Monday Lesson

**Edit on my last post: Sometimes I'm a little dyslexic and transpose numbers. The Stubben is the 1894 model, not 1984.

Google brings up some strange things when you are lacking media and google "dressage horse".

I had arranged to have a lesson Monday night before all the saddle shopping took place because I needed some help with Penn's left lead canter. I wasn't sure where I was going wrong. I knew it was crookedness though.

We never got to the canter, which is fine. I tacked Penn up in the Stubben that I have on trial, and set off to lesson.

Trainer was immediately impressed. I had talked to her about trying a couple Stubbens and she basically said she didn't like their design or comfort or really anything about them. I told her the rep told me that they had redesigned things a bit in the last couple years, and she looked at me like, "I'll believe it when I see it."

When I got to the outdoor, I got Penn going in walk nicely and she glanced over from the lesson she was finishing up and said, "What a good baby horse!" And I was like, "I brought a new toy to lesson, that's why!" and she looked at me like, what? And I said, "New saddle!"

She asked what it was, and was impressed by it looking very little like the Stubbens she used to know. She liked where it put my leg.

She got after me about letting Penn get his poll too low. And letting him lay on me. And letting him get away with a lot. She basically said that he's been here long enough, he's got some topline and more weight, his feet are fixed, and he's in better shape. He needs to come to the arena and work like a grown up horse. Not every day, he certainly still needs his walks, but when he comes down to the arena to work, there are no excuses. Oops. Maybe I should stop calling him baby horse because I am an enabler. She did say that she's not happy with how the muscle is laying down on him. She pointed to some area behind me that I couldn't tell where and said he's laying down muscle here, but not evenly throughout his topline. Bad rider.

The first thing she did was have me put him on a 17ish meter circle and do at least 3 halts on the circle from trot. Well the first few he dragged my arms out of their sockets laying on my hand when I used my thigh to say halt. She had me pop him with the left rein (he drags harder with that side) while popping him with my spurs too. Unacceptable behavior. She then had me add just one step of rein back after the halt to get his hocks back under him, then immediately trot off, being extremely soft with my left hand. He only needed to be corrected a few times before he was halting reliably off my seat, holding himself up. She then had me add a few more steps of rein back to the halt, immediately trotting off again. Giraffe was ok in the rein back, the point was to set him back on his hocks again.

In the trot portions of this, she got after me about my left hand. It can be super heavy and in general carries more contact than the right. When I stopped smothering him, he very happily carried a nice elastic connection. Something else I did was sit the trot. The Stubben let me sit, but I didn't feel like I was smothering him like I did in the Jaguar. He was happy to truck along, sitting or not. I was able to keep myself in a better position to encourage engagement and self carriage and a slower tempo in the sit trot, so sitting it was.

Eventually she had me go out on a bigger circle, approx 25-30m, and start posting again sporatically on the circle, halting and rein backing at least twice on the circle. If started to get heavy, leg to pick him up again. At this point, he started his stumbling crap. He's been on a ton of trail rides, hacking in the hay fields, and a hunter pace through the woods and a XC course. Stumbling in the arena is not ok anymore. He is responsible for his own feet. Leg on with some spur when he stumbles.

He was awesome. He got the idea of carrying himself immediately, and keeping a steady contact without curling or dropping his poll, and the tempo problems went away. We had wonderful, elastic contact. I was able to post the trot for the entire circle by this point. Trainer had me "get greedy" and ask for a bit more trot within the tempo, and he positively floated. For like 4 steps before he couldn't hold it anymore, but it's there!

She had me sit the trot again, move to a 12-15m circle and "collect" him with my seat. It took me a few tries to get it right (I shortened his neck/back/step/killed the tempo and forward first), but eventually I could sit, relax my hand (I had to actively think about giving it so I didn't take with it), pull my shoulders up and squeeze my abs (like you're pushing a hard to recline recliner back with your shoulder blades only), and he'd respond by collecting and engaging more within his current ability. I got a single half step when I got overzealous and made a "COLLECT NOW!!!!!" demand on him (like I would to get Mikey to engage). I know that's completely not what we're going for, but he offered it right up. And I'm thrilled.

