We Did A Thing!

Way back in July, I tried to take Stitch to his first show. It didn't happen - after loading the trailer the night before, the forecast changed and I awoke at 5am to yet another thunder storm, I decided it wasn't going to happen, went back to sleep, and woke to an email from the show saying it was cancelled due to the weather. 

So, we were going to try for the next show in August.

This show series at a local farm is probably the best bang for your buck in getting show miles on your green horse or rider. They are super accomodating, and when I've taken students in the past I've really liked how they emphasize the schooling aspect of the show. They do three jump rounds per height division (only jumpers). For the first round, a clear round class, they are really good about letting the rider get around, even if they are having problems. If your horse stops and looks at every jump, you will probably still be able to finish the course, especially in the lower levels. The second class, which is an optmal time class, you might get to have a couple of extra stops that won't make you leave the ring, but the third class, which is a Table A (jump off only for the higher divisions) is run with the two stops and you are out rule. I really appreciate that they allow the rider who is maybe having some problems to have a chance to improve with each round .

The first time I took some students there, I was surprised to find that the jumps were all set up in quite a large grass field. I think that the trot poles and crossrail divisions had their course kept closer to the gate, but the rest of the divisions used the whole field. 

So when I went the next year, I was disappointed to find that they were using a much smaller outdoor ring for their courses, which had a deep track around the edge from everyone riding along the fence. I hated it, and wouldn't have liked riding anything bigger than maybe 2'3" in there. 

I didn't attend the following year, but kept an eye on their social media, and it appeared that they were still using the smaller ring. Which would be perfect for my baby horse for his first ride away from home! We weren't planning on going fast, and fences would keep us safely contained. 

Oh, but this year, they went back to the big field. Which I discovered after a barn mate came back from the August show, which I didn't go to because I had barely managed to ride outside all summer, and that week I was so over the plagues of mosquitoes that made being outside this year so unbearable that I just couldn't get any enthusiasm up for going somewhere where I'd have to be standing on grass. Not to mention that I realized that I don't think I'd even ridden Stitch any faster than a walk outside of the arena. Last fall we only walked while we both recovered from injuries, and this summer it definitely didn't happen in the two rides we'd managed before the mosquito plague hit us. 

Summer ended a couple of weeks ago in my neck of the woods, and the mosquitoes have mostly disappeared, so we've been able to get in a few rides outside, including in the grass arena. And proper rides, not just walking around on a loose rein, but actually some schooling.  We also had a night earlier in the week where we set up a pole course in the outdoor sand ring to school over, left the ring and went for a walk, and then returned to trot around another course. 

I was actually feeling prepared for this show. So off we went!

It was a very brisk morning. At my ride time, it was supposed to be 6 degrees celsius, feel like 3. For you non-celsius people, that's just a few degrees above freezing. I over packed a variety of warm clothing, and the thin pair of long underwear I had on under my breeches was just right.

There was a small problem when hitching up the trailer - I wasn't convinced that hitch was seated properly on the ball, and then when I couldn't get the key in to lock it in place, I  really wasn't confident that it was in place, so I took a few more minutes than anticipated getting that sorted out, which put me behind schedule.  By the time I grabbed Stitch from the field, gave him a quick free lunge in the arena, took a potty break (hoping to avoid the porta-potty at the show) and got him loaded we were 30 minutes behind schedule. 

We arrived at about 8:50. The show, and the first flat class that I was supposed to be in, were to start at 9. I unloaded Stitch and my mom went over to the registration tent to get my number, and she came back and said that they were starting the flat classes late. Perfect! 

Stitch stood quietly at the trailer while I tried to fairly quickly tack up. There were only two other trailers parked in the field, but no horses. He was looking around, but in a quiet way, so I was able to tack up and dress myself fairly quickly. For me at least!

The only snafu was after I had to take his bridle off because I thought I had put the browband on upside down after cleaning it (I hadn't) and it was at that moment that Stitch saw the goat that was in the middle of the field we were parked in, which turned him into a giraffe. It took a couple of minutes for me to get his head down enought that I could manage to get the bridle over his ears again.

I led him over to the area where we would be riding, and realized that the flat class was already underway. Oh well, it was my fault for being late. I was hoping to use that as my warm-up, so now would have to use the bigger field area where everyone congregates while waiting to go in the ring.

By the way, have I mentioned that this would be Stitch's first time being ridden away from home? And I had no idea what to expect from my horse?

You know what I didn't expect?

For this horse to just about perfect.

Stitch stood rock sold while I got on, using their too short mounting block, and then he continued to stand still while I put my stirrup back up to it's regular hole. Then he walked around the field on a light rein while the flat classes continued, didn't get phased by the baby pony that was on a lead and screaming for mom who was being ridden in the class, and didn't notice the long ears on the mule that was the only other one riding in that area with me.

Note the mule that we ride past.

I was kind of anticipating being able to get him into the large grass ring to school over the poles before the class actually started, but nope! After the second flat class, which was in the smaller ring that I didn't like, everyone moved over to the jump ring to get started. 

Thus, a little over 15 minutes after I got on Stitch for his first ride somewhere other than home, he trotted into a big grass arena to start his first trot pole class. 

I was so happy with him. Yes, I almost fell off at the very first "jump" when he suddenly stopped with his front feet over the poles. There were fake hedge filler boxes on the other side of the standards that I didn't even realize were there until we left the ring, and the open ends were facing the jump, so I'm pretty sure that's what he suddenly saw.  Then he gave a cute little hop over jump #2, and came back to a walk for #3, which also had white filler boxes pulled to the side in front of the standards that he wasn't sure about. But after that he kind of figured it out, and went the rest of the way around with just a couple of glances.

