2012 - The Year of the Mares.

2012 has been a wild ride.  Quite literally.  But it's been a pretty fun one, and I'm happy with where I'm at with both of the girls and what we've managed to check off our list this year.  Let's have a bit of a recap, shall we?

January

Admittedly, our wedding sorta ate up January (whoops).  But Prairie was still down at the barn I bought her at, and Pia was still at Summer Camp.
I trekked down to P2 a couple of times for some rides on my own, and even a few lessons before the wedding.

Pia was totally ignored, but totally furry and adorable for January.

February

February had a great visit to P1 where we rode in a cold sunshine on a mountain, took cool thermal images, saw her poor blown out abscess and saw where we still had work on her back to get her comfortable.

I nearly died from muscle soreness after a weekend of lessons with P2 wherein I learned how many more muscles it was going to take for me to stay attached to the saddle on that big girl and then we promptly flew off to Africa for our honeymoon.  Sorry ponies.

March

The girls were good.  P and I had fun at Summer Camp (still) and Prairie and I had more lessons.  I made arrangements to bring Prairie home in April which meant we needed a trailer.

So we found the deal of the century on a still new 2009 and brought it home.

Yummy

April

April was a huge month.  We brought Prairie home, bought a saddle, had sexy photos taken by Supermom, then took both the mares down to Oregon for some Mountain Trail fun and started to get a routine going... whew.

Supermom photos!

Both P's on a field trip

Pia rocking it

Hacking at home

May

May was fun. S and I took P2 and gelding to the park for a field trip.  P2 was reasonably brave and we managed to have a productive hack.  Good omens for a possible show season.
I got called out on using my inside rein (a lot) and my horrid, horrid wrists.  Both things I've always struggled with.

Prairie started playing with more ground pole exercises and S even ventured to see what she looked like in Hunter tack.  Pia went on night rides and found a new boyfriend.  I lost my totally inspiring grandmother and took off with the family to reconnect and relax.

field trip!

June

June started with another field trip for some schooling and trail rides.  Prairie had her biggest scoot ever and The Boy helpfully videoed all of it.  It was a good lesson in figuring out how much to trust the mare (at that point) and a great chance to practice our first dressage tests in a new location

Then we went to our first show where we rode Training 2 and Training 3.  We won our first (small) blue ribbon and managed to stay in the arena.  Something I wasn't totally sure we'd pull off.  Technically I excused myself from our second test, but that was a smart decision. 

I took Prairie over our first jump together and discovered a whole new world for us to explore.

I had some great rides on P out at Summer Camp and summer was off to a great start.

Oh yeah - and The Boy upped his Horse Husband skills which I decided to capture in a lovely pic of him from wine tasting... ;)

July

The fun continued.  Prairie and snagged a 10 at our second show together. Which might mean that we've peaked too soon. (whoops).

Prairie made it very clear that she preferred just rocket launching herself over fences, which would give us plenty of things to work on.

Supermom joined me for a trip to Summer Camp and P overcame her fears of llamas.

Also, Supermom got a killer shot of P out in front of the herd.  Pia finally has herself totally integrated into the group...

Finally I caved in and got Prairie her own Hunter Outfit and we went to a tiny little show where she dominated the groundpole and crossrail division.  Nothing like stealing ribbons from 5 year olds on ponies... (eeeesh)

Also, I finally took some trimming lessons from my vet and stumbled my way through my first trim on Prairie.  Thank god she has straight forward, solid hooves.

August

With Summer in full swing somehow I managed to ride both mares in one day, in spite of a 3 hour drive between the barns (extra daylight, what!)
Pia continued to be a star at Summer Camp and was cute as a button

Prairie and I had a... crappy show which resulted in a dismal 55% at FL1 but 62% on our first ride of FL2.  My comment said "brave riding" and at one point the judge actually shouted out to make sure I was ok.  I shouted back that I was. :)

I'm okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy

We had more success over fences. The mare and I tackled a 3'9" vertical But S took her all the way to 4'.

Also, I had another great ride on Pia out at camp and made plans to bring her home (eventually).