She had me take my 12-15m circle right, and go straight for more steps than should be allowed (since he is a green bean), then really engage the new inside leg and ask for a 12-15m circle left. Repeat the left. Then swap back and forth in the more collected work between right and left 12-15m circles. The goal being to make the change slowly, but from my seat and leg with quiet hand. Penn answered right away and became quite supple to both changes. The quieter I was with my hand, the better and better he got. I would remind him of his self carriage with the "recliner half halt" and he'd reset nicely.

Trainer then had me post the trot and ask him to go back to the 25-30m circle, asking for more trot within the tempo, and then asking him to stretch. He answered beautifully without falling on his face or the forehand. We did several long changes to the left and right on a circular figure 8, allowing him 3-5 straight steps between circles. We collected back to the 13m figure 8, then back to the 28m figure 8. He had some excellent stretch work on the final figure 8, and when I asked for walk from that stretch, he held himself up and didn't fall on the forehand or use my hand for downward transition support.

For the next few weeks, I'm to put him to work, no excuses, a couple times a week, and go for long walks in the woods a couple times a week. Or until November does away with my weekday riding.

I can't get over how easy the work is for Penn in comparison to Mikey. Penn is super agreeable and seems to have fewer opinions than Mikey did, but Mikey had opinions because the work was hard. I know Penn is 75% TB and 25% Dutch Warmblood (from my research even though he's officially a TB x Oldenburg), but it really seems that low percent of warmblood really makes a huge difference in dressage ability when compared to the straight thoroughbred (doh, just look at the full warmbloods out there doing dressage). Not to trash the OTTBs or bred-for-sport TBs. Mikey was an invaluable learning experience in how to find a million ways to do things and to be precise and correct in your aids. And strong. I had to be correct and strong. Maybe that's why Penn just goes along with it; there isn't another option!

Dressage was not easy for Mikey. As shown here in a "flying fail".
(Of course there's more wrong here than just it's difficult for Mikey)

Trainer loved the Stubben 1894 on Penn (and for me), so I called the tack shop this morning to have them order me an 18" B tree Stubben 1894. Hopefully her rep happens to have one in VA and I don't have to wait for one to be made!

More Saddles!

I was continuing my Harry Potter reread the other day and Penny decided she wanted an up close and personal snuggle.

Penn had quite the adventure two weekends ago- a little hunter show and a hunter pace. And it showed. He was TIRED, so he enjoyed a week off. I did take him for a quiet walk Wednesday and he was happy to go out for a ride, but his butt was still a little tired.

Penn and his new "cheap" blanket. The Mio Lite Turnout Sheet from Dover. Nomming happily in his stall.
Also: Muscles!!!

It was just as well that he was on vacation. I wanted some time away from the barn to do normal life things. Like get my hair cut and clean the house.

Husband was away for the weekend on a camera trip with some friends, so I went to the tack shop! Ha! I called my mom and asked her to go with me so that I wouldn't take any saddles home. She was like, "Deal!" The local tack shop has a saddle room upstairs that has probably over 150 saddles in stock (dressage, jump, western). She does a lot of saddle business, both used and new, and I sent 5 of my saddles there on consignment (I know, saddle hoarding problem) and they all sold quickly and in the time frame allowed (3 months while my Jaguar was being made). I had priced them to sell, but still. They all went and I didn't have to sell any to her directly!

I went up there bright and early so I could catch her before anyone else roped her into their saddle fitting adventures. I told her about Penn, what didn't work, and what I'm currently riding him in (Pessoa's XCH Forward Flap XC Saddle on the X-Wide tree). She just about had laughing fits about me flatting and doing dressage in that saddle, haha. She knows it well, and doesn't restock it anymore because she doesn't get many people that are long enough hip to knee to need that forward flap.

I sat in about 20 dressage saddles, and we set aside 5-7 to revisit again. I eventually settled on these two (thanks mom, you didn't stop me from taking some home... and you let me take 2!!! love you!)

