We did it! River actually went correctly last night! Okay, it was only in one direction and it took about 15 minutes to get him there, but we did it! AND at the end of the ride I did a couple halts and backs, then figured I should have him trot forward before we finished so he ends on a forward note.. As soon as he picked up the trot, he reached right for the bit on his own and went nice and round. He's figuring it out!
I also rode my mare for the first time in almost a month. I've waffled on posting this, but I've decided to put it out there.
This is the mare when we moved:
This is the mare one month later:
Yeah, it's pretty appalling. I didn't realize at first how bad she looked, it was a pretty big shock when I realized how grossly underweight she'd gotten.
I was so disappointed when my old BO announced she was leaving. I had been perfectly happy. Yeah, River was ribby, but he was getting lots of grain and getting better. Irish was a little thin, but she wasn't on any grain, so okay, no big deal. We were there for two weeks after BO told me she was leaving. In that time, the boarders' horses went from being a little ribby to very ribby.
Looking back, it's obvious our horses weren't getting fed like they were supposed to. I was paying almost $150/month for River's grain (6 bags of Ultium). Another horse was supposed to be getting Ultium as well. River was supposed to be on 10 pounds of Ultium a day. Now he gets probably about 3 pounds a day--2 bags a month. He's gained a significant amount of weight. Irish gets probably about 2 or 3 pounds of senior feed a day. As you can see, she's gained a LOT.
I'm so upset with myself. How did I not notice how bad her condition had gotten? I think it came down to trust. I trusted my BO to take care of my horses. It never occurred to me that she might be either pocketing the money I paid for my horse's grain, or giving my grain to her own horses, but that's likely what happened.
Moral of the story: Don't be too quick to trust. If what you're being told doesn't match up with what you're seeing, investigate further. Don't be blinded by your faith in someone else.
My apologies. You and River have been pretty much ignored for the past few days.
I took my old guy to a show on Saturday. It was... um. I survived! That's really the best that can be said. We did an Intro horse trial. Dressage was decent (35.0 penalties). Stadium was ugly and then I fell off with two fences left. It's very much a schooling show, so they let you complete it even if you get disqualified. I was going to ride xc, but I was just too afraid*. He can go from being wonderful to being nuts in a second, and when that switch is flipped, you can't stop**. The last time I rode in a field, I broke my leg. I am understandably nervous at the idea of a repeat.
So I had someone else ride him for me. She rides much more than I do, and is braver and stickier, and therefore much less likely to die. He was reasonably behaved... he jumped everything without stopping and wasn't too out of control.
*Once upon a time, I'd rather have died than admit to being afraid of my horse or a jump. Now, I'll shout it from the rooftops, I don't care. Yes, I get scared. I get scared about a crossrail or a 12" vertical. I know what can happen and I have a great deal of respect for the dangers of horseback riding. I try to push myself enough that I'm not stagnating, but not so much that fear will interfere with my ability to ride well enough to get the job done.
**Contrary to how it sounds, my old guy isn't crazy and dangerous. Not really, anyway. He just gets excited about jumping and sometimes his brain turns off. He's perfect and wonderful and I love him more than anything... but his show name is Suicide Run for a reason.
Some xc pictures... the only ones I have because I was riding the other phases and obviously couldn't take pictures.
Isn't he ADORABLE??? Even when the rider is pulling with all her might to slow him down and he completely ignores it and keeps going... Love my boy so so much <3.
Anywho, now that the show is over I'll be able to pay attention to River again.
I didn't feel like riding today. So I decided to try free jumping Riv instead. It took a couple tries for him to figure out what I wanted, but he got very good about going to the left. To the right..... not so much.
Note that I say he's "good about going", not that he's actually good AT going. He managed to jump without hitting the rail maybe once or twice out of a dozen or so jumps. Next time, I'll set up trot poles before to get him set up well and picking up his feet.
I have to make a list for this post. I usually post while I'm at work (bad me!), so there are lots of interruptions. Making a list so I don't forget what I want to post about:
1. Feet
2. He's going to kill me
3. Saddle pad
4. Whip
5. Go button
6. Wilson's song
7. Theme songs
Yeah, it's gonna be a long one. Just for fun... I'm starting this at 9:40am EST. Let's see how long it takes to finish.
