoroughbreds and took them home for five weeks. Here at the PA expo, they are to show what they have accomplished with these horses in those 5 weeks. It was very refreshing to watch these professional trainers. It helped reassure me that the way I have been working with the horse and pony projects at Knights Landing is correct and appropriate. None of the trainers achieved any miracles in 5 weeks. Their horses now walk, trot and canter calmly, but still have some nerves or crookedness and moments of frustration. They can jump small crossrails but the trainers aren't pushing them for more height or coursework yet for the sake of a good show...they are working them at a pace appropriate for each horses personality and progress. They are working primarily on relaxation and understanding on the flat, knowing full well that it will pay off greatly over fences down the road if they put in the patient flatwork now. I was very glad to be able to watch professionals handle the same types of horses i ride in a fashion very similar to my own. Makes me feel like I know what I'm doing :)

I also got to watch a clinic with Jim Wofford on perfecting the horses jumping abilities...and guess what ladies...they did GRIDWORK (see...I'm NOT crazy when I say GRIDWORK leads to good coursework!) it was also very refreshing to hear him comment on the importance of correct, relaxed flatwork BEFORE jumping (again...I'm not crazy when I emphasize flatwork!!!) you can't have a good jump out of poor flatwork. You can make it over the fences, but the ride will not be fun, easy or comfortable. He ALSO said another thing I've been telling a lot of my students lately...let the horse jump! It's the horses job to jump, your job is to present the jump well and then say centered and unhindering over his back.

It was so very very good to see and hear a lot of things that I've been doing or saying when riding and teaching. I hope some of you get a chance to go to the expo...watch Jim Wofford and the ex racehorse trainers challenge for sure. Oh, and stop by the Painting Pony booth and meet Minnow, a Chincoteague pony I used to ride when I was little! Watch him paint and look at his cool paintings. I have one...I actually sent his owner a picture of my tb Louie after he passed away, and she set it beside Minnows easel so he could paint a picture of Louie for me :)

Have fun! If it's windy tomorrow I may just come back!

Spring is in the air!

The past two days were beautiful! I got a very nice preview of what my days will be like come warmer weather. Lots more time and energy to ride...yay!

On Wednesday morning I brought Miss Moose back to Knights Landing an I'm pleased to report that she has settled in beautifully. I was worried she would be very antsy and grumpy and spooky since she's been having a rough winter what with being wayyyy overfed, but she seems extremely happy to be back. She even gets her little boyfriend, Greyson, back and he's already following her around like a lost puppy.i rode her Wednesday and yesterday and she is already much better than she has been all winter. We do have some damage control to do since our rides this winter were extremely counterproductive due to her excessive energy and spookiness, but hopefully we will bounce back quickly. But now I have to get my saddle fitter back out again because my saddle seems to be sitting too low in the front and a little to the right...and both Moose and I are sensitive creatures, so even the minor imbalance feels huge to us. I think she's just still growing an changing shape and since the saddle is new, I think the flocking I just getting settled in and needs some readjusting. Annette to the rescue!

I've ridden Bubbles both days too. He's a good boy and he seems safe and sane but i am finding he is surprisingly over sensitive, which really stinks. I hope he will settle out of it. I tried rising him in a halter Wednesday thinking his teeth were bothering him but sadly he was still very high headed. I do think his teeth probably need done but I was hoping his head throwing had to do with his teeth hurting but it doesn't seem 100% so. So despite my extreme hatred of draw reins and other shortcut tack, I tried riding him in draw reins yesterday...everything else I tried still resulted in his head going up. They did actually seem to get the point across very well, and we even got the left lead for the first time. So hopefully after a bunch of rides in the draw reins he will just keep his head longer and lower. As far as his sensitivity...I'm not sure he will completely become immune to leg and voice, but maybe I can still use him for lessons and just teach the kids how to ride him...squeezes with the leg, not kicking...and very quiet voice. I hate looking for beginner lesson ponies. You never know what you have until you start using them in the program. Some ponies may hate kids, others may like them better than a rider like me.

Evil is doing okay, he seems to be feeling spring and his youth at the moment and is being a royal brat! But he has a load of potential and I I can get him caught up in his education I think he will be super fun an talented. For now I just have to wait out the temper tantrums!

Buster is mighty close to being ridden. I think late next week I might be able to ride him, but I won't know til that day comes. He's very good at lunging and tried out the side reins yesterday and did well. We worked on cross tying again and he was a champ, but I'm still very cautious...he hasn't really tested the ties yet so I'm on my guard for when he does so we don't have an accident! He's a champ at picking up his feet and even let me cut a bridle path and cut out the burrs I found on his belly. He wears a saddle like a pro and is getting used to the bit. We played with the mounting block yesterday and I got to lay on him. He's not sure about me standing in a stirrup but he's smart and seems to be trusting me so if he reacts to something, he doesn't seem quite a nervous and dramatic.

I rode Pav for the first time in a long while last night. I wanted to try him in a Pelham bit. I'm not a fan of bitting up a horse as a shortcut either, but Pav is an old campaigner and his current rider has an old back injury that causes her to ride crookedly, and Pav is not very nice when he feels a weakness in the rider. So I'm hoping the Pelham will keep him from pulling and leaning so hard while she concentrates on correcting her unevenness. He did okay in it but was still strong, but he got _better toward the end. He is very stiff and it takes forever for him to warm up. I popped him over a few small jumps to see where his brain is at...he was surprisingly good and kept a fairly decent brain about it...I've really learned over the years that you CANNOT hold him to the jumps...if you grab his mouth coming in its almost like you spurred him with western towel spurs. You have to stay out of his face and keep a steady rhythm with your seat if you want a chance at a steady, no drama jump. He still can get a little charged up when you canter a line and sometimes e lands too fast off a jump and throws his head around in a tantrum so you just kinda gotta sit back and set your hands an drive him into them to get him to knock it off ad rebalance himself, so he's still not beginner friendly but it was a fairly good schooling ride. There may be hope!

I'm off now to the expo! Woohoo!

A quick update!

Time is just eluding me lately! Here's a quick update for my followers.

I've been teaching and had a show with Moose this past Saturday so time to ride has been minimal for the past several days. I did get to ride Evil a couple of times and he is doing pretty well...I am trying to fix his crookedness and his inattentiveness/brattiness and teach him to stretch into the hand. We had some really good trot work on Sunday, he finally reached out and took the contact and worked well into it.

I also got to work with Buster a couple of times and think I might be able to ride him in the foreseeable future. He's sassy but bold and brave and made his first trip to the big ring yesterday. He wasn't very looky or spooky, and we walked over poles and jumps with no problem. I also lunged him at the walk and trot and while at first he had some trouble staying out on a consistent circle, he figured it out and was very very good. He still gets a little confused and stuck when going to the right, he's much stiffer but also a little jumpier when I'm on his right side. We worked on leading off the right side a bit and while he got a little upset at times, he figured it out. Buster also learned about cross ties and while he did test them out a bit, he figured it out and stood really still to be groomed and let me pick up all four feet with zero drama so he's coming along quite nicely.