M Toulouse Wilamina Pro Series Dressage Saddle
Stubben 1894 Dressage Saddle

I was surprised to like sitting in the Toulouse. I can't stand the leather quality. They made a new Professional Series saddle that has soft flexible flaps, which were super nice actually. It's still poorly made (glue smeared across the bottom flap from where they preglued it before stitching it), and the leather still looked a bit beat up for the saddle being new (no "new saddle" gloss). The saddle has an exposed block (hate) but it hit me well (unfortunately liked). It also has shoulder cut outs on the front panels (yay for Penn!) and comes in the Genesis tree. The tree is neat- it can be adjusted by the millimeter instead of using plates. We all agreed that it would probably work very nicely for Penn and his changing back.

The Stubben was more a "I loved sitting in it" type thing. It's on loan from her Stubben rep, and I'm super interested in the Stubben Euphoria, so I wanted to sit in this one just for funsies and it became a "hmm, this is super comfy!" Plus it was so pretty! It has some patent leather, teehee! I guess I'm not so conservative anymore! The tree is the B tree, which is basically their MW, which would be fine for comparison to Penn's back. Basically, the 1894 model is a stripped down, no frills model to get into a lower price range (under $2k). We chatted about the Euphoria too. I had asked a week or so ago if she could try to get one in and she said sure. Fast forward to this weekend when I saw her and she said there is one wide tree test ride Euphoria in the country right now, and it's in CA and that rep is NOT giving it up. Those saddles are selling like hotcakes apparently. She was debating ordering one in the size I needed and if it didn't work out, she'd keep it just to have it in stock! Very thoughtful of her :-) She said another shipment of them is coming into the country this week, and she's going to try to get her hands on one of those.

Anywho, so off I went to the barn. I tried the Stubben first because I was dying to sit in it. People had commented that I set the Amerigo too far up on his shoulder, so I REALLY tried to keep that in mind when I tried these saddles. It's a habit I have from Trainer, sorry! I'm always paranoid that I'm going to be sitting it too far back and I'll do damage to his kidneys.

So thrilled to have saddles on and off him again.

I thought the front to back balance was a little off- the cantle was a bit low for my liking, but definitely not bad or terrible. Just a hair low.

This part fit quite nicely actually. Maybe a hair low.
I like that the D rings are set above the skirt and not under it. All the better to attach my grab strap for extended trots.
I just noticed that huge screw right on the front of the saddle. Umm, weird?

It looked much better balanced when I girthed it up.
My tack shop is awesome and has approved, prewrapped stirrups that can be borrowed for saddle trials. Love.

I opted to try it with the half pad only because, realistically, I will use a half pad with my saddle. Partially because it's habit. Partially because both he and Mikey enjoyed having the fleece direct on their backs instead of the saddle pad (obviously not how I've set it up here). Partially because I just plain like it. I know, if the saddle truly fits, the half pad will make the fit worse and it won't help at all, blah blah. Just give me this one, ok?

Photo fail. He's so good about standing where I leave him. Except when I'm trying to get a picture of him. Urgh! Haha.

I took him down to the outdoor, and I don't know if it was the construction going on (a lean to for tractors and farm equipment) or what got up his butt, but he was just nervous.

The first thing that became super obvious was how he connected himself to the bridle. I took up contact and added leg, and he said, "Yes ma'am! I live here!" Connected, through, light in the hand. Underlying tension for sure though. I asked for some trot work and he stayed connected, but then started hiding behind the bit, which made me nervous because I'd add leg and he wouldn't move off as promptly as I'd like. I couldn't tell if a) he was just nervous, b) being off all week had messed with him and maybe he was feeling a little naughty, c) he actually liked the saddle and was waiting for it to bite him.

I spent some time in walk, and he offered me a lovely stretch. I have never been able to get him to stretch to the bit. He's always held himself up and has been reluctant to truly seek the bit out and stretch through his topline and neck. We'd encouraged it of course, and he'd give a couple steps before going giraffe. I figured it's a learning curve and that would be where he might be weakest. Nope, he offered me half of what I would like for a free walk. Not good enough for the ring, but quite a bit of progress from where we were last time I actively worked on it.

I went back to trot and he had that same tight feeling, yet he was still so loose under me. No rush, no hurry, no tempo problems. Hard to describe. He gave me a smidge of stretch in trot and then reverted to hiding behind the bit and then the incessant chomping begin.

