The beast

Guess who's got 4 hooves, red hair, and is a complete beast............ REILY IS!!!!!

That's right, you heard me, Reily is a total baller.  This is probably only his 3rd or 4th XC schooling and this horse just upstaged about every other greeny I know.  Hell he upstaged my own horse who I've been riding for 8 years and can't seem to get past Novice.  You guys heard me praising his very first XC schooling where he trotted right over the ditch but this is absolutely amazing.

The weather was unseasonally nice, close to 70, so even though he was super fuzzy we took him over to Green Hill to have some fun.  We warmed up on top of the hill then started with a few simple logs and coops which he cleared in fine fashion.  Then I figured it was nice out and we hadn't brought Boo cause Ben wanted to walk with Oscar, the new puppy, so I didn't have any reason to cut the fun short.  We went on to jump bike racks, tiger traps, trakners, a hogs back, roll tops and boxes, the ditch, the ditch and brush (!!!!!!!), the cabins (both the Beg. Novice and Novice one!!!!!), and an up and down bank.  Talk about excited and proud!  That doesn't even begin to explain how I felt.  I never got the chance to compete Scotty in eventing before I retired him, so this is the first horse I've ever ridden who is just completely fearless XC.  It's the most amazing feeling ever.  This horse is going to go places, I just hope I can keep up with his talent!!

Mini XC

We don't have much in the way of jumps/poles etc. at home but we make do with what he have.  Since I still had Pat's (amazing!) camera and the girls had been exercising the boys for me while I was gone I felt comfortable the boys were fit enough to do some makeshift XC schooling last night.  I have a few trees and PVC pipes to use as poles, a couple of barrels and I repurposed the compost "house" to make a coop jump.  The weather was fabulous and the boyfriend agreed to take pics for us.

Boo was good.  He had his usual cheeky, tantrum moments but no refusals or major bucking fits.  He's such a funny horse.  He's rarely a joy the whole time you're riding, but when he's good he's very fun to ride.  Not to blow my own horn (especially since it only took what, like 8 years?!) but he's really a pretty well trained horse.  He's decenlty adjustable and good to the aids, but damned if he doesn't make you work for every second of it.  He can be such a pain in the ass, but he's made me a lot better rider for it!

Reily was also great.  He had never seen a lot of this stuff before.  Barrels, the PVC poles, and skinny jumps were all new for him.  Pardon my disgusting equiation in some of these pics.  It's awful but sometimes he would jump so big he'd jump me out of the tack and other times I was pinching a lot with my knees and just got way ahead of him, subsequently crawling up his neck.  Sixteen days without riding and my eq went to sh*t  :'(  What matters most to me is making sure I don't catch him in the mouth so honestly as long as I'm not doing that I can live with myself while I get back in the swing.  Riding through some of his big leaps was hysterical, but looking through the pictures is even more hilarious!  He's such a good boy though, he'll really go anywhere you point him and it's great for him to do tons of stuff at this level.  I want him to learn where to take off while the jumps are little like this so that, later on, when we get to the bigger stuff and I get him to a fence funny he can save both of our butts.  So as funny as it is to see pictures like this one... where he took off WAAAYY long, I want him to learn that if that happens here's what he'll have to do to still safely get us to the other side.

It was a great night of riding :)

Like a BOSS

That's right, Reily is a BAMF!  Want to know why?  Because he completed his first Horse Trials yesterday!!!  Yaaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!!!

We did the "Green" division which consisted of Intro Test C for dressage, a 2' show jumping course with lots of oxers and filler, and max 2'3" XC fences.  He was definitely more calm at this show but because he and Boo where in back-to-back divisions it got very hectic very quickly. 

