Cold Truth

While at the lesson with Chris Hitchcock I learned of another eventer in my area who was also riding with Chris. I had been emailing and texing J. back and forth for a few weeks but had not yet met her when I loaded up the mare last Saturday.

J. had invited me to go schooling at Lionheart Equestrian out in Suffolk with a few other riders this past Saturday. As I was prepping the trailer and the High Queen for the 1hr journey it was not that cold. It was in the mid-fifties at my little farm as I put the Queen in to the trailer. I texted my neighbor to let her know that the Spotted Beast's temper tantrums were about to ensue then headed out the gates of the farm for Suffolk. This would be the first time I had taken any of my horses further than 20 minutes away on my own. I admit manuvering through early Saturday morning traffic was nerve wracking but the trip was uneventful.

As I pulled in to Lionheart I easily drove my trailer in to a great parking spot and began meeting all my new eventing buddies.  I can't tell you how great it was to be with other eventers! I even got a lesson and some coaching out of it from a trainer who came with two the younger riders in our group.

Seneca was great in the grid exercise we were doing up until the point that we added a third and fourth jump to the line of poles.  With only a jump at the begining and the end she was fabulous! No kicking in to over drive at all. But she started ducking and refusing when we pressed her by adding the two jumps in the middle.

After, I jumped a couple of 2ft show jumps then watched the other riders who were doing a higher level than I. When they went off to school the xc course J. switched to her other horse and I put the jumps back down to a more appropriate height for the High Queen.  I did leave several of the verticals up in the 2'6-2'8" range  because I wanted to see if Seneca would bulk at the larger fences. I really want to go Beginner Novice this year. My intent is to go to the schooling trial around the corner from my house this weekend and do the 2ft division, and then use the other three schooling events coming up to move in to the Beginner Novice division culminating with going to the Starter Horse Trials at the Virginia Horse Center at the end of March.

Everything so far is encouraging me that we can do this. It will be a big and scary move but it gives me a real chance at the ultimate goal for this fall which is my first recognized horse trial. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. J. has promised to help me in Lexington using her horse as a lead for the High Queen so that she can get comfortable with the things we have to do like the water complex, and the banks, two things we haven't done yet. And there is a pretty scary looking ditch and rail that I keep telling myself is just as wide as a coop but my heart says different when I look at it on the videos.

The rest of the schooling went fairly well. The High Queen did not like the coop in the show jump ring, but I made her go over it and then she was fine. The only other incident happened later. I was waiting for J. to finish schooling her higher level horse and go with me out to xc fences. I was just wandering about letting Seneca look at things. What she was looking at were the little herd of wandering farm ponies and she lost her mind. She spooked, I lost my grip, she took off and I hit the ground.  I had a moment to hope that I didn't reinjure my leg before I watched Senca's shiny brown butt going full out racehorse mode back to the trailer.

The trainer who had come with the other riders caught her and brought her back to me, making sure I was okay in the process. I assured her I was other than feeling like a fool. I did get to school a few xc fences with J. acting as lead pony with her ISH mare.

All in all other than the freezing cold(it was at least 10 degrees colder in Suffolk) it was a good day. Next up the schooling trial at Summer's End. Wish us luck!

Keep it between the flags everybody.

Moments of Clarity

I get off early from work and zip my way home making the decision in my head that dinner will be whatever I can throw together quickly or as my husband calls them "Fend for Yourself" nights where each of us is responsible for finding our own dinner.

The day is warm and dry, a rare combination these days. I get home, change, grab my new boots that I am still breaking in and my new helmet that I love, then let the dogs out.  Agate, the six month old Bull Terrier makes mad circles around me as I head for the door then bursts off the porch and in to the backyard like the bullet I sometimes call him.  Georgia makes a more stately jog down the porch then sprawls rolling and rubbing her shaggy Golden Retriever coat in to the grass.

In the five minutes that has taken me Seneca has emptied half the water from the water trough that I left to fill while I was in the house liberally splashing herself and then rolled. I mentally tack on an extra ten minutes for grooming then head over to take out all my gear before going to catch my bay drama queen.

When she sees me coming Seneca retreats to the furthest corner of the pasture because she thinks I can't see her down there. I fool her by making a fuss over Cowboy and pretending to feed him things from my palm when what he actually doing is licking the salt he tastes there. She comes halfway back and I clip on the lead line before she can walk off again.

