Delivering the goods.

As promised, video of the lesson.

Lesson.

Just worked a teeny course, as most of the jumps were in the pasture underwater and none of us wanted to trudge out there to retrieve them. I have some video coming.

Anyways, flatting is going well, so I'm going to be interested to see how the classes go. Our sitting trot is excellent, but he's still having trouble with his right lead. Alanah thinks it is his hocks, which wouldn't surprise me. He just got his most recent dose of Adequan Monday, so it may not have kicked in yet. I am going to put on his Surpass tomorrow morning before I ride and see if it helps any. If not, I guess I'll call the vet and see what she thinks. I'm borrowing a gel pad too, so one way or another, he should feel a little better. He isn't off or visibly sore; just a tad stiff.

Group lesson tomorrow morning. All the other girls pulled out last minute, so it's down to Claire, Katie and me. How-D's hocks are bothering him too much to be ridden, Tara hasn't been riding lately, and Paige and Maddie are out of town. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Show prep.

There is more mane pulling, bathing, and clipping going on around the barn than there has been in a long time. Claire even went so far as to dye her horse's sunbleached mane and tail with foils. (Yeah, it was a sight.) Allannah is stressing over rendezvous points for the riders, Sabrina is having polo shirts embroidered, and I am just trying to keep up.

Berky got the bath to end all baths today, down to using whitening shampoo on the teeny patches on his heels. I pulled his mane to a mohawkish 3" to facilitate braiding and trimmed the scraggled hair on his tail, and then practiced braiding. I'm using more of a button braid type thing than the typical hunter style, instructions courtesy of Brittany and Anky van Grunsven.

Lesson tomorrow, finally. Our new 2' rolltop was just delivered,and I think it's probably going to be incorporated. Just a feeling. It's all wood, so Sabrina and Karen had to load it into a truck and drive it into the arena, which was pretty amusing.

Ugh I'm stressing out. Berky was sore through his back yesterday, which is why he got today off complete with a once-over from the massage therapist. I think I figured out the problem, though: I usually ride with two pads or just my fleece pad and a wither pad, but the past two rides I rode with a plain quilted pad while the others were being cleaned. Let's hope that was the problem.

Minor doings.

Been out to the barn the past few days. Spent Friday trail riding because some of the older girls had set up another makeshift XC course, which included a shallow but wide ditch for a sunken road, some banks, and trashcans turned on their sides. It was right next to the arena, so rather than worry about distracting them or vise versa, Berky and I went out exploring. He did shockingly well, considering he's a spooky horse; we only had one fidget when some dogs caught us by surprise.

It was so pretty out. We just went down the dirt road maybe a mile both ways, but there were a lot of blooming wildflowers and the wild grapes were ripe. We walked up and down the sides of a ditch just for fun and did some lazy serpentines around the scraggly pines. In all, it was just a chance to sit back and appreciate how lucky I am to be able to have a companion like Berkshire.

Anyways, yesterday and today were work days. We did flatwork yesterday and worked on our leads- he's been having trouble getting his right lead, which makes me wonder if I'm collapsing a hip or something. Aside from that, he's been his typical, laid back self, so I don't think it's a pain issue. I think I'm going to talk to the equine massage therapist at the barn and see if she can work on him, just to be safe.

Today, we set up the gymnastic again. He was a good boy for the most part, but my dad said he kicked out when I gave him a pop for lugging on my reins. I didn't even notice.

Anyways, more pictures. These are grainy, but you can see the basics. My shoulders were slightly better and my leg's the same, but my release is more proportionate.

Here you have them.

Slippy leg.


I'm liking my leg a lot in this one.



This was one of our better jumps.

I got an award!

From wolfandterriers down at Ponies in Med School and Rachel at Bad Ways to Sell Your Horse. Thank you so much!

Now I get to tell ten things about myself.

1. Hm. Well, I have a nasty guilty pleasure for anything cat print. Scarves, fabric, jewelry. Creepy, but true. I had a pair of cat pajama pants that I wore periodically for about 5 years. It really freaked Tyler out.

2. I love breakfast food... I eat it all day. As a matter of fact, I just had an egg and toast a few minutes ago.

3. I sew. Like a maniac. I have knitting needles in every size- even some obnoxious hot pink ones that I use only for purple scarves. Many of my creations are pretty ill-advised and never see the light of day- case in point, this skirt I made a few weeks ago from fabric scraps. It's skeery, and proof that floof aficionados have no business near sewing machines.



4. I don't like babies. It probably makes me some sort of freak of nature, but they're so *floppy* and dirty.

5. My first horse was an obese Paint pony who used to roll over on people when she didn't want to be ridden.



6. I have three dogs: Moe, an American bulldog, Ella, a pitbull mix, and Sammy (no relation to the horse I used to lease), a psychotic miniature schnauzer who only wags his tail when you say "Deedle deedle." I love drooly, bully breeds- can you tell?

