A Tale of Two Horses, revisited

McKinna at Inavale eventing camp, summer 2009

I have been chewing over a bit of a dilemma for quite some time now.

It has simmered quietly in the back of my mind, bubbling just a little bit louder sometimes-- like when I ended up taking McKinna to the eventing camp. Or when I ended up taking McKinna to my rating. Or when I ended up taking McKinna to the first two dressage lessons . . .

You get the point.

So the simmering question is this: am I wasting my chance for riding McKinna in her best years?

I never got the chance to truly work on McKinna. I rode her for about a year, took her to her first XC schooling sessions, did high school equestrian team, and had a great time. Just after I broke my ankle, I joined Pony Club and bought Pandora. My riding has improved by leaps and bounds since I joined - but I've hardly focused on McKinna since then. I have never turned my new skills, long-term, to riding her.

When I do ride her, it's great. She kicked butt at an eventing camp with pretty much no preparation and I was able to successfully get my D-3 rating on her, also with not much preparation. (Not that she was perfect. But, she was fun.)

Both of them have sort of been booted into gear as I start conditioning again for the season. McKinna took over the first two dressage lessons since Pandora whacked her poll, and they went very very well. So well that my mother has insisted I keep schooling her, and the improvement is awesome.

This is difficult, because riding Pandora is also very fun. She's cheerful - even more cheerful than McKinna, who can be grumpy in the winter. She's incredibly sweet and friendly and always willing to come in from the pasture to say hi.

Pandora comes in for some snuggles, summer 2009

She's also sensible: last night, the trainer was working a young gelding who's been laid off from a cough for awhile. He was really full of beans and at one point got the rope under his leg, and she let him go so he didn't hurt himself. Pandora and I were at the end of the arena, and as he came galloping towards us at full speed, I just settled her into a halt on a light contact and stayed in as secure of a seat as I could. He flew by a few feet from us; Pandora snorted and jumped a bit to the side when his trailing rope nearly hit her, but other than that she was calm and quiet.

She's pretty laid-back about scary fences. Even last spring when we jumped a course of Inavale's brightly decorated fences, including one zebra-painted end fence, she hardly blinked. She's easy to get along with. Sometimes she gets upset about something, but it's so easy to bring her down just by staying calm and giving her a moment to process what's going on.

But.

If you'll recall, I never intended to keep Pandora forever. I wavered back and forth: project horse to sell, or keep for longer? And if you also recall, I decided to keep her for at least another year. I had lots more to learn from her, I decided. (And I did have more to learn, and I have learned a lot.)

At the same time, McKinna has a lot to teach me, and I feel like I should take advantage of this now. My time and effort may be better invested into McKinna: regardless whether I keep my horse for this year, I will sell Pandora before I graduate college. This is because of the way my after-college plans are looking, which I will talk at length about in my next post. I love and care about Pandora, but she is not my "forever horse" and I knew that when I bought her.

After-college plans considered, though, McKinna is my mom's horse, and she will stay with our family for the rest of her (long and happy!) life. Any training I put into her will continue to benefit us in the long run as my mom will still ride her.

There are other advantages and disadvantages, of course. Sharing one horse between us means sharing expenses - all the money I currently spend on Pandora and her upkeep could then go to more lessons, more clinics, and the ability to maybe go to MORE than one recognized event. The mind, it boggles.

On the flip side, sharing one horse means . . . sharing one horse. We did it for awhile, but it usually means less riding time for Mom, and it also means one of us is always stuck not doing much while the other person rides. I think we could handle it, but it could sometimes get frustrating. (That being said, in most cases it's not too hard to find a horse in need of an occasional ride, so riding together wouldn't necessarily be out of the question.)

Then it comes back to Pandora. I think she is an excellent lower-level eventing/PC/do whatever you want horse. She's fun, sweet, laid-back. There are a few things to work out - for example, at my rating, she was rushing quite a bit on XC, and I think I can resolve that with some quiet schooling. She's also a little volatile about trailering lately, which is a bit of a leftover from her accident, but with patience she's already begun to settle down again.

Trotting at a Karen O'Neal clinic, spring 2009

So it's not that she can't do what I want to do. She did well last year at the combined tests and event derbies and schooling shows. At Lily Glen we were schooling Novice XC with great success. I strongly believe that after a few more dressage lessons, I'll start to see a big difference in her too. Last night I was working on some concepts from the first lesson. Since I've only taken one lesson on Pandora with the dressage trainer, I wasn't entirely sure if I was on the right track - but I asked for a canter transition and it was immediate and balanced, so I'm pretty sure I was headed in the right direction.

But maybe it's time for both of us to move on.

I've put a year and a half of training and time and love into her. Consistent sessions with the chiropractor have made an incredible difference in her body and her comfort level. A switch to this barn, where she gets year-round turnout in a pasture as well as mountains of hay, has created a horse who is very happy throughout the year (instead of a head-flipping mess in the winter) and who needs very little grain to maintain good weight.

It's hard to think that anyone will ever take as good care of her as I do. I CAN'T be alone in this. Other people feel this way too, right?! But I also, logically, know that's not true. Somewhere out there is a person looking for a friendly, enjoyable horse to have fun with, someone who will feed her lots of hay and make sure she gets turnout and take excellent care of her.

So here's the general idea: I'm just not sure what to do. At this point, selling her this spring or early summer to a really good home sounds like the best idea. I'm not under time pressure, so I will have the leisure to look for a perfect match. Then I can take McKinna to the recognized HT at Inavale, my C-2 rating, and finally just get a chance to make some progress with arguably the coolest little mare ever.


Phew. That was a lot - and like I said, I have been mulling over this for a long time. It is NOT a bad dilemma to have, and I know I'm lucky to have an excess of good horses. But that's what I've been thinking, and I sure wouldn't mind some thoughts from you guys on the whole matter.

Quick Update

Hi guys - I am busily getting ready for this weekend. I leave with a friend on Friday at about noon for the Brian Sabo clinic in Redmond, which I am VERY excited for. But it's a lot to get ready for, even just a two-day jaunt. Pack the clothes, empty the horse trailer, repack the horse trailer, make sure everything's clean, buy and pack food, grab food for the horse, evict those little bitty bee/wasp/buzzy-thing nests from the trailer tack room . . .

Everything has been going well at the new barn. It's still lovely and quiet and have I mentioned the hay?

I've had some pretty good schooling sessions with Pandora. I still feel stuck a lot of times on dressage, but a lot of that is my problem not hers - it's just a lack of practical experience. We'll keep working our way forward until I take some lessons anyway, I don't think we're doing anything wrong; we're just slowly stepping along, working things out for ourselves.

I've done a few nice gallops out in the field. Yesterday I was reminded why I ride. After a long morning helping out at a Pony Club mock rally, my boyfriend Jon and I drove out to the barn. We were talking about friends I think, and not getting along with people, or some similarly deep topic. A few moments of silence passed, and then he asked what I was thinking. "Oh," I said, "I'm just trying to figure out if I should go through the grid today or just do flatwork, or maybe change the grid up . . ."

Yup. Give me five seconds and my mind's back on the horses.

"Don't you ever get tired of it?"
Now this I had to actually think about.
"Yeah. All the time, actually. I get discouraged, or bored, or just tired. I don't want to go out, I don't want to ride. Most of the time, I just do it anyway, because in the long term it's what I want and need to do. Sure, if I miss a ride here or there, it's not a big deal...but if I didn't make that choice every day, I'd never get anywhere."
I thought some more.
"Like today. I don't feel like riding right now. I'm tired, and I'd really like to just come out here and longe her for 15 minutes and leave. But I'm going to ride, because I need to."

So I hopped on. We spent 10 minutes on flatwork in the arena. She was good, quite good - mellow, responsive, relaxed. So we headed out to the field, where I did some trotting, cantering, and galloping. Pandora was excellent out there too! Big, ground-covering trot. Easy, relaxed canter, just plunking along at a calm speed until I asked her to open up, and then coming right back to me. (McKinna was hollering for her off and on for the whole ride, by the way. Pandora ignored her for the most part.) Jon got some really cool pictures, which I will steal from him and put up on the blog ASAP. Since she was so good for that, I decided to hop her through the grid once or twice in the outdoor arena, then call it done for the day.

She was perfect going through the grid. Mellow but forward, relaxed, not trying to rush at all. Jon took video. I went through twice and hopped off.

The whole ride lasted about 20 minutes, but we worked pretty hard for most of it. It was a good workout.