Saturday I took Moose to a small schooling show at Blue Good Stables. Moose just needed to get out, she's so bored. Unfortunately, because she has been getting a ton of food that I didn't approve, including a ton of sweet feed, oats, and alfalfa, she was extremely jumpy, spooky, and unfocused. I definitely thought I was going to fall off several times, or have to get off and scratch...it was that bad! She also tried to tear apart the trailer when she was on it too...which she normally doesn't do. I feel bad for her, she has so much energy and it's frying her brain. She's coming back to Knights Landing tomorrow and going on an appropriate amount of appropriate feed so in a couple of weeks I think I should have my good ol' Moose back.

We did training 1 and training 2 tests. I managed to keep her within the general moves of the tests, even though she was very very tense and constantly snapping out of attention and looking for stuff to spook at. I got so focused on this one corner of the ring that she kept spooking at (very badly!!!) that I messed up my second test, and had to take the -2 for the fault, which stunk...but oh well. The judge had some nice things to say about us anyway, said we were a good match for each other and I rode her well (and was brave...haha) and somehow we managed to get 2nd and 3rd. I didn't see the rides of our competition but they must have been riding their horses backwards for me to have made out with a 2nd and 3rd!

Warm up before the second test...Moose kept doing this weird thing where we'd be turning left and her hind end would swing out to the right and then she would fly awkwardly sideways to the right, away from the corner she was spooking at...so here I am trying to get her to listen to my right leg and move her shoulders left, which did help a lot in the second test

She would just not reach out for me

Tense fire-breathing dragon

Headed for center line

Zoooooooooooooommmmmmmmm! I was a little concerned (to say the least) about the canter, I thought for sure that would be the death of me!

Approaching spooky corner, attention lost :( She spooked at it EVERY SINGLE TIME. That is so not my little Moose mare, she just can't seem to think straight with all that extra rocket fuel

Looking at the ground for stuff to spook at on the spooky side of the arena

Being verrrry conservative with the canter!

I'm probably thinking: "PLEASE just stick to the saddle no matter what she does in this corner!"

Her canters were surprisingly not too horrible

Go from giraffe to hanging out behind the bit. Geez she was a brat...I felt like we never had a single good conversation that day, she just wasn't interested/able to talk with me

Aaaaand lastly, today we picked up a new friend for the barn, Quigley. He's 15 years old, 16.2 hands, a belgian draft/quarter horse cross. Retired foxhunter. Hoping he will be a nice safe quiet addition to the barn...he settled in nicely and seems like a classic draft cross...quiet, steady, sweet. So here's hoping he works out. He's very over weight right now and a little lame somewhere but we are hoping it's an abscess. Time will tell, right now he's on weight watchers...I do hope he works, I LOVE draft crosses for lesson programs. They just don't get offended easy and just don't seem to ever go anywhere too fast and are pretty agreeable.

Now I just need to figure out what saddle we can use on him...oy vey.

Off Course

I have been collecting a few pictures and videos that I quite enjoy and figured you all would like them, too :)

Courtesy of my mother, who got a kick out of it...don't worry, this isn't accurate (well, maybe sometimes!)

Puts things into perspective for those friends who think horseback riding is not a sport

Awesome

Yup that about covers it

Classic

Take that, non equestrians!



I still laugh every time

These three from Smartpak are great. I think we need to make a Knights Landing edition. We shall film this spring! :)

Enjoy!

Ready for Spring

It actually acted like winter this weekend so I took the opportunity to go spend the weekend with Corey and his family...which was fun but at the same time I am so used to riding and being around horses everyday so I started to get antsy!

Yesterday I got back to work and tackled Bear, Evil, Bubbles and Buster. Today Trick, Buster, Bubbles and Evil were on my list.

Bear was pretty much same as always. I didn't ride him long, just put him through his paces and that's all, he was very good so I figured that deserved an easy, short ride.

Evil was interesting. I hardly ever get to ride him. He was pretty fussy and acting spoiled but he focused after a while and gave me some decent work. His biggest issue is stretching his back and neck out to seek the contact. He has a short little neck and short back just like my TB, Louie, had...which means some careful riding to make sure he's always thinking forward an doesn't feel trapped or stuck up front. He also needs to have a major lesson in MANNERS because he was a brat and challenged me every so often, like the huge buck he gave me just because I insisted he keep cantering until I said we were done! Naughty baby horse!

Today he was a bit better but I felt like he was whiney if anything. He wasn't trying to challenge me quite so much but seemed to be giving me way less than 100% effort...I felt like he was saying "I don't wanna" "I'm too tired" "this is too hard" "are we done yet?" and various other complaints rather than just buckling down and working. Im going to try to put a few good weeks of consistent riding on him to try to get him in line and give me some better quality work. The challenge here is...I have a bazillion other projects that ALSO could benefit from steady work and there is only one of me! We need to get some projects sold so I can really focus on doing a few projects really well rather than a whole mess of them inconsistently. I like the reward of seeing the horses really develop and excel in their work, but that's really hard to achieve for all of them right now!

Trick was very good today but poor boy is lame somewhere. Guessing it is the right front, and I'm guessing it's just and access or bruise. I can't find anything suspicious. Trick is wearing a bridle an surcingle now, and has been working on lunging on a line with side reins in the roundpen. Today he was doing very well so I took him to the ring for a look around and then lunged him in there for a minute or two and he did great. He's still a little jumpy and worried but he seems to be trusting me. He does try to crawl in my lap at times and needs a reminder to stay out I my space. Next step is to get him used to a second line so he can start long lining in the ring and learn about steering. Ive also started to make a point to go through all the motions of his new routine each time...so we practice cross tying and standing still, grooming, and picking feet before and after work. He was great on the cross ties today and even let me cut a bridle path. I think he's going to be a fun guy to work with.

Buster is very very bold but still unsure and jumpy now and then. If he's tired of round pen work he still tries to leave the round pen or crow hop at my whip...Kaddie even said he kept per her wheelbarrow from a standstill in his stall for now apparent reason and cleared it quite well. Naughty pony! Definitely has an ornery side! Buster is practicing cross tying too and wears a saddle and bridle and practicing lunging on the line in the roundpen, too. He's doing well but still a little dramatic about the bit. He's getting a lot more respectful of my space too and his shoulders are much less sticky to move when I'm leading him.

Today, I spent a very long time bent down picking all the burrs out of his tail. I wasn't going to tackle it all at once but once I got started I was determined to finish! So now he is burr free...I bet he's happy to have a swishable tail again!

Bubbles is being a little inconsistent. Yesterday he wasn't too fussy bout the bit but today he was. Definitely going to have his teeth done soon. I might just ride him in a halter until then...he really guards his mouth. I hope there is something up with his teeth because if not, then he has a training issue...ugh! Hes a good guy and fun pony though...I still stand by that initial assessment. He's a bit too jumpy when I cluck or kick him but I'm hoping that's all mouth pain anxiety too. Today I did manage to get him to reach long and low at his trot after a whole and he realized that he could be comfortable there, but as soon a I touch the reins his back locks up and head goes up. The rubber bit seems to help a little...but it's too thick for his mouth. He looks like he has quite a low palate. But it's keeping him happy at the moment.