7. I do not have a cell phone. My parents canceled my plan when the economy went down the toilet, and I haven't had one since then.

8. I can read four languages, and kinda-sorta speak three: English (obviously), Spanish (because it's mandatory), Koine Greek (my school is classical and bizarre), and Latin, which I can only read because I only took it for a year.

9. My best friend Tyler lives 500 miles away. I am going to visit her in a few weeks! And we will look weird together, because she is a rivethead and I enjoy oldschool, classical goth. (I never look it when I'm at the barn, though, for obvious reasons.)

10. My favorite book thus far is "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky. Raskolnikov and I are soul buddies.

And now, the blogs I nominate.

I pray contagion of the feeble mind.
Tyler's spewings.


Bad Ways to Sell Your Horse
A hilarious blog showcasing terrible sale ads.


Behind the Bit
Riley and his mom updating on dressage training, the sporthorse world, and just general, horse-related news.


Maybe Mae
She isn't really active any more, but she had a very heartfelt blog about riding.


Jumping Percheron
An adorable, talented Percheron mare training for jumpers. Stacey, her owner, is currently stationed in Korea, but she updates occasionally and will be returning to Hawaii soon.


I is Roxie!
Roxie is a cute little Percheron mare who blogs all by herself.


I am an Imperial horse who NEEDS sugars!
Max, the five year old Lippizanner.

Improvement. We have it. (Picture overload)

First off, he put on weight.


Compare with how he looked when I found him:


And jumping is a TON better.

When I first started jumping with him (sorry for the quality-it's off a still.)



Two weeks ago, complete with nasty lower leg:


Today:
My release was bad here, but it's a similar jump to the previous pictures:


A little better over a vertical, but now it's the shoulders *sigh*


We took a close distance here- my fault- and my butt could be out of the tack a little more.


And just for the hell of it, todays REALLY fugly jump- we were jumping it kind of as a rollback, I totally flubbed the distance and we ended up launching over it from a really bizarre spot:





Anyways, yes. It was dry enough to jump today, and my lesson got canceled, so we practiced over some gymnastics and stuff. I wish I had pictures or video of the whole thing, but oh well. We are improving a ton, and a lot of the mistakes are form me. I have to really work on not roaching my back and my release, but I feel like my timing and confidence is improving.

We had our first attempted lead change today down the diagonal. I have that on video, but it's crammed between 20 minutes of warming up, fixing jumps, etc. He got it- I was really excited, because I have that to fall back on if I need it. I prefer a simple change right now, just because of my inexperience, but anyways.

Looking forward to my next lesson, whenever that is. Allannah had to rush her boyfriend to the hospital this morning, so it might be a while.

Oh the usual.

Barn again today. Berkshire had some proud flesh that had to be removed, but that's about the extent of our excitement.

The arena was dry enough to ride in, which bodes well for tomorrow's lesson. We did more flatwork- mostly working on my 2-point over little flower boxes minus the flowers (in lieu of ground poles, which were underwater in a flooded pasture) and my sitting trot. I've got the sitting trot down pat; I can pretty much stay balanced an relaxed even in a more forward trot. Two point needs work, as usual, but I'm getting better. I lowered my stirrups a hole, which really helped me fold down into the tack without ending up on his neck.

That's about it. I have a lovely candid shot of me fixing my shirt- my camera was on the fence and decided to take a picture somehow. I cropped it to fit, obviously. ya gotta love the paleness, too.. it's kind of an accomplishment.

Dressage.

Berky trotted sound today, so we dropped the stirrups a few holes and opted to work some dressage. Half of the ring was under water, so it was pretty much 20m circle time by default.

We just did the usual- warm up long and low, slowly pick up contact from there. It took some encouragement to get him out of his hunter-trot rut and into some more energetic movement, but after some prodding he started working nicely. We did some pseudo-serpentines and leg yielding to loosen up, some overbending to the left and right.

Today was mostly about accuracy. Y'know, square halts and transitions AT the letter, not two strides after it. We had a real breakthrough when we cantered a balanced twenty meter circle at F and transitioned back to trot perfectly at the rail. After that, we cooled out and went back to the barn.

He gets a few differrent hoof treatments now that it's so wet, so while I waited for his sealant to dry, he got his mane and forelock cleaned up.

More pasture riding.

The arena was a little less soggy today, but not by much, so we were yet again relegated to the pasture. My dad came out to help set up some jumps- basically a crossrail to vertical line and a single crossrail.

