Fairy Pony!

Our barn had a fun show today...somehow we came in as grand champion. :D

There was also a costume contest...I have been DYING to do one of these for like...ever. So here we are!

What we did today

Howard County Fair

Today Kieran and I showed in halter, English under saddle, and Western under saddle and have some pictures and a fourth place ribbon to show for our efforts. :)

Every time we go to a show, I end up asking myself, "why do I put us through all this work and stress for this?" I still haven't figured the answer out yet but we did have a few fun moments so all is well, anyway. ;)

I won't even tell you how many baths he got.

First Show of the Season!

So yesterday, we went to our first show of the year. Schooling show, and for us, just a lot of flat classes. A few aspects of the show were a bit disappointing, mostly in that the morning classes (that were mostly supposed to be for green horses ONLY) were MASSIVE and obviously many of those horses weren't actually green. (Plus some of those people also went in the over 18" jumping classes and this was after one of the ladies in our group was specifically told she could do EITHER the green horse classes OR the over 18" jumpers, but couldn't do both). Even the judge commented on it and told our BO that he didn't particularly like it but he had to judge the class he was given.

The afternoon classes were better but I think this is because a lot of people (and not just many of the folks in our group) ended up scratching, presumably because of how the morning went (or at least, that's my read on it). A couple of classes had only two people! That was kind of nice though because the judge was able to actually spend a moment or two talking to us about his impressions and what he thought we needed to work on.

His comments to me were that I obviously needed to work on the canter with Kieran and work on his brakes. Also that he recognized it's difficult to show a nontraditional horse in traditional show classes but he thought Kieran would do very well in spotted draft classes in draft shows (apparently he's a better example of the type than he usually sees and he's fairly knowledgeable since he's into the draft scene and has drafts of his own).

The funny thing about the brakes comment was that Kieran would actually come back down out of gait pretty easily for me, but when we're in the canter, there was no rating it (and the steering wasn't so hot, either, a couple times he'd be coming up behind another horse and I'd be trying my damnedest to get him to turn so we could do a big circle or cross the ring but no, he was determined to catch up to that other horse!). Also because we came in second in the one two-person class I was in because the judge said though me and the other girl were pretty evenly matched, he pinned her first because Kieran kept trying to stop at the in-gate. *facepalm*

Anyway, it definitely pointed out to me some things I need to work with him on. Up till now, when we've been cantering, I haven't tried to slow him, I've just tried to get him into and keep him in the canter until I ask him to come out of it. Now that he can do that fairly reliably, I guess we're going to have to work on, "okay, now slow down but don't go to a trot". Also, since we usually ride alone (and the ring isn't really big enough to have two cantering. I can't wait till the outdoor gets put in) it means we haven't done a lot of schooling on how to act when riding with other horses.

Luckily, Christine mentioned all of us would have to do more schooling with other horses and that we could trailer out to a local equestrian center that has two nice-sized arenas for use.

Anyway, I'm hoping we'll have this working better in time for the next schooling show. :)

And here's a few pics!














And here's some video of one of the classes:


And there are many many more pics over here in my photobucket.

Ribbons for Kieran!

We went to a local schooling show at Saddleview Ranch in Urbana, MD yesterday and rode in three w/t flat classes and three w/t/c flat classes. Kieran was a champ, and even placed in a couple (which I, honestly, was totally not expecting unless there were less people in the class than there were ribbons. =P ). His best ribbon of the day was a second in the green horse w/t/c class and the one my first thought was when they called us, "wait....was that a mistake?".

The cantering was just a ... 'well, let's see how he does' thing. We haven't done a lot of it and I can say for certain our transitions weren't pretty (he doesn't know "outside leg behind the girth" yet so to get him to go involves a lot more kicking than it should) but once he got into the canter, it was nice, so long as I could keep him going. Of course, now he has to learn leads (and so do I).

I wouldn't have signed up for the english equitation (also w/t/c) class if I'd realized they'd have everyone line up on the rail and canter one at a time down the centerline. Except it wasn't "just" canter, it was "canter left lead, then a simple change, canter right lead, stop, back up five steps, then get back in line". Needless to say....we didn't do that. I'm not sure if that's typical for a class like that or they did it because there were so many people in it and they didn't want everyone cantering all at once.

