Post Epic Winter Tour (EWT) 2014.

I think EWT 2014 will have lasting effects on both DC and me (I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it).  

For me, it has changed the way I think about my approach to showing, and how I handle each day individually.  It has also made me less “year end” oriented, and more “plan for each show and see how it goes.”  When I walked into the idea of EWT, it was to garner experience, ride with the best of the best, and maybe win some ribbons along the way.  All of those things certainly came true, but it also gave me perspective that taking each show, or even each DAY of each show as an individual challenge.  For some reason being on the road for that long put less pressure on the “end” and more focus on the “here and now” for me. 

For DC, I came away with a horse that feels much more trained than when I started.  He’s STILL a pregreen horse after all, and is only a seven year old.  Even though we’ve had our moments of success I need to keep that in mind in our approach to showing, riding, and training.  In my experience, green horses usually react one of two ways when returning from a show.

1. OH MY GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING I AM NOW TERRIFIED OF LIFE. 

This reaction comes when a horse is fairly unconfident, and shows me that they need to grow up a little before showing again. 

2. I am the shiznitt of all shiznitt horses, so badass and brave.  Look at me and how cool I am.

For me, this horse is one that is ready to really come into his own from a showing perspective.  He has the confidence to face the challenges, and although he might not always react in a way that I want, I’ve successfully brought him along to a point of being able to handle many different situations.

DC most definitely falls into the latter category.  Ever since our return, he’s really been one of the most fun horses to ride I can imagine.  He tries his hardest, he is supple, soft, and forward, and he’s really showing a ton of confidence under saddle.  Except when there are maniacal pony killing horses around, then all bets are off. 

 

I also finally am posting the picture I bought from WEF for all to see.  Well all beyond facebook.

 

Although it is not my favorite if his jumping style, I thought the framing and background were worth it. 

Which leads me to another subject.  If I were to pick one of the following photos from Gulfport to order, which one should I choose?

 

 

Feedback is welcome!

The Busy Blogger

Mostly I liked this title because of the alliteration, and I am a huge alliteration fan.  I also like palindromes.  Like my name.  It’s a palindrome which always made me feel cool growing up.  There’s really not much that can be more nerdy (nerdier?) than thinking you’re cool because your name is a palindrome. 

Back to task….

I haven’t blogged in exactly a week(!!) because this working rider has been more working, less rider, and even much less blogger due to that job that pays the bills requiring a lot of my time. 

Sigh.

So, what has happened in a week? 

Well, I am happy to report that pufferfish went back to his ocean, and a normal leg has returned in its place.  We had a lovely ride with a few small jumps on Friday, a nice hack on Saturday, and a GREAT lesson on Sunday. 

I mentioned our hack on Saturday was “nice.” Nice was the only word I could come up with as although a majority of it was actually quite good, there was another 10% where the drama was so…dramatic, it deserves a story of its own. 

The arena at my barn backs up to a small paddock where the barn owner turns out her horses as an alternate to the larger pastures.  On Saturday she had turned out her rusty trusty retired jumper with the small pony/mini named Jitters.

 

As you can see Jitters is just about the cutest bug in a rug you could ever imagine. The Rusty Trusty Retired Jumper (RTRJ) has been turned out with him consistently for over a year.  For whatever equine reason, on Saturday, RTRJ decided that Jitters was the bane of all evil and MUST. DIE. NOW. 

Literally during the middle of my hack I look up and RTRJ is trying to kill the little pony, chasing him, cornering him, kicking at him, and going to the extent of picking him up with his mouth and tossing him to the ground like a play thing.  Little Jitters was squealing at the top of his little lungs.  He sounded more like a little pig and less like a little pony.   As you can imagine, my panic ensued, and I started yelling at RTRJ to DROP THE PONY from atop DC’s back.  I jumped off of DC and with flailing arms and lots of yelling tried to save the pony from afar. 

DC  was not as impressed with this display as I was hoping RTRJ would be, and proceeded to run quickly backwards in order to escape the crazed person who was formally his perfectly normal rider.  I tried to maintain my hold on DC while still yelling at RTRJ.  As you can imagine this did not go well.  Quickly the situation turned from panic to pretty much dire as RTRJ was still trying to kill the pony, and now DC had escaped and was RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE around the farm property, bridle, saddle, and all. 

At that moment I had to make a decision; rescue my horse, or rescue the pony.  Given that the property is fully fenced, and that there isn’t anything of immediate danger, I decided running for the pony was the way to go.  As I saw my horse sprinting with tail straight up in full arab mode (that’s hot) away from the arena out of the corner of my eye, I went and caught RTRJ and put him back in his stall safely away from Jitters. 

