Slow trot, hills and bloody stifles

Well it feels like forever since I spilled my random horsey thoughts on the screen of the trusty old MacBook. And the last couple of weeks have not been without horsey action!

I'll start with the Andrew Mclean clinic. Basically, Andrew was pretty complimentary of young Tux. But used words like 'rehabilitation' and 're-training' when he saw his antics and tension levels. Here's what we worked on:

• Controlling both front legs equally. We identified that Tux's less under control leg was his near fore, so at a nice slow walk (which I actually achieved!) we worked on halting on an even number of steps to keep stepping off on the same side, then an odd number to change. Interestingly, even when his off fore was the last to move, he would sometimes step off with his near side, despite that being quite unusual. The rule is generally that the last leg to stop is the first leg to move.
• His head tossing and rearing is directly linked to his incorrectly trained 'stop button'. That is, he has been held with very strong rein contact in the past and is quite freaked out by it. He pulls when he is excited. The key is not to maintain any pressure on his mouth for more than two beats. Two beats being two front leg footfalls. If he fails to slow from a light but brief rein aid, release but give it to him a lot more strongly the second time - but just as briefly!
• Tux needs to learn how to change tempo within a gait - go faster and slower not just longer and shorter. We worked on slow mostly as he's pretty good at fast already!
• Tux needs to learn self-carriage. We worked on having almost no contact with his mouth and asking for a veeerrryyyy slow trot. After a while, he actually started achieving that surprisingly well.
• Until we establish a very reliable and light stop button, and self-carriage and change of tempo, jumping is not to be overdone (or really done much at all). That being said, Andrew encouraged training in and around jumps, occasionally popping over them.

The biggest enemy for us is tension. When things start to go wrong in Tuxland he really loses it very fast. Andrew said it's impossible to de-train that response as it's hard-wired (the 'flight' part of 'fight or flight'), but it IS possible to diminish or supress it. He also asked what I had bought Tux for. I joked he was my 4* horse. And Andrew (being the lovely guy he is) just said, "Well, in that case you really need to work on getting the basics nailed down before you really jump him much. If you just want him for some fun you can just go out there and fang around. But you'll never get past pre-novice." Wise words, and a big kick up the bum when I'm getting ahead of myself!

I had Robyn the bodyworker out the afternoon after the clinic and she told me in no uncertain terms that his stifles were a major problem and he has significant muscle weakness in the thighs and hindquarters. He really does look like two different horses. A lovely, quality jumper in the front half, and a skinny TB with no fitness in the back half.

So, more of the same as I did with Rose all those months ago. Poles every day, carrot stretches every day, hill work as often as possible. Sigh. At least Rose was waiting at the gate every morning. Tux takes one look at my eager face with my carrot outstretched and simply walks off in the other direction. With purpose. All the way to the bottom of the paddock.

Rose is looking so pregnant she might pop. Robyn is concerned her pelvis is quite crooked but shouldn't interfere with foaling. The foal is literally kicking the crap out of her - huge thumps now! I had a great visit with the lovely Larry Greetham from the Celtic Stud (he bred Rose, incidentally) and we have a revised possible due date of 2 October, rather than 20 October, mainly due to the fact maiden mares often go early. Rose is showing intermittent signs of imminent motherhood, but then the weather turns and all her hormones pack up again. When the warmer weather returns I reckon it won't take long for her to have it.

So, competing has been suspended for a while, it seems. I'm doing quite a bit of judging over the next few months, but there isn't a lot on competition-wise. I'll post pics as soon as Rose has that big baby of hers!

When crazy works on the day.

Well what a weekend! Our last weekend of four straight with things on. Amazing we made it to the end - and what a way to end the month!

After our interesting clinic with Sam Lyle last weekend, I felt very confident with Tux's cross country abilities. As Sam put it, he's "very bold"! That really translates into being highly-adrenalised and pretty much galloping at whatever I point him at. Over the course of the clinic with Sam, though, I managed to find a good balance of letting him roll on to the jump but trying to set up a good speed well before we get there. There is no point mucking around with Tux much more than 5 strides out as he seems to get quite worried about that and starts head tossing and swinging his quarters, taking his eye off the ball. That means, however, that if I get the speed wrong (ie too fast) we're in for a bumpy ride!

