First Lesson of 2017

Operation JumpAllTheFences (aka teach Savvy and myself how to jump and start eventing this summer) is officially under way with my first lesson of the year.



Ready to ride!

 

I was scheduled to start last Thursday, but weather kiboshed my plans with a super fun wind/snow storm. This Thursday however, offered up a perfect sunshiny day with warm temps to boot.



Just a typical Manitoba morning...where no horse gets ridden. :(

It turns out a few months off from heading anywhere with my horse was enough to bring on some serious nerves, but the whole trip there went just fine and I didn't even hurt myself this entire outing! Gold star for me!



Although there was one casualty - one of my winter riding boot soles came right off (luckily at the end of my lesson though). 

I arrived well before my lesson and had a lot of time to lunge her around the massive arena (which I had all to myself!) and show her all the mirrors/giant advertisement signs and see what kind of horse she would be after so much time off.

She spooked once when she kicked some sand against the wall and then again at an advertisement with a large horse picture on it. She had to sniff the pic right on the horse's nose a few times before she was sure it wasn't a real horse.

I knew keeping Savvy from getting too hot would be a major issue with this plan. It was great for me to be in a heated arena, but the fluffbum was already sweaty before I even got on. Once the coach arrived, I explained I would be fine with a really easy-on-the-horse type lesson so Savvy wouldn't get too hot. So two-point torture would be my fate. Maybe I should have told her I was also just getting back into work as well and shouldn't over-do it?



Wonder pony was pretty sceptical about this whole back to lessons thing.

As the lesson progressed, the arena went from empty to horse after horse coming in which was great practise dealing with the automatic overhead door opening again and again and keeping Savvy focused on task no matter what cute gelding had just come in.

And she was great! Not perfect obviously - there was a lot of head bobbing as per usual, some serious side eye every time we passed a horse and a bit of jumpiness at random noises (like snow sliding off the roof), but I was happy with the level of relaxation in her walk and trot and it felt quite enjoyable to ride.

As for all the two-point practise, I will not be walking tomorrow.

Next week I will head back and work on all the positional stuff we covered today, and moving forward, I think I will stick with the bi-weekly lessons at least until this whole winter/can't ride at home issue clears up.

It is amazing just how good I feel now. It was so great to get back to riding! Anyone else find nothing beats a good ride for your mood? Or is any kind of horse time do the trick?

Baby Steps

 

I can't even tell you how excited I am for my plans this year. When I was a little girl, I had a Shetland pony. That poor little thing tolerated every whim of a 7-year-old's imagination. We did all the things that would make a parent's heart stop: from my daring attempts pretending to be a stunt rider, or racing my sister on her (much slower) pony out in the fields, to pretending I was eventing, taking my wee pony through ditches, over fallen trees and just general galloping around as fast as her little legs could go.

Flash and Flicka (no I did not name her that)

I progressed with horses through 4-H, competing in everything Western with a bit of English and then as an adult getting into much more of an English focus with hunter/jumper lessons and competing as well as immersion into dressage madness last year. However, that dream of eventing has always been in the back of my mind. It really feels like now or never. I am not getting any younger.


Things have been falling into place and I do believe this will be the year I actually set foot on an eventing course.

 As fate would have it, the Manitoba Horse Trials Organisation had decided to hold an information session for newbies to the sport this month. (Bonus it was held at Greenhawk tack store and they offered us special discounts that evening-so shopping!) They filled us in on how everything runs here in Manitoba, tack/equipment needed, coaches, rules, upcoming events, etc.

Cross rails...its a start!

So here are the levels:

• Pre-Entry Entry (equitable to USEA Beginner Novice)
• Pre-Training (equitable to USEA Novice): XC: fences maximum height 0.91 m; ditch 1.50 m; drops 1.10 m; Stadium fences: 0.96m
• Training: XC: fences maximum height 1.00 m ditch 1.80 m drops 1.40 m; Stadium fences: 1.05 m
• Preliminary: XC: fences maximum height 1.10 m ditch 2.80 m drops 1.60 m; Stadium fences: 1.15 m
• Intermediate: XC: fences maximum height 1.15 m ditch 3.20 m drops 1.80 m; Stadium fences: 1.20 m
• Advanced: XC: fences maximum height 1.20 m ditch 3.60 m drops 2.00 m; Stadium fences: 1.25 m

 There is a planned clinic in May and three derbies scheduled for this year. They explained the derbies are very 'beginner' friendly and are basically schooling shows.

