An Early End & Hoofin’ It

This past week was the start of preparing to compete at Hitching Post. I consider the two weeks before a show to be our tune up and refine time, so I was asking for a few things in our rides that needed tweaking. I had some good giggles at myself and how much better Packy went when I did the ground shattering thing of remembering my outside aids, funny how that works, and looking up as I went into corners. We then watched as Kate and Kissa did the teenager drama tango, which ultimately resulted in Kissa having some glimmers of what she’ll be like when she drops all of the drama, even if lifting herself is hard.

That Tuesday I gave Packy the night off and went over to my friend Annalyse’s farm to do a test run on braiding her four year old stallion, Odin, for the fall dressage show at GMHA. Odin was a sweet and well behaved boy and even let me clip him for the first time and showed how smart he was by investigating the clippers before deciding he was okay with them, but only on one side. We figured out that from a run early in the year I was going to have to braid him the morning of the show so it would hopefully stay in with help from hair fixatives and some crafty thread.

Wednesday rolled around quickly and after getting out of work late and it just being too nice of a day to stay on the ring Packy and I went to explore an orchard and meadow we’d just gotten permission to ride in. It was a nice little wander, but Packy was puffing hard when we got back to the barn even though it had been a lighter adventure. I chalked it up to her having gotten a head start on her winter coat and it still being in the eighties and decided to give her a little bib clip the next day after our jump school.

Thursday was a nice balmy day and I set up a gymnastic for us to work on being very accurate and then pushing to a distance. As we warmed up Packy felt great, she was listening well and I was able to create a quiet, but powerful canter to pick off jumps in a bounce at some good slice angles and then practice some broken lines to the bounce. We then went to do the full gymnastic and were only able to get the higher vertical that was a push once. I chalked it up to me not being able to keep my left leg on in order to really push Packy to the fence and that I needed to work on some one legged posting to help strengthen it (don’t I have lots of fun torture exercises?). We popped up to the wash stall so I could hose her down and scrub her before clipping her bib. I’ve found that the cleaner the hair is the more it clips like a hot knife through butter. While Packy dried in her stall I made use of my time by scrubbing all of the heated water buckets so they’d be ready to use in a few weeks when autumn actually decides to show up.

After being productive Packy was less than thrilled when she saw the clippers come out. Luckily, unlike a certain weeny OTTB who shall remain nameless, Packy stands like a rock for clipping. It was satisfying to have her hair clip off so easily. Compared to last year where it took me the better part of two hours to clip her bib (it was my first time body clipping), I had her bib clip done within a half hour; her belly and elbows hadn’t dried fully so I left them for the next day, but it was still a major improvement. If what I pulled off is any indication of what her winter coat is going to look like, she’s going to be a puff ball.

I had waffled about whether to clip her, and what type because our workload will dramatically decrease after Hitching Post, but the time I was spending to dry her was silly and I decided it wouldn’t be safe for her to get soaked like that during winter, for fear of her getting chilled. So I went with the clip I did last year, a bib. For Packy who sweats the most on her neck and shoulder this is ideal for her lighter work schedule. It simply mimics the line of the horse’s jugular groove, and clips the breast, under chest, elbows, and a small amount of the belly. I personally choose to clip a small but past the girth area, and clip anywhere underneath where the girth will touch so it can be easily dried and doesn’t have a chance to get matted from the girth and sweat being on long winter hair, because that was an issue last year until I clipped in February…

When I was deciding I remembered that even after her bib clip Packy still needed help to cool down and dry off so my plan is to redo her bib, and turn it into an Irish clip when we start back to full work in the beginning of the year. That way she’ll have some more drying surface on the typically wettest parts, but I won’t have to worry about her being too cold and sitting. I’m also fortunate that her sheet (what my “hardy” (fat, so freaking fat) pony spends most of her winter in) has a full attached neck and her other blanket, a medium weight, has a raised neck. That way I know most of her clipped areas will be covered, and if for some strange unknown alternate universe happens and she gets too cold I can layer with a stable blanket to raise her core temperature. However, if that happens I’m buying a lotto ticket, because Packy was actually cold (needed her medium) for about a week last year. She could probably stay naked for most of winter, but with the limited daylight it’s nice for her to be clean for when I get to the barn.

After I clip I make sure to put some sort of oil replenishing, coat conditioning, itch relieving something on the clipped areas to keep the horse from itching, and to make sure the skin that’s now exposed to so much more air doesn’t get dried out. I just popped some MTG on, and it seems to work. It refuels my love/hate relationship with the stuff, but there’s a reason why it has such a cult following, the gross stuff just works.

On Friday I finished her clip and made sure the trailer was fully packed. I was going to braid Odin in the morning first so I had hitched up that night and brought the trailer down so I would be able to just throw Packy and my grooming tote into the trailer once I got to the barn and fed her.

Saturday rolled around too early for my non caffeine drinking mind, I was at my friend Annalyse’s barn, forty five minutes away from my house, by 6:30am and braiding shortly after. Odin is usually well behaved, but he is four years old, and his baby mommas were in the barn. So Odin was understandably a bit excited, however, one quick shank on the lead rope (yup Odin is so well behaved that he doesn’t even need a chain) and he remembered he was attached to a human and calmed down so I could start getting him ready. Annalyse threw him some hay and he stood like a champ while I braided his mane using the most mane spray I’d ever used. Once I had finished braiding it, I used my braiding thread to sew the braid in more, and then threw extreme hold hairspray on for good measure- that things wasn’t coming out.

After braiding I flew to the barn and got Packy ready to go and loaded. Luckily she vacuums her feed down in less than five minutes. We were then on the road around 8:15 and in Sharon at High Horses to pick up my friend Melissa and her Connemara, Mac, for the ride to Silver Maple Icelandic’s where the Hoofin’ It charity ride was happening. We met Amanda there and once we checked in we hit the trail loops. Last year there was a miscommunication and instead of nine miles we ended up going for a sixteen mile ride, so this year Amanda preordered and marked the loops to make sure no one got lost. As we started Packy was a bit puffy, but I couldn’t figure out if it was because of allergies or from her being excited to get going on the ride. She seemed to catch her breath as we wen and clearly had plenty of energy for all of the ride as we led several of the gallops and kept pace with the speedy Icelandic horse that had joined our group.

Packy seemed tired at the end of the ride, but we’d covered more ground than most because we had to backtrack to try and find a lost hoof boot for Mac. So after she joined us for a breezy lunch we went back home for her to have a day off before picking up for our final week of prep.

The next day I had turn in and night chores, so after a day of doing things at home I went in to the barn for night chores. When I turned everyone in Packy seemed okay, but after feeding everyone I noticed she wasn’t finishing her dinner, a first in the fourteen years Bonnie has owned her. In addition she was a bit huffy and looking not quite herself.

So as the pit of dread began to knot itself in my stomach I found the thermometer and found 102.9f as her temp. So then I checked her gut quadrants and could only hear three of them. So on went the indoor lights and I started walking as I shot a text to a friend and then started my timer for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes of walking with a still uncomfortable looking pony I went to check her vitals and her temperature had spiked to 103.9, and her other vitals were elevated. So back to walking I went as I texted Bonnie now that I was sure something was wrong, but not quite sure what was wrong. I was dreading that it was colic, and hoping that it was a case of gas colic from the weather being so wacky. Somewhere in there with other messages and a few phone calls Bonnie called me back and decided to call the vet. So I kept walking and checking TPR (temperature, pulse, and respiration), gut sounds and gums every thirty minutes while I waited for the vet.

Somewhere in there Amanda drove down from Sharon to keep us company and my mom drove from home to be there for support.

At 10pm the vet finally got to the barn and after chatting and checkin (including a hilarious reaction from Packy when she realized one of our vets, Christine Pinello, was there) she told me a different diagnosis than what I’d thought I’d hear- anaplasmosis.

In our region we’ve been having terrible tick infestations and with the abnormally warm winter the population has sky rocketed. This meant a spike in Lyme and anaplasmosis cases. Mic had contracted anaplasmosis earlier this year on the farm, it was our first tick illness in years. It meant I’d be scratching from the upcoming weekend, putting Packy on five days of stall rest, and we’d have ten days of medicating and treating to hopefully squash this thing. Luckily, anaplasmosis is curable, and the long term effects aren’t thought to be significant. So after a blood draw, IV banamine, and a nice big 60cc IV cocktail of tetracycline and saline I wrapped Packy’s legs in her new no-bow wraps, kissed her goodnight and managed to be in bed by 1am.

