The Roaming Rider

As I led Gem out after dinner the other night it dawned on me that a lot of readers do not know her very well. Most of you joined my story towards the end of our time together and that isn’t very fair to my bestest mare.  She is now fully retired, living large and happy outside eating grass and not being asked to jump over anything or perform another 20 m circle in her life.

It was my last year of medical school and I had time on my hands. Having spent my youth with horses and now finding myself as an adult with spare time and change, I was finally getting that itch back in my soul. An internet search (this was pre Facebook so it was websites or bust) led me to an 11 year old 15h bay Arab mare – $800. No picture, no other write up. I have no idea why I went to look at her, but when I saw the scraggly, pot bellied, hair less mare standing in a paddock of knee deep mud I knew she had to come home with me. I didn’t even ride her. I handed my check over to the 16 year old boy who was selling her so he could buy a truck and went home to find a barn and arrange transportation.

Gem proved both difficult and above my pay grade from the start. She would stand perfectly still while I begged, pleaded, kicked, used a crop and uttered many a swear word to try to get her to walk on. Eventually, out of the blue, she would bolt madly forward and careen around the indoor arena at mach speed. That is if I could even catch or bridle her in the first place. She had a nasty habit of walking annoyingly away from me just out of reach in the pasture and then bolting backwards as soon as I tried to get a bridle on her in the barn aisle. For months I had to bridle her crammed and cornered in her stall.

Eventually I figured out I was out of my league and moved her to a “training” facility at $1000 a month to include 5 professional rides and 1 lesson a week. I’m not sure that the trainer ever got beyond lunging her and certainly never sat on her though I know a few unlucky kids took lessons on her. By the time I moved to WI, three months and a lot of money later, I was told Gem would never be able to canter outside of a circle, would never go down a trail and don’t even think about jumping. Ok…so maybe the last proved true though she has proven she can jump when she decides to.

I was determined that my little bay mare could be a normal horse and the next year was spent renting a house at a boarding facility which gave me plenty of access to the mare. I was patient and worked slowly from the ground up to build her trust in me. By the end of that next winter she was cantering like a champ and come spring of 2011 we were hitting the trails with her BFF Pete. Unfortunately, we were evicted from that rental when the landlord was foreclosed on for gambling our rent money away instead of paying the mortgage and I moved Gem to a new boarding facility. This place proved magical for us as it had an indoor, outdoor dressage ring, outdoor jump arena, trails and a cross country course giving us a lot of opportunities for exposure.

Gem and I got exposure to a lot of different things and I even jumped her for the first time. That year was the first time I hooked the trailer up and drove it by myself. Gem gave me wings in a lot of different ways.

While in WI, Gem and I completed our first 25 mile limited distance ride placing 8th followed by our second placing second to last. That first 25 mile ride was the first time I rode without Dusty and thankfully I was taken in by a group of women. With two miles left I let them go ahead figuring Gem would be tired and rode the last miles completely alone for the first time ever. Before heading south, Gem tackled her first ride and tie with Dusty and me, placing first.

When we made it to SC, I was determined to focus on endurance and so I hit the trails all alone. My plan was to go out 30 minutes and turn around. I didn’t care how far we made it or how fast we went. After an hour of ride time, we arrived back at the trailer having covered 0.75 miles. It wasn’t looking good for an endurance career. A month later she stranded me at the trail head for two hours refusing to get on the trailer.

Fast forward and Gem did improve on the trail alone. We have logged thousands of miles together on the trail, covering triple that travelling in the trailer solo, over mountain, sand and flat terrain in TN, SC, NC and GA. We completed our first 50 mile ride, followed by a second and had plans to move up in 2015 until she cut half her foot off needing emergency surgery and 30 days in a fiberglass cast. Honestly, I thought our riding time together was ended that summer.

Gem proved me wrong yet again and bounced back that fall without missing a beat. She went on to complete a difficult 100 mile ride at Biltmore in the spring of 2016 and the long course Ride and Tie East Coast Championship in the fall of 2016. After that ride, I decided to hang up our long distance gear. Gem was in top form, both physically and mentally (she dumped me twice during the R&T championships in pure Gem evilness), but she was nearing 20 and had proven herself enough. I felt like we had nothing left to conquer, having crossed all my goals off the list, and Wyatt was growing more demanding of my time.