The horses in the neighbor's pasture were running around like maniacs, so we had a nice, long warm up and some stretchy trots to get his attention on me. I popped him over the crossrail once or twice- he rushed after the fence, which makes me think I either came down on his back too soon. We called it quits after we got a nice, balanced jump. I'm reverting back to my swingy-leg ways, judging by my dad's photos- I think I'm going to spend some time on Ranger without stirrups.

Anyways, the fun began when we cantered a few laps. He was very well behaved, but he tripped (not on a wet patch- the pastures were dry..hm.) and opened up his boo boo. Ugh! My dad noticed it when he stumbled, so I brought him back to a walk, got off, and hand cooled him out.

When I got him untacked and tied, I went to get the hose and antibacterial soap. One of the visiting redneck kids started screaming over something, and Berky freaked out and pulled back on his halter. He scrambled around for a second, managed to get free, and trotted back to his stall. I retrieved him and finished cleaning his cut.

Then I saw...... IT WAS PUFFY! My paranoid mind went into overdrive imagining swollen joints, trips to Gainesville, and explorative surgery. I called the BM, Karen-she didn't pick up, but my dad didn't think we needed to call the vet out just yet, so I have my fingers crossed. It wasn't hot and he didn't flinch when I cleaned it out, but still. I scrubbed it out, put SSD on it and Swat around it, and then vetwrapped it for good measure. Tomorrow, I'm going to be out there at the crack of dawn to make sure my horse still had four functioning legs.........UGH.

Can't think of a title. Meh. Riding stuff.

Got back from Orlando yesterday, so we are back in business. Evidently, we had a lot of rain- the arena was soggy, and Berky managed to clip himself despite his bell boots. (He isn't sore or swollen, so I just washed it out and put some silver cream on it.) Other than that, everyone was alive and well.

Anyhow, the pastures were dry and some of the other girls had set up some low jumps in the cross-country pasture. It ws getting cloudy, so we headed out there to see how he'd do in a big, open area- it had been a while since we'd left the arena to school. The wind picked up and he was a little apprehensive, but he calmed down after some circles.

I was really pleased with how well he did- nice cadence, better carriage, etc. We only got to ride for a few minutes before it started pouring and I got to lead a soggy, nervous horse back to the barn.

After the rain passed, we tried one more time to ride in the dressage ring. It started thundering, so that was the end of that. Instead, Berky got a good brushing and his neck rubbed (his favorite) and got put away to dry out. I had to treat his hooves again with some conditioner and the iodine/formaldehyde rinse because I'm worried about his feet crumbling. Either way, the farrier's out next week and he gets new shoes all around.

I dug out some trenches around the jumping arena while I was waiting for my ride home. I was too dumb to take off my field boots, so they get a cleaning too. Hopefully, the arena will drain over the next few days because I have a private lesson Wednesday and a group lesson some other day.

Eh. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have better luck tomorrow.

OT: Amazing Stephen Colbert GIF <3

I'm pretty sure I'm one of the world's only Colbert Report fan girls. GIF for your lulzy pleasure:

Lesson.

Lesson with Allannah today. We did a lot of review-y stuff and some jumping, including working on the dreaded flowers. Oh, how I hate the flowers! Not sure why- I've jumped them a million times on other horses, but I've always disliked them and always will. Eh.

I have some oh-so-entertaining video of me and Berk on a teeeeny crossrail. Hunched shoulders ftw, man.


It started pouring midway through, so we cut things short. I'm going to have lessons once a week for the next two weeks, then a group lesson and a half-our lesson twice a week for the two after that up until the show. Fun!

Cantering. My loose lower leg of DOOM!

SHOW!!!!!!! or at least, some random rambling about it.

Ok, so Berky and I are officially going to Battle of the Barns this year....T-28 days! That said, we have yet to figure out our classes. I'm leaning toward X-rails equitation U/S, X-rails HUS, and X-Rails Hunter over fences for the first day, with Long Stirrup equitation U/S, Long Stirrup Hunter O/F, and Long Stirrup EQ O/F the second day.

I am soooo excited. I pulled his mane today, even though the show isn't for a month (so fat lotta good it'll do), and we're going to dye his tail dark because it's all bleached out. Most of the hunter riders at the barn are going- Maddie and Jackson, Claire and Kay, Sarah and her 17hh QH How-D (He's HUGE and always in the ribbons), Brittany and Wonder, me, and Paige and Sunny. It's basically a point-earning thing, and one of our rival stables always wins because they draft everyone for the classes, down to the beginners. Millenium usually places second or third.

So in the meantime, I get to keep doing what I'm doing. Berky and I are finally clicking and working as a team- it's a good feeling. We're moving up to riding six days a week with at least two devoted to jumping, but most of our focus on our flatting.