September

September started out with an insane tack locker makeover to boost my spirits since the Big Mare was off.  We finally figured out that P2 was basically rein lame from holding herself funny to escape real work.

But we trudged on, and hit our first rated show as a pair which happened to be in Hunter Land.

Priarie settled in well and had some big successes, along with some very frustrating moments (mostly in warm up).  But for her first real show with a lot of atmosphere I was thrilled.

A few weeks later we spent a weekend at Summer Camp with both mares and had a blast.  Pia was a stud and hopped over cavaletti without any halter/bridle/whatever.  Prairie had a few lessons in manners and grew up a little.

Our final show of the year was canceled due to wildfires and I caved in and got a jump saddle for the first time since 1996.

October

October was a slow and easy month.  Pia played with gymnastics out at Camp. And Prairie played with Gymnastics at home.  My saddle (!!!) finally arrived, and I remembered what sitting in a balanced seat felt like.

Prairie and made strides with our collection and balance and then lost it all.  But we got it back with some tight, technical courses in the indoor.
We found one final show to go to and Prairie was a star.  Our changes are still not there, but she was calm, balanced and adjustable through our courses.  We had our first ever HUS class without a blue ribbon (sad), but it was a great outing (without any pictures).

Also we ventured to Brass Ring Farm for a lesson and had a blast.

November

Prairie and I ventured out for our first trail ride together which was an unexpected success.

Also, Pia came home and that was fabulous as well.  The mares are cute together.

we spent a couple weeks of weeks on the ground with the red mare before getting back in the saddle and she has been a happy, relaxed girl for all of it.

Well.  Most of it.  Both the mares were crazy and impossible for a few days which nearly had me convinced they should be released in the wild.  But they recovered and so did my affection for them. 
My wonderful old pony Star finally moved on to greener pastures and I cried about it.  A lot.

Finally, Prairie and I had another field trip for a lesson and it feels like I'm finally getting a partnership with this mare going.  Just in time for the holidays to throw a wrench in our routine...

our respectable canter

December

A scattered riding schedule has made everything a little less regular than I would like, but it's been a fun few weeks with the ladies.  Pia totally outshone Prairie when I tried to ride them in the rain (Priarie protested loudly) and I remembered that P1 really has grown up a lot in the last 18 months.  I experimented with a Pelham in Prairie's mouth and found it to be a great once-a-week tool to push our collection and balance.

The Boy totally spoiled me with a new truck that I can use anytime I want to take the girls on trips.  So I did.  We got a fun field trip back to Summer Camp where we worked on hooves and the girls had a brief ground work session

Toe Trimming Trip

Thursday's Field Trip to Summer Camp was a uneventful (in the good sense) success.  I feel like when horses are involved, uneventful is usually a good thing.  And when trailering horses is involved, uneventful is always a good thing.

Since everyone else seemed to be working on a Thursday, I couldn't con anyone into making the trip with me, but I did manage to get my dad excited about helping me load the mares up.  Mind you, he hasn't loaded a horse of any sort into a trailer since the 90's so he was eager to help, but a bit... rusty on how to apply helpful pressure from behind.

Luckily the most protest that Prairie lodges is a 60 second "right to sniff" before she walks herself on the trailer.  Pia was the wild card.  She's been fabulous in Cowboy Man's stock trailer, but has only loaded in a straight load once, and it can look a little more claustrophobic especially with a big giant mare already in one stall.

Shouldn't have worried though.  Pia caught sight of the hay bag and damn near trotted up the ramp.  Good little Squirrel.

Then we were off. Me in my gorgeous new truck and the girls in their adorable matching plaid coolers.  (I think we can safely say that if I ever end up with twins, or multiple children of any sort really.. that they will be dressed in coordinated if not matching outfits regularly).

I managed to miss most of the rush hour traffic and made the trip in an easy three hours.  Both girls walked off the trailer politely, stood nicely in the barn while we unwrapped then let them go get their wiggles out in the arena before the toe trimming commenced. 

