Great Expectations

I have written about Biff here before. Cute, fun, but not really that good at anything that I like to do. Yes, he is a rockstar trail horse, but I'm just not a trail rider. I have higher ambitions for my riding career than trail riding (don't get me wrong- I love trails and I think they are a valuable training tool for EVERY horse. I just don't want to do it exclusively).

When I posted a photo of Biff with my 7-year-old niece on my Facebook page, I had no idea that my friend Chelsea would ask if I would ever consider parting with him, as she was looking for a solid, safe trail horse. I love Biff enough that I wouldn't mind keeping him forever if I had to, but Chelsea is such an amazing home that I wish I was a horse and could live with her. Who was I to deny Biff the chance to live the good life as Chelsea's trail horse?

Rewind to a few years ago. Chelsea was searching for an Arabian to show and came home with an Arabian/Dutch Warmblood cross. I had always wanted a WB/arab cross after meting a few at my local dressage shows, and the several arabs and arab crosses that my dressage trainer's other clients rode. I was also partial to Arabs since my very first lesson horse (who my parents ended up letting me lease) was also an Arabian. Plus, it didn't hurt that I learned to ride dressage and hunters on a Dutch WB mare (who I regretfully sold later so I could be a "responsible adult" and go to college). When Chelsea found an Arab/DWB (later named Stretch because he will not stop growing), I was in love with the idea of that particular cross, and have secretly coveted Stretch ever since.

Back to present times. When Chelsea asked how much I wanted for Biff, I told her that I would just give him to her, because it was the best home I could ever find for him. Plus, he was a $230 auction rescue who couldn't canter. Realistically, with today's horse market, he's not worth that much to begin with. Then she asked if I wanted Stretch in exchange. I almost fell out of my chair. I was sure that Chelsea had lost her mind. I mean, who trades a VERY nice Warmblood with loads of potential for a $230 auction rescue trail horse? I tried to remind her that it was NOT an equal trade, and that I couldn't afford to pay her the difference. Her response was the same "he's going to a great home" line that I gave her about Biff. (That's the weird thing about us horse folk. We'll willingly lose money on a horse just to rest assured that they are taken care of and loved.)

Chelsea is bringing Stretch down next Friday, and picking up Biff. When someone offers to trade you a Ferarri for a Volvo (as Fuglyhorseoftheday author Cathy put it in a not-so-subtle test message), you DON'T say no. I am thrilled and can't WAIT to see him in my pasture.

I am also a little freaked out. With Biff, there was no expectation. He was never going to be the dressage superstar of my dreams, so there was never pressure when I rode him. He was the horse I could ride when I didn't feel like schooling anything and I could putz around on him without worrying about ruining anything special, but he has an endless list of dressage-y things to work on, so he kept me occupied and amused.

Now, I will have a young horse with potential for upper-level dressage. I was worried that I wouldn't "do him justice." I can usually bring a horse up to 1st level dressage by myself, but as soon as we start getting into the greater collection and lateral work of 2nd level, I prefer to have eyes on the ground. Preferably the eyes of a trainer. I am also at a disadvantage because I cannot afford to keep a horse in full-time training with a dressage pro. I can afford lessons, but I also know that the learning curve for "lessons-only" training is much slower than the learning curve for "pro rides 5 days a week and the occasional owner lesson" training. It was stressing me out.

Key word: "was."

Then I had to be logical and reasonable:

1.) Stretch doesn't care if he makes Grand Prix. Stretch doesn't even know what Grand Prix means. He probably only cares about eating, pooping, and getting the occasional scritch. Stretch will not be disappointed if he never makes it to the FEI levels, or if he is "only" at 2d level by the time he's 15. It's silly for me to think I am somehow letting him down by not being able to progress as quickly as I'd like.

2.) The whole point of me wanting a horse with upper-level potential is for ME to learn how to bring a horse along up through the levels. If I hand off every talented horse I get to a professional trainer because I'm afraid I wont be able to get them to their highest level of performance, I will never learn how to do it myself. This is as much for me as it is for him. Oh, who am I kidding? This is MORE for me than it is for him (see point #1, above). It has been insanely frustrating to ride under gifted trainers and instructors on a less-than-suitable horse. Trying to advance my riding skills was like trying to wade through molasses; painfully slow.

So who cares if Stretch is only doing 2nd level 10 years from now? If that's where we're at in 10 years, that's where we're at. It's more about the journey, anyway. I just like having high goals. What's that saying about shooting for the moon and landing in the stars? That's generally what I go for...

