Doing What You Can With What You’ve Got and the Beauty of New Boots.

Every time I realize how long it has been since I’ve posted I feel horrible. Unfortunately this is my life right now. I have a full time job in the Navy (so my life isn’t really my own. YET!) an almost three year old daughter who can be at moments a holy terror, a farm, a big property to maintain and a house to keep clean and organized. 

So my life is pretty full. What this means is that I ride when I can but all my plans for competitions, clinics, and lessons went out the window a while ago. These days when I need a little flatwork inspiration I hit up some of my favorite trainers on YouTube. It’s not as good as being able to have a lesson with a dressage coach or a jumping coach but it’s what fits my life right now. 

I moved to a new command this past January.  And it’s not exactly what I was hoping for. I was hoping for a nice quiet shore duty to spend my last three years in the Navy before I retire and move on to a life that I get to orchestrate and make the choices for.  This is not that command. I travel. A LOT!  The first five months I was at the command I was only really in the office for a total of two weeks.  This winter I’ll be spending three months away from home with jaunts back to the farm for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I will miss my daughter’s third Halloween, but not her birthday thankfully.

My whole family is actually taking a vacation together. Every October the biggest hot air balloon festival in the United States, maybe the World happens in Albuquerque, New 

Mexico.  Which is really close to where Superhubs grew up and his family still lives.  We decided to take Her Majesty the Queen of Babies to the festival this year.  My mother, sisters, nephew and brother-in-law decided they wanted to come too.  AND! My husband sprang on me a surprise trip to the Grand Canyon while we are out in the Southwest! I’ve never been and I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon at sunrise so we are going to make that trip happen as well. 

So what has been going on with my horses you ask?  Not a lot. I’ve been riding when I can, which with the current weather has either been super early in the morning or really late in the evening.  Recently I’ve had the Red Rogue Pony working on transitions and cavaletti work.  Plus working on the right side bend. He is super stiff and unyielding to that direction.  I’m pretty sure it’s due to me favoring that side and not being as strong on my left which I’m also trying to work on. 

I’ve also been riding Cowboy a little bit.  He’s still not my first choice to ride but we’re managing to get along.  He also can be super stiff so we’re working on bending and cavaletti work as well.   I’m hoping someday to take him to a dressage show but with my work life pretty much sucking up all my time and what’s left going to my daughter I just can’t ride as much as I used to. So I have to work with what I’ve got. 

My daughter while not completely sold on the aspect of horses as far as riding goes does occasionally ask me to ride.  I always choose Fox because he is the least likely to do something stupid when we are just strolling at the slowest walk possible. Which Fox and my daughter both love. My daughter has her own little helmet and I see tiny jods and paddock boots in her future. Super horsey mommy squeal!

Even though I’m not riding as much as I was this fact has not stopped me from acquiring some new equestrian items. Because my pre-pregnancy Kerrits Cross-over breeches don’t quite fit the way they used to I got a couple new pairs of breeches. My Kerrits are low rise, and having seen the photos of myself post pregnancy in those breeches I opted for mid-rise to er camouflage certain aspects of my anatomy that I don’t want to announce to the world.  Love handles cough cough.   I bought two pairs from two different brands. I bought a very nice pair of Romfh full seats, and a lovely pair of Ariat Tri-factor full seats.   I haven’t had a chance to wear the Romfhs yet but the Ariat’s wore really well and made me feel very secure in the saddle. I’ll put a full review on all my new stuff under that tab on the main page.