We started with Pia, and talked about how he's been shoeing her.  The answer is that she is in regular Eventer shoes, set just slightly wider than her own hoof wall (but with a ground down bevel to keep her from pulling them off).  The Natural Balance shoes are just a tad too square for her these days and a tad too short in the length. 

Prairie waiting (mostly) patiently for her turn

CM has been really focuses on getting P as much heel support as possible and keeping her trim cycle short enough that he catches her heels before they start to curl in or collapse.  So far it's working.  It might mean that I have to haul her to Camp for trims every 5 weeks for a while, but I think that's doable.

Both P's just stood and snacked while we worked on their toes.  Pia's feet look awesome.  Her angles are good, her heels are finally starting to widen and all in all they getting a bit cuppier and starting to round out rather than looking like long drawn out ovals.

Prairie started to lose interest and began playing with her tongue..

After P1, we took a break for lunch and put the girls out in pasture to fart around and sniff at the herd over the fence.  Both of the mares were super social, super playful and super relaxed.  P showed no stress at returning to her old stomping grounds and immediately sniffed at all of her old friends.  Especially her boyfriends.

Prairie took the back seat and stayed behind Pia when dealing with the herd which is the only time I've ever seen her defer to P1.  Then they both (obviously) found a muddy hole to go squirm around in like hippos before coming back to the barn for Prairie's feet.

All in all I was relieved to get a big thumb's up from CM on how Prairie's feet are doing.  I wasn't concerned about anything but I have not-so-secret fears that I'm going to screw something up drastically and end up snapping my mare's tendons with a bad trim.  Not likely I know, but some humility and terror seems prudent.

What I wanted help on was assessing Prairie's bars and how much to trim them.  I haven't been worried about them because they aren't particularly large and have never protruded or folded over on me.  CM did point out that on her hinds they are big enough to make contact with the ground and could be producing pressure points.  So we scooped those out, talked a bit about her heels and then we were done. 

Easy Peasy.

Since I had a little time before I needed to be back on the road, we took the mares down to the arena for some ground work.   Over lunch we had been discussing the challenges and successes with both mares on the ground and CM brought up the notion of working them together.

(two mares!? at once!? god help me).

He set the ring up for our classic leading exercise which entails having snack buckets placed along the rail all around the ring.  Then we walk asking the mare to heel nicely at our shoulder and when we want to stop we exhale deeply and raise our arms as a physical signal.  Both P1 and P2 are very good at this game, but the refresher was more to remind them that it was listening time and not smell-everything-and-obsess-about-the-herd-time. 

Then CM grabbed both leads and proceeded to take both mares around the ring, stopping and starting, getting nice mouthfuls of snack when they were good girls. 

starting out... They were lagging a bit but tightened up

Halting and having to soften toward CM before a reward.

Annnnd then heads down into their snack bowls.

Pia was a stud.  But she has way more experience in being worked alongside another horse than Prairie does.  Prairie doesn't like traffic of any sort or to be too pressed up against fences or walls or anything.  Also, her response to being too closed in (physically or by a crowd) is to just bust forward into a roomier space. 

She tried this a few times when she didn't want to stand nicely between Pia and the rail, but CM just directed his body language at Pia to stay put and added pressure to Prairie until she put herself back in the correct position. 

He explained that what he didn't want to do is take Pia out of her correct position in order to get Prairie back where she needed to be.  By doing that he let Prairie be someone what charge of what was happening instead of him behaving more or less like a lead mare.  It was pretty cool to watch. 

For anyone who has seen the liberty acts from someone like Sylvia Zerbini, my mind is pretty much consistently blown at how one is able to direct different horses different things at the same time. 

The closest I get is being able to shoo one mare away from the gate while I coax the other out the smallest possible opening when I need to bring them  in from pasture....

Anyway.  It wasn't a difficult exercise and by the end CM was easily walking, trotting and halting with both mares at his shoulder.  Prairie had a hard time with tight turns when she was on the inside and needed to really slow down but it was pretty cool to see each of them rate their speed so that they maintained their correct shoulder positioning..  

That was the end of the day, and the haul home was equally easy. 

two matching P''s in a pod!

We're back, we're back....

Whoops another week went by... Sneaky how that happens!