I have had a girl named Rachael out these past two weeks to help me ride some of our projects. Mainly she has been getting Pav back in shape and if she continues to work out, will probably work with Doc as well, an help with the new ponies. I can use all the help I can get!

Moosey really can't wait to come back to Knights Landing...geez she's been just off since I moved her for the winter. She's not being a spitfire anymore now that I got her grain situation sorted out, but she's still looking or thinks to spook at and lacking umph. I think she is bored out of her mind. Me too. We only have that little indoor to ride in. I don't think I'll be moving her for the winter again. I feel plain bad about putting her in a situation that makes her this bored. Our rides haven't been productive enough to justify moving for the sake of an indoor again. I'm doing a lot of hacks out once she's back. Get her thinking forward forward forward again.

She is still making some progress though. She's starting to differentiate between my more specific aids in my seat, leg and weight. She is recognizing pretty consistently my halt seat, walk seat, and trot seat...she's also starting to become more adjustable in her trot. Her canter still needs some work but it's coming along...I think it just hard for both of us because the ring is small and doesn't leave much room to do a lot of canter exercises. She is starting to understand and respect my canter aids better an is snappier when I ask for the canter. I worked a little on walk to canter making my canter aids over exaggerated so she stops thinking that canter only comes after we trot a while. It seemed to help a lot so now of I take my outside leg back a little and cue her up with my inside hip she'll lift into a canter pretty quickly. Before she'd just kind of lolly gag around and take her good ol' time to work up to a messy canter.

I have always had trouble getting my right leg on my horse...my left is pretty stable but my right swings a bit and my ankle over flexes and I just don't feel like i can use it as firmly as my left. I figured out why (finally!) I know my right ankle is no good (seeing a doctor this spring hopefully) but I didn't realize that rather than take weight, it just rolls. My ankles will roll easily when I'm walking but I didn't realize that it rolls out when I put weight on it in my stirrup. Now I'm making a conscious effort to keep my foot flat across my stirrup and ankle straight but it is a struggle...it does make a huge difference in my right leg effectiveness though. I need to remember to wear my brace everyday to help that ankle stabilize and keep it from over flexing. I'm thinking I might experiment with sport tape though because I feel like my brace doesn't help exactly where I need it and most days will just make my ankle more sore.

Bed time! Goodnight!

The Horses I Have Had...Part 4

The summer Louie died and Eclipse went lame is the same summer I met Pav.

Pav was down in Chincoteague being leased by a friend of Danielle and my summer roommate, Katye Allen.

I'd like to take a quick side road here to make note of another event that helped drive me I the ground that summer. I had big plans to event my boys that summer, and had already signed up for one event. Since both of my horses suddenly were out of the picture, Kerra offered her beloved old mare, Lin, as a mount for the show. Lin was in her mid twenties but didn't act a day over 6, an I was excited to ride such a bold mare in my first event. I went to the event with Lin, and Katye and Pav came, too. We did our dressage and then Kate and I rode through the woods to get to the jump ring and cross country field. We came to a very tiny stream. Pav didn't want to cross. Katye insisted, but Pav panicked and threw himself backward into me an Lin. Lin staggered back a few steps, and next thing I know, shes holding a hind leg up so high it was nearly next to me sitting in the saddle. I got off to find that she had backed into a large stick and ripped a hole in her fetlock to the bone. I took her back to the trailer, wrapped her to stop the bleeding and managed to fun a vet to come out and stitch her up. After weeks of recovery she ended up fine. I was in hysterics after she was stitched. My horse died, the other lame, I still manage to get to my very first event with an awesome horse, and she rips up her leg. I went to start the truck. The battery was dead. I was beside myself. I get like I was down as low as I could get but someone just kept kicking me for extra laughs.

After Eclipse went lame, I started riding Pav. Katye was starting to figure out that Pav wasn't really a horse for her, so when I found myself suddenly without a ride, I took over his lease for the rest of the summer. I didn't do much more with him than just ride him a few times a week, but I did manage to get him to one event at the end of the summer. Let's just say Pav is not an eventer.

Pav thinks you are supposed to run up to cross country fences at warp speed, then spook at it and stop dead right in front of it, then lauch over it while trying to look at it at the same time. I just tried to stay on.

The last couple of weeks I was down in VA, Pav went lame. We thought abscess but the farrier didn't find anything. I didn't know much about Pav at the time, but found out from Danielle that he's prone to white line disease if you don't have his feet shod just so, and I'm sure the dry, sandy ground in VA didn't help. His feet started to crumble apart, and that's about when I felt pushed over the edge and needed to go home. I trailered Eclipse and Pav to Knights Landing. The Gehman's farrier took care of Pav but it would be several weeks before he was ready to ride again. His grumblings about how he had worked so hard to keep Pavs feet in good order and they were ruined made me feel like a failure. I knew it wasn't my fault...none of y bad luck over the summer was my fault...but by now I could hardly sleep anymore and my stomach was constantly churning. If you looked at me wrong, I probably would have sobbed.

I decided to continue to lease Pav until I could figure out what to do...buy a new horse or not. So he and Eclipse went to school with me my Junior year.

Pav and I had a love hate relationship. I used him in my lessons and team practices and he taught me a lot about jumping and helped me start to jump higher fences. He got me up to 4' that semester, which was cool...but it was a constant struggle to get him to round over his jumps rather than take off an jump flat. We did a ton of grid work!

Eventing team practice...I wish my trainer told me to shorten my stirrups!!!

And while Pav didn't like learning the nitty gritty of flatwork, I managed to school him through third level dressage movements, and he helped me learn to half pass at trot and canter, half pirouette, and extend and collect the trot. We even started taking a few passage steps...they weren't the best, but he and I started to learn. It was always a fight, but when Pav started to realize that I wouldn't give in and let him off easy, he started to work a little better for me.

Pav also taught me about how to fit and use a double bridle. He's a strong bodied and strong willed horse with a hard mouth and hard sides, so my instructor figured we should take advantage of having a horse like him that couldn't care less what we tried with him and have me learn about double bridles. I'm really glad I had that opportunity to learn about doubles and how to use them and why.

At a clinic in VA this past fall

While Pav taught me a lot, he wasn't the horse for me and I wanted a horse of my own again. I kept Pav a semester and returned him when I found and purchased my next horse, Hyde.

I searched high and low and found little Hyde, then named Callahan (Callie for short) in North Carolina with a small time dressage trainer. She had her horses marked way down to clean house before a big barn move to Georgia.

The video that made me drive down to North Carolina for a look at Hyde

Hyde was an 8 year old, dark bay Holsteiner/TB cross who stood at an honest 16 hands, but his compact and refined build made him look no bigger than 15.2 on a good day. He was little, but at the same time when you met him, he looked like a major powerhouse. Not sure how he managed to look much littler than he really was but look very very powerful at the same time.