For the second round, he had a bit more confidence, and thus was a bit more forward. 

The third round, the Table A class, had 9 jumps in it, much to my dismay. I'm old, and neither of us is as fit as we should be. I totally admit that. So there were a couple of turns that I cut a bit so that I could get it done faster. Not gonna lie. We were both feeling like we had done enough that morning. 

There were only 4 riders in my division, so it all went pretty quick.

Ribbons!

Stitch stood quietly for ribbons after all of the classes were done. We got a clear round ribbon for the first class. Then, to my complete and utter shock, in his very first class, Stitch got a 1st place red ribbon! 

He wore his red ribbon proudly. Also, see my later comments about my fashion choice.

I mean, there were only 4 riders, and it was an optimum time class, so it was a crap shoot as to what would win it, but baby horse deserved a red ribbon on that day!

For the last class, we got a third. Turns out it was a speed class, which I didn't know going in, or I would have cut my corners even more! Lol.

It also turned out that the lady on the mule I had been warming up with and casually chatting with, was someone I rode with 25+ years ago! When I came out after my first round, she said "I think I know you", and after exchanging names I realized that we rode together when she was a teenager and I had Farly. She was doing the division after me, so after I undressed Stitch at the trailer we went back to cheer her on. That was also good practice for him to just learn to hang out at ringside. 

Getting his well deserved peppermints.

Then we loaded up, and were back at the barn around noon. 

I was absolutely elated with my horse. He far exceeded my expectations. It was by no means about getting ribbons on this outing - although I won't deny that getting a red ribbon felt pretty good!

Stitch shipped quietly, arrived dry and not full of sweat, stood quietly by himself without being able to see other horses at the trailer to get tacked up, stood completely still for me to faff about getting on, walked around an open area while calmly taking in the sites, trotted away from the gate and horses into a big field after barely warming up, had a couple of green moments over the poles that were just a result of being unsure and cautious, walked calmly back to the gate after the round, and stood on a loose rein while I chatted in between rounds. I could not have expected him to do pretty well everything right on his first ride away from home, and yet he did.

Stitch noticed the alpaca's (llama's?) behind the trees on our way back to the trailer and wouldn't move for a couple of minutes. Thankfully, we were well done with our ride by this time!

Yes, I would have liked him to be just one notch more in front of my leg. But that's a training and fitness issue, and I would far rather have him be quietly looking around and a bit slow than madly leaping and running and full of tension.

The only thing that I wasn't happy about for the day was my fashion choice. The shirt I was wearing is black and grey at home in indoor light. So I put a blue belt on to break up the otherwise monotone look I had going. Turns out the shirt becomes purplie-ish in sunlight. Which looked terrible with my blue belt. I'm quite annoyed by that and that will always be the first thing I see when I look back at the pictures from this day.

Do I think that this will always be Stitch's way of going when we are at somewhere new? I'm not that naive! But it sure makes me excited to start making some plans for the future!

We Tried To Do A Thing

Welp, we tried to do a thing.

Friday, July 3 - Hey, I should take Stitch to his first horse show next weekend! This would also be his first ride away from home. But it would be the most low key schooling show, and the most bang for our buck, to be able to do a flat class and 3 trot pole classes for $60. Stitch loves doing poles, so I figured that a trot pole class would give him something to focus on.

Saturday, July 4 - Got to get the trailer cleaned out if I'm going to use it! I had picked up some bins from Ikea that I was hoping would fit in the rounded shelves of the tack locker of my German trailer. They did, and I even had some empty space left in the bins at the end!

This tack closet hasn't been this tidy in ages!

Saturday, July 4, 10:30 pm - A quick stop at my parent's house on my way home turned into rushing my dad to the emergency room, which resulted in a few days spent in hospital. He's doing fine, went home on Wednesday, which was his 80th birthday, and has some follow-up appointments over the next couple of weeks to find out what caused the problems. 

This put the horse onto the back burner for a few days. When I made it out Stitch just got fed, fly mask adjusted, and doused with fly spray.

I had written off the show. I wasn't going to be able to ride on Thursday, and only having one ride after a week off was probably not setting up a young horse for success at this first show and ride away from home. 

But then my plans on Thursday changed last minute. I could ride! And I'd also be able to ride on Friday! 

The show was back on!

Two rides after a week off for a baby horse would be good enough prep, right?

On Friday we had a pretty quick ride over some pole courses - it had been a while since we had done any. I thought we should probably do a couple.

While I was riding, a huge rain storm swept through the area. We were lucky at the barn that we only got rain with a bit of thunder and lightning. The storm came from the west and stayed south of the barn, but hit the central part of the city pretty hard. We're talking manhole covers flying up due to the huge and sudden amount of rain that came down, accompanied by very strong winds that blew down trees (like the one in front of my brother's house). Mass flooding under overpasses - one picture had a car sitting in water up to it's windows.

But the forecast showed that it was supposed to be fine in the morning, so I loaded my cleaned tack up in the trailer, filled some hay nets, shortened Stitch's mane, and clipped his bridle path and fetlocks. Despite this show being the tiniest, low-key show ever, I still have standards!

And then I went to bed just after midnight with the thunder and lightning of another storm coming through. 

And woke up at 2:30 am to yet another one. 

This time, when I checked the weather app, it was showing a 90% chance of thunderstorms for the times that I would be riding. 

When I woke up after going back to sleep at 5am this is what the forecast for the horse show area showed. I was planning to be on just after 8:30 am.