I also got two more new things. One I already have and LOVE, the other will be arriving tomorrow.  Since the beginning of my riding life as a wee little girl on ponies I have hated riding in my tall boots.  Prior to getting half chaps I rode in breeches in paddock boots almost exclusively unless I was showing.  Then I got half chaps and adored them. I have a pair of black suede Ariat half chaps that are nearly 20 years old.  In the way back days of my childhood when my parents couldn’t afford a pair of fancy tall boots I had a PVC pair that I would shine with Armor All for shows.  Then later when my feet stopped growing my mom bought me a pair of Devonaire pull on tall boots.  I loved the look but really hated riding in them because I lost the close contact feel.  When I could afford to buy my own boots and after I broke my ankle and I absolutely had to have zip up boots I got a pair of Ariat Crown Pros.  I was very much in love with them but again I lost the feel my half chaps gave me. Yet again I only wore them when I had to for shows.  

So I dealt with it, relegated my tall boots for when I had no choice. Then one day at the local tack shop I was perusing the tall boots and saw this style of boot that I’d heard of, seen on a few upper level riders but thought were kind of odd looking.  Enter the Ariat Volants.  The minute I tried on those boots it was an instant affair.  They were so comfortable and the already broken in panel on the inside had me sighing and trying to figure out how to afford them.   I stalked e-bay and anywhere else that might have them at a discount. No joy.  I put my unrequited love aside.  Until Smartpak put their Ariat Sport V’s on clearance at the same time I had some extra funds.  I snapped up a pair and they have now become my favorite boot to ride in. Along with the new breeches I feel like a tornado couldn’t dislodge me from the saddle.

The last new item, that is at this moment winging its way to me, is a new bridle.  I am a certified bridle hoarder.  I’d have to physically count all my bridles, something I am loath to do, but I think this will make bridle number 14.  I only have two ridable horses.  Did acknowledging my bridle hoarding stop me from buying a new bridle? Nope.  I got a new PS of Sweden Jump Off Bridle.  I was dithering back and forth between the Jump Off and the High Jump, but ultimately went with the Jump Off.  I’m really excited to see if either or both of the boys likes this bridle more than the SmartPak dressage bridle they both currently share. 

We shall have to see.  What’s up next for us?  Just training and trying to be more fit. My job will have me traveling again for several months. I just keep telling myself I only have a couple of years left and then I can do whatever the hell I want.

Until then, keep it between the flags my friends. 

The Sweet Spot

     Home again, home again, jiggety, jig! I’ve finally been home for longer than a week! And the weather hasn’t been totally horrible! I’ve managed to ride Fox twice and Cowboy twice.  We are only doing tack walking with a lap of the field at the trot as the end of the work out.  Since the ponies haven’t been ridden since May I want to take it easy on them and gently get everyone, myself included back in to shape.

Meanwhile I’ve had the Farrier Fairy out to attend to hooves, and my vet to get everyone’s shots, and coggins up to date for the spring.  Plus I got some x-rays done of Fox’s front feet so that the Farrier Fairy and I can make some more informed decisions about how to best take care of Fox’s feet.

Riding the two boys has been interesting. Fox is the lazy, I will only do the smallest amount unless pushed horse.  He is also the one that when he thinks the ride should be done he’ll try and shy, grab the bit and run back towards his girlfriend.  Naughty brat.

Cowboy on the other hand has been a sort of delightful surprise.  I’m not saying he doesn’t have his moments of “I don’t wanna.”   He does and he has more of a reason to protest than Fox does.  Cowboy has been my husband’s sometimes trail horse for the last six years. Meaning he got ridden maybe three or four times a year.  I had no serious interest in riding him. I mean come on I had the lovely High Queen and all her high jinks, then the Sunday Stroller gelding.

But Cowboy is that horse that always comes to the gate first, would always rather follow you around than be with the other horses. He is curious about absolutely everything. Plus he is super pretty and he is a very lovely mover.  I didn’t realize what a gift it is to sit on a nice mover until I rode Cowboy a few days ago.  Trotting him was such a change, a floating, gorgeous change from riding Fox that I was really kicking myself for not doing it ages ago.  Then he got a moment of naughty and broke in to a canter.  The most balanced, uphill canter I’ve sat on in years.