There are cross-country jumps located in the park 20 minutes from my house. These are available for use for a $20 fee per day, but you must be accompanied by a coach who has also paid a fee.

Also because of reciprocity agreements, having a MHT membership (which is surprisingly affordable) allows you to attend two Dressage Winnipeg shows without paying for the DW membership (not affordable), as well as I believe two hunter/jumper shows without additional membership fees. This is under review however, but hopefully does not disappear.

Possibly my hero - Elisa Wallace doing her thang, being awesome as always.

My plan at this point is to start out riding Savvy at the first clinic and derby. Shiraz is still a green-bean walk/trot machine and will be turning 4 this spring. Even though she has been really good so far in her training, I am still a bit concerned about jumping a 4-year-old but we will see how it goes. Savvy may not be an overly talented jumper at this point, but I feel safe riding her and think she is actually going to enjoy the challenge and variety this sport brings. (She is super smart and gets bored pretty quickly!) Plus I get to still enjoy working on dressage because it is in my blood now and there is no cure.

For now, I need to get back to riding and I have a plan for that - trailer over to a heated arena once a week and possibly jump lessons once every second week. Riding at home beyond a walk is just not possible because of snow, but I am filling each and every day with tons of ground work, lunging over poles/cross rails and desensitising work.

Are you trying something new this year? I would love to hear about it!

A kick-ass kind of Christmas

*Warning* Gross pictures. If you are squeamish, don't look!

I am not going to lie, 2016 has kicked my butt. However, I have maintained a level of (obliviously ignorant) optimism and still think 2017 is going to be all the best shit, farting rainbows the whole way through.

But 2016 was not done with me. One final kick at the cat, so to speak.

Christmas morning was glorious. Coffee full of Bailey's, kids excitedly opening presents and me opening the best present ever - a safety vest for eventing!! Best husband right there.

I had fed the horses triple amounts of hay bales the night before just to ensure I could do chores Christmas morning after present opening. I had chopped up huge piles of apples and carrots and had a three bags ready for three wonderful ponies Christmas morning, so once presents were done I headed out with their Christmas morning treats.

First came Meyla and Shiraz, happy to see me heading out to their paddock. But where was Savvy?

Then I saw her, head peeking out around the back of the shelter. I called her and she didn't move. I called again and shook the bag of treats and she finally started to move. As her neck was revealed I was horrified to see something red hanging from her neck.

FML. Sorry for grossness.

For those of you familiar with that moment of discovering your horse is injured, you know it. Feeling leaves your arms and legs. My brain went into assess mode. Vet or no vet level of injury? Once I realised the "hanging" red bit was just frozen bloodcycles and not something worse, I then looked to see what kind of wound I was dealing with. Honestly, I was expecting to see a chunk of neck ripped from a bite. Meyla is a tough pony and leads the group. Savvy always pushes her too far and makes Meyla put her in her place almost daily. I would not be surprised at a bad bite resulting.

But it wasn't a bite. To my utter shock and surprise, it was a perfect circle.

Time to call the vet. On Christmas morning. Let me tell you, that is not an easy call.

I am so lucky to have such a great vet. He came over right away and assessed the hole. Puncture wound versus gun shot. Luckily my vet is much smarter than me obviously, and knew it was a puncture wound because hair was scraped off at the site. Bullets can't do that. He inspected the depth (almost 2 inches!) and did not find any trapped objects. He said the puncture is very close to where her jugular vein runs so she is a very lucky horse to still be alive. She got a shot of pain meds and a huge shot of antibiotics.

I would later have a double shot of Creme de Cocao.

She will be on antibiotics for at least a week and a half, daily saline rinses and topicals. It needs to stay uncovered and draining. My biggest worry is the cold. I am worried about exposed tissues freezing and damaging the healing process, but since it needs to stay open to air, I really can only just wait and see how it does. Luckily I had no intension of riding in the next little while because winter is just too horrible this year. Fingers crossed this injury resolves well though.

Day 3 - before rinse out and topical meds.

I have triple-walked her paddock and still cannot find anything that could have done this. Only Wonder Pony knows.