By the end, I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. As I untacked, I enthused to my patient boyfriend about how good the ride was, how rateable she was outside, how much better she went through the grid now than at that bad lesson a couple weeks ago, etc. At last I concluded - "So that's why I ride every day. Because even if I'm tired of it, most of the time I come out of it glad I decided to get up there."

I went from being in a tired, crappy mood to being tired but cheerful and really pleased with my horse. It was a good day. Not only was she good for me in general, it was also the first day I'd taken her up to the main barn (maybe 1/5 mile away from the pasture) without taking McKinna up too. Pandora and McKinna both handled themselves quite well.

So that's how things are going. My ride today was pretty good too, just a half hour before the farrier came out. It's been lots of checkups lately - the vet came out on Friday to check teeth and do vaccinations while she was out. Pandora was actually in perfect shape, even though it's been a year since her teeth have been done, so I scored a lower vet bill. McKinna needed done. Poor thing, she always looks so pathetic when she's sedated. I also bought a tube of banamine to have on hand.

Very, very excited for the clinic this weekend. Fingers crossed it's worth the money!

Speaking of money - dang, internet shopping is dangerous. I got a pair of Dublin Aristocrats for $37 on sale at Bit of Britain. SERIOUSLY. Tall boots. For less than $40. I also got a polo for my mom and me to share. And a few weeks ago, I got a pair of Ariat Icebergs - a winter boot, but a tall boot, so I can ride in them. I am SO excited. They're all fleecy and warm and insulated. I have had cold toes every winter, because my Ariat work boots aren't insulated or super waterproof, and my rubber boots are definitely not insulated. For the first time, I'll have warm toes!

Anyway. I've put a bit of a moratorium on internet shopping for myself, as the return to school means a drop in work hours. The money inflow comes down, but the board payment does not. Sigh.

Hope all is well, and I'll check back in a day or two with some pictures before I head off to the clinic. Then I will hopefully return with a successful, happy clinic report!



PS, here is a video of us lolloping through Grid Therapy v. 1.2. Very calm and relaxed, no? I need to shorten my stirrups for jumping, but the fences were so low it didn't really matter.




Look at that stretch down at the end. "I'm TIRED, are we done yet?" Like I really worked her that hard. 20 minutes, give me a break.

Old Faithful

Last night I went out to the barn knowing just what I needed after a couple bad rides.

I needed to ride McKinna.

First, I longed Pandora, because I wanted to get her moving after yesterday's tough workout. She was fine. A little spazzy - I had two ground poles out, one on each side of a 20m circle, and the first few times she did some leaping and hopping and general silliness. On the plus side, when she jumped over the ground poles she looked nice and pretty! Ha. Anyway, she settled down, I got about 20 minutes of nice solid relaxed work, then put her away. Today I'm going to focus on having a short, positive ride.

Then I went to ride the Wonder Pony. She has a knack for dealing out what you can take - what her rider needs isn't necessarily always a quiet, calm ride, so sometimes she challenges you. But last night I needed some quiet time. It felt like from the moment I took her out of the stall, she was just taking deep breaths, relaxed and ready to calm me down. (Yes, I'm anthropomorphizing. Sue me.) She was very quiet in the cross-ties, fairly unusual for Ms. Fidget.

My whole ride was just that: quiet, calm, relaxed. I worked on some dressage with her - some baby lengthening and shortening at the trot, just holding her in with abs and seat and then relaxing and letting her surge forward. Fun stuff. I tried it at the canter, but when she's not cantered regularly under saddle she loses a lot of her canter adjustability. Still, I got a fairly good canter, considering I haven't really ridden her since my rating.

Then I tried this turn-on-the-forehand-in-motion exercise with her. Basically, it's like you're leg-yielding around a circle....so, your horse is the spoke in a wheel, and both forelegs and hind legs must move over and cross over as you rotate. A bent sidepass? A sidepass on a curved line, instead of a straight line? Yes.

Anyway, I tried that exercise with Pandora the night of my bad dressage ride, and she wasn't having any of it. I think it was very, very hard for her: she couldn't seem to coordinate the motions, no matter how big or small I had the circle. She especially struggled with crossing her forelegs over without moving forwards or backwards. (Also I think it was a tough exercise to throw at her on a day she was feeling unfocused: I'm going to break that exercise down into smaller pieces to incorporate into our normal workout, THEN try the exercise again.)

McKinna nailed the exercise, first try, easy as cake. "What are we doing now? Oh, okay, this is kinda cool, I get it." The mare is so darned supple it's ridiculous - when I had the chiropractor adjust her a long time ago, she practically folded in half on one of the stretches. When the farrier's trimming, she could hike her hind leg up to her ears and probably still stand there casually, looking around for some hay.

I should make more time to ride them both. McKinna is great fun to ride and I would really like to make some dressage progress with her, too. With her, the main issue is a strong rein connection without a super-high neck, but I have the suspicion that most lateral work would be a breeze once we established a good connection.

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, some (fairly low-quality) pictures from the jumping lesson. You can't see all her boots but you sure can see that fly bonnet! My mom took these with her cell phone, so the timing of the jumping picture is especially impressive.

Please ignore the dorky XC-vest-over-tanktop look. It was hot.

Whooosh. Look, she CAN reach out in the trot!

Pretty good jumping - except for her hanging knee - considering she was flying through the grid. My seat and heels are up because I was bracing with my back and thighs, but at least I'm following her mouth nicely.

Thanks for all the helpful comments on that last post. I'm sure we'll get back on track today and I will go back to the quiet, constructive rides we had been having.

Difficulties

Horses work in funny ways.

Usually if I'm in a good mood, I have a good ride. Or maybe it's just that I pretty much always have good rides on Pandora, so I'm always in a good mood when I go to ride. Something I fully appreciate, let me tell you - a 'bad' ride on Pandora probably would have qualified as an 'okay' ride on Bailey.

Anyway.

With all the thinking I've been doing lately (see my last post, whose great length and slight disorganization characterize my mind), one would assume I'd be having extraordinary rides. New ideas, new exercises, new perspectives! Well, yes, I did have one fantastic ride and a few pretty darn good ones.

Then, probably just to remind me that you can't always win, I had two pretty bad rides in a row. The first was Tuesday. There wasn't really any reason for it - I was in a good mood, I was full of new ideas, etc. Pandora just wasn't focused on me, and for whatever reason we just kept getting into small arguments with each other. Most of the blame lies with me, of course - the horse can't argue if you don't agree to argue. I was getting frustrated in a way that I haven't for a long time, either because I've gotten a lot better at being patient or just because my horse is awesome. I like to think it's mostly the former, but in reality it's probably mostly the latter. Anyway, I only meant to ride for a half hour but it ended up being an hour, and I just could not find a good note to end on, where I felt like she was really tuned in to me and listening.

Very frustrating.

Then last night, I set up a jumping lesson with one of the ladies who lives across the street from the boarding barn. Her hay field is all hayed and nice and she's got lots of jumps set up, so I wanted to take advantage of it while I still could. (We move to the new barn in two days!)

So, yay, jumping lesson. I have to say, Pandora looks amazingly cute when she's all suited up. Front boots, back boots, bell boots, FLY BONNET. Yes. I don't usually boot up that much for just plain old stadium jumping, but I figured since it was outside, I should err on the side of caution.

Our warmup on the flat went just fine. Then we started some gridwork. I warned my instructor that she was probably going to get strong, and the instructor said to just not worry about it and let her make her own mistakes. Well, she did get strong, and I did let her make her own mistakes as we continued to build up each element of the grid from ground pole to cross-rail, until I finally said, "Okay - I need to do some schooling in the middle of this grid, because she is just acting downright dangerous." She goes too fast and she completely took out a fence. Argh.

So I schooled her hard. Walk halt. Trot halt. Walk trot halt back. Trot halt back. Canter halt back. Walk trot canter halt. And so on. I was not polite about it: I want a stop and I want it when I say I want it.

So then we tried the grid again, and I gave her a very strong half-halt after the first fence. Definitely got through to her. So, we never quite got the gridwork perfect, but at least she wasn't charging through like an idiot, and she actually added the stride at the very end instead of launching herself.

Then we moved on to coursework, where she proceeded to try to run like a bat out of hell. Approaching fences wasn't too bad, but on the landing side she was just ridiculous. Completely ignoring half-halts. It wasn't like she was trying to bolt - she was just, I don't know, either excited or anxious or something, and she was completely tuning me out. I hate that.

