Welcome to Diva

Well maybe I'm a little premature in welcoming her before she even shows up on the property but one of my students is purchasing a mare named Diva tonight. We're heading down and hauling her home tonight.

She's about 16hh, almost 5, and seems like a total sweetheart. I'm really excited to see what we can do with her. We're going to put at least 30 days training on her and see what shapes up from there.

I wish I knew more about bloodlines - anyone have any suggestions for how I get started on researching such a thing?

Putting Bert in a Trailer

So... Bert isn't a particularly willing thoroughbred about a lot of things. He's been off-and-on retired over the past few years due to no fault of his own, and in between total retirement he's been various levels of camp and lesson horse. It's cultivated a fairly interesting sense of "I DON'T WANT TO." in his approach to real work.

He used to work a lot, and pretty hard. He's still a great jumper, and sometimes when he wants to, he can move pretty nicely. He's got a core group of riders who just LOVE HIM. But still, he's working like three times a week and not all that hard when he does work.

Being out of options and having already put the money down to take two horses to Fresno, Bert became my back-up choice for this event.

He's reacting pretty well to suddenly being in full work and I'm being very cognizant of the fact that he's neither in shape nor responsive to the aids at the moment.

I don't recommend this route to competition to anyone, no I do not. Switching horses about 6 times and everything coming down to the wire.

It's not even like it's a very big deal. 2'7" isn't huge, it's 1500 meters at 350 mpm which means we'll really be on the cross country course for at most 4 and a half minutes, and all the phases are on different days. It's just not a big deal. It only feels like a big deal.

Anyhow! A big part of eventing Bert the OTTB is getting him to the horse trial, and Bert told me in no uncertain terms that he was not getting in that stupid trailer named Juju. I fought with him for an hour and ended up giving up and taking Harley trail riding instead (goodness I'm such a good trainer ;) )

So I hooked the truck up to the trailer and located my trusty training supplies.

A clicker

An encouragement stick

Now to find the horse.

The last time I attempted to put Bert in a trailer I think I amped the energy up too quickly, so I wanted to rely on the clicker to allow the energy to stay a bit lower. After all, what is better than putting a foot on something to get a treat?

Apparently swinging your head around violently and making this face is better than treats.

I kept at it. I gently applied forward pressure, clucked, and tap tap tap tap tapped until there was forward motion, at which point I'd click and treat.

For those who are staunchly against clicker training, I'd do a little more research. There are some things that are just freaking fantastic to have the bridge cue in your training deck. It's not random hand feeding, and the horse learns the rules surrounding the clicker quite well. Rant for another day.

After about twenty minutes Bert would happily waltz his front half into the trailer, stretch his hind legs waaayyyy out, and then stick his face out the little side window or whatever of the trailer.

No amount of tap tap tapping, clicking, clucking, treating, tugging, growling, TAP TAP TAPPING or other gentle encouragements were getting this horse any further into the trailer. "My front tootsies are good here, thanks..."

So I upped the ante. I decided that without picking a straight up fight about it, I'd just back him up really far every time he stopped moving forward.

In fewer than ten minutes I was rather sweaty from encouraging him to back up and walk forward because he's not the lightest horse in the world, despite my attempts to turn the whole thing into a training session about light ground manners.

I switched to just longing him off the lead line rather than backing him up when he refused to go forward anymore. He's really lanky and his lead line isn't exactly long, so this didn't work. I thought I was going to get fallen upon.

I went back to cajoling.

For whatever reason, this time he put his hind feet on the ramp, so I praised him and scratched him and treated him. ALL the cookies for this one. He sort of turned his head sideways and stretched his nose as far forward as it'd go, so I treated for that. It reminded me of how Tango begs for scratches sometimes.

I gave him a break. I give this advice all the time "after a few good attempts, give the horse two or three minutes to do nothing. It allows the cellulose to recharge in his neurons..."

Do I take my own advice? Apparently not often enough. After a few minutes of grazing, he loaded into the trailer.

And unloaded.

And reloaded.

And then I made it so nice to be in the trailer he decided to hang out there.

Bert's a big guy. He liked to stick his head out the escape door sort of awkwardly.

It was a success! Treats + work + encouragement stick + appropriate breaks = HORSE IN TRAILER

Jumping Morgans and green mustangs

I just have a lot of things going on right now, which is what I keep telling myself. When I slow down and think about it, I sort of wonder what exactly is going on....

I got a new project horse, sort of. I'm starting him for this super cool family. He's a 6 year old BLM mustang, and I think he's going to be such a great trail horse once he's under saddle.

Here I'm using vocal cues to make him walk and using the halter as if it were a bridle to steer him.