There were a few hurdles to getting to Wagga and I was very close to pulling the pin. My poor husband had been sick (and turns out to have pneumonia!), my kids were sick, I was sick, and Tux didn't get ridden all week. Then I got the draw and I was supposed to be riding at 8:30 Saturday morning!! That wasn't going to work and the wonderful Wagga organisers were luckily able to fit me in to a slot in the afternoon as someone had scratched. Note to self: next time ask for a late draw when you enter! And finally, my good mate who lives in Wagga had gone to a funeral and wouldn't be there.

But, screw it, I thought. This will be the last event til October and we've worked pretty hard over the last month so it would be good to see if we've improved. And my friend Nicki had offered to come over Saturday morning and plait up!

So, off we went to Wagga. When we arrived, Tux seemed more tense than usual. And that's saying something! But he pulled it together and actually did a much improved test. Tense, yes, but no rearing and jogging (there was actual walking!). Unfortunately, it was extremely boggy and slippery, so I tried to shave off half a meter on the circles to keep us out of the bog. The judge was pretty harsh and seemed to simply ignore the conditions, despite the slipping and choppy trot. She even knocked marks off for my circle being too small! Ah, well, everyone had the same judge so you can't really bitch too much. The only thing I really have a problem with is, once again, I have met a judge who is mainly negative, with no encouragement and no constructive criticism. I don't mind the marks, we're definitely not up for 8s and 9s yet, but the comments are very important to riders and I don't think many judges consider that.

With our crappy dressage, we were running 19th out of 25. Kinda takes the pressure off, being that shit!

The showjumping seemed big and was also very slippery. Tux has gotten slightly better over the last month in terms of simply jumping then cantering and slowing (albeit with some serious rein aids!). He still stood off fences as we would accelerate into them like cross country jumps which we really need to work on, but all in all he feels a lot less crazy.

He was a complete champion in the jumping as it was incredibly slippery and he is very green. He jumped about half of them really nicely and the other half were a lot less scary than they have been! We ended up with a rail (it was really the whole jump!) down and no time penalties. Most of the class copped a rail or time penalties so we were doing ok.

A nice night's sleep in a cute little motel and I walked the course again on Sunday morning. The going was boggy and slippery and the jumps were great. I was excited about riding it as it was challenging and interesting. There was a testing double of logs on angles so a straight one stride required a decent angled approach. A good trakhener (our first), a couple of decent drops behind logs and tables and a couple of skinnier jumps to test straightness. I thought Tux would eat it up. And he did!

To be honest, Tux had been much more tense this weekend than the last two, and I do think that was partly the atmosphere - it was much louder and busier than Harden - and partly the lack of work the week before. I could not get him to settle in the warm up and I wonder whether he is starting to learn the signs of impending cross country and is starting to anticipate the galloping.

 Tux watching the other horses go over fence 1 before we headed out

He was very strong across the country, almost out of control. It was not the most pleasant or easy ride. Every time I just sat quietly he would get faster and faster, not just maintain his speed. It was way to slippery for that kind of speed, and it took quite a lot to pull him up before jumps. Still, he jumped like a champion, never looked twice, did come back to me when I really needed him to (ie before the two doubles) but was really just a speed machine the whole course.

But it worked brilliantly - we got only 1.6 time penalties and a clear round which bumped us from 17th after showjumping to 7th overall. Bloody amazing. The only person to go clear on time and jumps ended up winning. From 15th!! Says a lot about the conditions. Most rode much more slowly to deal with the slipperiness so there were even a couple of eliminations for going over the maximum time!

A great end to the weekend but quite a lot to work on, as always. I'm planning on putting in 6 weeks of solid work with him at home, taking him to a couple of local days, and aim for Wallaby Hill in mid-October.

I need to work with Kirsten our awesome trimmer on the traction issue. I doubt studs made much difference in that going, and it's interesting that we pulled one of the fastest times in our class. I do want to explore the options available to barefoot horse owners regarding filing ridges in to the wall. I really don't know if that would have made a huge difference but every little thing helps!

Looking forward to a quiet weekend next weekend!

Hi-ho Silver!