The winter of 2017, I purchased new gear and introduced my endurance machine to eventing. She immediately gave me the middle finger and told me where I could stick this new plan. Even with her outright displeasure with this change, she took me to our first CT June 2017 where we placed 4th of 9 and got over the 18″ stadium course without a rail or time fault. She also hauled my butt around a schooling jumper show at 2′ with out killing me or knocking a rail. All told, Gemmie and I went xc schooling five times as well.

Gem and I struggled with the new discipline until this past spring when I finally started listening to what she was trying to tell me. She was unhappy. Sure she has always been a pistol full of opinions, but this was different and it was time to let her rest.

At 20, she is happy, healthy and sassy. She has remained sound for the entire time I have had her, even through her injury and surgery she never took a single bad step. She had one minor colic scare a few years ago, but that is it. She was barefoot for every training and competition mile except the 100. Physically Gem is a beast that I will likely never get the honor of managing again.

Mentally, Gem is still sharp and quick and ready to put me in my place. Over all the years and miles we had reached a solid understanding: I chose the trail and the speed, she chose her footing and how to maintain that in whatever gait was best for the terrain. I didn’t micromanage her and she didn’t try to run off or poke along. It worked great until we changed to working in the arena where I began learning to micromanage her body moving shoulders this way and haunches that. In her mind, I broke our contract. It is a bit of a shame that she is retired so sound and healthy. In another life, she could easily still be working for another 10 years at this rate, but my favorite black tipped ears are starting to get grey around the edges and she more than deserves to spend the next decade being boss mare in the field and looking down on anyone who dares enter her personal space.

The last nine years have been very special in so many ways. Graduating, residency, becoming a mother, starting my own practice, buying our farm. Through it all, by bestest mare has been there to keep me humble, remind me that there are more important things in life than work, give me wings to chase down dreams and be a rock when I melt down. Nothing went according to plan with her and yet every goal was reached, every dream came true. I owe a lot to that little bay mare and I hope to see her pushing boundaries in my pasture for many, many years to come.

 

 

I did it. I fell off Cruze last night. And it pissed me the hell off. I haven’t departed from my horse since fall of 2016. I never expected to come off Cruze or at least not while walking.

I suppose I could hide this story and carry on like all is rainbows and sunshine, but that wouldn’t be very real and what is the point of having a blog if I’m just going to lie?

So what happened? I’ve been bringing him back into working three days a week and his last ride was Saturday which went pretty well. I rode him out in the big pasture at the walk mostly but did a few trot sets up the big hill in the back. He asked to canter a couple of times and I got nervous and tense. Don’t worry, I admonished myself telling myself that Cruze is not Gem and I need to “give him permission to do what I am asking” as Trainer puts it.

Last night I was determined to loosen up, trust and let go. If I asked to trot and he cantered instead, my plan was to relax, realize he isn’t going anywhere and ask him to come back to the trot, praise him and carry on.

Ha! Hahahahahahha.

He started off cranky. He wasn’t in pain as I had watched him canter up to the gate no issues for dinner. He just had no interest in working and instead wanted to yell for his friends back in the barn. That is getting old fast. I mounted in the arena and we headed out to the pasture just like on Saturday.

And just like on Saturday he started off sticky, yelling and getting pissy. Unlike on Saturday he also started coiling his body and snaking his head from side to side while squealing not for his friends but at me in warning. My heart rate shot through the roof but I was determined to stay relaxed and move him forward.

I managed one lap around the perimeter without him doing anything terrifying and decided to work in the one corner that was flatter than the rest mostly to break up the monotony of doing the larger laps. I got started on a serpentine concentrating hard on using my outside aids to turn and keeping my lines straight. We were walking. He knew what I wanted. I was riding just about as perfectly as I can manage at the moment. And he had zero interest in that plan. He began to slow and while I should have kicked him forward back in front of my leg, instead he slowed even more, reared up, landed, bucked and gave me enough time to think quite clearly “this is going to suck” as I launched over his head and landed in a heap in the grass. He stood still and looked at me.

 

I got up and had a full on tear filled melt down as he stood still and watched me. All I wanted was to purchase a horse that did the basics and was able to be ridden both in and out of the arena without doing stupid stuff like this.

