I Got One Thing Done

It's been a rather unproductive pony week.

After riding Tuesday night I didn't get home until almost 11:30 pm, clutching my fast food bag of supper (it was a salad though - I was good!). By the time I ate, had a bath and managed to turn my brain off it was almost 2 am.

So I wasn't overly inclined to get out of the house to get two horses ridden before noon to beat the heat. It was supposed to be record-breaking temperature kind of day. So when I woke up I checked the forecast and yep, it still showed mid-30's with the Humidex by early afternoon. No problem, ponies could have the day off.

Except that it never got anywhere near that temperature all day. There was a smoky haze that blocked the sun all day, It was actually kind of chilly for much of the afternoon. So I could have ridden. But by the time I figured that out, I didn't really have time.

A priority of the day was to clean Phantom's tail since the farrier was out the next day. No one wants to be near her poopy tail.

That tail should be all white. Not brown.

I did my best. Basically, as soon as she wears a blanket with a tail flap on it, she poops and pees all over her tail. So it gets disgusting within about 3 days. I generally clean it once a week in the summer, sometimes twice. The yellow stain at the bottom doesn't really come out very well these days. I will Goop it once before I put it up for the winter and see if that helps.

This is the "clean" version. I'm hoping the braid will help keep it cleaner.

Thursday was farrier day. I didn't have to go to work until much later in the day, so I was hoping that I would have time to get a quick ride on both horses in. Other people had their horses in and waiting, and the farrier was about 15 minutes late, and there was only 1 farrier and assistant instead of the usual 2 farriers and assistant. Thus my day didn't go as planned.

I was determined to get a ride in though, and decided Cisco was going to be my victim. The good news is that I did get on him. The bad news is that I managed about 8 minutes of walking around, a very short trot, and decided that his brain was not at all functioning and I was not going to achieve anything so I hopped off before something undesirable happened.

I think that having to stand longer than usual in the barn while waiting for his turn with the farrier, and Phantom was in there the whole time, so pulling him away from her to head to the arena was what started his stress. When we were in the arena, it was fairly breezy out. So the long grass blowing outside the open overhead door, and the sounds that the Cover-All covering was making, were too much for his little brain to process. He was very concerned about the far end of the arena. When I hopped down I had intended to just chase him around for a few minutes. But then I figured out that the wind was what was causing his stress. So I attempted to just make him stand at that end and just watch and listen.

No idea if it did any good. I have a feeling that he might be spookier than what I was hoping, but am still holding the thought that he just needs some more miles and exposure.

I have a crappy work schedule for the next few days, so won't get back out until Sunday, then likely not until Wednesday. So I will have to deal with silly, feeling good horses when I do manage to hop on. Oh yay.

Throwback Thursday

Phantom, at about 3 years of age. Photo shamelessly stolen from her breeder's sale ad. (Probably around 2006)

A Small Epiphany

I finally had enough energy after work to get some rides in! Yay me!

I started with Cisco. He was snorty all the way into the barn, so I decided I would be smart and lunge him before hopping on. Of course he did nothing on the lunge line. Under saddle he was a bit nervous, but tried nicely. He gave me a couple of baby trot lengthenings, but we still need to work on moments at a slower trot. I had a single pole put down and trotted over that for the first time. He seemed to like that - the rest of the trip around the ring after the pole seemed steadier. I guess he wants to be a jumper.

Then I had a short ride on Phantom. I didn't get on her until after 9:30pm, so I had already decided that it would be a quick one just to see how she felt. She has been a bit heave-y as of late, so I am babying her a bit through it in the hopes that I won't have to put her on a steroid.

She did cough a couple of times, but in general sounded better than my last ride. I haven't been really schooling her lately, just trying to keep her moving a bit. Need to try to make her skinny. It will take a miracle. And a muzzle.

I am like many right handed riders, and I have problems riding to the left. I ride great to the ride - in both directions. I still ride to the right even when tracking left. My right hip doesn't move back, I hang on my left rein, my right elbow cocks out a bit - everything that works great when going to the right. And causes horrible issues when going to the left.