I sent my mom a message, and told her that when she woke up at 5am to accompany me to the show to go back to bed. We weren't going. 

The show was to be held on grass, and with all the rain that had come down over the last 14 hours I'm sure it would be slippery as hell, and for a young horse who's likely going to be all over the place that wouldn't make for a good experience. Not to mention that if a thunderstorm did start up while I was there, the area that we would be in is completely open with no shelter available. Horses would have to be stuffed back onto their trailers to wait it out.

 If I was going to attend, we would have had to leave the barn with the horse loaded at about 7:15 am as we would have been in the first class at 9am (if they started on time). At about 9:25am, I got an email from them saying that they were cancelling the show due to the forecasted thunderstorms. I hadn't pre-entered, but had had to request access to the forms on their Google Drive account, so they must have just sent the message to anyone who had requested the forms.

I was a little disappointed, but it wasn't going to be worth getting out of bed early on this day.

I went shopping instead, and ended up parked on a major freeway in the middle of the afternoon waiting out yet another storm coming through. This freeway is notorious for flooding in major rainfalls, and I had checked a weather app just a few minutes earlier to see when the storm was going to hit, and it showed that I should have been good to get to the other side of the city before it started. It was wrong. And yes, once I got going again, I took a risk and stayed on the freeway, only to find that the next overpass was flooded underneath. I got off at the next exit and took my time driving through the city instead,

The parking lot at the restaurant I stopped off for lunch once I arrived on the other side of the city. I parked far away and tiptoed around the dumpsters to get to the door. No pictures of the huge dump of rain that came down the next day while at my brother's house for dinner, that totally missed my neighbourhood. 

Their next show is the first weekend in August, so we're aiming to go to that one instead. I might even have a couple of barnmates accompany me.

Now I'm trying to find something else to take Stitch to this month. Our summer has been so terrible this year, between seemingly daily rain and the lack of wanting to do anything outside because of the mosquito infestation, it doesn't feel like there has been any chance to have any fun. I haven't had any luck yet finding anything that doesn't involve traipsing through grass and thus the potential to be eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I'll keep looking.

So instead, I booked a lesson!

Where The Air Hurts My Face - Summer Edition

It's been a record breaking month in my area of the Canadian prairies, all due to El Nino.

Not because it's been hot. Oh no. We would so welcome a heat wave at this point. It would help dry everything up.

Because we are just a wee bit wet in this area.

Last Monday morning at the barn. That water isn't supposed to be there.

The main drainage ditch in the middle of the property was a raging river.

It's been the wettest June on record for my city. And we still have a couple of days left in the month to achieve wettest month ever. And yay - there's more rain in the forecast.

Spoiler alert - we set a new record. And as I was writing this a thunderstorm started.

Basements have been flooding. Wastewater systems have been backing up and localities have been putting restrictions on water use. Side roads washed out. Highways washed out. Farmers fields have giant lakes in them. 

About 1 km from the barn on the main route this morning, same place that it went across the road last weekend. There were also washouts on the roads to the east and west of the barn if you detoured north to the highway. Major highways in the area had closures through the weekend due to the amount of water across the roads.

Everything is saturated. 

The flooding came up overnight. The poor horse in this pen had a little island that wasn't under water on Monday morning. I missed getting the ducks swimming next to him in the picture. He, and a couple of other horses in another nearby pen, were moved to less soggy ones right away.

Last weekend there was some kind of inland cyclone that was said to have been dumping all the moisture on the prairies instead of the Pacific Ocean that it would normally be doing. Not sure what all the rain this weekend is being blamed on.

We like to say about living in the Canadian prairies that we don't often have tornados, we don't get hurricanes, and there aren't many bugs or snakes that will kill you, but the air hurts your face for half of the year because of the cold. Well, there were at least three tornados in the province a couple of weeks ago, apparently the prairies can get cyclones, and now things in the air will hurt your face and any other exposed body parts.

The benefit to all this moisture is that our wildfire risk is currently low.

But do you know what loves wet, muddy, warm conditions?

Mosquitoes.

They are abundant.  They are aggressive.  And they are relentless. Their population is up 10,000% in one month.

It is not fun to be outside. For humans or horses.

I've been wearing my mosquito jacket outside whenever I leave the barn. As soon as I get anywhere near grass there is a swarm all around me.

I've started a fashion trend at the barn. A few barn mates have started wearing them.

Stitch is wearing a fly sheet but the chances of him keeping a hood on it are slim. I broke down and put a fly mask on him last night - I doubt it will still be on tomorrow morning when I'm back out. Which means hunting through the grass for it, which means more time spent in mosquito-land.

Bug pants for horses are apparently a thing. Won't deny a part of me wants to push the buy now button! Also - Canterpants is a great name!

Even the sand ring is unbearable unless you are riding faster than a walk.

It's mostly been too wet to do much riding outside the last couple of weeks, but once it dries up these mosquitoes aren't going to disappear quickly.

This summer might not be as fun as hoped.

I bought some bug proof pants today that I can fit over shorts, so maybe there's a chance my legs might see the sun at some point for brief moments, provided I stay off the grass and that there is a strong enough breeze to keep the mosquitos away. The hood of my mosquito jacket can fit over my helmet, so I can cover myself for a ride outside. Somewhere I have an Amigo FlyRider blanket that I had bought for Phantom but never used . I doubt it will fit Stitch, but it might go for a premium on Marketplace!

The bug pants I picked up are not as exciting as Canterpants. Nor named as well.

I'm also really thankful that I found a couple of jugs of Absorbine fly spray that I didn't realize I had. That shit's expensive, and probably the best we can get in Canada.