ASSFS Blog Hop: Location, Location, Location.

As a person who does not get to travel very often, I love hearing about what life is like in other places, and especially what horse life is like. A Soft Spot For Stars has a blog hop that offers just that, so here is a look at life with horses in Manitoba for you! Enjoy!

 

I live on a small hobby farm just 20 minutes outside Manitoba's biggest city, Winnipeg. Our location is very convenient for us all; for hubby as he works in the city and for me as I am not too far from everything shopping related. We are also kind of half way between two worlds of horse people. Just 20 minutes to the east is everything English, plus the Birds Hill Equestrian Park (trail riding, dressage, eventing and hunter/jumper shows), and 20 minutes west is a more Western group/natural horsemanship/great small-town horse shows. 

 

My back yard - yup, hubby got himself a drone

 

A, B, C - Paddocks

D - Riding arena

E - Hay field

F - House

G - New tack shed/tack-up/hoof trimming area

H - Hay shed

J - Old tack shed, now cluttered feed and storage shed

 

Our farm is 37.5 acres and is mostly flat hay land. When we moved here, there was only the house and some fencing so we built a hay shed, shelters and tack/feed sheds.  We cut and bale our own hay which is a grass/alfalfa mix.

 

 

 

Costs of horse keeping in Manitoba:

 

Hoof trimming ranges from $30 to $40 dollars for a basic trim. I am not sure what shoes cost as I have never shod any of my horses.

 

Average monthly pasture board is anywhere from $180 for a place with no indoor arena, up to $300 for a place with indoor.

 

Boarding with boxstall is around $400 and up.

Lessons:

Most coaches in this area are charging $50 per lesson, but a small few are still at $40. If you are trailering in, there also may be an arena fee on top of that which is around $20.

 

It can be green here :) I miss it already...

 

Hay:

Small squares are approximately $4.50 each for a 60-pound bale. Large squares (700 to 800 pounds) are $65 to $80 each and round bales can be anywhere from $40 to $100 depending on size and type of hay.

 

Weather:
 

Summer here is far too short - spring can trickle on right until the end of May and then June, July and August are usually quite nice anywhere from 15 to 30 degrees Celsius. Winter is a long, hard struggle with snow usually beginning in November and getting as cold as -35 Celsius in January and February. We have even had a wind chill of -50 at those times, so crazy, painful cold.

 

Frustrating things about our area?
 

I do feel pretty lucky to be so close to a lot of great horse related things, but the most frustrating thing for me is the cost of participating in any English shows. Dressage shows are few and far between and cost hundreds of dollars to enter two tests, after stalling/temporary memberships and all show fees are added up. Hunter/Jumper shows require memberships (or temporary memberships purchased to attend any particular show) and are just as expensive as dressage.

 

On the up side, there are occasional schooling shows and small town shows that are affordable, so trying to get to as many of those as possible has been my goal so far, although next year I am hoping to get started in eventing which will be a major financial commitment because of all the memberships/user fees required.

 

That sums up horse life in Manitoba. I'd love to read about more places so I hope you join the hop!

Holy Snow Balls!

Winter just came flying into town saying 'Yo, yo G, WASSUP?!'

Um, ugh. <face in hands>

Now it is above my knees in some spots out there and I am just loving trudging from the hay shed to the paddock with hay on the sled.

Meyla was born for this! (started growing her coat in August in preparation)

Ponies seem to be loving it though! They have been running, playing and rolling in the deep stuff and look pretty pleased to finally say goodbye to mud.

They are getting all-you-can-eat buffet of hay and extra treats to appease my guilty soul for owning horses in winter in Canada.

Water heater is working well and shelters are full of deep straw.

All the girls grew a pretty fluffy coat before this came. Not fun for riding but perfect for this weather.

I guess it is time to apply the heat gun to my cold, cold heart and break out the barnyard Christmas decorations!

Its about to get real up in here.

Anyone else deep in snow? How do you take care of your horses when the weather gets cold?

All the possibilities...

It has been three years since I brought home Shiraz! Starting with a baby is a long-term investment. So much is uncertain - what is this horse even going to look like grown up and what will their temperament be?



One of baby Shiraz's add pictures at 3 months of age.