When Stretch arrives on Friday, he is getting turned out in my 5-acre pasture with my small herd. He gets time to just be a horse while I finish my last 3 months of school. He earned it. Plus, Chelsea thinks he's *still* growing...

NH vs Classical Dressage. And the winner is.... something in the middle.

 In an effort to keep myself from studying, well, anything for my surgical technology class, I have suddenly taken a profound interest in studying -heavily- Natural Horsemanship (NH) training principles and simultaneously studying Classical Dressage (henceforth referred to as CD) principles. I compare and contrast the two constantly. I find it surprising how many training philosophies overlap and how many are polar opposites. (There is more overlap than not. Who knew?) I love to spend hours and hours contemplating which theories make more sense, which are the most valid, and deciding which ideas to tuck into my training "tool belt" and which ones to ignore forever. I try to look for parallels, and , when there are none, I try to consider reasonable compromises between the two. I want to become knowledgeable enough about both extremes so I can understand everything in the middle. This way, when it comes time to start my yellow colt (in another year and a half or so), I can make informed decisions and pick which methodologies I think will have the most success with that particular horse.

Unfortunately for my older, broke horses, they have become my guinea pigs. Biff, Drama, and Footloose have become my training experiments. Mostly Biff, because he has the mind and forgiving nature to deal with my mistakes and not hold them against me. Notsomuch with the girls. Biff is my "tester" and the girls are my "confirmation."

Should be interesting. When I am procrastinating on homework further I will write about my first lesson with Biff and what *I* learned from it.

Update

So I enrolled myself in one of those "career colleges" to get a certificate in Surgical Technology. Then I found out it's an accelerated class and we are supposed to learn everything in one year as opposed to the usual two. Ergo, the Anatomy and Physiology class that I am taking is insanely intense, and we're cramming a year's worth of classes into about 2.5 months. Needless to say, I haven't been getting to the gym much. And usually when I do, I am armed with my Medical Terminology flashcards and study them while on the elliptical/treadmill/stationary bike. I'm pretty sure I am not getting the best workout ever, but I DO know that increased blood flow also increases cognitive abilities, so hopefully I am retaining things better... we'll find out.

Other than the excessive studying required, I am very excited about becoming a Surgical Technologist, and will love my future paycheck even more.

Now, back to the horses. ;-)

I am trying to not let my crazy schedule interfere with my horse-time. I NEED horse-time to function. I was concerned that being overly busy would cause me to forgo riding in exchange for even more study time, so I just filled out an entry for a local dressage schooling show for my OTTB. This will be her very first horse show ever, and so I'm keeping it low-key. We're just doing Intro A and B. Nothing too strenuous. The show is Oct 30, so I have a few things I'd like to work on before then:

1.) I'd like to get her more bendy to the right (yes, that's the technical term. LOL). Like all OTTBs, she was very one-sided when I got her, and she's much better now, but I'd like to improve it even more.

2.) Our centerlines and diagonals are more "squiggles" than "lines." Now that she understands what leg means, though, I have a feeling it will improve with repetition.

3.) I just want to get her a little more consistently on the bit. She is good about being on the bit about 75% of the time. I want to bump it up to about 90% of the time.

Clearly, we do not have lofty goals. I am not planning on going to the show to win a ribbon, I am planning on going to the show to, well, get my mare to a show. I want to see how she does away from home in a show environment. And, I wont lie, I also needed motivation to keep riding her consistently while I am trying to avoid pulling my hair out from the excess studying. It's good for me; I NEED my horse-time.

Either I'm Getting Stronger...

... or my feed store is lying to me about the weight of my hay bales. But since they're still 3-string bales and HUGE, I'll go with the former.

I just stacked almost a million 125lb hay bales. All by myself. In the heat of the afternoon, with energy to spare! Well, maybe it wasn't "almost a million" but it sure felt like it! And I can lift them higher too. I will not credit this to anything other than the fact that it's summer and have been stacking more hay than usual. I don't work my arms out at the gym, although I really should.

My current horsey-project is getting my OTTB mare to actually relax her jaw, give at her poll, and flex softly. I want her to learn that the bit is NOT something to clamp down on and lean on. I've heard that it's a racehorse thing. Apparently in Racehorse Land, pulling on a horse's face actually makes them go faster. Huh, who knew?

I got her teeth floated before doing anything- I always try to rule out any and all physical issues before trying to work out a somewhat difficult problem in horse training. Now, her teeth are in tip-top shape, and she got a massage from Uncle Jason the horse masseuse. She is set to go.