The mares are good.  If you had asked on Sunday, I would have told you that both of them were for sale - but today they are both back in good graces and I'm sure that none of it had to do with holiday exhaustion or PMS.

(not actually for sale anymore,)

But onward. 

I've been at a bit of a loss as to what to do with Miss P.  She's clearly ready to work, and even I'm bored walking around the property - but our basics are not there.  She's re-learned how to run away from people (everyone).  She's darted off while being led with me, S, and even the guys who work at the barn.

Naughty girl.

That sort of crap makes me think we have a lot of groundwork to solidify, but Vet Lady said to get her moving and back to work, so we're doing that.  Sunday I started by working on some liberty/join up stuff that resulted in nothing productive.  Whenever I moved P off or away from me she turned, shot her feet at my head and snarled.

I tried to stand my ground and stay "alpha" but there's no denying that I got defensive and protective and she had the upper hand in maneuvering.  Very frustrating.

Finally, totally against Cowboy Man's philosophy I gave up, used a halter and started running her through a jumping chute.  I know I should have worked free until she joined up.. but like I said, I was PMSing, the mare was bitchy, and I got bored of failed attempts. 

Frankly Pia seemed as relived for a change of exercise as I did.  P also looked pretty darn cute.  The line was simple, a small X bounce to a bigger X, one stride to a vertical.  We bumped them up once but didn't take anything over 3'.  After 10 repetitions one way, we swapped the direction and repeated.  Pia seemed interested, engaged and comfortable going through the whole thing.

She's definitely much better at sitting back and using her body than she was in Spring of 2011, which is helpful.  It's nice to know that the $$$ spent on bodywork got us somewhere....

After playing in the line, I decided it was time to tack up the mare and go for a walk.  I was nervous from the aggressive groundwork though so I politely requested that S take the first few laps, which she graciously did before I legged up myself.

Tacked up with her cute new pink/purple rope halter...

P seemed totally content under saddle.  No nervous head twitches, no chest biting, no anxiety.  I walked the mare around for a good 10-15 minutes.and she was alert, but loose, head swinging and calm.  I tested my brakes (reins attached to halter) and my steering with no bad results.  But since she had worked well over the jumps I kept everything at a walk and called it a day.

Always nice to end with some success.

its a happy P!

After I put Pia away I grabbed Prairie who was about as cooperative as Pia had been on the ground (that is to say, not at all).

We also worked through a small grid, but the big mare was Loony Tunes and after a series of increasingly tense/rushed passes through, she scooted off like a rocket and began bucking around like a moron.  Not like she was trying to get me off per se, but like a predator was attempting to gnaw on her hind leg or perhaps pulling on her tail.

I hopped off and found absolutely no explanation so I got back on and we proceeded to finish on a slightly improved note.

Not a good day at the barn.  Totally frustrating and discouraging and obnoxious.

Fortunately, my morning out there today was better.

Pia lunged politely in the outdoor and rocked her leading exercises and Prairie decided that maybe (JUST MAYBE) she could actually jump a small grid without loosing herself in a rage blackout. 

Tomorrow S has Pia and I take Prairie back down south for another lesson with Nancy Free.

Field Trips help all things :)

all better :)

Back to Beginnings

I had a great evening out at the barn last night.  Mondays tend to be pretty quiet anyway, but there seems to still be a bit of a hangover from Daylight Savings and not everyone has returned to ride in the dark and cold. 

My girls were waiting patiently by the gate when I arrived and I realized that there were a lot of things about "two horses" that I haven't really considered - Who do I work with first? does the other one stay out in the pasture? come in? if they come in, who do I take in first? does it matter? probably not... but still...

Since their third pasture mate was already in for the night I didn't want to leave a lone P out to run amok.  I briefly contemplated the thought of leading them both at the same time, but figured I might want to save that maneuver for when they've known each other a little longer and Pia feels a bit more at home..

Since P2 is used to the place I grabbed P1 first and ambled slowly back to the barn with lots of halts and backing on the way.  She was good.

