Adorable and Awesome

Yes, a 26 year old and a 28 year old still enjoy running around a pasture

I am so doing this to Penny

Probably something a bit different, but along the lines of  this or this

Woe is me

Two days ago my plan for the rest of the season was:
Round Top
Summer Coconino I
Summer Coconino II
Event at Santa Fe (formerly Goose Downs)
Gods willing, AECs

Now, the only thing with any certainty is Summer Coconino II. My travel buddies have all sorts of shit going on, making what looked like a planned out summer all catywompus.

I need a trailer.

Fortunately, the trailer brand I was eyeing, the Bockmann is now available in the US. (Ignoring the fact that the one dealer is more than 2000 miles away.) Why this trailer? It is designed to be pulled by a smaller tow vehicle. I know, many people say the only safe way to haul a trailer is with a truck, but that's because the trailers in the US were designed to be pulled by trucks. I don't want to buy a truck purely to haul a trailer, it's a long drive to town (30 minutes) so having a truck as a commuter vehicle isn't at all efficient.

If I really only get to one more event this year, well, it's pretty darn obvious I'm not meant to get to the AECs. I'm bummed, but oh well. Not much I can do about that. It's another year to get our dressage together. And next year I might have two horses to event, if Meatball gets over his overjumping thing.

Old Men

When I put Fudge down I swore, "No more old horses." I'm such a liar. I am absolutely loving the old man horses that are summering here. They're so low stress. Sure, they trip over everything and Sonny leaves quids of hay all over the place, but there's something restful about horses that just don't get bothered by things because they've seen so much. And, because they aren't mine I'm not fretting about their health, I just have to keep them safe. The latter being harder to do than I thought, as my fence has fallen into disrepair since the old girl left us and it's requiring more work to fix than anticipated. I installed 200 T-post covers this weekend and I'm not quite halfway around the perimeter fence yet.

Anyway, I just love the two of them. They've been mowing my fenced backyard as they get acclimated to grass. Sonny doesn't like carrots or apples, which is just wrong. I know lots of horses that don't like apples, but carrots? This is a first. I'm having a hard time finding something to entice him to do his carrot stretches. Condi, on the other hand, is overbearing when he thinks I have something tasty.

So, good times here at Pam's Pensioner Pony Place.

Old Man Retired Dressage Horse Summer Camp

When I woke up this morning I had no idea I was going to have horses in my barn tonight. Yes, it was going to happen someday soon, but today? Surprise.

Thinking ahead to Penny's happiness, I made arrangements to have two retired horses come live on my property this summer. They can both be out on grass 24/7 and I have plenty of grass. One is Condi, who I've been riding on occasion down at Working Student Land. The other belongs to my vet, who happens to live not a mile away from me. Both are retired dressage horses. Both their owners have to feed them hay year round due to not having awesome pasture. So, I get friends for Penny that I don't have to pay to feed, since my grass is free. And, I really love Old Man horses. There's something about their faces.

Getting Condi up here was proving to be an issue, due to busy schedules. Today I called the vet, letting her know it could be two weeks. She said, "Funny you should call. I just had all my afternoon appts cancel, so we could go get him right now." Long story short, an hour later we were on our way. We went and got Condi, requiring some horse rearranging down there so his buddy could be close to some other peripheral friends, including Penny as they used to live together elsewhere.

We stopped off and picked up Sonny, leaving his two mule friends bereft without him. Sonny and Condi were instant friends. Weird place with just the two of them helped, but even under those conditions it wasn't necessarily a given.

I have to ease them onto the grass, so it'll be a bit before they can be loose. I can't wait. Old man horses enjoying grass with a beautiful view? awesome.

Sonny on the left, Condi on the right.

Pic of Penny and I on EN

Our old trainer sent a post on the Eric Horgan clinic to EN.  There's a picture of Penny and I (she's the only white pony.) I'm not cringing over the photo choice, we actually look quite decent. Though, it is yet another picture of my butt.

Five horse day

Lots of riding down at Working Student Land today. First, Pony Toes. Who, while I was grooming her, decided it would be awesome to knock her teeth into the back of my head. I almost always wear my helmet when I'm working around the horses but hadn't put it on yet. I was pissed, so I showed her my boss mare and she ended up breaking the leather fuse on her halter. Thank goodness for the pile of hay not far away.

When I got on I deliberately left the drama outside the arena and we had the best walk work we've ever had. She was so quiet with her mouth, the quietest ever, even when The Taskmaster rides her. It was odd not hearing the constant sound of teeth chewing on metal. It Was Awesome.