So, expect any riding pictures I manage to get for the next couple of months to have the boring background of the inside arena. Which will only happen if I don't run out of memory or battery  when I use my Pivo and only get my walk warm up like the last two times I tried it!

Proof I actually rode my horse! No proof of canter as my phone died before that. Not sure I would have wanted to show it anyways - it was a rough night trying to pick it up.

A Week in Stitch's World

I keep writing an update post but Blogger is being a PITA about getting pictures added so I abandon it because it's inevitably late and I just want to go to bed.

The tldr version of the last couple months is that I'm fine, Stitch is fine, he keeps growing, and we're getting some rides in though not necessarily consistently.

We were managing a bit better the last few weeks about getting a few rides a week in, but I got sick last week with the head cold that apparently everyone is getting, which left me snotty and snorty and made doing much a bit difficult. I did one ride this week, and I figured if I trotted for 3 minutes and called it a day I'd be happy, but actually managed a decent ride - including canter!

But that was it. Next week should be better.

So I present to you how a part of Stitch's week went in mostly video format.

Early in the week - playing with his BFF Tyson, who is a year younger than Stitch.

A couple of days later, when I went out to do the morning check on the pastures, 7 out of the 8 geldings were snoozing, which happens pretty well every morning. Stitch was initially lying down, but got up while I was watching, walked over to Tyson, and tried to convince him that he should also get up.

Reminds me of a time when my brother's friend called for him, and when I said he was sleeping, he said to kick him and wake him up!

I only had a hour to spend with Stitch on Thursday, so I set up the pool noodle car wash that has been waiting to be used on an obstacle day. I did the whole start with it wide, and gradually move them closer together thing.

Stitch wasn't at all concerned. By which I mean he had one concern:

I didn't think that the training problem of the day was going to be how to stop my horse from scratching his ass on the obstacle. 

I couldn't let him get too into it - the brackets belong to someone else, and I worry that the pvc pipe could break and become sharp and poke him in the ass. Once he started knocking over the standard I had to pull him away.

But don't feel bad for him, Stitch got a good scrubbing between his hind legs with a hairbrush. 

Vet Trip

 It's been hard to find incentive to do much with my horse the last few weeks. Our weather has been up and down (mostly down), and everyone is very over this winter that seems to be neverending. I think it was almost 15 Celsius yesterday, and tonight it's snowing again. 

This is just off the highway towards the barn. Both sides of the road have flooded fields and ditches from the spring melt. The culverts often don't melt as fast as everything else, so water doesn't have anywhere to go. There are a few places that I'm worried the water might flow over the road, including one spot on the highway. Today's rain isn't going to help much.

Maybe it's a good thing, because Stitch had a visit from the Wither Fairy this weekend.

It looks like he's been wearing a too tight blanket, but no, he's been nekkid for the last week. That's just a lovely dip in front of his withers that wasn't there before

For the last couple of weeks I've been wondering why he's been looking like an oversized pony, and realized a few days ago that it's because his shoulders were jammed up against his withers again.  I didn't make it out over the weekend, and on Monday while watching him run loose in the arena I noticed his much pointier than normal withers. I even stopped him so that I could check to make sure they weren't swollen because he had fallen on them because of how pointy they looked to me. 

My measuring stick was in my locker so I put it up to him. I set it at 16hh, and while I'll admit it didn't quite touch him, there also wasn't much space under the bar. 

So it looks like I'm going to have to sell him.

He knows the rule. Less than 16hh!

Just kidding. 

He can stay. 

On Tuesday I took Stitch for a car ride to the vet to get his teeth done and his spring vaccinations. He was a good boy about loading and unloading, but pawed every time the trailer stopped. At the clinic he was a cheap drunk (a big change from Phantom!). He still has a couple of baby teeth left in front, his bottom canines have come in, and his top ones are just under the surface. There were some sharp edges so I'm glad that I got him in and will plan to get him in again in the late fall before winter hits. 

Post-dental/pre-trailer loading snooze in the vet clinic parking lot.

He'll probably have some sort of reaction to his jabs, so he's got another few days guaranteed off. Maybe I'll manage to get on this weekend and just do some walking, if not it won't be until late next week, before I go away for the weekend, and can try again the next week...

I Spoke Too Soon

February was not my best month.

I didn't ride my horse all month. He was fine. I was not.

The month started with a medication change that knocked me on my butt for a few days. I haven't mentioned it here, but back in the fall I was diagnosed with ADHD - inattentive and hyperactive. The new dose of medication for that left me feeling really slow for a few days and I had little desire to do anything after work.

I basically got over that and immediately got a head cold. Cue another week of not wanting to do anything while snot drained and dripped from my body.

And as soon as I felt better from that, I lost my job of 30+ years due to restructuring through an insolvency.

Another dump of snow and freezing cold temperatures a couple of days later left me with little motivation.

Stitch has been feeling good when given the chance to get moving on good footing. I never manage to capture the good rodeo moments though - they're much more exciting than this.

Job-wise, I'm still trying to figure it out. In Canada we have employment insurance that we pay into from our pay cheques that you can claim when you lose your job due to no fault of your own. It's not nearly as much as I was making before, but I should be able to make it work. I've been able to pick up some extra lessons to teach now that I have more time, and I've been offered the opportunity to do a couple of days of barn chores a week in exchange for board. I told the barn owner today that I'll do that and start in a couple of weeks (I have a bunch of appointments next week) so at least in the short term I think things will be okay.

Now that I have all this free time (hah! It doesn't seem like it!), it's time to get my horse going!