So I did some serious schooling there, too. We trotted all the fences. Instructor had me exhale and give her the reins a few strides before the fence, which did help on the approach - she definitely likes room to breathe. But then on the landing side she'd still launch and ignore polite or strong half-halts, so I'd fight her back. I'd ask for a halt from the canter and she'd completely tune me out, so I would have to seesaw on her face, which I absolutely hate doing. I can't even tell you how much I hate doing that - it makes me sick to think about it. She throws her head up, and I can see her tongue stick out the side of her mouth. But there was really nothing else for me to do at that point other than get the point across.

We made some progress on that before we decided to call it quits for the day, as it'd been a pretty long lesson.




So it got me thinking about this sort of thing. After all, I've been thinking so much lately my head's about to explode, so what should I do but think more?

I get so easily discouraged with Pandora. Probably, again, because she's so good-natured that 99% of the time I have a pretty good ride on her. So when things really do go south, I start running through all those familiar self-doubt thought patterns. I try to break it, and usually I succeed, because logically I know that this is not the end of our training success. But it's difficult to avoid thinking that. I mentioned this in the Lily Glen post - one admittedly disastrous stadium lesson, and I was frantically rethinking every aspect of my riding with her. A couple hours later, I had a lovely dressage lesson and my fears were assuaged.

Speaking of dressage...

For some reason, Dressage is just this big ol' mysterious THING to me. It's a vast discipline with lots of history and everyone thinks they're right and there's shortcuts and all kinds of ways to do it wrong, and all I want to do is just do it right. Hard to do without an instructor, but then there's plenty of people who hang up a shingle as a dressage instructor but teach their students to just use a headset.

It should be a methodical, step-by-step process. You build the base, and you go up from there. I am getting it, slowly. Like I said, all of this minor freaking out is probably just from my bad rides the past few days. I'll have a good ride this weekend and quit worrying.

I am making progress, though. She's super nicely forward in all gaits. If I remember to back my leg up with the whip if necessary when I ask for a canter, she's liable to surge forward in a beautiful transition. I'm starting to make progress, or at least develop an understanding, with her current evasions. I know that she swings those haunches to the right when we track left, therefore avoiding loading up that left hind leg. I know I need to work systematically to supple her shoulders and hips and strengthen that left hind. I have the tools and the exercises. I even have the eyes on the ground, sometimes, because if I ask nicely my mom will watch me to tell me if Pandora is crossing over correctly or maybe even take a video.

I read a lot. I have lots of ideas swimming around in my head, tools to gymnastically develop her and sharpen her mental focus. Leg-yields around a circle, something that proved extremely challenging and frustrating for both of us last night. "Ping-pong" exercises, sending her back and forth between the sides. Shoulders-in, leg yields down the wall, trot poles, spiraling circles, transitions, turns on the forehand.

I have a plan, too. There's a lady in the area who gives dressage lessons occasionally to the Pony Club. She refuses to take payment but, from what I understand, she is also not interested in becoming a paid trainer at all, mainly (I think) because she doesn't want the time commitment. In my head I am working on a perfect speech where I will ask her to please make an exception for me, just give me weekly or twice-monthly lessons for a few months this winter and I will pay you or clean your stalls or make you dinner or what-have-you. I am hoping this will work, because some focused regular instruction for a short period of time should make a big difference.

I have a plan for the jumping difficulties as well. I am going to break that down further, too. I could just say, "She's running through my hands when we're outside so I need a stronger bit." It's tempting, and I admit the thought crossed my mind several times last night. And I'm not completely against bitting up, sometime, if it becomes clear that even with careful training she ignores her snaffle. But I don't think that's the issue here, so I plan to fix it a different way.

There's a grassy area at the new barn outside where I plan on schooling in full jumping tack. First we'll just do flatwork, nice and calm, including crisp downward transitions and immediate half-halts. Then I'll add some ground poles and work through them while expecting calmness and the same responses to aids. Then I'll add a little cross-rail or two. Etc. Until we can go through a several-fence grid out there or jump a few fences in a row without losing the brain. Most importantly to me, I can do all of this work calmly and gently, taking things gradually, so I never have to fight hard with her or hurt her or damage her trust in me by getting rough with the reins.

This is the way I prefer to train. That horrendous ride last night showed me where the big training hole exists; now, on my own, I get to take things calmly and quietly and build each piece so that we don't have to have any huge fights about it. I'll start where she can already do what I ask, i.e., flatwork outside calmly. Then I'll slowly build things up and establish the comfort level along the way.

So, you see, I face difficulties. Most of them are in my head. But I know that, and I'm working hard to get through them, and despite my frustration there is also a very dangerous sort of joy I take in working these things out for myself. Because as we resolve these challenges, I get to say to myself -- see? I worked that out. I put in the time, and the studying, and the effort, and the understanding, and together my horse and I overcame this obstacle on our own.

Just so you know, it is my goal to come out blazing at Novice level next spring. To do this I will work very hard but I am really looking forward to some serious, thoughtful, quiet dressage work this winter. It will be between me and my horse, and with a little luck occasionally with that trainer. It will be careful and methodical. I just know that if I break this down into piece by little piece, I will be able to stack them all together and come into Spring with a capability to perform something that looks curiously like real-for-real dressage.


Whew, another long post. I'll get back to you sometime soon with something a little more bite-sized. Just feeling stressed about the bad rides and I'm anxious to start working on our challenges so we can establish our positive relationship again. Planning on giving her a light day today and just longeing her, but I'll ride tomorrow and make darn sure it's a short and sweet one!

Horses are Weird

Before I tell you exactly how my horse is weird, I just want to say that I had a fantastic dressage lesson on Saturday. I have been whining in my training log about how stuck I feel in dressage, simply because I've never taken a horse past this point before and I just don't know what to do without possibly messing things up.

This lesson really helped me get a glimpse of what comes up next, and gave me some good homework. I'll talk about it in another post soon, because I'm still digesting what I learned and felt. There was some pretty subtle stuff going on and I had to think about a million things at once, so we'll see how well I can recreate it at home!

Anyway. Horses are weird.

Pandora has been spooking at her water bucket lately. I kid you not. 15 gallon tub in the back corner, filled every evening, drinks most of it down every day.

I first noticed it sometime last week. I put her in her stall after working her, and expected her to go take a drink of water, as usual. She walked to that corner, snorted at her bucket, touched it with her nose and jumped, then sidled away and went to eat her hay.

Huh.

I went and sat next to it, on her big salt block. After a moment's hairy eyeball, she wandered over to me. She touched the rim of the bucket firmly with her muzzle several times, then at last streeeetched her neck out to drink, keeping her body as far away as possible. She took a big, long drink, then quickly moved away.

I kept a close eye on her water consumption. She drank enough, but whenever she went to her bucket she'd approach cautiously, stretch her neck to drink, swallow a bunch of water, then immediately leave. Every time she went near it she'd do that rattling snort she makes when she sees something exciting or scary.

It was starting to bother me that she still was acting worried about her water bucket. My girl drinks a lot of water, and I definitely don't want anything limiting her drinking! So, this weekend I finally decided to move the bucket -- not sure why I didn't think of it before.

I dragged it up to the front of her stall, next to the door and where her hay goes. She couldn't avoid it, and it would be next to her hay, so I figured she'd warm up to it gradually.

As soon as I moved it there, she turned her head from where she'd been munching on hay, took a casual drink, and went back to eating.

Weird horse.

She drank almost the entire bucketful between that day and the next evening. I think her consumption has leveled out a little now.

I noticed she still acts wary of the corner it was in. I wonder if a bird flew in when she was drinking, or a horse in the arena kicked the wall when she was back there? Anyway -- I have no idea why she was acting that way, but problem solved and she's drinking properly now.


So I am sure you guys have horses just as silly if not more so than my girl. I want stories!

Working Through Fears

I know other people have talked about this sort of thing before, like Very Large Colt and Mugwump. I know it's pretty common in so-called 'adult re-riders,' which I can say because my mom is one ;)

But, guess what - I'm 18 and crazy, and I still have to deal with fear. Maybe it's not the same kind, maybe it's easier for me to push through, I don't know.

I'm going to write about it anyway, if only to share that not all teenagers think they're invincible.


As I've ridden Pandora in more and more eventing-related things -- a hunter derby, an eventing clinic -- I've gradually met a realization that was a little startling to me: I'm a little afraid of galloping.

What??

Yeah. I mean, I love galloping. I love going fast. When I did the western gaming events with McKinna in OHSET, she hauled butt on the way home from pole-bending or flags. That was probably the fastest I'd ever gone, and it was a blast. But, that was in a manicured long arena with a horse who knew her job was to run hell-bent for leather and then pull up and walk out. And it was on a straight line.

I've never really galloped anywhere else.

