The Heavenly Horse and the Law of Fences

Jones went to his first horse trial and it went pretty well. Dressage was good.... we were in fourth with a 37. Cross-country looked pretty inviting, with a couple of surprising fences for a schooling BN.... the fourth fence was two overturned metal water troughs topped by a log, with false saloon-fronts to either side, for instance! But I figured he's a good brave fellow and it would be no problem. Three fences were in fencelines between the pastures.

So if you've ever read The Heavenly Horse From The Outermost West (kind of a horsey Watership Downs) the horses in the book talk about The Law of Fences, where horses have an agreement with Man to obey fences as part of their "bargain" for shelter and food, etc. Well apparently Jones read the book or at least subscribes to the philosophy! LOL. Cantering up to the first fence, which was in the pasture fenceline, he said "What??" and stopped. We circled and I gave him a tap with the whip and he jumped it, but I could tell he thought I was NUTS! The next, oh, ten fences were great.... then we cleared a big table, galloped up the hill toward the second fenceline with jumps in it, and he started slowing down and giving me dubious ear-flicks. REALLY? A little kick and he hopped right over, down the hill to another fenceline, he just hesitated for the barest second there and went without needing additional encouragement. Galloped to the finish very happy and hopefully a better understanding of Legal Fence Jumping!!

Showjumping was a cinch, nice colorful course with turns and bending lines. He listened very well and handled it all no problem. Finished in 7th. He got a lot of attention for his good behavior as a young stallion, too.

Huggy, the medium pony I've been riding for four months, went and did his first horse trial also in the "Moving Up" division (his mum has no faith whatsoever, right Pam?). He is a little herd-bound and was NOT happy to be down in the dressage ring with no other horses in sight (it is in an isolated corner over a hill from the warmups), but he managed to pull off a 3-way tie for first. He jumped clean on cross-country, cantered quite a bit and nicely under control, and we trotted the last couple fences to avoid time penalties (275mpm is NOT very fast!) In stadium he was a little distracted and knocked the first fence, finishing in second overall.

Madison and her new horse, Lee, had a decent first show. He got spooked by a golf cart running right up behind him and was a bit tense in dressage, and as he was circling the start box for cross-country, the horse before him went flying across the course with its saddle under its tummy! So he was a little hyper! But he jumped around clean for cross-country and stadium and finished ninth out of 19. So, ribbons all around!

All's well at the barn.... new boarder coming in a couple weeks, a playmate for Gracie! Breedings starting to roll in for Jones as well, Vanna is at the vet's hopefully getting bred to Future Illusion (BSH eventing stallion by Fleetwater Opposition, the sire of Summersong, Opposition Buzz, etc), new training horse Sassy (Dutch cross 4yo) is w/t/c and trotting ground rails after less than four weeks work....

Revi says, "Is that all?"

So this last weekend we ran Preliminary at Southern Pines I. Last year, the xc courses there were pretty soft.... Revi ran her 2nd Training there and it was a total yawn. Well, they beefed it up this year!! There was a bank/bounce/skinny rolltop, huge hanging log, skinny/big drop/bending skinny combo, average coffin, average Prelim water, a good sized corner and a big trakehner.

First though we had to survive dressage. Revi warmed up decently but was a little fussy in the bridle during her test; however, she scored a 37 and ended up about midpack. I was not thrilled, she could do better, but she continues to improve so that's fine....

Warm-up for xc was uneventful, and we started out at a good clip over the first few fences but once we got to five (the bank with the bounce to the skinny) I slowed up a bit because I wanted to be prepared in case she had any hesitation at the more technical stuff (or that huge log that was next!) Revi had it handled, though! She sailed handily over the huge log and then we galloped down toward the skinny/drop/skinny. I slowed WAY down for that, which was probably a wasted effort.... she was all over it! The next few fences were simple, although the turn to the coffin was a yucky s-line, really blew rhythm to heck. Then a skinny, a log in the small water, and then I totally missed my path to the next fence (another weird course deviation) and had to loop around a couple extra plots of trees to get there, wasting some time. Water was uneventful--boathouse, drop in on an angle, out over a boat--then into the infield for the Big White Table (yawn, says Revi) and a good-sized corner ("Wait!" sez I.... "Fifth board from the edge toward the 2nd post over from the light colored one on the steeplechase rail! Gotta be accurate!" Sez Revi in response: "Hang your line and your spot, I see a JUMP JUMP JUMP YEEEHAAAAAHHHH!!!") Corner, check. Then there was... something, possibly a table?.... and a big trakehner (WHEEEE!!) and a house and done, much to Revi's disappointment.... So, clean jumping, with some time because I didn't expect her to make such light work out of the course on her 2nd "real" Prelim and rode conservatively. Considering she made a distinct effort to drag me to each and every jump, it was unnecessary and next time I'll put the hammer down and ride for time, too.

Meanwhile Melanie and Drayco had an excellent test--a 33 on their 2nd Training, for sixth place out of 33--but had miscues at two simple fences on xc. The first, coming up a hill, Mel just couldn't see the jump over the hill and was off her line enough to confuse Dray... the second was a faux corner next to the Prelim corner, and it looked like he got distracted by the decorations and wasn't paying attention until too late. He went through a similar phase when he started out at Novice, and I think he will get over it pretty soon and get a little more focused.

Sunday the hotel didn't provide the promised wake-up call, so I literally trotted around the warmup three times, jumped the cross-rail, heard them calling me, jumped the oxer, and went in the ring! Revi jumped GREAT--listened well, tapped a couple of jumps but left all the rails up! Due to time faults on xc, we ended up waaaaay down the results, but I was pretty excited that she handled everything so well. All we need to do is go a bit faster.... I think she'll be happy to do that!

Drayco turned in his usual flawless showjumping round. Once he gets back in the groove on cross-country, he will be really, really hard to beat!

Next stop with these two is the FENCE Horse Trials in Tryon, first weekend in April, then Longleaf a few weeks later.

Not this weekend but the next is the TTC Schooling HT. Jones is going for his first horse trial, as is the training pony, Huggy, and Madison with her new horse Lee! Carrie and Pickles are hopefully going to get an entry in for Novice so they can join us. There are so many quality schooling events in our area that it is nice in terms of stress AND budget.... you can really stick with them until you're about ready to go Training, like I did with Revi. Unless you're doing USEA points/awards, of course! I will probably hit one or two recognized events with Jones, just to have him "seen", but mostly we'll be doing schooling events for a little experience while he finishes growing up.... he IS only four!

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!