Hyde had some quality training under his belt and was fun to ride, but he was HOT. A little spitfire. When I bought him, I renamed him Charlemagne (sounded more powerful than Callahan) and gave him the barn name, Hyde. He definitely had a Jekyll and Hyde personality, and it was goofy. If you walked by his stall without paying him any mind, he'd snake his head out and lunge at you, lips drawn back and ears flat against his head...he looked like he would rip your throat open if he could get close enough. But if you looked at him and said his name in a baby voice and told him how silly he was being, his ears would prick straight up and he was the friendliest, sweetest, quietest thing. He was never mean or dangerous at ALL, but he sure put on a show sometimes.

I'm not mean, it just depends on how you talk to me :) See his little "milk moustache" snip?

Hyde was something else. He was hard for me to learn to ride because of how hot he was and how much attitude he put into his work. If I didn't ride him just so he would rocket off and I'd have to struggle to keep his energy in control. But he taught me a ton about dressage and was a stunning mover and extremely talented. This horse had the stuff to go all the way in dressage, but I still had my mind stuck on eventing. So I started to teach him to jump, too. While it was difficult to teach him to jump politely, he really seemed to like it and had a lot of scope.

I rode him in clinics and lessons and team practices and he always drew a lot of attention. He may have been small, but his dark bay, extremely dappled coat, big powerful beautiful gaits, and "outta my way" attitude attracted eyes. I was told many times that this horse was something special.

Dapples! And the picture doesn't even show them that well

Unfortunately, I was still very broken from all of the events that had happened to me not only over the summer, but for the entire span of owning horses (I had forgotten to mention that I lost a year and a half of riding with Sara due to a misdiagnosed lameness and bad farrier work, and 4 months with Minnow because of the quarantine AND she strained a tendon after quarantine) I felt so hopeless, every time I tried to advance my riding, start showing, start making something of myself with my horses, something horrible happened. So every time I rode Hyde, I felt like it was pointless. And he wasn't Sara or Lou or Eclipse. So Hyde didn't really have a good chance with me. I decided I didn't like him, all while I knew I did actually like him. I think I just didn't want to risk thinking that I could actually finally start working toward any of my goals anymore. I was exhausted with the constant disappointment and heartache. I advertised him for sale on and off.

I kept him through my senior year. I started to like him a bit more when I used him as my project horse in an elective class I took called "Training the Therapy Horse." I took the class for fun...Hyde would never EVER be a therapy horse! But the class was fun and we build a bit of a bond as we worked on perfecting his groundwork. I taught him to walk, trot and stop with me without a halter. I could get him to circle around me at the walk and trot without a halter. I could get him to go sideways or backwards without a halter. He would ground tie and stay put while I left the ring or cracked a bull whip behind him. I could get him to drop his head and completely relax by just pointing to the ground. It was really cool to be able to take such a hot little horse and get him to work like that for me. But even so, I kept my relationship with Hyde at an arms length.

A sale video of Hyde. We were having a bad day and major saddle fit issues but he was a trooper. I wish I had a GOOD video of him.

Hyde had windpuffs on his hind legs. Windpuffs are supposed to be only cosmetic and not a source of concern. I don't know why but I always had a bad feeling in my gut when I looked at Hyde's wind puffs. I don't know if I was just sure something else would go wrong for me or if I really just thought something wasn't quite right about them.

The last week of my Senior year, Hyde was playing in the ring and suddenly went very lame. On a hind leg.

After some time off didn't help, a vet came out to investigate. Sure enough, under those windpuffs was a micro tear in his suspensory ligament.

At this time I had Hyde, Eclipse, Sara and Moosey down in MD with me at my first job. Eclipse was still on partial stall rest and very strict turnout and it was questionable if he would stay pasture sound. Sara was suffering from her mysterious neurological issues and was starting to lose weight. Moose was underweight and this was also the first time she actually got to stay with me, and I didn't have the time to handle the young filly, and now Hyde was on stall rest too. This is when I had enough. I hated horses. I didn't want to look at them anymore. I was done.

I gave Sara to my aunt and mom in Lancaster. My aunt wanted a pet and my mom didn't want to see Sara go, she loved her and knew I did too, deep down.

I gave Hyde away to a vet in PA. I didn't care if his prognosis was pretty good. I didn't want to deal with another rehab and another potential disappointment. He's doing very well today, he's sound and doing local dressage shows (I'm hoping to run into him this year!) Apparently, she loves him. He now goes by the name Charlie.

This picture is very warped, but this is Hyde at a show with his new owner, Anita

And as I said before, I eventually gave Eclipse away to Linda.

Moosey stayed only because she technically belongs to my mom, and she didn't want me to do anything drastic and regret it. I did post her for sale on and off but never followed through. I sent her to the raising department at Hilltop to run the big fields with other horses her age and ignored her.

I started to try to find other things in life other than horses. I started to get more miserable. Hilltop also wasn't a great fit for me and I didn't want anything to do with horses ever again.

Stupid Weatherman.

The weatherman keeps playing game with me this winter. This weekend wasn't originally supposed to be that bad...now they are calling for snow and wind and freeeeezing cold temps! C'mon, weatherman. You're really slacking this year. And I know it must be a weatherMAN, because a woman would never do such a horrible job :P

I started off today with Mr. Bubbles, who has already migrated to the back of my mind what with the new four ponies. He was very good but just needs to learn the routine. He's a little too jumpy off the leg and off voice commands. I stressed the poor guy out by making him walk while I clucked and kissed at him repeatedly and gave him little squeezes with my legs. I figure the only way to get him to not be so jumpy off the legs and voice is to desensitize him to them a bit. He really didn't like the exercise and I clicked and kissed until my mouth was dry but I think he started to get the point and relax. He's really smart ad quiet, he just doesn't know that going slow is perfectly acceptable as a lesson pony. He also still guards his mouth a lot, especially to the left. But I think he probably needs to see a dentist and again, just figure out his job. I sure hope he can end our lesson pony search. Ugh.

Next in line was Doc, who was so very muddy. I could have ridden a third horse today in time it took me to groom him. Today I tried Doc in a Mylar dee ring instead of the loose ring French link. The loose ring helped me communicate to him that e needs to get his head out of the sky and soften in the hand, but he was playing with it TOO much and started to suck behind it. I wanted something with some wiggle to keep him from locking up and grabbing the bit, but something a little more stable so he would reach for it. He seemed to do really well in the Mylar. Usually in not much of a Mylar fan, but it was the best option I had available and it's action seemed ideal for Doc. He's still inconsistent but he felt a little more steady today. We popped a couple of jumps and I introduced him to the brush boxes. He launched them a few times but got better each time.

I had time for just one pony after Doc. I'm thinking about just focusing on getting two ponies under saddle for now and not fussing too much with the other two...I realized that trying to tackle all four in a way that would be beneficial for them and safe for me in addition to all the other projects simply isn't realistic. So I think for now I'll just focus on the two geldings, who seem bolder and could get under tack sooner. The girls can just keep settling in until either I have time for them or the weather improves and some of the regulars start hanging around the barn more often and can help get them working.

