Everyday Gear: Jumping Edition

I know I'm way behind on this blog hop, so instead of hopping, I'm just gonna pretend I thought of it first.

I'm a first class tack ho and I really love my gear. I'm splitting this one up between jumping and dressage because I haven't got the dressage pictures I really want yet.

First off, Moses.

How Mo dresses for a jump school.

Wait, no. Let's try again.

More along the lines of my idea.

There's nothing I don't love about his current setup. Starting from the head: The bridle is an Antares figure-8 that I got used and am completely in love with. He also seems to really like it, and is going great in it. I finally have M's permission to use it because he loves to open his mouth and flip me off. In his mouth is a loose ring KK, which is pretty much what I flat everything in.

The browband is from Tack Shack Ocala. I know, it's criminal to take anything Antares off the horse and put on something lesser, but it's so great. It's got a navy diamond inlay and grey padding. I adore it.

AND it was cheap!

Lately, the breastplate we've been schooling in is the Harwich elastic one that I got for almost $0 used. I put a wither strap on it since these pictures were taken, which keeps it out of my way and gives me another handle if shit gets wild. It's fine. I don't love it but I'll use it. (Also, does anyone know how to clean up the elastic on these things?) I also have an Antares breastplate I got for a steal awhile back, and it's a tiiiiiiiny bit too big for him, really, but I can make it work on the tightest holes. Although I never do this with anything else, I'm currently reserving that one for showing. I've schooled him in it enough to know that it works and fits, and since it's so freaking gorgeous and I won't be able to replace it (these NEVER show up used and I'm not spending $300 on a breastplate these days), that's the call I'm making.

Rocking Antares breastplate and rainbows everywhere.
That's how we do.

I always jump in my Nunn Finer neckstrap. I think it might technically be Bartlestville, I dunno. It looks precisely like Mary's neckstrap, which is Nunn Finer. Who cares. I could use a stirrup leather. I like it because it's thin and easy to hold. If I think Mo might be a butt, I put it on for dressage schools and trail rides, too. If it isn't there and I need it, I'm sad.

The saddle, stirrup leathers, and girth are also Antares. I have a problem, I know. But they're SO GREAT. I am seriously in love with that saddle.

Swoon.

My love.

I use Royal Rider composite stirrups, the non-flex variety, as I remain terrified of flex. My ankles are the worst, y'all, and in Fillis irons, two hours after a normal jump school I would have difficulty walking. So when I found these used for like $35, I pounced. I didn't even know they were Royal Riders until they arrived. I use the rubber pads instead of the cheese graters because I'm afraid of cheese graters near calfskin, and the rubber pads are working fine.

My half pad is an Ogilvy, which I love. This past weekend I washed the cover for the first time (I've had the thing for about 18 months) and it came out looking perfect. When I can afford it, I'll get a dressage Ogilvy too, or I'll put it on my Christmas list or something. The obsession is real.

The baby pad in the Mo pic above is also Ogilvy, also used (are we sensing a theme here?). I love it, and I hope to have nothing but Ogilvy pads in the future, but I have a bunch of different schooling pads of a variety of brands and they're all fine. I need a bunch of saddle pads, because I wash my pads after every ride, unless the horse didn't sweat AT ALL and was clean. I'm neurotic, I know. Polo wraps get washed every time, too.

I typically boot up for jump schools, especially at M's, because her poles are ridiculously heavy. Mo pulled a rail with a hind leg once and his leg got all swollen, so now: boots. 

The fronts are Majyk Equipe XC boots. I bought them on the strength of everyone's reviews and the one-year guarantee and all that jazz. The fronts have been fine, but within about a dozen uses, the binding on the hind boots started to come undone. I was surprised, so I contacted ME, and long story short, they're all "you've owned those boots for ten months and that kind of thing could happen in ten months," and I'm like "I guess you aren't taking me at my word that I've hardly used them and also if they're supposed to fall apart after ten months, what's the one year guarantee for?" But we've worked out a kind-of truce. I'm not impressed with their customer service, to say the least, but I'll keep using the fronts until they give up the ghost, too. The hinds are just Woof boots. They're not changing my life, but they're doing their job.