In the fall of 2013, I brought home Shiraz, a 6-month-old thoroughbred/quarter horse/draft cross hand picked out of quite a large herd of babies. It was so hard to chose but the breeder did a fantastic job of listening to what I was looking for and steering me in the right direction in regards to temperament and potential.


Meeting her for the first time at the breeder's farm and sealing the deal!

Bringing home baby and settling her in to our little farm went smoothly. It was obvious immediately that she had a good mind and friendly personality. I set to work showing her the world, teaching manners and kept life safe and fun for her.



Fuzzy baby beast!

As a 1-year-old, training was kept short and simple with introduction of yielding, lunging and a saddle.

Once she was 2, I started getting on once in a while for short amounts of time, but mostly continued ground work. At this age Shiraz definitely started showing more spunk.

Testing out her wings.

This summer revealed quite a beautiful horse in the making. She finally reached 15 hands this spring and has continued growing.

Looking so grown up!

I am absolutely in love with her. Her personality is the best I have ever come across; laid back, smart and overflowing with a love for people.



First time out at an indoor arena - handling it like an old pro.

These past three years have been a struggle for my impatient side but we are finally here and it was so worth the wait!

My plans for 2017 with Shiraz includes starting lessons at a barn that is very well known for eventing...a new adventure is about to begin!

Unexpected

Unexpected trail rides!

We are knee deep into one of the most wonderful Novembers I can ever recall. It is made even more sweet by the fact that the past few weeks have been cold and rainy.

Saturday was just perfect! Not a bit of wind, sunny and warm. Who could resist some much needed horse time?

Shiraz has been in very casual training over this past summer. She is still actively growing so I am trying to resist too much riding time on her just yet. But, I really want to establish some solid basics into her right now because she has been litterally a sponge for learning and I do not want to 'miss the boat' so to speak. Holding off training for bones to finish growing is so important, but there is also a window of opportunity with a really young horse to set them up as solid citizens that I don't want to miss.

My arena was still too wet on Saturday to work in so I headed out the hay field with Shiraz. I did some lunge work and then enlisted my oldest son to lunge me while I worked on some trotting with her.

After that, I headed out with Shiraz for a mini trail ride in the field. She was so well behaved! I could feel her top line relax and her strides lengthen. At one point a rabbit jumped out of the grass about 50 feet away. We both flinched, but Shiraz recovered instantly and I could feel her back relax again in a couple of strides. I was so impressed with her for her first time being ridden out like that.

Later that evening I was sent a message that a group I was considering joining was meeting for a trail ride/pot luck in the park the next day. They are a drill team that travels to different events to perform. I was invited to join a few months back while my friend and I were at a social. There may have been too much alcohol involved. The next day I had received a text that I was now a part of the drill team...

I certainly didn't feel Savvy was prepared for a trail ride. One, she had not been ridden in a few weeks because of her abscess and then bad weather. Second, I have never taken her on a trail ride yet (besides my open hay field at home) and I was not sure how she would be.

After much support from many people telling me to go, I met up with the group at the park. Savvy was well behaved but a little perplexed as to where I had taken her.

We all saddled up and headed out to the trail. As we walked across the field with the other horses, Savvy was fabulous. Once we got to the start of the trail, however, Savvy's mind was officially blown. You see, we have no trees at home aside from one strip of wind break that is not part of Savvy's pasture. This was her first time stepping hoof into forest and lets just say she was overwhelmed! Everything was new to her from the leaves crunching under hooves to the branches reaching out on all sides, roots to step over and rocks thrown in as well simply to finish her off if she wasn't already sure to die.

Only have 'out in the open' pics because once we entered the forest I was too busy holding on for dear life.

The entire way she jigged, but not once did she spook which was encredible considering how scared she was. We made our way through the forest to the equestrian centre in the park and then used one of the out door arenas to practice the drill pattern. Once Savvy was 'safely' inside the arena she let out massive sighs and shook out all her tension. Now she slipped into lazy arena pony mode which I found hilarious and we set to trying to keep up with the group and learn the pattern.

Heading back to the trail after drill practice

We took the same trail back with mostly jigging again, but some moments of relaxing (becasue she was just so tired!) and made it safely back to the trailers for much deserved bevies and snacks.

Sweaty, itchy pony - deserving of many treats!

Cheers to beautiful fall days and ponies!