Part 1: 4/2 Lesson & Show Prep

I am going to break this three-day weekend up into 3 posts even though I said before it would be 1. I was writing one post, but it got stupid long and covered way too much ground. So each day this weekend (Saturday-Monday) is getting it's own post. Plus right now Penn is on vacation and I have more than enough material to cover a couple days while he's taking a well deserved rest.

Part 1: Lesson and Show Prep

Saturday was a LONG day. I worked at the barn in the morning (feed, turnout, stalls), then had a half hour lesson, then it was time to pack the trailer and drive to the show and do all the pre-show activities. Bedtime ended up being around 11:30 or midnight maybe?

Lets start with how one of the horses pooped in his feed bin, and because I wanted to keep rolling that morning in getting the horse out ASAP, I decided to hold another bucket up for him to eat out of instead of cleaning his bin out right away. It was fine until he got a drink and coughed. All over my freshly cleaned fleece jacket. I don't have children, but I now know what baby throw up is like, and it doesn't make children appealing. At all. I washed my fleece in the bathroom, hung it up, and prayed it would dry before we left for the show because the temps were only in the 40s that morning (with a mid-50s high), and now I only had my long sleeve shirt and polo.

Penn playing with Ike the dog. Towards the end of their play session, because Ike got a little overexcited and had to be called back. I wanted to get some video of it though! It's hilarious.

I found out that Penn has a dog-friend, Ike. I don't know how it gets started, but Ike runs and barks next to the fence line and Penn trots and canters and head tosses and bucks next to him. They parallel each other like a cutting horse and cow. They seem to really enjoy running back and forth, so that's fine. Ike generally stays out of the field, but BO is ever watchful and calls him back to the barn when it looks like he's going to go under the fence. I think the whole thing is hilarious!

Anyway, I got to lesson and the idea was to warm up a bit and go over one of our tests. Trainer got after me to keep his haunches in just a bit more on turns and circles. We used the trot loop and canter work from T3 to warm up, so I ended up riding T2 instead of practicing T3.

There were 4 major takeaways from lesson that are more show specific, but still helpful:

• When coming back to the rail- from a circle, diagonal, or shallow loop- make sure Penn's shoulder hits the rail first. When he gets all fish-taily, his haunches are actually hitting first.
• Once I'm on the circle or diagonal, push his trot or canter just a hair more forward and give the inside hand just a little. This let's him open up and get some loft in his step while stretching his neck and really lets me show off his gaits. Near the completion of the movement, collect him back just a hair and make sure he meets the rail properly.
• In corners and turns up centerline, think about keeping the haunches in (but absolutely DO NOT push them in at all), and use the thought of counterbend to help him not collapse in the turns.
• In T3's left lead canter work, Let his canter be a bit open for the circle and coming down the arena, but as I get closer to the corner, start collecting, and then keep collecting past the judge and down the diagonal. This will keep him from flopping like a fish down the diagonal.

Penn got clipped, which wasn't as much of an ordeal as it's been in the past (whiskers, goat hairs, bridle path, fetlocks). It seems if I start with his legs or somewhere on his body, he's more cooperative about his face. It's not that it scares him up my his poll either, because he doesn't give two hoots about the clippers buzzing away up there. He only cares when it's by his nose. I missed a huge section of hairs because I was trying to keep him from attempting to break the cross ties. More practice is needed!

I got all my stuff packed up (I cleaned my tack Thursday night), and Hawk and I loaded up the horses and off we went to the show! 

When we left around 2:30, it was sunny, breezy, and around 50 degrees. In general, it was warm feeling.

It turns out our early ride times saved our butts because they forced us to haul the day before the show. Just as we were arriving, it started snowing. A lot. The really wet and heavy stuff. And it was super windy.

About 10 minutes into unloading the trailer.
Where the hell did our sunshine go???

My fleece jacket, which had managed to dry before we left, became unwearable again after making several trips to the trailer and then standing out there to unhook the trailer. At least I grabbed my Carhartt jacket on a whim when I walked out the door Saturday morning. While it was too warm to wear it at home while doing chores and riding, it was very nice to have at the show grounds where it was 20-25 degrees colder (and much more windy).