So that's the little horse. Here's the big guy.

I freaking love him.

So this isn't quiiiiiite gonna be accurate. The fact of the matter is, I've hardly been jumping Red. I don't have the footing to jump him at home, and I almost always ride alone here (for those who didn't know, Red lives at my house and Mo lives at M's). So this was a photo from an ordinary ride, but an ordinary ride for him these days is flatwork. Pretty soon I'm going to have to school him in the dressage saddle more. Anyway, he's sporting a fancy stitch Nantucket bridle, from the Smartpak line. I got it new (!!!!) but on clearance for $50. They've discontinued this one, which is a shame. I love it. It's not Antares, but it's very very nice. The flash is a CWD that I got used, and I took the laced reins off this bridle and replaced them with Edgewood rubber reins (used). He also goes in a rare fancy-stitched Edgewood breastplate (used) and an Antares hunter girth (USED DUH). The saddle and half pad are the same that Mo goes in. Pictured is a white PRI jump pad, but I end up riding him in the pads I've made myself a lot of the time. He's got on polo wraps here, but for an actual jump school I'd trade those for his Equifit boots. I'd also add my trusty neckstrap. He's using a loose ring KK here, but I jump him in a loose ring Waterford.

So there you have it. As Bill Steinkrauss said, "Quality is the best economy." I absolutely believe this to be true in all areas of horsemanship. That doesn't mean the most expensive thing is the best quality, but if I take care of my gear (and I do, I love cleaning tack), it should last me a very very long time, and keep my horses comfortable. The fact that I love looking at both of them tacked up doesn't hurt my feelings, either!

Let's Do This Thing: Dressage Edition

So as I mentioned in my "stuff I forgot" post yesterday, I've got this new goal of getting my bronze medal. I think it's achievable. I have two nice horses and an excellent coach, so all I have to do is learn to ride.

HA.

It doesn't help that the other day I really hurt my back and now I'm taking this whole week off from riding and all other fun things. Blah. 

But before I injured myself, I told M that I want to do some dressage lessons on Red, and she's like "all righty!" because she loves dressage and lessons. I didn't tell her about the bronze medal thing. I'm still not telling her. She needs to see that I can be successful in dressage and get done what she needs me to get done, so that when I do tell her she's like "EXCELLENT" instead of like "bwahahahaha." You know? Timing matters! (That's what the dressage riders say!)

Poor guy has no idea he's going to dressage

I took him over on Saturday morning. M has given me lessons on him before, almost all jumping, so this time I figured we'd be doing a lot of trotting on the 20m circle while she fixed what she didn't like, and boy was I ever right.

Here's the thing about Red: he does not have a dressagey understanding of the contact. He was ridden in quite the bit/martingale combination as a show jumper, and I just don't think he's got the sense that the outside rein is there to be his support buddy. And until he has that piece, the rest of it can't show up. I mean, he's got rhythm and relaxation down (though who knows what will happen to those at the horse shows). So connection is next, and I'm thinking we'll struggle for a few days and then have a breakthrough and then he'll have that piece for life. Impulsion will be easy. Straightness will be hard, but with M's help, we'll get it. Collection? I don't know how easy that will be for him, but by the time we get there, I think he'll have a lot of different muscles.

So on Saturday what M wanted to accomplish was getting him to release the base of his neck into the contact. At home, he'll trot around with his nose on the ground and no rein contact at all, but that's not quite what we're after. I do think he needed no-reins stretching stuff for his mind and his body, so now we're ready to move on.

Horse or hippo?

The lesson was almost entirely on a 20m circle. Sometimes we'd get it to 10m and leg yield out to try to encourage that outside rein connection. There was a lot of counterbend to get his shoulders where they needed to be, and then transitioning to true bend with the goal of not having an inverted horse. At one point each direction, M walked next to me and held the reins and told me what to do with my legs. She said that she'd have climbed up there had she not been wearing shorts. This was more fun, though, because I got to feel what the rest of his body was doing. He seemed worried about her doing that, so I said, "It's okay, buddy," and she said, "I'm not okay! Tell this bitch to let go of my reins!" I love her.

