Maria’s Horse Tales

We finally went to our first show!  We’ve done the schooling shows at our barn but this was our first “real” show. 

What a lot of work it is to go to a show!  I thought I knew but I really didn’t.  The horse has to be bathed, mane pulled and clipped (this is the fun part).  Then the tack, including the leather halter and lead that is only used for shows, needs to be cleaned.  Why is it that leather gets yucky even when it isn’t being used…  And, if you’re like me you have to clean out the grooming tool carrier thing before you put in everything you think you might need…  Then of course you have to wash the saddle pad and his boots.  He does have to look good you know…  If you’ve never done this before I strongly suggest washing the show saddle pad far enough in advance so it has time to air dry…  Let’s not forget the hunt coat must be dry cleaned (especially if like me last time you wore it you spent some time in the dirt…), you have to buy a new shirt cuz you don’t fit in the one you bought originally and new britches because you can’t seem to stay clean and have ruined the pair you called the “good” ones, and last but not least you have to polish those boots.  Most of it was fun but I think I’ll prepare more of it earlier next time, I will definitely make a list.  Yes, I think there will be a next time, hopefully an even better next time.

On to the actual show.  I live near the barn so I met everyone there, at 6:00am.  And this was a close show!  The trainer loaded my horse although some of the folks loaded their own.  I paid close attention and loaded him myself on the way home.  My horse doesn’t really like to be on the trailer though and we didn’t have stalls so I held him all day while some of the others got a short break by putting their horses on the trailer for almost an hour.  It was a beautiful day for a show.  A little on the warm side but not bad and there was a breeze!

We had no plans to do any jumping classes so I didn’t even stay in the schooling ring.  I mostly hacked in their indoor arena and we even schooled over some fences in there.  All was going pretty well.  Our first class was Limited Under Saddle.  Have I mentioned what a great mover my horse is and how handsome?  Well, he got 2nd out of 7.  This is because the judge wasn’t looking our way when he ducked his shoulder during the canter and drug me half way across the ring.  In our second class, Low Adult Under Saddle, he did it again only much larger and longer.  There were lots of horses in this class, apparently that makes him a bit more excited…  Note to self:  I have to hold my horse in check with body position, not my hands.  He doesn’t like it when I hold with my hands, and it really doesn’t work too well as I found out.  Needless to say, we didn’t get any ribbons in that class and we scratched from the Equitation class.  It’s not really fair to the other riders if I can’t control my horse for me to be in there with them.

So, do I feel bad about how this went.  No.  Do I feel like maybe I wasn’t as prepared as I thought.  Yes.  It’ll be better next time.  I know what I need to work on and how important it is.  I call it a learning experience.  And, I still had a lot of fun.  I got to hang out with my horse all day and do lots of riding in a new environment, that is all good!

I haven’t written in awhile, it seems hard to make time for it…  but I continue to make time for riding, it makes everything else seem worth while.  And, whenever work keeps me away from the barn, I remind myself that the job is what enables me to keep the horse.

We have progressed over the past few months.  Adult riding camp really helped alot this summer.  We worked on relaxing and on building core strength.  After some exercises I can identify (and therefore work on) the muscles which have been shirking their responsibility of holding me up and light on my horse’s back.  It is amazing how much better my horse moves when I am not just collapsing on his back…  It has been quite a while since our last incident (meaning I’m not landing in the dirt while he runs to the other end of the arena).  I could look on the calendar to see how long but I prefer just knowing it was awhile ago.  We are back to jumping full courses, even if they are only 18 inches high jumps.  It was a long road to get there and I’m pleased with our progress, as is our trainer.  Most importantly, Salute really seems to trust me now, even when I screw up.  He still gets nervous but as long as I recover in time, we’re in good shape.

So, we get to go to our first show and actually compete.  We went to one and hung around for 2 days, that was fun for me.  This weekend we’ll go and just do flat classes.  Hopefully in his two years with me he is starting to forget whatever happened to him in his past life.  We’re going to just go and hang out and show him that it’s fun to be at the show, there really isn’t any pressure, it’s like taking a lesson, just in a different ring.

Of course, for me, the show isn’t the only fun part.  This is the perfect excuse to give him a bath and fuss over him for a few days.  He looks so good with his mane pulled and a good clipping job.  I have a friend do his ears still since I haven’t mastered that one.  I was looking forward to braiding his mane but I guess no one is doing that for this show since it’s like a schooling show.  Maybe next month we’ll be ready for a bigger show…

Another first for me this week.  My horse is colicey (not sure how you spell that one).  Monday morning he drank water and acted normal, by 10:00 he was getting fussy.  Tail swishing, pawing, all the normal “I don’t feel well” kind of stuff.  He got a shot and was better for a few hours but when it wore off it was obvious he wasn’t right.  I didn’t get out to see him until 4:00 or so, the trainer/owner filled me in on his lack of progress.  He wasn’t pooping or drinking and just wasn’t himself.  I spent some time with him, I lounged him, I put him in the wash stall, all efforts to get things moving.  None worked.

The vet came out and checked him out, nothing obvious wrong.  Perhaps he’s having an ulcer.  We had another one in the barn that just had ulcers and acted similar.  She gave him some fluids (and did things that made me glad I wasn’t a vet) and gave him some gastro something or another that comes in a tube.  Tuesday, same deal, slightly less tail swishing but no water drinking.  He is really mad at this point, no food, no turn out… I can hear him thinking “this just isn’t fair” and screaming at anyone who passed his stall “where are the treats, at least give me treats!” as he banged on his door.  We soaked a few alfa cubes and gave him those.