P2 was moderately patient about being left behind.  She has a really cute head waggle that she does when she's impatient.  It's not the worst bad habit I've seen but I also try to not to encourage it... regardless any time your horse looks like they are waving to you and nickering for you to hurry up and come get them I think it's moderately adorable. 

But on our walk back, P2 was pushier than P1, so we had a few "opportunities" for some leading exercises as well as we made our way to the barn (and all of her friends).

If there was any doubt as to whether the mares would become horrifically attached to each other - it's been answered (repeatedly.  and loudly).  Pia was anxiously nickering and shoving her head out of her stall trying to find Prairie when we walked into the barn aisle.  Prairie answered her, but went in her stall and shut up like a good kid.  I'm hoping Pia figures that move out soon.

My goal with Pia for the night was to start putting in place the consistency and relaxation that P1 had at Summer Camp.  So I made up a hot mash and placed it in our wash rack, looking to replicate Cowboy Man's initial "standing" exercise that he often works for new horses at the farm.  P's anxiety about the wash rack from Sunday was totally gone and the arrival of a familiar snack seemed to trigger her memory of the standing game. 

I didn't think to snap on my lunge line so I could really stand at a distance, but I think I'll try to remember that in the future. 

P was good, and didn't think to start pushing out on my space until after she had finished her snack (typical).  I got a few good moments of calm standing without any attempts to push her boundaries and then we went for a property walk. 

Snack (and standing) Time

Our farm is laid out nicely with good "alleys" between all the paddocks making for lots of routes to explore and paths to zig zag around.  It was dusk when we headed out and a neat/creepy fog was settling in over all the grass which sorta put me on edge but Pia stayed pretty relaxed. 

The only indication of tension was that when we did halt, she immediately stopped paying attention to me and started staring intently at everything.  Her current interruption to regain focus is to hold your fist back under their chin (like you have a treat) and ask her to "soften".  CM teaches all the horses that they only get treats when they flex and soften up, but eventually he stops treating them and just uses it as an interruption to get their attention.  P wasn't so interested in the "softening" (even for a real treat), but she was still very responsive to "head down" which is also a good attention release and results in eating grass. 

So I used that as my relaxation method and we worked our way around the farm.  P puffed up and snorted loudly at an ugly stump, but after a few requests to "touch,"  She marched right up to the thing stuck her nose all over it and instantly deescalated. 

That was it for Miss P.  I worked on grooming her a bit in her stall while she ate and tried to be big and dominating if she pinned her ears or wanted to get possessive.  She was pretty good, but still a bit of a snake.  I think that will be an ongoing issue for us, especially as she spends more and more time in a stall again.

P2 meanwhile had been munching her dinner and displayed equal joy (and volume) upon P1's return to the barn.  But when I swapped my attentions and pulled P2 out for a ride, P2 got quiet and calm and P1 resumed the concern for being abandoned.  At least (right now) they both seem to focus well as long as they are the one doing the leaving.  I'll be curious to see how this little friendship develops. 

I put P2 in her jump tack even though I only intended to ride on the flat because I've been feeling like my leg is more effective and secure in my shorter stirrups again (somehow that statement flip flops between my dressage length and jump length like twice a year.. I've never entirely understood why).  She was feeling a bit strong in terms of momentum, not contact - so I worked hard on trying to rate her down to where we were in our lesson with Nancy a couple weeks ago.  Working in the indoor arena is very, very good for keeping us honest with our rhythm and our balance since Prairie eats up the long side pretty damn fast with her big stride...

All in all it was a great day.  Two horses is going to be a very different routine, but at least last night I really enjoyed making myself switch gears and focus on different goals with each of the girls.  

loving it.

Back to Basics (again)

Coming off the weekend at Summer Camp, I feel like I've got a nice little jolt of momentum with Prairie.  We didn't tackle crazy stuff, or make gigantic strides, but we did improve on everything we did and it was a great change of perspective and approach for me.

I gave the mare Monday off since I always like to let them have a relaxing day after a show/field trip/etc, even if all she did was make new friends and eat snacks all weekend (by that rationale I shouldn't really ever work on Mondays either..)

