Thermal VII - Final Pro Day

Well, the footing was much better today, not perfect, as you'll see - but much improved so we kept the mare entered. 

The morning started with the Under Saddle with a impressive 23 opting to hack.  The ring was crowded, But N gave Prair an excellent ride and they snagged a 2nd in some really nice company.  Apparently Prairie had been calling, and calling.... and calling on her walk up from the barn, so she was.... distracted to say the least, and quite tense in her second direction.

Frankly she was tense enough that I would have been happy with any ribbon, so 2nd was a nice surprise.



After that we opted to send her back to the barn for a bit to chill the __ out, so the baby and I hung out and watched the other horses go.  Not being a veteran horse show mom I foolishly forgot to pack enough things for the kiddo to chew on, so I slung Prair's martingale around my neck and let baby go to town.  The kid got a little dirty but I assume that meant my tack got..... cleaner?

Girl knows good leather when she sees it

Anyway, when it was time for our rounds, Prair looked much more sane.  She had a very quick warm-up with a couple great jumps, two lead changes to the right, and then in they went.

The first round was gorgeous, until the far outside line (the only spot in the ring with footing that was still slick).  Prair landed a bit off balance going in, then squirreled around in the soup and pulled a rail going out.  All things considered, she handled it really well, and didn't escalate, but the rail was an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise lovely round. 

The second round was BANANAS (in the good, Gwen Stefani sort of way) and I actually videoed it without jinxing the whole thing.  Mare stayed soft, got her changes easily, and actually rounded a bit more over the fences. 

The judge must have agreed because he pinned her first out of THIRTY EIGHT HORSES.  (no split). 

How fancy is that!? I'm so proud of the mare, and exceptionally grateful for how tactful of a ride N is able to give her. 

That's a blue ribbon worth putting on the wall. 
(not that I don't put every ribbon on the wall.  SprinklerBandit can confirm that they are all. on. the wall.). 

Afterward Prair got a nice massage and some acupuncture and cold laser (I shudder to think what that cost me at this horse show..). So she should be feeling as loose as possible headed into the weekend.

Tomorrow we start back with our 2' Hunter division and hopefully the mare's good mood carries over!


 

Thermal Week VII (Boring Update)

I am totally lacking in any clever observations on the day.  Perhaps due to lack of interesting occurrences, or perhaps due to the fact that the kiddo actually napped for 2 hours so I laid in the sun like a lizard and drank Greyhounds all afternoon. 

Either or.  You pick.

The mare has had an easy few days.  She hasn't jumped since Sunday and hacked lightly yesterday just to stretch her out and let her move her bones. 

I suppose the one upside of stall rest is that going into our third week of showing Prairie isn't beating down her stall to get to some turnout.  She's grown quite accustomed to horse-jail and sunny horse-jail is apparently better than rainy horse-jail.

Anyway, Prair warmed up fabulously.  Loose, trot swinging, lead changes came easy, totally chill  And she looked like a stud waiting around.  Usually I don't think she looks nearly as elegant when she's not braided, but today she was working her sleepy I-woke-up-like-this swagger like a super model. 

My Queen.

She had two rounds with N, and that was it.  The first went pretty well and I have a (bad) video. 



The second round was a tad rougher, due mostly to the footing I think.  For some reason our ring was the only ring that was still showing the ill effects of last weekend's storm.  The corners were deep, slick and sloppy. 

And anything that throws Prair off balance is no good for us. 

N schooled it well, took a circle to calm down and made it a nice learning experience.  If the footing hasn't resolved itself by tomorrow we'll scratch over fences.  It's just not worth tense rounds at this point.

So tomorrow we have a flat and (maybe) two rounds.  Then we head straight into the last weekend of showing for us at HITS Thermal 2015.  Can't believe this is almost over!!!

Ice Vibe Boots - The Theory

Okie Doke.  While Prair is enjoying some well deserved time off and while I sit inside since its raining in the desert (still).  Might as well geek out a bit on the latest tack ho acquisition.