I worked with Trick today. We did a short review and then put on the bridle and a surcingle with side reins (not clipped to the bit at first). I let him work around me a bit to realize he could move and get used tithe flopping side reins. The I clipped the side reins to the bit loosely and clipped on a lunge line and had him practice lunging so we can move to two lines and then start working in the ring. He was very good, he does have a bit of trouble stopping straight without turning his whole body toward me, but he started to get it. He still seems very clever and interested in work. I can tell he's going to be hard to keep straight going to the left, and too stiff to the right, but that's good to know now so we can try to even him up a bit in the side reins and while ground driving before I ever sit on him.


Trick was a little ouchy today so the session ended early. I'm guessing right hind since he'd prop that foot whenever he'd stop for a moment. Hopefully he'll feel better quickly!

The Horses I Have Had...Part 3

While I'm sitting here waiting for the temperature to rise above freezing, I thought I'd get a start on part 3.

When I went to Wilson College as a freshman, I remember being very drawn to a pitch black Belgian warmblood gelding named Total Eclipse. Eclipse was an unhappy horse.

His history is still a little blurry. Everyone had a slightly different story. But it sounds like Eclipse came from a well known trainer. I was told he was a stallion until he was 8 years old, when he was donated to the college. Supposedly, he was schooling through intermediaire level dressage, but was struggling, especially with his tempis (flying changes). Supposedly he also had been cast in his stall and messed up his jaw. So he was given to the college.

Eclipse had signs on his stall warning not to lead or turnout with other horses. He was the only horse with a chain. We were also warned to be careful when working in his stall or changing blankets. He want ridden often, only now and then by advanced dressage students or the barn manager. And usually his rides never went too well.

I liked Eclipse from day one. He was a challenge and I like making friends with the challenging horses.

I never had too much interaction with Eclipse until the summer after sophomore year when I stayed at the school to train and reschool the school horses. Several weeks into the summer, the barn manager told me an the other girl that stayed for the summer that we were going to start riding Eclipse.

As much as I liked him, I was nervous the first time I rode him. He was a very intimidating, angry horse that I had even warned about since my arrival freshman year. I was told to lunge him before my rides, to only walk and trot, to stay in an indoor arena, to ride in side reins, to not allow him to use the whole arena, and to not ride with other horses. Of course I was nervous.

Eclipse had the biggest trot I've ever attempted to ride, which didn't help matters. He also was very fussy about his mouth and pinned his ears for most of our rides. But I seriously loved this horse, and took pity on him. Someone hadn't been very nice to him at all and he had his guard up, always expecting the worst.

When the barn manager left for vacation, I admittedly took some liberties.

I started cantering him. He was SO angry at the canter, but I tried to stay relaxed and calm and keep him forward.

Then I took the side reins off. I hate riding in side reins. They flopped around and probably annoyed him more than anything. Besides, it's not a safe practice.

Then we started working in the whole ring. Then in the outdoor ring.

I tried to just relax and enjoy my time with him and not have high expectations for him. And soon he started to relax, too.

One day, I took him out for a hack to the creek and around the paddocks. Despite his fast pace I kept a long rein and let him look around and stretch. His ears went up and he finally began to enjoy himself.

From then on, Eclipse started turning into a happier horse. He didn't feel trapped and bored and forced anymore. We kept our rides fun and full of laughter. I'd take him out for hand walks sometimes just to have more bonding time with him. Sometimes we'd go wade and splash in the creek. Sometimes I'd lay out on a cross country jump an let him graze.

Eclipse loved life and loved work. But he had an ego and a sense of humor. If you tried to force him into anything, he'd challenge it. If you didn't laugh at him sometimes, he'd feel uptight. If you worked with him as a team as tried to find humor in little things, he was the happiest horse in the world. He had the most beautiful, big, intelligent eyes with a spark in them that always made him look like he was laughing.

Eclipse was one of te most awesome horses I've ever met, I always felt like he was much smarter than any horse ought to be.

Happy boy!

At the end of the summer, I had to have him. I approached the program director and bought him. The school couldn't use him anyway...Eclipse didn't very much like other riders.

Eventually, Eclipse was so happy and calm that I could turn him out with Louie. They became fast best friends and were always into no good. One of my favorite memories was when another horse was turned out with them wearing a bright yellow blanket. Eclipse grabbed the tail flap on the blanket and refused to move while the other horse tried to run away, tearing the flap clean off. Eclipse then proudly took his trophy over to Louie and waved it in his face until Louie grabbed it, too...then began theist hilarious game of tug o war I've ever witnessed. Sometimes Lou would try to give up the game, but if Lou would let go, Eclipse would chase him around the paddock waving the bright yellow flap at him.

Those two had stalls right next to each other. They were both so happy and had talented and had loads of personality. I loved walking in the barn and calling their names...they'd both stick their heads out and look at me with their ears pricked up and goofy looks on their faces. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. They made me so happy.

I won't claim that I'm a miracle worker. Not in the least. Eclipse and I still had a lot of struggles under saddle. He was still fussy in the bridle and tense, but at least he was happier and more willing to work with me. I think his poor brain was just so fried by some past events in his life that he couldn't completely let go. I couldn't even walk by his stall holding a whip. It would send him cowering in the corner. This intimidating, egotistical horse, cowering. Someone was definitely not nice to him.

Even though we had our struggles, I felt privileged to just be riding this horse. He taught me so much about patience, having a sense of humor, and true partnership. He loved life so much and I could feel it radiating off of him every ride. We did everything together. I even bought western tack and taught him how to go bitless and neck rein so we could have even more fun and he could be even more relaxed on trails. The first time I let him gallop in a field, he put his ears flat back and ran with all his might. He ate up the ground like he's been waiting all his life to do it. I held on to the horn and just let him go...I'm sure my grin went ear to ear.

Eclipse loved to go new places, too. He would spring onto the trailer and when we got to our destination, excitedly look around to see what new adventure we were going on today.

Whatta hunk :)

All of the comments from students and instructors and staff about his complete change in attitude made me feel so wonderful. I was so happy to help this horse.

Pretending to be hunters...HA!

The next summer I took Eclipse to Chincoteague with Lou. When Lou passed away, Eclipse didn't fuss. I was so glad that he didn't make it any harder on me. But then, he changed. He went from the aggressive stallion that we couldn't turn out with other horses, to happy in a herd with his friend Lou by his side, to low man on the totem pole. He just didn't care anymore once Lou died, and never bonded with another horse. He kind of just kept to himself. It made me so sad. He was just...different.

A week or so after Lou passed, I was lunging Eclipse. He tripped a little a couple of times during his lunge. Even though it was slight, it made my stomach knot. Something didn't seem right.

Over the next couple of weeks, it became evident that my gut feeling was correct. I know my horses. I can read when something is wrong before anyone else can. Eclipse began tripping more often. Then he began limping ever so slightly.

Time off and but didn't help, so we went up to see the vet. After a work up, the vet still wasn't sure what was wrong. The theory was it was just an abcess, but we couldn't find anywhere that one might be. And I didn't buy it anyway. Something more serious was wrong. I just knew it.

