Breakthroughs

So, funny thing I am noticing so far with my lessons with a new coach. She is super young, just starting out with the whole coaching thing so I wasn't expecting much, but that was fine because I just wanted access to the jumps. But now we have had two breakthroughs, the first being how to ride Savvy out of her evading behind the bit and now yesterday she got us through a real proper haunches-in! Savvy and I have never been able to do it and she had us getting it on the second try! wtf?

"Carry me mom." or possibly "Why do you do these things to me?!" - Savvy

AND she had me cantering like no big deal (I haven't cantered on her since last October) half way through a lesson and here's the best/weirdest part: When I first asked Savvy to canter she blew up and bucked all over the place, but Coach had zero reaction, like no big deal and just asked me to canter again. I think because she was all 'whatever' about it, then I was too and just tried again and got it and it was great.

Could this mean I am actually coachable? I don't know. It's early days and all...

Funny, that corner was super spooky to her when we were riding, but on her own it is a lovely spot to hang out...hm.

Yesterday's lesson was #3 of this year. It had been postponed a week because wonderpony had picked up a bit of a viral infection the week before. Her symptoms all quickly improved but she was left with a bit of a cough. I gave her a bit of lunging to see how bad the cough was before deciding to take her to the lesson and she seemed fine. Unfortunately once we got riding at the lesson, her cough was pretty bad and after the little bit of canter it was obvious we would have to just keep at a walk for the remainder of the lesson, hence the quiet, slow work of my nemesis, haunches-in!

It was our first proper ride in the new-to-me Thorowgood all-purpose. What a comfortable saddle! I love how it holds me in the right spot with a lot less effort than my previous saddle. No jumping practise this time but well worth the trailer ride over. Now that I have heard her cough with work, I think she is going to need more time off. Hopefully it will be resolved in a couple of weeks and we can get back to training!

If you try sometimes, you get what you need

But how many saddles do you need?
All of them.

Three horses = seven saddles, thats normal, right?

Most of you are quite familiar with the painful struggle of saddle shopping.

These past few months I have been faced with finding dressage and jump saddles for two horses.

I pretty much set myself up for the impossible -- find dressage and jumping saddles that fit two different horses (one of which is not done growing). But wait, I made it even more impossible -- they had to be under $500 (because this bitch is cheap and seriously, Savvy cost $300 and Shiraz was $350 so saddles being more expensive than the horse hurts my brain).  It has been a struggle but I learned a bit along the way.

Lesson One: Do NOT let the pretty cloud your judgment.

But what about Kieffer, you say? Well, I thought I had found my one true love with Kieffer, but Savvy did not agree. It was just too narrow for my plumpy little arab and she told me so with much shorter strides and an increase in attitude when using this saddle. I may have cried.

Some love stories are just not meant to last...why can't you be wider?! :'(

Lesson Two: Do NOT let other people tell you what you should get.

For the jumping saddle, I decided to go to an actual store and get something brand new. The girl convinced me I needed a size 16, even though I was kinda sure 17 was suitable. Sure enough that damn saddle is too small. Well at least my kids have a new saddle? Yaayy...

Lesson Three: Patience, and when that runs out, pure shitfaced luck. And if you have neither of the two, then more money.

Many fails later plus a bit of dumb luck I have found my saddles! (Don't even be all, you could have had a bigger budget if you hadn't wasted your money on the fails. I don't listen to that kind of common sense.)

Drum roll:

#1 - Dressage saddle found:

generic but comfortable.. :'( I miss you Kieffer! 

 

This was a such a freak find. I was not even 'really' saddle shopping at that particular moment. It was on a facebook group called "Saddles Under $600...In Canada...". These are my people.

It was $250 plus shipping. It needs some love but is sound and functional. Savvy likes it and I find it pretty comfortable. For the win, it also fits Shiraz.

#2 - All purpose saddle found:

It is a Thorowgood wide with changable gullet system. Test riding this saddle I was really trying to hide my excitement as I rode in it because I really wanted to talk the seller down in price. It just felt so wonderful. It was easy to two-point in (thanks Emma for that tip!) and just put me in the right spot without any effort. I also am a huge fan of the fabric that holds me better in a spook than leather ever would.

So function has won the day over form here. No fancy names or stunning good looks, but both horses are liking these choices and I am about as happy as I can be on my budget.

I am ecstatic to be done with this. So anyone looking for a narrow Kieffer dressage saddle?

Getting to work

Having my horses at home in my backyard is something I am very grateful for, but the trade off is being surrounded by heaps of snow and very cold temperatures with no where to ride right now.

 Trailering out may be a hassle but all is forgiven once I enter the beautiful heated beast of an arena I have at my disposal!

 All 110 x 220 heated arena to ourselves...heaven! and Savvy approves. 

I headed over for lesson #2 of 2017 and made sure not to overdo the warmup and get Savvy too hot for my main purpose of this whole endeavour - jumping!

As a side note, Savvy's puncture wound from Christmas is finally healed! You can see the black mark on her neck where the hair has not grown back yet, but the wound itself is completely gone.

The lesson started out with poles, so many poles.

We began with trot extensions and compressions over the two brown poles and added in the red poles once I had started to get her more adjustable. That red trot line was such a workout for both me and Savvy because we are so out of shape, but man this pony has springs!

Next we did brown to blue, focusing on good turns, straightness and pushing her to a lengthened trot through the blue without rushing. This was to set us up for 'forward' later on when the second last blue pole would become a cross rail.

No jumping media, but by the end Savvy was offering some very jump-like movements over this!

I had a bit of a breakthrough in this lesson regarding Savvy's strong urge to hide behind the bit. I have struggled with this, but had some success in this lesson with focusing more on leg and seat rather than what I do with contact. Before I think I was throwing away the contact in reaction to her evading, but focusing on her body instead helped me push her back out onto the contact. She is just so sensitive it is hard to keep in any steady sort of frame or pace. It seems every little thing, be it me or environment, affects her and she is the opposite of straight all. the. time. For both Savvy and myself, our biggest obstacles are our brains--we are both over-thinking everything.

The jumping itself was so fun. She was being forward and energetic and even offered up a couple of 'real' jumps rather than step-overs. Those took me by surprise and I ended up grabbing mane.

The take-home for this is doable even in the snow--even though I cannot do riding trot work, I can lunge Savvy over poles and start rebuilding her muscles. Now I just have to shovel out my poles...

Anyone have interesting pole work ideas? It looks like this will be my focus for the next little bit and don't want it to get too tedious.

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!