So now my homework for the week is to get him into the outside rein like a proper horse. It's amazing, he's 17 and can't do this, but his genuine desire to be a good boy will make it quick, I think. Anyone else retraining an older horse to a new discipline?

A Couple Things I Forgot

1. I forgot to mention that Mo came in fourth at JUMP! There were twelve in the division. I think five had clear rounds, two riders fell off on course. I clearly wasn't pushing the time. I didn't even set my watch.

Gorgeous ribbon, huh? I need to start a ribbon wall.

2. The bogey fence we jumped for extra credit was the swoopy rail over the kiddie pool. I didn't think any horse on the property would jump that shit--I mean, rubber duckies?--but Sharon was yelling at me to try it and since I was officially sitting on the Bravest Horse Ever, I just did. I can't express the joy it brought me except to say that I was too excited to smile. I thought I was going to throw up.

3. Like SprinklerBandit, I've also been secretly thinking of getting my bronze medal. Soooo now Red is in dressage training. I have a feeling the third level scores will be on Mo in several years, but I'm hoping to get some points on the board with Red. Lesson recap to follow. I'm very excited to have a plan for him.

4. I learned how to make ribbon browbands when I helped out with pony club camp. This one is for SB. THE COLOR MATCHING OPPORTUNITIES ARE ENDLESS YOU GUYS.

ALL CROSS COUNTRY ALL THE TIME

That's what it feels like, anyway. M was coaching a school at Gordonsdale last Thursday and invited me to go. I'm SO NOT going to pass up that opportunity (what. is happening. to me). So back onto the trailer went Mosey and off we went.

This time, he started out a little more up and wild than last time. I lunged him before I got on and he trotted around like a madman for awhile and then stopped to eat grass. But getting on didn't settle him immediately this time, so I still had another 10-15 minutes of work to do to organize the trot/his brain. We had two pony club kids and one adult ammie riding with us. They were all looking at me like "oh jesus the green horse again," but I knew that once we started jumping he'd be fine.

OMG HIS BUTT

Soooooo like remember how logs used to look like the Great Wall of China to him or something? At this school he warmed up over bigger logs than he'd been asked to jump at Loch Moy, and it was no biggie at all. Within the first few minutes of the jump warmup, he trotted a course of four logs that involved going away from the group. I was impressed with him. He handled the day really well. There was one very freaky looking brush jump that he thought was scary, but he never stopped at it. And everything we did last time, he was all about doing this time, too. He gave me zero hesitation about anything he'd seen before. We even did the bank into the water like he'd been doing it for a year.

M is incredibly excited about him, as am I. He's made a huge breakthrough. I don't think he'll get another XC schooling in for a couple of weeks, but that's totally fine. He's proven his point for now. There's some work to do in dressage, because he's got a schooling dressage show coming up and I'm going to enter Intro B and C. And C has cantering.

Scary brush at Gordonsdale used hay bales for the ground line. Ha.

You know that feeling when you'd rather point your green horse at the 3' brush jump than try to canter in the dressage ring? Is that what it means to be an eventer?

JUMP!

Even though the Gordonsdale XC school wasn't all that I'd dreamed of in terms of exposing him to a zillion new jumps, off we went on Saturday to the most fun you can have at an event derby: Sharon White's JUMP! 2015. It's a fundraiser for her. We'd entered Elementary, a barely noticeable step up from Intro. And we entered Elementary because there wasn't an Intro division. Ambitious, eh?

I don't know if it's possible to love Mo more than I already do. That horse was freaking foot perfect on Saturday from start to finish.