Now I love Fox, he is that easy going, never really spook at anything, best trail horse, level headed, jump anything pony that I wanted for a long, long time.  But he is also a lot of work. He is never going to be that self initiated forward mover.  I always have to work hard to get him to do dressage the way it needs to be done.  And while this makes me a better rider, it can be exhausting.

And then there is Cowboy.   He is naturally foward, not hot, just a big, energetic mover.  I have been over the last couple of months, from when the summer of hell finally ended, tried to be kinder to Cowboy, to try and see him as less of a brat who is always bugging you, and more of a friend who always wants to be part of what you are doing.  I’ve spent more time with him, groomed him more and generally went about changing the way I see him.


Another blogger, who I love, writes about her riding of her spicy mare. They went to a clinic with Dom Schramm, one of my favorite riders and clinicians.  Dom told the rider to ride her mare like she’s sweet.  I took this to mean that if you expect naughty, bad behavior, you are going to get it. I’m not saying not to be prepared, but don’t look for it.  I’m trying to ride Cowboy as if he’s sweet, letting go over past transgressions and trying to appreciate what Cowboy has to offer.

In honor of that, when the vet came out I asked her to list Cowboy’s show name on his coggins so that if I can get him to some shows this year I can show him with the name I chose.   Which is
“The Sweet Spot”

Keep it between the flags everyone! And Happy New Year!

Recommitting, Reengaging and Revitalizing

So here I am post the summer from hell and I still haven't gotten back on the proverbial and literal horse. There are a lot of reasons I haven't gotten back in the saddle yet.  Some are easy to define, others not so much. 

My motivation to do more than just groom, pick hooves and feed treats just hasn't been there lately.  A lot of it had to do with coming down from the ultra-high stress bus that I had been riding for almost four months.  I lived with a high level of daily stress for so long that it took several weeks of little to no stress to bring me back to a baseline.  

Which is about when my desire to ride again began kicking in.  I started reading my Practical Horseman’s again, perusing the Dover/SmartPak catalogs, touching with longing all my good tack that is currently living in my bedroom as my tack room is also the guest bedroom. I started looking at my ponies with an eye towards what we need to work on, how we're going to get all the muscle we lost back and what we can do this winter to make riding easier. 

Essentially I found my riding mojo again, I found my riding love again, I found myself. 

I still have a month long training to do that will have me away from home from mid-November to mid-December. Which sort of sucks because I need to do the annual shaving of the wooly beast who, while he is definitely a Thoroughbred, is absolutely convinced that he is an Appaloosa/Welsh Pony cross. So while my other two, the OTTB mare and the actual Appy are just mildly fuzzy, Fox has nearly a full on winter coat already. 

So here I am laying it down in black and white. I am recommitting to my riding, reengaging with my passion and my pony and revitalizing my heart and my dreams.  This year we will go Beginner Novice, we will canter dressage worthy circles, we will do a clinic with someone great. We will go down to the North Carolina Horse Park and do the War Horse Eventing Trial.  We will be the partners that I know we can be.

I will commit to taking Cowboy to a horsemanship clinic and find our own partnership so that he can have a job and feel loved and needed. We will prance down centerline and wow everyone with how lovely a mover he is. We will do a cross rails jumping class and we will trail ride and have fun. 

I listen to a lot of audio books. Sometimes I listen to fiction, sometimes memoirs, and sometimes self-help.  There was one self-help book that talked about writing down or saying your goals out loud.  How these simple acts reinforce things in your mind and makes it easier and believable to achieve your goals. 

So here I am, this is the year we get off our butts and do all those things I've been dreaming of.  

Keep it Between the Flags everyone!

Why I Dropped Off the Earth Again

I realized after logging in today that I have not posted since April.  After the summer I have had it feels like years ago instead of months. So let me dive in to the reason I dropped off the earth again.