Chomp chomp chomp chomp on the bit. Over and over and over. I was panicking. What happened to my lovely cooperative relaxed horse?! This was not his usual behavior. Maybe I was riding differently because of the saddle? Maybe he hated it? Maybe it was just a bad day?

I decided to end the test ride of that saddle. Back to the barn to try the Toulouse.

Looks balanced front to back, maybe a little low in the front, however it just didn't sit right on him. He barely had any spine clearance, and the shoulder cut outs didn't go far enough back to make a real difference, so if I tightened the tree it would have squeezed his shoulder.

I took some pics of the front, but they didn't turn out well. The afternoon sun really didn't help.

I didn't even bother trying to ride in it. I hated how it looked in general, and then it just didn't sit right. Instead, I put his jump tack on and took him back to the outdoor, ready to push him forward and out of that curling BS. Only he didn't do it. He was happy as a clam to giraffe his way around the arena and be quick and heavy in my hand when he wasn't giraffing. Walk, trot, canter, no big deal. ??????

Sunday was beautiful. I went on my weekly trail ride date with A, fully decked out in orange. Archery season started last weekend, and while it's Sunday and we're on private property, we're far enough out in the country that less conscientious hunters may be out anyway. The barn owner said she's been out on the trails, come across hunters and told them to leave because it's private property, and they've said "Oh, we got permission from the land owner." and she goes, "Really? I don't remember giving you, or ANYONE permission to hunt on my property."

"Mom, every time you do something like this to me, I die a little inside."

No worries Penn. Mikey felt the same way.

We had a lovely gentle walk, and then I asked A if she'd mind coming with me down to the outdoor, and if before we do that if I could do a quick saddle swap to the Stubben. She said sure. She hadn't been down to the outdoor in ages and said she'll trot Leader around a little. He's quite the spry guy for a 22 yr old OTTB with Cushings! He still jigs when he knows we're going home!

Penn was great. Looking for the bit, stretching, relaxed, good tempo that I didn't have to monitor 110% of the time. A very good basic Intro/Training level horse. Nothing fancy, and when he stretched he tended to fall on the forehand, but that's just training. Mikey did too when he learned. A commented on how lovely he looked. I cantered him around and he was great. I think he really likes that saddle. I'm sure a 45 min walking warm up didn't hurt either, but he had all of the lovely from the previous day with none of the hiding or chomping.

I have a lesson tonight, and I'll bring the saddle for Trainer's evaluation, plus some peeks at the left lead canter and why it's been such a fail.

If everything goes well, I'm going to ask the tack shop to order me the 1894 in an 18" seat (she may be able to get one immediately from the Stubben rep). This one was a 17.5" and the thigh blocks didn't hit me just right, and I think the extra half inch will do it. I'm also going to ask them if they'd be willing to order a Euphoria in the 18.5" B tree, only since she was considering ordering one just to have anyway. Then I'd pick one when they came in. The Euphoria had shoulder cut outs and what looks like slightly smaller thigh blocks, which are the only reasons I'm still interested in it.

Penn had a little bit of a meltdown in the crossties when I was putting everything away Sunday. He'd been super quiet, but all of a sudden he freaked and backed until he hit the end of the ties. I got him to step forward and unhooked him (no reason to remind him that he can break them), and he just became super dumb and spooky. A and I were both like, wth? When he freaked out I had been putting my boots back in their bag, and I offered him a boot to sniff and he just wanted none of it. No idea baby horse. At that point, I just wanted him not to leave the barn!

I did manage to get Mikey's BOT Mesh sheet out and tried on Penn. It's a 78" and doesn't fit him that poorly. A hair long, but not enough to make me want a smaller size. When I'm ready to order the quartersheet I mentioned in my last post, I'll get the 78". I figure if they said to order the same size as the horse's blanket size, and their own size 78 doesn't look horrible on him, so a 78 in the quartersheet shouldn't either.

Ignore the lead rope wrapped up funny and on the ground. He ground ties very well 90% of the time. It was actually super helpful having it over his poll when he tried to leave the barn and the poll pressure kept him from rearing.

Back on Track Quartersheet

The hits just keep on coming. The hits to my wallet of course!

I was paroozing the sale items on Riding Warehouse's website, when I came across the Back on Track Quarter Sheet that I've been eyeing for over a year now.