I was pissed at him and I was pissed at myself. Here I purchased this horse who honestly is just about the opposite of everything the seller told me (he doesn’t crib, he could care less about other horses, he just goes along quietly with whatever you ask) and now I’m on the ground when all I wanted was to fucking walk in a pasture he knows well and maybe I should just sell him once his feet are good enough to slap shoes on and….

A deep breath later I moved him over to the downhill side, tightened my girth a notch and put my foot in the stirrup. I hadn’t yelled at him, smacked him or made note of the behavior in any negative way.

Then, as I went to mount, he swung that obnoxious head of his around and tried to bite me. I lost it and smacked that big spotted muzzle hard. No biting. Ever. Personality is one thing. Being an asshole is another all together and it has been near on two months of me politely correcting his biting habit with no progress. He looked like he got the idea after that (I was wrong about that by the way).

I got on and was pissed. I forced myself to remain relaxed and allow him to do what I asked but when I asked I meant it and he had to do it now. Not when he decided to. NOW.

You see, while I have many flaws when it comes to riding, being passive is the worst. It is odd because I am a very assertive person until it comes to horses and then I’m a meek mealworm that lightly suggests things and worries I’ll break the horse and they will hate me forever if I get firm. Ridiculous really and it drives Trainer batty.

When I got back on I meant business and he knew it right away. When I asked for walk, if he trotted he got sat on his butt and made to walk. When I asked to trot, the same thing happened. We managed to finish the serpentine but he was still being sticky and trying to coil up so I marched his butt to the arena where we proceeded to work at the trot in all directions and shapes for a straight 30 minutes until he stopped rooting, breaking to the walk or canter and ignoring my leg.

After that we went back to the pasture for a lap around at the walk wherein I did not allow him to break to the trot under any circumstances. Once that was accomplished we were done. The ride ended up being twice as long and a lot more work than I planned, but he needed the attitude adjustment.

He was sweaty and quiet and stood like and angel to be stripped of his tack. Until I went to take his boot off and he whipped his mouth around to bite my butt. He was pretty shocked when this didn’t reward him with a light tap and a “no bite” from me as it did the other 100 times he has done that and instead his face smacked into the heel of my boot as I brought my foot up when he whipped his head around. Guess who didn’t try that again?

Horses are horses and not every ride is going to be great. I’m a bit miffed that it was this bad and that the horse who was sold as completely beginner safe, no bad habits, easy going etc… has a nasty rear and buck when he decides he doesn’t agree with the work plan. That will get him sold on fast if it isn’t nipped in the bud quickly as I won’t tolerate that. Some bad habits I will but not that.

But… I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and a very long lead rope to hang himself with. I’ve had him for 7 weeks of which 4 he has sat due to being crippled. Of the other 3 I have taken one lesson on the flat and gone xc schooling once. The other times are me riding alone. Only last week did he return to a three day a week work load and this was the second time working in the pasture. I was trying very hard to focus on straight lines and properly asking for bend and I was doing my best to be free with my seat and reins to not restrict him from doing what I asked but I was still being gentle, passive and mealy.

Once I got back on and became firm, direct and took no prisoners in doing what I was telling him to do while still being free with my seat and praising him when he did it right, he went on to do the thing with a lot less attitude. Not perfect but the sass was tucked back away and while I was still pissed in general the ride returned to baseline enjoyable.

We will see. I still like him and I want it to work out. One bad ride doesn’t ruin an entire relationship but it does raise some flags and is something to watch. Unfortunately I can’t ride again until Friday (Wyatt has a swim lesson tonight, I have a lesson on Wonder Pony Wednesday and a work dinner meeting Thursday) so we will see what happens then. A major criteria for me was a horse who could handle chunks of time off without becoming unrideable but…yeah…we will see how it goes.

Boards, horse shopping and then Sir Gimpy all combined to put goal writing on the back burner for the last quarter.

Unfortunately life has also lost balance for me and when that happens I tend to go into survival mode, put my head down, and just get through it except…well this time there isn’t really an “it” to get through. Its just life stuff that has no end in sight. Work, being a mom, working around the farm…its called living and being an adult yet somehow the last few months have been unnecessarily stressful and really no fun whatsoever.

Having goals for not only my riding, but my life in general has really helped in the past to bring my life back into a better balance. I don’t hate my life. The busy, sometimes hectic life of running a business, being a surgeon, raising the kiddo and living on my dream farm while still trying to sneak in riding is doable as long as I don’t let any one of those things over shadow the others for too long of a time. Letting goals slip by, or just plain not having any, allows the lines to get fuzzy and I end up feeling overwhelmed and not satisfied. So…long story short…it is high time to get some goals written down for the third quarter.

