Cross another one off the bucket list

I think it was sometime early in 2013 that Denny Emerson asked on Facebook if there was a breed of horse you would really like to ride. I said I really wanted to ride a mule. In fact, it was on my bucket list. This shouldn't have been too hard to accomplish, as my vet and neighbor J has mules.

This is me today, finally on a mule :D It only took most of the year. And yes, it was cold out.

If you're envying my awesome pink reflective vest I got it from High Visibility Sportswear.

November

Snow is on the ground and Banana's shoes have been pulled. And it looks like I'm going to have to buy her boots for winter jaunts down the road, if yesterday was any indication. Yes, it was below freezing and snowing but my neighbor and I rode down the road. It was actually really nice.

I know it has been awhile. Las Cruces and then I had one of those "50% of your grade" things to do.

So how was Las Cruces? Decent. My best eventing dressage score to date 34.5.

6's, 7's and an 8! Go us! However, our awesome score only had us in 6th. I wish it had been one of the BN tests instead of Intro.
 
We had a refusal in stadium (my fault, forgot to ride her) and then inevitable time faults. Which, if I'd been thinking at the time, I could have made up. We dropped to 7th.

XC was fine: no refusals, within time. Alas, no one else had refusals or time either. She definitely has an issue when her little jump is between, or next to, big jumps. She was pretty wiggly into a bunch of them too. She needs more milage.

We finished in 7th, which if I can't win, getting a pretty purple ribbon was awesome! I only have one other one, back from when I was a kid.

The driving was brutal. I went out on XC at 1:06. I pulled into my gate at 11:06 after the 8 hour drive. Thank goodness the Starbucks in Bernallio is open at 7:15. Southern New Mexico is actually quite pretty. And they grow cotton down there.

So, goals for next year? None. I think I'm going to stop trying to be "An eventer" and go back into my "let's have fun doing everything!" mode. So, we're going to try competitive trail and maybe go to some real dressage shows. If I can get the three saddles I want to get rid of sold I will be buying a side saddle. The nice thing about Naners is that she's really game for anything so I want to take advantage of this. I'm never going to be really good at any one thing, it's not my style, I like to be competent at many things. Naners is a fine mount to be doing this with.

Oliver the mini continues to amuse me and Aruba is gaining weight. Things are pretty happy here at Pam's Pony Place.

Horse #10: Aruba

Aruba belongs to a friend, who had long term lent him out to a family. Family is moving to the east coast and don't want to pay to transport him. This is what she got back yesterday:

He's 14. He's skinny, which since he's a Lippizan should be easy enough to remedy. He was born with a club foot and blew out his knee due to it at some point. No circles for him. The farrier told the family they need to keep that foot short for breakover. That's great, but it's like they completely neglected his other feet. Supposedly he was done two months ago, I call bullshit. I'll try to remember to take better pics before the farrier comes out.

Since he's like a BCS of 3 and has a belly I'm guessing he's wormy. He also needs his teeth done and from the way he's carrying his sheath around I'm guessing he has a giant bean in there. The vet will be out too. 

Naners was excited and their meeting was without drama.

He's from the breeding program of a local lady who breeds wildly mediocre horses. She has Lippizans listed for $3000 that have been for sale for at least 6 years. Some of them are unbroke 10 year olds. The Taskmaster once told me she'd disown me if I ever bought a horse from her :D

No longer "Mini Without a Name"

We've decided to call the mini Oliver after John Oliver, Oliver Wood and Oliver Twist.

It stuck better than all the other names I tried out.

I'm so good at changing my mind

When last we heard from our intrepid heroine she was going to sell Banana or switch to straight dressage. She had not figured on the influence of Out-Of-Town-Trainer (who will henceforth be known as OOTT.)

OOTT was up last weekend, as she has been several times since July and I pushed my whiny friends to do something about our lack of decent eventing trainer. Friday was flat day, not at all scary. We continue to improve.

Saturday we jumped. I was freaked out. Because, you know, it's hard not to be when you've had a recent run in with gravity. She started with ground poles and we built up, as my confidence, and Naners' confidence returned. Mare was definitely worried and scared at first, but she worked out of it. The consensus of the problem: she's still really, really green. And, due to what h/j lady was telling me, I probably wasn't there for her when she needed me so we crashed. My problem is I compare her to Penny Pony, who learned to jump so quickly and was very, very good at it from day one. Naners is going to take a little more time.

With that realization I decided I'm going to give Naners more time, because it seems unfair to give up on her just yet. We're going to chill out and jump little things for the rest of the fall.

Or so I thought.

Yesterday we trailered down to school the XC course in Albuquerque and OOTT met us there. She started us over the first pre-comp jump, then told me to jump the first BN jump!

This is actually the 2nd BN jump

Now, about that course. It tends to be on the not-maxed out side. So, that BN jump was not 2'7". Still though, BN! And we jumped several of the small BN fences. Naners didn't have a problem, but I did. I was fine, until she refused a pre-comp log. Then the fear set in. I went onwards, but I was so not having fun. Little logs are now like kryptonite to me.

Not the log that got me scared. That one was even smaller.

We jumped up and down banks, both small and this bigger sized one that I think is on the Novice course

I love my braid in this pic. and I seem to have good position and slid my reins!

We did a ramp, that looked gigantic (this is where my fear was really getting to me.

So much so that we refused this thing and I was dead scared of it, to the point I said if I found it on the trail we'd go around it or walk all the way back how we came to avoid it.

Which is of course quite silly. But for whatever reason this log seemed prelim sized.

And then, the last jump of the day

And a double rainbow in the desert on the way home

So that dressage show

I never did tell the tale of the dressage show.