Sometimes life sucks, and it was a bit of a sucker punch to be preparing for our last event, to then be knocked on our asses by something as simple as an adverse tick bite. However, I’m lucky that knowing my horse so well let me catch this so early, and that her amazing owner made sure we proactively treated and will hopefully keep Packy feeling good to knock this out of the park.

I might want some protective gear for day five of stall rest though…

-k

More Leg & Sharon Expeditions

After a lighter week following our run at GMHA and the weather spiking back up along with the humidity I knew that I needed to work on my cross country. Especially the in between bits. The majority of the jumping felt good, but I knew that I shouldn’t of have as many time faults when I’m on a speedy and fit little pony that normally chews up the turf. So I got in touch with Daryl and set up another lesson. Of course my plan had been to hack on Monday but it was so bloody hot and humid that I ended up just hopping on Packy bareback and practiced my balancing for ten minutes while she grazed in the cross country field. Not exactly the most conventional thing, but random wanderings are great for helping my core to be stronger.

I was productive in packing up the trailer so all I would need to do was load up Packy once I’d hitched up. That was done easily enough and we scooted up to Strafford to meet Daryl. Daryl started ya off in the stadium ring to do some quick warming up and focusing on me being more forward to the jumps (this might be a theme), and helping Packy stretch up over. We rocked over the 2’6” stuff like pros and then Daryl upped the ante by sending us over a Novice level oxer. It took us a few tries to nail it perfectly, but feeling the difference in Packy stretching that bit more that she used to for the 2’6” stuff was lovely and reaffirmed that my at home schooling heights need to go up to 2’9”, or wider spreads to challenge both of us more. We moved up to the cross country course and Daryl quickly had us thinking about moving forward and planning our next jump.

Packy knew it was jumping time and quickly started locking onto fences as I guided her with mostly enough oomph. I think Daryl said leg about fifty times… maybe more. I had thought we had plenty of zip and power going to the jumps, but Daryl pointed out that if I was going along at a nice little canter and needed to half half to rebalance I wouldn’t have extra if I lost any impulsion and power going to the jump by rebalancing. Instead, it was easier to take away speed rather than trying to create it last minute. Sure, a horse might be able to pull it off, but it was easier and safer to have extra power going to the jump. So I added leg, and then some more leg, followed up by more leg. Packy gave me a response of “duh mom, I’m not going to run you into a tree like Pi would do” and promptly jumped the snot out of the stuff Daryl pointed us at in miniature courses designed to make me have to move off and go after a jump.

It felt good to jump and then open Packy up a little bit between fences, and it made me realize there’s still a part of me waiting for her to pull a Pi and then I get run away with (it might be a slightly terrifying experience to be run away with by a fully fit OTTB that’s built like a tank and has questionable brakes at best, just slightly), but I have to trust Packy won’t run away with me and I’ll be able to steer her, and then have her listen to my half halts to safely jump whatever is next.

So Daryl made us jump some more, and not run into her (yay steering!).

Of course cantering down to a ditch on a slope where I might’ve forgotten to ride for the ditch but Packy was ready for it and proceeded to jump the absolute snot out of it leaving me to try and not catch her in the mouth and stay on. I stayed on, might’ve briefly lost a stirrup, and reorganized to finish the course. Packy certainly isn’t lacking any scope for beginner novice.

At this point Packy was starting to get a bit tired so we moved to the upper section of the field and quickly answered a couple of different questions. Packy attempted to ignore my aids but decided she should listen after she came up strong to a fence and had to scramble a little bit over it.

We ended with a quick couple of trips in and out of the water jump, because when you shy away from it it you must go in. Packy isn’t a fan of Tamarack’s water and she always needs encouragement to go in after a duck flew out of it one time, she might’ve nearly died, and I have to keep my leg on. It was a good ending to our lesson and left me much happier with where we are and with some good homework.

The rest of the week we spent hacking and flatting while we waited for the heat to finally break. On Thursday Kate brought Kissa over and while she did some jumping exercises I worked on keeping Packy focused and on the bit (very hard with a potential mullet waiting to happen), as Kissa showed she might’ve grown up a bit more in the past month, and I kept asking for focus and softness Packy slowly relaxed more and more until she was consistently pushing through and using herself. It made me realize as I felt her shoulder starting to pop instead of softening her poll that I love dressage and I’d lost some of that love as I’d become frustrated with it this season.

With Pi I’d been learning the start of the language as he’d been building muscle and shaking off the cobwebs from his training, so the love had developed naturally, and in the fall Packy did decently enough for our short time together for me to not be frustrated at that point. However, I suppose that over eight or nine months some frustrations can build, especially as I watched other friends make major progress with their horses, while I felt that I was plateauing.

So often it seems like progress with horses is a convoluted pathway that at a cursory glance seems logical and straight, until you get going and see it’s really more of a maze. It seems that the more I ride and learn, while I have more answers for evasions and problems, I also feel like I know even less because I have an awareness of just how much it takes to truly make it all happen properly. So as I caught Packy’s shoulder popping with my outside leg and rein, and then put on more leg it was fantastic to watch her respond by stretching into the contact once I’d stopped that evasion technique.

On Sundays I normally go up to Sharon and hack out with some friends from High Horses, it’s mix of what horse I’ll ride, sometimes Poe, sometimes I’ll bring up Packy, but a lot of the time I’m hacking out therapy horses that need a change of pace and scenery from their very important work that normally happens in the ring. This Sunday High Horses hosted the Special Olympics so I hitched up and loaded Packy up for an adventure. I love riding different types of horses, but it’s fun to bring Packy along and just enjoy the fact I can spontaneously hitch up and go with an incredibly safe horse to go and have fun. We’ve been finding trail systems by the farm and it’s been fun to explore on horseback. Having ridden the road so many times it’s an interesting change when we suddenly pop out at a different section, and Packy enjoys hacking out in new places. It was also a great opportunity to sneak in asking for her to connect to the bit and thinking whispers of collection and lengthening, nothing drastic, but starting the idea of playing with it while she still stretches. However, I still get a giddy feeling when she reaches and connects to the bit. It’s the little things in life.

-k

Hacks on Hacks, & Dodging Mullets

The week following GMHA was a low key one. I’m a firm believer that rest in itself is a reward, and that after running all weekend Packy deserved two days of bossing the boys around and getting some TLC. She thought this was a great plan and especially liked side trips to the farm’s over flowing apple trees after we hung out in a clover patch.

So I guess you could say Packy was a little disappointed that on Wednesday when I grabbed her that my tack was out and I was dressed to ride. I myself was itching to ride after doing a deep cleaning of the trailer and of the tack room I use. So she stood there grumpily as I tacked her up in my dressage saddle and blew her mind when we turned left out of the indoor and went up to the trail head instead of right to the outdoor. It made for one happy and very frisky pony as we wandered in the woods and around the area on the trails. So for the rest of the week we wandered in the woods slipping in small moments of collection at the walk, and maybe one little spot of gallop.

Friday was exciting in the farm as our new tractor arrived from the local John Deere dealer. Our beloved Kubota died after a scary freak incident where the brakes suddenly gave out as Bonnie was mowing the big hill. It was an incredibly terrifying experience watching watching the tractor flip and running up to a cloud of black smoke where we couldn’t see Bonnie. Luckily Bonnie walked away without a single scratch on her. The tractor? Not so much. The insurance company totaled it and we waved goodbye to the trusty orange steed of many years.

We were lucky enough that the bush hog came out of the accident unscathed so the service department was able to attach it onto the new tractor for us. I won’t lie, I might be just a little excited for it because it’s so shiny and pretty, even though I miss the Kubota.

And then on Saturday Kate brought Kissa over to do some flat work with us as company. Kissa is still slightly hilarious to watch as she settles into being a grown up about working versus an ADHD teenage girl with a whole lot of attitude, granted I find it funny because I’m not on top of the mullet trying to put it together.

Apparently Packy has lived through enough mullet explosions that she now shies away from Kissa’s hind end and if she came within five feet of us and went ahead Packy would just stop. Poor Packy.

On Sunday I scooted up to Sharon and hacked out with Amanda and Ashley while Packy got the day off. It took a little bit of horse shuffling because the horse I normal exercise was adopted to be a whipper in for our vet. Best retirement home ever, but I still miss my Joe.

So I tacked up Mac and away we went to explore a network of trails that Ashley had found. Somehow we ended up on someone’s personal golf course? But, it was a great day to get lost with friends.