I had set up the same exercise that C. was teaching me in the lesson although a shortened version as I don't have as many poles to work with. Seneca and I warm up at the trot and it is here that she is calm, I am chest up, heels down, leg secure, and the slightest tightening of leg and rein have her turning, circling moving as if there is a mental connection between us. It is in these moments in this clarity between us, that I have never felt before, that I feel as if I really am a rider. I feel as if were someone to take a picture of this moment I would look like Karen O'Connor, or Sinead Halpin, or Kim Severson or even some great professional dressage rider. I don't feel as I do most of the time that I am a child struggling to keep up with the adults who seem to know so much. I feel in those moments that I really could get to Beginner Novice this year.

We practice cantering and she is softer today, easier. On the left lead she even deigns to give me the canter depart from the walk something she has never done. The right is a bit harder for her, or rather my aids aren't as good and we struggle with it but get it in the end.

Then before the sun falls so far that it would be dangerous we canter the poles on the ground aiming for softness and rythym. Seneca gives me both on the third pass and I dismount to set the pole on to my Bloks so that it is raised as if it were a cavaletti. We canter this too and the first time through she puts her head down, rushes it and is flat.  I circle and we come back to it. I ask for more canter this time and give Seneca her head as we cross the first pole.  She is still quick but softer, she thumps the rail behind and half of it is knocked from its cradle in the Blok.  I end the ride there as the sun is going down and it will soon be dark, too dark to see. Always when I think of that I am reminded of a song whose words I stole. Guns N'Roses wasn't the orignal artist but Axel Rose's voice is the one I hear when I think of the song.

I untack carefully putting boots and helmet back in their respective carrying cases then put the chain lead shank on Seneca. I haven't loaded her in the trailer in a few weeks and I need to remind her that trailer loading is not a request, it's an order.  She steps on after me, no hesitation, only obedience and I sigh with relief. It has taken a long, hard year to get her back to this point. Thank you Kim Clark for giving me back my horse who I had lost somewhere behind the drama queen who has no respect for me or trailers.

I reblanket the High Queen as it is going to rain tonight then turn her loose in the driveway to graze on the often untouched by horses grass that grows there.  She dives at it as there is no grass in the back pasture at this time of year and the pickings in the side pasture are sparce. I put all my gear back then put Seneca back out in the pasture before feeding her and Cowboy and saying goodnight.

Another day is almost over. I go to bed early during the week so that I will not be a zombie at work. I'm thinking of taking Seneca to a trail ride this weekend and then maybe schooling at E.'s on Sunday if the weather is good. We'll see. I need more poles I think as I am trying to send myself to sleep. More poles for more jumps. And then I fall to sleep.

What You Don't See

When I took my lesson with C. he pointed out several things that I hadn't realized. Like how I'm afraid to let Seneca go forward. I wasn't sure about that one until my ride today.

I realized when I was asking Seneca for the canter that I was actually giving her mixed signals. I would say go forward with my leg but I was pulling back with the reins. And then once she got in to the canter I would get tight and death grippy.

As soon as I became aware of it and stopped doing it Seneca started giving me the canter whenever. She would even canter when I didn't ask. This was sooo not the norm, but now I know I was creating the crankiness about going in to the canter.

I also hope that fixing this, being more soft and open with my hands will fix the jumping issue. Right now (we didn't do more than canter poles today) Seneca will jump the first jump in a line then kick in to overdrive and get flat and rushed to the second fence.  I think what I'm doing is getting a little nervous to the first fence, then when she gets over it I anticipate her taking off, haul back on the reins which makes her dive bomb for the second fence.

I practised with the canter poles today, and she was doing her usual. Then I softened and she was quieter to the second pole.  Thank you C. for opening my eyes to my own faults that were jacking up my horse.

Keep it between the flags everybody. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Muddy

I woke up this morning expecting the same cold that the day before had held. My house was built in the 1940's and very little changes have been made to it. As in the AC is a window unit in the living room and a portable unit in the bedroom. The heat? Well the oil burning furnace worked when we first moved in but at some point it died and we just never got around to fixing it. And let me say whomever decided to NOT put insulation under the house so that the floors in the morning are iceburgs was a complete idiot.

So how does one survive in the semi-mild VA winters? With a fabulous wood stove and a WHOLE lot of wood. It actually works out pretty well and we've never been uncomfortably cold.