Horses
~ Gem and Pete: Keep them healthy, happy and feeling good. Both are now officially retired (I need to do a retirement post for Gem) and their only job in life is to eat the grass so I don’t have to mow as much.

~Cruze: Ugh, my big orange man needs some work.
– Stay the course with his hooves. I find myself a little itchy to throw some glue on shoes on and get to really ride, but I know in the long run that isn’t what is best for him.
– Ride 3 days a week. Consistency is the key to all things, so I need to work hard at getting him out. I rode in the big pasture this past weekend and it went pretty ok. I’d like to continue working him on the soft, plush grass for most of the rides but still use the arena for more concentrated work. Maybe a 2 out:1 arena ratio.
– Buy him a new bit and girth. Gem always hated the girth I used with her jump saddle and it appears that Cruze does too. He takes a 48″ and I personally hate fleece so I need to do a little experimenting. As for bits, he needs a 5 1/4″ bit as the 5″ he is going in seems a tad small. I have zero clue what to put him in, but thankfully Trainer has a ton of options I can try out.
– Buy him some stall toys. His wood chewing is driving me crazy. He used to play with his water bucket, but I got tired of the sloshing mess, so he lost water bucket privileges. You;d think being outside all but 30 minutes a day would stave off any excess energy or boredom, but nope. I think hanging some stall toys up might save my wood door and his teeth.
-Work on his herd bound issues. This one caught me a bit off guard. Gem is so above everyone else that she could care less where any other horse is at any time. Cruze though screams and screams for his friends who never answer his call. He is a ton better in the arena generally only letting out a very quiet squeal at the beginning. When I took him out in the pasture he was a hot mess for the first 10 minutes. This was the case when we went xc schooling as well and I think it will just take time and a lot of miles getting out there to rid him of it.
– Go to a hunter pace.  The pace season begins at the end of August and it is my most favorite thing ever. Since we aren’t jumping at the moment, I’d like to set my sights on the paces for the fall and winter instead. As long as he is reasonably sound and comfortable by then, that is.

Farm
There is so much to do, but my head has slowly come around to the fact that farm work is never finished and I need to give myself a little break here. We have lived here for 6 months now and I absolutely adore it. It was pretty run down when we got it, so there is a lot of stuff to do.

~ Finish the wash rack. This is nearly completed and would have been had Dusty not broken his hand in early May which killed off all of May and June for heavy farm work. The siding needs put back on, fittings for the hose added and then cross ties and it should be fully functional.
~Move the tack room.  Right now I am using the original tack room which is large, centrally located and without a door or ceiling which means everything is coated in a rather thick layer of dirt. Ugh. I hates it. The office is towards the front of the barn where my cross ties are currently located and has not only a lovely door, but also a ceiling. It is filthy and full of old junk the last owners left behind but lacks holes in the floor so that is a win. I want to move my current tack room to the office which should take a solid weekend of cleaning and moving things but will be better in the end.
~Get an estimate for tree removal. That big magnolia tree has to go along with four beautiful crepe myrtle trees that are right on top of the darn house. Not sure we have the money to actually get rid of them this quarter, but I’d like to at least get someone out so I know what I am budgeting for.

Family
This is a big time for the family. Wyatt starts KINDERGARTEN. How on earth did that happen?! How do I have an almost 6 year old???

~ Make one last day trip. Summer has flown by as it always does which isn’t helped by the fact that school starts in August down here. We made it to the beach in June and I had hoped to do a day trip once a month, but with family visiting the end of this month it doesn’t seem likely to happen in July. That leaves one weekend open in August and it will either be back to the beach or up to TN to Dollywood.
~Navigate my way through starting school. I have zero idea what all sending him to school entails. I registered him and signed him up for the after school program (yay to saving over $100 a week in day care costs!!) but beyond that I a clueless.
~Continue to cook.  I was doing so well at cooking an actual real dinner most nights before summer started and I got hot. I don’t like cooking in the summer and my appetite takes a nose dive anyway. It is expensive to eat out and eating chicken nuggets for dinner isn’t very healthy, so I need to get back on track with the cooking thing.

Me
Last on the list, but I have learned that if I don’t pay any attention to myself nobody else will and then everything suffers for it.

