Updates are few and far in between when real life gets in the way. In any case, I got to ride Jellybean twice this weekend.
Friday afternoon ended up being a bit of a drama that ended well. I got the barn with just enough daylight for a short schooling ride, hopefully over fences. I grabbed Jellybean, tacked up and was just about ready to get on when I noticed some loose horses. It turns out one of the more mischievous horses had broken a snap on a gate and let himself and two others out to frolic. Sadly, I put Jellybean in the round pen, already tacked up, and went to help.
Twenty minutes later, I walked to the round pen to see the saddle sitting sideways and Jellybean covered in sand. I had a mini-freak out as I worried that the tree of the saddle was broken. Luckily it wasn't, and I tried to calm down and get into a good mindset to work with a baby horse as I lunged her around.
I mounted up as the last bit of daylight faded and I was forced to ride in the dressage arena. Not my plan... Anyways we had some solid work. We practiced twenty meter circles at the trot and canter. Jellybean was trying to move off the leg sometimes, but we still have a lot of work to do. Its funny though, because the difference in working with a green horse as compared to a resistant horse is very evident in the progress. I think Jellybean in month 1.5 is where Knots was in month 2-3, depending on whatever variables matter.
On Saturday, I was determined to jump Jellybean, and so I got to the barn much earlier and brought Robert along as help. We warmed up a little bit in the round pen again, and Jellybean impressed me with her responsiveness to verbal commands. Whip is backup, not primary for sure. We went into the jump field and warmed up at the walk and trot before moving into the canter.
The only sticky point was moving off the right leg. She didn't want to move over one bit. I had on spurs for motivation, and she just didn't care. I kept at it, but we didn't have a very successful run of it. Eventually I got to a place where we could end happily and let her have a long rein for a few minutes.
Robert set up a 12"ish cross rail, and we trotted over it a few times, then I got a wild hair and asked him to set up a small vertical. We trotted over it a couple of times. The best part was that Jellybean actually looked for the jump as we made turned toward it. She perked her ears forward and went right over. This is a great sigh!
We ended by cantering a few times over the vertical. The placing pole was too close, but she managed to figure out her feet. I was trying to offer forward guidance only, I didn't pick spots or keep much contact, just kept her moving along. I was really pleased. Here's the video:
Anyways, I'm thinking about taking her to the December 20th Derby. Its a 2' division, but I'd like to school her over some cross country jumps first. Looks like the field will be all I get a chance to practice before hand. Cross your fingers it drains sometime.
Quick announcement: Are you following the Facebook page? I post lots of extra pictures there and sometimes interesting links or videos.
After the show, I kind of abandoned poor Knots. Although, who are we kidding. He lives in the pasture with grass and basically no riding... What more could a horse want?
Life is getting pretty crazy right now, and since I was making so much time for show prep, I kind of got out of whack with the working side of the equation. After the show, I basically worked all the time for a couple of weeks, then took a vacation to NC to watch my bestie get married.
Then I came back and was completely exhausted trying to be on a schedule and daylight savings time and blah.
So here we are, a month later. I actually rode Knots on Monday, bareback. I don't know if that counts or not.
As a funny aside, I didn't get in touch with our dressage trainer for any of that off time. I did send her a text and give her an update, which basically said no shows until degree finished. She responded with something to the effect of... I figured you'd get back to real life after the show. I find that amusing for some reason. Mostly because I appreciate that she doesn't stop talking to me when I am extremely inconsistent.
In other news, I had some real talk about what I am doing with 2.5 horses and how I can get at least one of them a regular job. I really love both Knots and Jellybean, but I don't actually have time to ride both, so I need to figure something else out. We were talking about getting Jellybean to a couple of shows and then leasing her to a pony clubber or student. I can take her to the GAG show in December and run goldilocks at Pine Hill this winter. Then we can talk about who.
I like this idea. I definitely don't want to sell Jellybean, but I want to push along with Knots and see where we get. In the meantime, Jellybean is 4.5 years old and its time to start doing something.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to post any here, since the photos aren't currently in the budget. But maybe some time. In the meantime, check out the link.
Sunday we finished our first beginner novice horse trials. We picked up some important lessons (bigger bit) and had some fun, and got to support Three Brothers Stable and our favorite venue, Pine Hill.
