Dear Winter...You suck

I think Reily and I both feel this way, but for two very different reasons.

I hate winter because winter means cold.  Cold means big bulky layers of clothing.  Bulky clothes mean awkward, imprecise riding.  Awkward, imprecise riding means I get sad.  Also I hate cold wind.  Also I hate getting up in the pitch dark because I can't even see where I'm throwing the hay.  Also I hate static electricity because it means I can't kiss pony noses without shocking us both and consequently making them hate me.

Reily hates winter because winter means draw reins and lots of boring flat work.  Draw reins mean he has to learn to carry himself correctly in the canter without making me hold him up.  Self carriage means hard work.  And lets face it, horses hate hard work.

Our contact and aids have gotten continually better.  He's doing well with turn on the forehand and walk pirouettes.  We're still working on getting his turn on the haunches up to par and I need to start working on haunches in with him.  He's doing well going on the bit consistantly at the walk and trot but he's still resistant in the canter.  I don't want to yank his head down and be heavy handed with him, and I definitely don't want him to think it's ok to only go on the bit at the canter if he makes me hold up his entire front end.  So, draw reins it is.  We'll still do plenty of trail riding, hacking, and hill work so life doesn't get too boring but I've decided that essentially every ride we flat will be in his dressage saddle (good for us both to get more practice in it) with draw reins.

According to Reily, life officially sucks.  But we'll both be better for it.

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!!

BCHA=cheap fun

The Botetourt County Horseman's Association hosts a show at Green Hill Park every year.  Now, what I love about this show- 1) It's actually got jumper classes, an annoyingly scarce occurance at GHPEC shows for some stupid reason; 2) It has incredibly affordable classes, typically $8 or $9.

Maxin' and relaxin' in the in-gate crowd

I still haven't found a job but I felt like Reily was getting REALLY bored with the same old, same old at home.  I'd been doing some odd jobs/ horse work to make a little extra money and felt it was worth the $27 to take Reily to the show and let him do something new and exciting.  Boo-who got to stay home because there was no excuse to spend the extra money.

So Reily went and we had him entered in 3 classes at 3 different heights (2'-2'3"; 2'3"-2'6"; and 2'6"-2'9").  The course was not entirely to my liking because it just had a really rangy feel.  It was really a hunter course set-up with an added narrow on one end of the ring so for the "jumper" course it was a ton of single fences, no lines, bending lines, related distances or anything and I just felt like it was lacking in the educational department.  Essentially you jumped either the in or out of a hunter line, went around to the other end of the ring jumping the in/out of another line, and so on and so forth.  The only change up was that (and this was again really poor planning) the narrow fence was added in for the jumper course and it came directly after the only oxer in the ring... who does that?  Anyways, due to the course design it meant you jumped big over this oxer then made and almost 90 degree turn to the narrow, landed then make another 90 degree turn to get turned back towards the final jump.  Did I mention that the oxer was headed straight for the in-gate...yeah, poor course planning.

I figured something new is better than nothing and since the course was the same for all the jumper classes I figured if we had real issues in one class we had 2 more chances to school it.  And it proved to have some educational merit after all.

In the first class (2'-2'3") I tried to stay as out of his way as possible I wanted him to make the decisions on where to take off but if he was hesitating I'd give him a little squeeze and he responded immediately.  Since I care more about his training then I do about some silly ribbon we made big wide turns to help him (and me) regroup as needed.  He got almost all of his lead changes naturally which I was so happy about!  If he was on the wrong lead and felt unbalanced he'd swap.  We had a big steering issue after the oxer at 7 to the narrow at 8.  As I was ranting about earlier the oxer was right before the narrow and headed straight for the in-gate.  So when he jumped 7 he was staring straight at the in-gate and not listening to me so once I finally got him turned in the right direction we met the narrow fence really crooked.  Thankfully it was so small for him it didn't matter so with a little cluck and squeeze of the heels he popped right over anyways.  He earned himself a 2nd place ribbon even with the great big turns we made and the turning issue.  Reily's got big, ground covering strides but it really goes to show you, good training is a hell of a lot better than reckless riding, tearing around the course ruining any good you may have ever done at home or in lessons.  And unfortunately I see that a LOT from the people who show at Green Hill.