But when I'm out in an open field, I tense up. I want to cling to the reins. I want the comfort of knowing that I can close my thighs and hands like I do in the arena and my horse will change gaits for me. I look down at the ground 10 feet in front of us, and in my head I get terrible visions of my horse catching a heel and sending us both flying.

The memory of my little slip-stumble-fall in a field on McKinna this last summer, which led to a broken ankle, certainly doesn't help matters.

That being said, I do actually like galloping, and I do actually plan to get somewhat good at eventing one of these days. So, this is obviously something I need to work through.

Friday, I spent some time on it. A friend and I took our horses into the big mare pasture and practiced. We walked a big lap, then trotted a little and picked up a hand gallop. Pandora and I started in a steady canter, then I tried to relax as we cruised past the other mare. (Hey, the other one's a sweetheart, plug of a QH.) We pulled up, walked a lap, and repeated.

I was a little surprised at just how nervous I was. Our first canter/gallop, Pandora was about as tense as I was, blowing on every stride, kind of ignoring my half halts. As we went on, I forced myself to sit up, reminded myself to look ahead of ourselves, and relax my death grip on the reins. I found that once we hit a rhythm, I could keep the gentle, light contact we're both used to, without her trying to speed up.

After a few initial sessions, Pandora figured out how to go mostly straight, without going almost sideways or really trying to bend to the outside. This is definitely something to practice.

I practiced big, looping circles, allowing myself to breathe and trying to avoid images of her leaning on the turn too much and crashing to the ground.

I practiced pushing her forward into a pretty decent gallop (going AWAY from home, at first!), then setting my shoulders, closing my legs, and asking for a lower gear. And what do you know, it started to work! We even were able to pick up a canter heading home, move up into a gallop, then ease back and circle without her trying to blast on full-speed ahead to the barn.

When we cleaned out extra tack for the tack sale, I stumbled across a pair of really nice rubber reins. Pony sized -- my mom had purchased them for McKinna (who, yes, goes in pony reins) but decided she didn't like the rubber. They were dreamy. So easy to keep my hands in the same place, so easy to grip, long enough to walk on the buckle but short enough that they're convenient for gallop work. They are definitely mine now.

One thing I loved about Pandora's attitude? The let-down. My friend and I would gallop for maybe a minute, then walk a lap or two, then do some more canter-gallop work. The moment we came back to a walk, Pandora was on the buckle, relaxed, swinging forward in a great walk. She even stayed there if the other horse picked up a canter and ranged far away from us. If we galloped toward or away from the other horse, Pandora didn't seem to care.

It was like we were both so wound up and nervous about it, that once we practiced a little, relaxed a little, and got back into our normal communication, everything worked itself out.

Before our workout, she was dancing around the cross-ties and didn't want to hold still for mounting. Afterwards, she had this soft, quiet look in her eye, and stood patiently and relaxed even while we stood and chatted. That's her normal attitude of course, but still.


Anyway, I just wanted to share that. It was hard for me to let go and trust Pandora out there. I came in with a huge smile on my face, but I had to CONSCIOUSLY push myself. I was literally muttering to myself, "Okay, let her GO, move OUT, look UP, relax, breathe, circle, and NOW you can half-halt and bring her back."

The experience was so worth dealing with my fear. My trust in Pandora has increased, and although I can't ask her for her opinion, I'm pretty sure her trust in me has increased too.

Are You Listening?

My mother has been wanting to write a guest blog for a little while. So, here's a great story about why your horse isn't gonna lie, even if you think they might....

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Do you ever forget to listen to what your horse is telling you? Sometimes, it’s just that you don’t quite understand what they’re trying to communicate. McKinna has been trying to tell me something for three months now, and her communication has been growing steadily louder.

McKinna hates the saddle I bought this fall.It is now known as The Evil Saddle.

McKinna is small (14.3), but she needs a wide tree saddle. She’s shaped like an Arab through the back – fairly wide and flat. It's a bit like riding a barrel, albeit a small one. We figured this out quite some time ago, purchasing a very nice Stubben with a regular tree. It worked nicely, but tilted down in the back, a pretty common symptom of a too-narrow tree.

It wasn't pinching her, so we improvised by using a back lift pad under the Stubben. That actually worked pretty well, but being of the mindset that you shouldn’t need pads to make your saddle fit, we started looking for a wide tree dressage saddle. Since Pandora had just joined us we needed another saddle if we wanted to ride together anyway. I found an inexpensive, used, wide tree saddle at a tack swap late in the fall. I tried it on McKinna and it fit just like it was supposed to. Perfect!

Late fall turned into winter and we went about our business. I didn’t ride a whole lot in November or December – holidays/weather etc. In January, the kid really started focusing on Pandora, so I got McKinna all to myself. She's my horse in the first place, after all!

I went back to what I’d been (rather successfully) doing in the fall. We had established a wonderful, light, relaxed walk and trot with a beautifully developing contact. When I began riding again...it wasn't there. Well, it seemed we had regressed. Not too surprising, I thought, since we’d been out of practice.

We plugged away. By mid-February I was finally starting to realize something wasn’t right. This horse under me was not my trusty steed! Instead of going in her nice relaxed way, she had become prone to rushing around on her forehand with her head high. She’d also become very non-responsive to my seat and legs. I found myself using my reins way too much, trying to steer and rate her speed. Now, mind you, McKinna is one of the most obedient, cheerful horses on the face of the earth. (I don’t think she even knows what a buck is.) She never truly acted out while under saddle, so I didn’t get it. I began to have serious doubts about my riding abilities. I was thinking, what the heck am I doing to confuse her so much?? I had my daughter get on her and she experienced much the same, though she was able to push her into a little contact and bend. She agreed to school her for me some more and I continued to think my poor riding was to blame.

Fortunately, shortly after this I decided to try out a saddle that a fellow boarder had for sale. What a strange experience! It was obviously a poor fit -- too high in the back, too narrow in the gullet -- but McKinna seemed to like it. I even commented to my daughter that McKinna liked the saddle. I could tell in one ride. However, since it fit her so poorly, we decided against it. I went back to The Evil Saddle. McKinna went back to rushing around in her best giraffe imitation.

The light bulb finally came on about a week later when she started getting girthy. She would pin her ears and threaten to nip at me while I tightened the girth, though she knew better than to bite. Where did this nasty mare come from?! McKinna has never offered to be this rude to a human. Something's clearly not right...and it's tied to the saddle.......DOH!! I get it!!

Could it be that this saddle that fits her so nicely was somehow uncomfortable for her?? I decided to try her in the original dressage saddle, which had since been designated as Pandora's. I put it on her with the riser pad and went for a ride.

I could tell THE FIRST RIDE. Back was the soft expression and relaxed, swinging gaits. Her rhythm was steady and smooth. I rode her in this saddle twice, then tried out the jumping saddle we have for McKinna just to see. Even though dressage is my thing and my daughter is the only one who rides her in that saddle, her demeanor was exactly the same. Stubben with riser pad or jumping saddle -- makes no difference, as long as I don't use The Evil Saddle. She does her job, happy as can be. She trots around, listening (for the most part!) to my seat and legs. I have my trusty steed back.

We were so convinced that The Evil Saddle fit her, because from all appearances, it did. But no matter how much you think you're right, we've learned that the horse always has the final say. It just took us a long time to hear what she was trying to tell us.

Thankfully, since she's such a sweet girl, she’s already forgiven me.

---

It's true, I saw it all with my own eyes ;-) There's a picture post coming up soon! The girls are in good weight and looking good.

Still, I hate shedding season. Hate hate hate. Especially when I forget that it's shedding season, and I wear chapstick out to the barn!

Insights

I love the way sometimes an insight hits you like a ton of bricks.

You've heard people talk about this thing before - maybe all the time. You had a vague sense that you were missing something, but it wasn't that big of a deal. You thought everything was going great.

Then someone says something to you that clicks into place, and WHAM!, you've got some serious new things to think about. I got one of these a few months ago. It was at the catch-riding lesson that I may have described quite awhile back. A fellow Pony Clubber rode Pandora. After we switched back, she said, "You gotta get her to stop off your seat. And get in front of the leg - but she needs to stop off your seat."

"Okay, so...how specifically do you mean stop off my seat?"

"Close your thighs and calves, sit up and stop your back, and make her stop. Just go back and forth from halt to walk. Then you can use the same thing for a half halt, just don't ask all the way."

Seriously. This was the aspect of The Almighty Half-Halt that I'd been missing. Sure, I knew it involved your legs - of course it does! You're recycling energy. Sure, I knew it was a momentary resistance through your back and arms, which your horse immediately responds to, followed by a release.

But I didn't get it.