-k

Ride Boldly: Part Two

Sunday morning was an early foggy morning that was reminiscent of the hunt paintings seen on many of the New England homes in the area. The stillness pervaded through the show grounds and as the fog blanketed the show grounds it was if the muffling of light and sound brought an added layer of peace and tranquility. The slight current of energy slowly crescendoed until the first horse appeared the warm up with their rider. Geared up, and looking like they were ready to do battle against the course at GMHA. I sat in the start box with the Starter Rebecca Rice as we got ready to count down and send out riders while I also wrote down start times and radioed the first jump results back to control. It wasn’t riding, but volunteering and giving back to my sport is also near and dear to my heart. With my own cross country time being later that evening it was the perfect way to keep myself busy until I’d have to leave to get the truck and then go get Packy ready and loaded to come over for our own battle. In the past two years of going to recognized events as a spectator, groom, supporter, friend and volunteer I’d made quite a few friends and acquaintances and its turned into having many people I care about as I watch them thunder out boldly onto cross country.

We worked our way through the divisions with military like precision as Rebecca, who was obviously experienced and well honed at running the start box kept horses going out in precise intervals. Eventually we worked our way to the JYOP, the division I’d been the most keen to watch. Lea and Peanut, Fernhill Fiesta, were finally making their preliminary level debut. While Peanut had run at a 1* before he’d been teaching and showing Lea the ropes of Training level, and now Preliminary. It was a very awe inspiring moment watching them charge out of the start box and fly over the first fences like they were nothing. I was able to catch up with Lea after my volunteer shift had ended and it was clear that she and Peanut still had plenty of gas left in the tank.

After talking with Lea about her debut at Preliminary I scooted home to get myself ready (make myself eat food), and go to the barn with the truck to hitch up and load up once Packy was ready to go. We pulled into GMHA’s day parking and I got to work walking a line or two and watching the Junior Beginner Novice over a few questions that I was curious about seeing the turns and approaches to. After that it was finally our turn to gear up. Packy somehow always seems to know when its cross country time. Its sort of as if she pulls into this reflective zen state of mind where she becomes quiet and almost overly settled in. Every time I sort of worry she’s actually tired, but as soon as I start trying to buckle my bridle she seems to sort of flare up and get a bit excited.

We marched over to the warm up feeling good, until I went to truly warm up and the humidity reared its ugly head and my lungs suddenly felt like I was sucking in air through a partly collapsed paper bag. Trying to focus on my breathing, warming up and somehow jumping stuff was happening, but I was starting to panic. Packy had keyed in on that and was changing modes from firecracker to slower and more protective. Luckily the warm up steward showed me a huge kindness and was able to fit horses in ahead of me so I could try to focus in and get ready to go. I made myself aim Packy at the XC fences and she felt great, but internally I was questioning whether I could do it or not. As we jumped the coop in the warm up Andrea Monsarratt Waldo, who was coaching her own student, turned and called out that Packy looked happy, and those simple words banished the demons starting to mass about in my pysche. The simple affirmation that we were in fact ready to tackle this cross country course and even if I was going to be out of breathe we would make it happen. Then, Faith Potorski, the warm up steward, called my number out for being on deck. I knew in that moment that no matter how much more warm up I put in I was going to have to take as deep of a breath as I could and ride boldly out of the start box. So thats exactly what I did.

As Rebecca called out “2, 1, have a great ride!” Packy and I left the box and locked onto the first jump, a sort of mini-trakehner called the log box. A log was based with a small gap upon a wooden box base as a welcoming first jump that then flowed to a roll top before hitting a good galloping section. We easily jumped the log box and went with good rhythm to the roll top that we jumped over for Packy to then see her nemesis, the storage tractor trailer that she spooks at every time we walk past it, she veered to the side and I kept her going up the gallop path that was conveniently leading away from the “scary monster”. I asked Packy to go as we hit the gallop path and she responded, then she spooked, and spooked some more, so I hit the brakes and made her trot through the rest and out of the path towards the squirrel, she wasn’t impressed that we had to go by the squirrel. Every time I school at GMHA she balks when we have to go by either of the large carved wooden squirrels that compose parts of jumps. Well, sucks to be her, because we went by it anyway on our path to drop into the dustbowl. We continued down the hill towards a rampy/coop box thing. As we approached Packy had gotten over the squirrel and then saw the jump going into the dustbowl, and we had a conversation leading up to it. “Hey, there’s a jump!” “Yup, we’re going to jump it Packy.”, “Jump it? No, not us. I’m not jumping it.” “THE F YOU AREN’T!” at this point of her attempting to balk and then trying to stop I used every inch of my leg to wrap around and pony kick her up and over the jump and into the dustbowl to her utter disgust. I then over slipped my reins and ended up with no reins and a suddenly indignant and spooked out mare. I got them back and asked her to go through the dustbowl. Packy decided she couldn’t deal with the dustbowl and I ended up having to walk her through it and the water into the first jumping field. Come to find out, enough horses had been having issues at the drop that the jump judge had been in the process of radioing control that something needed to be changed about it because of how the light was hitting everything.

As we went through the water I was able to convince Packy that we could in fact trot again on our way to the next jump. She wasn’t so sure, saw day trailering and asked if we could just go back there and work on her haynet, that didn’t happen, instead I kept my leg on and we powered up to and over the blue house, and then carried the momentum on our way to the miniature Upwey Barn jump with only one spook at the jump shed.

We jumped the Upwey Barn and powered down to the next water crossing, snagged the one squirrel jump Packy doesn’t hate at GMHA, flew up a steep hill and at this point Packy’s game face had finally shown up and she was locking onto everything. We blasted over the Sagittal log (it looks like an expanded log built with slats) and we merrily went on our way down to the feeder. As we approached the feeder I couldn’t remember if we’d ever jumped one and I made sure to ride defensively to it. I shouldn’t of worried because we easily powered over it and we then turned to jump a bench, then flew early up the bank, turned around to catch the yellow house and went on our way through the water and onto my arch nemesis at GMHA, the ramp I fell onto while schooling with Ava and Paula Wedhe.

The last time I had seen the ramp I first fell onto it and then the ground, had a run out and then needed a lead from Ava and Leonie while Paula and Amirah acted like a wing for the jump until I could jump it on my own. So I guess you could say I had a beef with this particular fence. Instead of letting my apprehension and anxiety get in the way I did exactly what Daryl told me, locked eyes on my target point past the jump, put my leg on, used a driving seat and jumped the sucker. I might’ve also used some colorful language while we approached the jump to make sure we jumped it, but we jumped it and then merrily skipped over the ditch on our way to jump a hanging log before turning to go back through water and out into the first jump field again where we nailed the last jump like pros.

We’d done it. We were slow, things didn’t go exactly to plan, but we got around safely and cleanly. I couldn’t have been more proud of my little pocket rocket, and the feeling of having accomplished such a long term goal was incredibly satisfying.

Packy cooled down easily with help from my parents and we wandered over to see scores, mind you at this point I still hadn’t looked to even see what I’d scored in dressage and only knew I had eight penalties going into cross country. So you could imagine my glee when I saw the 37 posted next to our names. We hadn’t done that well all season, let alone on the B test. When all was said and done I also had 27 speed faults for going too slow and placed 12th, but I was proud of our hard work turning into what Packy and I clearly saw as a successful weekend. We had both faced quite a few demons in the journey to finally go recognized and to even go beginner Novice, now we have to find another goal, and standing bandages that fit Packy.

-k

Ride Boldly: Part One

I had just sat a section of canter and as I transitioned back to trot Daryl asked me how it had felt. It was my third lesson with Daryl on Packy and we were working on tuning up my dressage for the upcoming GMHA September Horse Trials where Packy and I would finally be going recognized. I replied, telling her that it still felt like Russian roulette whether I’d get a good canter, a motorcycling canter, or start nice and then turn the motorcycle on partway through. Daryl in her wonderful frankness told me it looked like I was essentially sitting and praying as I cantered. I thought about it and agreed. I almost always have the mantra playing in my head for seated canters of “don’t break, don’t break, don’t break…” on repeat as I tightly sit there and do nothing to help Packy keep going. With that Daryl told me to ride the canter just like I’d been riding the amazing trot and walk we’d just been having.