The second class (2'3"-2'6") was the same course but this time we weren't so lucky.  Now that the jumps were a bit bigger he jumped the oxer with even more enthusiasm and I just didn't sit up and take enough.  So this time we meant the narrow at about a 45+ degree angle, and of course hindsight is 20/20 and if I could do it over I would have just circled him and presented it straight rather than asking something outrageous of him.  If he was already at, say, training level then it wouldn't be such a stretch to ask him to jump it as such an extreme angle, but he's a little green bean still and this was only his 3rd show.  Bad riding and pilot error this time, but after a correct approach he went over just fine.  Even with the faults and time he still got 6th.

His last class (2'6"-2'9") I was determined to make it work at that turn.  So coming down to the oxer I actually bridged my reins and asked for a big whoa on the landing.  We made a good, all be it, tight turn to the narrow and I made a big fuss over him because that was my only real goal for that class, for him to learn that if I asked for a whoa I meant listen now, not later.  We did pull a rail at 9 because I cut the turn a little too tight and sort of buried him at the base.  But I couldn't care less about that because I was just happy we made that turn.  He earned himself a 4th in this class.

Teaching while Reily naps

I also helped school a couple girls and their horses which was great fun cause I love seeing that my input is actually improving the way they go.  It makes me feel like a real trainer ;)  Reily just stood around with me while I raised and changed jump poles and some little girl came over asking if she could hold him for me.  I was sort of baffled but the way she was asking I think she thought something might happen if I was holding him and doing that at the same time.  I'm not sure what made her think that because Reily was napping and being perfect the whole time.  I was like "He's fine, but if you want to, sure" and handed her his reins while he dozed away.  Then she looked at him harder and was like, "Hey, this is that horse that I really liked in that jumper class.  He was so cute!".  I just chuckled cause I thought it was adorable Reily was already collecting fans.  He can't help that he's so handsome and wonderful.

All-in-all, great success!!!

RVHS

So I had considered showing Boo in a couple of the little, unrecognized jumper classes but after adding up all the fees, even for those little dinky classes, it just wasn't worth the cost.  However, one of the major benefits of living close to the venue (which is the Salem Civic Center)  is that we can pack up, trailer over, school in the groomed arenas, utlilize the fancy jumps and just go home.  So that's the route we chose.  The boyfriend, wonderful as always, tagged along to hold ponies and take pictures because he's just that awesome.

I rode Boo first, flatted him and then did a bit of jumping doing some single fences, lines, bending lines and finishing with a couple little made up courses.  He was good.... as long as I rode.  Predicably I did not ride a few times and he thoroughly embarrassed me in front of anyone who was watching (hopefully just a few random people I'll never see again) and certainly scared the living shit out of one of the horse show officals who thought maybe, I "really should just let it go".  Umm, thanks but I know my shit-headed horse and if I was doing my job, trust me, I can make him do his, despite that you apparently think he's dangerous.  He's not that dangerous.  He's just an ass.  And I really can ride, I just wasn't right that second.  Thoroughly embarrassed and moving on.  Otherwise Boo was good.  His one ridiculous habit... being TERRIFIED to walk over the hard plastic things they run over the wiring to protect it from being run over by cars, golf carts, hooves, etc.  He jumped them. Every. Single. Time.