Hawk and I got to ride in the dressage arena itself (yay!) and it was excellent practice. Penn was definitely less reactive on Sunday because of it. I finally got to school him in left lead canter past C. At all of the previous shows, he's turned into a spooky mess past the judge in T3. I just try to hold it together and get past it. Saturday night I got to reapproach and try again! And continue repeating it until he finally relaxed.

We braided after riding, but that's about when the barn started getting super cold. We'd been sharing the ring with another group, but they had only hauled over to practice and were going home... so they kept going in and out of the barn, leaving the main door open so all of the "warm" air in the barn was escaping and winter was coming in! Penn and Fiction got extra blanket layers and extra hay with their dinners, and we set off to find ourselves some dinner and go to the hotel for the night.

Can we talk about how a blizzard decided to happen while we were in the barn? Snow was creeping under the barn door, and there were several inches out in the parking lot. We'd only been in the barn for 3.5 hours. I used a broom from my trailer to brush off the windows and headlights of my truck because my ice scraper wasn't in the backseat anymore! The roads were horrible, the temps plummeted to around 22 degrees, and the wind was fierce (pumping 21 gallons of gas into the truck was a horrible experience). We were VERY happy that we hauled over Saturday. The roads would have been too treacherous for us to haul early Sunday morning.

WTF Mother Nature? April Fools Day was the day before! Also, we're in APRIL which is NOT WINTER!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Schooling Show - Series Finale!

Lists!

Today's theme is lists. This weekend is the finale horse show of the winter dressage series (it's big ass ribbon time!), and our plans got a little scrambled, so I have a lot to do before Saturday morning and I can't do any of it right now because I'm at work. Making lists is how I cope. So this post is going to be in list form!

1. So I've been riding all week:

• Tuesday: Honestly, I don't remember what we did. Penn must have been OK. I remember he was NOT keen on doing the haunches in exercises again. He kept losing his forward and threatening to rear. Silly horse. I think we jumped a cross rail.
• Wednesday: Also not productive, other than having a good time. I think he started well, was still not cooperative to the haunches in exercises, but was good enough. We jumped! A little cross rail was up, so we jumped that a few times, then we jumped Penn's first ever line of jumps! Two itty bitty tiny verticals that probably don't count as jumps. The last time through the line, he cantered the last fence. Penn's first canter jump! *tear* He was so good, and so proud of himself, haha.
• Thursday: Penn got patched. The Patch Lady found some extra tension in his hind end on the right and in his barrel/flank area on the left. That goes along with the haunches in exercises we'd been doing- the right hind lags. He was all licky and chewy and sleepy after he got his patches (he was very up and alert before because horses were moving around and a new horse came in and there was a lot of activity). We had a great ride after during which he cooperated with haunches in and half pass. Soft haunches in and while not stellar, it was a more agreeable half pass. His regular work was wonderful and he really responded when I got my act together (ie: thumbs up, elbows pulled down so I feel the stretch across my collar bones). He had two absolutely gorgeous shoulder ins, one each way, down the length of the outdoor, without a solid rail. Steady, consistent, soft, supple, flowing. Like, I could have taken it in a second level test for sure and earned excellent marks. He worked for about 15-20 minutes and I ran out of things to do because he was so good. So we jumped the cross rail again then stood around and watched some of the kids ride and jump.

Very mellow, post-patches, pre-riding.

2. Earlier in the week, I renewed my USEF/USDF memberships... and signed Penn up with his lifetime everything... goodbye to my share our tax return:

• Human USDF Membership: $75
• Human USEF Membership: $55
• Penn's Lifetime USDF Number: $95
• Penn's Lifetime USEF Membership: $200

I know I could have saved money by just doing the yearly membership for Penn ($75), however I do plan on having him for at least 3 years, so it makes sense to just fork it all over now and never pay for him again.