Hello pretty, expensive thing.

So I was planning on buying one for Mikey for this winter. I do not have an indoor arena to ride in when the weather is foul, so I ride outside in the elements all year round. This kind of sucks in the winter. I don't mind the snow or frozen ground. It's the wind. I'll wear long underwear, breeches, then jeans, and long sleeve shirt x2, fleece, then carhart jacket. And I'm usually still cold on the days it's close to zero with the wind chill. I like to make sure my horse's butt is covered because well, it's freaking cold! Mikey always seemed to appreciate my homemade quartersheet that has my alma mater pattern on it.

Anyway, if anyone out there has BOT products, you know they're expensive. Well Riding Warehouse has this quarter sheet on sale! $120 instead of $140. Not a huge savings, but I'll take whatever I can get.

Now my questions that hopefully someone out there can answer because I'm torn between the fleece and the nylon options (and it looks like only the fleece is on sale at Riding Warehouse).

• It looks like from the picture that the fleece doesn't velco over the withers in front of the saddle like the nylon does (I confirmed the nylon does at Smartpak). I'm going to assume both velcro in front of the saddle and this is poor picture taking, but true or false?
• I've found fleece isn't an excellent wind breaker. I assume the nylon would be better. Has anyone actually seen both in person that might want to weigh in?
• Anyone have any other thoughts on nylon vs fleece? I like the wicking abilities of fleece, but I also like the possible wind breaking abilities of nylon.
• Size. Do you find these run large? Small? Mikey's size 78 blankets are too big for Penn (he could probably use a 74 or 76). I'm hesitant to buy the 75 sheet because realistically, Penn will be the smallest horse I own and 78 seems to be a good standard size. Even the new turnout sheet I bought him last weekend is a 78. I couldn't bring myself to get something smaller. Thoughts?

Another note, I talked to the barn owner while on a hack Wednesday evening and an indoor will be up in the next year (yay!). She and Trainer need to work it out (they're related, so this isn't only a business relationship), but they will be building one. I asked her if that could happen over the winter or if it would be a spring project, and she said, "Maybe! I want somewhere to ride in the evenings! Even if it only has a roof and lights." Hooray, possible indoor covered arena!

Dressage Sport Boots

I blame this post on Karen at Not-So-Speedy Dressage. :-P

Penn is using Mikey's old DSBs that I think are 2 years old. Mikey did a good job chewing them up when we'd practice flying changes (he'd interfere something fierce up front and ripped a whole section of boot off). Penn is doing a good job chewing them up as well because he just plain interferes.

How is Karen to blame? She posted about sale on DSBs from Riding Warehouse.

I will probably end up ordering new boots because this is a sale and mine are chewed and ugly and not fit for public viewing. I am usually very conservative in color- Black/White, Black/Black, White/White. Maybe Navy mixed in. Maybe.

Holla at the color options. And glossy/patent options.

Soooooo please vote for something that will look nice on Penn (generic bay, 4 socks):

Note: Pink is just there because it's an option. But not one I'm actually considering.

If I had unlimited funds I would buy:

• Original Black with White Fleece for everyday use
• Original Brown with White Fleece for trail riding and what little jumping we will do.
• Glossy Silver with Black Fleece for in public at shows and clinics.
• Original Navy with White Fleece for just because when I'm feeling matchy matchy with my navy saddle pads (I only have Navy and Black).

I like the Black/Black (glossy and original) and the Original White with Black Fleece too. Can I just have them all? Except the Glossy with White Fleece- I don't know if it's the pictures or if it's actually like that, but the white fleece looks dirty compared to the glossy surfaces when it's never been used!

So basically, my brain is saying buy 3 sets (the first three options I listed above), but my wallet is saying, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" I might buy 2 sets. I will probably buy at least 1 set. I'm using set to describe 2 pairs of boots (all 4 legs covered in the same boot). Help!

Weekend Part 3: Hunter Pace

Sorry to go sappy on everyone yesterday. Some of the baby horse struggles have got me down on top of my usual level of missing Mikey. For some reason yesterday hit overload and then melted down. Probably because I hit overload while in public on the bus and was just trying to keep it together because I had errands to run too.