What a whirlwind of a week (or ten days) since my last post. We've had a saddle fit for our brand new bespoke (and bloody gorgeous) jump saddle from Julia at Wow, a dressage comp, a ride at dawn and the Hendra vaccination policy from Equestrian NSW buzzing around the traps like a blowfly on a window.

Let's start with the saddle fit. It was quite interesting actually, as Tux was a complete idiot when we were mucking around with the fitting, doing his old tricks of cantering on the spot, tossing his head and not standing still. I swear that horse raced, even if it was in his dreams!! Julia commented that he looked to have lost weight through his back and wither pockets and that's usually a sign that he's using his back properly. The next stage is 'beefing up' through the same area as he gets stronger over time.

It was a bit crazy hopping on and off as we tried narrower headplates and adjusting the flair panels but I think we got to a good place in the end. Julia said she'll come out in September to assess both saddles and change the headplates if necessary. She's amazing - the H girth she gave me as a 'repeat offender' even matches the colours of the saddle. I told her the pressure was on now coz I had all the gear and no idea - a recipe for people assuming I got game and sneering as they watch my horse 'hi-ho Silver' his way around the dressage and showjump arenas!!

That said, the dressage comp the next day went surprisingly well. Tux was marginally less stressed out compared to the weekend before at Harden and this translated into worse behaviour in the tests but more moments of brilliance too. And that also means we achieved both goals I set us beforehand - finish in the top half of the class and score a percentage over 50% in both tests. I thought they were achievable and reasonable....until I got on! The first test felt quite manageable until he got unbalanced in the left canter (his weaker side) and disunited which always makes him freak out as he knows he's going to be stopped. A bit messy and almost 53%. The judge was definitely better than the one at Harden, but not by much. She at least gave us 6s and 5s for the collective marks! There's really not much to say when a horse is clearly just losing it's shit in the arena, so I don't blame her for the dearth of feedback.

The second test was a bit better. It was also judged by a friend who is very encouraging of lower level riders. She gave Tux a 7 for his paces!!! And told me later he would have won it if he'd just kept his lid on. Since the test started with a canter half pass up the centreline and a little rear at the halt, I figured we had a bit of a way to go with that goal! But she gave us a couple of 7s in the test, too, and some really encouraging comments at the end, including, "tactfully ridden". I can't emphasise enough how one positive comment can really make your day as a rider doing their darndest. Makes me remember that for my next judging gig. All-in-all we got a respectable 58% for the second test and a 7th placing. A great way to end the day.

A couple of days off and I managed to get up at 6am this morning for a dawn ride. Bloody beautiful. Crisp, clear morning with a brilliant dawn and twittering birds. And a bit of frost that I studiously ignored. Tux was working much better this morning. Concentrating for longer periods, responding more calmly to aids for bigger trot, then smaller trot, bigger canter, then smaller canter. We're getting there, just need a lot more practice! His changes of direction are getting really smooth and he generally maintains outline. His leg yield and half pass are generally good - a bit wobbly but he's really willing and tries hard not to lose it which is a great sign. As I said, we're getting there!

Still had a few bad moments, but they're getting less frequent and less volatile. It's very encouraging to see some positive changes after the hard few months we've had. And I think making the effort to ride him just once during the week has been really worth it.

Onwards!!

The Hendra vaccination policy released by Equestrian NSW has been causing all sorts of consternation and concern in my horsey friends, particularly those of us who have several horses they event or who don't event but are wondering if they should vaccinate anyway. It's pretty much a lay down misere for me as I event (and all those will be Hendra Vaccination Events) and I only have one horse to compete, currently. Lots of misinformation seems to be flying around about horses having adverse reactions and vaccinated horses being carriers and infecting unvaccinated horses, and on and on. I get the shits with people who perpetuate that sort of gossip - it's quite unhelpful and not founded in any fact. It also gives people pause when no evidence supports that doubt. Kind of like the anti-vaccination brigade in the human world. Just my two bob's worth - but it IS my blog!

So, we're off for our first jab at the local riding club on Sunday, then another in a month. It'll be a stretch as we have the Sam Lyle clinic in the morning and I'll just drag Tux out to Murrumbateman for the jab, then home after that, hopefully in time to meet the trimmer. Pretty much blows the whole day. As does the stupid compulsory 3-hour workshop on conflict resolution and risk management I'm doing as part of my upgrading to the next level of judging on the Saturday. Considering it's a 4-hour round trip that's the whole day gone there too. Busy weekend!!!