3. I chatted with the girl at the barn who works for Dover and got some recommendations for things I want/need. She yelled at me for using glycerin soap on my tall boots (apparently glycerin soaps take the dye out), and shoved two products in my hand from her own personal stock that won't pull dye out. I asked about using them on my Micklem because I have trouble getting the dye to stay on (guess what, it needs done again!), and she said the cleaner is safe for the bridle, but she wouldn't use the conditioner on it, but a leather balsam would be fine. The new list of items from Dover:

• Davis Splint Boots - For turnout. These are a need because Penn is chewing up all four of his legs.
• Circuit Sheepskin Square Pad - For shows. Making this one a need because my current white pad doesn't fit my saddle and I can't take it to recognized shows like that (which are coming up soon!)
• Sergio Grasso Boot Cleaner - This is what she recommended because it removes salt and sweat, but won't pull dye out. Need, if only because dying my Micklem every year is SUPER ANNOYING.
• Der-Dau Boot Conditioner - A want, because balsam will do just fine and I have some of that already. But man did it do a good job on my boots last night. Perfect shine without attracting dust.
• Effax Lederbalsam - A want, and one I will most likely indulge, because I already have balsam but I prefer this brand (I've used hers a couple times, and I love it).
• Effax Leder Combi Leather Cleaner -  A want, and one that can't go without the Effax Lederbalsam. They must be used as a pair. I'll probably pass on this one for now, because this list is getting very expensive very quickly and I have a lot of cleaners already.
• Warendorf Dressage Saddle Pad - A want that I might indulge to reduce the wear and tear on the Circuit pad listed above (I won't be able to bleach it to get it white!). Since I travel to trainers and they travel to me, I want to dress for lessons (white saddle pad, Penn's fancy white boots, good helmet, hairnet, etc). The white with black trim would match very nicely with Penn's white with black fleece boots!

Basically, this list amounts to $304.92 before our 7% local tax, which is amounts to it all costing way too much money. Can't justify all of the expenses. Removing just the Der-Dau Boot conditioner and Effax Combi just doesn't take the bill down enough. Maybe I'll hold off on the Warendorf pad even though I love it and do another round of shopping later in April or May for the rest of the stuff. Spread out the cost, you know?

4. Plans for today (Friday), include:

• Continue washing the long list of items that need to be cleaned (8 loads of laundry in two days, human and horse, because none of it can be washed together of course). We have a second washer because one came with our house (we haven't gotten around to selling it). I should really have gotten husband to hook it up so I could wash two loads at once!
• Scrub a water bucket that somehow got soap in it. Pray that I can get the soap scum out.
• Make dinner.
• Put gas in the truck.
• Locate(!!) and pack everything that needs to go with me this weekend.
• Make sure I have everything all set and organized so I can load and go Saturday morning.

Our plans got scrambled a bit because Hawk and my ride times are at 9:20ish Sunday morning. It's a 3 hour drive to the show, so we're hauling over Saturday and staying overnight to avoid waking up at stupid hours of the night to leave in enough time Sunday morning. Did I mention we have lessons Saturday too? And I'm doing my usual Saturday morning work? #toomuchtodo

I have a list for everything- human needs, horse needs, what goes in the truck, in the trailer, in my show trunk. I have a daily list of human needs because I've forgotten changes of clothes on more than one occasion. I have 11 different lists right now. To do lists, lists of what I'll need each day, then packing lists based on those lists! I do pack lightly for these things now, but I can only get it done with detailed lists of what I need! Plus they help me cope when I can't actively work on any of them. Maybe that's why I never save any of these lists to a computer to print out for next time.

Shamelessly stolen from a Google search because it fits too nicely!

In the slew of Type-A dressage queens out there, I can't be the only list-crazy person... right?

Working at the Farm, Lesson, and the Stubben Euphoria

I took care of the farm over the weekend while Trainer was at 4H states. 22 horses by myself? No problem. They spent most of the time outside, coming in for feed and going back out. That makes life a little easier, aside from walking that many in and out (hello leading groups of 2-4 at once). They're pretty super about it.