Another rider at my barn came running over to see what all of the fuss was about, and I asked if she might be willing to go catch the wild running willie beast of a DC for me so I could check out the pony.  Although shaken, in a fair amount of shock, and with a few terrible bite marks on his back from being picked up and shook like a dog toy several times in a row, Jitters is a tough little thing and ended up being fine.  DC, too ended up in fine form, and somehow didn’t even manage to break my bridle or reins during a full-fledged 15 minute gallop around the farm. 

I ended my day with a little trotting around the ring just to settle the nerves (more mine than his), and said a little thankful prayer that things turned out just fine for all involved. 

When I say I have adventures, I seem to mean it.

I get to review stuff! Part 1 – Higher Standards Leather Care

I’m calling this part 1 in hopes that someday someone will want me to review something else and therefore I will get to do a part 2.

Higher Standards Leather care is a result of trial and error by a horse enthusiast, Libby Henderson.  The full story on how she created the soap, and other reviews can be found on her Etsy Store and Website.

When Libby contacted me about reviewing her saddle soap and balm, my immediate reaction was YES, my secondary reaction was “what if I hate it, and then this nice lady has sent me a product she’s proud of and I can’t say nice things?”  Throwing caution to the wind (and recognizing that I had just used the last drop of my passier lederbalsam), we exchanged contact information, and I agreed to do a review.

First she asked me to pick a scent.  Scent?  Yes, Libby makes a variety of scented saddle soap, even rotating flavors with seasons.  Currently available are:

Plain Bay - Unscented

Fox’s Vanilla Lavender

Buzz’s Citrus Ginger

and my selection

Ben’s Rosemary Mint

Rumor has it that if you’re really nice to her she’ll make a custom scent just for you.  I’m imagining TJ’s Drakkar Noir and DC’s Peppermint Paddock Cakes are next on her mass distribution list.

A few days later a package arrived which included soap, balm, candy, and instructions.  Yes candy, this woman knows how to treat a customer.  

I must confess.  I am not a daily tack cleaner kinda gal.  It is one of those embarrassing things about me that I’m now admitting to a worldwide audience of readers.  My name is Anna and I do not clean my tack each time I ride.  

Whew.

Nonetheless I do actually clean tack on some sort of irregular random basis.  Perhaps the Higher Standards name of the soap will give me a desire to have higher standards on my tack cleaning regularity.  

Given that I had PLENTY OF TIME to clean tack at the barn last weekend, I pulled out all of DC’s schooling bridles, DC’s saddle, my half chaps and paddock boots, and my leather open fronts to do a thorough job.  

The instructions included were very specific (I love specific instructions), and also said “if you use it after every ride you won’t need conditioner.”  Oops. Maybe that will be my mid-year resolution.  Quarter year?  Whatever.

When I opened up my soap, I was pleased to find there was a sponge included for cleaning purposes.  Well, less pleased after I spent 20 minutes searching for a sponge ahead of time.  Tack sponges are worse than socks when it comes to me keeping track of them.  

I have another confession to make.  I didn’t take any “before” pictures of my tack.   Why?  Because it’s saddle soap, and conditioner, and I already use the expensive stuff, so what kind of a difference could they make really?  Apparently a huge one.  I have to honestly say, my bridles have never cleaned so easily and with such gleaming results.  The grime and grossness came off easily with minimal scrubbing.  They simply turned out soft, supple and gorgeous.  And DC’s saddle?  Even without the conditioner my saddle went from dull and multi-toned to a rich color of evenness and beauty.  I’ve honestly never seen a change like that from a simple cleaning.

After cleaning, but before conditioning

Lesson learned.  Take before pictures every time.

I actually bought DC’s saddle from Devocoux as a demo saddle that had been a demo for quite a while.  It has a pretty significant butt print on the seat, and sweat marks on the panels from demo misuse.  After using the conditioner, I was truly impressed with how it managed to even out the discoloration on the seat, and the sweat marks were minimized significantly.

After conditioning.  Note I was supposed to wipe off excess.  Let's pretend that happened after I took this pic.

I know you can't see "before" pics, but just imagine a butt print and sweat marks that are much worse than those pictured.

End result is that Libby seems to be a miracle worker when it comes to leather care.  I can’t wait to try it on TJ’s tack which is admittedly even worse than DC’s.  I should be shunned.

The pufferfish leg remains a pufferfish

Previously on “The Working Rider” …..

DC was neglected and did not have enough paddock cakes in his life, in retribution he came down with a puffy (veterinary defined) front left pastern.  In much guilt, Anna built a wrap for all ages, gave 2g of bute, and called it a day.  