Stitch has definitely made good use of the winter. He's grown up and filled out. And has been feeling quite good when given a chance for a free run in the arena. 

I haven't been feeling any motivation to get in the saddle all month. Talking to a few other people, they're kind of feeling the same. This has been a cold, snowy winter, that started early, and seems to have no sign of ending. Sure, this weekend it's supposed to be +10C. But there was enough fresh snow in the field today that I was up to my knees trying to find a way out to my horse (who has met me at the gate every time for the last few weeks, but barely acknowledged my presence until I was almost in the back corner where they were all grouped together). And then it's going to drop right back down again to -10 daytime highs the next week. 

We are so over this winter. 

The blueness of the 5-ish pm picture taken on Thursday March 5th represents my feeling about this winter. So much snow still. A bunch of it melted over the weekend, but the temperature is dropping yet again, so we're back to needing to skate everywhere.

Tuesday, though, I committed. I was getting on my horse.

Uncharacteristically for me, I had a bit of anxiety about getting back on. I suspect that it was a bit worry about what my baby horse who has barely been ridden over the last three months would do. 

Spoiler alert - Stitch was absolutely perfect. Completely chill, he maintained the pace that I set, and was not at all worried about the person on his back who was trying to force herself to relax.

We didn't do very much, I think our ride was all of 25 minutes. But sometimes just getting on when you don't want to is all the win that you need. And that's okay.

Still the bestest boy. 

I really need to measure him again. I measured him a couple of weeks ago and he was a solid 15.3. But standing next to him while tightening my girth, I had to look up at the top of my saddle. I don't remember it being so far up before! But I'm not sure if he's actually gotten much taller as I didn't struggle to reach the stirrup, so ???

On Our Way!

I'm a big fat liar.

In my last post, I had said that I was planning to get Stitch going for about a month and then would start working on the canter.

I changed my mind.

We've cantered in two of the last three rides. And he was wonderful!

The first time was last Wednesday, which was his fourth ride in five days. Stitch was feeling it. He was being very good, but didn't have much oomph to his step. 

It was the kind of ride where he's doing everything right, with no need to school anything, so what could I introduce to him? Might as well try the canter!

There were also quite a few people around, versus a lot of my rides when it's just me and whoever is doing chores and probably isn't there to keep an eye on me. So it felt like a good opportunity.

I chose the right rein as it is our mutually stronger side. It took three attempts at revving up the trot through the short end before he fell into a right lead canter along the long side - at which point I immediately lost my inside stirrup. Oops! 

Surprisingly, since I haven't really cantered in almost two years, one-stirrup mode felt pretty good. Nonetheless, I brought him back to trot/walk through the first turn on the short end. We probably could have done the whole end, but I totally wussed out. 

Then we tried again, using anticipation to help by asking in the same place as before. He picked it up faster this time, but also picked up the outside lead, so again we came back down in pace in the first corner. 

I was very happy with the first attempts that were thankfully drama free. And also happy that the canter felt fairly comfortable to ride!

Stitch didn't canter on his next ride, because I put a different rider up on him!

One of my students from my old barn has been trying to come out and put rides on a pony that is owned by a beginner student and needs some tune-up rides. She came out to my barn with me after her lesson to hop on the pony and I figured it was a good time to put someone else in my saddle. It would also be a good experience for her to see what it's like to ride a green horse who still needs quite a bit of help.

Stitch was a perfect gentleman. She's a bit of a nervous rider, and when she's nervous she goes into the fetal position over her hands and gets a bit clingy (she was pre-warned that if she hung onto his face she'd be taken off) but Stitch stayed nice and solid under her. It was good for both of them and I'm hoping it showed her the effectiveness of rebalancing the horse before turning as Stitch needs at this time. 

Monday's ride was a bit late. I had a somewhat late end to my work shift, and didn't get out to the barn until after 7, and somehow wasted a bunch of time getting ready so I didn't get on until 8:30. I had also taken my Pixio out, with the intent on getting some canter video, but half-way through my ride something went wrong and it recorded the opposite side of the ring from where I was. No canter video at all.

This time, Stitch picked up the canter pretty well immediately on the right, got the correct lead, and I kept my stirrup, so we did two long sides and a short end before I brought him back to trot. Then we went left. He got the lead, but it felt a little less balanced (not sure if it was me or him that was more unbalanced) so we stopped before the corner. It was late, and there wasn't anyone there with me, so I said that was still a good win and left it there for the night. 

We are on our way!

I still think our focus needs to be on fitness over the next few weeks. It was supposed to be stupid cold this weekend, so I hadn't started back with the interval training as it looked like it would be over a week again with no riding, but the forecast has completely changed and we're only looking at a couple of days of freezing temperatures (by which I mean extra freezing, not the normal moderate freezing). Thus I'll get the app sorted out and should be good to start that up again next week. I'll add some little canters into it, at this point not timed, just what feels good on that day.

Hopefully the Pixio will work, but I'm a bit worried as something is rattling loose inside the robot. I won't be impressed if it no longer works as it really hasn't had all that much use and has been well stored and taken care of. Fingers crossed that this was just a blip.

This is Gonna Be My Year

Stitch and I have gotten five rides in so far this year - and he's been wonderful!

He hadn't been ridden for about five weeks due to the horrible weather we had through December. But, with the New Year came relief from Mother Nature and we've had above average temperatures for the last week. In fact, it's been so nice that Stitch has been nekkid outside since Saturday, though I'll have to put something on tomorrow night as the nights will be a bit cooler again.