Some pictures:

Penn got to try out his new feed bag while I was around to watch him. He's a sloppy eater, the feed just goes everywhere. His old owner said he recently had his teeth done, but I'm inclined to have them looked at again. The feed bag works perfectly. No more grain  (or expensive supplement!) over the wall and on the floor for the dogs to eat.

Three of the geldings enjoying a good roll Sunday afternoon.

Ah! All three with 4 legs in the air going at it.

Anyway, I got to ride Cody again this weekend because he needed to go for a walk, and I rode one of trainer's new baby horses (ok so she's 8 or 9 and was just recently broke to ride). So I got some extra riding in, yay!

4* horse Cody is coming back from vacation this month and will be going back to work.
BTW, doesn't he look sharp in the navy DSBs? I texted Trainer this pic and said "Cody wants his own Navy boots."

I ended up taking Monday off of work because I wanted a lesson, the weather was going to be good, and I just wanted a day off. Penn had been super all weekend, but with the show next weekend, I wanted to address picking up the wrong lead with Trainer.

I told her that I had been keeping Penn on a three loop serpentine for most of my rides last week - the constant bending and changing of directions seemed to really help him (and me keep after him). Our best canters had been on the loops of that serpentine.

I had an aha moment - Trainer had me ride as if I was asking for haunches in, but not actually asking for it. It was just to get me to put my outside leg on and keep the outside hind stepping up. I told her when things seemed iffy this past week, I'd been putting that outside leg on to engage the outside hind, and I felt like that's something she's been telling me for years, and it's probably how I should have been riding Mikey all this time, and I'm sorry it only now just clicked in my head.

She laughed and essentially face palmed herself. Yupp, I finally understand the concept. I think it helped that Penn and I have little to no baggage together, so no problem on adding more outside leg. She once again pointed out that for every horse you bring up from nothing, you don't make the previous mistakes and you get better every time. So alrighty then. One mistake fixed, plenty more to come.

She had me switch between sitting trot/posting trot and "collected"/lengthened trot to help mix up what was happening on the serpentine to keep Penn's interest. Once again, she had me pay attention to how much pressure he put in the bridle in the transitions. She also had me work on softening my wrists - my fingers and elbows are soft, and my wrist is quite rigid which makes my fingers very mechanical in their movement when I use them. I had to think about someone pulling my pinky towards the bit in order to soften my wrist and get the funny break in it out. It's hard!

I had wanted to work on the canter transition a bit because I couldn't pin point where I was failing Penn in them- some days the left lead was elusive, some days it was the right, and some days it was neither!

We attacked the canter by first finding the good trot we had in the first part of lesson, paying attention to keeping my outside leg on, then just asking for left lead canter and seeing what happened. He was prompt, inverted and not running off, but not calm and cool either. Back to trot. Except when going back to trot, if he so much as added an extra ounce of pressure to the rein as he stepped downward, tap with the whip on the right hip to keep the right hind working.

She had me do at least two transitions to and from canter per circle. The point before was getting in canter and staying there. Now the point needs to be getting there and having what you get be a better quality canter. To the left, he never really missed the leads because I was good about my outside leg being back and supportive of his outside hind, and then my inside seatbone naturally sat deeper and he figured out the leads easily.

Something to think about, and I'm not sure where I heard it but: the step or two before asking for canter, slide the outside leg back without actually pressing it into the horse and asking for canter, half halt, and then press the outside leg and ask. This tunes the horse into the fact that a canter transition is coming and then they're ready. It was almost that kind of idea.

As we progressed to the left, she had me pay more attention to softening my rein in the upward transition and not holding him together. With the outside hind support, he quite naturally carried himself in a balanced canter and I never fought for my circle (something I always did with Mikey when we got the outside leg going). If he got leaning on me, she had me "take a tug" with the outside rein and tap the outside hip with the whip, but then give the rein back almost immediately so he had nothing to lean on. A couple of those and I had a neat little horse who was carrying himself nice and through in canter on a circle! The same idea applied in the downward transitions. Ask from the seat, very little to no hand, and if he leaned on me, take a tug and give and tap with the whip.

