Dressage in a Small Package

Mohican Star is Jess' pony, and last winter I got to ride him for a few months to improve his brakes.  Then, over the summer, Jess broke her collarbone in a non-riding accident, so again I got the ride while she recovered. Winter came, and he came back so they could use our indoor, and again I got to ride this super pony. He has a great mind, and tries so hard, and heck, it's just dang cute to see 13.1hh doing lateral work, so I thought I'd share it with you guys.

If you prefer to go directly to the YouTube page, here's the address: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXGSZgKaaCM

My Show Season that Wasn't

Horse show season is always at the mercy of the horses. Over the winter, it looked like a crazy year with a bunch of students learning the ropes and a full ride roster for me.  The good news is my students are going strong. Me, not so much.

Last year I took five horses down the centerline, and one by one, they have all been sidelined this year for various things.

Flash, the fiery little pinto, back in March, injured her jaw defending her stall through the little feed-hole in the front of her stall (it was promptly covered up, but not soon enough).  She has been doing well under saddle, but she has been going bitless, which rules her out of USDF Recognized competition.  She is 3 weeks from wearing a bit again, and we have our fingers crossed that her injury didn’t affect the inside of her jaw where the bit lies.  We won’t know until we try it.

Secret, who did well at 3^rd level last year, needs more suppleness and strength for the jump to 4^th.  I tried to work on it while competing 3^rd in April and May, but some training stages require a bit of deconstruct-analyze-specialize-strengthen-reconstruct to truly fix the problem, and that doesn’t lend itself well to staying show-ring ready, so we decided to keep her home for a while. She is already qualified for GAIG Regionals, so hopefully by staying home and focusing on training, we’ll bring out a new-and-improved Secret by September.  Whether we make September or not, she needs to stay home and get stronger to compete 4^th in 2013.

Basil, the big red boy that I showed late last year, well, I lost the ride to his owner. Which is as it should be. I’m thrilled to see Rebecca meshing with him as she always wanted to.

Eclipse has been sidelined by the checkbook. His owner is in the Navy Reserves, and has been called into active duty repeatedly the last 48 months. The military doesn’t pay well enough to cover the farm sitter at home as well as stud-boy’show season expenses, so if he gets out this year, it’ll be later in the season. 

Sling, who spent the first half of last year promptly growing every time I put a show entry in the mail, was scheduled to stay home this season. Eventually, Paige will take over the competition reins on him, so this season the show budget went to getting her some big-ring experience on her pony, which she did beautifully last weekend at Morven Park.

Then there’s Venus.  She is working well, but is between levels. I took her along to Morven last weekend, and she was a good girl, but the excitement of being at a show again for the first time in four years affected her gaits.  I really don’t see the point of putting her in front of a judge until she is relaxed enough to show her best, so she can come along and school this season to get used to the high-intensity of shows again.  If she is relaxed, I’ll compete her, but if she is tense, training at the show grounds will do her more long-term good than a $3 piece of satin.  I know she can do it, she did it well enough to compete with the big boys as a 4, 5 and 6-year old. She just needs to get in the swing of things again.

So that leaves SFD’s two sales horses, ShowMeTheGlory (known as Pee Wee around the barn) and Ensign’s Stately Mandolyn, or Mandy. Both are super fun, easy-to-ride horses priced at a rather friendly price point. The plan for them is to stick to the schooling shows, where the show budget stretches further, and they can get what they need to be marketable – show miles and show miles and more show miles. 

My students, on the other hand, appreciate my semi-sidelined status.  Last weekend at Morven, I was able to be their eyes in warm-up more than last season – granted, an agreeable schedule helped a lot. Rebecca earned her second GAIG qualifying score on James. Paige earned her qualifying score for BLM on her pony, Maggie.  Alexa learned a lot about showing Ockie at a BIG show (really, that show was much smaller, with much less scary competition last year…. sorry about that, girls, it probably wasn’t the best choice for your first recognized show…) and her scores improved all weekend.  Meanwhile, back at home, Jen played coach for Liz and Joyce at a local schooling show, with both riders earning personal-best scores.