I worked hard to get Pandora to stop off my seat. Lots of repetition: close thighs hard, hug with calves, straighten up, close hands, halt. Pause, praise, walk on. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now I have a horse who will halt right away -- BALANCED and SQUARE -- from a walk or trot. I also have a horse who does not rush with me. She gets a little excited in the trot after a canter? I have an instant rebalancing tool at my disposal. I briefly close my thighs and hands, and she's right back with me.

I guess I did something to deserve good karma, because I got another fantastic insight from the clinic I rode in yesterday. In short, she fixed my biggest position flaw. I ride with my legs too far forward. It's always been a habit, and I've never figured out how to fix it. My other big flaw was riding with my upper body too far forward, but my last clinic helped me fix that problem. I stopped jumping ahead. But I could never figure out how to get my lower leg beneath my body without screwing up the rest of me.

This clinician had me bring my lower leg back, and I had to hold it there by really using my thighs and abs. It hurt. And oh boy am I sore today - especially those hip flexors, which really have to open up to hold that position! But I felt so much stronger and more secure. My parents weren't at the clinic, so I didn't get any video or pictures, but Pandora was really initiating forward movement and responding well. We did some low-key jumping, focusing on getting Pandora to really listen to me and make her own mistakes to figure things out.

I will definitely have to practice to maintain the position fix consistently, especially over bigger fences, but I feel like I just took a huge step forward. With this final piece of the puzzle in place, my D-3 Pony Club rating in July will be a piece of cake. She noted that this was really the last piece of the "balanced position" that Pony Club requires, so I'm starting to feel a little more optimistic about possibly rating up to C-1 in September.

From Pony Club materials: "The C-1 and C-2 is a Pony Club member learning to become an active horseman, to care independently for pony and tack and to understand the reasons for what he or she is doing. The C-1 and C-2 show development towards a secure, independent seat and increasing control and confidence in all phases of riding." The fence max at C-1 is 2'9", which doesn't sound big at all, but when you factor in the complexity of knowledge required as well as the fact that they expect your position to be totally solid almost 100% of the time, it's a little more difficult!

Anyway, I'm super excited to work on this position fix. It's the piece that's been missing! Now that I can hold a proper position, I can also work stirrupless. The way I felt before was, if I can't get my legs into the correct spot, won't riding stirrupless just reinforce the bad habits? I'm excited to strengthen my riding by working on this. I'm also thinking I should start some regular fitness, because my abs clearly need a little help!

I'm so glad I went to the clinic, even though I was sick and tired and my parents were out of town. I've kind of gotten my motivation back in the last week or so. Funny to think that so simple of a fix (read: simple does not equal easy!) can totally affect your riding.

You should tell me a story about the last time you had some serious insight whack you in the face, so I don't feel quite so silly.

Balance (Or, How To Live With Horses)

Let's face it.

Horses are time consuming.

This is why sometimes you only get one post every couple weeks. It's why I stagger blearily to a couch in the lounge for a half hour every Wednesday afternoon to slip in a nap before I head out to the barn to ride. It's why I've written about them in damn near every college application or scholarship essay I've ever typed. It's why, when my friends complain about me going to bed early on weeknights, I just smile.

It is also, naturally, worth it. Else you'd just ship them off and be done with it, right? Ha, ha.

I want to know how you balance horses with your "real" life.

I somehow manage - often haphazardly, frequently through sheer force of will. Mostly, it's just become an ingrained part of my life: my evenings, from somewhere around 4:30 to 7:30, don't exist. I do homework during the day or after I get home. I work whenever I can to pay for the habit.

My secret weapon is that deceptive little statement, "Oh, I guess I'll just go for a short ride tonight." Yeah, and if that ride of mine lasts less than 10 minutes, I'll eat my boots. Most times just talking myself into the saddle pushes me into a half hour work session or longer, just because I enjoy riding Pandora so much. She's fun.

It also helps that we watched International Velvet at Pony Club camp this weekend. After an hour of watching a video where all the girl does is canter around and jump, you're certainly inspired to get some canter work done!

In general update news - everything is going great. Pandora has been doing absolutely fantastically, really bringing herself up off her forehand. We are focusing on keeping the "dive" out of our canter, where she plunges forward and drops her head and neck because it's too hard to support herself. This weekend, we're heading to a clinic and rating assessment. This means an excuse to get her all pretty and clean, and me being the fussing fiend that I am, I'm quite looking forward to it!

To be honest, horses play a cyclical part in the balance of my life. Sometimes, I let other things slip in favor of the horses (read: homework? What homework? I've got a horse show today!), and sometimes the horses fade into the background (that is, "But...I'm tired. Maybe I'll ride tomorrow night"). But no matter how hard it is to find a balance, I know one thing is true...my life would be even more unbalanced without them. Why?

Because if I didn't have horses I'd probably be a muttering, straightjacketed mess ;-)

Motivation, or, Know Thyself

First off, apologies for the long wait -- all my ambitious plans to post once a week were squashed a little bit when I got stuck away from home for almost a week due to weather nastiness.

Anyway, here I am.

Today I want to talk about motivation, which is always a big subject in the winter for me. I'm swamped with schoolwork, I'm working to pay for the horse, it's cold and windy and rainy, and it gets dark at 4:30. All this combined means that sometimes I'm dragging my feet to even get to the barn, let alone find the energy to ride after I've mucked the stall.

So, over the years, I've learned how to give my energy a little boost right before I go out to the barn so that I'm more likely to want to ride.

For me, the most effective is reading about horses and training. I have always been this way: learning has its biggest impact when I'm absorbing it by reading. I get excited by training ideas, I get inspired to try things.

So, first in my arsenal is to go read, whether it's a horse magazine, one of my numerous training books, horse blogs, or one of my favorites, the Eventing or Dressage boards in the COTH Forums. Usually I can get inspired to go ride even if I don't latch onto a specific idea, though I often do grab one idea and use it in my ride. I've thought about keeping a notebook tailored to my own preferences and filling it with simple exercises to do throughout the ride -- cavaletti work or just certain things to focus on, but with ride lengths kept in mind. Has anyone done that sort of thing for themselves? I know there are books out there with that purpose.

If I've got the time and I'm feeling tired, I'll just take a nap about an hour before we go out. Simple, but this has always been effective for me. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, if I take a nap, I'll feel a lot better.

If I think my motivation will wane by the time I set foot in the barn aisle, I wear riding clothes - breeches, riding shirt. Since I normally ride in jeans and whatever t-shirt/sweatshirt I happen to be wearing, the breeches help get me in the riding mindset.

Finally, I'll try to grab something to eat and drink right before we head out. Ideally you want carbs: sugar will give you a temporary boost but that comes with a drop in energy later. Something like a couple pieces of whole-wheat toast will usually do the trick, or an apple with peanut butter (though the apple does have natural sugars). And in the winter, a nice cup of hot tea never hurts.


When winter motivation is hard to come by, I've learned to just take what I can get. If I suddenly get the idea that fine-tuning some groundwork and longeing would be nice, then I do that. It's easier to do something I'm excited about, even if it's not necessarily riding, than to try to force myself to do something else.



So, now it's your turn. What do you guys do to keep yourself motivated, especially in the winter? I'd love to have more tips to use when I'm feeling lazy!

Rituals

I was thinking about this the other day as I was in the truck on the way to a lesson. After ten minutes of staring out the window contemplating horse things, I promptly fluffed my jacket up as a pillow, contorted my body so my upper half was laying on the seat, and fell asleep in about 5 minutes. Before I fell asleep, my mom commented that I was taking "The usual pre-ride nap."

You know what? She's right!

Before damn near every clinic, lesson, or show, I take a nap. The drive is usually 15+ minutes, or early in the morning, or both; add this to the fact that I've got the ability to fall asleep anywhere at any time in about 5 minutes, and I take a lot of naps during horse-related activities. I also can often be found taking a nap in the truck between rounds at a show, or during the lunch break.

It chills me out. I wake up relaxed and - well, awake, which is sometimes not how I feel when we hit the road!

So what are your rituals, pre-ride or otherwise? Is your horse in on them? Did your horse start them? ;)

All In Due Time

I have been noticing lately that there is a time for everything with horses.

A time to work hard and push for the next level.
A time to return to basics.
A time to challenge your comfort zone.
A time to, well, take time off!
A time to relax and listen to your horse.
A time to tell your horse to shut up and put up.
A time to ride with others or a pair of eyes on the ground;
And a time to ride alone.
A time for long periods of rest due to injury, horse or human.
A time for fun, silly games with or on your horse.
A time to take other people's advice,
And a time to figure it out on your own.
A time to watch, and a time to do.