We repeated for a short time to the left, then went to the right. We only did a handful there- the right is much easier for him. I did get a couple wrong leads here, mostly because I wasn't clear enough with him about the outside leg/inside seatbone etc. She had me find a bigger trot (aka that elusive "more" that gets written on tests), and ask from that canter. What a difference!

We finished with a stretchy trot circle, which he rocked because we have been working hard on it. The only nit picking comment she had was more forward. He had enough stretch, but he needed to cover a bit more ground.

Overall, she was very pleased and is curious how he'll score on Sunday. She did warn me about him getting too much bend through his ribcage. He's short backed and short legged, and the amount of bend that he gets is a lot for him to get switched over to new bend on the serpentine. She said to give him extra straight steps so he wouldn't tangle himself up trying to get to the new bend. Right now he needs that much bend to make it super clear in the canter transitions which lead I want. And the thinking haunches in without actually doing haunches in is essential for a quality trot and a quality transition to canter, and a quality canter. I'm hoping that when it's time, I can take that super bend in canter, straighten it, and ask for new bend, and it'll be quite natural for the flying change to happen without a fuss. I can only hope!

She said he's like looking at two horses right now- the front end is developing nicely, but his hind end needs time to catch up. I told her that he's going to have a quiet November because with Daylight Savings Time ending, it'll be dark long before I get to the barn on week nights, and I'm traveling the first two weekends of November, so I essentially won't see him even somewhat consistently until the weekend before Thanksgiving when I have my Thanksgiving vacation. She thought that would be best for him- he's been with us for 2.5 months and I've turned his world upside down. Let him have a break after the show and just horse on his own. Let him have a quiet winter to put on some more weight and then come out rocking in spring. He is supposed to go for hacks and do ring work when possible (no more than 1-2 days a week of ring work), but the hacks are more important for winter. That all sounds good to me, he's been quite good and I want him to keep being good and liking his job!

I tried to be artsy and take this picture of us walking down from the field.

I finally got my hands on a Stubben Euphoria last week.

The Stubben Euphoria.
Not sure how it got a dirt smudge. I'm guessing it came with it considering I was the first one to bring it home.

The tack shop called and said they were finally sent one for me to try. I got out there Thursday last week to sit in it and pick it up. I ended up taking home that saddle and the 1894 again so I could compare the two on Penn.

The Stubben 1894.

Even though the Euphoria is a 17" seat, it sat very nicely for my big butt. Too small, but it didn't feel too small. I preferred sitting in it over the 1894, but there was something nice about the 1894's thigh block that I actually enjoyed. The Euphoria has shoulder cut outs. Instead of slicing off a cross section of the front panel like Toulouse did, they curved the entire front panel back under the thigh block. A neat idea for sure, if it hits the horse in the right place.

I tried the saddles on Penn again (no pictures, I forgot, sorry!). The 1894 fits like a glove. The Euphoria.... ehhh it fits, but the shoulder cut out is too low to be of use to Penn, and it fills in the hollow behind his should a bit too much. It'll be squeezing him in no time, or we might end up with enough squeeze that he never builds the muscle right there.

Then there was the quality issue with the Euphoria. When I saw it in the tack shop, I very much preferred the 1894's look. As you can see from the above picture... the panels have puckering on the seams. The pommel had similar puckering. The sweat flap between the horse and billets was tacked on, not sewn on. There was a funny nylon strap tucked under the thigh block for no apparent reason. Trainer gave it the worst comment of all, "It looks like an Argentinian made saddle." Eek. I had to agree with her. Neither of us liked how it looked. At all. Especially not for the over $3,000 price tag.

I liked sitting in the Euphoria better than the 1894, it had that free feel that I liked about my Jaguar. It also has a nice narrow twist (the 1894 does as well, but it's not so pronounced... which makes me wonder if the Euphoria could end up being a crotch biting saddle).