Anyway, there are a bunch of pics I can post, but here's one I like of us about to turn a circle.

Let the time get away from me

And I've got no excuse for it! I'm not going to recap the last few months, but I'll talk about what's going on currently in my horsey life.

So one of the horses I've been riding a lot in my lessons lately is Rurik. He's about 7, a handsome-looking Percheron, and up until just I guess a year or two ago, he still had all his man parts and was living in a pasture with his mom (never "weaned", LOL!) and some other horses. He ended up at Gentle Giants and they started trying to train him.

Emphasis on trying, as he really hadn't been touched before then. He might have been an adult in body, but he wasn't in mind. Right after I first started volunteering there, I watched them spend a training session just trying to get him to stand still and accept a saddle pad. I heard about some of the explosions that occurred when the actually managed to get a saddle on him. He ended up getting sent out for several months of professional training. That was last summer. This year? You wouldn't know it was the same horse. Last August I never would have dreamed of riding him, but this year, he's become the horse I ride most often.

So anyway, he's technically been adopted but he's being boarded at the farm until a couple of other things are worked on (trailer loading, for one) and in the mean time, his owner allows him to be used for lessons. Last month, a few of us went up to a schooling show near Frederick and I showed him in a bunch of equitation classes. We came out of there with a fifth, a fourth (my first two classes, back to back, when I was all nerves), and three seconds (my later classes after I'd relaxed :) What a world of difference the afternoon was from the morning!). I was very proud of him as not only did he more or less listen (he kept wanting to speed up at one end of the ring and I had a hell of a time convincing him to keep a nice trot through there), he handled the moment when someone on a horse that was WAY too much for him practically ran up his rear-end. So yay!

And I guess, since I talked about Molly in the previous post I should mention that she did end up getting adopted by the lady I mentioned and that lady loves her a lot. She came on a trail ride with us and Molly was all fat and sassy and looks GREAT so while I'm sad she's not mine, I'm happy she's in an awesome home.

And on the subject of making horses mine:

There's a neat spotted draft at Gentle Giants I had thought might be the horse for me. He's good looking and intelligent but came in completely untrained. As he's been going through training it's becoming more and more obvious to me that as much as I think he's kinda cool, he is not the horse for me. He's pretty reactive and while I'm sure there are people who'd like that...I'm not one of them.

There's also Blue who...well, I took her on the trail camping trip we went on this past weekend and she's probably a lot of the sort of horse I should be getting. Calm and level-headed, generally friendly, and fairly attractive. But I don't feel that spark, you know? I could certainly like her but she's not my first choice there.

My first choice, lately, has been Monty. I tell people if Monty where proportioned exactly the way he is but only about 16 hands high instead of 18+, he'd be perfect. He's friendly and gorgeous without being flashy (bay with a star) and he's good on trails and generally willing to do what you ask, if not highly trained. Except that he's got some sort of foot issue that makes him ouchy on hard ground without shoes. Not completely a dealbreaker but shoeing a horse that big is pretty expensive when I could likely find a horse who can do what I want without that problem.

I'd been hoping to adopt from Gentle Giants but...well, despite there being a glut of horses there at the moment, many of them still need training or I'm just....not interested in. You get the idea.

I did tell Christine this weekend that one of GG's lesson horses (Tabitha) is actually exactly what I need, I think. She's been there, done that, doesn't spook at anything, does as you ask, is amazing on trails, is a little flashy, is kind and interested in people, et cetera. Except she's over twenty and Christine would never adopt her out anyway. But you know, if she were available, I'd likely have been all over her way before now.

So that brings us to Bridget. Bridget is a 15 year old TB/Percheron mare I found on one of the horse advertising sites. She appears to be everything I'm looking for. Quiet, sensible, mid-teens (neither too old or young), presumably sound, not too big, well-conformed, uncomplicated, and capable of doing the sort of riding I want to do (trails, general hacking about, small schooling shows at w/t/c, some low lever dressage. Lots of flat stuff as I'm not into jumping.). Oh, and the price is within my "okay, I could pay that," range. Of course, she's been on the site for at least a month now and since she does appear to be really nice and for a good price, I have to wonder why she isn't sold yet.