First of all, he loaded on the trailer like a champ. That evoked a sigh of relief. I drove him over there without any fuss and my good friend (who is also a vet, which is convenient if the stripey faced one got hurt) met me there to help out. The best thing about having a vet help you at a horse show: if your horse is a butthead, she's not afraid to handle it. Fortunately, we didn't test that aptitude.

He tacked up fine, lunged great, and then I walked him past alllllllllll the chaos: tents, flags, people wearing insane orange outfits or decked out in American flag crap (orange and white are Sharon's colors and it was the fourth of July, so people got awards for outfits. I wore an orange shirt but that was my only nod to the color thing). He was looking around (allowed) when the loudspeaker came to life when we were RIGHT under it. Whoops. Baby horse came totally. unglued.

Fortunately, my vet buddy was like "take him in the indoor!" which is where the warmup jumps were anyway. On an ordinary day, I think he might have found the indoor spooky, but since it muffled the sound of the demon loudspeaker--the announcer, by the way, was Brian O'Connor--he took a deep breath almost immediately. I hand-walked him for a couple laps and then hopped on. And man, is he ever a nice horse. He just relaxed right into a very nice trot and warmed up over the jumps great.

I was a little worried about riding him back out of the indoor, past all the insanity, and down to the jump field, which was PACKED with jumps. The way the course worked was that the first four jumps were stadium jumps, and then you'd transition right to XC, and last four jumps (in my course, two three-stride lines) were SJ jumps. After going through the finish flags, you'd have an opportunity to jump a "bogey" fence--either a chevron or a swoopy rail with a kiddie pool under it, complete with water and rubber duckies. I'm not sure if a stop at the bogey fence could hurt you, but jumping it would take four seconds off your time (so you wouldn't want to jump it if you'd been going too fast, I guess!).

All photos by GRC Photo

Anyway, I shouldn't have worried about taking him past the zoo and down to the field, because he had his big boy pants on and walked down on a loose rein like a genius. We waited our turn and then it was time to go!

My heart melts.

For the first time at a horse show with Mo, the announcer made a "Go Big" joke: "I guess if they don't go big, they'll have to go home." Cheesy, but it did put a smile on my face as I made the turn to jump 2.

You can see the smile if you zoom in.

I really like his approach to jumping. He's got quite the coil-and-spring, and he's neat with the front end, as he demonstrates over fence 4 here. You could see essentially this same series over any of the jumps. (PS: I bought the photo card, because it was $50 for 83 pics, and the proceeds went straight to Sharon. He was so good and I'm always running so short on media around here that it seemed like a no-brainer). I love how consistent he feels at his fences at this height. A lot of green horses are all over the place, but he has really great instincts.

He thought the first XC fence was a little funky, so he jumped it bigger than strictly necessary just to make sure.

Wheeeeee!

And then afterwards, just excellence from the little man. His confidence grew, as it should on an XC course at a venue like this, and eventually he was taking me to the jumps.

I SEE IT!!!!

He was clearly having fun. I mean, look at that face.

LOOK AT IT

He went right into the water, because he loves water. Water is splashy, after all.

I think he wants to be an event horse.

I'd let him canter a little between jumps (and would have let him canter to jumps if he'd wanted to, but he still likes to trot jumps sometimes, and I AM NOT GOING TO ARGUE WITH THAT RIGHT NOW). But when he trotted, it was on a soft contact. I really didn't have to arm wrestle him much.

Although he IS still Mo so there was a bit of "celebrating" after jumps he found impressive.

I really think we'll be going BN in the fall. I mean, I think he'll like jumping things a little bigger since he already jumps like this even when he's relaxed. And while our canter departs aren't 100% yet, as Bruce Davidson says, "If you wait for the dressage, you'll never jump."

He leaves the ground like he's an arrow being shot from a bow.

It was interesting to me to see how he'd handle the transition back to show jumps at the end of the course, but he rocked it. Of course.

And then all that was left to do was canter through the finish flags...

Notice how my genius baby also cleared the dead grass.

And jump the bogey fence, which I'm sad to say is not pictured. And then he was done, and I jumped off. Did he prance around and take the chance to look at exciting stuff? Nope. Put his head down and grazed with the happiest look on his face while my friend and I stared at him with hearts for eyes.