The last two months, it has been a time for watching, listening, and working on the basics as I healed.

Right now it was about freakin' time I got back over some fences. Tonight, I did.

I can't begin to describe how beautiful it was.

We headed out to a small front paddock, my mom and I, where several fences were set up. I warmed McKinna up at a steady, relaxed trot, then did a few laps of canter in each direction. She was feeling good, balanced, attentive; eager to go, but willing to settle down and listen. The months of walk-trot work had clearly paid off. My ankle was doing okay -- a little inflexible, a little weak in the lower leg, but no pain. It was time to take the girl over some jumps, something neither of us had done since that day I fell off more than two months ago.

The sun was low and a perfect fall-evening temperature settled in, cool and crisp, where riding in a sweatshirt is perfect. All I could think of as we trotted up to the fence was how silent we were, her hooves noiseless on the soft dirt. I inhaled, stretched my shoulders up to remember not to throw myself forward, as McKinna pricked her ears at the low fence. Steady, steady, steady; up and over we go, smooth as butter, whisper-quiet.

Somewhere around this point, the grin got stuck on my face and I couldn't get it off.

We worked for maybe five more minutes, adding a short line of fences. Each takeoff was steady and relaxed, no matter what distance we got. For whatever reason, I couldn't stop thinking about how quiet we were as we coursed across the damp ground, each takeoff and landing barely more than a soft scattering of dirt. My face hurt from smiling.

Yup. That "yee-haw" feeling? Still there.

Presentation Part I: Poor

I'm going to skip the stage of the ad that's Very Poor, i.e. a Craigslist ad that says "Horse for sale, $600" with no picture. There's not much point in me doing that!

So -- I'll be demonstrating the next step up.

Remember, all three of these steps will feature McKinna, so it will be pretty obvious how different presentations can make a horse look bad or good.

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McKinna is a 12 year old QH/Arab mare she is good at Jumping and trails. A great ridding horse and good for a broodmare maybe. Shes a lil quick at the walk but real good for everything else and woud be Awesome for OHSET or 4H or your new pleasur horse. Shes a very pretty white color. $1500.

(Gratuitous capitalization, run-on and fragmented sentences, slang, misspellings, an endorsement of her purdy color? Check. However, there is some useful information [age, breed].)



(Strange-angle picture that tells you nothing about the horse, but illustrates the creativity of construction 'round here? Check.)

(Very, *very* tiny picture of me standing next to her in a field of jumps, suggesting that it's possible she can jump but also raising the question of why I'm on the ground? Check.)

([Small] Pasture picture of questionable conformational integrity? Check.)



Upon you emailing me to ask further questions, I will wait six and a half days to reply. With the bare minimum of syllables per sentence, I will answer about 70% of the questions you ask, simply forgetting to answer the rest. I will not volunteer any information that you did not ask for. I will then either end the email, or write several long paragraphs detailing why times are hard and I need to sell my horse, how my friend's sister's uncle's dentist's cousin is a great trainer and real good with the unbroke ones, and give you a detailed analysis of my health and financial situations.

---

This does not paint a very attractive picture. If I saw a sale ad with these photos, I would do one of two things. If nothing caught my attention about the ad, nothing that I thought could make this horse a steal for the price, I'd just drop it. If I saw something I liked, I'd probably ask for more, or just go look at the horse -- the first picture shows me that she might actually be a decent looking horse. Maybe.

But the point is, if you put up an ad like this, you are not going to attract the kind of people you want.

That being said, if you're looking for a diamond-in-the-rough (and I mean rough), these kinds of ads can often be a place to look. For example, the ad for Pandora said something like "Appendix mare, 6 y/o, has been on trails and evented. $600. Email for more info." The pictures she sent us were pasture shots at strange angles, with one small head-on jumping photo that didn't tell us much. Pretty bare-bones. I spoke to a trainer to ask her if she could come test-ride her for me, since I was obviously still broken-ankled. Trainer told me that a horse that cheap has red flags a mile wide (well, it's true, she does have a supposed backstory of rearing) and that she wouldn't even go look at her.

Well, that was pretty sound advice. But I also went and looked at her, bought her, and so far she's been nothing but 100% pleasant to work with, willing to please, and intelligent. No nasty behaviors. No resistance (other than wanting to tuck behind the bit -- an anxiety thing). She doesn't get rude on the ground, she's wonderful for tacking up and grooming, she offers no funny business under saddle.

So -- here you go. If you're looking for a bargain, poor presentation like this can be your friend, because you may find a truly nice horse that other people passed over because of price, advertisement, whatever. If you are selling your horse, put the extra couple hours in to take some good pictures, please!

After this, Presentation Part II: Average.

Horses and Financial Responsibility

An update on the ankle -- I went into the ortho again yesterday, and I got my cast off! I am now in a walking boot, the main benefit of which is that I can take it off to shower. Thank goodness. I was getting sick of baths. I'm not walking on it yet; he says I can start phasing out the crutches, first one then the other, as I feel comfortable. Basically, if it doesn't hurt, go for it, and if it does hurt, back off. I can feel it a little more than I'd like when I walk with one crutch, so I'm going to leave it alone for awhile. It's still all swollen and bruised (obviously not nearly as much as at first), and my range of motion is just GONE. They gave me some exercises to do, though.

Also, muscle atrophy sucks. That calf is visibly smaller than the other one. That asymmetry is gonna be irritating in the saddle until I get the strength back.

If all goes well, I will get to get rid of the walking boot for good when I next go in, which is Sept 25 (a whole four days before I start school!). I'm just excited that once I get rid of the crutches I can do ground work and longeing.



I was thinking this morning about how much horses have done to teach me responsibility. The lessons are as numerous and as cheesy as the moral of any Disney movie. I could list them, but I have before. I just wanted to talk today about horses and financial responsibility.

First, my purchase of Pandora. This is a big step for me, personally. I'm 18 years old, technically an adult, and I recently took the dive into personal finance by opening a checking and savings account with my local credit union. This mare is mine, and mine alone -- purchase price, board costs, feed costs, any tack I need. The whole shebang. The prospect of me paying for her board, feed, farrier visits, and anything else is a little bit daunting. But at the same time, I know I can do it, and it's a really good first step into self-sufficiency for me. Suddenly it becomes very important how I spend my time: I need to work enough to both support her and funnel some money into savings, and if I don't go out and ride her very often, then I'm wasting the money that I spend on her.

A brief shoutout to my parents -- I really like the way they handled this. They've supported my horse habit for me until now, always making sure that I'm conscious of where we're spending money and why. I am definitely not the expensive-lessons-every-week, please-daddy-buy-me-a-new-saddle type. But I am also very, very grateful that they never said, "If you want horses you need to pay for them." They never asked me to take a full-time job over the summer instead of the part-time I've worked the past three summers, nor did they ask that I work over the year. To be honest, I worked so hard last year between schoolwork and band that I doubt I could have worked enough to support half of the horse expenses, let alone all of them. In return, I've always tried to respect the boundaries of what they can spend. I am now at the point where I can make the decision to take on an additional horse and support it myself, but I was not there before. I like the free rein they've given me and the way they've helped me slowly move towards financial independences with horses and otherwise, at my own pace, when I am ready to take steps. So thanks, Mom and Dad :)

Anyway, I'm very excited for this opportunity (if you couldn't tell by the sheer prevalence of the word 'excited' in my posts since we decided to buy her!). I get to enjoy a second horse without putting any financial strain on my parents, at all. I get to enjoy training a horse and hopefully pushing both of us up to higher levels, and I get to keep all the experience that comes with it. She is my horse in the way that no horse has ever been before. I get to decide when to sell her, for how much, and to whom.


The other responsibility-related thing I've been considering is very closely related: emergency vet funds. A commenter mentioned it and got me thinking.

I don't have one. Between setting aside some money to start an IRA, purchasing Pandora, and paying this month's board plus a deposit, I won't have much more than a couple hundred left. My paychecks for this month and next month will be much larger than board fees, since I'm working a lot due to a lack of school. I'm going to put all of my extra money in a savings account, which will double as my emergency fund. Not the most viable of options, I know, but as a student living at home with virtually no expenses other than my horse, it'll work. Add this to the fact that board is only $175/month (including hay) and other expenses should be minimal, I should still be able to squirrel away enough money each month to build up a decent emergency fund by the end of the school year. If school doesn't overwhelm me.

But it still concerns me. It's never something I've had to worry about before! I will do my best to build my fund up as fast as possible, but I'm wondering how many people have one -- seems that everyone knows they should, but does/is everyone able to follow that?