Anyway.

I took Mikey to a hunter pace last year and had an awesome time, so I asked the same girl who went with us last year if she wanted to go to one a couple hours away (we'll call her E). She said sure, and so we registered online, loaded up, and off we went!

E has a 6 year old OTTB mare named Mattilynn who is eventing at Novice right now. She is quite fancy and talented, and happens to be extremely similar to Penn in age, height, markings and color. They each have some sort of star, but hers transitions into a thin stripe and a snip. She has two socks I believe, where Penn has four. They're almost the same height, they are the same age (born within a month of each other), and they're the same light bay color. Pas de deux anyone? E isn't sure she wants to event past novice or training, so she's coming with me to recognized dressage shows next year and we're both aiming at first level...

Anyway, we got there a hair late (11:50 for a 12:30 ride time...) and after checking in, getting horses off the trailer, getting everything tacked up and ready, and making the 10 min hike to start, we were only 7 minutes late, haha. Luckily, the starters were not displeased with us and there was actually a line of people waiting to start.

Penn was super for getting ready at the trailer by the way. While I curse the person who taught him rearing will get him out of doing things, I praise the person (who may be the same person, but I doubt it) that taught him to ground tie. That horse stood in a new location, with horses and activity going on all around him, without moving or eating grass. I don't trust him to tie to the trailer when he barely ties in the barn, so the whole keeping your feet still while not eating grass while standing in a field makes tacking up a whole lot easier.

So each of us had glanced at the map, but we figured there'd be signs, markers on the trees etc that let you know you were going the right way. The hunter pace we did last year was marked every 40-50 feet with plastic ties in the trees or whatever. Oops. It's a good thing I brought my phone because I had to pull the map off of the farm's Facebook so we knew we were going the right way at times! We did count jumps, which was very helpful in letting us find our way!

The map neither of us thought we really needed to memorize. Oops.
Not marked are the mandatory flags in the field between fences 4 & 5, and the mandatory flag in the dressage ring between 19 and 20. We liked those flags, they pointed us in the right direction!

Believe it or not, Penn led for 99% of the ride! Both horses started out quite up and forward and spooky, and we had Penn lead because he would be a good wall for Matti to run into because she was all gung-ho and ready to run cross country, so she was jigging and not leadership material. He was very spooky (for him) through fence 4 or so, and it was funny because we'd be walking or trotting along and he'd see something and just jam on the brakes, then remember that's bad and he'd lurch forward. Mattilynn has been around the block- she's done two seasons in Aiken and been out eventing for two years after a $242 career at the track. She would not lead past anything he stopped at. Who knew baby horse would be the brave one?

One of the few ears pictures I took. We were trotting for most of the ride!

Penn also found his balance quickly. Trotting through the fields did him a solid. He stumbled a couple times and then decided he needed to pay attention to where his feet were. He then decided to lay on my hands, but that's a whole 'nother thing and I wasn't going to be able to fix that out in the fields... so I held him up. Ugh. There was one point early in the trail between fence 4 and the field it leads out into where the trail went down a steep hill. There were marks from where previous teams had slid, eek. I encouraged Penn down the side of the path because it looked less worn and a little firmer, but his hind end almost slid out from under him. At that point he refused to keep going and was starting to tantrum a little. Well since Penn stopped and came back, Matti refused to lead down the hill and E was just pissing her off trying to get her down. I decided to try again now that Matti was down to the point where Penn had slid. I fed him all the rein he wanted so I wouldn't have any contact on his face but I hadn't dropped him entirely, leaned back, leg on. Don't you know it- that little guy found his legs and feet, tucked his haunches under himself so he was straight, and carefully picked his way down? Without sliding once. I was a proud momma! Mattilynn, of course, followed right behind him. Silly mare.