Is there a better young horse around Area II right now? Who knows, but there's not a better one for me. We have our horrible moments and I call someone and cry and I feel all sorry for myself, but... I think he's the real thing. I know this was just elementary, but he loved it out there. And he did absolutely everything right. There's no crystal ball, so who knows how he'll do as the jumps go up. Part of me doesn't care, because he's so much fun that I'll ride him at whatever level he's comfortable at. But I also know that he's the most exciting-in-a-good-way horse that I have ever ridden. Most pros will tell you that they're all for sale for the right price, but right now I'm really not sure that having a million dollars would make me happier than having this horse.

A Mini XC School for Maximum Brain Development

Last week, I took Mo over to Gordonsdale, a local XC schooling establishment, to run around with my friend K and her green horse (whom I've ridden many times and is super cool). Her horse is much less green than Mo--they were going to be schooling the Novice stuff, and Mo and I were going to stick to tiny logs on the ground and terrain questions.

...because he clearly only has the scope for tiny logs on the ground

The day started off weird because I felt like I was running late, which is rare for me. I was in a little bit of a mood when I got to M's to pick up the stripey-face, and it was made worse when the jerk wouldn't get on the trailer. I finally did get him on, but then I felt even more behind. I texted K to let her know, and since her horse was also being annoying about the trailer, she said it was no big deal.

I arrived about ten minutes after our scheduled meeting time, so nothing criminal, and when I got there, K was on foot talking to a group of three riders who were taking turns cantering a little jump. She came over to me and said that she'd agreed last-minute to coach them and that I could ride with them since their horses were green, too, and then they'd stick around with her while she rode her horse. So they were already into their jumping warmup and my horse was still on the trailer. Great.

I unloaded Mo and tacked him up, and since he looked calm and I was running late I decided to skip lunging. I don't lunge him before I ride him at home, but we were in the middle of a field off the farm and it seemed like a good idea. It might have helped a bit, but I just trotted around for about 20 minutes until he settled in. During which time, of course, the other horses and riders worked up to cantering a mini course. But if I'd asked him to jump during that first 20 minutes, it would have been a rodeo, and I don't like to set him up for failure like that. By the time I felt he was ready to jump, we'd moved on to the ditch.

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to take a green as grass horse on his second XC school ever and point him at a ditch before we've had a few logs to establish that essential "you jump what I point you at, dammit" mindset. He didn't show himself to be at all ditchy in our previous XC school, but again, it would have been setting him up for failure. And, sadly, there were no little tiny jumps to hop over near the ditch, and I certainly wasn't going to leave the group and venture out all by myself. Good god.

So we stood around and watched the other three riders get work done, and I told myself that if the school became "you keep your shit together in a group of horses you don't know and hack out in a strange open space," that would be a very valuable thing for him. Any trip up the road for him is good right now. Etc. Still, I wished I was jumping something.

Oh, you thought this post was about Mo's brain development? Ha! Here's the thing: I've never really loved XC. And I don't think I've been on an XC school and thought "man I wish I was jumping more" ever in my whole life. Plus I was sitting on a super green horse known for some crappy antics lately. But something in the deep recesses of my brain is pushing its way to the surface and making me look at (small) XC jumps and think "yes" instead of "I wish that was made of rails and in a ring." Weird, huh?

Mo finally got to be part of the group at the water. Mo likes water, and he went right in and splashed around. He even did the baby bank out of the water like a champ. I think this relaxed him a lot, actually. He knew he was there to do something cool and he got to be part of the group activity. After we were done at the water, he walked to the bank on a long rein like the other (much less green) horses.

From the Gordonsdale site

Once he figured out that the dry bank was the same deal as the bank at the water, he jumped right up there. Up a few times, down a couple times, all was copacetic.

Also from the Gordonsdale site

We eventually did come to a little log he could trot, and I felt like he trotted it with enthusiasm. We even went down the slide--this super steep hill with a tiny log at the top. He hates going down hills, so I was glad to check that off the list.