So far, I've been proceeding as follows: I start off by longeing her in a nice large circle at the walk and trot until she's warmed-up, loose, relaxed and forward. Then I start slowly shortening my longe line and spiraling her closer into the circle until it starts to look like she's struggling a little, then I let her spiral back out. This little extra bit of stress from the smaller circle makes her stronger. Then I reverse her and do the same on the other side.

(A WORD OF CAUTION: Only do this is you are VERY comfortable reading your horse and can see when they start to get stiff or struggle. You have to know enough to not force them into a circle so small that it will actually damage their joints or muscles. Right now, my mare can spiral in from a 20m circle to a 12-15m circle, so my circles are NEVER teeny tiny, only a little more challenging. When she gets stronger we'll go for 10m, but, like weight training, you have to build up to it slowly.)

After a few spirals and she's good and warmed up, I put her bridle on (over her halter) and let her eat apple pieces with her bit in her mouth while I put on her surcingle. I am trying to get her to chew on the bit. I am teaching her that it's okay to play with the bit, and that she doesn't need jaws of steel. I also use apple, specifically, because it promotes salivation.

After she's done with her apple piece, I do flexions in-hand on the ground. The idea is really too long to describe here, but just Google it. I am particularly fond of Jane Savoie's descriptions, as well as Dr. Thomas Ritter's descriptions of how to do flexions. In essence, it releases the tension in the jaw/poll area of the horse. I'm mostly just trying to her her more supple in that area.

Then I attach Vienna reins. I tried plain side reins, which I prefer, but she is a smart cookie and very quickly learned to evade them by going above the bit and travelling hollow and ignoring me when I tell her to go forward. The Vienna reins don't let her do that.

So far, we've only had 2 longeing sessions with the Vienna reins. At first, Miss Priss was convinced she could not move forward when there was any kind of contact on her mouth. I mostly lead her around while she got used to them. Yesterday, we mostly longed at the walk and did a little tiny bit of trot. I let her take it easy, since this idea of being on the bit tends to be earth-shattering for some horses. We literally change their whole world when we ask them to move a certain way. So I don't ever ask too much of it at first. My plan is to continue adding longer and longer trot sets in the Vienna reins for the next week or so (every other day- muscles need a day to recover), to build muscle along her topline, and then back to riding, and working on introducing the same idea under saddle.

Katie took pictures of Missy Magoo in her pen last week, and I keep meaning to ask her to email them to me. They will be my "before" pictures of The Princess with her scrawny neck and weak topline. Hopefully in a few months I will have nice "after" pictures of a more athletic-looking horse. Stay Tuned!

By the way, my mare's name is Footloose. Don't be confused by the various nicknames I have for her. I'm pretty sure that all of my horses have an identity crisis by now.

Go Team COTH!

Okay, so I need some extra motivation. I didn't even realize that I did until someone posted a thread on COTH about a weight loss clique. I didn't even read through all of the posts until I jumped in and joined. Then I went back and started re-reading what I had skipped.

It looked like everyone was joining a website called SparkPeople. I began looking around, and am thoroughly impressed with the site. It's free to join, and allows you to track what you ate, how much exercise you got, how much water you drank and other goals. You can use their goal suggestions or create your own. You are rewarded for staying on track with points. You are given meal-plan suggestions that you can chose to follow or not. They have weekly weigh-ins. They have options where you can chose to track your blood pressure, blood sugar, mood, sleep quality, and stress level, if you so desire. This is like the "WebMD" weight loss site on steroids. I love it.

My favorite part about this site? They have an extra "community" aspect. Members can join "teams" where everyone on the team is working to accumulate points. This is EXACTLY the motivation I need. When I am working out for me, myself, and I, I don't get very upset if I have to miss a workout or two (or ten). When I have a team that needs my points, I feel SO guilty for not pitching in, that I tend to become an overachiever.

So, the kind ladies on COTH started a COTH team. So far we have 17 members. I am so excited to have some form of a support group- especially since they are all horse-people, too, and they understand exactly what I am trying to achieve when I say "I want to lose weight to become a better rider."

I joined the site last night, and today is my first full day of my new "lifestyle makeover." If you'll excuse me, I have to go walk my dog so I can get an extra point for my team...

When to push, and when to let it go.

This has been a big deal in my brain lately, and it has to do with training. What circumstances do you push the horse, and what circumstances do you just "let it go?"

When I had one horse, everything was a training opportunity. NOTHING got past me. I was a discipline Nazi. And my horse was well-behaved. now that I have multiple horses, I let more things slide. I pick my battles. There are some things that I am firm on and others that I let slide. And you know what? My horses are still well-behaved.