Saturday was a long day of prep. Maggie decided I needed to wear a jacket, and I asked her what she thought about button braids. Then she slaved away for quite some time, pulling Knot's rowdy mane and then gelling it into submission. Next time we might leave a bit more hair, but Maggie did a fantastic job. We even made the braids a little bit more fun with some sparkly turquoise yarn ;)
Photo cred: Maggie
So with our spiffy braids in, all my tack cleaned and packed, and the general things ready to go in the morning, I covered Knots up and ruined the rest of his evening:
He really has the worst life ever. Drunken trail pony life was soooooo much better wasn't it?????
I also got to use a spiffy new gift from Robert, my very own tack box!
And so we got up [relatively] late, and left the farm about 6:30 am for my 9:24 ride time. Not too bad. After our dressage lesson on Friday, we decided to have a slow warm up and focus on being chill. No more crutch of the side reins, just us. We worked on serpentines and Knots was fairly calm at the trot. We didn't canter. Then we stood around on a loopy rein and waited for our turn.
Unfortunately I got in a hurry and didn't make the two laps around the dressage arena I was planning on. The whistle (car horn really) blew right as I finished lap one and I just ducked right into the arena. Oops.
We got fair scores. We weren't on the bit, which was indicated to be a key factor at this level :~) We did have a quiet test for us, and I was completely surprised to see a 7.5 for gaits. Who knew.
Anyways, 46.8 put us in last after dressage. Strangely comfortable place to be ;). We took a short jaunt back to the trailer and chilled out for a couple of minutes before stadium came up. I walked the course, which was very straightforward, except for some deeper sand and a A/B jump that was a long two or a very short three. I figured we were going to take the three, depending on the canter I had. I even got to walk the course before tacking back up.
Down in the warm up arena, the craziness was everywhere, as is typical. We jumped over the vertical a couple of times and then the oxer. Maggie pointed out he was behind the leg, and I got him moving more in front of me for the last jump before we went up to stadium to wait our turn.
Our round wasn't awful. We started off on the wrong lead, running away from something. He wasn't listening very carefully, and after my jokes about the fat snaffle, karma came along and reminded me I didn't really have brakes. Luckily, I have been riding Knots for a while (2.5ish years) and he doesn't worry me when he gets quick. We did rub the second fence hard; the pole was balanced on the jump cup by some strange miracle. I'm pleased with the effectiveness of my riding. There were a couple of sticky spots that I managed before the got out of hand, and while the combination was super crappy, I did end up getting three. More schooling with flowers is in our future.
After the scores came out, we moved from 5th to 4th. It looks like there were two riders riding hors concours, which basically means for fun and not ribbons.
After stadium we had a looonnnngggg (ok 2 hours) break before cross country. We were parked right behind the stadium warm up, so we got to watch lots of people ride through their warm up. The other TBS peeps were hanging out, and we got some quality time laughing at Knots. This link is him acting ridiculous with the kids: https://instagram.com/p/8bRS3LoHzP/?taken-by=3brothersstable
Pony has a hard life, like I said earlier.
Eventually it was time for XC. We were pumped! We went down to warm up and popped over the logs a couple of times and then lurked by the start box until it was our turn. We went watchless (watches for XC are expensive!!), so we got a cool rubber wristband. Optimum time for this course was 6:00.
3...2...1...Have a good ride!
We cantered off sideways to the welcome log, and then we were off. Knots took off. I didn't have any brakes at all (remember, fat snaffles are not jumping and definitely not XC bits...). I had no more arm strength or core strength... but somehow he checked before jump 2. Then he was paying a bit more attention. We turned left into the woods, and Knots let himself get a little worried about the dark/light transitions. Jump 3 was ok, and then up the hill to the log on the hill. Down we went to jump 5. The big white coop with brush on it make Knots suck back a little on the approach. I closed my leg and off we went.
At this point, we were still booking, but I was a tad worried about going too slowly, since our last horse trials we got time penalties. We jumped the next couple in the woods. I tried to stay out of the deep sand (in retrospect, should have used that for a little extra brake power). Knots wasn't being totally crazy. He was checking before jumps, but powering off after them.
Eventually we came out of the woods and through the water:
Clearly we are not just loping along, although I think his being short definitely has something to do with the ba-da-dum ba-da-dum.