Then I rode Meatball, who was his usual self and we cantered (not something we get to every ride.) After that Bean. I actually put a saddle on her and had a lovely, lovely ride. She is not built to do dressage, so it's always a bit of a struggle to get her to carry herself nicely. I guess I was doing a good job though, as The Taskmaster said to my friend that somewhere in here I figured out how to ride and Beanie and I looked awesome.

Next was Condi, bareback as usual, big swinging walk and some trot. I've been working on getting my hips to move more with the horse and doing it bareback on Condi is definitely the best way. There is no way not to, because if you don't you're sitting heavy on The Old Man Horse's back, which isn't at all fair to him. He's very tolerant of me.

Last was Brie, warming her up for The Taskmaster. I had some issues at first keeping her straight (always an issue with her) but we worked it out. Lovely, lovely canter work. Our best moment though was a calm, perfect collected trot. I was sitting up straight and it was natural and we had late afternoon sun. It was awesome.

Lots of awesome today.

Meatball and his mom

Today after I warmed up Meatball his mom, The Taskmaster, actually had some time to ride him. She popped him over a tiny cross-rail a couple of times and he's finally over his celebrating afterwards.

Not over the over-jumping thing at the canter yet though.

















Isn't he handsome?

Brie is freaking awesome. I love her. Flying changes? Super easy. I've never really done them, because I haven't been on a horse that did them well. Brie, you just change her bend and voila! flying change. I had no idea it could be that easy.

Breakthrough with Pony Toes yesterday. All I have to do for her to lower her head and use her back is brush her side with my foot. So easy. Except for the whole getting my lower leg to brush her side, that's hard. I can do it at the walk, trot my legs just don't do it. We had some lovely canter, which is always awesome. Yay!

Clean Condi

Today's big task in Working Student Land was giving the Old Man a bath. Looks pretty good for 28, doesn't he? I love his old man face.

Ellie and I last summer

Ellie the One Eyed Wonder

This is Ellie, my Icelandic friend. I started riding her a year and a half ago. She's a ridiculous amount of fun and before I went to DressageLand she was the only horse I was riding other than Penny.

Last fall she got Uveitis in her right eye and they ended up having to remove it. Today was the first time I've been able to ride her since then. Not a huge change in her.

I rode bareback: walk, trot and tolt. I worked on sitting up, keeping my top half straight and upright, and a bend in my elbows. Good things to work on with her, since sitting tall on her just happens. My abs got so tired from sitting trot, even on a smooth Icy.

I'm going to try to work her back into my regular rotation. She's easy to hit after I take one of the dogs to agility. So I have Ellie, Meatball, Brie, Beany, and Condi to ride. Not to mention my own pony. I should be svelte with all this riding.

New mount

Today was my first ride on Brie, one of the Taskmaster's favorite horses. She's for sale as her owner has a new fancy horse. If she was cheaper, and knew how to jump, I'd want her. She's incredibly sensitive to the aids and has a lot of training. As a result, I had a heck of a hard time riding her. Not because she's hard to ride, but every little weight shift told her something and most of the time I had no idea what I was telling her. We did a lot of travers (haunches in, I had to ask) because that's what I was telling her to do. A lot. I couldn't get her to go straight. Part of that is she's an amoeba like Penny. I have also figured out I'm also an amoeba while I ride, so we were all over the place. I joked that some day we could be doing some upper level dressage test and we'll get a 10 on our travers and a 1 on our trot down the center line. I'm going to teach her how to jump (seems to be my thing lately) and see how that works out. If it does, I'll really be hoping her owners drop her price into my range. She's just the right size for me and incredibly sweet.

I lunged Meatball over some progressively larger jumps today, finishing at 2'. He didn't over jump any of them or do the celebration hop afterwards. I might actually take him over a couple on his back on Saturday.

Clinic Day 3

After spending time ruminating on the second day I went into the third with a change in attitude. I told Eric we needed to just go jump some jumps without pressure first, so Penny and I did so. Then I told him we need to just focus on a few crucial things, because if I have to think too much I over ride trying to do everything and then when I can't do it I get frustrated and break down. So, we worked on me keeping contact with my right hand (since it likes to go on vacation) and riding as quietly as I could. As a result, we were good. About halfway through Penny started bucking at canter transitions again, indication I was over riding. It is now really evident to me how quietly I need to ride her. I'm not entirely certain I can ride that subtly, but I'll try my best. At the end of our ride Eric said, "You know what you need to work on" and indeed I do.

I've decided I probably won't clinic with him again any time soon. I need Penny to be more amenable to the aids so I can do the exercises he sets without ending up with Pissed Off Pony. I've also learned the high pressure schooling situation is not for me at this time. When Penny and I have more experience then yes, I'd love to give it another try, because we'll get more out of it. For now though, low pressure.