Well, anyway, I'm going to see her on Friday, so maybe I'll find out.

Maybe the only reason she hasn't been sold is she's waiting for me. We'll see.

And I'm sure there will be pictures when I get back. ;)

Horse Updates - The past few days

So...pictures are forthcoming whenever I get around to pulling them off my camera. And hopefully Other!Laura can send me the pictures she took of me riding in the York County Fair on Saturday because, obviously, I couldn't take pictures of myself while I was riding. ;)

Friday, I went back up to Gentle Giants and rode Carley. The week before, Carley and I had an...uhm... interesting ride. She was pretty worked up (still not sure why) and the entire ride was an argument of me convincing her that it really was okay to just walk around the pasture, that she really could go in the direction away from the barn, et cetera. It finally ended when I realized she was only getting herself more and more worked up and we weren't going to get anything productive done.

Friday? She was a totally different horse. We rode indoors because it was raining. I think the sound of the rain on the metal roof kinda weirded her out (though Christine said she really just likes to find "excuses" for why she can't be ridden). But once we got moving and warmed up, she did fine. She still wants to cut on one end of the arena and that's always a bit of a "discussion" to convince her to stay on the wall. It's not quite as easy to just move her over with my leg as it is with some of the school horses I'm used to. ;) I'm not actually sure if she knows "pushing over with leg" or if she thinks any application of leg means to go faster. I'll have to ask.

After riding Carley, I helped Other!Laura get Big Red ready to show on Saturday. That meant grooming and bathing. He was a good sport about it all, though. Could you blame him? Getting brushed and rubbed and petted and things. :) By the time we got to finishing the bath and combing out his tail, he was starting to get a little fed up with it all, but that pretty much translated to simply no longer wanting to stand still.

Saturday was, as previously mentioned, the York County Fair. Getting up before the crack of dawn? Not my idea of a good time. Anyway, I met Kerri (who was driving us up and riding her horse, Chessie, in the show) and Instructor!Laura at the barn at 6ish, we loaded the horses up, and off we went!

It was a little worrisome there for a bit because we didn't get up to the fair until 8:30. Our class was supposed to start at 9:00. So we're sitting there thinking, "oh crap, they're going to tell us where to unload, we're going to have to take the horses off, slap the tack on 'em and go to the ring." Luckily (sort of), the people who were running (or sponsoring or something) the show had an emergency and they pushed the start time back to 9:30. That gave us time to get the horses off, get them groomed again, get tack put on, et cetera.

The class we were in was kind of interesting. It was my first "real" show, for one. And I'd only ridden Red twice before for the other. And the class was a mix of people doing English equitation and Western Pleasure. On draft horses. I can only imagine how we must have looked from outside the ring. :) I'm still trying to figure out how one effectively judges a class like that, but that's why I'm just the rider.

It was a w/t/c class which was also going to be interesting for me. I'd never cantered Big Red and Christine had told me he didn't know the "outside leg behind the girth" cue and I'd just have to kick him with both legs to push up into the canter. Kerri wasn't sure if Chessie would canter at all. So we figured if they didn't, we'd trot them on the inside track of the ring (which is what we were told to do by the show officials). Luckily, that wasn't a problem, as they both cantered. Yay!

I figure they saw everybody else doing it and didn't want to be left out. :)

The class was made up of nine riders and they had six ribbons to give out. So when the first three riders were dismissed without ribbons, I was just crossing my fingers hoping they didn't call me out. So about the time the first three riders were dismissed and neither Kerri nor I was among them, I was already patting Red and telling him what a good boy he was. We got a ribbon! Kerri ended up with sixth (Instructor!Laura figured it was because, while Chessie cantered, she was doing so on the wrong lead) and I got fifth. Pretty darn good for my first show on a horse who, as far as I know, was his first show too. :)

After that, we had to wait around and kill time during a bunch of carriage classes before they got to the kids' under saddle class. If anyone can explain why they separated the under saddle classes, I'd be curious to figure that one out too. Anyway, other!Laura's daughter was riding Red in that class. They didn't come away with a ribbon but we kind of figured that because it was also w/t/c and daughter was expressly forbidden from cantering. Still, it made for good experience and daughter didn't seem too disappointed. I got some good pictures, if nothing else. :D

By then, it was time to grab lunch (thoroughly disappointing crab dip from a stand on the midway. But I made up for it with a very tasty frozen custard.), load the horses up, and head home.