Reily on the other hand was a total champ (about the plastic covers and riding) per his usual self.   We did quite a bit of flatwork to start which he was very good during.  He was however, extremely excited to jump, to the point that when I set up some trot poles to work over he decided he wasn't entirely sure what I wanted so the best thing to do would be to jump across 3 of the 4 poles instead of trot through them.  Needlesstosay I was completely caught off guard and the boyfriend managed to capture this amazing moment on film.  Luckily for Reily we did get to jumping after some good flat work.  He was great for that as well.  Height doesn't seem to be any issue for him, which is great, but his technique is still very green (to be expected) so that will be an ongoing process.  We jumped some x-rails, some verticals and finished jumping in a figure-8 pattern over a nice square oxer.  This exercise was great for him because it helps him with landing on the correct lead or changing leads as needed, to keep a steady tempo and be adjustable.  Overall I was VERY pleased with how he handled himself!!  Even though I purposely schooled him in a ring that was on the edge of the grounds there was still a lot to look at and take in.  Noises, sounds, smells, traffic, none of it really phased him :)

After Reily was done and walked out I rode him, while the boyfriend led Boo-butt, and we went for a slow, meandering walk through the show grounds between all the temporary stabling, vendors, schooling and show rings.  He was alert but never put a step wrong.  He's such a cutie he even caught the eye of a little girl walking around with her parents and he let her pet his nose before heading back to the trailer.  Boo was very good walking around too, which I'm not sure I've ever done with him before so I was happy with him as well.  All in all, a successful day :)

My little boy’s growing up!

So we’ve been riding a lot lately but I just haven’t had anything super significant to write about so pardon our absence.  Tax season is ALMOST over, so soon I’ll be able to do an awful lot more with my boys and this blog, just bear with us a few more weeks!

Though tax season can pretty much kiss my butt, my boss was at least willing to let me off of my mandatory half day on Saturday morning as long as I made up the 4 hours Saturday night or Sunday, so I got to take Reily and Boo to their first show of the season, and Reily’s first show EVER!!  If you’re reading this you probably already knew about it because I’ve been blabbering about how excited I was to anyone who would listen (and even to some who wouldn’t!) for weeks, I know, I’m shameless.  But I was just so EXCITED! Reily’s first ever show, what could even be any more exciting?!  Exactly J

Well I had Reily entered in the tiniest Combined Test (CT) division they offer and that’s “Cross Rails”.  A CT consists of a dressage test and either a stadium jumping round or a cross country run, but not both or it would be considered a Horse Trials (HT) when all three phases are present.  Dressage consists of a preset test for each division where the horse and rider must perform a pattern of movements and actions at certain parts of the ring for a judge who scores each movement from 1-10 where 1 is not completed and 10 is perfect.  The second phase for this particular CT was stadium jumping.  His CT was made up of dressage test “Intro A”, a simple little walk/trot test, and a stadium jumping course of 7 fences which were all cross rails of 18” or less.  Boo was in the CT division called “Beginner Novice” with a walk/trot/canter test and stadium height of 2’6”.

Well thanks to Boo being a butt and running off up the driveway this morning (because he didn’t want to get on the trailer) we were running a wee bit behind and Reily was scheduled to be the 3^rd horse in dressage so his test was at 8:12.  I was totally baffled when we pulled into the horse park at least 15 minutes behind schedule only to find that we were the first people there!   The only other people on the grounds were the show secretary and her daughter.   So we got the boys off the trailer and tied them up and I went over to check in and pick up their numbers and papers.  Reily stomped a superb half circle into the grass as we got tacked up, and I fully admit I was a little bummed that he was already so anxious when there were only a few trailers trickling in and unloading.   Such is life.

I was still memorizing the correct movements for his test as we warmed up for dressage when the secretary came over the loud speaker saying one of the first two horses had some issues so now I was essentially being bumped up.  That was irritating but I knew I had until my originally scheduled time so we just kept warming up.   He wasn’t calming down much so we ended up in the ring 2 minutes early anyways and got through his test, with lot of tension, without any errors (yay, I remembered his pattern correctly!) but it took us an unfortunate 3 tries to get a true halt, and even then it was less then straight since his little booty swung out to the right once we got all four feet stopped.  We left the ring more relaxed then we entered it and that’s really all I could ask for his first time!