~Ride 3 days a week. Sanity is key to not losing my crap on everyone.
~Lesson 2 times a month.  Lessons are my life blood. I’d lesson three times a week if I could afford it, but I can’t. Twice a month is a good balance for time and money and I still feel like I learn and improve each time.
~ No sugar.  I gave up sugar (not in an insane “I now make m own sugar free kethcup sort of way”) back in February and that lasted through my vacation in early May when I threw it out the window and then never returned to it. During those months I felt great. No highs and lows in my energy levels, no cravings and as a side I lost 5 pounds. I need to return to this.
~ Give myself a break  I’m type A. Not hard to believe having gone through medical school, surgical residency and starting my own practice. Its a good thing and has helped me through life, but it is also overwhelming and I find myself being very harsh on myself when everything doesn’t get done all the time. I’m doing the best I can and I need to learn how to let things go as “good enough” for the moment.

Lots of good things to work on this quarter and hopefully by writing them down I can find some focus, better balance and go back to enjoying this one time ride we call life.

So…during my horse search the Hubs made the comment that a lot of the horses we looked at or found online would not survive a zombie apocalypse. Now to be fair the maintenance they required was to keep them in top performance shape and the injections, special shoes etc…would cease once they retired. But not all horses fell into that category. Thin coats making winter hard, horses with feet so awful they wouldn’t be able to roam for food, allergies, heaves etc etc.

It got me thinking. How would mine stand up?

Gemmie

Within a month she’d be the Queen. Ha! Seriously though, she’d do just fine. She might even prefer a world with no humans. Getting into the details though. Every farrier who has ever seen her is amazed at her perfect feet. She self trims better than any farrier work I’ve come across and can easily handle the most severe terrain without an issue. She has never had an abscess and has never taken an off step.

Her coat is also pretty darn perfect. Thick and yak like in the winter and slick in the summer. Even in this near 100F summer she barely sweats but not in a scary way. She was bred for the desert.

She is aloof and independent enough to not require humans on the regular and smart enough to stay far away from any hunting zombie pack. Plus, she stays fat on air so calories wouldn’t be an issue. If the world fell apart tomorrow, I could rest easy knowing my best mare would be just fine.

Pete

The old man would do ok with some tweaking. His feet are not near as good as Gem’s but I believe they’d stand up to the roaming life just fine. He may get some bruising or cracks from time to time but he is extremely stoic and would walk through it.

Like Gem, he gets and stays fat on air so the no grain, hunt for grass and edible leaves lifestyle would be just fine for him. The roaming miles would do his old joints some good too. Thankfully he is sound as can be and doesn’t require any supplements.

I caught Pete and Cruze playing the other day after dinner. I didn’t grab my phone until after the running around and rearing hi jinks were done and they were down to lazy bitey face. Pete instigates it more than Cruze, but Cruze is always up for play time. 

 

As for those vicious zombies, Pete is scared of me in a raincoat after almost 9 years with us so I’d bet he’d stay far far away.

His issue would be the heat. His nose cracks and bleeds in the sun if he doesn’t have desitin slathered but that’s limited to the summer and while uncomfortable isn’t life threatening. His biggest issue would be water. He melts in the summer and drinks 1/3rd of the massive water tub each day. He’d either need to wander up north or park by a large lake or river. Water sources attract predators though and while he is big and bold he is also old.

I’d say as long as he had a constant water source and shade or would wander up north into the mountains more that he would probably survive just fine for a good long while.

Cruze

First, I finally found a spelling I like. Not important here but thought I’d mention it.

Cruze is an interesting one and I’d give him maybe a month. Why? He is such a big baby. He is addicted to human attention so I’d worry he’d see the zombies and run over looking for a good scratch only to get eaten.

Sorry big guy, but it’s true.

Outside of that, I’m not so sure he has the self preservation instincts to survive the human free world. His feet should grow out well enough to support him. Heck this weekend we switched them to the fields across the driveway because I got tired of mowing all that grass without them ever touching it. He galloped like mad and jumped the big ditch in the woods without issue. His feet are fine. Not perfect, but fine enough and will only continue to improve from here.

I haven’t had him in the winter but he seems to be ok right now. No massive bug reactions though he came in with hives all down his left hip a few weeks ago. They were gone by morning so he must have rolled in either a thistle or maybe even on a fire ant hill. I would not put that past him.