Eclipse got a little worse. I was so depressed and broken by the end of the summer that I left a little early, and took Eclipse back home to Lancaster for a few weeks before school started so I could just have some time to come to terms with my depression. One of my best friends died, and the other was depressed and lame and I didn't know how to help him. I felt so useless and crushed.

I boarded Eclipse at Knights Landing for those few weeks, ironically. I had another vet work him up and come to no conclusion.

Shortly after I took Eclipse back to school, I took him to Marion Dupont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, VA. There he had an MRI. Finally, we found the problem. Eclipse had tears in his deep digital flexor tendon over the navicular area in his heel, in both front legs. The vets assured me that it probably wasn't something I had done to him, but that it had probably started years ago when he was with his owner that donated him to the school, and that the years off at the school helped them heal up...but tendon tears hardly ever heal as strong as they were originally. So when I started working with Eclipse and training for eventing, those tears reopened, and widened. While I was relieved that it wasn't all my fault, I felt so guilty.

Eclipse had to stay in a stall for 8 months. He was such a trooper. Despite his usual need for amusement and adventures, he kept his cool for the whole 8 months. I was so grateful. He seemed to understand that he just needed to stay calm and quiet. When I began hand walking him for several minutes a day, he was such a gentleman. Sometimes, he would have to have a moment to explode a little...so he would leap about. But he would always do it in place and away from me, and then continue walking politely with me.

A second MRI revealed that he wasn't healing as fast as the vets would like. But at the end of 8 months, they finally approved him for light turnout with Ace. I was so worried about his turnout. I knew he would blow through the Ace and could run around and completely ruin the 8 months of patience. So I opted to ignore the vets, and did it my way.

First I started walking him longer, and then started trotting him in hand as well. I couldn't lunge him, because the circle would put too much stress on his legs. I couldn't use the arenas, because he had to stay on firm ground so he didn't strain his tendons. I trusted him, so I felt safe trotting him on the pavement with me, despite the 8 months of pent up energy. He was perfect.

Then I decided I was going to ride him. I wanted to have him walking and trotting under saddle on hard ground in straight lines for a good long time before I put him on turnout so I knew he'd have a little less energy to release and so I could see how sound he was.

It was a huge risk. 8 months in the stall. Energetic and historically dangerous animal. I couldn't lunge him. I couldn't ride in a ring. But I really trusted him and I always felt like this horse knew when I needed him. It was probably stupid on my part. But I didn't want 8 months of work to go down the drain. So I risked my own neck.

He seemed so happy to be undersaddle again. The barn staff helped me out by keeping a large paddock empty for me to ride in for a while each day. The paddocks had the perfect footing for Eclipse. It was shale that had broken down over the years. So it was firm but had good traction, and very level. He was a ball of muscle and energy but I tried to stay calm and just stick to my saddle. He was so good, but there were a few fits of major broncing, and he reared several times if he saw something alarming. I just held on for dear life and tried to talk to him. I could hardly blame him. He was pretty much shut in a closet for 8 whole months. That would drive anyone insane.

After several weeks he was trotting nicely for me for 20-30 minutes in the paddock and calming down. So I finally turned him out with ace, and luckily, my plan seemed to work. He didn't seem to have too much energy after a ride so he would just walk around and eat. Eventually we weaned him onto half day turnout again.

When I graduated college, I moved down to Colora, MD for my job at Hilltop Farm. Eclipse came with me, and I boarded him and my three other horses at the time (I had Sara back, Moose came with me, and my other horse, Hyde) at a nearby farm.

Eventually I moved Eclipse to Hilltop because I didn't have the time to go out to the other farm and give him the care he needed to continue his recovery. Hilltop had the perfect paddocks for him to go out in with great footing and I knew the handlers would make sure he got the care he required.

After some time, I began riding Eclipse again and he was staying sound. But he had changed mentally. The 8 months in the stall made him anxious and reactive. He seemed depressed, too and had lost some of his sense of humor.

Since he was staying sound, I moved him to field turnout 24/7, hoping that the time out with other horses would help find himself again. It seemed to help, but he still seemed depressed. My job and situation at the time made it so I couldn't spend that much time with him anymore. At this point in my life I didn't even want to see a horse anymore. I was just done with horses. I felt so guilty that I didn't spend time with him, but I just didn't want to anymore. I had so many bad hands dealt to me over the past several years that I finally had enough. For once, I didn't even like horses. When I did ride Eclipse, I felt so guilty about riding him, thinking that I'd just make him lame again. I couldn't stomach it.

Eventually I went ahead and found a home for Eclipse. My old trainer from college, Annette, had an older student that wanted a horse to just learn dressage on. She was retired and had her own small farm and didn't even really have interest in showing and none in jumping. Annette knew Eclipse's history and had helped me with him at college tremendously, so I knew he'd be understood and not pushed too hard. Linda, the student, impressed me with how well she cared for her horses and how much they obviously meant to her. She is quiet and kind and treats the horses like her kids. I gave her Eclipse, and have no regrets about the decision. It's a perfect match. I know Eclipse is well cared for and the last I saw him, he seemed to be happy again. He probably loves the constant attention. Her barn is quiet and peaceful. Linda doesn't expect the world from him undersaddle.

Linda and Eclipse

I miss Eclipse so very, very much. He is an incredible animal and I highly doubt I'll meet another one that compares to him. I take great comfort in knowing he's in a great home. He certainly deserves it.

Brrr...what is with the cold? Oh yeah...

...it's winter.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy despite this cold snap...then falling asleep before I can blog...haven't been feeling the best lately, but a bunch of the kids seem to be getting sick so I'm surprised I haven't really caught anything until now.

I've spent most of the week just riding, only had a few lessons to teach.

I rode Doc only twice, but with so many ponies to work, that's the best I can give him right now. I put him through his very first grid (three fences, one stride distances) and he did very well. He's a willing jumper, it's just a matter of keeping him straight and presenting the jumps to him in a good way. The first few times through he did get very quick on landing and took a minute to regain good control...I couldn't tell if he was excited or confused or nervous from jumping the line, but after a few more times through he calmed down and was near perfect.

When I rode him yesterday, he was very good and finally is starting to work with me rather than fight me for the first part of the ride, but now that he has brought his head out of the clouds and stopped pulling against me, he is hiding behind the bit. I'm starting to find that he's a passively nervous horse and does have some typical track related anxieties, he just hides them well. But I think now that he's thinking more during our rides he will become confident and quiet.

Greyson is still working on his canter. I started working on walk to canter transitions. He goes nicely at the trot but as soon as you ask for the canter, his head goes up and he tenses and scrambles his feet. I figured if I ask from the walk and not allow him to trot any steps in between, he would be forced to engage his hind end and reach over his back to get up to the canter. It actually works really well and sets up a nicer canter. I only let him canter forward about half a circle, then come back to walk before he loses his nice canter. The only issue with this approach is that I have to make sure he learns the difference between the canter and trot aids so he doesn't just rocket off my leg expecting a canter.

I only got to ride Bear yesterday, and have found that he doesn't do as well for me when he's not in consistent work...he's a lot more unfocused and fresh if he's not ridden several days a week. I just did a long review with him to get him attentive and focused. Hopefully I can ride him today too.

