IHSA WWU Show

Well, hello good world. Yesterday I got back from the longest, farthest away horse show for school ever. Well, not technically. We went there last year too. Lynden Washington....6 hours north, driving in a car! Woo....Yeah. So we drove way up there for the horse show, its all good. The show is going, cool. Okay, finally the english flat horses are being warmed up, and I am attempting to find the horse I have drawn to ride for my class- Dave. Dave the horse. Wow, well okay, there have been weirder names. I am scanning name tags...not finding Dave the horse. Hm. Okay, there are only a few without name tags...and low and behold, Dave turns out to be the ex-gaming chestnut quarter horse who is trotting and cantering around like a madman in the warm up area, so sweaty it looks as though he just came out of a bathtub. Fan-freakin-tastic. Well, he can't be TOO bad, right? So I ask questions of his owner, okay, we are set. Lets get on this sucker and ride. Dave and I only need to be friends for like 5 minutes.

WRONG! Dave's other name, I discovered, is Satan. I ride him out into the ring, and almost immediately he begins to prance and dance- apparently his version of "walk". Oh, and it gets better. When I asked him for a trot, he jams his nose in the air and trots like a standardbred on his way to winning the race. Bouncy, fast, terrible trotting. And the canter? I'm fairly sure he was doing a slow gallop. Okay, I have ridden some forward horses, I can handle this.

NO. WRONG AGAIN! I have ridden forward horses that had TRAINING. So my mind goes racing through things our coach has said to handle these horses- lets shorten my reins- get a handle on the booger. No...doesn't work. Maybe he's upset about the contact-lets give him some rein. OOOH no. Okay, lets sit deep and slow my post...also no. Okay, last ditch effort. Lets counter bend this *insert not exactly nice word here* into the outside wall so he is forced to not gallop off. Only slightly kind of works. I am serious here guys, I don't think I have ever ridden a horse that so completely ignored all rein contact and cues. It felt like I wasn't on a horse at all- I was sitting on a rocket with speedy little legs and no brain. Needless to say, I was upset. Lets drive 6 hours north and then 6 hours back south....to ride THIS? Pretty sure he was the absolute worst horse at the show. I mean, there were some pretty other nasty ones- ones that bucked occasionally and such. But when that horse wasn't bucking, he was lovely. Controllable. Half-way sane. Dave? Dave was a psycho. I mean, who really looks at their gaming horse and decides he would make a wonderful english equitation horse? People annoy me.

I felt slightly better though, when the second time Dave the horse got ridden, the rider lost all semblance to control. She lost a stirrup at the canter. And then Dave the horse proceeded to gallop, oh and I mean gallop, madly around and around the arena, the poor rider just attempting to stay on and bring this little brat to a stop. They had to halt the other horses in the class, and people on the ground had to run out in front of Dave waving their arms to get him to stop. WOW. Just wow.

Anyways....I rode Oscar today, sweet relief. And I would go into detail, but my laptop is about to die, and it's not as if we did anything totally out of the ordinary, besides clip his ears (which he was a-okay perfectly fine with-YAYYY!!). Here is some pics of the beautiful boy though. :)

Out of my League?

Well, this weekend was the schooling show with Cheyenne. And it was, well, so-so. Although there were some things working against her at first, so I can hardly blame her for some of it. We got there and the power was out at the fairgrounds, so the show was being run in the dark, with little pathetic emergency lighting so that we were barely out of the pitch black. Cue the crazy spooky-ness of every shadow and noise. But then the lights came on, thank the lord. So she was being much better. But Bliss, a horse buddy of hers that my boss also owns, was also there showing. Cue the insane herd-boundness. Ha, I couldn't get her to slow down, or listen to me at all. So here we are in a western walk-trot class, and she is zooming around at a speedy trot trying to catch up to her buddy. But after Bliss was taken out and we were on our own, Cheyenne improved a lot. She was listening to me, she was trying, she was being good. But I must say, there were a lot of horses there that were VERY good. Very broke, like...professionally broke, cookie-cutter western pleasure horses. How much chance does cute little Cheyenne have against that? Well, not a whole lot. But Cheyenne did her best, I did my best, and it was a pretty good day. It was a good experience for her. And I must say, I am not a western rider by any means, but we looked pretty spiffy in our show getup. Cheyenne was wearing her nice silver bridle and breastcollar, I was sporting my brand new show chaps and hat [which proceeded to fly off my head at our first canter...okay, it is too big]


So yes, that was all great and such. Meanwhile, I have been working Oscar some more. He was great yesterday. I wore spurs with him, and it makes a huge difference. He moves forward better and stays more in front of your leg, he picks up his gaits quicker, its fabulous. We trotted and cantered over some ground poles- I am on my baby-steps way to jumping Mr. Warmblood! Most exciting, perhaps though, is our trailer loading work! Oscar is horrible for loading, and so I was specifically assigned to teaching him to load. And yesterday for the first time I got him in the trailer with the divider closed on him! Success! He was quiet, and I fed him some grass from outside through the window! Yay!
Look! Proof! He was in the trailer! The divider was closed! He wasn't being crazy! I work him again on Thursday, so let us hope that he lets me do this again. One can only hope, right?


Well, what else is there? Gypsy got home alright, and is well on her way to living the cushy pasture pet life. I can only imagine that she is rather excited to not be asked to do anything but munch grass. I haven't been able to get out and work BeauD or Beary or anybody. Rather sad. I was going to ride BeauD yesterday but the fairgrounds were closed. I am going to try and get out and ride Bears today...she is probably getting a complex. All that work and progress and riding, and then BAM! Nothing. Poor girly. She probably wants some attention and loving. So today we will see how good she is, with so much time off. I'm sure she will be just as good as she was though....she is kind of like that. Good old Beary! What a cutie.