He is holding his own on a high quality ration balancer and the grass buffet though he isn’t getting fat like the other two. I’d worry he’d need more roughage to keep weight on than the other two. We will see how he manages in the cold both coat quality and weight wise.

Mentally though. I just don’t see him lasting beyond a month. He’d be the one I’d worry about the most surving on his own. I just don’t see it happening.

So what about you all? Would your horse(s) survive a zombie apocalypse? Why or why not?

Not a whole lot of riding has been going on. He is sound walk, trot, canter and awkward downhill gallop with boots on the front and bare behind in the pasture. Its been storming like crazy every evening and middle of the night this week and I started to worry about his feet in those plastic boots. I took them off Monday night and they were very wet, so he got to stay in his deeply bedded stall overnight to dry his feet out. By Tuesday morning both the boots and his hooves were dry, so they went back on and he went outside. Well, the rain hasn’t let up so last night I took the boots back off him and decided he could go outside completely bare. The ground is super soft right now, so why not test it. He was pretty pathetically gimpy walking out and it broke my heart. We went out to dinner and I planned to bring him in his stall for the night if he was still looking off when we got home. Well, we pulled in and I watched him walk perfectly fine halfway across the pasture. When I yelled out a hello to him upon getting out of the car? He looked at me and started gimping around.

This made me pause and go in the house where I could watch him from a window. After he knew I was gone he walked just fine over to Gem and Pete. When I went back out and called to him? Back to gimping.

Ok…I get the game. So he stayed out all night bare all around and will likely stay bare in the pasture at this point. I plan to ride this weekend when hopefully I can squeek some time between storms in and will ride him in the boots for a while.

Even with the lack of saddle time the big guy has learned a lot since coming home. Some of it was just figuring out life on the farm and how to be a horse out in a large hilly pasture.

• He now stands politely waiting for his turn to come in.

He used to pace, stomp, scream and trot all over the place but after six weeks of being the last one in he has figured out that behavior doesn’t get him what he wants.

• He also no longer rushes the gate.

• Haltering and putting the fly mask on are no longer an issue.

His ears became an issue for a while. Not sure why but he had decided he couldn’t tolerate anything going over them. That’s not really an option when you need haltered twice a day and the mask goes on every morning to come off in the evening. He settled down and now lowers his head like a good boy.

• Picking up his feet is no longer a fight

Now, I do give him a pass on this a bit because I don’t think t was him being naughty. His feet hurt and he didn’t want to give the front right as it meant putting all his weight in the front left. He does like being good so he would give it but then it would hurt as his weight shifted left and he’d yank it out of my hand. Still not what I want but I could understand. He made sure never to step on me so there was that. I make sure to always boot his front left first and then he gives me the right and let’s me hold it. He is still a bit fussy about it but it is getting better and better.

• He demands his fly spray

Tuesday night I went to take him out. He stopped at the gate and refused to move. The gate has gravel down so I paused thinking maybe his feet hurt but he had his boots on and had walked just fine out that gate for dinner. He looked at me and stomped his hind leg in disgust. I turned around and walked back to the barn and fly sprayed him. He then marched right out to the pasture no issue. The big guy has his demands.

There are still things I’d like him to learn. Most important is to stop chewing on his stall door as soon as he finishes his meal. He doesn’t actually crib or suck air it’s chewing and biting. Maybe his mouth hurts but the vet said he was ok. I think it’s a nervous habit but I’d hoped it would settle by now. He is in the stall for all of 15 minutes twice a day and he is the last in/first out so the horses are in with him the entire time.

I don’t really want to go yell at him because bad attention is still better than no attention and it just reinforces that if he does it he will get me to come over. I try to go over and praise him when he stands quietly but it isn’t really making a dent. Thankfully he isn’t in very long but I do worry what he would do if he had to be on stall rest. Hopefully we won’t have to deal with that any time soon.

I think we have made some good headway at understanding life together in the short time he has been here. I wish he’d be sound to ride but that will come with time. I’ve added a hoof supplement not that I think he really needs it with the complete feed he is on, but it can’t hurt. His hinds are already showing a band of new growth coming in at a better angle and I’m excited to watch the changes to the fronts as we move along.

Hopefully I can hop on him this weekend and assess how he is on the flat in the boots. I suspect he will be fine. Maybe I can drag him to my next lesson next Friday but if not I have a date with Misty again so no worries.