I read someone's comment lately about how she had ridden canter for a week with her left hand holding onto the mane to combat her problem. So I thought I might try that while riding Phantom to see if it would help me. Well, actually I remembered another trick - hold onto the reins with only my right hand. (I meant to do the first one, but thought the second one was what I meant to do.)

Holy crap on a cracker. I can sit up when my stupid left hand isn't doing anything.

As soon as I dropped my left hand to rest on my thigh, I feel like I grew 5 inches taller in the saddle. And for a 5 foot tall person, that's a lot. And it was easy. It was just sitting. And then I had to steer with one hand and reins that were too long......

Why can't I sit up like that while holding the rein???? Why??????

So I will be doing some more of that to try to get used to the feeling. And then I guess I will try the hold the mane trick too. I have a feeling I will like the first option better.

New Belt Options

I haven't done much with the ponies since I went back to work at the end of last week. Sigh.

That whole go to bed really late while on vacation kind of bit me in the butt when I went back to work, and I was just too exhausted to head out to see the kids after work. I was planning on riding on Sunday, but the humidex unexpectedly jacked the temperature up. Then, having to get up at the ungodly hour of 5 am to work on Monday, and managing to only get about 3 hours of sleep, meant I was rather comatose on Monday night. So I stayed home again.

Being comatose was no impediment to online research, however. I have started the order process for a new short-flapped treeless saddle. With that saddle, I will need to buy Cisco a new dressage girth.

Note how the girth billets are pulled forward by the girth. 

I'm pretty sure that he will need one of the curved ones for horses with the forward girth grooves. So I have spent a stupid amount of time over the last few days trying to figure out which one I will spend my money on. Because none of those girths are cheap.

The potentials:

*Prestige Anatomic Shaped Dressage Girth - generally has very good reviews about quality. Would cost about $225 shipped from Germany.
*Total Saddle Fit Stretchtec Girth - costs about $315 shipped. Way more than I want to spend. If I can wait until Christmas, Apple Saddlery usually has a sale of 15% off, which would bring it down to just under $270.
*Smith-Worthington Performance Dressage Girth - don't know if I can get it in Canada, so would have to order it from the US. Current exchange rate and estimated shipping would put it at somewhere around $280.

There aren't a lot of local options, so unfortunately online is the way I will have to go. At this point, the Prestige one is probably in the lead, mainly because of the price. My new saddle wouldn't arrive until sometime in late-November, and from then until Christmas I traditionally get super busy at work and don't have time to ride, so there is a chance that if I wait I might manage to hit a Black Friday sale out of the US. It might be worth it if the exchange rate doesn't tank.

Of course, extra time until I need it means way more time to keep changing my mind about which one to buy.

Horse Bucket List

There are lots of horsey things that I want to try before I get too old and too crippled to be able to. I don't have immediate plans to do any of it, and for most of it don't have the contacts required to be able to knock it off the list. But one day.......

Here is my list (in no specific order):

• Ride a Paso Fino
• Tolt on an Icelandic 
• Ride sidesaddle
• Ride a piaffe and passage
• Take a polo lesson
• Be competent at driving
• Ride in a marathon cart during the endurance phase of a CDE
• Go pony trekking in the UK
• Go to Equitana in Germany
• Ride saddle seat
• Breed and have a foal

I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them at the moment.

The one thing that has been on my list but I'm in the process of deleting is to start a horse from scratch and finish them. That is what I am working on with Cisco. No where near done of course, and it will take years to be totally removed from the list. But it's being worked on.

What's on your horse bucket list?

New Friends

Wednesday was going to be hot. I had a lesson to teach in the morning, and then a couple more in the evening, so if I rode it was going to have to be in the afternoon when the heat was at its highest. So I already decided the day before that Wednesday would be a non-riding day for me, and give me a chance to do a couple of other things.

I decided to clean Cisco's bridle that hadn't been done for a while. And I had noticed that one of Phantom's leather halters had some icky looking crud on it, so I decided that it was finally time to break down and clean the halter. I mean, who cleans their leather halters? No one. The correct answer is no one.

Bridle and halter both got the full cleaning and conditioning treatment. The halter is black with a raised noseband and crown piece. Some of the black on the raised part is wearing away and it's now brown. I really dislike the two-tone look so I will have to investigate options on dying it. I know it's not as easy as one would think.