A week prior I’d been riding with Kate and Kissa and having a horrible time. Packy had been ignoring my leg, continuing her proverbial refusal to fully accept contact and I was frustrated. Kate offered to get on and play for a little bit with her and in twenty minutes, one pissed off mare, and a sweaty Kate there was a relaxed, forward moving and stretching Packy. With some more help from Kate I could “get” Packy’s jaw and poll. Then in the lesson with Daryl I went to briefly show Daryl what I’d been working on and Packy went “Stretch into contact? Oh ya, I’ll do that.”. Mares, it’s a thing…

So back to our cantering where I sat scared and in fear of her breaking. Daryl told me to get the canter going again and then ride it like I’d just been riding her trot. So I did. Light alternating pulses on the outside rein, softening contact with the inside rein, pushing the energy with my inside leg into my outside rein and leg to keep her shoulder from popping. As Daryl called out with each correction it was an addition to the other layers of aids I was finally using when cantering. Holy cow, it was so much more than just sitting there, but it was so much better. After we finished, Daryl and I chatted about the mental aspect of riding that I would need to be aware of and use at GMHA. We talked about Andrea Monserrat Waldo’s mental tool of deletion and how actively using that not only in riding, but in every aspect of life can lead to a powerful change. Daryl explained that if she thought a negative thought she stopped, deleted it and replaced it with a positive one. That then spilled over into riding cross country. Daryl talked about having ridden the course in her head at least twenty times with different options and plans that all end with a positive result after having walked her course. In effect, Daryl makes the conscious decision to ride boldly and confidently in all of her rides. So that was what I was going to try to do.

After the lesson with Daryl that Monday the week flew by in hacks, a jump school where it became evident that it’s time to start doing 2’9″, because 2’6″ is feeling safe, and one last flat ride where everything suddenly clicked like it had in our lesson, Packy was truly using herself and I was falling back into love with dressage. My times were late for both days, a 3pm dressage time, 4:15pm stadium and on Sunday we would be hitting cross country at 4:16pm. This meant Packy would have the Friday off and Saturday morning I’d doll her up around doing morning chores and hitching up.

As Friday rolled around I cleaned and packed as much as I could so I would be able to fully focus on getting Packy ready and not worrying about the trailer (have I mentioned how much I love having a dressing/tack room in the trailer?).

Saturday felt weird as I was able to shower and dress without being up before the sun, not having to wear my show clothes and not even having to be at GMHA until the afternoon. Packy was insulted that I had “forgotten” her for turnout when I turned out the boys, and she busted her stall chain and then quickly ran up to me to remind me that even though she was still wearing a cooler from having a bath that she was most certainly supposed to go out. I couldn’t help but laugh at her and at how smart she was about knowing her group. Once she was settled back in her stall I finished loading up the few things that had to wait until the morning and started in on braiding her. With her recently shortened mane I chose to try sew in braids. Technically it was the first time I’ve sewn in braids but several of the pieces in my undergraduate thesis were constructed using a similar method of hair sewing, so I felt fairly confident after watching and rewatching the video tutorial Courtney Carson, head groom for Payne Equestrian, had put out with Heels Down Mag at the AECs. Turns out sewing in braids is faster, and I like the process a lot better than yarn. I think yarn will always have its place with manes that I need to tweak that might’ve been rubbed or have short ends, but the sewing process is so simple and effective that it kept my time the same as yarn with more braids put in. In the future I think it’ll go faster when I have the monstrously thick mane Packy has tamed so I can do fewer braids.

I felt good and ready thought. We loaded on time and didn’t hit traffic on our way over which gave me plenty of time to check in, chat with some friends and get ready and on.

Swinging on, and walking over to the dressage warm up was a moment of feeling like I finally belonged. So often I’m volunteering at events, or even grooming, so to finally be on my horse, going to ride my dressage test was a culminating moment of a lot of hard work with a talented, but tough little mare. It was almost like a confident and secure little bubble had popped on me and where I’m normally a nervous wreck I felt good going into dressage warm up. That in turn translated into a good warm up where Packy instantly stretched into the contact at the walk and let her ears flop as I worked on relaxing my thighs, and then loosening and moving her body. In the trot she wasn’t wanting to give, but she was holding a good steady contact which I wasn’t going to complain about. This carried over to some good balanced cantering where I actually rode like Daryl had been encouraging on Monday. We just felt ready.

As the steward told me we were on deck I slipped my coat on that Kali and Stephanie had been holding (warming up for dressage without a jacket on was like the best thing ever), had one last tweak and then went to go do our thing. Packy felt a bit sticky in the test and she didn’t want to really listen to my seat cues for half halts which meant that I had to use my rein, which then meant she over reacted, but I was able to smooth it out quickly and keep her going.

Both of our canter transitions ended early, but the quality of canter and ending at E and B versus before them was improvement. By the end I felt good, of course Packy decided to trip when we halted (seriously mare…), which probably cost us a half point, but it was a good start to the weekend. At the time I had no idea what I’d score, other than I felt good about it. In order to focus on my job I don’t look at my tests until after I’m off of cross country. This sort of creates a surprise factor because I have no clue where I am in the division, but it makes for a great moment when you finally see that you’d gotten a 37 on a test that we’d been scoring in the high forties and low fifties in.

I basically had enough time between dressage and stadium to let Packy cool out a bit and then tack up so I could watch a few rounds to learn my course and then warm up. By that point the fact that I’d only eaten a granola bar was catching up to me along with the heat and the nerves of jumping stuff.

Fun fact: I suck at feeding myself at horse shows when I’m riding.

I was able to focus in and with Lea’s help get warmed up and ready to go. At this point Bonnie had also gotten there, as in Packy’s owner who hasn’t been to a show in about a decade Bonnie. I thought it would make me even more nervous but seeing Bonnie who believes so much in us and just wants us to be happy was grounding as she and my parents wandered to the rail so they could watch. Packy warmed up well for stadium. When I had gotten on her I thought she was tired because of how quiet she was at the walk, but when I asked her to trot she blasted off in a keen quick trot clearly knowing that it was time to do some of the fun stuff. Luckily Packy doesn’t take much to warm up for jumping and this was apparent as Lea helped us warm up (have I mentioned lately how awesome Lea is? No? Well there’s your monthly reminder) and Packy was so tuned in to my cues and aids. She was listening and as a result she was jumping beautifully while I attempted to muster the energy to do my job. We went to watch a few before my round and of course that’s when someone went flying off over their horse’s head as a good reminder for me to sit back. Bonnie came over and gave me a pat on the leg, and a smile and I felt incredibly grounded. We went in and as I jumped the first fence it was as if this switch went off: this was fun. Here I was riding a super little mare that I have a great partnership with, at our big show of the year, and the jumps were suddenly looking small, and we felt great. This. Was. FUN. We caught two rails, but came inside the time and I was just happy to of had a good round with my special girl. I did make it in the time which meant I was only heading to cross country with eight penalties.

After saying goodbye to everyone I was able to walk my cross country and start “riding it” in my head like Daryl talked about. I knew what she’d spook at. Where I’d need to swap my crop just in case I needed it and towards the end walked up to the ramp I’d fallen off onto while schooling. It looked smaller than the first time I’d approached it while schooling, but it still gave me butterflies (falling off onto things tends to do that) and had been the origin of me now being wary of any ramp on course. So I started to worry, I stopped myself, “deleted” that worry and talked myself through how I was going to jump cleanly over it with no issues and how I would use the terrain to help set me up.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised that everything had started looking normal and fun to me instead of massively huge like it had in the beginning of the summer when we were moving up. I told Packy all of this as I put her shipping boots on before we went back to the barn where she was happy to go boss her boys around and graze after a long show day. I’d thought briefly about stabling, but then realized it was silly to stable when we’re so close to GMHA and Packy could have her comfy box stall and I could sneak in about eight hours of turn out for her to make for one very happy pony, versus spending the money for stabling and having her not get turnout. Turnout is key when you’re a sassy pony mare. So as she sauntered out to her boys it was a good feeling, making me excited to “run and jump all of the things” the next day.

A Pregnant Pause

So it’s been a while, as in July a while. Quite a bit has happened whether it’s good, bad or spectacularly ugly. I’ve managed to actually run Beginner Novice twice with Packy. They haven’t been nearly as pretty as our introductory runs, but I’m placing that as proof that we’re doing ugly learning (I need to ride every fence like I want it) and that in turn means we’re at the appropriate level. Dressage is still a total crapshoot depending on how merciful Packy is feeling on that morning and wether we’re doing the A test that Packy insists is the only true dressage to exist, or the B which results in partial canters (because she is a pony mare) that have gotten longer and better each time. The jumping has turned into something else though. Packy has changed how she jumps for the better and thanks to timing show jumping at a couple of events and watching a million rounds I’ve started to be able to “see” the jump versus a horse just jumping. It’s changed how I view jumping, and how to ride to jumps. I’ll still throw in moments of kick and pray, but I’m trying to think about how I approach jumps on cross country and stadium.