The other horses got to do a lot more, and I wish I'd been with them from the beginning so Mo could have jumped more stuff. But I think it was a good day for both of us, and luckily we have a few XC schooling courses available whenever, so it's not as if this was my only shot at schooling for the year. In fact, we'll likely go later this week.

Now we just have to work on this trailer loading issue. It's always something, eh?

Warm Up Plans Revised

Things are clicking along around here. I scratched the Hunt Club HT last weekend (with much sadness) because it was pouring buckets and I have a green horse who needs to be lunged before I get on him. And I hate getting stuck in muddy parking lots. And if my horse felt like he was sliding around on XC and lost confidence, I'd be pretty pissed at myself.

Instead, he got Saturday off to eat hay and chill while I took a similarly relaxing day off. On Sunday, I took him to my friend's hunter farm (because the tack was clean and the trailer was ready to go so why not). He was a total delight. I didn't lunge him at all (because he's been there a few times and if things went awry I'd have plenty of help and lovely footing to fall into). He honestly acted like an old pro. Before I got on, I was explaining to a lady who was watching (there's a big time pro stationed at the barn all summer and people come watch him work) that my horse is green and can be kinda silly sometimes. Man, did he make me look dumb for saying that.

You look dumb because you ARE dumb.

That day, and the couple of rides before, I'd begun to figure out something about his warmup that I'm interested in further exploring: while I agree with Jane Savoie that a horse needs to be 100% in front of your leg at all times and anything less than that isn't enough, that doesn't seem to quite work for Mo. He hates pressure. So what seems to be working, and what I experimented with a bit at the hunter farm, was letting him walk on a long rein for quite awhile. And then when I asked for the trot, I didn't insist on a lovely transition the first time, and I let him puke around in a really gross shuffle-step trot for awhile, only minimally touching the reins.

Then, magically, the horse starts to roll himself up into a bigger step. Being the "don't mess with it" type, I still keep any rein use minimal until it feels like he's seeking some contact. Then the inside leg comes on, the reins get shorter, and the frame gets rounder, and then it's a real ride. And here's the other thing that happens now: he asks to canter, just kind of steps into it. And unlike our Fail Canter, it's super great on whichever lead he's on. He manages to stretch while still feeling uphill. I've just been using a little inside leg, a little outside rein, and floating the inside rein to him as much as I can while trying to ensure that every stride is the same with my seat. It's glorious, like a grown up horse. One could jump anything out of that.

So anyway, I got off him at the hunter farm and the lady watching said, "I thought he was green?" And I was like, "Yeah, he's pretty green, still figuring out his job." And she said, "He doesn't look green. And we were all standing here wishing our horses had that uphill canter."

I just about died. I told her how much that meant to me considering how hard we've been working--on the canter and in general--and thanked her profusely. Let it be known: a horse person who was a stranger to another horse person at a hunter farm paid the stranger a genuine, meaningful compliment. Sometimes the stereotypes aren't true!

On Monday I rode him at home while M was teaching a lesson. When I went past her in the pukey trot she was clucking at me and bugging me to kick him but fortunately she was busy with her student. When she looked back over a few minutes later, his trot was phenomenal. And when we cantered, M was like, "woah, I've never seen him look that good."

Oh yeah, and we switched to the figure-8, which he loves.

After my ride and the lesson, when M and I were down in the barn, we had this conversation:

Me: I have a new warmup plan for him and you're not gonna like it.
M: Tell me anyway.
Me: [Explains about disgusting trot at first]
M: Okay, you have a system and I'm fine with that. Just know that when you trot past me in that horrible trot, I'll be like "WHAT KIND OF TROT IS THAT" and then you can ignore me like I'm the teacher from Charlie Brown.
Me: I'll try to do it when you're not looking.
M: Deal.

I love her.

So that's the current plan, because it makes him happier and then produces MUCH better work in the end.

What's your plan? How has it changed over time?