After a quick course walk of the jump course for both Reily and Boo we switched his tack and warmed him up for a few minutes on the flat then over some tiny cross rails before entering the ring for his first ever jumping round.   I know I’m biased but I think the video that my boyfriend got of his round is by far one of the absolute cutest things I’ve ever seen!  Decide for yourself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dfZ8le2eCg).  Even though we took off quite long at jump 5 (the yellow jump) I love that he made his own decision there!  As an event horse I want him to be brave and bold enough to think for himself because we’ll get to jumps funny sometimes and I love that he was confident enough to say “hey I’m pretty close too this and too close to feel comfortable putting in another stride, we’ll just jump it from here” then continue on unfazed!  The last jump had some brick walls out beside the standards that were supposed to go in later for the Novice divisions but for his division had been placed out to the sides of the jump almost like wings.  He got rather distracted looking at the walls for a second and got quite close the cross rail before he was paying attention again but got over it fine.  Considering he could walk over it I wasn’t concerned.  It was more cute because after he finished I wanted him to canter (which we did but on the wrong lead) just to get used to ending that way and as we were finishing that canter circle he was dragging me back toward the last cross rail like “I’m sorry I was looking at the other things, I got it this time, lets jump it again, I’ll show you!” but we would have gotten eliminated for jumping it again after our round was over so I had to pull him right to make sure we didn’t do that.  He finished the day getting to take home his first ever ribbon (6^th) and was a very happy camper.  So proud of my 3yo gangly little (big) baby!!

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!

A preview...

Reily's first lesson, Pat was very impressed with the
quality of his walk-canter transitions and gaits

"A preview of what?" you might ask.  Fair question.  A preview of what Reily is really going to be able to do once we get him fit, filled out, and fine tuned.  You're probably thinking, "That's rather random, where did that come from?".  I'm glad you asked!

Reily and I had our first ever lesson on Sunday with my trainer, Pat.  I'll briefly fill you in on Pat.  Pat is the most knowledgeable, sweetest, most positive, and all around most wonderful person ever.  Admittedly she doesn't do or teach eventing, but I could care less.  She's ridden her whole life, did IHSA in college, owned, taught at, and ran a massive hunter/jumper barn right outside of NYC for 30+ years with her husband doing lessons and showing on the A-circuit.  She's a USEF "R" judge and has done everything from breaking babies to perfecting those ridiculously high dollar show hunters and ponies.  I'm so lucky to get to exercise horses for her and she's improved my riding so much!  Pat came with me the first time I went to MD to look at Reily, and I was so happy to have her professional opinion before I handed over a check, and thankfully my instinct and her expertise have proved to be 100% correct, Reily is going to be a really nice horse!

 We had a LONG lesson, probably at least an hour and a half, which explains why little Reily was getting quite tired towards the end.  We worked a lot on keeping him in the same steady, working rythym at the trot and canter (something I have to be more concious of at home, even when hacking) and on getting him to yield from my leg aids rather than bulging through them.  Unfortunately he's just so big and strong that until we can get him really responsive to my legs there are times (like when he's on a turn, headed back towards all the other horses and he doesn't want to continue turning away from them so we drift WAYYY out like a race car) when he just steam rolls through my leg aids despite the fact that my little legs are working furiously to try and contain that big body.  We worked him on a nice, extra large circle each way and spent the last 10-20 minutes doing ground poles and eventually setting up a small gymnastic and getting him through both ways.  You wouldn't know he was tired at all if he was heading back towards Boo but he was super sluggish jumping away from Boo.  So we jumped the good way eventually bumping up the second element to a baby vertical, then changed it back to a crossrail and got him over it and cantering away on the hard direction and called it quits on that high note.  He was such a good sport, especially because this was, admittedly, a much more organized session then we typically do at home, no day dreaming allowed.

Boo-man being a champ and letting me work on my own
strength (or lack there of) regimen. Gotta get back in shape!