My first Beginner Novice was at Huntington, their recognized trials had been cancelled due to freak flooding so the courses were the unused ones from the recognized event. Luckily I had no idea about that until well after the fact. It was a rough day. Our dressage warmup had been good but as soon as we went into the ring Packy just deflated and we put in a lack luster test. It started as a hot, humid day, and just built from there. By the time we were going to run cross country we were both hot, sweaty and unenthusiastic about galloping around. Several of the juniors had come off on cross country so there was a large delay. We left the start box close to an hour after our scheduled start time determined to just have a safe run. I had felt gross all warm up and tried to push it out of my mind as we took the first two jumps. Coming up to the third we were faced with a ramp with brush steeplechase style fence. I saw the ramp, freeloaded, and Packy politely ran out. I got my act together and we easily blasted over and then went up the following hill on our merry way. That’s when I realized I couldn’t breathe. Remember me mentioning the heat and humidity? Well my lovely little asthmatic lungs decided that despite the albuterol they were done trying to fully function. Cross country then became a game of Packy nursing me around the course with her taking over a lot of the speed while I vaguely steered and kicked on over the fences. At one point she just stopped between fences while I briefly thought about retiring and then stupidly decided to keep going. My friends had luckily come to watch me jump and got me back together enough for stadium where I was very much out of it and didn’t support Packy the way I need to over the fences. So one run out and rails later I had completed my first Beginner Novice and we were standing in the stream to cool our feet out until my friend Ashley and her horse Irish (Packy’s boyfriend) came to do stadium at their first training level event together. Somehow, we ended up in fifth (thank you Ashley for making me check the standings instead of just grabbing my test). Looking back and thinking about how the jumps felt, despite the fact I felt like I was dying, they felt good. The combination was a breeze for Packy and the down hill jump I sort of wondered about turned out to be easy thanks to all of the good schooling we’ve done on the GMHA banks. Stadium was what it was. Packy can make up for some stuff when jumping, but she needs an accurate ride in stadium and I didn’t give it to her.

Eric Smiley talked about riding being a partnership earlier this spring. He said that it was more than just two individuals working together. Partnership is two individuals, who equally understand their job, working together for a common goal. I didn’t hold up to my end of the bargain and it showed.

Partnership is two individuals, who equally understand their job, working together for a common goal.

This meant I was looking for another Beginner Novice to run at the schooling level before the closing date for GMHA. I had a few options and all of them meant driving at least ninety minutes each way. I had hoped that Hitching Post would have their August schooling trial on a weekend or before I couldn’t take week days off, but they put it on the very first week day I couldn’t take off. That meant I ended up going down to Green Acres Stables’ schooling event and two phase to try and assess how ready we were before I plunked down the most expensive entry fee I’ve ever paid.

As jump schooling I managed to go to the last Tamarack Hill Farm Jumper Show and Packy definitely brought her A game. She was actually so fired up that I needed help getting on because she wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to get my leg over. We did the 2’3″ and 2’6″ divisions and ended up in third in the 2’3″ division over several riders that I look up to in the local scene. Packy was great and it gave me confidence going down to Green Acres Stables in the jumping phases.

The week leading up to it was a slightly stressful event as my dressage saddle that had apparently not been fitting super well decided that it was done fitting at all. This meant poor Packy had a very sore back and spent part of the week not being ridden. That also meant that I’d have to be competing and riding everything in my very forward flapped, close contact Barnsby Milton. Not exactly ideal, but we’d make do.

We got to GAS early and settled in quickly before getting ourselves together for dressage. We put in an okay dressage test that was better than our last B test (canter sections I’m looking at you). I threw Packy on the trailer and went to walk my XC course and hopefully stadium if I had time. The good news was that I felt good walking the XC. The bad news was that I was looking at some jumps that were legitimately smaller than the introductory jumps at Hitching Post and Huntington, oh and no water. The course had a long weird gallop/canter spot that was sort of in the woods, but not really. It was ripe for Packy to put in a good spook to just because she can, (spoiler alert: she totally spooked sideways at a tree, I might’ve nearly fallen off), thankfully the last two fences were actually Beginner Novice fences. So we went to warm up and Packy wasn’t dragging me like she normally does. In dressage warm up she’s never taking the lead, but in cross country warm up she’s typically trying to get me to skip our trot start and move right to the canter and hand gallop. We turned to a fence and Packy slipped on a giant pile of manure from the warm up being a paddock. No big deal, assess how she feels and keep going. We walk to the start and she’s still just sort of flat. It’s hot out, but I know I have her fit enough. We leave the box and she perks up as we approach a simple log jump, get ready for take off and she’s suddenly stopping and running away from the jump. At this point in my head I knew I had two choices, retire, or see if she’d jump it and then assess how jump two felt. I knew we needed to at least try to jump it again, so I went to turn her to the jump and Packy decided to attempt to run back to the trailers instead. Um, hell no. At that point we had to jump the damn log. So a quick thwap of the crop later we were heading back to the log. I bridged my reins and as we took off I smacked her butt to make sure we were getting over. Then we were off to fence two and Packy locked on and jumped it like a champ. Bingo, we were in business. Even at the ramp with brush (my bogey fence) she flew over. She then tried to do the double up bank that was flagged as a double down for a different level, but I was able to pull her off of it and redirect for our next fence. She did spook in the weird gallop/trail place, but I stayed on and we got around well. We then started walking to stadium as I realized I hadn’t had time to walk the course- whoops.

As I got to the in gate I asked the steward who then told me she didn’t know the course but another person in my division was there and was very nice and told me what in the heck I was supposed to jump. So in we went and it started well, actually really well. Packy was jumping nicely, using her shoulders, making a nice bascule, I was doing my job well. Then I sort of forgot where the next fence was which stalled our momentum. I thought we’d regained it as we jumped the next jump well, but as we approached the stone wall Packy put in another dirty stop. So I circled her little butt around as I gave her a quick smack and she jumped the ever loving snot out of it, and we finished up well.

It was weird to have dirty stops and it worried me. With her back having been sore earlier in the week I had made sure to test it before and after each phase, but she didn’t react at all. Of course after I picked up my dressage test where a very unhelpful and slightly rude comment had been made in the rider section I just sort of quietly lost it. Wondered about why I was trying to do any of this, wondered if I was hurting Packy, wondered if I was doing something wrong and breaking horses after fighting for so long with Pi’s body to keep him sound. Packy of course looked at me and in another one of her valuable moments nudged me for a cookie. It hit me then. To her it didn’t matter whether we did well. Frankly, it’s a small miracle in itself that a year later we’re parked in a field having gone Beginner Novice all by ourselves without a stitch of coaching at the show and I knew how to correct the issues instead of shutting down and not riding. Packy despite having two stops jumped well and actually seemed to enjoy herself and was personable where a year ago she was shut down, ring sour, jump sour, people sour and wanted to be done with any sort of riding. Instead we were standing at the trailer and her playfully insisting she needed more cookies. She was right, of course, and she got more cookies. I pulled myself together and took her for a walk to check the standings, because if I’d learned anything at Huntington it was that you always check them. And yet again, I got a small reality check because we ended up in eighth in a division of twelve. Not awe inspiring, but better than the dead last I’d mentally painted in my head. So I made a plan to get a jump/XC lesson in before closing for GMHA and to assess after the lesson about whether I should enter.

Overall it’s been a crazy summer with a lot of competing and volunteering at different horse trials and even grooming. It’s surreal that I’m on the cusp of making my goal for the year happen with Packy. Hopefully it turns out well.

-k

Pushing On

Sometimes I walk into the cool aisle-way and have no desire to get on a horse. The cool breezes slip around me carried by the valley, and the serenity of grazing horses makes me want to just stop and savor. I’ll take a moment to ground myself in the moment before trudging to whatever far corner Packy is grazing in before tacking up on the empty, almost skeletal barn to ride. 
Often the only interaction I’ll have at the barn is with the horses and barn cats, that’s what happens when a lesson program stops but the barn still keeps going. Where young girls once filled the barn with laughter, chatter and energy is now quiet solace of the five remaining horses. Sometimes I think about the hustle and bustle that used to explode out of the small red and weathered cedar barn and miss it sharply, but most days the drive to improve and the lure of the all seductive “good ride” keep me moving as I brush the dirt off of Packy and tack up for whatever task is on my self imposed whiteboard for the day.

All in the chase of what? A three dollar ribbon that might someday lead to more. Sure, keep tacking up when you could be at the beach. Keep braiding when you could be out having fun with friends. Keep pushing to fit in that last gallop when it means dinner will be waiting in the oven with everyone else in bed. Write another show check that’ll mean waiting another month to buy those jeans because yours have holes. Just keep pushing.