I was asked if I would be okay moving Cisco and Phantom with another horse into a smaller paddock that needed the grass to be eaten/trampled down. I don't really want them to eat a ton of grass, but I do want Phantom off a round bale for a bit. And there are a lot of weedy type of grass in that paddock that the horses likely won't touch. So I agreed

This lipstick shade is called Beet Pulp/Alfalfa Pellet Soup.

Phantom and another mare from her field, Missy, moved over first. No issues with the two of them being together. Phantom was pretty chill and Missy was the worrier.

I took Cisco over about an hour later as I had been hoping to do something with him. But I ran out of time.

Checking out the new location. That's Phantom chilling at the back.

Phantom decided that she wasn't real impressed with her little brother showing up to her party. She crabbed at him and made mare faces.

But there was someone who was happy to see him. A gelding from the paddock next door, Fox. Cisco always tried to play bitey-face with Fox when I would take him through the barn at the previous place. And within about 2 minutes of Cisco entering this paddock, they were playing bitey-face over the fence.

I fully expect to have to go searching for Cisco's fly mask on my next visit. And I'll probably start in Fox's paddock.

Throwback Thursday

Me on my gelding Farly, probably around 1999.

He's been gone since 2006 but I still miss that horse every damn day.

We Have Forward!

Cisco apparently has discovered the forward button.  The last couple of rides forward has not been a problem - slowing down is!

This has been (I think) because of some stimuli that has been happening when I have ridden. The first forward ride was the Best Ride Ever (So Far) of a couple of days ago where I discovered that Cisco does understand the leg aid to trot. This day we were helped by the spooky sounds that the wind was making in the arena.

The next ride we were helped by other horses. There were three other people riding and jumping when I arrived in the arena. I just did some groundwork to start until he settled a bit and they were closer to finishing.  He was better than the previous ride with other horses in only trying to stop the first time we passed the horses that were standing around. But then they all left the arena. And he had to stay.

He really wasn't too bad. He just got faster going towards the door end, and then totally bulged out that direction around that turn. Totally typical green horse stuff. Since he wanted to go fast, I wanted to go slow. And since we don't have any adjustibilty of pace at this time, that meant we mixed walk with short trots.  However I had some nice trot transitions just by squeezing my calf!

Tuesday's ride started with a jolt before I even got on. Something spooked Cisco just as we went through the door to the arena. He scooted forward and just missed jumping on my foot.  For my whole ride, he was pretty sure that something was going to jump through that door and yell "boo".

He did scoot at one time. It felt really big. But in the video it was like two strides at most. I thought he might canter and I was prepared to ride it forward, but when you look at the video it's like he decided canter was too much effort.

Despite this blip, there were some good moments in this ride. We had some good corners into the short end and lots of steering with very slight movements of my hands. At the end I asked for a lengthening, and then asked for a slower trot. And he gave me both.  So I left the ride there.

I let him loose in the arena because I thought he might need to get the sillies out. He didn't have any. But he was still looking for the boogeyman to run through the door. So I decided to be a crazy lady and head outside. And spent a few minutes making noise and running past the open door. We'll find out if it worked next time I ride. If need be, I will recruit Phantom to help and have her go back and forth and in and out.

Cisco Is Part Unicorn (For Real!)

Cisco is half Andalusian. This is his daddy, Festivo SCF.

http://www.sleepyhollowranch.ca/stallions.html

Festivo's daddy was Merlin I.

http://www.swancreekandalusians.ca/Merlin-I.html

Merlin I was bred in Spain and is by the sire Estimado V. Estimado V has Carthusian bloodlines, and those horses have a couple of unusual traits. 

From Wikipedia  -

"There are two additional characteristics unique to the Carthusian strain, believed to trace back to the strain's foundation stallion Esclavo. The first is warts under the tail, a trait which Esclavo passed to his offspring, and a trait which some breeders felt was necessary to prove that a horse was a member of the Esclavo bloodline. The second characteristic is the occasional presence of "horns", which are frontal bosses, possibly inherited from Asian ancestors. The physical descriptions of the bosses vary, ranging from calcium-like deposits at the temple to small horn-like protuberances near or behind the ear. However, these "horns" are not considered proof of Esclavo descent, unlike the tail warts."  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusian_horse)

Yes, you read that correctly - some Andalusian's can have horns. And Cisco's grandfather, Merlin I, is one of them.

http://www.swancreekandalusians.ca/Merlin-I.html

This is a picture of Merlin I showing the "horn" on his forehead. You know what a horse with a horn on it's forehead is? That's right - a unicorn.