First, thank you to everyone who made suggestions. It was really nice of you to take the time to do so. I especially want to thank Saiph who went above and beyond in making suggestions.

I really wanted to love the name Eeyore. It is cute and silly but it doesn’t fit the gelding I’ve grown to love so much. His registered name isn’t very helpful for a barn name which would have made this process simpler.

My feet were really held to the fire when Wyatt declared he had a new name for him and started calling him by it on the regular. As cute as it is to let Wyatt name animals in the house (Waggy Tails and Gizmo are thanks to him) I could not wrap my head around Starstream. Though unfortunately the big guy is starting to recognize it coming from Wyatt. He was this close to being called Star.

The name choices were narrowed down to two names that I kept going back to:

Cisco

Sunangel/Sunny (suggested by Saiph)

I played around with both of them all week but for some reason while both sounded awesome in my head neither sounded right as I called out to him or patted him with a “Good boy Cisco”

Which is why I delayed announcing his new name on here. I wanted to make sure it was right.

It was back to the drawing board and I started running every word that came to mind as a potential new name. I googled some more. I wracked my brain and then bam! It hit me.

But first I googled the definition to make sure I wasn’t naming him something ridiculous. My original intent was to use the Spanish word but it doesn’t mean the same thing as in English and really didn’t fit him.

The word has two meanings and both fit us perfectly. I’m so excited!

1) sail about in an area without a precise destination, especially for pleasure.

Um…yeah. Pleasure is where it is all about and while I am working hard on learning and improving we have no set destination in mind

2) travel smoothly at a moderate or economical speed.

Heheheh…that pretty much sums up the big guy.

So what is this word???

Everyone….

Meet….

Cruise

(Cruz in Spanish, while pronounced the same, means cross)

With the Big E side lined for a bit (he is feeling much better in his new sneakers up front and hopefully will get back to under saddle work with the boots on shortly) I figured I was out of luck riding wise. I mean, I could ride Gem, but the last time I pulled her out of retirement she was highly offended and it wasn’t worth the effort just to fight with her for 30 minutes.

Never fear though, Trainer wasn’t about to let me wallow in new-horse-can’t-be-ridden self pity and kept my lesson slot for last night. She offered up her wonder pony Misty for the night and I was…well…still not feeling it but game enough to go. I had ridden Misty once almost two years ago and the only thing I could remember from the ride was that she was hard to get going, couldn’t bend and it was a bit of a struggle.

Except none of that was actually true. What really happened was that two years ago I was still on Gem full time and couldn’t ride properly worth my life so Misty responded in kind. Last night was a true testament to a whole lot of things.

We started on the flat and I commented on how I’ve been working hard with the Big E on using my outside aides in the turns instead of pulling on that inside rein. She smirked and said “Great! I have an exercise for that!” When will I learn to keep my mouth shut??

We started on a 20 m circle counterbent. It was hard for my to conceptualize this since I tend to be way too handsy and I was like “If I’m using the left rein to bend her left how do I get her moving right?” The key here was to really use that outside rein to keep her looking left (we were going right) and my outside leg to push her right. I had to keep my body turned slightly inside to look around my circle.  It took a few circuits but eventually it all clicked and my grin was from ear to ear. Once I had established that I was to bend her properly to the inside, but was not under any circumstances to pull on that inside rein. I needed to keep the feeling of her bugling into my left/outside leg and rein.

First time experience #1: really feeling that “filling of my outside aides”.

It felt amazing. I’ve never truly had real bend before and certainly have never had a horse go in an actual frame and wow. Just wow. Trainer was a little shocked at how well we went around and I got the most praise I ever have from her. Misty looked like a real dressage pony and I have never, ever been able to do that before. Certainly not the last time I rode her.

From there we worked on the same concepts at the trot. I have a harder time convincing my legs to work at the trot which stems from me weighting them too much to post, but we worked on this and since I had that feeling from the walk to strive for it got better and better. We worked on the sitting trot a bit too and I think Trainer was surprised that I actually can sit the trot pretty darn well. Spend enough time jigging down the trail and you learn that skill. Ha!

And since Misty isn’t Gem and tolerated my leg aides, I got to play around with when to use them. Trainer had me apply inside leg on the rise of the post and then at the sit and call out to her what I felt and how the response differed. It was a lot of fun and really eye opening to get to play with the aides like that.