Travel safe and happy riding! I promise some pics next instalment.

Harden Horse Trials

Well, I'm utterly rooted. But triumphant! The weekend proved really great experience for us both, and has given me confidence that we just need to keep working on the same big issues before things will get to where I want them.

I was drawn to do my dressage at 12:50pm-ish so I actually managed to get there around 11:45am, which, considering I was leaving behind two little kids, a husband, two dogs, two horses and seven chickens, wasn't bad. A bit later than I would have liked, not knowing how Tux was going to react to the whole thing, but not bad. I plaited up before I left so I really didn't have to do anything to him except brush the mud off him (didn't have the time, weather or facilities to wash him!), saddle up and squeeze into my jacket. My poor old jacket....I've had it since I was 18 and it's seen me through two post-pregnancy/breastfeeding periods, and not very well! I really struggle to do the buttons up these days - might have to invest in one that can cope with big boobs!!

Anyhoo....dressage was remarkably un-bad. Considering he just would not trot only a couple of months ago (possibly weeks ago, now I think about it), he pulled out some very nice trot-work indeed. The judge was not a fan, however, and simply gave us 4, 5 or 6 for every movement, very few comments and simply wrote, 'tension throughout test', at the end. Not what I'd call a helpful, encouraging or even polite dressage judge. And of course she printed her name illegibly so I don't know who she is. I'm so glad I get to experience these judges so I can do a far better job of judging myself. The sad thing is, she's probably quite experienced. At being discouraging.

So, equal 30th was our placing after dressage (out of 34 - there were actually a couple of poor souls who scored worse than we did), but our spirits were high after a fantastic night sleep. I had such an aching back after walking the XC course twice and traipsing around fetching and carrying, not to mention riding, that I popped a couple of panadeine and chugged a stubbie of good ole Tooheys New, and promptly fell asleep before 6pm. Fully clothed. And stood my mate Tricia and her son Jett up for dinner. Not good ju-ju. Sorry Tricia! Luckily, the motel did a pretty decent chicken minion room service and I got a late dinner when I finally woke up a couple of hours later!

The showjump course was absolutely perfect for green horses and riders - a basic figure of 8 with a lovely two stride double at the end. Tux was a complete tool in the warm up and just kept bolting every practice jump, especially once he got to the other side. I was a bit nervous about how that would play out in the ring, but he actually pulled his shit together and jumped pretty nicely. Considering. We had a rail at the first element of the double because he only noticed the second element as he was taking off over the first and dropped his back legs on the pole. No biggie.

XC was an absolute blast. It was truly mountain goaty and had some great variety for the little grades. Usually every jump is a log of some kind when you're doing baby grades, but this one had ditches and little houses, even a little log to jump into the water (open-flagged so you could just trot into the water if you weren't up to the log - we did the log). Really awesome. And Tux ate it up, though we did have a couple of arguments about how we were going to do things. I won. But the arguing did put us almost 40 seconds over time. Also no biggie for our first one, and lots of things to work on.

His hooves seem to have seriously become high performance. The ground was very forgiving across the country, except for a bloody great steep gravel road that Tux simply cantered down. Quite balanced and controlled, no ouchy moments, no stone bruises. The horse is a machine. We did have one big slip at the end of the course as he was getting very tired and was just starting to quit listening. I had to haul him around to get over the last and his whole back end went out from under him. I don't blame a lack of studs, quite the contrary, shoes and studs would have been pretty useless in the soft going and gravel. We had the advantage for sure!

Very happy we stayed together and I didn't get a dunking in the freezing water on quite a chilly day. It was a great weekend and I'm quite looking forward to more stuff with him. We've got a local dressage comp this Sunday and I'm interested to see if he will be a bit more settled. Next weekend is a XC clinic with Sam Lyle and the following weekend is Wagga Wagga Horse Trials and we step up to Intro. I'll keep you posted!