So by my calculations, that makes Cisco one-quarter unicorn. A whole 25%. 

I haven't found any horny growths on his head yet (or warts thankfully). But Andalusians are known to mature late, so maybe it's still going to grow. And at only 25% unicorn, he has to conserve his fabulosity and only bring it out for special occasions. I can't expect him to sparkle all the time.

Of course, with my luck, the only unicorn trait he will have will be pooping rainbows. Because he ate something he shouldn't have.

(All photos have been shamelessly taken from the breeder's websites. Except for the one of my unicorn.)

Best Ride Ever! (So Far)

We had another storm blow in on Friday night, and the wind remained through most of Saturday. So there were some spooky sounds in the arena when I took Cisco in for our ride. I decided that I would be smart and lunge first since he had also had the previous two days off.

He was boring on the lunge. Except that he did nice and prompt canter transitions, which is something I want to make sure is installed before I ask under saddle. So that was nice to see.

I hopped on. He was initially quite looky at the open door at the end of the arena - not that there was anything out there but blowing grass. He almost felt like he might scoot away when the door was behind us a couple of times, but he kept his brain in his head and didn't.

The goal for the day was to work on the walk/trot transitions, and hopefully start to get them mainly off my leg. Surprise surprise - he knew them! Other than the first transition, and one more, every trot transition was just off my leg. (That other one I had to add a cluck, then came back to walk and retested and it was fine.) A bit more leg (or heels) than is ideal, but no kicking or clucking was required.

Carefully selected screen grab.

He was also super forward without my input - probably because of the sounds that the wind was making. I don't care why - I'll take it!

And again.

The other problem that I have been having is that we can't get deep into the short end of the arena. He doesn't understand leg to mean lateral movement yet. So I decided to school the corners.

We did the simple exercise where you halt straight on in the corner, then turn and halt straight on in the next corner. Really simple, really effective. Because he is super green we walked quite early before the corner, then just walked the short end.

This is what he thinks of this exercise.

Going to the right we just had to halt in the corners twice before trotting the whole end. And it worked really well - nice and deep into the corners. Going left, he was a bit worried in the first corner, which is where the mounting block is, and where a rather whistle-y sound was coming from the wind. The second corner was great. So we will continue to work on that for the next few rides.

Looking into the corner where the whoooo sounds were coming from. Obviously a ghost.

To finish my ride, I asked for a "lengthened" trot down the long side on his sticky side. And it felt lovely! And it was off my relatively quiet leg aid!

I jumped off pretty quickly after that before something happened to screw up the ride. This was the first ride that things seemed to click and it felt like real progress. And for the first time, I wasn't the exhausted one after the ride.

I hopped on Phantom next. I was exhausted after our first trot set - she was super laid back and behind my leg. Fixed that on the next trot set with some prompt transitions, but for once she was requiring some extra leg. Riding two horses is tough y'all!

Miscellaneous Pony Stuff Day

Where does time go when you are on vacation???

I rode both horses on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing exciting to report, kinda same ole thing for both of them.

On Thursday I did the local tack store tour with Cisco's previous owner. I have a $10 gift certificate from one store that I won on a Facebook contest over a year ago, but every time I go in there, I can't find anything I want to spend it on. Mostly because their prices are a little high, and I can probably get it elsewhere for more than $10 cheaper. There isn't really anything I need (I probably already have it, and likely more than one) and if I do want something I usually want a very specific thing.

I could have bought a bag of beet pulp from the second store, but I didn't really make space in my car/mobile tack room. So I will have to head back in a couple of weeks to pick some up.

I need to get a pic of Phantom standing alone next to her shelter... preferably with her butt to the camera....