It’s more than that. The push, the drive, the ever intoxicating pull of those fleeting moments of true joy found on horseback call out like a siren. It makes me hungry for more.

I’m a twenty four year old amateur, riding a 13.2 pony mare that makes faces that defines the very term “mare glare”. Riding alone, getting lessons when I can afford them and always praying the dressage gods will be on my side. In that barn with red painted Dutch windows, a breeze slipping through, with weathered cedar siding I’ll be there perfecting my french braided mane, crisp, smooth polo wraps and occasionally a quarter mark. Pushing through the loneliness to better myself for the sport I love and the certain gelding and sassy little mare I couldn’t live without. Thinking to myself that someday I’ll be at that barn with the trainer and all of the time for lessons and money for horses. Someday I’ll pull into the show and have younger girls whisper my name. Someday I won’t feel like giving up because I haven’t had a good ride in weeks and the show is coming up. Someday it’ll all be easier, but if it isn’t? I’ll still be there pushing.

-k

No, Not That Finger & Catch Ups

The week before last was both low key and a lead up to a show. After Packy and I rocked around the Eric Smiley Clinic the following Monday was a good let down for her and myself. Granted I still got to muck the trailer and haul all of my stuff out of it to then clean and regroup for the week and the schooling trials on Saturday. 

Elvis made some “modifications” from when he went out

On Tuesday we puttered around on the flat and didn’t do all of that much. It sort of became the theme of the week as we spent it slowly puttering around and hacking around. 

When Wednesday rolled around we managed to sneak in a little gallop after the fields had dried out enough.

Goodbye yucky metal, hello cedar and vinyl

Thursday and Friday ended up being prep days so Packy ran amok happily with the boys in the high field. Our indoor was also having the vinyl put up on the last side so it felt like we were dodging construction as they worked to put up the vinyl. 

Saturday morning Packy, Ruby and I loaded up and headed up to Hitching Post Farm for what would hopefully be my last run at Introductory. I’ve found that Ruby is effective at curbing my nerves so having her along is very helpful. She was just excited to be invited along. We rolled in and after I made sure Packy was settled Ruby and I went to collect my packet and walk my course. When I walk my course alone I start wishing I have a trainer or at least another person walking with me, but I didn’t, so Ruby was my stand in. It’s hard to get nervous when Ruby is happily trotting over the jumps. 

After we got back I looked at my phone and realized that I was late tacking Packy up. One speed dressing and tacking later we hit the dressage warm up with eight minutes until our time. Luckily everything was running a bit behind so I had enough time to at least feign a warm up. Packy wasn’t impressed though. She felt stuck, behind my leg and wasn’t impressed with some of the juniors that had their trainers in the middle of the warm up practically teaching a lesson. After trying a couple of things to get her to go forward I finally lightened my seat and told her to just go. Usually Packy will then happily go into a nice extended canter, but I still ended up with a slightly soggy canter that transitioned into an okay canter. During that I couldn’t get my thighs to relax and just lay like they were supposed to. We then went down to the dressage ring to watch the end of the test before mine. Stephanie was there to watch and she came to the rescue by quickly working some massage magic on my thighs. I’m not sure what she did but I went from feeling like my thighs were tight blocks to actually feeling like muscles that could relax or tightened as needed. Packy was tense and hollow for most of our test which hurt our score, but I was able to focus on actually riding which meant our shapes were fairly accurate and our transitions were correct, although a few were “prompt”. We ended up tied for fifth with a 43.2, but true to form I had no idea because I refuse to check my scores until I’m completely done so I can’t wig myself out. 

hanging out after dressage

I was able to watch some friends go and then I went to tack up for XC with help from my friends because yet again I was running late (do you see a theme here?). Luckily Packy is easy to warm up for jumping. It’s sort of magical how she changes from a very relaxed mare into a spicy fiery tamale ready to go and jump all of the jumps at the fastest speed I’ll allow. I did have a sacrifice fence in the warm up where a certain mare decided to ignore my half halt. That quickly got her listening and we went over to the box to start the course. As we cantered out of the box and towards the first jump I felt good. Packy started to suck back a little bit from the first jump, a pole with tires, and when I went to tap her with my crop I realized that I’d left it hanging in my trailer. Luckily with a little leg and a good kiss squeak Packy locked on and over we went. I was then able to put her in cruise and we easily hopped the “small log” and carried on down to the “brown log” after that we had to make a weird right hand turn to go over the mound.

small log to the brown log

 Packy landed on the left lead so we popped down into a trot until the mound where we picked the the canter again and easily went up and over the mound and then up to the “large log”. 

mound to the big log

At that point we looped back to go through the water. Our schooling with Ava paid off as Packy easily cantered through the water and then I put on a little speed to carry us to the “brown coop”.

the water

 With a good half half Packy easily powered over the cool and then we blasted away from the coop, up the hill and over the final “small log”.

brown coop to small log and finish

It was easy, and took us all of ninety seconds to do. Show jumping was similar. The course flowed and we easily puttered along it, keeping our regularity, going double clear. It was satisfying at how focused I was on the riding and that I was able to keep my nerves at bay. It was also rewarding that our double clear round moved us up to fourth after some people placed ahead of me had rails, were eliminated, or as I was told: had issues with the water.

not half bad

This gave Packy a well deserved Sunday off while I puttered around the barn after I cleaned all of my tack at home the night before. 

As Monday rolled around I knew I needed to get a good dressage lesson in before GMHA. Sue Berrill had been the judge for dressage and I had previously chatted with her about getting some lessons, so a quick exchange of messages later Sue was going to let me know if she had time to fit me in before she left to teach a camp. In the mean time the trails had dried up so Packy and I just hacked, and hacked.

doing our favorite “butt blaster” loop

 No motivation to ride? Go for a hack. On Wednesday we got a short gallop breeze in on a trail loop that we’d been riding. The hacking and little breezes are perfect for getting Packy fit with a low impact on her and she relaxes while we hack so it helps to build the correct muscles we struggle to build in the ring. 

all done!

Thursday rolled around and it seemed I’d caught a cold from work. I made it through the farrier in the morning, but after lunch I just needed to sleep and try to fight whatever cold I had. So home I went and on Friday I slept for most of the day. I managed to drag myself to pay my entry for GMHA and by the time PM turn in rolled around I was feeling quite a bit better. 

Ruby “helping” with chores

In the mean time Sue had gotten back to me and we planned on meeting at GMHA the next day for a lesson. When I went to hitch up I was greeted with a slightly frightening sight of the trailer jack precariously gripping into the block I use to prop the jack. Apparently with some of the torrential rain we’d had in the previous week the trailer shifted forward. Luckily the chocks caught it, so combined with the large block I was able to carefully hitch up with Emily’s help without having to detour to get the tractor. 

yikes!

Packy easily loaded up on the trailer and we hit the road to GMHA. Normally it takes me 30-45 minutes to get to GMHA, with traffic in Woodstock it took me over an hour. Sue met us there and we popped over to the dressage rings to work on our dressage. Sue instantly began working on my position. She took the point of having a flat pelvic floor and expanded the concept to having three points of contact to focus on, the pelvic bone, and both seat bones. She then encouraged my knee to drop and relax away from the thigh block while my heel went towards Packy’s stifle. That shifted me forward and better into balance. In the mean time, Sue asked me to open and drop my shoulders while keeping good contact. I can find it challenging to open my shoulder some days with the mystery that’s brewing in my left shoulder, when it’s flared and has created a mass that physically keeps my left shoulder from opening my sternum and rib cage. So I kept trying to open my shoulders and keep them opened. It then became a game of me trying to keep the corrections with my body that Sue had made while maintaining a good tempo of pace with Packy. Sue was able by correcting my body to get Packy moving through her body and connecting to my hand via the bit. Packy still wasn’t “on the bit” but the change was definite in how she was moving. There was a half second of extra lift as Packy lifted under and loaded more weight behind lightening her front. It wasn’t a drastic difference, but it was there.  Throughout the lesson Sue would ask me different questions to help keep me aware, how was my tempo, was she straight enough, what were my hands doing. All of these little things that needed to constantly happen. It was slightly overwhelming at first, but it felt right once I’d been doing it for a little while. Sue also got after my poor habit of letting my fingers loosen and just use my pointer fingers to really hold and use the reins. She informed me that the pointer finger connects to the pecs which creates a closed and tight contact, while the ring finger connects to the traps and back to the scapula  and back to create an open and strong contact based more in the properly opened shoulders and sternum. So basically you can use the wrong finger. As the lesson progressed Sue asked me to move Packy along with my outside leg. She’d mentioned it before and it made no sense as to why I’d use my outside leg to get Packy moving and turning. So I asked why. The answer made total sense. Sue explained that the outside leg needed to more larger in order to keep pace with the inside leg as it turns to keep balanced. Sue explained it like manual wheel chair turning which made sense. Sue elaborated that the hind legs are interdependent in each other for moving and creating a powering force to load and engage. She also reminded me to gently cue with my leg and “don’t squash her”. The whole lesson was so dynamic and full of good information. The best part was that Sue gave me homework and an overarching idea of how to continue the work we did in the lesson on my own. After we finished Kate and Emily had brought Mic and Kissa over so I cooled Packy out by walking them over to the first cross country field. I then used the brook that runs through the campus to my advantage by doing some cold therapy in a deeper part of the water. 