The break in weather will allow me to make some much needed repairs to the circus tent suit of armor that Stitch has been wearing over his winter blankets. I'm determined to get the rest of the winter out of this blanket before scrapping it. If I wasn't able to make the repairs myself it totally wouldn't be worth it, but since it's mostly just costing me time I'm putting the effort in. 

On the first ride back, he felt really sold under me. With the young ones, it's always a crapshoot as to if they revert back to a wiggly worm after some time off, but no, he felt really good. The first ride was very simple. He wasn't bending around my inside leg as well as he had been before the break, but otherwise did everything else he was asked.  Except for the big scoot into canter spook - I didn't ask for that. (He was looking for an excuse. I think a D-ring on my saddle jingled, and he used that.)

On the second ride, he gave me a couple of moments at the end of bending through his body off my inside leg at the trot. It was the day after the first ride, and he definitely didn't have the spring in his step that he did the previous day, but surprisingly he had good forward intent at the trot. I kind of thought that he would have to be convinced that he wasn't dying. 

I am 2 for 2 in snowshoeing across the field to find the missing hood in the first place I looked. Don't tell Stitch - he doesn't need to make it more challenging for me. 

Stitch had the next couple of days off, and on Saturday, I set up a square of poles in the center of the ring to be able to trot over two crossing the diagonals. Stitch likes doing poles, and was dragged around with me while I set them up, so I'm not sure if that is why he uncharacteristically was very fidgety at the mounting block and had a hard time with standing still in the right spot.  Once I got him to stand still he was his normal rock solid as I got on though.

He was very happy to do the poles. I usually try to set up poles once a week for him as a bit of a reward, but it's been a while, even when we were riding through November. Even at a walk on a loose rein he takes us over them.

I gave us two challenges with these poles. The first, was to do a circle and hit two poles through the V-Shape of the box. He found it tough, and we didn't quite succeed. These poles are 8 feet wide, and if they had been 10 foot we would have been able to hit the ends of the poles on the size of circle that we could manage. With the shorter poles we were kind of sliding through the gap at the end on the second pole. 15m circles are a little tough for him at the moment. 

The second challenge was to be able to come down the long side, ask for a bit of inside flexion while staying on the track, then switching to the outside aids to turn the shoulders off the track and onto the line towards the poles.

We've been working on being able to get a bit of inside flexion and keep going straight. In November it was mostly through the neck, but he was trying. It's now starting to come a bit more through the poll, and much softer through the neck. This ride was the first time that I was asking him to turn after setting up the flexion, and though it wasn't perfect, he was trying. Where the poles were set up in the middle of the arena meant that I had to be a little quicker than ideal about being able to rebalance between the flexion and turning, and he fell out a bit through the outside shoulder in the turn. But still, I was very happy with the effort.

I tried to do a selfie, mostly so that I could show off this super cute shirt I got for $5 on Black Friday from onthehunteq.com. Short arms are not conducive to getting pony faces in the selfie.

Ride #4 of the year was on Sunday. We again worked a bit on the flexion and turn but without poles this time. He also started to remember how to bend around my inside leg, and gave me a couple of lovely shallow loop serpentines to the quarter line where he totally softened into the new bend off my inside leg with each loop. We haven't ridden them in a little while and in the past they've been very janky so I was really happy with that new feel.

Last night, Tuesday, I set up a couple of single poles again and repeated the same exercise as before with the flexion and turn, but this time left myself a bit more time before having to turn to the pole, and as I hoped the extra time really helped and he had some good turns with the shoulders making the turns. 

For the most part, he's been really good under saddle and feels like he's really starting to understand. 

The one that seems to be broken is the turn on the forehand off my right leg. 

He learned it pretty early when I started him, but then he wouldn't stand still to park, so I stopped doing it until he started parking without anticipating that he was going to be asked to do something. Parking has gotten much bettter, so I tried introducing the turn on the forehand again.

For some reason, it's been a struggle. He just wants to turn the shoulders into the turn, and on the first two rides that I attempted it, I don't think we got a single step of the hind leg moving away. If I try it on the ground, he immediately moves his hindend with a light touch from my hand in the area that my leg would be touching, so he understands there.

Now, in trying to get a step, we've kind of broken the park mode again. 

Last night, I was pushing it a bit more to try to get a single step behind, and tried to just wait out the turning the shoulders and click immediately when he did the step behind and stop. We got about 5 or 6 single steps, none without the shoulders moving around first, but they got a little bit faster at the end. And then I asked him to park on a loose rein. And he actually did! A little unsure as to if he should be getting ready to do something, but tried really hard to just wait it out. I hopped off there and gave him his cookie because that was super and to be honest, unexpected. 

So, I'm very happy with where we've started the new year. 

Fitness is the biggest thing holding us back at the moment. In November we were doing an interval training program to help us get there, but with the time off anything that we gained at that time was lost and we need to start over again. However, I don't want to start if we are going to stop again right away, and the forecast is saying that it will be cold again, though it looks like it's been pushed another week out. I also need to clip again, and I'm thinking of waiting until after the next cold spell to do so. 

Once we can get a solid month together it will be time to get the canter going. I want him to have some fitness first because I'm pretty sure he's going to think he's going to die after a couple of strides. Schooling-wise he's ready.

I don't know if I am though - it's been almost two years since I've really ridden a canter! Eeek!

Shoes for Snow

I had made it out to the barn to play with Stitch on December 23rd. We had a bit of a blizzard on Christmas Eve, and another one on Boxing Day, with a bunch of wind on the 27th that blew all of that recent snow into big drifts everywhere. So I didn't get back out to the barn until the evening of the 28th. At which point my horse was no longer wearing the Bucas hood that he was turned out with when I had last seen him.