After the coal car, we were almost finished. A bench, a teal box, then up the hill to the last roll top and done! We were pretty pumped at the finish line. I hopped off and started walking him back to the trailer and a shower. We met up with our friends at the middle of the hill and chatted about the round.
I was fairly nervous all week that Knots wasn't going to be conditioned well enough for this event. He only took about 5 minutes for his breathing to return to mostly normal after galloping around the course. Optimum time was 6:00, we completed the course in 5:19. Penalty time was 4:39. I'd say we were pretty good!
After getting Knots cooled out and rubbed down with some liniment, we settled in to wait for the standings. At the end of the day, I finished double clear on my dressage score of 46.8. Not even close to enough to be competitive in the beginner novice. I think I finished 15th out of 21 in the entire beginner novice. I guess that wouldn't make some people happy, but I just wanted to go out and jump around a course and not have any problems. The dressage has already come so far this year, I can only imagine how it will continue to improve. And then we can start killing it in the ribbons :p
Maggie and I keep talking about how far Knots has come. He isn't very far in the grand scheme of things, but he has come so far for himself. Old picture for fun:
Last parting information, there was someone watching my cross country round through the water who remarked on how happy Knots seemed going through the cross country course. What a lovely thing to hear.
Jellybean has been meeting some new people the last few weeks. First she got to meet Maggie's son C. He does tie down roping (calves), and I was talking with him about how I thought Jellybean might eat calves for breakfast. There was a meme that brought this conversation up:
I think it could fit Jellybean. Anyways, he rode her around on the flat and was really impressed with how smart she was. They were playing around with learning to spin. I think he could ride her and help her be cool with just about anything. Teenage boys are good for horses in that way.
A couple weeks later, one of the boarders was discussing her horse's impending tie back surgery (roaring is a very interesting topic for later). I mentioned that Jellybean wasn't doing a lot, and she could be an option for a back up horse while Finn recovers. And so it happened.
Sydney will be riding Jellybean beginning when Finn goes in for surgery on October 10th, and until Finn is recovered enough for regular work. So far, they have had a bit of a learning curve getting to know each other.
Sydney first rode Jellybean in a make up lesson out in the dressage arena during twilight. Jellybean was mostly doing ok, not super responsive and not super spooky. Unfortunately she picked up on Sydney's nerves about riding a new horse. One of the habits Sydney is working through in lessons is a tendency to hold onto the reins unnecessarily. Jellybean really hated the tight reins. She tried to do right, as this is part of a cue for backing up. But the pressure didn't stop when she backed up.
She did a couple of baby bucks and caught Sydney off guard. There were broken reins involved...
They finished out the night, but there was a lot of angst involved. I had some extra time on Saturday evening, and met up with Sydney at the barn. First we worked in the round pen. I reminded Jellybean that she knew what to do in there, then Sydney mounted sans reins. I tied those up. Then we worked on sitting up at the trot and canter without leaning or pulling on anything.
It went pretty well, so we went out to the jump field for some practice with reins in hand and then some trot jumps. Jellybean was much more attentive when the reins gave her enough room to carry her head in its natural position. She wasn't very lazy either. She mostly moved forward promptly. Anyways. Pictures over jumps. Jellybean wasn't really trying, which is ok. She didn't stop, and she didn't try to run out, except for one time when Sydney changed tracks.
This is my favorite picture.
Jellybean actually jumped this one, too bad I cut off Sydney's head.
I think this will be beneficial all around. Syndey gets to ride a horse with a low neck, Jellybean gets to be ridden by another person, and I can focus on Knots and this October horse trials.
Back to school has been really exciting in lots of ways. Finishing bench work, teaching biochemistry, new internship, teaching riding lessons, and riding five days a week. Jellybean and Gracie both have new partial leasers. Much more to come about the leasing soon! This post is about Knots and I schooling at Pine Hill this morning.
Treat?
I can smell them.
GIVE ME TREATS!
Maggie and I loaded up as early as possible, but we needed to get a hitch for the bumper pull trailer, and some stores aren't open as early as we were ready. Whomp. So we drove down and ended up being a bit late, but Knots was cool. We cantered around the warm up logs a couple of times and then got right into the lesson. Unfortunately, Bear decided to be lame as soon as we got down to the lesson. Not a fun day with silly Bear deciding he wasn't trot sound. Maggie was a champ though, and walked him around and watched. We're trying to decide if we think abscess or the need for back shoes.