Boo was a good boy today too!  I don't quite feel stable enough on Reily's big strides to work consistenly without stirrups on him, only short spurts where I drop my stirrups for a minute then pick them back up.  So poor Boo-boo has been having to put up with almost all the no stirrup work lately.  I'm grotesquely out of shape thanks to winter and tax season, but I'm forcing myself to work without stirrups a little longer each time I ride him.  He's such a sweetheart he just keeps moving on.  Unfortunately I'm not the only one out of shape, Boo's rides have definetly not been as regular now that I have Reily, but Reily is just learning and really needs the consistency.  Luckily Boo might not be in great shape but he doesn't forget everything he knows, so we work on knocking a little rust off each ride and try to keep him hacking enough to build his endurance and muscle tone back up to snuff.  Once we have his muscle tone built up it will be much easier to get him off his forehand and balanced back on his hind end.  Then we won't feel like we're going to nose dive into XC jumps like it did on Sunday.  Without that balance and muscle he just wants to get more and more downhill as we approach fences rather then staying up in the front end and balanced for a safe take off.  The great news is that daylight savings has come!!!!  So now I should have enough light to get home and ride BOTH of them almost every day.  That is of course as long as I can go back to dragging myself out of bed in the moonlight, that parts not so easy.  But if I'm going to leave work in time to ride, I've got to get in the office extra early :(

Tax season ends April 18th!

Multi-tasking

I have to do this update, if for no other reason but my sheer admiration for Reily.  Yesterday it was cold, very cold, and not just comparatively because of this freakishly mild winter, I mean it was low 40's with a wind chill in the low 30's.  Now the wind wasn't continuous but it was pretty darn persistent, I'd say it was blowing at least 85% of the time.  So needless to say I wasn't looking forward to riding in this weather, but I couldn't think of a good enough excuse to worm out of getting him worked, we'd used up his "get out of work free" card on Saturday when one of my college friends was back in town.  Unfortunately there just wasn't enough time after having to work a half day in the morning for my friend to come out to the house and meet the ponies/see the property/hang out/catch up and still get the boys ridden before it got dark.  Sadly, Saturday was pretty nice and we got stuck with the weather Sunday but I had to get him ridden regardless.

I figured if we were going to have to ride we should go for a hack on the mountain, hoping the trees would act as a bit of a wind block for us.  But I knew that the last time we went over the mountain poor Reily had a really hard time getting under the vine that hangs down over one part of the trail and through all the saplings and underbrush that have been growing up on another stretch of the trail.  I'd been meaning to take a folding saw with me for ages so I could clear those areas but hadn't had a weekend free to do it, so I decided that yesterday was the day and there's no better way to keep yourself warm than to do manual labor.  Well I bundled up and put my western saddle on Reily and packed a small, folding hand saw and an extra lead rope and off we rode.

When we got to the top of the mountain and reached the part where the hanging vine was I climbed off and clipped the lead rope through his bit under his chin and walked him over to a small tree just a couple feet behind me and loose tied him while I cut the vine multiple times to get it out of the path and (hopefully) keep it from growing back.  He stood wonderfully for those few minutes (I think he was more than happy to have a minute to catch his breath after the steep climbs) but as I untied him and walked down the path to where the underbrush started I was apprehensive about how much I'd be able to get done.  After all, he's only 3  and just over 4 months off the track, and this wasn't just one or two little things to cut down, this was 0.5-3" saplings growing up in tight quarters over at least a 50 yard stretch of trail.  I really wanted to get a solid 4-5ft wide walkway cut out so neither the horses or I had to worry about getting smacked in the face with limbs and cobwebs anymore.  I resolved to work for as long as Reily could take it and assumed from the start that it was going to take multiple trips to get this done.  Boy was I mistaken.



Simply for your viewing pleasure, pictures
of Reily as a 2yo, sent to me by his former
owner (who's proved to be a real gem!)