The Ice Vibe Boots.  Anyone have any experience with these things? They seem super sneaky and pretty cool and I kind of wish I had pulled the trigger on them earlier in Prair's rehab process.  But no matter - no time like the present to catch up on absurd purchases :)

So the Ice Vibes.  They are made by Horseware, which means we have access to one of their direct reps (and that can be interpreted as either access to a good deal, or access to peer pressure for all the cool things).   Basically they function both as a traditional ice boot and a sonicare toothbrush.  Why the combo?  Here's a blurb from their own site:

Ice-vibe can improve the realignment of the tendon fibres during the healing process. Cooling on it's own only prevents inflammation by resisting blood flow and slows down the metabolism. Ice-vibe uses the combination of cold and vibration which minimises swelling while encouraging blood flow and speeds up healing.

(silly English spelling)

Big promises for such a reasonably priced boot...($280ish for the pair).

 

During Prair's rehab one of the biggest challenges was reducing inflammation while still encouraging increased bloodflow.  All of you who have nursed a soft tissue injury in the lower limb know how hauntingly sparse circulation is down there - and any blood flow is helpful to healing...

but inflammation on its own can cause problems... so what are you to do? 

For Prair the stall rest (and reduced movement) was the primary "anti inflammation" treatment, while fairly aggressive (and sedated) walks were how we tried to encourage increased bloodflow.  Prair stopped all anti-inflam medicine (previcox, bute, etc..) which then had me worried how to keep her back comfy during this whole process. 

Whether it helped or not, part of my plan was to just plaster the mare in Back on Track products to help increases/normalize circulation without causing too much heat... 

So this is where the Ice Vibes would have perhaps been helpful.  Cooling to reduce the inflammation, then vibration to stimulate circulation.... (Sounds like an Icy Hot commercial..)

A few ladies in the barn have tried these (one with her reiner with another trainer) and they swear by them.  Seems to be a baby version of the Theraplate... something that I've heard lots of good reviews on...

The boots have varying levels of intensity in theory for different purposes (again from their site)

Level 1 - Treatment of inflammation with cold pack
Level 2 - Rehabilitation
Level 3 - Boosts Circulation

So I like the idea of them.  Especially at long shows where Prair is potentially getting sore/tired...

Will be sure to get you a full report once I actually strap them to the pony's legs... but for now I am intrigued.

Haboobs and Other Meteorological Adventures

I thought the Beyoncé-Wind-Machine was moderately distracting, but yesterday the wind dialed up to gusts around 45/50mph and whipped the desert sand up into a totally suffocating Haboob.  (really I just like an excuse to say Haboob... but it really was almost a  true Haboob.  Haboob haboob). 

It was insane.  Tents were blowing over, trash cans were attacking ponies, jumps couldn't stay upright for people to finish their courses and visibility would reduce to near zero. 

It was nuts. 

Ring Crew worked overtime.. holy lord.

And yet, I was certain showing was a great idea. 

It was a decent idea... mostly because I rode my first set of courses early before full haboob-ery and Prair was lovely.  I've already lost some of the details, but nothing bad enough happened to stick out in my mind to remember the different courses.  The big trickery was that there was a bending line (to be clear I mean trickery in terms of low-level-hunter-trickery) that was set for 7 strides.  It rode reeeallllly long our first course and it felt like Prair launched from about 42 feet away in order to not add in an extra stride. 

The second time we rode it, I really rode up (and more direct) and we still superman-ed out.  The third time we rode it we measured the distance well, but it felt like we were gunning for it at about 500mpm.  The rest of the course was fine.  we nailed it.

Judge didn't love us however and didn't use us for any of the ribbons (wah waaaaah), though it was a 45 person division so I knew it was going to take a perferctly-perfect trip to even get close to satin. 

The hack was boring, Prair was stressed beyond measure since we all hacked together and they only opened the outside lines (not the quarterlines) so it was an (absurd) exercise in merging trying to stuff everyone through the standards down each long side.  Not our strong suit, but we squeaked out a 4th.

