Spring is here, yay!

Ah it has been soooo nice out. Except this weekend when Revi ran her first recognized Prelim and it rained..... but at least it MOSTLY waited until after we were done.

Revi ran another schooling Prelim at Jumping Branch, and did well although still having some dressage tension. Cross-country was a blast! That was the weekend before last. This last weekend we ran the recognized event at Sporting Days, which had beefed up cross-country a bit! I was very happy with how Revi handled that. There were lot of skinnies, a coffin with a huge ditch and skinnies at A & C, a one-stride of skinnies, a huge drop into water, a corner, assorted large tables, etc. and she just cruised around. I am so not worried about skinnies now! Or ditches for that matter. Or water. Stadium and dressage still need work. We have been having a bit of a dressage boot-camp, though (for myself, riding with a crop across my hands to work on improving my position, and for her, working on improving her throughness) and I could definitely tell a difference in her test. Although she was a bit quick, her connection was a lot steadier! As a reward, I bought her a $$ Nathe snaffle for dressage.... (Gee, thanks mom! Revi says--NOT!) It has a thinner center than the Happy Mouth, which should better accomodate her fat tongue, while still being nice and thick at the bars for comfort. And it is a bit more rubbery.

So we are still in dressage boot camp and I'm pencilling in some showjumping boot camp now, mainly just doing more coursework so we are a bit more in tune with each other all the way around. "Head up and run" seems to have disappeared for the most part, so now we can smooth things out a bit more, instead of spending all our time on gymnastics and "just pay attention!" exercises. I am making a point of scheduling time to ride MY horses not just the training critters! Next for Revi is Southern Pines HT this next weekend.... a lot of events in a short span, but then she has a few weeks off.

Jones is doing very nicely, he placed 2nd in the Ark's BN Combined Test in February, and he will make his HT debut in two weeks at Beginner Novice at TTC. I am getting a LOT of inquiries about breeding to him via shipped semen, so I may have to investigate getting access to a phantom and teaching him to use it.

We have two training horses at the moment: Huggy, the 13+h pony making his HT debut in two weeks before heading back to his owner's barn, and Sassy, a 4yo Dutch WB cross who arrived last week and is here for basic manners on up. She had her first longeing lesson today and since she only just learned last week not to ignore and/or run over people, I thought she did quite well! Walked, trotted, and stopped on a circle both ways wearing a saddle.

We presently have one stall open at the barn so I should get organized and put the word out, but it is very nice to have a little extra space so I'm not in a big hurry, either.

I moved to NC to get away from this ()&#*(&$)(#$>>.....

So snow AGAIN! last week. We got something like six inches between Sunday and Monday, then rain and freezing temps hung in there so Tuesday everything was still frozen SOLID. Main roads were "iffy" but back roads were horrid. Dwayne did a couple of shoeing stops that were not too far into the worst of the snowzone, just so we wouldn't get TOO backed up--by Wednesday we were able to get out decently, in 4WD. So we only had to work half a day on Saturday to get caught up. Thursday I got home early enough to run the bobcat around the arena and break up most of the lingering ice so I could ride, and I had really good rides on Revi, Huggy, and today on Jones. Saturday I stopped at Victory Canter on the way home from shoeing and bought some goodies.... including a sliding gag snaffle for Revi, since I feel like that is less harsh than the 3-ring fixed gag, and also I needed a gag with a thinner mouthpiece since she has such a small mouth! Wrapped it in latex and tried it on her Saturday afternoon jumping and she felt really good. Yay!

But seriously, there is still ice everywhere A WEEK LATER. I moved down here to get away from snow!! I want a refund! I have been wanting to get to Southern Pines for a lesson for the last two weeks.... could have gone last week, it snowed.... wanted to go this week, but looks like I may be hauling a horse on my day "off" when I could have gone. Hmph! Might have to be next week, but if so I'll get a bunch of riding in meanwhile so that I can take Jones too.....

Winter Break??

So I misspoke. This has been a very busy month! Not so much on the lesson front, thanks to the weather.... but, thanks to the weather, lots of de-icing, arena dragging, etc. etc. I've also been very busy shoeing, and am really thinking hard about reducing my personal herd so I have more time for Revi and Jones!

Been keeping Revi exercised but Jones has been on a bit of a break with the weather and all; riding Huggy, the training pony, mostly. He is doing very well, much more consistent in his frame and tempo on the flat, and jumping small verticals quietly. This weekend he will do his first-ever oxer! I'll have to get some pix up....

Gracie is the most fabulous weanling ever... very correct and sensible, wasn't a bit phazed by her first snowfall, and I LOVE watching her trot and gallop, she is so fancy! She is always first at the gate to come in, doesn't let Stormy or Livi push her around. She will be six months old on Saturday. Thank goodness I have Revi and Jones to ride while I wait for her to grow up!