You know how everyone says if you assume the worst the outcome can only get better?  Well this was a classic example.  We spent, at the very least, 45 mins on the 50 yard stretch and Reily was the most perfect gentleman, you'd have thought he was an 18yo, life long ranch horse.  He stood tied to small trees about half the time and the other half of the time, when a small tree wasn't close or handy, he stood ground tied right behind me and never put a foot wrong.  WHO IS THIS HORSE?!? I mean seriously, who would ever expect a 3yo of any breed to be so patient, but considering he's a 3yo OTTB, it seems like a physically impossible feat!  Granted there were a couple times he walked around the tree once or twice while he was tied and towards the end he showed his boredom by doing the cutest little nose nudges on my back.  He would softly bump me asking if we could get going, but I couldn't possibly consider either of those a bad behavior.  He was absolutely perfect, despite the cold, the wind, the fact that he hadn't been ridden in a couple days, and even despite the fact that I had my dog with us and she was running around all over the woods making noise where he couldn't see her!!

So, thanks to the perfect gentleman we cleared the entire stretch of the trail that had grown up and we moved on further down the logging road to finish off the last few obstacles (cleaning up the footing around some fallen logs, cutting off problematic limbs, etc. so we could safely use them as jumps) of the day.  When we finished those I remounted and we went on our way, following the neighbors switchback driveway all the way down the mountain until we could cut through the woods and back to our own driveway. We were gone for almost 2 hours.

This TB can do it all!! What a WONDERFUL boy!!

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 ;)

No hoof, no horse... no kidding

So Reily (and Boo and Scotty) got his little tootsies done on the 11th, but after having stood out in the cold with our farrier for 2+ hours holding the horses it was just too miserable to suit up and ride so the boys got off lucky.  Sunday was worse... even colder and wind like a tornado so they lucked out again.  Monday I worked late and Tuesday was wet.  Wednesday finally rolled around and I was so excited to get home in time to jump on for a few minutes.  I went to get him out of the feild and as I put his halter on and started to turn him towards the gate I saw him take an odd step... something I'd seen him do that morning but written off because there was some gravel under his hoof then and I thought he just caught one sharp edge.

With knitted brows I took him out of the feild and trotted him in hand on the grass, nothing.  Ok, maybe I was seeing things.  We walked across the driveway and I didn't see any more off steps but I could see, and hear, that his stride was just the very tiniest bit shorter.  Hmm, now what?  I tried pulling him in tight circles in both directions, nothing.  Well, I figured the only way to find out if I was crazy or I'd actually seen something was to get on and try him under tack.  So we tacked up and walked in the yard just fine, ok so lets try the trot... still normal.  Moment of truth, we started down the driveway and everything seemed fine walking straigh across, but once we got a little ways down on the shoulder we had a 10 yard stretch of all gravel to go across.  Sure enough, that's when I got my answer, he was off.  Granted it wasn't bad, it was just there, ever so slightly, but it was there.  So right around we turned and back home we went with a big :'( face for me.  Bless his heart he was trying to do everything I asked but he was trying so hard I couldn't even figure out where it was coming from.  No heat, no hot nails, nothing.  So I called my farrier and after explaining everything, he figured that he must have cut his soles just a little too close.  So we went through a bute regimen for 5 days to give him some time for his soles to harden up.  Lucky, lucky Boo, he got to take up all the slack and carry me around for both of them!

Reily has great feet but I guess we're still figuring out what his feet need, it was only his second time after all.  But we got a little lucky between rain and snow (did winter finally come... and go again already? Calling for 67 DEGREES TOMORROW!!) the ground stayed soft for him and when I finally got to ride him yesterday he was 99% sound.  We went for a hack down off the road and had just a couple off steps (none on the gravel, but a couple on the pavement) in that whole time.  Tonight we hacked up the mountain (he'll have those buns of steel in no time!) and did two easy laps around the loop.  We w/t/c and even jumped some tiny logs, all sound.  I even trotted him on the gravel driveway on the way back home and he felt smooth.  Hopefully tomorrow he'll be absolutely 100%... I'll let you know!

"I'm all alone, there's no one here beside me..."

Trotting around the neighbor's field

This is the extended trot that he volunteers when he gets
nervous. It feels MASSIVE under saddle, but once we
can harness it, we'll rock some dressage test!