But today as I woke up at 0'dark something to feed the horses I put on my barn jacket, knee high mud boots, gloves, fleece hat and my ever trusty headlamp and then stepped outside I immediately realized I was way over dressed. It was nearly 65 degrees at 4:30am, in JANUARY! What is up with that?

And even if it was a bit windy it would have been a great day to ride except it started raining around 7am and didn't stop until after 1pm. There goes the footing in my riding area.  I could have ridden yesterday but honestly I had abused my still mending leg twice already that day with the Navy's Physical Fitness Assessment and physical therapy so even though I sooo wanted to ride I didn't think I would be able to walk the next day if I did.

But as I fed I pulled the sheets off the horses. Yes they would get we and inevitably they would roll, but it was just to freaking warm to keep their sheets on. Of course tonight when I get home I will have to groom and throw the sheets back on as the temp is supposed to drop. But I say let the kids have fun while they can. Sooner or later winter will remember where it is supposed to be.

The truck is nearly fixed, just waiting on the alignment and the exhaust to get welded, two things hubby can't do. Hopefully we can pick it up today and I will be able to haul somewhere with footing, or lights, or please horsey Gods both.

My plan to get C. here is getting closer to being concrete. We have a date, and maybe a location, we just have to pin that down and start filling the spots. I am going to take work off that day as our fab farrier K. is due out that day as well.

So keep it between the flags everybody.

Mud is the House Wine of the South

One of my mother's favorite sayings is "Iced tea is the house wine of the south."  I am going to amend that to mud. Because there sure has been a lot of it in my neck of the woods lately.  It's either really cold and dry, or warm, wet and full of mud.

Since the fabulous lesson with C. I've been getting out the word, and coordinating with a new eventing friend that I met through the C.  I haven't met her yet, but she and I are going to a lot of the same horse trials this year, though J. is far, far above me in experience and skill. But it just means I can learn from her. But we are going to have C. come out to Suffolk at least once a month starting in March. Woo HOO!

My riding has been nearly non-existent lately though. Our big truck is down for maintenance, which I am totally on board for. If the truck isn't running, or running well then I can't get to the horse trials I want to go to this spring. So whenever I want to hurry my husband along with the repairs I just bite my tongue and think of all the places I can go this year.

So with the truck not running I am stuck riding at home. Which hasn't worked because of all the rain and mud which has made my riding area dangerous to ride in. The last thing I need is for the High Queen to get put back on the injured list.

I did get to ride her yesterday for all of 15 minutes before it got too dark. And other than one little bit of naughty head flinging she was good.

In other happy dance news I got two early birthday presents. Last Saturday when it was postitively pouring rain hubs and I drove up to Richmond to visit the tack shop up there. Why? Dunno we had nothing better to do on a Saturday and we wanted to get out of the house. But while we were there my little eye spied the super expensive helmet I have been coveting for over a year. I had made the mistake of trying one on at the tack shop close to my house and Gods was it comfortable. But the price tag was the equivolent of a car payment. I just couldn't do it. But this tack shop had one left, it was my size, the right color, and hubs got them to drop the price significantly. Happy Birthday to me!

The second present I gave to myself. After I started healing from my broken leg I realized that I was not going to be able to get back in to my pull on style field boots ever again. I just can't get my foot in to the right position without a whole lot of pain. So I would need zip ups. I don't buy any other brand of boots but Ariats. I love them, they are super comfortable and I have never been unhappy with them. I found a pair of Cobalt Crowne Pro zip fields on eBay for a sweet price.  Birthday present #2.  Now I just need to break them in before the combined test in March.

There are only two, maybe three things left on my wishlist for this year. A jumping saddle*sigh so far away from that* a new coat to replace the one I've been wearing since I was sixteen, and a new bridle for the High Queen.

Anway nothing else new to report. Keep it between the flags everyone.

We went, we saw, we rode.

Captains Log 2012 *G*  sorry couldn't stop myself.  So last we left I had won the trailering argument with the High Queen, and the clinic with my hopefully new trainer was fast approaching.  Where does everything stand the day after the clinic?

In a pretty good place actually. I was in the last section of the day and wouldn't ride until 5pm, but I wanted to go early and watch the section ahead of me to get a feel for how C. treated his students, and did he have an agenda that everyone was taught that day, or did he help everyone with their individual issues? Sort of a did I get a personlized letter, or a form letter that everyone got?