The first day I worked him I worked on getting him to actually respect the halter... at all. Like listen dude you do actually have to stop when I apply pressure to your nose. And then yesterday I did some desensitizing:

Of which he totally wasn't a fan. And then I put the saddle on him (didn't cinch it up, don't get greedy, I'm not that good)

which actually was a bit of a mess because the saddle was too heavy for my shoulders to handle holding it up there when he skittered sideways. Whoops. Maybe I should have skipped power yoga yesterday morning.

Anyhow, I like him. I like most green horses though - they're so impressionable!

Next time I'm going to keep focusing on having him carry my weight over his back, maybe get all the way up bareback. I like to sit on horses bareback for the first few times because it allows me to separate the scary girth from the scary person.

I set my camera up to film me jumping Danny last Friday. The video is crooked, and I'm off the screen most of the time. But hey! It's a jumping morgan and some realllyyy nice tall boots that actually fit my calves now!

He's getting so much better over fences. I like to give horses a week or so off jumping before an event, but Sir Danny has had enough issues with jumps over the year I've known him that he doesn't get this luxury.

I also have a plan of attack to get Tango jumping normally (fingers crossed) before I take kids to the Fox N Horn show so that E can show him. This only went so well on Saturday when the moron decided to canter trot poles and get all freaked out about it.

Stretching Tall Boots

Being an instructor who doesn't show much, my day-to-day gear revolves mostly around function and long-day survivability.

Oh, and my budget.

Getting ready for the horse trial in Fresno, I was missing some pretty important supplies. I mean, the USEA Rulebook doesn't really state that you need black tall boots...

Boots—black, brown, field, jodhpur or a black or brown full grain smooth leather leg piece and matching leather boots. Chaps and/or half-chaps are not allowed

So my beat up Smartpak Solstices would really function just fine. But I took this as an excuse to buy some affordable tall boots.

I know the truly value-friendly route is to buy used boots because you can buy higher quality boots and all that, but I've been pretty burned by used boots in the past, so I kept trying tall boots for under $300. Thank goodness for returns. That's all I'll say on that.

Anyhow, the Mountain Horse Venice Field Boots were on sale at Riding Warehouse, so I picked them up after some careful measuring. I ordered a 10/Tall and Slim calf.

I don't have slim calves, but for the size of my feet, my lower leg is too tall and the more customizable boots are out of my price range. When I measured, my calf would just barely fit in the slim calf size according to the website.

So they showed up, and they're lovely.

When I stuffed my calves + breeches into these bad boys, I promptly lost all feeling in my toes.

I did some research on do-it-yourself boot stretching and read all sorts of recommendations. "Just keep wearing them!" was the biggest reminder, but seeing as I couldn't feel my feet I really thought that was a bad idea.

Giving my sad calves a rest after trying the whole "just wear them long enough" thing for about two hours in my house

The next most popular idea was to use a hair dryer to heat the leather while you were wearing the shoes, then allow them to cool while still wearing them.

Busting out my trusty (cheap) hair dryer

I was really nervous about this method because there was the chance it wouldn't work and I'd need to send the boots back. If they're cracked or scorched, I really don't think RW would want the boots back. I carefully heated the boot until I could just feel the heat in my calves (the leather is really thick in these boots so it took way longer than I thought it would) and then walked about the house, trying to feel my feet. I repeated this process about three times and then took a phone call.

The phone call really allowed the boots to cool and I realized that I could feel my left foot! Winning! And it didn't hurt as much to walk on my right foot. Fab!

Further internet research recommended spraying isopropyl alcohol and water on the boot and allowing it to dry while wearing it that way. Eeks.

The more time I spent wearing the boots though, the more I liked them.

So I drove off to Walgreens, picked up from alcohol and a spray bottle, came home, and changed back into my breeches.

My supplies

I first sprayed water on the inside of the boot, just enough to moisten the leather. I followed it up by spraying the boots with the isopropyl alcohol, just enough to darken the leather (way less alcohol than you think it'd take). I forced the boot back over my leg and practiced my calve raises and distracted myself with applying boot polish to my sad, beat up Solstices.

Here's the thing about me and boot polish. We really don't understand one another. I have spent years of my horseback riding life thinking that polish didn't polish boots at all, and only contributed to covering scuffs and sort of evening color.

Turns out I'd completely forgotten the whole "buff the polish once it's dry" step.

And, surprisingly enough, it also turns out that boot polish does in fact make boots shinier.

Hanging out waiting for the boots to dry

Originally I started out just on the still too-tight right boot, but it worked so surprisingly well in about fifteen minutes that I did a light dusting of alcohol+water on the left boot to help with the continuing to be too tightness of it.