He warmed up decently for dressage, we're still not to the point where he'll accept steady, consistent contact but I was happy he would take a few strides on the bit, then his head would go up and his nose would go out, then he'd come back down and take contact, and so on.  But I felt like he was as calm and forward as I was going to get him for his second show and felt good about where he was at mentally when we stepped into the ring.  Our first halt was much better than last time, I saluted and we trotted off to C tracking right, and just as I'm turning the corner... "LOOSE HORSE! LOOSE HORSE! Heads up at the dressage rings, loose horse headed your way!!!".  I was concentrating so hard on his test I was confused why everyone was screaming, including the judge who got out of her car and was frantically screaming at me to halt.  Chill peeps, Reily and I got this, we ride in the field at home all the time with the other boys running around loose, he's not going to gallop away with me.  Well the renegade did come straight down to the dressage rings and was trotting around enjoying his freedom outside the arena fence, but Reily just stared and then we walked around in little circles until the little Houdini found his barn buddy and was caught.  Good news is, Reily kept his head like an old pro.  Bad news, it COMPLETELY broke our concentration and though I (thankfully) remembered his test when we were allowed to start again, I just couldn't regain his attention the way I'd had it before.  So our test left much to be desired, but I don't blame him for that.  This is horses, sh*t is gonna happen, it just by chance happened during our test, no reason to really sweat it.

The weather was nice but threatening rain all day and, go figure, it held off until right before Reily's stadium round.  That was really inopportune because the stadium warm up was on turf with rather long grass and it got slippery pretty quick.  Reily only has front shoes right now and no stud holes, not that I have any studs to use anyways, but it just made for a less confidence building warm up because he was having a hard time keeping his feet under him.  The actual show jumping course was in an arena with all-weather footing so I was glad for that at least.  We went in and had a decent round.  Unfortunately I didn't use enough leg and he wasn't entirely paying attention so we had a refusal at fence two and when we came back around we got there funny and pulled a rail.  Otherwise his round was good.  He was definitely a little strong but I think it was mostly the atmosphere causing that.

The rain had slowed almost to a stop by the time we walked out to XC and luckily I knew that BREA had just cut the grass on the various XC paths so I felt more confident about the footing not being too slippery for him out there.  He was raring to go and even though it was really a rather long track, even for his level, the optimum time was VERY generous, almost even excessive.  We trotted a bit cantered most of it and by the time I was one away from home we still had about 1min 30secs left so I actually walked him down the steepest hill to the final jump so I knew we wouldn't slip any going down and to give him a little breather too.  Unfortunately, I'm obviously no Buck "Runs 11 Horses Each Weekend" Davidson out of shape because after riding 3 exhasting phases on Boo and 2 slightly less exhausting phases on Reily my legs were tired as crap and I was just sort of on autopilot, enjoying the breeze and not paying attention and Reily, surprisingly, ran out on the 3rd jump from home.  He wasn't scared he was just checking to make sure I was still awake up there... I wasn't  :(  It was totally my fault but I was definitely caught off guard.  But hey, there's no day dreaming allowed, especially on XC, no matter how trustworthy the horse.  Touche Reily, touche.  Other than that silly mistake XC was great.  Almost all of his fences were just little logs and I think there might have been one mulch mound and a tiny little baby hanging log with a fake ditch underneath.  All very straightforward and inviting fences.  A perfect introduction to the joy of HTs  :)

The voice in the sky...

Otherwise known as the speaker system at horse shows, is unfortunately somewhat akin to that same voice in the sky that calls the races at a track.  Why it took my boyfriend blatantly saying that for me to make the connection is a wonder to us both.  But needless to say, Reily made that connection very quickly.  We weren’t actually going to a show, but we did want to take him to the horse park during the local winter fun show yesterday just to see how he would handle the atmosphere.  We were meeting a few friends there and planning to all go cross country schooling out on the hill while the show was going on.  The good news was that the boys loaded up perfect and we were headed down the road ahead of time.  The bad news was that it randomly started raining on/off the whole way to the park.  It wasn’t a hard rain, but it wasn’t a fine mist, it was like a steady little patter of rain.