But Tuesday.  Tuesday was back to work.  We have a show on Saturday, which I've nearly forgotten about and  it's a small one, but it's someplace new and in theory we do actually need to ride First Level Test 2... For the record the last time I specifically practiced lengthening P2's canter was probably our last dressage show in August.  Not exactly inspiring.

Expecting the worst I threw the Dressage tack on (including our happy KK D Ring) and headed for the ring.  I clipped on a lunge line and worked some of our leading exercises at a distance and Prairie was totally dialed in.  I even played around with some lateral yields on the ground and Prairie (although confused) picked it up pretty quickly.  We were "leg yielding" down the long side in no time.

I opted to stop pressing my luck on the ground so I hopped on and went to work.  Prair was suuuuuper relaxed.  I played with some shoulder-ins at the walk to see how loose we were then popped up into a trot.

Best. Trot. In Months.  (hands down).

Prairie was loose, swinging, and actually felt somewhat engaged in her hind end.  I shortened my reins, added some leg and asked her to step up a bit more.

She did.  And she stayed light in the hand and really, quite balanced.

Okaaaaaaaaay. I thought.  This is nice... especially for no "real" rides in a while....  (and I waited for the other shoe to drop).

When it didn't, I decided that since it felt like I had a real dressage horse, maybe I should ride like a real dressage-horse-rider.  So I wrapped my legs around her (more than I usually do) and worked on some teeny figure eights really emphasizing the bend.

Miraculously, when I offered lots of leg support, Prairie stayed soft, uphill and balanced on her circles.  our change of bend was just one little halfhalt on the outside rein, switch the legs and pressssssssss her into the new direction.. Magical.

Then, transitions.  Light, prompt, balanced.  (even some downward ones!).  Then some increase/decrease at the trot.  BAM.  Increase/Decrease at the canter? Double BAM.

She was 100% right with me.  Damn me for not having a camera to capture the magic. 

I let her stretch down, doodled a few more circled in a stretchy trot and then headed out to walk the property.

This morning, I decided since the barn was EMPTY (though I swear there are multiple trainers in theory working at this place..) I stole the indoor, made up some dishes of snack and took Prairie to do some liberty/join up work.

At first, she was totally blowing me off and just bulldozing for the buckets of snack.  But, I only had to chase her off a few times for her to realize that I was controller-of-the-smacks and she started to tune in a bit. 

Mind you, I hadn't really counted on the fact that I was attempting my little arena session just as horses were getting turned out for the day... which meant that there were plenty of distractions.

In point of fact, that made Prairie's focus on me all the more meaningful.

She joined up quickly and followed me from bowl to bowl, pausing to soften and wait for me to say "head down" before shoving her face full of goodies.  She was a little sticky on the "head up" request, but we sharpened it up.

Eventually we were able to yield haunches, leg yield, turn toward me, turn away and walk/trot/halt all at liberty and at about 6' of separation.

I got some really weird looks from our barn guys, but I just kept running and clucking and waving my arms like a lunatic.  (I think it's working)

Then I tacked up and went to "real work."  Again, Prairie was super soft and forward.  Even with a semi-truck unloading pallets of pellets (say that three times fast) just outside the arena fence.  I focused on my whole leg-wrapping thing again, and had P2 focus on staying light on the forehand.  Funny how to two seem to go hand in hand.

We worked FL2 all the way through once - and aside from some awkward moments in our leg yield, it was some of our better work.  The whole ride just felt like success, after success, after success.

Perfect way to start the morning.

As a final reward for being such a good and focused girl, I introduced Prairie to a new friend Sadie, and turned her out in a bigger, better paddock that she can share with the sweet old QH mare.  In theory P1 will join them in there for a mini herd of three when she arrives. 

P2 was on a mission to sniff every manure pile in that paddock...

I'm feeling better about the potential show on Saturday.  I only signed up for two rides.  The first is a "training level test" but isn't an official USEF test as it will also include three 2' jumps interspersed with the WTC work.  The second ride is plain 'ol FL2.

We also haven't jumped since our little hunter show... maybe we should revisit that a bit as well before we go blazing off into the mountains...