Only taking a couple of horses to the January Ark show, since the NCDCTA banquet is that afternoon. Mel and Drayco won the Jr. Novice division and Revi was second at Training for Horse of the Year so we have to go collect our prizes! The Sporting Days HT is February 5th!

Winter Break starting today!

So yesterday was the last show for a whole month! Next event isn't until January 8th! Don't know what I'll do with my time....

Dressage was wretched in the lower ring.... apparently the sight/smell of the camel in the next pasture was freaking some horses out (Drayco cantered down the first centerline and then did all his trot work in passage, Scamper spooked and bolted) and the footing in the is deep and uneven despite the reported removal of some of the sand. Revi got an uncharacteristic 41 (though to be fair, the majority of scores were quite high). I would have thought it was a mid-30s test. Then we had to wait several hours for showjumping, during which I watched some Third Charm riders warmup, do their tests, and showjump the lower levels.

Melanie and Drayco did their first Training and performed fabulously, clean sj and clean xc, just 2 seconds over optimal! Drayco was quite pleased to be able to go faster I think.... Marshall and Tempe, the FL mare rescued from starving to death in a chainlink doglot, finished 2nd at BN with a more-relaxed dressage test and showjumping round.

Denise O'Keefe, riding Third Charm-bred Answer That, aka Tibby, brought him out for his undersaddle debut. Tibby is a rising 4-year-old TB gelding by my late stallion, Lose That, out of our late mare Miss Ansorian (Spring). He was Spring's last foal and the last TB colt by my stallion and he is one flashy dude, bay with four high white stockings and a blaze! Other than jumping around a little when Denise got on, Tibby was a good boy.... for the most part he kept his head down and trucked around, and they stayed in the ring and circled in appropriate places.

Revi was NOT amused when it started sleeting just a couple of rounds before we were scheduled to showjump.... she started prancing around, quite miffed. I was not expecting to have a good ride! But she was a pretty good girl in her latex-wrapped bubble gag.... I didn't have to use the gag rein much at all, she tossed her head a couple of times to protest having to listen but she did, in fact, listen, and we jumped around clean with only a couple of so-so spots.

Not that "winter break" means much.... lots to do! More work on dressage with Revi, more mileage for Scamper so spooking doesn't involve idiocy, need to get in some xc schools before the spring season arrives (end of January! not really spring!), need to get Stormy going or sell her, need to get Jones ridden so he is ready to go Recognized in the spring.... very excited about that! And we have a new training horse in, a pony named "Huggy" who is a little bit naughty, apparently, but hoping for a low-level eventing career.... he is very cute, which is part of his sweet and innocent schtick according to his mum..... ;-)

Brake! Brake!!!!

We did the Jumping Branch Farm Schooling HT yesterday. Great ,great event, I really miss their 3-day horse trial that used to be in March.... it was so well-run, nice move-up courses that asked all the questions without getting anyone in too much hot water.... and the Powers That Be (USEF) had to start a stink about "upgrading" the courses (more max fences, etc.) and JBF just said "no thanks, we'll just do schooling HTs and you can just kiss the money we made you bye-bye". Seriously, this event was so popular that you had to make sure your entry was postmarked on OPENING DAY and PRAY that you would get in....! As a schooling one-day event they run FOUR dressage rings and had IIRC 137 entries. Yikes!!

Got up at 3:30 am to drive down and make my 8:18 dressage time for Revi's first full Preliminary HT. Arrived in plenty of time and had a decent warm-up and test, though Revi was a bit tentative.... she really does not like doing dressage on grass, I need to do more flatwork out in the front field! I also forgot the halt at the beginning of the test, had to restart, and then was a little tense myself! We were in third after dressage with a 37....

Walked cross-country which was just as I remembered with maybe two fences changed. Which was fine! Came back, warmed up for showjumping... and about four horses before we were to go, cross-country started.... and fence 5 is right next to the back of the showjumping warmup. A fact which did not escape Revi's notice! She was a bit hyped up when we went in the ring. Fence one was a big dark brown oxer with the sun behind it.... I think it was just a big dark mass to Revi and we rolled off the front rail. The second fence was a big oxer, then a turn downhill to a VERY vertical vertical. Several horses had run down the slope, propped/added at the last second, and knocked the HECK out of it. So I half-halted and Revi really listened, got a nice spot and cleared it. But at fence five, the combination, I got her too close and she had a rail (but most horses would probably not have jumped!) and got out cleverly over the second element. I did notice she was jumping a bit left, but the chiropractor is coming Tuesday which will probably take care of that!