So in the end, I'm sticking with my original saddle order- the 18", 29cm/B Tree, Stubben 1894. I didn't even bother riding in either saddle- the Euphoria was just wrong, and there was no reason to put more wear on the saddle I liked since I had to return it anyway. My saddle should be here in 6 weeks though!

Horse Show Weekend

Such a busy weekend.

We're going to start with a statement: Penn will NEVER be an event horse. Ever. Not even Starter level.

Back to the barn where it's safe!

So I took him for an early morning walk before we left for Kelly's Ford HT. There were some hunters out and about, I think they were using dogs to send deer down the hill into our normal trail riding area for the archers. Either way, someone brought their hunting dogs to the tree farm next door, so I had to adjust our trail ride to a couple laps around the hay field. The hay field is on a giant hill- walking clockwise around the field, go away from the barn and you're going uphill on the grass property border, crest the top, and back downhill. Then the road meets the property line and you can walk gently uphill and downhill on your way back.

Penn was all "I'm brave! I'm brave!" while the dogs were barking up a storm across the field. We walk behind some trees to go down a hill away from them? "I'm brave! I'M NOT BRAVE!" Poor thing. I had to get him down a hill, next to the fence line, without trampling some 2' trees. We got there slowly. He spooked a couple times and shot forward as I walked him back on the road towards the barn, but he stopped when asked, and I asked him to be round and through and he was like, "Oh ok! I can do that!"

I let him have his head again as we proceeded down the hill (super gentle slope) towards the barn. I stepped him off the road onto a grassy gallop path next to the road and a good thing too.

Have you seen videos where the horse trips or whatever and just goes ass over teacups onto his face and possibly falls down?

This is why you SIT UP when riding. All the time. Penn tripped over his own feet walking downhill and scrambled on his front end trying to right himself. One minute his head is in front of me where it belongs, the next I'm trying not to become a lawn dart as he starts going ass over teacups down the hill. I thought he was going to fall down for sure and just catapult me. He went to lean on my hands, but I'd already given him a long rein since we were just moseying and there was no way I was going to get him back on his feet (he'd just pull me out of the saddle), so I let them continue to pull out of my fingers. Sit up and back and hang on!

He shuffled and scrambled for like 20ft before finally righting himself. Nothing I could do to help him besides stay out of his way. I pulled him up after he was on four feet again and gave him lots of pats for having self-preservation instincts instead of just falling down. Then I took him back to the barn. I was planning on taking him for another lap around he field, but I decided, nope, we've tempted fate enough! I took him back and put his BOT Mesh Sheet on while I fiddled with him.

Yupp, I banded my dressage horse's mane.

Penn got patched on Friday, and I was pleased that it seemed to have helped his girthyness. He still made faces, but no pinning the ears and clicking the teeth. (patches can be seen above)

I decided that I'd had enough of his mane being on the left side of his neck (it changed back, sigh) and attacked it again with bands. What's the worst it'll do? He'll roll, and pull some out? Or pull the hair funny? His mane is too long to stick straight up, and at worst, it'll go left again. I didn't see him Sunday when we got home, and I'm not going out tonight, so we'll see how it looks Tuesday!

Saturday was spent driving the 5 hours to Kelly's Ford and then unloading, unpacking, and trainer riding the horses while I tidied up and got to braiding.

I really like Kelly's Ford Equestrian Center. It's a nice little show, open courses, and a very creative show jump ring. They have a small square bank in the middle, a small hill to put a single jump on top of, and a sunken section with a ditch at the bottom (downhill to the ditch, uphill out). Stabling was in pipe stalls in the indoor, but they had spaced them out to prevent over the wall fights. That also meant we had space between stalls to stash trunks. I liked the setup.

I braided all four horses that went this weekend- trainer's 3, and then I made some extra cash by braiding the student's horse too. I started with 18h+ Ed... I pulled his mane this past week and it was just a bit too short, oops. It took me much longer to do than usual because it was so short and he's obnoxious and won't hold still. I wish I had a pic of it though, it was perfect. Tiny perfect nubs that lined his neck. And I pulled his forelock perfectly- I braided it and was able to pull the tail up through to the top and it tucked perfectly. Love.