So this year I get to be the riding instructor version of the soccer coach.  I’ll live through my student’s success, which is really quite sweet, and frankly, easier. I get to enjoy the excitement of the show grounds, without stressing about keeping my whites white.  Sounds like a fun year.

Show Photos from FCDA Schooling Show, April 2012

The next weekend, we loaded up a bunch of students to attend FCDA's Schooling show, and again Linda came armed with a camera.  Here's the fruits of her labors.

Thanks Linda for all of the great shots. Too bad you didn't catch the one of Chris and Joe leaping from the ring... but then, it wouldn't be as funny without her yelling "Oh #it!"

Chris and Joe, fully recovered from the unplanned leap from the dressage ring.

Alexa and Ockie

Joyce and Pikasso

Jess and Moe

Liz just chillin'

Liz again, this time with Rocky

Kelsey and Pee Wee

Paige and Maggie

Show photos from Morven Park, April 2012

I'm still behind a bit, but thought I'd steal a few minutes to post photos from our first two shows. These are from Morven Park, April 2012 show. Secret was also along, but Linda didn't send me photos of her this time. She was fantastic, she is already qualified for Regionals.  Not a bad start to the show season!

Rebecca brought James, and I took my Morgan pony, Mandy for her first outing. We met tons of friends at the show, and of course had a great time.

This is Ensign's Stately Mandolyn, my Morgan pony, at her first show. She is SUPER.

Check out that hind leg! How fancy is that??

Mandy again. Ok, I'll quit now, but I so rarely I get to be the proud horse-mom :-).

James and Rebecca kicked butt at their first 1st level outing.

They really have come a long way. March 2011 was her first dressage lesson.  James has proved to be as amazing a dressage horse as he was a hunter. What an athlete.

And so it Begins

The slow time of year apparently is over. Not that it was all that slow this year…

We usually start our show season in May, but this winter has been unseasonably warm, and the horses have been schooling so well, we decided to attend VADA/NOVA’s spring show at Morven Park held over Easter weekend.

As usual, the weather made an impact on the scores. It was WINDY, and that wind had a cold edge to it. Secret was her usual stellar self on day one, but the wind had emptied her gas tank for day two. Mandy was really, really overwhelmed by the big warmbloods and cold wind, so my rock-star pony didn’t show very well.  Rebecca’s mount, James, seems to love cold, windy days—he was awesome, becoming the high-score SFD rider at this show with a 69.355 in First 3 on Sunday.  We brought home enough ribbons and stories to make the trip well worth it.

March and April we crammed in a whirlwind of clinics, hosting Phoebe DeVoe with OVCTA, attending Acadia Farm’s clinic with Lendon Gray, Hawk Hollow’s clinic with Catharine Haddad-Staller, and our usual trips down to Hasslers. With all of this consistent help, the horses are going great. 

And it continues—this weekend a bunch of students are competing at FCDA’s schooling show at Journey’s End, which is just around the corner. The next two weekends have JJ Tate and Linda Zang both hosted locally.  Then there’s our Training Demonstration this Saturday, on creating a plan for your horse’s workouts.

So, hence the short, just-the-facts blog.  Hopefully I’ll have some time in the next week or so do write more. Until then, happy riding.

Fruits of Our Labor

Riding is about horses, but the horse industry is all about the people.  I work hard to make our barn a safe, drama-free community where riders get a break from the stress and emotions of daily life.  I dare say, the teenagers need this as much, if not more than, the adult amateurs.

I’m sure this goes back to my own teenage years. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Overtime, the big event horse I leased throughout high school, went a long way towards channeling my wild-child side. And as important as Overtime, Diane and Fred Peterson, his owners, became my “horse show parents.” They filled the roll of the “cool adults” in my life.  You know, that person who magically shows up with logical advice about the time your parents become impossible, illogical humans you are forced to live with until college.  Without their help, who knows how I would have turned out.