Way back in March I entered what I jokingly call the Second Circle of the Circus. In the Navy when you are an E6 (Its a rank) the next move is to E7, or Chief.  It's a big deal, a lot of changes and responsibility come with it.  It is not an easy move to make. First there is the exam (The first circle of the circus), then there is Making Board, meaning you've passed the exam and now your record will be looked at by a board of upper rank enlisted and officers to decide whether or not they will recommend you for Chief.

The Selected for Board results come out in March, this is the Second Circle.  As expected I made Board, but I didn't get excited at that point. I've made Board before and not been selected.  But I wanted to be prepared just in case so I started the Couch to 5K program using their app.  And I completed my second ever in my life 5K on Memorial day.  I actually did a trail run through a horse ranch which was pretty cool.

Then there is the long wait for the Selection results to come out.  For me the results come out usually in the first week or two of July. I took leave the first week of July so I could flip out in private if I didn't get selected again.  And the results were late so I ended up being at work the day they came out anyway.

And I was Selected, this is the end of the third circle of the circus and the beginning of the fourth.  The fourth circle is Initiation.  This is like extreme bootcamp. Lots of PT and other stuff to prepare you for being promoted.

So that is where I disappeared to for so long.  Now I'm on the other side.  And I only have one sound horse right now. Seneca as usual is happy in her permanent retirement.  Fox must have been feeling a bit jealous of this and realizing my preoccupation with work was about to come to an end and his cushy holiday with it, he contrived to be on the injured list.

A few weeks ago, in the dark, I went out to feed my three ponies.  Fox limped, three legged limped up to me out of the dark.  I quickly hung up the phone conversation I was having and went to check him out.  He'd cut up his left pastern, but he was actually limping on the right front foot.  That was strange all on it's own.   Later I saw the gate between the two pastures was wrecked.  Which explained the cut and I thought Fox must have gotten hung up on it and pulled his shoulder.  So I applied some first aid, did my best to make him comfortable and added some bute to his feed.

After several days his limping was less and and less though not gone.  Then the Farrier Fairy came out and when she went to trim that right front foot we discovered that he wasn't injured he had just contrived a massive sole abcess at the same time he'd cut himself. Sneaky pony.

So that leaves Fox on the injured list a while longer and I'm treating his recovering foot and to try to stave off thrush. Meanwhile this leaves Cowboy as my only sound horse.  Uhmm yea?
I have been trying to let go of the past lately and learn to love that big spotted beast.  I still see lots of lunging in our future but it's not out of the realm of possibility to see us swaggering down the centerline some time this winter.

Also stay tuned to the Reviews page for some updates on a new footing solution I added to one of my run-in sheds and the truly awesome haynets I got this year that even Fox hasn't managed to destroy!

Keep it between the flags everyone!

The Legacy of Fear

I don't know when, or why, or how but somewhere along the line between riding Seneca, her retirement and finding Fox I became afraid of speed.  Years ago before she became a pasture puff I had no problem cantering Seneca at home. In fact, right before the seemingly endless rounds of vet visits and time off, I was beginning to work on cantering fences. This precipitated the whole saddle fit debacle where I realized that my current saddle did not quite fit Her Majesty.


Later that year I did my last XC schooling with Seneca where we actually cantered a XC fence.  This was a big step for us and I hoped a bright spark for the future. Except a month later Seneca began the rounds of on again off again lameness that was the downward spiral towards her retirement.


Enter Thrill Factor, aka Fox, the slowest, most unmotivated OTTB on the planet. Which makes his registered name completely ironic. I loved him from the moment I saw him.  He was absolutely not what I was looking for. I wanted tall, elegant, flashy.  He was a small, decent mover and a very strange, ever changing chestnut color. But he was slow, quiet and a snuggler.  I think the snuggling is what really sold me.  He's very vocal and always comes to the fence when I walk out to see him. And off the property he behaves like a plow horse 99% of the time.


Yet I had this mental block about cantering him. Part of it is that he's hard to motivate in to a canter. Except that one time in front of a BNT when I was only asking for a trot. So at home for the last year I almost never cantered and only cantered occasionally when off the property.  He would trot nearly any kind of fence without looking twice at it unless I was nervous about it. Then it was more of a "are you sure Mom?"