Feet. Fourth time was the charm! Farrier was supposed to come out last Tuesday, but the weather was too bad, so we rescheduled for Friday. He got stuck around NYC doing polo horses and couldn't make it, so we rescheduled for Saturday. His truck broke down and had to be towed. So we very very carefully rescheduled for yesterday, trying not to let The Powers That Be know so they wouldn't arrange for a new disaster. I took decent before pics of my mare's feet, need to get good afters. The mare has funky legs and feet, and you would not believe what a difference a good trim makes in how she looks. Riv's feet are slow growing, but they're improving. We think both of them will improve a lot with the new barn.
He's going to kill me. "He" being River. I rode last night after the farrier. Keeping our ride with Jeff in mind, I kept up a chant of "turn the key, release. Turn the key, release." Out loud. For the entire ride. I'm shocked River didn't stop, turn to look at me, and yell at me to shut up. Poor Princess. He was okay. Not as good as when Jeff was telling us what to do, but that's to be expected. We did a decent job on our own, I guess.
Saddle pad. Because Riv is a skinny TB, we've needed some help to keep the saddle off his withers. I'd been using one of these pads:
It's done the job, but I'd noticed that Riv was ouchy when I brushed his back after riding. So I dug out another pad:
The Thinline Saddle Fitter pad... it's sheepskin with pockets for Thinline inserts.
I brushed him last night after the ride... no ouchies when I brushed his back. Either the other pad was quite uncomfortable or the new pad is very comfortable or a combination of both. I'm sorry for not noticing sooner, Riv!
Whip. I finally found my sparkly pink dressage whip in my car. (Yes, it does sometimes take me a week or more to find things in my car. Don't judge.) I quite like the sparkly pink whip. The cover is missing from the last couple inches, so I need to get some duck tape or something. (I know it's "duct" tape, but I always get the Duck Tape brand because it comes in pretty colors/designs.)
Go button. We have a go button! Finally! I'm not sure if it's because he likes his new feet or because he remembers Jeff chasing us with the longe whip or because he likes the new saddle pad (my money is on this) or because he likes the sparkly pink whip. Regardless... for the first time, he was moving FORWARD without me getting after him constantly, or even regularly. So nice to ride a horse who moves!
Wilson's Song. If you don't remember or didn't read the post from way back when about Wilson, here's his song:
Well, last night I was on youtube and found this... Wilson's song on violin with harp:
I love Wilson's song. I love the violin. I love Wilson's song on violin. The only problem is that I can't really listen to it without crying. But gosh is it beautiful...
Theme songs. I love picking theme songs for my horses. Several years ago, a barn friend made a DVD for everyone for Christmas. It has pictures of all the horses set to their own songs. Every horse had a song that fit them perfectly. The adorable little gray pony who looked like a unicorn without a horn was "Barbie Girl." A very sweet but incredibly ugly Appy/Paint lesson horse was a song that goes "they call me Mr. Personality because I'm so ugly." An old TB gelding with lots of problems was "Tub-Thumper"--you know, the chorus is "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down." My old guy was "A Good Day to Run." Which.... LOL.
The red mare kind of has two theme songs. The primary one is Nelly Furtado's "Maneater". The chorus is "She's a maneater, make you work hard, make you spend hard .... wish you never ever met her at all." So true. Also, Christina Aguilera's "Can't Hold Us Down." Basically the first few lines... "So, what, am I not supposed to have an opinion? Should I keep quiet just because I'm a woman? Call me a bitch 'cause I speak what's on my mind, guess it's easier for you to swallow if I sat and smiled."
Like my old bumper sticker said "Hell Hath No Fury Like a Chestnut Thoroughbred Mare!"
Princess doesn't have a theme song yet. I'll have to wait for something to come to me.
And the time is... 11:00am EST. Hm, that didn't actually take as long as I was expecting.
I was just looking at the stats for this blog and looking at the referring sites list.. one heading is "search keywords". Someone found my blog by Googling "tractor supply paddock boots". This blog is the 4th result! LOL, how random is that???