Blah....winter blows

So, I hope you guys are getting more riding in than I am! Moving to your own farm seems to mean a lot more driving (dropping off small people at school and heading to the coalface) and a lot less riding. That's not to say Tuxedo has any problems with that scenario, though I doubt he would have been so ok with having all his fur shaved off if he'd known how little he'd be ridden. And I daresay I wouldn't have clipped him if I'd known that too!

The change of feed has produced the most remarkable change of character in that crazy horse. Even though I'm only riding him twice a week (and that's if the weather isn't Antarctic-like) he hasn't been a complete prat on my weekend workouts. I thought it pretty unfair to expect he would make much improvement when he's only being worked intermittently but the last two rides, both over a week apart, were remarkably similar. Yes, there's still the stupid bouncing around when transitioning up into trot, and the yucky pig-rooting and disuniting canter before he gets a stern talking-to. But he's not crazy like he has been. This is the first time a change in diet has produced such a change in behaviour in my experience. I won't be so dismissive of diet in the future.

And the barefoot transition has been seamless, really. The new hoof is growing down beautifully, with an obvious ring of happiness where the new hoof is coming in. I'll post photos of his feet (sans mud, I hope!) next time. Kirsten the wonder trimmer has been pretty impressed with his feet, that's for sure.

Poor young Rose is starting to get very heavy as she moves into the last trimester of pregnancy. This is when 40% of the foal's growing happens and she looks a tad uncomfortable. I, for one, hated the last trimester and found it very painful (pelvic pain) - Rose looks like I felt! Her feet are flattening into dinner plates as she puts on weight, too. It's very exciting and a little nerve-wracking.

Despite all the lack of riding I've managed to schedule myself a horse event every weekend in August. Harden Horse Trials next weekend in the newcomers class just to see how he copes with events, cross country and all that jazz. I've scored a lesson with Ben Netterfield this weekend and that will be the second time I've jumped Tux since I've had him.

After Harden is a local dressage comp (just a couple of Associate Prelim tests to give him more exposure to going out and performing in an arena), then a dressage judges seminar on the following Saturday and a XC clinic with Sam Lyle on the Sunday. (Deep breath) After that is Wagga Horse Trials where I've entered Intro, possibly suicidally, but with the idea that Wagga is pretty low-key and Tux is not a complete noob. And that's the end of August. Luckily, I've got September to recover, though fingers crossed I get a couple of lessons with Andrew Mclean who's coming up then for his yearly sojourn to the backwaters of the ACT.

I feel exhausted just writing that. I'll let you know how we go! 

A 4 year-old 6 year-old

It seems that Tuxedo is the most green-broken 6 year old going. A very frustrating and somewhat scary ride at the moment, I find myself a bit exhausted and sore this fine Sunday afternoon. Yesterday was our first ever jumping experience together and (luckily) I chose a clinic with World Cup showjumper Sandra Tremier as the place to do it! He was a complete nutcase. Apart from a more extreme version of the rearing, sideways, piaffe/passage and pig-rooting that is now a normal part of our day, he also threw in charging around as a new experience.

We started off working fairly well, that is, big trot to little canter with lots of head tossing, back to big trot. Couldn't trot over the poles, had to canter. Couldn't trot towards a jump, had to gallop the last two strides then gallop away. Wouldn't halt without a lot of head throwing work. The most memorable feeling of the day was that of his forelock grazing my nose. Not noice.

The peanut gallery were very supportive and nice but not particularly helpful. "You're a braver woman than me!" was Gay's best line. But she's always the most positive person. When we bounced a one stride double she yelled out, "Well, he's going to be a great eventer!"

I was, I'm almost ashamed to admit, reduced to tears by the middle of the second session. We were working on a little course, and it was just so damned exhausting being on this crazy horse, tearing around the place, barely keeping his feet in the wet. Did I forget to mention it was raining the whole day??

But. And there's a big but. There were moments of brilliance. For one thing, he does have the most incredible, powerful movement. And he's not worried about the jumps per se (no shying or cat leaping). And, after taking out an upright on his chest (Sandra jacked them up to about 80 or 90cm because he just wasn't noticing the littler ones), he actually calmly popped over it the second time. Then bolted off, but not as out of control as before!

So, there is some serious talent in that nutcasey thoroughbred brain. And Sandra (and Ben Netterfield) stated pretty baldly, "You've basically got a 4 year old, and a green one at that. He doesn't know anything so you'll just have to teach him." Awesome.