I try to return the favor. I try to be the listening ear when needed and to be the giver of sage, or not-so-sage, advice (don’t change yourself for anyone, learn to drive while eating ice cream, live life for the stories as well as the goals), and sometimes some of it sticks.   

Teenagers have a habit of growing up.  One of the kids from years past is already married with 2 kids, and three others are tying the knot in 2012.  Last weekend I attended one of the weddings.  I haven’t seen Victoria since last June, but the warm reception from both her and her parents confirmed I was as important to Victoria as Diane and Fred were to me. I admit I am sentimentally happy to have been a part of her, and frankly, all of my horse teenagers growing-up years.

I stayed in the area and judged a fix-a-test the next day, and her father stopped by to show me the latest award that had arrived from USDF. “The fruits of your labor,” he called it. 

“No,” I corrected him, “a good grown-up is the fruits of our labor.” 


And that really is how I see it.  My horses, and the people that surround them, inspire me every day to be not only the best rider I can be, but a more compassionate, understanding person. If I can help pass a little bit of this on to our next generation, hopefully they will remember the lessons, both in and out of the stirrup.  


They say it takes a village to raise a child, I'm glad I can be part of that community. Congratulations Victoria and Angel, Samantha and Ryan, and Lisa and Skylar, and I wish you all many happy years together. Now it's your turn to be the village for the next group of young people trying to become good grown-ups. 

  

The calm before the storm

Like any business, the horse business has its busy times and its slow times.  My slow times seem to be rather limited the last few years – January is usually pretty quiet, but by February the winter short-term training horses usually arrive, which means busy, but busy at home.  In March and April our area usually has some pretty fun clinics, involving busy days, but again, mostly I get to sleep in my own bed.  But then, in April show season picks up, and things roll along until the first weekend in November.

Which means right now I am enjoying the calm before the storm. But I’m not so sure Amy and Kelsey are…

Because when I have time, I think too much, and come up with lots of great ideas, which, of course, trickle down to Amy and Kelsey’s job lists.  The big items in the last two weeks have been organizing, leveling stalls, and parasite management.

Working for a red-headed hyper type-A dressage geek means that down time usually means organize.  I HATE looking for things, and with 22 horses, keeping things neat is a daily challenge.  Hence whenever SFD has down-time, I pull out my p-touch label maker and go nuts. Everything needs a place, and if things return to their place, then the order in our tack room defies the disorder in my thoughts. 

With the spring organizing comes the spring pitch-session. We did a respectable job getting things clean before the clinic, but now I’m taking it a step further.  The back cubbies get sorted out and extra stuff stored up stairs, taken to Equine Exchange, or tossed.  Systems for efficient storage need purchased and put into place.  That squirt bottle that we don’t use because it sticks now lives in the garbage instead of on top of the water heater. Clutter goes away. 

The stalls also get addressed this time of year. I don’t care for stall mats, which means we must routinely add screenings to keep stalls level.  When we are in there, we also spray the walls down with dilute bleach to kill any ascarids that may be using a stall for breeding – which is part of our parasite program.

A big part of the worm program is the spring pasture cleaning. So far, we have cleaned 3 of our 10 smaller fields completely and are picking them weekly.  On the 1^st, I’ll rent a big trailer and everyone will pitch in to get the two huge pastures cleaned.  I do this because worms can’t breed inside of the host, which means if we can eliminate Mr. Parasite from meeting Mrs. Parasite in our fields, then there are less expecting Mrs. Parasites to re-infest our fields, and then re-infest our horses. 

I have been picking paddocks and pastures as long as SFD has been around, and it has paid off. This year we did fecal counts on all of the horses, and (yes, I am bragging here) any horse that has been in my care for more than a year was essentially clean.  Which means we only need to worm these guys twice this year, and save the stress that worming products put on their systems and on the environment.

Then, on April 7, the show season begins. And Amy and Kelsey can get a break.  I'm sure they are looking forward to it.