Total, utter madness

That is what my life feels like as of late. Like I could pull my hair out and scream to high heavens. I have so much on my plate it is insane. Let us count...I am taking 16 or so credits at school, I have a class that requires 6 hours a week riding and working Oscar, I have equestrian team practice once a week, I have Gypsy to take care of and such, BeauD to work now and then, and I have a horse show the next three weekends in a row. Oh dear lord. I want to die a little bit.
I've been having big old panic stress attacks, and so finally needed to do something about it. Gypsy is being sent back home to live in our pasture and eat grass. She is leaving school tomorrow- my parents are borrowing a friend's trailer and coming up. I will miss her, but it is such a huge relief off my mind. At least one thing will be going away, and I won't have to worry and feel guilty about not having time to work her at all. Besides, nothing could be better for her right now than to go just be a horse.
In other news....a huge drama-filled deal with equestrian team. I didn't help in fundraising last week, and it really set some people off apparently. Wasn't aware that could call for blowing up and acting like a three year old, but whatever, I am kind of over that. It's just rediculous. I have been half-tempted to quit the team, but I'll stick with it for now. It is a good opportunity to ride some different horses. Even if the money doesn't always seem quite worth it. But enough of that.
Havent been able to get out and work BeauD much at all, but this weekend is an open schooling show that I am taking Cheyenne to! I even went out and bought western show junk....a shirt, the chaps, the whole shebang. Ha, it felt a little out of place for me. But Cheyenne is going to do great I think, and even will have the blingy fancy show tack to wear- silver and lovely bridle, breastcollar, saddle....she will be pretty dang spiffy too. So yes, thats that. Taking her in 6 classes on Sunday, and I kind of gave up on making Cheyenne an english horse, since she is just too good at western to mess that up.
Are there any other horses in my life that need updating? I haven't had time to really go and ride the horses at work much at all, so poor Beary has been neglected by me, but as soon as these couple big things are past, I will make sure I get out there again.
And oh thank god it is Friday. And no school on Monday for the holiday, so here comes a three day weekend for me. And oh boy, I've never needed one more.

Warmbloodville

Well hello hello, and a happy new year it is!
I am a lazy bum and haven't posted in a bit, but I will still choose to blame my lack of internet at home. It makes life a tad more difficult. And I'm pretty sure we are so painfully cheap that we will never be getting internet either...
But anyways. Lets see...whats been going on in the horse side of my life. Winter term at school has started up, so I've been having to cut a tiny bit of pony time off, but at the same time, I'm adding some too. How does this work, you might ask? Well, I am taking a class called schooling the horse III. This consists of me being assigned to a school horse, and I individually schedual times to come and work him on my own, to achieve goals for the horse and for myself. Sweet, my kinda class. Ponies, and no teachers. So anyways, I was assigned to the horse Oscar. You may remember Oscar being the horse that I used to love so much....and then he got feeling better and had shoes on, and then I had a total nightmare of a ride, and was much less fond of him. Ha. Well, I have discovered that when I ride him for the class, and NOT for equestrian team practice where I am having to focus on riding pretty...he is so much fun! I love Oscar! He is a nice big warmblood, oh maybe 16 hands. But he is super broke and is awesome. Fantastic walk to canter transitions, I just gotta say. And so my instructor assigned me to him to more improve myself, rather than him- since he is pretty much broke. There are little things here and there I will work on with him- he doesn't load in the trailer and such. But Oscar is a jumping horse, and so I will get to learn to jump on him! YAY! Rather excited for that.
Also have ridden BeauD, the other warmblood in my life. He is getting so good. I am starting to trust him a lot more. There are no weirdo spooks or crowhoppy bucks anymore. Walk, trot, and canter nicely. I love riding him too! Such a smooth gait and all that suspension, and oh that canter. So lovely. I am realizing that the next horse I get needs to be a warmblood. They are big, they have those big sweepy gaits that I love, but they aren't totally psycho. They are pretty chill. The perfect horse. Oh Yes.
And speaking of the horse I DO have.. I have made a decision in that area. I have decided to try and find a retirement home for her. I feel so bad to ride her, she has had so many years of terrible experiences and bad training- some my fault, some not. But she is so wrapped up in her own head that she just can't relax and work. Trust me, I have been trying to retrain her for years, and have gotten almost nowhere. There is a point where you must realize that this horse is so old, so set in her ways, and her brain is so terribly fried and dead, that it is not fair anymore to the horse. She would be so much happier and it would be so good for her to be put out on a big grassy field to keep another horse company. Get fat and remember what it means to be a horse. She is awesome on the ground and loves to be groomed and such, but she just needs not to be ridden and trained anymore. My poor mare's brain can't do it anymore. So I am poking my nose around looking for a companion/pasture pet home with some possible like...lead line stuff maybe? I couldn't have picked a worse time to try and give away a free horse, but I am in no hurry, and am going to be VERY picky about where she goes. I want her to stay close, preferably on a free lease instead of an actual sale. So yes.
There has actually been some very small talk about possibly sort of leasing BeauD if I find Gypsy a home. I would just pay to keep BeauD at the school barn so that I could ride him all the time at the school. It would be super good for the Beau man....but that is not happening unless I do something about Gypsy....which means it probably won't happen. It is a nice thought though..