But last week I was on vacation to do clean-up of the property after the nasty winter we've had. Which provided me the opportunity to ride my horse multiple times in a week. So I worked on letting go of my fear, of putting my trust in the red pony and just dealing with whatever shenanigans he might pull.  Except there were no shenanigans.  He gave me the canter fairly easily on both rides.   The first ride I only asked him for a few strides of canter a couple of times to see if the button was there. If he would give me the canter without doing anything naughty.


The second ride I made him give the canter for a lap of my make-shift arena. In both directions. Which he did, even though he tried to drop out of the canter a couple of times. I was so very happy with just those few moments of the ride. I mean he gave me other good things but I struggled with cantering Fox.


I'm not even sure why other than I hadn't cantered him consistently for a very long time.  He would occasionally give me the canter after a fence and I would praise him and ride it out when he did but again he's very lazy and getting the canter after a fence wasn't a given.


So where do we go from here? I'm working on arena exercises to strengthen Fox's topline, doing our dressage circles of death, and we will be working on cantering ground poles soon. I am tentatively planning on doing one of the War Horse Series shows this summer. I say tentative because I plan a lot but often the execution gets muddled.  I'm also planning on taking Fox to some lessons with a local eventer and hopefully some dressage lessons again with Sprieser Sporthorses.


Until then keep it between the flags!

You Do What You Gotta Do

So as my work life becomes more complicated, I inevitably get more stress in my life. Which means I need to ride more, groom more, be with my four legged stress reliever more.  So how do you make more time in an already crazy busy life? Sacrifice, my eventing friends, sacrifice. 


A very long time ago I was in Navy Boot Camp. Your sleep deprived, often sick with respiratory illness due to the close quarters and your day is schedule to within an inch of it's life. You have no privacy and no freedom.  It's just something you have to endure. Towards the end of Boot Camp there is an event called Battle Stations.  Basically you stay up all day, then when you should be going to sleep you go out and play war games all night, literally, you don't get to sleep until the evening of the NEXT night.  During Boot Camp I was a notoriously slow runner.  We would be in the drill hall doing aerobic exercises, then you pause and do a lap around the gym, come back and do more exercises.  By the time I got done doing my lap, it was time to do a lap again.


During Battle Stations, back in my day (They have an animatronic ship made by Disney now), you sprinted from each of the different buildings where various events were held to the next.  The worst was from the tunnel that passes under a road to the pool building.  It was a really long distance.  And as I stated I was a slow runner.  The rule was you had to stay in front of the last RDC (Recruit Division Chief), if you fell behind the last RDC you failed and had to return to your barracks building, wait 24 hours then try again.  After experiencing the first half, and coming up on the dreaded run to the pool building, there was NO WAY I was going to re-run Battle Stations.  So I made it my absolute mission to stay in front of the last RDC. Which is what I did.  On that last long run we lost half the girls in my Division. I conquered Battle Stations, got my Navy Ball Cap (the symbol that you were now a real sailor versus the Recruit Ball Cap) went to the celebratory breakfast and then went back to my building for the day's activities.


The first chance they got, two girls in my Division who didn't pass that night, and hadn't been very nice to me during the rest of Boot Camp, came over and asked me, sort of snottily.  "We just want to know, since you are such a slow runner, how you passed and we didn't."   Keep in mind, the entire division was made up almost entirely of babies straight from high school.  I was 25, married and had already lived out in the big bad world, with it's bills and crappy jobs.  I turned around, looked them in the eye and said "I wanted it more than you did."


So here we are, if I want to ride, I have to really, really want it. Because making time in my day to ride means giving up sleep and time spent with my daughter. Some days I will have to get up at 4AM, so I can ride before work.  I will have to get up early on the weekends that my husband closes at his store so that I can ride before he goes to work.  If I want it, I have to really want it.