Up to this point Reily has had a baby sitter of some kind on each of his rides off the property.  But since we can't build a riding ring yet and there's no real flat places on the property to do "ring work" I usually ride Boo about a half mile down the road to a neighbor's property where he has a nice flat, large, unused field and is kind enough to allow me to use it as a riding ring.  So my boyfriend has helped me out by riding Boo with me so we could take Reily down there to see it and ride around in it a few times with company.  Well today was the big day, his first ride off the property all by his lonesome.  He was just a little nervous, had his head up and was just a little bit quicker than usual, but never offered any truely bad behavior.  Never bolted, never bucked, in fact he never even yelled for the other horses, which is typical of young horses new to showing and/or new to being seperated from all other horses.  So I was very proud of him.  He did bulge through his shoulder some, especially if we were headed in the direction of home, but nothing awful.  Here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfA4Ehwnq9Q&context=C3de2787ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO) of his first time riding alone.  Sorry the image quality is so poor, my old camera might take decent photos but it's real low quality when it comes to video capture.  All in all very proud of him :)

Just cantering along, he's got a big, ground covering stride!

Horses vs. Mountain Goats

Yep, it's official my Thoroughbreds are actually mountain goats disguised as horses.  One of my very good friends, who coincidentally owned Scotty back when he was a young'en, was in town for the holidays and I was lucky enough to have the day off of work because of the holidays, so she came over to meet Reily and go for a trail ride.  Now I've always really admired that she's gotten out there and done a lot of really cool things in her life, one of which includes being a TB exercise rider at tracks both here in the States and over in France for a time.  So she was looking forward to meeting Reily and I was really excited to get her opinion of him in person.  We chatted while we groomed and tacked up Boo and Reily then we headed out for a nice long trail ride.  We didn't want to take Reily on the road yet and we had her dog with us too and it was her pup's first time around horses in general and therefore her very first time running along on a trail ride so we didn't want her near the road either.  So instead of heading down the driveway we headed up the back of the property to the mountains that our farm butts up against.  There are plenty of old logging trails up there and they range from nearly flat to VERY steep.  The longest trail you can follow goes over the mountain and comes out the other side at a house owned by an old family friend who has always allowed me to come out at her house and then zig zag back down the side of the mountain on her driveway which eventually comes back out on the road that leads to our driveway.  However to get across the very top of the mountain there's only one choice of trail... and you guessed it, that trail is about a quarter mile climb up a 60 or so degree incline, then a nice resting spot before another slightly shorter, less steep climb. No joke.  Boo and I use this mountain on a somewhat regular basis to keep him fit and do conditioning for Horse Trials but I was pessimistic about whether Reily was going to be able to handle this, or if it was fair to ask it of him.  In the end we decided we'd just make as many stops as we needed to on the way up and concluded that it would be good for his butt muscles to make the climb, so up we went!

And wouldn't you know it, those two scrambled right up that path like they'd been doing it all their lives.  Well, Boo has for a long time, but I was impressed that Reily only needed one short breather on the first climb and went right through the second just fine.  He was a total champ about the experience all together!  There are a few tight paths where you have to squeeze through single file, including one spot where a vine hangs down right at the horses' chest level and you have to walk them up far enough to grab hold of it and hold it up out of the way for them while you walk under it.  Now that's something he's definitely never done before but it was all just no big deal with him.  He's so laid back and he thinks things through before tackling the issue.  I love him and I love his very good brain!

We got over the mountain and started down the driveway.  When we were still a little ways off the road we cut off into the woods again, avoiding the road as mentioned, coming out on our driveway and walked them back home that way.  We had a great time and when we got home my friend and I played musical horses so she could ride Reily for a minute and feel how me moved.  I was glad to hear that she felt he has a lot of potential.  Afterwards we finished cooling them out, untacked and groomed them down.  The boys were happy to get end of ride treats, and we were happy to hand them out liberally after such a good ride!