Oh, and so I read that entry to see what it was all about.. This was back in mid-February, mind you. At the end, I mention how Riv kicked when I brushed his belly and he tweaked my finger. Just wanted to mention that now, in September, it is STILL not totally normal. It's good enough, but not as good as it used to be.
Jeff is a wizard. Seriously. Know how I've been talking about River not getting contact and going around like a drunken giraffe? Ten minutes of Jeff telling me what to do and he was going right. Incredible. Poor Jeff, however, spent 30 minutes chasing us with a longe whip. And I don't mean "walking around vaguely pointing it at us." I mean "chasing us and cracking the whip right behind River's butt." Because someone doesn't like to do forward. I'm not going to say who that someone is. I'll let you guess. *coughRivercough*
There are three main things we need to remember:
1. Forward
2. Position
3. Release
Forward is obvious. It's one of those things you don't appreciate until you don't have it. It is absolutely impossible to get River (or any horse, but this is River's blog, not Any Horse's blog) to soften into the bit without moving forward.
Position... River tends to put his body parts in strange places (read that sentence as a non-horseperson, it's hilarious!), so I tend to get put in weird places. I need to focus on keeping my body where it needs to be, regardless of where River tries to push me.
Release. The thing I, erm, kinda-sorta maybe forgot about. Okay okay, I totally forgot. Let the flogging begin! It basically went like this: turn the key, turn the key, RELEASE, OMG he's reaching for the bit and not imitating a giraffe! Turn the key, release, holy crap he's on the bit! Turn the key, release, are you sure this is my horse?! ("Turn the key" means turning your hand like you're turning a key in a door, works like a charm to unlock a horse's poll and jaw.)
We also did some turning on the forehand, but not the way I'd been doing it--halting on the rail and asking. Because Riv struggles with forward, we did it at the walk. The goal wasn't to do a perfect turn on the forehand, but to get him crossing his hind legs under him. So we'd walk forward across the diagonal or down the centerline, then keep the outside rein firm and smack right behind my leg with the whip to get him to step over. Riv is pretty dead to leg, so we'll be using lots of whip.
Jeff asked about the canter, and I explained we haven't attempted it yet. He advised basically doing lots of what we've been doing, as well as working the canter on the longe so when we get to the canter, he'll have all the prep work down. My crash test dummy is away at vet school and will be back for Thanksgiving, so we have more than two months to get him ready to canter.
Jeff got on to reinforce what we did. I took some video and pictures. (Nothing of me riding--it was just me and Jeff, and he had better things to do than take pictures, lol.)
This is how Riv starts out :
And after a couple minutes:
Even to the right!:
Here are a couple stills:
Doesn't he look so GOOD????? I wish Jeff could stay for ever and ever and ever. He won't be back until probably May :(. For some strange reason, he'd rather stay in Florida for the winter than Buffalo... go figure!
Naturally, the day I decide to wear breeches is the day I don't have time to ride.
Was going to ride Striker... Ended up cleaning stalls instead.
Was going to ride Princess... Ended up helping catch a loose Great Dane* and then making 4 trips with my mom's old Trailblazer to move all my jumps from the old barn to the new one. Still have to get the jumps put away properly, but I wanted to get them moved before it was too late.
*Tuesday morning I was on my way to work when I spotted this enormous animal wandering in the road. Is it a deer, a bear? No, it's a skin-and-bones Great Dane who recently had puppies. I tried approaching her, but the poor girl was afraid. She clearly wanted to be friendly, though. I called the sheriff dispatch and they sent out animal control. I left to go to work and called the shelter later to check on her, but they weren't able to catch her. I didn't see her Tuesday evening or wednesday morning. Wednesday evening, though, I saw her with animal control and a random person trying to get her. Hung around for a few minutes, left to get the aforementioned Trailblazer, and when I came back through the ACO had just caught her. I stopped to chat and say hi to the dog, who is just gorgeous and an absolute sweetie, even though she is horribly skinny and mangy and scared. The shelter will get her cleaned up, fattened up, and adopted out in no time. My guess is that someone bred her, sold the puppies, took her for a ride, and dumped her on the side of the road. Poor girl :(.
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