The new four have each had a roundpen session.

Cricket was first because she was hard to catch in her field one morning. We spent a good long while in the roundpen. First I just worked on getting her forward, and having her change pace or direction with my body language. It took a while to her her to give me her attention and keep an eye on me, but eventually she learned that turning away from me made me put a lot of pressure on her, but paying attention and giving me an eye kept pressure away. Then we tried playing catch and release. It took a while longer to get her to stand still and let me approach her. After a while she let me approach, put on her lead, and lead her around and pet her. Then I let her go as sent her out to work a bit again and tried to catch again. We did this 3 times and she got better each time. Then I just worked on petting her all over her neck and face. After that I got her used to the whip waving all around her and then touching her all over so she wouldn't be scared of it and trust me. She did surprisingly well. Next I taught her to give to the halter pressure. A horse that understands that they should give to pressure is safer, better to lead, respectful to crossties,an starts to learn what I will expect with the bit when that time comes. She did really well with this exercise too, so we worked on leading. She's a little sticky with her feet but she learns pretty fast so she was leading very well after a few minutes.

Cricket definitely moves like an Arab! She seems pretty smart and willing to learn so hopefully she'll come around fast.

Trick got to go in the round pen next. He's a lovely mover! Took me by surprise. Very willing to learn, and seems to enjoy being with people. His biggest issue was he wanted to come in to my space to say hi all the time without an invitation, but he figured it out. I put some tack on him and while he didn't fuss when I put it all on, it's definitely been a while since he's worn any and I suspect by his reaction that he hasn't had that much undersaddle time at all. He wasn't sure if he could move with the saddle and wasn't thrilled with the bit, but he figure it out and didn't get upset or dramatic about it all. I also worked with him with the whip and jumped around the mounting block. I'd like to start lunging him soon and taking him to the big ring (I may need an assistant!)

Buster was next. He was a little drama king at first, squealing do Trick and tried to leave the round pen. I wasn't too surprised, but he's a very clever little pony and seems bold, so he settled in to work very fast. The rest of our session was very uneventful. He even let me put the saddle on him and couldn't have cared less. He also seems to like it when I throw the saddle pad up on his face! He's going to be one of this bombproof, do anything but very naughty ponies, I can tell. He's an adorable mover too...looks like a kids pony. His gaits don't go anywhere too fast.

Buster likes to invade space and his shoulders are sticky so we worked on leading a having him stay at a respectable distance. He has trouble turning away from me do we worked on I sticking the shoulders until he willing yielded them when I'd turn toward him.

Now miss Nellie went last, and surprisingly she was the biggest challenge. She was the most dramatic about being alone and tried to leave the roundpen several times. Just when I'd think I had her attention, and we'd work on something else, she'd start getting upset and I'd have to send her back out to work until I got her focus back. She also really hated the whip touching her and waving around her, especially her legs. All the others, Cricket included, actually stood very still and got used to the whip quickly...Nellie took a good 20-30 minutes o calm down and stand still. Once she did stand still she finally had a lightbulb moment and calmed down for me but she seems like a little drama queen. Should have guessed...she's three...part welsh...a mare...a pony...chestnut...and you can see the white of her eyes. That's a recipe for a pony with a princess complex!

Buster got his second run in the round pen yesterday. He was very good from the start this time. After a quick review, I tried to put on the surcingle, but it was too big. So I just put a bridle on and let him get used to it and practiced lunging with a short line. He got confused a few times and acted out but then he figured it all out ad walked, trotted, and halted straight on the line without pulling on me.


Moose had a few days off early this week...I just didn't feel well enough for the extra ride at the end of the day. I was considering canceling my lesson on Wednesday in favor of a much needed nap, but I made myself go. Moose was very good and we had a fairly good ride, though I felt sloppy...my muscles just feel tired this week. Michael helped us with our stretching trot again since I've been having trouble with it at home. We also worked on the leg yield for the first time. I've done some yielding with her before but never on a straight line and not for several months. What a clever mare I have. She did so very well. If I ask right, she does it. Good mare!!!

I rode her a little last night too just to review and she did very well.

I have to admit, I'm starting to forget why I even call myself an eventer...I'm really having so much fun with dressage lately!

The Horses I Have Had...Part 2

I'm feeling motivated tonight (probably won't last long) so I thought I'd write a little more on the horses I have had.

We left off with Sara. Well after Sara left to VA at the end of my freshman year of college, I went down to work at the Chincoteague Pony Centre for the summer. Kerra had a mare that she was training and eventing for the owner. She was a 8 year old Thoroughbred/Quarter Horse/Appaloosa cross named Minnow. Minnow was 16.2 hands and build like a TANK. She was black but not pitch black...with a star. She had a big quarter horse butt with thoroughbred withers, shoulder, and legs, and an appaloosa mane, tail and attitude.

I rode Minnow a few times for Kerra over the summer and liked what she had to offer me. She could jump the moon without batting an eye and would jump anything you pointed her at without a question. At the time, I was only beginning my education in jumping and liked the idea of having a confidence builder, and a horse that could help me start eventing. So at the end of the summer, I scraped up all of my money and bought Minnow and brought her to school with me my sophomore year.

It quickly became evident that Minnow and I were not a match made in heaven. She did manage to build my confidence over fences, but little else. She had a very poor work ethic and did not like the consistent training I was trying to put into her. She didn't like just spending some one on one relaxing bonding time with me either. She had no interest in being my friend, which was a huge difference from Sara, who was my shoulder to lean on. If I tried to lean on Minnow, she probably would have threatened to kick me or squish me against the wall. She was very tough mare too, so she would ignore my aids when I was riding, and would plow me over on the ground despite my best efforts. I welted that mare so many times trying to work on her leading manners, but she just didn't care and would plow me over anyway. I felt so bad and like a poor horsewoman when I'd resort to lashing out at the mare, but it became a necessary means of self defense. She just plain didn't care about me and knew that she was bigger than me and at the end of the day, she could win any battle against me if she really wanted to.

Her favorite thing to do was squish me against her stall wall. If I was grooming her in her stall or even just quietly trying to spend some time with her, she would move sideways up to me and use her side to squish me against a wall. All my yelling and kicking and punching wouldn't even make her acknowledge me.

She wasn't a spooky mare at all. She'd seen and done it all. But she would pretend to spook. I would be riding along on a loose rein letting her have an easy walk, and she might "spook" and tuck her but and scoot out from right under me. That happened at least three times.

I was ready to sell Minnow after only a month or two of owning her. We were not a match at all. I could tell it would always be a power struggle between us and while I could learn from it, I wanted to have a horse I enjoyed visiting every day. I would have sold her right away but sadly, Wilson College had a case of strangles come through, and the barns were completely quarantined for months.

I sold her after six months of ownership, and that was too long. A young student of Kerra's actually bought her. I think Minnow probably likes that situation better. Not much is expected of her in that situation. Though I believe not long after I sold her, she was diagnosed with ringbone...I don't know what ever became of her.