waiting for the rest of the herd to come in for dinner after our lesson

When Sunday rolled around I went over in the evening when everything had cooled off and took Packy for a good canter and light gallop set. It was wonderful to let her stretch her legs and work on maintaining a set pace, not that I have any clue as to the speed we were going, Packy wasn’t happy that she couldn’t just gallop but she came back easily so after a couple of back and forths and I asked her to go on our last length. Packy responded almost joyfully by blasting into a strong gallop. The experience of just letting her go and flatten out and she speeds across the field is one of my favorites and helps to cement why I love eventing. Going fast is fun. Now to prep for the starter trials at GMHA, and my first beginner novice.

Cheers,

-k

A Weekend with Eric Smiley: Part 2

Waking up and getting ready to go hitch up and load up for day two of Eric Smiley made me painfully aware of how little time I spend in my light and half seat. I was sore, and determined to slip more light and half seat into my daily riding work to avoid feeling that way again, but I still had day two to conquer with Packy. I also knew from the previous night that Eric was going to make me face my nerves of going down hill at speed. Pulling in a bit before lunch time I felt lucky finding a good shady spot because it was hot, like drippy icky, just don’t want to do unless you’re in a river hot. I was glad that I was sans Ruby and quickly set to work getting Packy situated on the trailer with water and free reign to get to her haynet on top of her already full manger.

This gave me time to find my other group members and chat a bit before pulling Packy off of the trailer to tack up and get ready to go. Eric met us under some shade and had us recap back to him some of the concepts from the day before to make sure we were all on the same page for communication. He then proceeded to tell us that his goal for the day included teaching us, but ultimately it was that he got us back safely and hopefully had some enjoyment in the lesson. So off we went and following Eric he brought us down to the path from the dressage warm up to the actual dressage rings that are almost in a pit at Hitching Post. From there Eric had us walk up and down the angled path at the walk in light seat, talking about balance and support being similar for both up and down. Then he told us to trot. It went well at first but then Packy, my ever intelligent girl, figured out we were just going up and down and wanted to expedite the process by cantering up; because “Why do it slow like Eric said when you can do it fast?” Packy clearly thought.

up and down, our theme for the day

Eric then brought us back into the shade of the path and started to chat with us about our stirrup length and that or stirrups were too long. This sent alarm bells off, because during the winter Mary Brust had already cranked my stirrups up several holes this past winter at Jumper Sundays, and while I knew I’d put them up more for Eric, I really didn’t want to. So as he went around fixing lengths he finally got to me and said that I just needed to work more on balancing out of my seat, and keeping a more backed up position that allowed my leg to do more work with the holding and bracing for the light seat. Eric then made the ever reoccurring comment for us that Packy’s neck was short and if I didn’t brace back properly I’d go right over- story of my life.

getting ready to canter

After that Eric had us leave the nicely shaded path and started us trotting on a hill doing serpentines to work on our light seat positions while doing more than just a straight line. It became easier to hold and brace myself properly going downhill, but I still had to do more posting going up because my muscles just aren’t strong enough (yet) to hold a light or half seat up a hill. I was feeling comfortable doing that when Eric then told us it was time to canter, first just up hill, but then also downhill. At this point I got a little nervous but took a leap of faith. I knew Packy wasn’t going to get us into any bad spots, and Eric knew what he was doing. So I gathered my reins and said go.

go

And it wasn’t bad, in fact it was actually kind of fun to keep our steam rolling as we went up and downhill. Packy knew just how to balance back to keep us going and not feeling like we were going to flip over (Eric might sort of famously talk about horses having the ability to run up and downhill because the wolf won’t stop if its coming for them). Then Eric pointed at a log and told us to do everything the same as yesterday and throw our hearts over it and up the hill afterwards. So we did.

zoom zoom

Eric then had us move up to the top of the hill where he had us weave between the jumps. As soon as I directed Packy to go between the jumps and keep turning to we’ve she went straight into physio poles mode. She flicked her ear back at one point as if to ask when it was going to get hard (thank you Liz for challenging us every time at physio poles). We even wove between two fences that another woman said were too close together, Packy and I knew otherwise after some of the crazy things we’d done as patterns this past winter.

Eric then called us back in and chatted about the fence we were about to jump. He emphasized that it was the same exact size as the stuff we’d jumped yesterday. He then went on to expand that as we’d gone weaving around none of our horses had spooked so they had no excuses about stops or runouts. So Packy and I then popped over the small ladybug jump and it was easy.

easy peasy

Eric then turned us to the coop on the top of the hill while repeating his ever encompassing phrase of “change nothing”. Looking at the coop I reminded myself that Packy could do it and Eric wouldn’t send any of us over anything he didn’t think we could safely jump. I was third in line and each time the two women and their geldings refused. So as Packy and I approached I made sure my leg was and and she was going. I shouldn’t have worried though, because Packy locked on and easily hopped right over it like it was no big deal.

Packy to the rescue

and two more for good measure 

Eric called us back in and then asked us the odd question of when the last time we’d ridden a rollercoaster, it made sense quickly as Eric began to explain that jumping and then running up and down hill was like riding a rollercoaster, you go and down but the forces equal out in the end. As per usual Eric made it sound easy, combined with the success Packy and I were having I was feeling confident and excited to “ride the roller coaster”. Eric told us to go, so we did.

riding the rollercoaster

the pony rollercoaster runs both ways

Eric gathered us back up and then told us it was time to go over to the other side and do some other jumps. At this point Eric showed no signs of slowing down, the rest of us were pretty hot and the horses happily took the chance to rest a minute and catch their breath. At this point though my mom who was kindly photographing and videoing had to stop and take care of some things which meant she missed a chunk of the jumping.

So Eric brought us to the main jump field and marched us down to the ditches in the lower section of field. He had us follow in line behind him over the smallest of ditches. Packy, true to her nature, boredly followed over leading the line. Eric then had us  trot over the ditch. Every other horse jumped the ditch and Packy didn’t even bother and just trotted over the small ditch. Eric then had us canter over the medium ditch which Packy humored me with a small jump effort. Eric then had us jump a small log down there and then over the ditch. After everyone had done that he asked if there was anything else we wanted to jump. I asked about the small feeder and he said sure. Over the ditch Packy and I went and up to the feeder we cantered. At that point I realized the feeder was larger than I thought, but I kept my leg on and Packy got us over with ease.

Eric then brought us back up to the main jump field and told myself and another girl to go jump the smaller cottage that was in the clearing right above the lower part where the ditches are. So over we went and then we jumped back over to go back to the group. Eric then sent us up a hill and to some logs jumps at the top. Eric explained that when you’re going over terrain its useful to use the natural lay of the land to help us as we move between questions on a course. Eric’s little lecture then transitioned into us using the land to help guide us around to different fences as we began to string fences together. Everything was going well and Packy even put in a brilliant jump over a larger hanging log fine until another woman was flipped over her horse and landed on her head on the same jump after she got ahead of her horse that had been putting in some stops. She seemed to be okay other than being upset and Eric carefully guided the woman and her horse over some smaller exercises to help get a successful experience before we moved onto the last exercise.

The last exercise was creating a more economic line. A rider going slower could potentially have a better course time than a faster rider simply by taking better lines around any course. Eric had us jump three fences and then he had us try to better the time we had by using our lines better. It became an extension o jumping off of a circle from the previous day in that we only needed to be straight one stride out from any of the fences we were jumping. It was an obvious exercise but key. I hadn’t even realized I had taken such wide turns until Eric asked me to shave five seconds off. Truly approaching each fence and in turn every space between fences to be considerate and competitive for the entire course.