The alcohol and water procedure worked really, really well. We'll see how the boots dry out 100% but I think it was totally worth the time put into stretching them a bit now so the breaking in process won't kill me as much.

I also bought tan knee patch breeches (believe it or not, I didn't have a single pair in my closet.)

I ordered the "Romfh Lexington Euroseat Kneepatch Breeches" because... well because they were on sale. 

They're a slightly different color in person, but I don't really know how to explain it.

However, I feel like I could survive a nuclear war in these things. The fabric isn't super thick or anything, but it just feels intense and of really high quality. We'll see how they wear, but I'm happy just looking at them so far.

I tried to get a good photo for you so you could see the color weirdness. My only other qualm is that I ordered a size 32 which usually fits me quite well but either I've lost weight or these run large.

But who cares! I got them on sale and they're comfy.

And that's the tale of getting some more show clothes ready for Fresno.

Schooling Shows Close* to Los Gatos in 2015

* And by close I mean within reasonable hauling distance.

There are a TON OF SHOWS in California.

I also wrote this entire post out and lost it due to internet errors. So this will now be a slightly truncated version, which might actually be easier to navigate. There's nothing for January or February because we're almost done with January and I've claimed February as my month.

Of March, we'll be attending the Fox N Horn show at Thorson's arena on the 28th.

In April, I'd like to attend the Spring Flower's combined test at Woodside Horse Park. It's a sly way to get my students to do more dressage.

The following weekend is JK Presents - I really liked how well run that show was. I'll certainly be attending that Sunday, even if it's just me and Tango.

I have Dressage at the Gaits in Gilroy on my personal calendar, but mostly because I am wondering if I could pull a normal day of work off around attending a few classes in the morning on Friday. Hahahaha

I prefer shows on Sunday because it doesn't disrupt my lesson schedule on Saturday & gives the kids a lot more packing time. The SMCHA Show on the 10th would do well for that, but I honestly don't know where it will be hosted... so that's a tricky one.

There's a 1-day trial at Twin Rivers the next weekend that I'd like to attend for myself, and then the following weekend is the Woodside Three Day which I've already committed to competing at.

Seeing as the KMT shows are about an hour and a half from my farm, I'd probably skip that one in favor of JK Presents. I repeat, I enjoyed the way that was run.

The Summit Riders Horseman's Association show on the 28th is a must do for us. I won't be charging a training fee & the hauling fee will be minimal. These organizations desperately need more support and this is the little bit I can do to make sure small organizations that are friendly and open can keep on trucking. (It's also like ten minutes from the farm so let's just sing a song for that).

There are two possible events for my students in July. The Woodside Combined Test/Hunter Derby would be so much fun so I'll definitely see who's ready for that. The SRHA show is, again, a must do for us. I'll even bring Tango.

The only viable options for my students in August are the Fox N Horn one and JK Presents. I don't have to make the call on that for a while - I think it'll really depend on how serious we are and if summer camps have killed all of our spirits.

Both SDEC and JK Presents are going on in September, but school will also be starting and we've approached a LOT of activity so far in this year. Some kids thrive on shows and some kids need lots of breaks. But the schooling show heavy schedule should allow us a lot of practice just getting ready and getting out there, regardless of how we do.  I lean in the JK Presents direction because there's dressage as well as jumping.

There's the SRHA Play day in October that once again, I'll be dragging students do. They're fun.

The following weekend is another one day that I'd like to attempt with whoever I've got fit at the moment. That's a long way off and there's summer between here and there though so we'll see.

We did SDEC's last show last year and it was a lot of fun. We'll probably do this one again.

The big, glaring omission to the schooling show list is White Rock Ranch, who evidently doesn't feel it necessary to actually post their schedule. All their shows are on Sunday and their class list is impressive, so I'd like to try to attend at least one, even if I go alone.

I'd also love to venture to Lone Tree Farm but that's a 3.5 hour drive so it'd likely be just two horses going to one of those events. It might be fun, but it'd be pretty tricky to pull off.

Sleepy Horses

I seem to have come across a few tired horses this past week. Let's take a closer look...

Bert 

Pascal

No idea who this is

Aspen

Mentor

January so far has been riddled with fantastic things. I bought a trailer. Tango's going better than ever. I got to ride a whole lot of new horses at Webb ranch. I'm working with a green horse and there's the prospect of starting a mustang on my horizon. I have new people in my life and a lot of new energy. It's also been riddled with ridiculously hard, painful, and difficult things. I'm lucky because of the support and love I have. I definitely admit to struggling sometimes... but then I get notes like this.

Kinda gives me something to live up to, you know?

Who's been your biggest mentor in your riding career?