Back at GG, I stuck around a bit to bring Sailor in and give him some attention. He'd caught his leg in the fence a few days before and had a pretty icky scrape, so I reapplied the ointment they were using on it (which he didn't seem terribly keen on letting me do, but I managed it). He also got brushed and curried and I attempted a running braid in his mane. It looked like crap but hey, first attempt! After giving him a couple of treats, I let him go back out to the pasture and headed home.

Sunday was a day for visiting the renaissance festival. I still haven't watched the joust yet this year (waaaay too hot out there with no shade, been waiting for it to cool off).

Last night, I had a lesson. Kristy said she could definitely see an improvement from my last lesson which: yay! We did have one person fall off, though. But luckily, she wasn't hurt at all. They were coming around a turn cantering and the horse she was riding dropped her shoulder and hit the brakes and off she came. Then she hopped right back on, so no harm, no foul, I suppose.

All the horses (save one) in our class seemed to be feeling their oats last night, as it were. Kristy said it was because the weekend had been so hot and icky but last night? It was nice and cool. I definitely didn't have any trouble keeping Bloom moving and when we started cantering, Kristy had me drop my crop since I didn't need it anyway. The biggest problem I had with him was keeping him on the rail, though unlike Carley, he tends to respond to leg pushing him over. :)

So that's it, if you read this far, you can have a virtual cookie!

Big Red

So, I went up to Gentle Giants this evening. Partly to do the volunteer thing, and partly to ride Big Red. Obviously, he's the chestnut on the left in the picture above. :) See, on Saturday, Red (a Belgian gelding at GG) and Chessie (a Belgian mare whose owner adopted her from GG) are going up to the York County Fair in PA. I'm one of the people who will be riding him (a girl is riding him in the morning in the kids' under saddle class and I'll be riding him in the afternoon for the adults' class).

I've only ever ridden him one other time and that time wasn't the best ride I've ever had. Not that he was bad per se, but there was a bit of a discussion on whether he was going to actually go. We didn't have that problem so much tonight. Of course, it helped that I was holding a crop this time (which I didn't have to use really, once he got into the groove). We walked and trotted around while Laura (instructor!Laura) rode Ivy (formerly Snow Angel, pictured below) and worked with her.


I also worked some more on the same posting exercises Kristy had me doing on Tuesday. I could definitely tell a difference tonight compared to the problems I had doing it Tuesday. Of course, I did spend some time working on my "homework" and I think that helped. That or it's just easier to do on a huge draft as opposed to the much smaller horse I was riding earlier in the week. :)

I kind of wish we'd tried to canter, but I would've needed to clear that one with Laura since they were riding in there as well. He did seem game for it, though. :)

I'll have to get someone to take a picture of us all fixed up for the fair, I'll actually be in semi-almost-formal (polo shirt, no jacket) riding attire! OMG! Assuming that the tall boots I'm borrowing from Laura fit me. Otherwise I'll be in my regular paddock boots, I suppose.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going back up there to help Laura (other!Laura, there are three Lauras there now, oy) get Red ready for the show because it's her daughter who will be riding him in the kid's class Saturday morning. I'll probably get there before they do, though, so I'm thinking I might haul Carley out of the pasture and ride her again.

Last week, we didn't have a great ride. She was really twitchy the whole time and just refused to relax. Once I realized she was just continuing to work herself up into more of a tizzy over nothing and wasn't going to relax, I ended the ride. I'm hoping she's gotten over whatever it was that she got worked up about.

Annnd, that's about it for tonight. Tired Ana is tired. :)