 Today is Wed.  He still hasn’t drunk anything although he has left a pile or two and they are starting to look more normal.  The vet came out and gave him some fluid by IV, he is starting to get a bit dehydrated.  Tomorrow we’re taking him in so they can scope his digestive track.  Hopefully that will show what the problem is so we can get him fixed up.

The whole ordeal reminds me of when my son was little.  They can’t tell you what’s wrong and they look at you like you should be able to fix it.  And, you wish you could, but you haven’t got any idea what’s wrong so how can you?  It’s easier with a kid though, at least you can snuggle up with them on the couch and watch movies.  With the horse its just standing in a cold barn trying to give him attention without irritating him any more than he already is.

I’m sure he’ll be fine, and luckily its tax return time so I’ll be able to pay for this…

Today was about getting a feel of the horse’s mouth, aka contact.  Not my best subject but it’s good to keep working on it.  Sometimes, like the first half of the lesson tonight, I just don’t get it.  I feel like I’m keeping a contact but then Kathy points out the slack that keeps appearing in the rein.  So, I pull my reins a bit shorter and up into the air goes his head.  This seems like a losing endeavor to me.  So, I point this out.  Kathy says of course his head is going up, he has no impulsion so if you take back more he must hollow his back, raise his head and be miserable.  I hate that last part.  The miserable part.

Since I’m not getting it Kathy focuses on me for awhile.  I feel bad when this happens, I’m supposed to know what I’m doing…  So, I shorten the reins way up and pull my arms back so I feel like I’m really pulling on his mouth and he stops.  This is not the plan though, we need to keep moving forward, at a good pace.  So, without losing the turn in of the thigh (worked on that for a few weeks now we can’t let it go) I need to start nudging more with my lower leg to get his back end moving.  This was really hard work, I was out of breath after a few laps around.   He is either really lazy or he just hasn’t a clue what I really want from him.  After a few laps of me kicking at him a bit (nudging wasn’t doing it) he is now moving forward at a  better pace (still a bit under though) and he is letting me keep this feel of his mouth.  The second I quit with the lower leg, even for 2 steps, he loses it and up goes the head.  Completely obvious by the way, that I quit with the leg.

The hard part is, it feels like I’m pulling on his mouth, unless I’m giving him enough leg, then it feels right.  I really have to get comfortable with this.  It’s easier at a canter, he likes that gate and moves along better.  When we jumped tonight, all the jumps where I kept a good contact and had good impulsion were good jumps, imagine that.  I had one that could have been bad but since I kept the contact and stayed still, he didn’t even fret over the really long distance.  I think this is progress.

One of the cool things we were working on tonight with all this was transitions.  Another not so strong point.  I tend to pull back when I want a down transition.  What we worked on was making sure we were pushing them forward into a down transition.  It doesn’t make sense and yet it makes perfect sense.  So, if I’m holding a good contact and I push him more with my legs he will hit my hands and slow down and/or stop.  At a walk or canter I have to slow or stop the motion with my hands.  I also will close my fingers a bit more on the reins, not in a pull or tenseness though, that doesn’t work.  And as with any good down transition, lift the chest a bit higher.  Again, done wrong its completely obvious.  That head goes straight up and the back goes down.  Done right, the horse almost sighs with relief.  It’s pretty cool, even if you only get it twice in the whole lesson…

I’ll start with the end tonight.  After the trotting portion of our lesson tonight, I asked Kathy if she would be disappointed if I got off.  She said no, the horses had gotten their shots today so Salute wouldn’t mind an easy night at all.  So, I got off, walked him a bit and put him away.  Why you ask?  Well, my legs were screaming is why.  I could only hold my balance for about half way around the ring and it was killing me.  I started out okay but went down hill quickly on the strength part tonight.  I haven’t had that happen in a long time.

I’m thinking on a positive note, it could be because I’ve been working at it so hard this week.  I know I’m building muscle, maybe it finally caught up to me.  More likely though, is the fact that I’m way out of shape and I raked leaves for an hour and a half before rushing to the barn.  My upper body is tired which means it wasn’t doing its part so the legs had to do even more.  It’s funny how that all works together…

The other interesting thing from tonight was that one of the kids rode Sofie tonight in a lesson.  It was the 6:00 so they were jumping when I got there.  I hadn’t even noticed and I wish no-one had talked about it until it was over, but alas they did.  So, I went to the door and watched her jump the last 2 jumps.  She is so beautiful.  Then I went back to my stall (Salute’s actually) and cried.  Isn’t that silly?  My over analyzing brain was trying to figure out why.  Is it because this is the beginning?  She’s going to be a lesson horse and lots of people are going to ride her.  Maybe.  Kathy and I just talked about it the other night and I thought I was okay with it.  And, I was okay when Desi rode her once a few months ago.  I think its the realization that I’m not good enough to be the one riding her, and training her, and in my mind, she should be my horse.  No one on earth loves her more than me, nor do I think she loves anyone else as much as me.  Life is so unfair.  I’m blessed to have a wonderful horse and here I am whining over this one.  I believe that makes me ungrateful, which is troubling as well.  Am I really just spoiled?  I have a feeling I’ll be pondering tonight for some time…