Since my last blog, I have officially renamed DC’s front left leg pufferfish.  Same color, same texture, same ability to puff up at the first sign of danger.  And by danger I mean possibility of working, or lack of paddock cakes, squeezy buns, or at very least peppermints.  

I went to the barn the day after my original pufferfish discovery pleased to find that all filling was gone, and pufferfish had returned to a normal non puffy size.  As a result of this nice turn of events, I was rewarded with a lovely hack on a lovely gray beast.  He was soft, supple, and fluid through his gaits.  His transitions were smooth, and he had a long and low feel that I might obsess slightly about.  We also did some pole work at both the trot and canter.  Poles are a funny little thing, they can really show holes in your training without putting any strain on the horse, or the brain.  In DC’s case his left lead remains weaker than the right, and given the opportunity he will ease his way to the right side with even the slightest opening to head that way.  

I had a renewed sense of goals, and training ideals in mind.  

I came away from the barn elated that I had a lesson on Sunday, and ready to go lesson at Matt’s the next weekend.  

Then came Sunday.

I arrived at the barn on Sunday to do a thorough tack cleaning, and spend some QT with my favorite seahorse.  DH was playing golf so it was a great opportunity to relax at the barn for the afternoon.  

I also arrived at the barn to a pufferfish of a leg that had returned to its full pufferfish glory.  Ugh.  OK, perhaps once again I am being slightly dramatic, and it wasn’t that bad, but bad enough that I cancelled my lesson and once again texted vet.

I will spare you the conversation but it ended with “Yes, you’re right, always right, smartest owner ever, best client of mine.”  Word for word, I swear it.  

So, new plan is wrap for 48 hours, bute for 4 days and recheck on Friday.  Pufferfish and I are not friends.  

DC on the other hand was quite pleased with this turn of events, as he got to spend the afternoon grazing and being force fed paddock cakes.  

DC – 1 Anna – 0

Tales of the neglectful horse owner

I know it is almost impossible to imagine, but over the last two weeks I have been quite the neglectful horse owner.  Or perhaps I should call DC a latchkey horse.  A week ago Monday I hacked DC with the full knowledge that I would be unable to see him again until the following week.  I was leaving for my vacation on Wednesday, and due to work commitments would be unable to go out on that Tuesday.  

I lined up a couple of hacks for when I was gone, and figured he would enjoy a little semi-vacation to go along with mine.  I explained to my stand-in rider that DC was of the type to try to convince you he was almost un-broke and clearly had never learned to steer in his entire career.  

Upon her first ride, I received this text:

DC’s two favorite lies:

1. My mom totally lets me bulge in the corners.

2. I do not have walk canter transitions.

Upon reflection, these two lies are much improved from the previous lies he would like to tell new riders which were:

1. I don’t know how to trot or canter

2. Somehow my mom manages to canter around a course of jumps, but she does so by osmosis without using any aids whatsoever.  

I call that progress.

When I arrived back in Austin, my plan was to ride DC on my first day back, and leg him back up to full work over the next two weeks before hauling up to Matt’s for some lessons.  This excellent plan was foiled by a cold that I came down with in Vegas.  There is absolutely nothing worse than being sick on vacation.  Except when you’re still sick when you get home and can’t go ride your pony!  Stomp foot. 

Thus the latchkey horse went from latchkey to benign neglect when I didn’t get out to even see him until Thursday.  That would be one full week and a half since I’d laid eyes on his grayness. 

Being a horse, and being a horse who is feeling neglected and without enough paddock cakes in his life, I arrive to a swollen front leg.  Ok so maybe it had a little bit of filling and not actually swollen, but alas there was filling in it without a doubt.  Luckily my vet is also a good friend of mine, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: OH MY GOD DC’s LEG IS SWOLLEN.

Vet: Are you sure?  This sounds like an exaggeration. 

Side note. He knows me well.

Me: Ok, its just slightly swollen, but definitely not normal.  

Vet: What would you like me to do about it?

Me: I don’t know, vet stuff.  

Vet: I’m pretty sure you’re capable. 

 

Me: sends pics

Vet: Does not look very swollen to me.  Maybe a little puffy.

Me: More than puffy. Less than Swollen

Vet: Can you give me definitions of each?

Me: Smartass

Vet: (with what I’m assuming is a lot of eye rolling) Maybe has an abscess brewing.  Maybe tweaked it.  Maybe needs a furacin/DMSO wrap and some bute.  Or just amputate!! Whichever is best.

Me: Smartass

At which point I chose the "furacin/DMSO wrap and some bute" route.  I may or may not have overdone the wrapping.  You be the judge.

Guilt resulting from neglect I assure you.     

The good news is he was completely sound, and I hope to still leg him back up and take him to Matt's next weekend.  To be continued.....