As show secretary I schedule the ride times. This can be exasperating, but generally there will be one thing that will make it all work. This time it was starting the show at 9:30 instead of 9. That put a judge's break during a lunch appropriate time, instead of at 10:30 or 1:00. Since our venue was a further drive for most participants this was welcomed. I didn't have to load in the dark! As it was, Quirky and Naners had the air up their tails and were bucking and running around their corrals. The difficult part of the morning was catching them. Naners ran her hip into her stall door while trying to elude me. Horses.

Loaded up we headed down the driveway, Red chasing the trailer as he does (How dare I take his girlfriend away!) We headed south into the desert to the Taskmaster's, as that's where the show was being held. My tack room was doubling as show office, so I got a choice spot next to the arena.

Quirky and I were the first ride of the day. I would sum up the ride as just fine. Intro B: mostly 6's, two 5's, and two 7's on our center lines and halts. A 7 for Impulsion and a 7 for Geometry and Accuracy. I love that geometry score. Since I started doing dressage I would frequently get "accurate test" as a comment. I didn't realize until recently how good a comment that is. 59.325% We could have done better, but that's fine.

Then I tacked up Naners. We were the last rides before the judge's break and the switch to the standard arena. BN A was a mixture of 5's, 6's and 7's, the 7's on our canters (she does have a fabulous canter) and our final center line and halt. Also a 7 on gaits, which doesn't surprise me. Mare has nice gaits.

BNB was mostly the same, though with a quite notable 8 on our trot half circle right from B to X. 40 on BN A, 39 on BN B. I was quite happy with the mare.

Quirky was very unhappy that she had left him. He was carrying on at the trailer most of the time we were gone. I could see how his mom says he's "suicidal" when tied to a trailer. He did a lot of little rears. He wasn't quite suicidal though.

The two of them stood eating their hay at the trailer the rest of the day. I could tell near the end Quirky really wanted the day to be over. I don't blame him. When the last tests were added and trailers were pulling out I loaded the show office back into the tack room and then loaded Little Mini Man. The top of his butt was shorter than my dividers. I prayed he'd stay in his spot in the front of the slant and wouldn't infringe on Quirky's space in the next spot.

Everyone loaded we set off for home. First time I've had three beasties in my trailer. I kept a good part of my awareness on what was going on in back, but there was no evidence of unhappiness and everyone was good when we unloaded.

I really love my local shows. As I stood there I realized I've become friends with everyone who competed, so it really was like a show full of friends. Spending a day with horses and friends is always a good time.

Why yes, my farrier is really good with creative names

What is wrong with me? I never posted a picture of Pinto.

So yes, Pinto is a pinto. And Red was red. He also has Blue, a surprise surprise, blue roan.

Mini teeth fun

The mini got his teeth done today:

He has a small problem

Yeah, there was probably some trauma to that lower jaw at some point to make his teeth grow in so crooked. Luckily, all seems to be well considering. His canines are coming in, he has a baby tooth left, and some permanents are on their way in.

He has the vet's blessing, so we're going to keep him. Now we just need to come up with a worthy name.

We did discover a little bit of one eye is blue, which is cool.

Sigh, I'm either going to have to sell her or switch to straight dressage

Banana and I had a rather spectacular parting of ways today. We'd trailered over to our lesson in Hunterland. She was very awake, but settled. We were going over a ground pole, jump, then ground pole. Everything was well: tiny vertical, tiny oxer, slightly larger vertical, slightly larger oxer, 2'3" vertical. Then, when it became a 2'3" oxer Naners didn't bother picking up her legs at all and demolished the jump. She fell, sliding across the sand. I rolled off before she hit, rolling away. There is sand in every crevice of the saddle and I had a good amount down my breeches. After that she was hesitant to approach anything looking like a jump. Trainer had to lead us at a walk over the tiny 6" flower boxes that we've been jumping successfully (with rails on top) for weeks.

The lack of picking up her feet was something she did when she was green, but hasn't done in quite a awhile. That makes it even more concerning to me, because it came out of nowhere.

I don't think jumping her is going to be wise. It's not like she tried to jump and misjudged: she didn't even try. I am, of course, shaken a bit and might feel differently in a couple of days. But, I expect the horse under me to jump the jump, not run at it and try to run through it.

Look what I brought home!

Sunday at the dressage show (more on that later) I loaded up three horses to come home when I'd left with two. Who was in the third part of the slant you ask?

This little guy!

He's auditioning for the position of Banana's companion. I know, minis can get very hurt by big horses and I was going to be very careful with him. In fact, he didn't ever need to go in the pen with Banana if next door was sufficient.

And the door is very big

However, when I made this plan I didn't know it was going to SNOW yesterday. Mini and Quirky have been in the two stalls, Naners out with Pinto and Red. But, I was going on a trail ride this morning (since cancelled) and I needed to lock her up so I wouldn't be trudging through the mud in the dark trying to catch her. I had three horses and two pens. Since Quirky and Mini have been living next to each other for most of a week I tried them together... that was a no-go. Quirky wouldn't let him into the stall (necessary with the snow) and kept biting him. So, I very cautiously put him in with Banana. A quick squeal on Naners part and then this:

I really didn't think she'd let him eat out of the feeder. I'd taken the grate out so she could clean out the bottom and I expected her to nose him away from the hay hoard and there was a small hole hay net for him in the opposite corner of the stall. Alas, that's obviously not how it went. She's so very gentle with him, and from straight off, so I don't think I need to worry about him with her.

Assuming things continue like this, and he passes his PPE next week, I may have her buddy and the merry go round of companions can stop. Red and Pinto went home yesterday, which makes me glad and sad at the same time. Quirky was supposed to leave today, but the trailer is all icy and the roads aren't going to be great. Cross your fingers the mini is enough for her.