When we arrived we tried to park by Ring 3 because it’s farther away from the main area.  The rain was still coming down and unfortunately for us, Ring 1 was the main show ring, Ring 2 was the main warm-up ring and Ring 3 had been turned into some sort of Jousting arena… not good.  Don’t get me wrong it was super cool to watch these people gallop their horses through the 3 contraptions that held the “doughnuts” that they try and spear with their lance, but it wasn’t very fun to have to take poor Reily off the trailer to hear the voice in the sky then see horses flat out galloping around this arena.  Poor fella!  He was definitely stressing!  We got Boo off and my boyfriend let him graze a bit while I walked Reily around to try and calm him some and let him figure out where all the noise and commotion was coming from.  It took extra long to get him groomed (if you could call it that… I think I just created more mud then anything) and tacked up because he just couldn’t stand still.  But he’ll have to learn to get over those nerves so I just kept moving with him and told him to suck it up!

By the time we got him and Boo tacked and I climbed on he was still very much on his toes but no longer exploding with energy.  My boyfriend and Boo moseyed on nice and slow the way they like because there was no keeping up with Reily.  I was circling continually so we didn’t leave them too far behind as we headed past all the trailers and ponies to get to the cross country field.  Luckily it finally stopped raining on our way out there.  We met my friends at the top of the cross country course (calm ponies are much easier and quicker to tack up) and started schooling the little stuff.  Reily did almost all of the “Green” level jumps including logs, coops, banks up/down, steps up/down, even the tiny little trakner!  He was such a champ!  We did some individual stuff and then a little course of 3-4 in a row and he was much more under control and listening.

He was obviously having a total blast running and jumping and hanging out with the 7 other riders and horses!  Since he was being so good I got bold and decided to get a lead over the ditch just to see how he would react.  I haven’t really worked him over any “ground pole ditches” so I figured if it was too much for him we would just walk away and come back to it in the future once I’ve had more time to work him over the ground pole practice first.  So my friend used her wonder pony to give us as lead and I kept Reily just a few strides behind her and, I sh*t you not, he trotted right over!!!  Never looked, never spooked, and never balked, nothing!!  He just trotted right over and trotted right away with the happiest little ears you’ve ever seen!  I can’t even use enough exclamation points to express how excited I was.  After riding Boo for so many years and jumping this same ditch a gazillion and one times he still thinks that it’s his mortal enemy and jumps it like a freak EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!  And Reily just went on over it like it was old news.  He’s by far the coolest horse ever!  He was much happier out there on cross country and after just a few more little jumps we headed back to the main park.

When we got back he was totally nonchalant about all the noise and chaos.  I even went ahead and schooled him in the warm-up ring where he was a total star.  There were crazy beginners and crazy horse running around all willy-nilly but he kept it completely together.  After switching ponies and getting Boo ridden as well we packed the boys up and headed home for a well deserved rest.  My boys are the greatest!  Just wish we could have gotten some photos or video but the aforementioned rain made that a no-go.  Next time!

Weather whiplash

I guess I spoke too soon.  On Wednesday it was nice despite the fact that it rained on us the last 5 minutes of our ride.  Thursday was not only stellar weather but a stellar ride because Reily was sound!  We went on a nice, long trail ride climbing over the top of the mountain (see post Horses vs. Mountain Goats) then taking a slow winding ride on the switchbacks down the other side all the way back home.  Needless to say it was a great hour ride, but it was also almost pitch dark by the time we got home.  No matter, Reily not only handled doing the whole thing alone like it was old news, he handled the dark without being the slightest bit fazed.  We heard some deer off in the woods, he looked that way with ears pricked but just kept on walking with those big, rhythmic, swinging steps.  Some neighbors' dog threw a fit about us going past their house, again he looked but totally kept his cool.  I truly cannot praise this horse's brain enough!

Well the nice weather abruptly ended on Friday morning.  I heard that further south it was like a monsoon, but I'm not sure which is worse, because up here it was mid 50's in the morning and clear skies.  Then throughout the day it flip-flopped at least 3-4 times between all out downpours and then clear skies.  In fact, at one point it was perfectly sunny and dropping bucketfuls of rain simultaneously.  Very aggravating and once again the ground was SOAKED through.  Then the wind picked up making it almost impossible to even get their blankets on for an extra layer to ward off the chill before they tried to blow away while attempting to get everyone buckled in!