At the third store, I took in a saddle that I want to sell and placed it on consignment. No luck selling it on Facebook so far, so I will pay the consignment fee and hope it sells from there. That store has gone to a mostly consignment format, and I seldom find anything to buy. Although I did buy a fulmer snaffle last time I was there to add to my bit bag.

The final store was the chain store that was having a storewide summer sale. I went in with a list and tried not to look at anything else. Thankfully the breeches I sort of want but really don't need were out of stock in my size. So I just picked up dewormer for now (I'm a bad mom and they are past due and rubbing their tails), dewormer for the fall after it freezes, MSM for Phantom, 3 new lead shanks to replace the 2 that were broken in the first two weeks at the new place, and a spare set of leg straps. I was hoping to pick up a winter liner for Cisco that I could layer with my existing blankets, but they didn't have my size. I could order it online, but the shipping takes up most of the savings from the sale. So I can wait until a little closer to cold weather and hope that they become available in town.

When I returned home I decided to do up a browband for Cisco. I hadn't measured to see if he needed a cob or full size, but the cob size browband that is currently on his bridle fits snugly, so I figured he would be a full. Yeah, I should have measured. It's a bit big. I'll re-do it this winter onto a cob-sized browband when we hit a cold spell and I don't want to leave the house.

It's much sparklier in person. But a manly type of sparkle.

I went out to the barn in the evening with the plan of cleaning some tack, which is something that is on my list of things to accomplish this week. I think it took me an hour and a half to clean Phantom's bridle and one saddle. The bridle was done properly - taken apart, cleaned with water, then with Leder Combi, then Lederbalsam. It looked fantastic. The saddle wasn't Lederbalsamed.

I put Cisco's new browband on Phantom's bridle since I couldn't find my black Micklem bridle at home before I went out. Then brought him in and attempted to get pictures of him wearing said bridle. Sadly, his lengthy forelock covers most of the browband. But trust me, it looks fabulous.

It's hard to take a picture while holding a horse who wants to leave. Or graze.

When I got home I discovered that the short videos of the horses walking to meet me at the gate are sideways and can't be rotated. Sad face. But here it is in case you want to see it. (I was playing music on my phone while I was cleaning tack and was singing at an inappropriate volume based on my singing ability. The joys of being alone at the barn!) Cisco always walks up to me first, then Phantom decides that she better check me out just in case she is missing something. She never walked up to me before Cisco arrived on the scene!

Horse Related Pet Peeves

I admit, I'm a bit of a safety monitor. Mostly because I've seen some simple things end up going very badly. There are some things that I think people are stupid for doing (like wearing flip flops around horses) but they don't affect me personally, so as long as they can live with the repercussions of their decisions, have at it.

When it comes down to something that could affect me or my horses though, that I have a problem with. Some teenagers were parked in front of the stall where I keep my tack, and despite me having to go around the horses that were too close together, tied in front of the door, and walk over the poop no one could bother to clean up, none of them moved, so my bitchy side came out.  Why do people have to tie their horses right next to the tack lockers? I assume they all have fully functioning legs and are capable of walking a few stalls down with their stuff since none of them ride in any para divisions. (My passive aggressive move might be to park Phantom in front of the their tack locker when they are getting ready since she ground ties quite nicely. And hopefully she would poop since she has elephant sized poops.)

That's just annoying, inconsiderate behaviour. Not real safe either. Which was said to them.

But my pet peeve that I see so many people do? Put their bridle on, then leave their halter hanging down towards the ground from the lead shank.

There are three halters hanging down within 10 feet of each other. Also note that the door to the stall my tack is in is the open door on the left - there were 3 horses parked in this area that I was expected to get through. You can probably see why my bitch side came out.

Trip hazards for humans. Somewhere for a horse to hang a leg up in.

If I park my horse in front of a halter still attached to a wall, I always untie it and move it aside. I never leave my own halter that way. It's always unclipped from the shank, and more often than not the shank is also untied.

Maybe it's just because I'm old and have been around horses for too long and I know how fast something can happen. Or maybe it's because I'm a huge klutz and I figure I will likely be the one to break my ankle tripping over someone else's halter. Horses are quite capable of doing stupid things without human assistance - why make it any easier for them?