Next was canter work. Misty is a great pony to learn to canter on mostly because she doesn’t like to and uses any excuse to drop back to a trot. I have the tendency to lose my legs at the canter and each time I did so, she tattled on me by dropping to a trot. This reinforced a better lower leg position and also gave me plenty of opportunities to work on sitting deep and cueing for the canter.

First time experience #2: having a flowing canter seat.

Cantering always made me tense and while I can blame some of that on Gemmie my tenseness only made her worse so it wasn’t a good cycle. Misty is so well behave though that I felt super comfortable really sitting and driving her forward.

With that I thought we were done. It was still 90F out at 7 pm and both Misty and I were drenched. Nope. Trainer pulled out a bucket of ice water to sponge Misty and then set up a cross rail. Time to get jumping! Besides the one foray out xc schooling with the Big E I hadn’t jumped since the schooling rounds with Gem in February. Its been a while and I was a little nervous. Especially since she set the cross rail at 2′ and from the back of a 13H pony, that looks even bigger. I haven’t jumped 2′ since last fall and that was only one time with Gem in a schooling jumper show.

But none of that matters when Trainer tells you to jump.

The first time sucked. I was defensive and nervous and Misty noped right out of that heaping mess. The second time we made it over, but I was again defensive and chicken winged my arms, pulling them up to my chin for no reason, and it was ugly. The third time I actually rode to the fence aggressively, put my darn legs on and released and it was so much better.

Then I thought we were done. Nope.

My biggest issue with jumping, aside from confidence issues, is in my approach. I suck at it. I get so focused on the jump, my stomach knots up and I stop riding which generally means we motorcycle around a turn, lose our rhythm and then plow towards the jump hoping for the best. And truly this wasn’t all my fault. Gem hated jumping and it took an act of Congress to get her over anything so my nervous focus on just getting to and over the obstacle were well earned. It still wasn’t helpful or proper though.

To work on that Trainer set up a 2′ skinny vertical with a short approach off the rail. Any hope of making it over required setting up a solid, balanced turn and keeping the momentum flowing. I admit to being skeptical that I was ready for this, but I gave it my best bet and we managed to get over fine although not pretty. The second time around something clicked in my brain.

First time experience #s 3 and 4: Jumping a skinny vertical and not focusing at all on the jump.

I stopped caring about the jump and rode just like I did when we were flatting. I balanced her in the turn with my outside aides, I kept my leg on and played with them ti get her moving forward out of the turn, I looked down my path focusing in the distance and let the jump come to me rather than string it down and freezing.

The jump itself became the non issue Trainer has been trying to drill into my head for near on two years. It felt AMAZING. And freeing really. I finally felt like I was riding the horse under me for the first time ever.

So then guess what? I thought we were done. My confidence was about the highest it could be and well why not stop there?

Nope.

Trainer added another 2′ skinny vertical one stride in front of the other. Gulp.

We approached. I did not let myself freak out and instead focused on the flat work. We approached. She took the first one fine but then the distance wasn’t right and we took a flying leap over the out. I slipped my reins and stayed on which was about the best I can say about it. Trainer laughed and told me I did it like a cross country rider.

We came back around after she slid the jump in a little and took it again. It was ok. I didn’t die nor was I feeling like I was going to puke. But it also wasn’t all that great either. I was being way too mobile with my body through it and trying to almost force it. Trainer explained that I needed to stop sitting so early and instead to maintain the two point allowing the motion of Misty’s body to open and close my hip angle.

We came again, my brain was working so I actually listened to Trainer and it felt like I was flying.

First time experience #5: jumping a one stride 2′ skinny line

What an amazing night. Of course we couldn’t be done yet. Trainer never does anything with a single fence without building on it and that original crossrail was still hanging out there. The last exercise was taking the skinny one stride then cantering out over the cross rail.

I approached, focused on my turn and rhythm, held the two point and let Misty come up to me and then we cantered towards the cross rail. My brain focused, I sat deep in that canter and pushed her forward, I made the nagging fear in my head shut the heck up and sat back until that fence came to us then flowed with her and over we went.

Trainer was shouting she was so happy. It was the single best fence I have ever ridden and it felt so fantastic I can’t even explain it.

This entire lesson was so eye opening for me and so addictive. I can not wait until the next one.