Reily getting his feet picked while Boo plays the role
of the "run away"

Saturday the wind had slowed only a fraction by morning.  The sun was out but you wouldn't have known it thanks to the wind chill. It continued like that all day.  My boyfriend and I spent the day like couch potatoes except when we had to go out into the tornado winds to check ponies or something else pressing.  It was pretty miserable over all.

Warming up Boo in the ring

I may not have gone to church to do it, but I was thanking the lord for Sunday by going out and enjoying it!  The wind finally let off and the sun came out and other than the occasional, short but brisk wind gust it was a gorgeous late February day so we took the fellas over to the horse park to play a bit.  I groomed and tacked up the boys and warmed up Boo in the ring (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4jehqyieNQ&context=C385cbe1ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO) before helping my boyfriend climb up on Reily and heading up to the XC course to jump a few elements.  Boo was very good, only a couple stops that came from me not sitting up and waiting.  He was tired out when we finished and Reily was a little hot and "just wanted to run" according to my boyfriend so we played musical ponies on top of the XC course and switched saddles so he could cool Boo out and have the slower ride.

Well he really wasn't joking, Reily was feeling great and having a blast being out in the big open field so I trotted him to the far end of the course then turned him around and let him start off trotting and then let him go into a canter and eventually a gallop and we went across the entire top of the hill (a good 1/2 to 3/4 mile) and he was just LOVING IT!  Happy little ears, and when he really opened up his stride and got rolling it was the best feeling ever, he wasn't running away just floating across the turf, eating up the distance.  I foresee us doing a lot of trotting on course at the lower levels or else we'll end up getting penalized for coming home too quick!  I can't wait to get the daylight back and start riding him 5-6 days a week, he's going to be a XC machine!  Since we were up there and plenty warmed up we popped over a few tiny logs on the ground also.  I so wish we'd gotten video of it because it had to be hysterical to watch.  These were so small he could have easily stepped over them but the first two times we trotted up and he deer hopped over the log with such a big thrust he totally jumped me out of the tack.  When we landed he happily cantered away with this adorable little, "Neat mom, I like doing this new stuff!" look on his face and my boyfriend and I were both laughing like crazy.  After that we moved on to a different log on the ground and he was already starting to get better and began jumping across rather then just up, picking up his knees and hind end well.  We even went over to a bank and did a tinsey-tiny step up (which was nothing to him, with those long legs it hardly seemed like he was even changing terrain) and then walked over to the down side and after only a mild hesitation ("Mom, why do you want me to walk off this if we just walked on?") he did the tiniest drop down like it was nothing.  We did that a couple more times until he was happily popping up and straight back down in the happiest little expression ever.  Reily and I both had such a blast out on the XC course!

We took the boys back down and took care of Boo then let him out in the round pen so he could graze for a few while Reily did a few minutes of ring work.  The hardest part about not having a proper ring at home is trying to make progress on his contact.  When we adopted him they warned me he might be a bit hard mouthed at first because his exercise rider at the track used to sort of bully him around a bit and hang on his mouth when he took him out to work him.  So I want to be able to ride him on a looser rein and allow him to reach for the contact himself to learn that I'm never going to yank on his mouth, but without a ring it's very hard to give him this loose of a rein at home without running the risk of him bulging through my leg aids and heading back home whenever he feels like it.  I was very happy to work with him in the ring for a few minutes and see some improvement despite the fact that we can only work on it but so much at home.  I was giving him a very loose rein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXpAJAsWGQ&context=C385cbe1ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoMTYfk-zU&feature=related) but he reached down towards the bit several times on his own!  Small victories, yes!!

Happy pony after a fun day!

Daylight savings time ends on March 11, only 13 more days! I mean... not that I'm counting or anything ;)