It's really a shame it didn't work out...that mare could jump anything. I remember free jumping her once and cranking up the fences, completely in awe of her jumping abilities. We got her up to 4'6", and that mare acted like that size fence actually bored her. But without the work ethic, it didn't really matter what her abilities were.

I began my horse search again. My mom was my side kick as we went all over creation to look at horses. Luckily, I found a horse I liked relatively early in the search.

In upstate New York, we happened upon a 3, coming 4 year old dark bay gelding pretty fresh from the track. He was 16.1 when I bought him, but he shot up an entire hand his four year old year and ended up at 17.1 hands. He had three names before I owned him, but I liked none of them. So I renamed him Louie, because he looked like a Louie. His show name became Stuntman Louie...I thought Stuntman was a cool name for a thoroughbred eventing prospect.

Louie was the sweetest horse. Didn't even know how to pin his ears. He had the personality of a big lab. I will never be able to say enough nice things about this horse. It was always a pleasure to spend time with him.

Louie shortly after I bought him...just look at that face!

Lou was nervous and had some habits from the track that I had to have patience to break, but he always gave 200%. He would get very upset if he thought he did something wrong and would really dwell over his own imperfections. After he got to know me better, he began to focus better, and I found out that I had an amazing horse on my hands.

He was very bright and once he would figure out what you wanted, he would never forget and never put a foot wrong again. He had three wonderful gaits and a beautiful, natural jump. As soon as he figured out what to do with his feet over jumps, he made leaps and bounds in his progress. He was so good at jumping! He had a natural eye for distances and always kept a polite pace in between fences. One week he was lumbering over a small cross rail, the next he was breezing through a grid like an old pro, the next he was jumping a full course complete with gates, oxers, flower boxes, and roll tops at a 2'9" to 3' height like he was an old packer. This horse always kept me amazed at how quickly he learned and how I never had to reteach him anything. Once he got it, that was it.

I stayed at Wilson College that summer to work school horses, so Lou and I continued our work and play at the school. He even got to help with pony camp and loved the kids.

Louie after being attacked by little kids with finger paint! They were SUPPOSED to be learning parts of the horse, but got a little carried away!

That fall, Louie was acting uncomfortable one day. He seemed colicky, but it didn't seem too bad. However, after several hours of trying to make him comfortable, he still seemed to not be feeling well. I ended up taking him to Marion Dupont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, VA, thinking it wasn't anything too serious, since Louie really wasn't being very dramatic about his discomfort. However, after his work up, it was determined Louie needed surgery, as the vet suspected that he had flipped his colon up over his spleen. So, thanks to insurance, I was able to afford to put him through the surgery.

Two of my friends came with me that night and we got to watch the surgery from a separate room. Despite the fact that my amazing horse was the one under the knife, I felt a strange feeling of optimism, so I was able to actually enjoy getting the opportunity to watch a colic surgery. Louie's intestines were like balloons! They were so full of gas backed up behind his pinched colon. Luckily, nothing was twisted or dead, so the vets were able to put his colon back in place, drain the gas, and stitch him back up. Pretty uneventful for a colic surgery.

Louie spent the next few months recovering, and luckily, had zero signs of discomfort. He recovered beautifully, and eventually went back into work.

Lou completely recovered and feeling good as new!

My roommate, Karly and Lou's best friend, Eclipse, and Me with Louie at Blessing of the Animals at Wilson College

The next summer, I went back down to work in Chincoteague. I took Louie with me (and Eclipse, but we'll talk about him next!)

This is also when I first met Pav, who was being boarded at the same place I boarded Louie. Katye Allen, a friend of the Gehmans, was leasing him.

Well a couple of weeks into my summer, Katye went to get Pav to take him to a lesson. Pav had pulled a shoe, so I offered her Louie. He was still green and this was when he was just starting to figure out jumping, but I figured he would at least allow her to do her lesson and get to ride a different horse. She agreed, so we put him on the trailer and away we went.

Louie rocked. Below is the video from that day. This was his first course. His first one stride. His first oxer. His first time jumping flower boxes. His first time jumping anything higher than 2'3". He blew us all away. I knew my horse learned fast and never looked back, but he even caught me by surprise. I was so proud of him. I loved this horse and felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

About two weeks later, I was driving out to take my truck to the shop and Katye was following me in her car. She caught my attention and pointed to Lou out in the field. He was walking very funny, but he was far away so it kind of looked like he was just trying to find a good place to roll.

We went out to check on him. Eclipse, his buddy who ALWAYS was by his side, was down the field a ways. Louie was starting to sweat and was walking strangely, and acting very disoriented.

We led him to the barn to try to cool him off and figure out what was wrong. He couldn't even walk a straight line. When we got in the barn, he starting throwing himself around blindly, running into walls, tack trunks, me...he didn't seem to be in a state of mind where he really could care. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, and was getting more and more painful by the minute. Kerra, a vet tech, and Kendy Allen, pooled together their store of drugs and Kerra pumped Lou full of as many painkillers as she could without killing him. It was very hard to give him the drugs, as by now he was in so much pain that he was throwing himself  to the ground and careening all over the place, but Kerra got the job done.

Lou only got comfortable enough to become a little more aware of his surroundings, but even all of the drugs didn't stomp out his pain.

There was only one vet in the area, and he was busy in surgery. Trailering him out to a vet wasn't an option, as I felt sure that he would throw himself around in the trailer and really hurt himself. So we had to wait.

Kerra and Katye came to my aid and stayed with me and Louie the whole FOUR HOURS it took for the vet to get there. I walked Louie, Kerra held a hose of cold water on him, and Katye used a whip to try to keep Louie from going down. He still went down and rolled several times despite our efforts. I was at the point where I was ready to shoot my horse, and even asked for someone to find a gun. I already knew what his fate was, and I hated having to prolong his pain.

What really made me accept what was about to happen was Eclipse. Someone walked Eclipse in from the field, past us walking Louie, to his stall. Eclipse usually loved Louie and liked to be near him. He didn't even acknowledge Louie as he passed. I felt like he had already said goodbye.

When the vet finally arrived, Louie went down one more time, and laid very still and all of a sudden became very calm and relaxed. It was almost as though he know what the vet's arrival meant for him, and he was ready. It was such a strange experience, but I was so glad that my horses seemed to know it was time for Louie to leave, so I didn't have to struggle with the decision. They decided for me.

The vet fiddled around a little but the conclusion was that we should just put him down. I already had decided that. Even if by some miracle, this colic case could be resolved, he already had one surgery under his belt, and a second surgery would mean I could expect him to colic badly for the rest of his life. The vet guessed that he ruptured his colon.

Louie went very quietly and Kerra and Katye stayed with me and Louie like the sisters they have always been for me. They took me for a drive afterward, and we went to the beach, covered in sweat and dirt and tears, and watched a perfect sunset.

I was lucky Louie was in Chincoteague when he died, because we were able to bury him on the property of Pony Pines Farm. The owners, Donnie and Lynn Matthews, took care of everything for me. I am so glad I was able to bury him.

I didn't have him long but Louie was one of the most awesome horses I have met.

Time for bed, Part 3 coming soon...we have three more horses to cover, plus a little blip on my time with Pav :)