On the plus side, when I sell Pandora, that money's going to go to good use. The money is going first to pay off my student loans for the year (isn't college fun?), and any after that is going into savings. From that I'll have an emergency fund to work with for the next horse -- but that's thinking very far ahead!

So, how many of you have an emergency fund? Have you ever had to use it? Have you ever made decisions in the past (colic surgery, etc) that were influenced by your emergency fund or lack thereof?

Thoughts on Selling Horses

Here's a few guidelines for your ads.

Take good pictures. This one's kind of obvious, but still. Take the time to get your horse clean and on level ground. If your horse is trained, take pictures of it under saddle in action. Multiple pictures are better than one. Pictures from shows are great, if you're selling a show horse. If you have Photoshop, here is one super-easy adjustment that makes most pictures balance better in terms of color: open your image. At the top, go to Image--> Adjustments--> Auto Levels (or just press Shift+Ctrl+L). It balances the levels in the image and usually makes everything look nicer.

Write well. Do not write in all caps. If you don't know when to use periods, commas, or capitalization, ask a friendly neighborhood high-schooler for help. Please. For the sake of my eyes. In the text of your ad, some good things to include: age/name/color/gender; training history; show experience; important quirks (needs injections, on regumate, only sound for light work, has deathly fear of barn cats, etc etc); general description of personality; type of home your horse would be best in; whether the horse loads/clips/ties/bathes; why you're selling, and so on. This will always be specific to you and your horse. Keep the ad relatively short, with enough information to pique interest. You don't need to disclose minor issues here (doesn't like loading, doesn't get along well with mares, only drinks bottled water, whatever) but major ones like unsoundness or other issue would probably be best if included in the ad -- in other words, big dealbreakers might be best disclosed immediately so nobody wastes anybody else's time.
If you only follow one part of that, just put something more than "Bay QH Mare, 15hh, good gaming or OHSET prospect." If you say "Bay registered AQHA Mare, daughter of such-and-such sire, 15hh. Patterned on barrels and poles, explosive speed with a lot of potential. Intense and focused but can relax nicely, would make a great project horse for a junior, OHSET or 4H," you will probably get a LOT more interest.

Volunteer information. When a buyer emails you for more info, telling them about the horse (brief history, personality, why you're selling, whatever you feel like and you didn't include in the text) will probably garner more interest than a sentence or two with the bare minimum. Answer all questions asked.

Be honest. It is very frustrating to a buyer to show up to find a horse whose behavior is nothing like what was described; it wastes your time and your buyer's.

If you're going to sell a horse by word of mouth, that's great (and probably a better way to make sure it goes into good hands). If you're going to sell online, spend the money for a picture ad. Use multiple sites, though -- there are plenty of sites that are free or at least inexpensive for photo ads. A quick sampling: Equisearch, Dreamhorse, Chronicle, Equine Hits, BigEq, Equine Now, Exchange H/J. Here's a tip -- put one photo up on the ad so you don't have to pay much. Then, make a [free] simple website (we used Brinkster, but other options include Freewebs or Geocities) to compile more pictures, a quick description, and possibly some videos. Put the link to this site in the text of your ad after your brief description. Most of these websites come with 'site builder' applications that make it really easy to design a simple website.

For an example, here is the website we used when we were selling Bailey. It's really simple -- on the main page, it has links to videos of jumping schooling and three videos (one from each phase) from the schooling Horse Trials I took him to. It has some pictures and a few paragraphs describing him. Then there's a link to a page with more pictures and a page with contact information. It's simple, easy to go through, and gives you way more visual information than you could ever cram into an ad. No, he's not still for sale ;)

Another good venue is local horse organizations. Around here, good all-around horses are often emailed to the OHSET chair to send out to his/her massive email list of all teams and team members. If your area has a high school equestrian team, try emailing someone in the leadership to ask if they could pass around the information of your horse. Print out fliers and hang them in local feed/tack stores and barns. Contact your local Pony Club or 4H group to ask if they can spread the word.

Price accordingly. It's not hard to use those internet classifieds or ask around to see what horses of similar breeding and training are selling for.

Also, check your email. I know it sounds silly, but there are a lot of people who don't check their email more than once or twice a week; change that habit while you're selling a horse and check it at least once a day.

Be on time when a buyer comes to look at your horse. I don't know about everyone, but I'd prefer that the horse is in a stall if not in a pasture, rather than all tacked up pretty and ready to go. I also prefer that the horse is first longed and then ridden by the seller, then I will get on. That's my personal preference; your mileage may vary.


Tomorrow: Some Things to Do to Close the Deal


PS - if any of you ever would like help putting an ad together, shoot me an email. I'd be happy to do the Photoshop levels-balance, help you write a good paragraph, give my impression of your horse's pictures, help you with a website, whatever. It doesn't take much time and it helps a horse get a good home, so I'm all for it!

Random Things

I've been brainstorming my "How To Properly Sell Your Horse" series. I will start posting it sometime during the week -- it involves lots of pictures, so it will take some planning.

Here's the rundown. I'm going to make three posts on presentation -- bad presentation, adequate presentation, and excellent presentation. This refers to the pictures you take, the ad you write, the responses you give, and where you put your ad. All of these will feature McKinna; in the first ad, she'll probably be a horse that you wouldn't want to buy. She'll look pretty fugly (though it will be hard to tell from the pictures), and the information volunteered won't make you jump on the chance to get her. Her presentation in the third ad will be far more flattering, with information given that makes her a lot more attractive to a potential buyer. Since it's the same horse, it should really drive home the difference it makes when you put in a little effort.

Of course, readers of this blog probably aren't the ones posting really bad ads, but you could always refer those people to these posts ;)

Before that (probably tomorrow), I'll post a general guideline post that gives a few good things to keep in mind.

After the three presentation posts, I'll do a post on buying a horse, and etiquette therein.

As a side note, I've started a second blog to keep track of my progress with Appendix Mare, whose name is going to be Pandora. It's not really for the purpose of reading -- it's mostly for my own reference, a sort of online training log since I type much faster than I write -- which is why it's not linked from my profile. But, if you are bored and feel like checking in on her day-to-day progress, here's the link.

I will still talk about Pandora plenty in this blog, so don't worry about missing out. Just figured some of you might be interested in the smaller day-to-day details, especially since I know I love reading other people's training logs :)

Hope you guys are having a wonderful day and enjoying the horse life. Expect a post tomorrow to kick off the horse-selling series!

Use Your Mirrors - Part III

Horses are kinda funny. Mom and I talked about the whole project horse deal and decided it would be best for me to just spend that time and energy on McKinna, as noted before. Especially since I'm joining Pony Club and will have ratings to occupy my time (since I am incurably competitive).

So what happens?

Mom just *happens* to be looking at Craigslist (which she never, ever looks at), and just *happens* to see a posting for a horse nearby who's basically exactly what I'd described. Young, Appendix, cheap, good personality, no vices, ridden on trails.

I mean, come ON. Seriously? Why is it that just when you decide you don't want a horse, ONE FALLS IN YOUR LAP?

We emailed the folks -- I couldn't pass it up, and I did some calculations and I can definitely afford it if I work enough hours (the deal is that this second horse is all mine: I buy it, I support it, and the like). Still haven't heard anything back from them. Which is definitely going to be a rule on the How To Sell Your Horse Series -- if someone emails you about your horse, especially less than an hour after you post the ad, CHECK YOUR EMAIL.

If they never respond, I won't be heartbroken. I figure either way I'm in a good place. If they respond, I get a horse for a screaming deal and sell her this summer (theoretically). If they don't respond, I'll just shove all that money in savings and buy a horse sometime later. Win/win!

Not much to update on the McKinna front. She's doing well, I miss riding, etc etc etc.

On to the third and final part!

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Okay, remember how I said you need to leave your problems at the door to have consistent emotions? That's really, REALLY important. If you remember this one concept, it can help you make or break your season. If you can get your band to understand this concept, boy do you have it made.

Think of it this way: your negative emotions are like rocks you carry around with you. Stressed because you have a big test tomorrow and you didn't study? Rock. Had a big argument with your parents last night? Rock. Your best friend's cousin's dentist's daughter was flirting with the guy you like? Rock. You're just having a plain awful day and nothing seems to be going right? Rock. You're really tired, and you'd rather be at home than at stupid rehearsal? Rock. Work sucks? Rock.

Imagine carrying all those rocks around on your back while you're trying to rehearse. Or ride your horse.