My super fabulous husband aka photo/videographer and I loaded up the mare at noon and headed out for the three hour drive. I've never driven that far for a lesson, but I was desperate to ride with C. before he headed off to Aiken(winter mecca for all things eventing)in February.

It wasn't too bad a drive, and the High Queen settled in pretty well. When we arrived at the lovely farm where the clinic was being held I apprehensively left Seneca in the trailer hoping she wouldn't kick up too much of a fuss, but I kept one ear cocked in the trailers direction just in case.  From what I first saw of C.  he is sooo great.  He's funny, knowledgeable, and not a screamer.  That last one is a big one in my book.

When it was 45 minutes til my lesson hubs and I went out to tack up the mare and get our camera equipment. The High Queen when I checked her was calmly eating hay. That's a new one.  Seneca was a bit up and snorty when she got out of the trailr but she didn't freak out being tied. I got all her gear on with almost no fuss. We then tagged after one of my clinic session mates and warmed up a bit then just walked around until it was our turn.

I did have a moment to worry how the High Queen would react to the mirrors. The other indoor I had taken her to didn't have them. But she was unfased. Hmmm me thinks the High Queen likes looking at her beautiful self in the mirror.  She did eyeball it once when the big paint gelding in our class passed the mirror and she saw his reflection. But it was more like "Whoa there's two of them."  Our lesson probably taught me more than it did Seneca.  It taught me that a previous teacher who told me my mare was short strided was wrong. It taught me I need to relax and let her go forward and not be scared of her canter. I didn't know I was but C. saw it.  I think I scared C. a couple of times when it looked like I was going to eat dirt. But I learned my stirrups need to be shorter, my seat more secure and we need a lot more lessons with C.

I am hoping to get eventers in my area together so we can get C. to come closer to us.  That would be soo awesome if I could get him to say, Franklin, VA which is a whole lot closer than Powhatan.  We'll see.

And at the end of the lesson, when the cold set in, it was all of 22 degrees, hubs came out in the arena helped me untack, throw the cooler on the mare, carried my gear. I sooo don't diserve him. And then the High Queen stepped regally back on the trailer.  WOO HOOO! I think that was the best part.

Keep it between the flags everyone. 

I Lost the Battle but Won the War

After I calmed down from the anger and frustration caused by the incidents in the previous post I contacted my friend K. who not only runs a program to place OTTB's in good homes, it's the same program I originally got the High Queen from. Although K. doesn't know Seneca really well she did give me some fabulous advice.

K. basically said, "Nicole you are being too nice to her. She is your employee, she works for you, she has to do what you say. You need to tell her that and mean it."

I thought I had been, because I was pretty freaking mean when she ditched getting in the trailer at the indoor arena. But apparently not.  So the High Queen went back to "Trailer Loading Boot Camp."

And we had some progress in the first few days, but I wanted the horse I'd had in the beginning back. I wanted her to just walk on to the trailer no fuss, no pulling, no tantrums.  I wasn't sure I was going to get there, and then one day, we did
I could not believe it the first time Seneca just walked on behind me. Holy Crap! Am I hallucinating? But so far the new routine works.  She still gives me a "I'm testing you" moment the first time I point her at the trailer. But we just go for what I call a "leadership walk"  In which she stops, and goes when I say. And if she balks at the trailer she get's the business end of a yank on the chain over her nose.

This coupled with loading and unloading at least four times every time.  After I get to a new place we load and unload four times, when getting ready to leave we load and unload four times, and when we get home you guessed it loading and unloading four times.  Now the High Queen may still throw a tantrum the first time I ask but she freaking jumps in the trailer all "Yes Ma'am" when I ask the second, third, and fourth times.

Thank you K., and Thank you Horse Gods for finally giving my mare some sense.  If you are interested in getting your very own pain in the ass  lovely Thoroughbred please check out www. Goodhorse.org   These are great people doing a very much needed job and they are completely honest about each horse.

I will be riding at home this week, and then duh duh DUH! We go to the clinic next Sunday.  Sooooo excited. In less exciting news my stress level will go up significantly when I have to go back to work on Wednesday.  Damn work, damn job. HATE IT! But you know what my horse gets on the trailer!

Keep it between the flags everybody.