Knots and I ended up jumping all the beginner novice jumps on the course, which was awesome :). I wanted the confidence boost, and that's what worked out. First the welcome log, then the welcome coup. Then we went over a red mushroom, up the "mound" (there are fake hills in this area of Texas :p), over a log, then down down down to a coup. Off to another log, and then we were doing well enough to get to start jumping the novice jumps. Check out the beginner novice jumps here. Just click on the number, and a picture of the jump will pop up.
The red mushroom
Its always better to see the jumps from horseback first, because sometimes I see the jumps from the ground and freak myself out haha. From horseback, 2'6" and 2'9" look pretty similar. For example, this 2'9"-3ish table would have scared the crap out of me if I saw it from the ground first.
The water complex was where things got more interesting. The water was fairly deep, so as we were cantering through, Knots was giving me a shower. Not such a win haha. So much water... We jumped the brush jump, then over through the water, out of the water and over the log, then up to the coal car and back around over the roll top through the water again. Whew. The coal car is fun looking:
Knots didn't look at the jump, but I did, so we ended up jumping it a few times as I made a mess of it. There were more big jumps in the woods, and we finished out over a novice mushroom and a trakehner.
Overall, it was a really nice day to appreciate how much hard work we have been putting in. The time spent focusing on my position has really helped Knots be more relaxed coming to jumps. We went around the entire course with a snaffle and the running martingale. I didn't wear spurs, and I dropped the stick before I even mounted. I think the lack of spurs is making a difference. I also think Knots is going to get front shoes before the show, as there are some places with a lot of gravel and he was a bit ouchy going through. There isn't really any reason for me to not make him more comfortable.
I'm really looking forward to the show. I don't feel like we are going to be especially scrappy going through. I'm hoping to score in the low 40s in dressage (or even gasp! break into the 30s). While I don't think those scores will be super competitive at Pine Hill, I think we are looking to make some personal bests this next weekend. I'm really proud of how far Knots and I have come in the last couple of years. Stay tuned :)
I had quite the streak going on last week! Knots and I were on fire for sure. Some quick recaps:
Wednesday: Dressage ride. I actually already talked about this ride in the last post.
Thursday: Jump school. I freaked myself out about my beginner novice entry and decided to jump some bigger jumps. I set up a 2'6" course and we had no problems. Knots was calm and cool. We even have a video! It wasn't totally polished, but it was definitely not an awful place. Of course, Robert is my handsome videographer!
Friday: Jumping lesson with Amanda! We worked on a course. We did super well when I was focused, but we either ran at the jump, refused, or chipped in when I stopped focusing. That seems like an easy fix, pay attention! Easier said than done unfortunately. Knots was still pretty chill, he was actually adjustable, which was magical.
Saturday: Conditioning! We canter/galloped four laps of the cross country field. It even rained a little bit, so the ground was softer. Knots started the day at 40 bpm. The first lap went well, he wasn't super forward but he did what he needed to do. The second lap he started blowing. The third lap was hard, and the fourth lap was really really challenging. We cooled out for over thirty minutes before I showered him off and let him rest.
Sunday: I didn't want Knots to stand around after such a hard Saturday, so I hacked him around. We walked, trotted, and cantered around. Mostly we hung out though. I rode in side reins and he continued to be adjustable. Knots moved into a stall in the barn so that he could be on a diet until after the show. Whomp whomp. He is down to two flakes of hay twice a day and a half scoop of the easy keeper feed. He looks sad already...
Monday was a day off for Knots, because I was exhausted from school.
Tuesday he was ridden in a lesson by one of our students. It seems like it went extremely well! He jumped a gymnastic, X one stride to 2' two stride to 2'3. I didn't get to watch, but Maggie said he was very good, just not very energetic.
Knots gets Wednesday and Thursday off, and then we have a dressage lesson on Friday afternoon and hopefully lots of riding Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I mailed the entry today, so I need to make the time :)
In other news.... what have Jellybean and Gracie been up to while I keep writing about Knots? Stay tuned :)