On a bright side, his feet are fantastic. Had Kirsten the trimmer extraordinaire out this morning and she thinks they're brilliant feet. Big frogs, becoming concave and the flare is growing out quite quickly. All in all very good. Rose's are getting flat under the growing weight of that beautiful big foal in there. You can see it moving in her belly sometimes. So exciting. I feel like it's a filly so I'm trying to think of names for her. Suggestions?

Still planning our first event to be Harden doing Newcomers. I'm tempted to enter Intro but I think that might be a mistake. Our control issues really need to be sorted out before we really need to worry about the jumps at all.

Happy riding! Hell knows I need it!

Jack Frost has landed

Happy winter everyone!
It's not particularly freezing (yet) here at Dragonwood, and has been really wet over the past couple of weeks - a very welcome change given how dry it had been leading into winter.

The horses have all settled in really well and are now good mates. It's interesting being able to observe their herd structure this close (I can just look out the window!!) and see how complex horse social behaviour is. I thought it was very linear - ie horse A was 'dominant' over horse B who was dominant over horse C. But my little herd doesn't work that way. Rose is the boss and Tux is next and Persia yields to Tux and Rose. But when hay goes out, Persia sticks with Rose who lets her eat her hay, while Tux is excluded. Rose lets Tux eat with her too, but clearly Tux and Persia aren't friends and Rose is more tolerant of Persia who is NOT tolerant of Tux. Interesting....there's an alliance for personal gain...

Anyway, riding-wise this last few weeks have been very frustrating. Firstly, now I live out of town, I have to leave by 7:45am, which means I would have to be ON Tux by 6am. It's dark til 6:30am so that could be a bit pointless. Which leaves just the weekends, as I get home in the dark too. And I'm finding that Tux is not the kind of horse that is fine to leave for a few days. If I were to do that I think it would be a very slow and frustrating road to daylight savings!

Luckily, right over the road lives a world class French showjumper called Martial, who is staying with my friends Gay and Larry for a few months. He's agreed to ride Tux for a me a couple of times during the week until he heads back to France in 6 weeks. Totally saves my bacon!!

That brings us to the second part of the frustration. Tux is the tensest, most conflict behaviour-riddled, anxious and reactive horses I've ever ridden. Today, as my arse hit the saddle after mounting he launched into a most impressive display of rearing and bucking. Bizarrely, it doesn't feel like I'm ever in danger of coming off, but you do have that feeling of just holding on and waiting for the scary ride to end. No control, just a very tense and large animal beneath you having a meltdown.

Other than doing lots of ground work establishing 'park', 'forward' and 'back', repeating mounting over and over (I get on at least twice each ride) and putting him through exercise and exercise for the next few months, I don't know what else I can do. I've decided, after a particularly crappy episode today, that I will just keep blogging about his behaviour so I can recognise progress as it happens. It will take a lot of time and work to get him relaxed, responsive and obedient. That's the fun part, right??

I've been very lucky with the saddle situation having Julia Mclean from WOW onside. She's been out three times to fit Tux with both my existing dressage saddle, and a demo jumping saddle that we've tried a few different blocks and panels on. It's a vaguely annoying process, saddle fitting, for all involved, but SO worth it. I'm very lucky to have both the financial means to afford WOW saddles (at this point anyway!) and the support of Julia who is really the most amazingly generous fitter. Need a longer girth? Sure, have this one (it's new and she just swaps it for my old one). Need a jump saddle while you wait for yours to be constructed? Sure, have this one. Think the saddle is unbalanced even though the last fitting was only two weeks ago? Sure, let me squeeze you in between my interstate trips. Nothing is too much trouble. I couldn't recommend her more. :) 

On another positive note, Tux's feet are a lot less sensitive now, despite the wet conditions, and this is really encouraging. I think he'll end up with high performance feet in a couple of months at this rate. :)

Rose is starting to look pregnant now and it's actually starting to get exciting as we enter the 8th month. Her elbow injury is possibly resolving itself - I'm keeping a hopeful eye on it and haven't noticed that weird double action as she walks downhill for a week now. Fingers and toes crossed. Woohoo!

Til next time, safe and happy riding!