Finally we ended by jumping one last log jump where Eric asked us to get closest other largest part, Cantering up to it I felt fine, until I got close and then I questioned jumping it as I put more leg on and pushed Packy over it. After as we all stood under the shade f a tree and debriefed I was left with the feeling of being ready to move up. Everything, minus the very last log, felt appropriate and very doable. We’d spent the last ninety minutes in the heat jumping and not only had Packy kept up with the larger horses, she was frequently more forward and moved through the exercises with more pep. Even at the end she still had go left in her and strode back to the trailer after we’d finished with Eric. By the time I pulled out after watching Kate and Kissa’s stadium lesson I still felt good. I felt prepared and confident for the upcoming weekend in the jumping phases and ready to move up to BN if the upcoming weekend went well. Riding with Eric had been worth every penny.

Packy after a long and very educational weekend

Cheers,

-k

 

A Weekend with Eric Smiley: Part 1

Last year I audited the bi-annual Eric Smiley clinic. How cow, he made so much sense. The way Eric talked not only made sense, but explained several concepts I’d been struggling with while riding Pi. I had breakthroughs by just auditing, but I wanted to actually ride with him. Fast forward to the fall clinic and it was during the week so I couldn’t go to ride, let alone audit. So I bided my time. Fast forward yet again to this spring and as it turned out Kate was going to organize it. Best of all? It was Saturday through Monday- I could do it. So I signed Packy and I up for show jumping and cross country. There was a dressage option, but I felt that I could find time with Heidi who already knew how to help us so effectively for dressage instead, so jumping it was.

Who is Eric Smiley:

Eric is an Irish rider who evented at the olympic level, A BHS fellow, FEI international judge (part of that means he’s frequently a ground jury member), director of the International Eventing Forum, breeds sport horses and teaches an incredible amount of clinics.

The Friday before Packy had the day off other than getting a bath (going to a clinic reeking of skunk doesn’t fly). I planned my schedule of when to hitch up and leave while I cleaned my tack before packing everything obsessively. I have anxiety and for me when I get nervous about a horse adventure I work it out by being overly prepared. It’s just how I roll and it seems to work. Every time I get less anxious (I’ll probably regress when I move up to BN) about the process.

Saturday morning rolled around hot with a promise of just heating up. Ruby helped me pack the truck up with the rest of my stuff and I was ready to go. I thought I’d left Ruby behind, but I was halfway to Route 5 when I saw a white and brown flash in my side mirror. It turns out Ruby had decided to invite herself along on the horse adventure. I didn’t have time to bring her back home so along she went with me.

I got to the clinic early enough to watch the majority of one of the sessions before mine, Ruby made friends and decided clinics are kind of boring because it’s a lot of waiting. I had quickly hung a bucket of water and gave Packy her head in the trailer with all of the windows and upper doors open so she could relax before I pulled her off the trailer to get ready.

Ruby watching dressage

In the dressage Eric talked a lot about the accuracy of the line you ride and using the shoulders to direct that line to make symmetry in the shapes you ride. It sounds so simple when Eric explains it, and he’s brilliant at quickly scaffolding from a beginning exercise or correction to the larger overall picture or the perceived problem you’ve brought to him.

waiting in the shade

It got the point where I had to leave to tack up so we left the dressage session that was happening and I popped Packy off of the trailer. She’s a pro at traveling and all things off farm related so she stood happily munching on her haynet while I got her ready to go. I was ready early enough to get on and watch the last bit of the session going on so we stood in the shade watching as Eric schooled a Thoroughbred gelding that wasn’t keen to listen to leg. Eric sat stirrupless on the ornery gelding and asked him to move off of the leg at the trot. Every time the gelding didn’t respond Eric gave him a quick swat with the crop which resulted in a buck from the gelding not wanting to be corrected. After about five minutes the gelding realized it was easier to simply listen and accept the leg aid when Eric gave it. It was so simple in the execution but watching you could clearly see that Eric’s riding skill backed up what he was teaching. While he finished up with the group Packy and I wandered down to the stadium course to do our typical walk meandering before starting our warm up.

Eric meeting Packy

Eric came down and we started with his typical “tell me a story”. Eric asks for you to not tell him the horse’s name, he calls all of them Blossom, then two things you like about the horse and one thing you’d like to change or work on. I was with two other women who ride together at their home barn in Connecticut. For them it was more of working on confidence and getting going with their horses. For Packy my ongoing goal is always a better acceptance of the rein aids so she’ll actually stretch down into the contact. Eric listened to us, and then asked us several questions like: what is partnership?. He had specific responses in mind that he had us figure out as we gave responses. For partnership it was a little different than what we think of, but totally brilliant. Partnership: two individuals, who understand their roles, working together for a common goal.

“From the legs, to the hindquarter, to the back, to the shoulder, to the neck, to the poll, to the jaw, to the bit, to the rein, to the hand. That’s how you ride a horse”

-Eric Smiley

Eric’s emphasis on this was that we had to define what we expected the horse to do, whether it be jump something, or do any other number of things. He then went on to have us define and explain several other key things like impulsion, connection, symmetry, and regularity- not rhythm. After that he had us get going and moving at the trot both ways. He had us create a forward trot that the horse was maintaining. He then started to ask us about how we use aids to define a line and how we were supposed to ride the horse. Eric explained that you have to ride back to front and then he listed the components of where we needed start with the energy in order to create a good way of going. To my surprise he then pointed out different things we needed to change to help our horses, Eric then surprised me by saying that I was worrying too much about bend and as a result I was over bending Packy.

quick feedback

He gave us quick feedback on how to help remedy these things (ride straighter). Eric then asked us to canter and then put us up into our light seats. I feel like I should also mention that the temp was in the high eighties and the humidity was nearly fifty percent. Eric wasn’t afraid to push us though and despite being in his seventies didn’t slow down an inch. So as we cantered he tweaked different things on our position and on how the horses were going. Then he put down two poles to guide us on our line to make it more accurate. Packy saw them and went game on. After our winter of physio poles going in-between two poles was easier and when Eric added a pole at the end like a T Packy calmly cantered over it lifting and loading onto her haunches to collect better into the canter.

easy peasy

The pole then became a small vertical that he guided us over telling us to “change nothing, just keep the pace the same”

keeping our regularity

Eric then started us over a small cross rail on a circle, essentially creating the same thing we’d just done but without the guiding poles. He emphasized to keep our bend until about one stride out.

Packy was game for the exercise and we easily made it happen. Packy quickly began to change her stride to meet the jump smoothly while keeping the pace and line I set, and it was really cool how effortless it became. We switched directions and things got harder. For some unknown reason I can struggle with making left handed turns. I made an almost corner shape (Eric would like every person that rides with him to know that corner is a dirty word). With a quick correction Packy and I were back to making smooth turns with no corners in sight. After another quick theory session on extending the idea of regularity between jumps and not worrying about striding, or seeing a stride, we began stringing jumps together.

After we strung together the jumps like a small course Eric called us in after jumping it a few times to wrap up our session. Even though what we worked on seemed so simple Eric had quickly used the simplicity of the exercises to vastly improve how we were riding and as a result how our horses were moving and jumping. Riding with Eric you can’t help but feel able to do anything well with your horse and he does it in a way that sort of sneaks up on you.

Ruby thought hanging out at the trailer was kind of really boring and she should be jumping with us

I walked pack out with the other two women from my group and chatted with them before untacking and hosing packs off before she went back on the trailer so I could watch some of the other jumping groups. watching the other groups where they were a Novice group for one and a group of green horses for another showed just how systematic Eric is in his teaching. for the Novice show jumping group he did the exact same exercises and simply ended up with higher fences and more of them put together. Eric said the same things and taught in the same exact way. His consistency also carried over to the green horse XC group. He taught with consistency and the same effectiveness. He did end up challenging the green horses and within the ninety minutes scaffolded them from struggling over a small log to jumping a Training level question of ditch to bench. It was fantastic to see and let everything he’d told us in our group sink in better.

Later that night Eric came over Strafford Saddlery to chat and spend some non riding time with everyone. Annie has known him for years so its become a tradition for our area to have Strafford sponsor the clinics with Eric in the spring/summer and fall. It was enlightening to hear Eric talk about different parts of tack, riding and how he approaches working with riders that have issues (like a certain person who felt nervous going downhill…). He also spoke some about breeding and some of the stallions that he likes to use. In Europe there are so many more stallions available with the stud system and having quality foals is easily achieved when you’re bringing a nice mare to breed. He also talked about his homebred On The Brash who went double clear at Bramham International Horse Trials in the CIC3* division.

Caroline Powell with On The Brash. photo by Peter Carr

It made for a great evening and made me excited for the following day where he’d be teaching us on the cross country course and I would finally have to address my nervousness of riding and jumping downhill.

Cheers,

-k