You will never be effective if you carry those rocks with you while you're trying to get something accomplished. How on earth do you think you could march your show and play your instrument with forty pounds of rocks on your back? How do you think you could conduct with that much weight on you? Could you effectively work with and ride your horse if you were weighed down by so much stone? No. And if you can't drop your emotions, you are crippling yourself in the same way.

I don't care if you want to pick your rocks right back up again as soon as you're out the door -- that's fine. But you MUST leave them behind when you step onto your rehearsal field, when you step into the stable. Both large groups of people and horses are so sensitive to things like that, and I promise they will be able to tell if you can't separate the crap of everyday life from the time you spend working with them.

It can be really hard sometimes. I've had to run rehearsal knowing that my wonderful, amazing Golden Retriever was going to be euthanized the next day because of his cancer. I've had to smile at my band and speak inspirationally to them when I'm on the verge of a breakdown because I'm overwhelmed with schoolwork. I've had to ride my horse when I'm having such a bad day that all I want to do is curl up in bed and sleep. But it can be done, and it's worth doing.

If you do it right, you get to the point where you don't have to work as hard to drop it at the door. For me, the barn is a safe haven now. I step out of the car and automatically take a deep breath as I walk into the stable. I can feel myself calming down and relaxing as I meet my horse, and 99 times out of 100 it puts an instant smile on my face. No matter what's going on, I know that while I'm out at the barn, I'm in control; I'm enjoying myself and the partnership I have with my horse. Even if I'm frustrated with something else, I am able to let that go when I ride, simply from force of habit. Much the same, I find that sometimes I would go into rehearsal having a bad day and knowing that I needed to put that aside for my band -- but by the time rehearsal was over, I was actually having a good day.


Your horses and your band will KNOW if you've brought emotional issues to the table. It complicates things, it raises tensions and it's unfair to you and your band or horse. No matter how hard it seems, you need to leave your rocks behind: drop it at the door. Fake it if you have to. Pick everything back up again as soon as you leave if you have to. But to achieve the consistency that you need for a positive, amazing relationship, your emotions must be consistent and tension-free.

Leave your problems at the door.

Drop your rocks. It's liberating, I promise.

Broken-Ankle Observations

Since I broke my ankle, I've been watching a lot. I watched several lessons at the Inavale camp, of course. There is also a series of clinics this weekend, given by the same trainer, that my mom and I have been going to watch.

It's at several different barns -- the nice part is that, between the people we already knew and the people we met at eventing camp, it seems that all of the people we know go to these. A lot of them are involved in Pony Club (which is why I've seen them around at clinics, which are usually hosted by PC), and the adults either have kids in PC or ride in the clinics and allow their property to be used.

Basically, I'm with the "in" crowd now. I really can't wait to start riding -- right across the street is a giant field with beautiful XC fences as well as some really nice stadium ones, perfect for practicing our gallop and jumping fences in the open -- and another person just down the road has a nice outdoor, too.

Okay, I know I've raved plenty about all my new friends. But anyway, my original subject was the clinics this weekend. Today was really cool to watch! She started with stadium fences (in a field still), then moved them on to XC. The girls I watched ride Training, so it was really wicked cool to see them really move their horses into a gallop and jump the bigger fences.


It's hard for me to watch. On one hand, it's very very good for me to watch riders who are better than me, as well as to see what the clinician's having them do. On the other hand, it's really tough, because I get so inspired (isn't that what watching better riders is supposed to do?), and full of ideas, and I get very frustrated that I can't ride. It's like waiting for a broken heart to heal, or something equally cliche -- I know it just takes time, but I want it to be over now. Sigh.

Oh, and I think I'm going to join Pony Club. Most everything is voluntary, though I'm sure I won't be able to help myself from rating up, because I am an inherently competitive person. The way I see it is, I go to so many PC-sponsored clinics anyway, I might as well join PC and get the lower rate. Further, I don't really have any riding buddies my own age, and I'd get that if I joined. I think overall it's just a really good thing for me to have. Going to the rallies would be really fun, too.


PS, I am reconsidering the project horse thing. Do I really need to add on the commitment of a second horse, as well as the commitment to work enough hours to support it, all while just starting college? I mean goodness, if I put that much daily riding time into McKinna, we'd progress really fast.

So it's something I'm going to think about. Perhaps, if it's going well, I'll start considering a project horse late winter/early spring, so I can spend the summer with it. But for now, I do somewhat need to give myself a reality check and realize that I have an amazing horse in my hands right now, and if I put as much time into her as I'm thinking I would for a project horse, I know we could start improving really quickly.

There's your post for the day. Tomorrow -- leaving your emotions at the door.

Use Your Mirrors - Part II

I'm quite pleased with myself. I was thinking yesterday in the car about horses (duh), and for whatever reason I started thinking about a friend of ours who purchased a 4-year old, really, really nice Appendix gelding. He was relatively inexpensive, and basically could w/t/c and lead. She was a beginner basically, and he was an incredibly pleasant horse to work with. Mellow, calm, cheerful, willing to work, though of course he had his 4-year-old moments. Most greenbroke horses do not do super well with beginning riders (says the girl who bought a green OTTB as a green rider), but he could effectively be called a saint. They've progressed very far, and she even started learning to jump on him before they moved to Texas. I'm sure she'll continue once things settle down from the move.

Anyway.

The point of that is, I was thinking about how nice of a horse he was -- pleasant, cooperative, calm, and very VERY well put-together. A beautiful cross. And I thought, why, I should buy a four or five year old Appendix, work with it for 6 months to a year or so, and sell it as a really lovely eventing/jumping packer!

Depending on the horse and its temperament, I think I could produce a Novice-level packer within 6 months, maybe Training if I took lots of lessons since I've never ridden at that level.

Those horses go for lots of money.

So I went on Dreamhorse, and there are some very nice, rather inexpensive Appendixes within 75 miles of me. A few of them were almost exactly what I was looking for (the one I liked best was a 6 year old, but he's also broke, with lots of miles rather than arena time -- perfect), and one was almost exactly what I was looking to sell: a really nice, mellow, 4-year old (I think that's a bit young) mare who is doing really nicely in lower-level eventing, for sale for $15k. Don't know if that's what she'll sell for, but she's also not jumping Novice (I think), nor is she a packer. She also looks like a really nice horse that could sell for a lot more than that if someone put a few years of eventing experience on her.

I don't know if I could do it, but I think I'd have a fair chance. The only reason I don't know is because I've never TRIED, so I think one of these days I'm gonna pick me up an Appendix and see what I can do! I would love to try a resale project, I think it would be a blast and would really inspire me to ride every day. Ultimately it doesn't really matter if I sell it for a profit, since I know that's pretty hard to do. It'd be worth it just for the experience. It would also be an excellent chance for me to test my skills, since sometimes I get quite full of myself until I realize I'm rather inexperienced. But I digress.

(Okay, edit: I've just talked to Mom and I've decided that even if I don't go with this exact plan, I'd really really like to try a resale project this year. I'm going to see if during school I'll be working enough hours consistently to support a 2nd horse's board/whatever, and if so, we'll start looking this fall. It will be a fun adventure if it works out!)

Without further ado, onto Mirrors Part II.

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Actions: your band will mirror these, too. Horses, as I learned -- and relearned, time and time again -- will follow your actions.

When you're teaching horses, you must be consistent in your actions. If, in four days, you ask your young horse to canter in four new ways, it's likely that he won't understand what you want. Being a good horse, he'll probably try to do what you ask. He may give you the wrong response, trying to figure out what you want. He may become frustrated and confused and resist you. He may guess that you want the canter, but chances are that he's not sure, and the quality of the canter will suffer for this. Much the same, if you are not consistent in your actions with the band, then your band will be inconsistent in their response. They will not understand and they will not respond smoothly or correctly.

Horses will also get away with what they can. For example, every time I walk up to my horse's stall, I open the door, grab her halter, and expect her to walk up to the door so I can halter her and lead her out. Every time. She does this because she knows that if she ignores me, I will walk inside, use the lead rope to make her walk quickly around her stall a few times, then drive her to the stall door where she stands and lets me halter her. She knows that every time, whether she likes it or not, she is expected to meet me there, and if she doesn't, there are consequences. If I allow her to ignore me once or twice, and I walk into her stall to halter her instead of holding my expectations at the same level, a funny thing starts to happen. More and more often she ignores me when I walk up, until I start reinforcing my expectations 100% of the time again. Horses will get away with whatever you let them get away with.

Sound much like a freshman to you?

If your actions are consistent with your expectations, every single time, your band will respond to that by giving you consistent reactions. Consistent actions will produce consistent reactions.


Next up: leaving your emotions at the door. To be continued, again . . .