In the afternoon (and the haboob), we went back (not sure why) for our Eq division.  It was in the same ring, with the same 3 courses (and the same damn bending line) so I had a good game plan (kick) for our rides (kick, kick, kick). 

Apparently most people thought a desert windstorm was a good reason to not test the patience of their 2' ammy horses, so the division dwindled to 8 of us (lol).  Prair was a total stud given she had to close her eyeballs to keep the dust out, and we managed to get up the lines in a much smoother fashion.  Though during our second course a huge gust of wind came up and it literally felt like we were being blown backwards.  I have never felt such an insane headwind while riding.  It was truly confusing. 

Anyway, Prair totally held it together, and since almost everyone else had some fairly large mistakes, we managed to win all the rounds, and then squeaked out a win on the flat.  

Which means, DRUMROLL - we have obtained a cooler from HITS 2015. 

Very happy about that.  Although slightly disappointed that it is the exact same cooler from last year. 

I know, I know... don't complain about coolers, but seriously HITS, pick a new color of polar fleece, or embroider the year on there or SOMETHING. 

Obtaining a cooler proved to be quite timely because today, the Haboob was gone and the biblical rainstorms started. 

It was cold.  It was muddy, and it was really, really wet. 

Bear in mind I live in Seattle.  Where we are pretty much always in the rain.  And this, this was so much worse.  So when it was time for the mile long march to the ring this morning for our 2'6" Hunters, I swaddled Prair and I up in the cooler and headed out into the storm. 

Apparently a good number of Californians scratch when it rains, so our division dropped to 28 and the ring ran really, really fast.  Prair and I were the last to ride and we still went a full 90 minutes before we had been signed up for. 

I wasn't complaining though, since everything was slop getting sloppier and going earlier cut down on waiting in the rain.

Our biggest challenge to the day was that we were scheduled in the far ring which runs next to the highway with buses and trucks zooming by at 55 mph.  Prair did not enjoy that experience earlier in the week and I figured the added splooshing of puddles probably wouldn't endear her to the truck traffic any more. 

We started well, though she was a tad backed off the pace (I think because the footing was slick?) but we had a lovely first fence going away which brought up the outside (by the road) line coming home.  I felt Prair lock onto a truck on the road and then when she realized there were jumps to be jumped she just sorta... stopped.  She didn't spook, she didn't invert, she just.... downshifted and was not open to negotiation about it which was a very new feeling for me. 

I circled, dialed down our pace a bit and we finished the course adding in the lines which felt like the right move at the time. 

We went right back in and had a great course, though I nearly jumped the wrong first fence. I was so focused on establishing our pace that I failed to notice that there were two single fences set on the diagonal.  Fortunately N shouted "PINK!!!! PINK FLOWERS" with just enough time for me to zigzag away from the yellow flowers and get rolling... the rest of the course was rock solid and even our changes were clean.  The third course was hands down the best trip of the week and I was so, so pleased with the mare.  We (somehow) nabbed a 7th in our second round and a very respectable 3rd in our final trip.  The flat was fine, most people skipped it (there were maybe 10 of us?) Prair was reasonably calm, but she kept "jumping" the flat spots where the jumps had been so we sorta skipped around the ring.  We managed a 2nd in the hack behind a really lovely chubby hunter we see a lot at home and that was officially the end of HITS Thermal week 6.

Well, aside from some obligatory shopping (new spurs.. and I'm flirting with a new huntcoat? I'm thinking dark green could look sharp on Prair...)

But we're done.  I'm feeling like a more effective rider over the 2'6" fences than the 2' stuff, but I think I'll probably stay low again next week in the name of saving Prair's legs and taking it easy on her LF. 

I did get suckered into a pair of those ice vibe boots, which actually sound pretty cool.  They sound handy for Prair's little legs, so I'll be sure to do a full report once I've got my hot little hands on them. 

Two days off then back to it for one more week!!

All my loves.