I only got through 3 horses Saturday afternoon because Trainer and company wanted to go to dinner and well, so did I. I braided the last one on the morning, no big deal. The mare didn't dressage until 11:45.

We had quite the frigid night in the trailer. For some reason the trailer battery wasn't holding a charge, even though we were plugged in... So the heat obviously didn't work. It was 66 degrees in the trailer when we went to bed at 10... And it was 40 degrees inside when our alarms went off at 6:30am. Trainer eventually crawled out of bed and dashed outside to start the truck so the heater would run (32 degrees outside). Then she came back and crawled back into her blanket cocoon.

A bit frosty Sunday AM.

I got the morning stuff done, and sent her out on her first horse (4yr old Frankie). I got to see his test and the student's test while I ate breakfast.

I put Frankie away, braided her last horse, Shea, got the 18 hand monster Ed ready, got Shea ready and walked her down to the arena so we could tack swap and I'd take Ed back with me.

I had a sit since it was lunch time by then and started prepping my jump stuff.

Ed: "Whacha doing down there?"

All of the jump phases were too close for comfort to have Trainer come all the way back to stabling to get the next horse. So I packed her pinny with the numbers and sent her off with Frankie, then I packed saddle pads and girths in a tiny drawstring backpack. I wore the two breastplates I needed, and I put Frankie's halter over my shoulder and clipped the backpack to the halter. Ed and Shea wore their coolers, boots, bridles, and halters down to show jumping. FYI, all that practice walking 6 horses in at a time at home really pays off when you need to lead mixed genders and all their crap down to a warm up in public.

Supergroom FTW

Where they actually waited patiently.

Holding two horses at SJ warm up. Ed and Shea. Everyone wore chains because holding two horses at a warm up is asking for it and I needed total control.

The first horse rotation consisted of me just holding all 3 horses while trailer pulled coolers and swapped the saddle and tacked up Ed. I wasn't a whole lot of help since I was managing all their faces.

The second saddle swap was easier, student was done, so she helped swap coolers and tack and then took the two already finished horses up while I hung out with trainer in  case she needed something. After the last horse show jumped, I got all the leftover tack together and hauled it up to stabling.

Remove braids, wrap legs, tear down everything, pack trailer, go home. Find food. We were hungry!

Hum Drum Weekend (Picture Heavy)

Penn's next few outings are planned! He's going to a schooling hunter show to do the flat classes, then the next day haul to a different farm to partake in a hunter pace! Very exciting! Poor guy, he's going to be tired at the end of the weekend. That'll happen Oct 3/4. I do wish there were more dressage shows close to me so we could go do that!

I spent Thursday and Friday working at home so I could keep an eye on Sophie after she was spayed. She has internal stitches that will dissolve and glue on the skin over her belly incision. She wasn't cooperating with the Elizabethan Collar or the keeping quiet rule, so I was worried she'd open her belly up while Husband and I were both gone for the day... then we'd come home to a very upsetting situation... So I'm lucky enough that my boss is an understanding pet person and let me work from home those days. I got a bunch of cute pictures of all the cats while I was home, so... suffer my kitties' cuteness.

Penny sleeping in the tunnel fish. #fishatethecat

Nickels giving me sleepy eyes from on top of the cat carrier.
Sophie and Penny show up in the fireplace's reflection. Just noticed!

Sophie playing with an ice ball. They all like it, but they mostly enjoy drinking the ice water.

Penny inside the fish. I love this picture.

Everyone having sleepy time.

Sophie snuggles with Penny...

... and she snuggles with Nickels too :-)

Saturday was a barn day for me. I was taking care of the horses all day... morning bring in and feed, ride Penn, take the 4* horse Cody for a walk(!!!), evening feed and turnout, stalls, prepping for the next day.