Fence 16 was the water complex- a major reason I wanted to go to this hunter pace. If you've been following Penn's story, you know we had a battle over water and puddles. It was one of things Mattilynn did lead us through because I didn't want to make a scene in public over it. He got right up to the edge and then wouldn't go closer. Lots of side to side weaving. E came back around with Mattilynn and "picked us up" and he followed her right in. He was super unsure, so I made him come back around and go in by himself, which he did with minimal complaint. Good boy! We followed the course around and it came back past the water so I had him go in again. He fussed for a step then went in. He walked through it with his nose between his knees, lifting his hooves way up and was like "WTF IS THIS MOM!!!!!!!!!!" He was too happy to leave and I gave him a pat for being a good boy and trying. If there was time, I'd have loved to just had him stand in it for 5-10 min, and walk and trot laps through it until it was NBD. Oh well, not this time. Trainer sometimes brings horses out to this farm to xc school and the farm does xc schooling days and mini trials and HTs, so there will be plenty of opportunity next year.

By this point, Penn was a super duper leader and Matti was starting to relax. E decided she didn't really want to jump anything and get Matti all stirred up. She was happy with the hillwork that the mare was getting.

The only problem we had on course was right after jump 28, and we were happy we knew about it beforehand (another rider had told us to beware before we started). There was a washed out section of the course going back into the woods, and it was only 2' wide or so, and it looked like a small muddy stream running across the path. We got passed right before jump 28, which turned out to be good for us, but bad for them. The first horse jumped the muddy bit, but the second jumped and landed in it. And promptly sank up to his chest, faceplanted into the mud and catapulted his rider face first into the mud. He freaked out, backed himself into it more, and sank his back legs up to his butt cheeks. The warning we had gotten was that horses would sink up to their chests in it, but we thought it was exaggeration. Nope. It wasn't. We would have warned the pair that passed us, but we didn't know it was coming up. Luckily, everyone was ok. The horse that got stuck in it had mud all over his face and ears and up all of his legs.

E and I decided that there was no way in hell we were going to go over it. Neither of us thought it was worth it to possibly damage our horses on a trail ride. E could have convinced Mattilynn to jump it, but Penn had just learned to jump 3 days before and I had been working very hard at making large deposits in Penn's Water/Soft Footing Trust Bank. It seemed like a sure way to make a withdrawal that would bounce in my account there. There was a path around, and we decided to take it and chance being eliminated. We saw fence 31 off that direction, so off we trucked. I didn't realize until I took a good look at the map that we cut out a big loop of the trail. I knew we had missed fences 29 and 30, but we figured they were logs in the woods and NBD on missing a small part of the trail. Oops. Oh well. No one ever said anything, and our horses still trust us and are in one piece.

We finished!

We ended up in 7th place out of 13 or so teams in the flat division (there were jumping, flat, and trail riders divisions). Due to our detour at the muddy water and not stopping at the Cider Break (which we totally didn't realize was there because no one was standing there and we were confused about where to go at the time), we should have been MUCH lower in the standings. Oh well. As it was, we were 12:07 over time, so I imagine we should have been an additional 2 min for the Cider Break and 5-8 min for our detour, so at least 20 min over instead of 12. Oops again.

It was a good day for us though. E got to take Mattilynn out schooling on her own. Penn got another ride on the trailer, another eyeful of the world, and made some good steps in learning about keeping his own balance. Plus more experience leading on the trail, squishy footing, and water!

"Hi Mommy, you said to stand here so I'm standing here."
A good look at the narrower low withers on top of considerably wider shoulders.

I was trying to get a conformation shot of him, or something that would let me see how his filling out was going. My trailer was in the way of me getting in the right spot. FYI not our car. The car had parked next to the silver trailer next to us, then the person parking horse trailers forced me to get that close to it. The closeness of trailers made it hard to back out, especially because there was a horse tied to the silver trailer, and I asked them to move him closer to their trailer because I didn't want to chance hitting him, and they looked at me like I was crazy. Umm, what?

Penn's bum is on the left and is getting quite round! It's hard to see because of the shadows.
I do haul with the top doors shut, FYI haha. We had loaded both horses and shut the ramp while we went to check on scores.

Checking on Penn and Mattilynn when we stopped for lunch/dinner. And a good shot of  Husband's custom head divider with bars instead of a metal sheet. It needs derusted and painted again... Everything inside was supposed to be that white you see at the bottom near the sawdust, but I needed the trailer before he got that far in painting the inside.