I cannot pinpoint what things I let go and why. There are times when I ride when my horse has a "lightbulb moment" and does a new thing, or something really really well. In some circumstances, I hop off and let them be done. In others, I ride it 2 or 3 more times to make sure it wasn't a fluke before I get off. I cannot tell you what the basis for my decision is. I like to think it's instinct. It could just be a subconscious understanding of the horse that I've gained over countless hours of working with them.

Katie has a habit of finding something that annoys the horse, and then making  point of continuing to do it until the horse either gives in, or it morphs into a huge training issue. She has a particular fascination with rubbing horses' noses and playing with their nostrils. I don't know many horses who actually enjoy this- most find it a rude invasion of space. I used to insist that the horses always accept everything I do to them, too. Nowadays, I have more respect for my horse. If they dislike it, I respect them enough to not do it unless it's necessary. And in return, I fully believe they respond BETTER to the respect. I have yet to have a horse NOT hold still when I really really needed them to.

Case in point: my mare is weird about her face being messed with. She tosses her head and lets me know, as politely as she can, that the face is off-limits for petting. However, I can bridle her. I can put her fly mask on. I can rub fly spray around her nose. She holds still and we can easily get on with our daily lives without incident. When she got a large and nasty cut on her forehead, she stood politely while I doctored it for the next few weeks. She still doesn't like me simply petting her head. And I respect her enough to only do so when I have an actual reason. I think she recognizes that.

Saint? George

I have a palomino colt named George. Because I believe in signs.

Cathy convinced me to take his dam as a "resale project." Put a couple months' training on her, rehome. Easy as pie, right? Except for the very first time I rode her, I was on her for about 5 minutes before I sent Cathy a text message telling her I was keeping her forever. I immediately felt at home on that mare, but she'll get her own blog all to herself.

I had the vet out to do teeth, and asked them to also do a pregnancy check, since she was stabled right next door to a stallion and was not coming in heat, plus she came from a breeding farm. Sure enough, there was a blob on the untrasound. The vet declared my mare to be 60 days pregnant, because of the ribcage on the fetus. It still looked like a blob to me. I even thought that perhaps the vet get his eyes checked.

Sure enough, about 6 months after the ultrasound, my mare began looking pregnant. I stopped riding her when her saddle started not fitting correctly. We knew the foal would be a palomino. The stallion that got out at her old home was a cremello (a very nice one at that. Thank God Maresy has good taste) and the mare is a chestnut. The only possible color kiddo could be was palomino. Which is ironic, because as a hunter/saddleseat/dressage snob, I've never cared for palominos, and swore I would never own one. (Perhaps I should swear that I will never ever own a black Lusitano?)

When my mare got HUGE and was walking awkwardly, I had a very vivid dream that I was going out to the barn and had a palomino colt named George. Naturally, I told my friend Katie about the dream, and for the 2 weeks leading up to his birth, Katie and I joked about how I would "love him and hug him and call him George."

When the foal arrived and I had an adorable, gangly colt, I called my mom to tell her the news. I kid you not, the very first thing she said to me is, "Oh, it's St. George's Day! You should name him George!"

Not about to name my colt after some random saint (I am Catholic, and the saint you are named after becomes your "patron" saint, the one who looks after you, so it matters), I googled St. George.

Imagine my surprise when the very first image I found was of St. George on the back of a very intimidating-looking PALOMINO (Well, I guess it could be a grey, but it looks mighty gold for a grey)

So, I took it as a sign. I believe in signs. George it is.

And for those of you who are curious, St. George is apparently a Roman soldier-turned-martyr, who slayed a dragon (suspected to be Satan) to save a princess (I'm pretty sure it was just a virgin). It's a very romantic tale, and St. George is one of the most prominent military saints. So, in short, he is a very strong and powerful saint, and so I hoped that my colt would live up to his name and not be, you know, a sissy.


So now, a year later, I am pleased that George (also affectionately referred to as Georgie, Georgie Porgie, Porge, Jorge (pronounced "Hore-hay," in case your Spanish pronunciation is a little shaky), Baby, Child, Colt, Bad Colt, Gorgeous George, and Georgous (for good measure)) had indeed thus far live up to his namesake, except minus the "saint" part. He is fearless. He is bold. He is charming and friendly. But he also gets into trouble, no fence or gate can contain him, and he is very likely too smart for his own good.

But I also was able to teach him all of the showmanship maneuvers in less than 30 minutes total, broken up over 3 10-minute sessions. I do love this colt. He will be fun. I can tell already.