Here are my motivations.  Between now and July/August, the Navy will be convening it's selection boards to decide who gets to be a Chief (E7, the next rank I need to achieve).  This is the time of year that I call The Circus.  Because it starts in January when we take the exam, then we have to wait to see if we made a high enough score to move on to the second phase. If we make the second phase in March then we have to wait until July/August to find out if we have been selected for the next rank. See?  A big, ugly circus that goes on for months.  On top of this I am now in charge of not just all the enlisted personnel in my depart, but two other divisions within that department.  Yippee! More work. 


Plus I'll be going in to what is called "My Window" in May. It means I can start trying to choose orders, or extend with my current command.  I don't know yet what I am going to do.


So there's all that craziness.  And then there is the goodness, something so great I can't even express how excited I am.  Kim Severson, 4* Eventer, and Olympian is coming to our little Eventing No Man's Land!  She's going to be doing several clinics here. That if nothing else is getting me out there and riding, no matter the weather, or hour of the morning. Yesterday it rained almost all day, after raining most of last week.  Usually I would take a pass on riding, because my pastures become a slippery swamp when it rains that much.  I sucked it up, brushed the mud of the Red Rogue pony and we walked for 30 minutes, doing nothing more strenuous than dressage circles of death, spiraling in and spiraling out again. I really want to ride with Kim.  She has been on my Dream to Ride With list for a long time.  Can't WAIT!


Keep it between the flags everyone!
 

Learning to Live Between the Lines

Can’t believe I’ve left the blog undone for so long.  So let me fill you in on everything that has happened since June.  Well her Majesty, the High Queen tried to kill herself off for the second year in a row.  Last year it was Potomac Horse Fever, this year is was the mystery injury that seriously if it had been any deeper she would be dead.  I found her Majesty not quite right, and her girth line looked weird from a distance so I went out to check on her.  And found, way underneath, where I can’t even imagine how she did it, a massive wound.  So deep I immediately knew it was beyond my skills and called the vet.

Despite the High Queen’s snobbishness she actually is really good about being doctored.  Even with just local anesthetic she stood still as a statue while the vet stitched up the muscle (yes, it was that deep) then the skin.  We left a drain in and I had my marching orders to try and keep her Majesty quiet as possible.  So the boys went out in separate side pastures, and I tried to keep Seneca secured in the run-in-shed. Which worked for exactly three days and then she refused to stay secured.

She’s healed up fine and is back to bossing Cowboy around.  Fox is back to living by himself with nose over the fence privledges.  This because Seneca’s injury was the second nearly life ending injury that has happened when Fox has been in the pasture with other horses.  The first was Cowboy’s infamous skull fracture.   I don’t know if Fox was really involved with Seneca’s injury but I’d rather not take the chance.

My riding has been inconsistent at best.  Life has just been really hectic and I can’t bring myself to ride if I’m the only one home with my daughter.  I keep thinking that if my daughter was napping, and I had a bad accident where I was unconscious who would find her? Who would even know she was in the house?  So I just can’t do it.

And with Superhub’s super awful schedule now I just don’t get to ride a lot anymore. I’m trying to be okay with this. Most of the time it feels like I really don’t have a life anymore.  Or rather I don’t have the life I once did.  From time to time if its not my turn to pick up my daughter from daycare I’ll stop and window shop or stroll through the local tack shop. I get to relive a little bit of the life I used to have.

Don’t get me wrong I love my daughter but I miss my old life or rather parts of my old life.  Retirement from the Navy seems to get further away every year. I chose to add an extra year so that Superhubs could go back to school and dump the retail job.  He’s going to be a Physical Therapy tech which I think is really cool.  We are hoping he can start classes next fall.

So really all my equestrian goals have gone out the window.  I ride when I can but I’ve put showing away for now. What will the new year bring? No idea.

Keep it between the flags everyone!