So we had two rails in showjumping but so did a LOT of people. Cross-country went great, except I had to spend too much time arguing with her to get her to set up before the harder questions. She just wanted to treat everything like a fly fence! But she was GREAT at all the harder stuff.... there was a skinny chevron, a lovely coffin in the woods, some big tables, a triple at the water (ascending rails, wall/drop into the water, skinny out), a bank/ditch/skinny combo, a ditch with a rail fence behind it, and a corner with options. The ditch in front of the rails was waaaay wider than I remembered (of course, last time I jumped it my horse was 4" taller....) but Revi didn't bat an eye. We took the short option at the corner, and Revi jumped a little crooked and racked my knee on the left-hand flag. That stung! But, finished with just a handful of time faults. We ended up in 2nd.... the horse who was leading after dressage had a stop on xc. Not bad for her first Prelim HT! But, lots of room for improvement.

Doing the CT at the Ark in two weeks to work on stadium and dressage.... today I schooled her in a latex-wrapped bubble gag, only had to touch the gag rein a couple of times for her to realize the gig was up and brakes were now mandatory. She is a smart little brat!

Revenge is sweet....

Hah, just couldn't resist the title.....

Vanity's Revenge aka Revi is really coming along. Last weekend she won the Training and Preliminary Combined Tests at the Ark with a 32 and a 34 in dressage....

This weekend we did the Preliminary/Training horse trial at TTC. I haven't been to TTC in a few years, but since we're prepping to move up and they had the P/T division, we decided to go. Melanie and Drayco went too since they had never been to that facility and Drayco needs to see 'new things' since he's movin up to Training soon.

Dressage was in the spooky lower ring (you have to walk past several paddocks, an occupied dog kennel, the ring is cut into the side of the hill with a dropoff and woods on two sides). Revi was obedient but slightly distracted--she really WANTED to look in the woods, and ended up with a 38, leading the division (3 horses). Drayco was also distracted in his test and got a 34, still in the top few though.

We walked cross-country and I was pleased to see that there were a fair number of pretty big fences so it wouldn't be dull. I forgot how big the banks/drops at TTC were! We also checked out stadium and as always the fences were colorful, nicely decorated, and the course was big and winding, with two big combinations and several changing bending lines, really a true representation of the level.

Went back to the trailer, changed my helmet cover, put on my stock tie, got my jacket on and was stuffing my hair under my helmet when Mel said "Isn't cross-country before stadium?" DUH!! Changed helmet cover back, hunted up my blue cross-country shirt, etc. etc....

Ran cross-country, came in right in the middle of the speed window. Revi jumped great and is still listening really well in the Happy Mouth snaffle.

Mel ran cross-country and had a great round EXCEPT for the big drop.... Drayco came up on it a little quick and looked surprised when he got there! Circled on top of the bank and hopped right off, so hopefully next time with a slightly slower approach and a little tap/lean back from Mel he'll be fine!

Stadium was about an hour later so we watered the ponies and then let them chill out tied to the trailer while we got some lunch. Fabulous chicken salad sandwiches I have to say!! Concessions at TTC are always delicious.

We went first in stadium. The first fence was very vertical, and we rolled the top rail. I thought "Well, now we're in second." Revi apparently thought "Oh, these are bigger!" and jumped the bejeebers out of the rest of the course! Then the other two horses went. The big chestnut had the first jump down (now I didn't feel bad!) and then stopped at the final swedish oxer. The black horse had the first jump down also and pretty much went through the final element of the second combination. So we moved back up to first! We got a lovely big ribbon, a purple cooler, and an etched vase.

Mel and Drayco had their usual lovely stadium round, but due to the stop at the drop didn't get a ribbon. Still a good experience and ready for the move-up to Training, with a couple of schools over big unfamiliar drops perhaps....!

Onward and upward.... Revi will run in her first full Prelim at Jumping Branch, which has a nice move-up course, and Mel will run her first Training at the Ark's December event. I was going to run Revi at Pine Top, which is recognized, but JBF is about $200 cheaper.... plus I can go to Dwayne's speedskating meet now, which is the same weekend as Pine Top....!

Job number two

So of course mostly I write about my horses and I run a boarding barn and teach every day, but along the way I have picked up a little part-time gig....

So it's 6:30am and I'm heading out with hubby Dwayne to shoe horses all day. I think at the first barn we have eighteen (10 shoeings, 8 trims), our regular stop, and two extras at a barn after that.I learned to shoe and got certified so I could do my own horses and not have to inflict badly-mannered new horses on Dwayne all the time.... I already knew the theory and conformation and biomechanics, horse handling, etc., so it was just a matter of application. Very handy skill. Then I started helping Dwayne when his last helper moved away, and now I help him about 13 days out of his 20-day (five week) shoeing rotation.

Fortunately we get along pretty well, not many couples could work together that much! A couple weeks out of the schedule we pull long days and then I come home and teach and there's no time to even look at my personal horses, but with the economy I'm sure not going to complain! It is certainly helping with getting to shows and making improvements around the barn....

So today my horses won't get ridden but next week the new paddock fence WILL be going up!