The big question was when did he lose said hood? Before the foot of snow had fallen, in which case I might not see it again until April, or - fingers crossed - within the last 24 hours or so?

It was well dark when I turned Stitch back out that night, so I wasn't going to be able to tromp around the whole field and see anything, but I figured I would at least check around the gate area. There was a slightly bigger than a pile of frozen poop dark spot in the snow about 20m from the gate, so I tried to head over to it to have a look.

Now, in the dark, with only a dying headlamp to light your path, it's really difficult to judge the depth of new snow. 

I took about 5 steps out from the trodden area at the gate, got my feet stuck in knee deep snow, and fell forward onto my knees. And then I tried to push myself back up using my arms, which also sunk into the snow up past my elbows. 

Yeah, this wasn't going to work. 

I managed to fumble around and get myself upright again and exited the same way I went in. I decided that I would stick to the beaten path to the hay feeders on this night before heading back to the barn. That wasn't as easy as I had hoped as Stitch was also trying to stay on that beaten path and apparently I wasn't walking fast enough for him and he kept bumping me to the side. 

There was, of course, no hood visible around the feeder. I knew it wasn't going to be that simple. 

It was going to be a couple of days before I could get out in daylight to see what I could find. But how the hell would I manage to get around through the snow?

Skis? My brother might still have cross-country skis, but the boots would be a problem.

Snowshoes! My dad probably has some!

He did - old school wood ones. But hey, they'd be free to borrow. 

Except the binding on one of them had been torn (or eaten by mice) and wouldn't be usable. 

So I guess this was the excuse I needed to finally buy some snowshoes of my own. I've thought about it before, because this isn't the first time I've had to walk through deep drifts for horse-related reasons. And to be honest, I was surprised he had managed to keep his hood attached for as long as he had so far this season. Last winter he got them off pretty quickly sometimes. So I fully expect I'll be searching somewhat regularly.

I was hoping to keep my budget around $100 and probably would have been perfectly happy with the couple of options I found on sale at that price, but in the end I decided to upgrade a bit and get some that I would be somewhat easily able to replace the binding on myself. The rubber straps won't last forever.

I won't deny that the hunter green colour may have influenced my decision.

Surprisingly, up here in the land of ice and snow for half of the year, there weren't too many options on where to buy snowshoes in my city and since I didn't want to wait for an online order to arrive, by the time I drove to the other end of the city and did whatever shopping that I wanted to do that is only available down there, by the time I got out to the barn with my new MSR Evo Trail Snowshoes it was already dark. But I was determined to try them!

It had warmed up above freezing the last couple of days so although the snow had compacted a bit and gotten crusty on top, there was still a lot of it. 

I always go out at night with a headlamp on and Stitch thinks it's a beacon for his food lady. He often is walking towards the gate as I'm approaching the field when he sees the light. So it was no surprise that he left the feeder as I passed it and tentatively approached me, because although the light was shining, the snowshoes definitely did not make the same sound the food lady normally made. One of his pasturemates was also at the feeder, and the rest were over in another corner by the waterer. 

My plan was to head across the field to the shelter, which is diagonally opposite to the gate. I was somewhat surprised that Stitch followed me the whole way across with the noise that the snowshoes made. The work that we've been doing on the TRT Method leading paid off here.

To my complete and utter surprise and joy, the missing hood was actually in the shelter! There was a little bit of poop on it, and the lining has a couple of new tears, but otherwise it was removed unscathed. It will just need a wash and be good to reattach again - for a short term, I'm sure.

On the return trip from the shelter Stitch, who was still following me, gave a couple of scoots. The other horses had noticed the weird-sounding light moving across their field, and were being dramatic over in the corner by the waterer. Stitch wasn't sure if he should also be dramatic or stay with his mom. He chose mom for most of the way, but returned to his friends when we got close to the gate. 

The snowshoes made a huge difference in being able to walk across the field. My hip was just starting to get a bit sore just before I took them off, which normally would have happened much faster. I was smart and put my knee brace on before going for my walk as it's been a bit uncomfortable lately and felt no ill effects there. I'm quite happy that I finally bought myself snowshoes, and foresee that they will be used a few more times this winter. At this point they are living in the horse trailer as that's where I anticipate they'll get the most use. 

Tromping through a field of snow was nothing compared to the stress of my drive home though! With the evening cooldown after a warmish day, there was crazy fog the whole way home, with some really sketchy visibility. That was stressful!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

 It's been very quiet here on the blog because, well, there isn't much horsing happening. 

The weather has been absolutely atrocious for pretty well a month solid. It feels like it's been freezing cold forever - and not the "oh, I have to put on a sweater" kind of cold, but the Under Armor 4.0 long underwear and fleece pants might keep you warm enough for the 10 minutes you're outside to bring your horse in kind. 

We're expecting our second blizzard in a week on Wednesday. The last one came two days after a night of freezing rain, which meant roads were (and still are) terrible throughout the city and the side roads. The snowplows scraped off all the snow but left the nicely polished ice on the roads. The highways at least are clear, at least until the next snow day. 

And then my car died last week and I was bumming rides for a few days. It's fixed now though, and I'm only a couple of hundred bucks poorer.

Incentive to ride has been zero. It's been tough enough getting out to the barn more than once a week, as my free time/decent temperatures/decent roads have not lined up much this month. The last three weeks have had the least amount of days that I've been out to the barn in probably five years. 