Penn had a nice work Saturday morning. I started with some of our straight line work from the other day, and then finished by using the spiral in and out to find the canter. His canter is really coming along. He has trouble picking up the left lead, but if I sit the trot a half circle before and into it, he gets the correct lead. I think it's a balance problem on his side, and my inability to fully affect the trot when posting. Obviously when he starts cantering, if the trot was balanced, the canter is much better. If the trot was only so so, the canter is like a motorcycle leaning into a turn.

Each time I work him, the canter is a little bit better balanced. He still doesn't have the strength to maintain it for long, but that's ok. He's only been back to work for a month and a half and we've only been working the canter in earnest for a week.

After Penn was done and put away, I took Cody for a walk. He's too funny- I got on him, got settled, and off we went. I wanted to get a bunch of ear shots of him, and I just like giving horses pats on the neck as we walk. Every time I would move to get my phone or pat his neck, he'd pin his ears and lift his head and neck! It was almost like he was saying, "Be quiet up there minion! This is MY walk, you're only here because I can't go by myself!" He's such a cocky SOB. In his world, Trainer is the only one he has to really listen to under saddle, and the rest of us are just minions to do his bidding. Don't get me wrong, he's extremely well behaved and has excellent ground manners. You do have to have a vague idea of what you're doing if you're going to ask him to work, and your riding ability directly correlates with how long he'll tolerate your shenanigans. As he gets fitter, the people who can ride him dwindles to Trainer, and maybe me when he's not Rolex fit. He can generally be walked on the trail by almost anyone. Anyway, he's just a very cocky boy, and while it makes him a difficult ride, it's what gives him his bravery on cross country.

The Cheese!!!! Aka Cody, haha.

I tossed the horses out a little early because it was cool and breezy, cleaned stalls and set up water and hay for the next day and I was out of there!

I was not smarter than the hose. The hay on the ground is from me dropping bales from the loft... and I hadn't cleaned it up yet cause I hadn't cleaned stalls yet, and the last thing I do before leaving is rake. But now it's wet hay bits.

I got to use a whole bunch of my new tack on Sunday! I put the XW tree in my jump saddle. What a difference! The saddle fits much better now. I also put my new brown web reins on my brown jump bridle and we used that bridle to trail ride. Penn used his new 44" girth, that conveniently has a D ring for my five-point breastplate has a clip for the between the legs strap instead of a girth loop! I've been using a girth loop attachment with that breastplate for years because none of my long girths have D rings. I love using new stuff.

A very dirty Penn (he took a dust bath as soon as I put him out- he was spotless before then!). He's oblivious to the two mares next to him giving him and each other the stink eye.

Normally the mounting block isn't a source of stories, however, Sunday it was! Penn and I have been battling at the mounting block for the duration of our relationship. Our block is a huge wood thing that does not move, so the horse has to line up to it. Penn is willing to walk up to it, but at the last step he swings his butt out and then I have to correct him and move him over. Sunday, he just about climbed on top of the block. He got as close to it as humanly possible (like, whacking his left knee off the front corner...) and he crept up to where he needed to be, and squared up (I always make sure the horse is close to square before getting on so I don't pull him off balance). No moving his hind end sideways. Lots of pats for the good boy.

Penn was a lovely, sensible, and brave boy. He was happy to lead our ride (with just one other horse, Leader), and bravely went through the puddles and ditches first. He walked quietly on a long rein near the buckle. Three of the farm dogs came with us, and they were crashing through the woods and running past the two horses and he didn't give a rat's patooty about it. He just pinned his ears at them and if they lingered in front of him, he'd reach out to bite them!

I tried to get him to show off the brown bridle. But you can see the new web reins.

He even stood his ground when the dogs flushed out about a dozen turkeys! They ran across the trail, then took flight and flew around over us. If you haven't seen wild turkey's fly, let me tell you, they are not graceful, they're noisy, and more than one horse I've known has lost their cool when it happens. Not Penn. He was like, "What's that?" and calmly watched them fly all around. They did spook 22 yr old Leader a little bit!

It was a touch windy walking the road home.

A good quiet weekend for all!