When we got home, this thing was parked in my trailer parking spot, which irked me. I had killed the grass by the tires so when they weed wacked around the trailers, my tire covers wouldn't get sliced up. Now I have to kill new grass. Trainer had warned me before I got home. "There was no talking to them about where to park it so you would have your spot. Sorry!" A new boarder already not listening about what to do with their stuff? Great. On an interesting note, I do like their mirror thing on finding the ball. I'm good at hooking up, but I sometimes spend too much time working on lining up those last couple inches side to side and forward and back. Oh Husband!

Bad Day

Today's post was supposed to be about the hunter pace on Sunday. I'll do it tomorrow.

I was on the bus home and thought, "Mikey's been gone for two months." and then it became an unbearable thought as I found myself about 2.5 seconds away from bawling on the bus.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. For now, I smother you with pictures.

I'm so sorry Mikey.

Weekend Part 2: That Time I Took a Dressage Horse to a Hunter Show

The barn was going to a local hunter schooling show in prep for the state 4H show along with my trainer's baby baby horses (first and second shows). I decided to have Penn tag along. It's another ride in the trailer and more life experience off the farm.

We hauled up on Friday to school in the arena and so the horses would already be there for the 8am start. It was freaking cold. And rainy. Friday and Saturday. Who turned on Winter?!?!

Trainer's Jack Russel was cold. Here she is in her nest, haha.

Penn schooled nicely Friday night. He was a bit quick in every gait- he was nervous but willing to work.

We did 4 classes on Saturday - two U/S classes, then the two U/S classes in the Pleasure division (one w/t, one w/t/c). The division had one jumping class- Hunter Hack and it was over plain cross rails, but with only one jump school under our belt, we had to skip it. Plus Penn has never cantered a jump.

Overall, Penn was quite heavy in my hand. It was my own doing because I was riding him off my hand instead of my seat and core, and I was trying to not be an outright dressage rider. I should have just been an outright dressage rider, haha. However, he paid attention to me and did as I asked. Except the whole canter on the left lead thing. I never got it in my first flat class, I got it on the 4th try in the second flat class, didn't have to canter in the third, and got it on the 3rd try in the 4th flat class. He's crooked, but when I set him straight he's just not strong enough to pick up the left lead, so I have to get him almost shoulder foring to the left to get him to pick it up.

In my last class I finally sat up in my shoulders and asked him to travel properly (see the video below). Yes, he was still very heavy in trot, and I'm holding his head in (I'm going with the leaning on my hand on that one), but I got my half halts across a lot more often and he has steps of not laying on my hand. The tempo in the trot was very quick, but what you'll see in the video below is actually much much slower than what he'd been doing earlier in the day. The canter is a bit of a mess still because he wants to canter in every direction except straight, and then when it's time to just canter straight he wavers and isn't sure what to do, so the movement ends up super inconsistent and sometimes hitchy as I add leg back on to keep him moving. There's a lot of head wag as I attempt to break the heavy hold we've got on each other. I'm attempting to take and then give, and it's just not working that well. But that's ok, because baby horse. We've only been at it for a month and half. It's something we need to fix at home. But like hell if I was going to let him run around with his head between his knees!

I don't have a heavy horse problem when I have him in the hay field working, so I think as the weather turns and the outdoor becomes unrideable, I'm going to add hill work into his routine. It'll make him stronger so he's better to hold himself up.

This is a dressage horse, not a hunter.

It's kind of hard to compare, but I think these two pictures can be used to show how much filling out he's done since I got him

Last place in every class except the 3rd place- in that class one horse stopped cantering and refused to go past the judge. Second to last instead!

Please forgive my gaping coat. I snagged the bottom button on my stall door and ripped it off and didn't have time to sew it back on. If I realized how awful it looked, I would have made an effort to find a sewing kit. Also forgive my way too long stirrups for a jump saddle. I'm not going to be shortening them to flat, sorry!

I think my final thoughts are: My issues (for now) are related to weight. I got off my weight loss bus when Mikey died. I just couldn't handle it all. I'm getting back on the bus this week. I have to. Penn just needs to be stronger so he can better hold himself. He answering my corrections to being heavy in the bridle (for like two steps) but he's not strong enough to hold himself up. His canter will come along as he gets stronger so he can hold it properly. He's shuts down the second I half halt and get him where I want him, so then I kick on and we start over.