It sounds like no one has been riding though at my barn. I was talking with the barn owner and she said this period has been the most quiet it's ever been for people coming out to see their horses and only a couple of people have been riding. There are only about three people who keep their horses on indoor board for the winter, the rest of us have to put our horses out into the cold afterwards. Although it's really nice to have the heated arena, it can be really hard to make sure that your horse is completely dry before turning them back out in -28 celsius. Not to mention how hard it is to keep yourself from getting chilled through after breaking a sweat riding. 

So not many people ride in this weather. 

When I have been out, Stitch has been getting a chance to get moving and play loose in the arena. The good news is that he looks great. I haven't seen any of the wonkiness behind in weeks. 

The bad news is that he has been an absolute twat in the crossties. 

I can't figure out why. He gets worried as soon as we start approaching the area, and even if he backs in nicely as soon as he's clipped up he starts frantic and sometimes dramatic pawing. 

I suspect part of the problem is that he wants to pee after coming in from the cold, but he won't do it in the arena, and doesn't want to do it in the crossties, though he ends up doing so after he's been in for a while. I don't have the option to pop him in a stall for a few minutes which I think would solve that problem, so I'm not sure what I can do to encourage him to pee ideally in the arena. 

That's definitely not the only reason though. So we are working through some other things that I'm trying to change and see if it makes any difference. I'm sure a few wet saddle pad rides might also help, but I don't want to have to deal with the aftermath of getting that horse dry, so that's low on the list of options at the moment. 

That is about the extent of what we are doing. 

It's looking like next week might get slightly better - well, it's supposed to be quite nice for a couple of days (that I have to work) and then drop again, but not as cold as it has been, so maybe we'll manage to get going again. We'll see. It's looking like the temperatures that are technically doable, but easy to convince yourself that it's cold enough to not want to.

Enough whining.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a fun New Year. I'm set up to be snowed in for the day on Christmas Eve and will be spending Christmas Day with my family, playing board games and eating too much food. The horse is well blanketed and spending his days in front of a round bale buffet with his buddies. Santa will bring him cookies in a few days when he can get out again. 

Merry Christmas!

Google Book Deals

If you are an e-book reader, check out Google Play Books for some deals!

On Friday evening I realized that I had a notification from Google that an e-book I must have previously looked at was on sale for $3.99. A notification that was sent a week ago.

Sure enough, that book was no longer on sale. But a few more were!

I snapped up four e-books, three of which were on my list of books to check out.

All of these books were on sale for $3.99! And I had a $3 promo code and enough in my Google Play account from doing surveys to pay for the rest so they cost me nothing out of pocket!

Who doesn't love free books?

Granted, I have no idea when I will manage to read all 934 pages of information about hooves. Don't expect a review any time soon.

I think I'll be adding a few more to my wish list and keep a better eye out for those notifications going forward.

Check it out and see if you find any deals! I'm in Canada; no idea if deals would be the same in other countries. Let me know!

Getting Somewhere

I've been managing to get three rides in a week for the most part (although might change this week because it's winter tomorrow). Stitch has been so good to ride, which makes up for the twit he's been in the crossties. I think that he picks up on routines far faster than I realize.

Under saddle Stitch has figured out inside leg to outside hand, but is still in the phase where it's not ingrained and if there is something else interesting to look at then he ignores the leg. We're also at the point where if I ride better he goes better (duh), especially when it comes to getting bend. I realized on today's ride that he does much better in the corners if I keep my hands together in front of me and just use my leg to ask for the bend. 

Baby's first haircut! He stood like a rock for almost the whole clip. He just a bit fussy when the horse that was crosstied next to him left, at which point I only had to finish up by his head.

He's been doing well with the baby leg yields towards the track. Next I'll start asking him to move towards the inside of the ring instead of falling towards the wall.

Stitch's balance is still not perfect at the trot. He loses his balance when he gets a bit too forward, which happens a lot but I'm not complaining since it took him a while to get there in the beginning. Anything that involves steering has to be slowed down or we can't quite keep our lines.

Most of my rides on Stitch have been by ourselves. Great in some ways, not so good for life experience. I've had a couple of rides over the last couple of weeks that have been with other riders (usually just one) and it's been good for him, although they haven't been the best rides. He's just a little too looky at everyone to be able to carry us forward. 

Today's ride was the first time that he tried to stretch a bit forward and down into the contact at trot. We were doing some whoa's and go's on a 3 loop serpentine, coming back to almost walk on the center line. He gave a little feel of trying to reach down, but then we also lost our steering. So I tried it one more time, staying on the track. After one lap with a few almost walk transitions I put my hands forward a little bit, he stayed with me, so I took a leap of faith and fed the reins out a little bit more. I didn't want to let them get too long and dump him on his face, but I had to make sure I gave him a chance to respond. And he did! He dropped his nose and pushed it out. Super happy with that!

Video from last Friday's ride. The goal was to be able to do transitions on the serpentine and maintain our line of travel.

We're still working on building up fitness slowly. We are only at 6 x 2 minute trot intervals. I've been seeing good signs that the NQR behind issue is getting better. He is resting his right hind far less than he was, and the tight muscle group over his croup has gotten much softer. He was a little stiffer starting off on today's ride than he has been, it took about a lap to lose the wonky feeling, but it has been much better the last couple of weeks. So I'm hoping we are on the right track and plan to continue doing what we are doing. I'm hoping to start cantering him around Christmas, but the cold weather over the next couple of weeks might put a damper on that. Although the arena is heated, he has to go back outside afterwards, and I don't want to get him too warm before sending him out into -20c (yes, it's going to feel like that overnight already).

It feels like we are finally getting somewhere!