6 Hours of Sulking - Bouckaert Farms part 2

Hindsight being what it is... I have a half finished post called "Let me show you the ways" that was talking about how in our lesson the week before the show I managed to demo Butterball's and my sliding into the fence problem. The problem started way back in early spring after several ugly but clear rounds. I also shared on here how we slid into a warm up oxer at Notting Hill. So given that this sliding into fences refusal thing has occurred in 2 of our last 3 jump schools and then 3 of the last 5 if you go back to my post about jumping at home, it is hardly surprising that we demoed this at the far away, very expensive, kinda dream show. What was surprising was that I gracefully, slowly slid down his neck and over his ears. I don't even remember touching the ground although my coat and boots would indicate I did momentarily share the arena footing with my pony's feet and knees. So while I considered us "well-established" at the novice level, things change with horses and we were not on a particularly good run of stadium jumping at the time we headed to the show. 

The kind of ironic part is that this is a HUGE improvement on where we were in the spring. EM (our new event trainer) had me moving his barrel and bending him around my leg through the turns on the way to fences to keep him soft and springy. And that combined with the loads of gymnastic work that PW had us doing had him jumping GREAT. I cannot actually remember the last time I felt him roll over his shoulder over a fence. He is jumping really nicely almost all the time. Jumps 1 through 8 rode really well, with the caveat that on the way to 8, a stand alone vertical, I FELT HIM GET FLAT AND STIFF. Which you would *think* would be the cue to DO SOMETHING. But I didn't. The vertical was fine, but then I cut the turn to 9 and still didn't move his barrel or soften him. 9AB was an oxer, two strides to a vertical, which also gave me some false sense of security because our stoppping problem, thus far, has shown up at oxers. But he jumped the oxer kinda quiet then did a perfect 2.5 strides to the vertical and then slid to a stop onto his knees into the fence, sliding me over his nose since I was leaning at the vertical going "OMG YAY we're doing it! We're almost at the end of the course!!!". 

It was REALLY nice that EM was there to witness it. After kindly asking if I was okay, which was kinda funny given just how gently I fell, she said that it was a flat work problem, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I do think he has lost some confidence leaving the ground as well. It kinda feels like because he CAN jump so well (and he was bred to be careful) that if he has to flounder over something as he did during a couple of our spring shows, he would just as soon not. EM had pointed out in our lesson the week prior as well, that he should be asked to jump from less than ideal distances and learn how to be a bit quicker with his feet. To summarize, I need to FIX the canter when it is gross and he needs to be a bit quicker to sort things out to still leave the ground.

First, I sulked a lot. I REALLY wanted to run cross country (which I'll share pics of below), which definitely led to sulking like a two year old who got told NO they can't go play. But I sorted most of my feelings out by the time I arrived home that evening. For the drive home, getting around the beltway onto 75 south was a little hairy, it felt like every 1/4 mile the right hand lane was ending. I would manage to get over and then 10 cars would zip past me to pull directly in front of the truck and then slam on their brakes. I was so close to straddling both lanes to prevent such assholery, I wasn't particularly in a kind mood at the time. But after making it onto 75 south, it was relatively smooth sailing. Once the traffic and lane ending shenanigans sorted out, I chatted with two friends who were also on their drive home who helped both commiserate and bounce ideas around. One also offered to come back up for a weekend trip when Bouckaert is open for schooling, which did soften the sting of not getting to gallop across rolling hills with fun terrain questions and genuine stone walls. 

Also, can you really be mad about a weekend out of town with your best friend jumping (some) jumps and doing a nice dressage test? Especially since this is very fixable, and BB is sound and game. As Emma said recently, none of what we do is logical. While the disappointment is real, so is the gratefulness for getting to be out there doing this at all. 

By the time this posts, EM will have gotten on him for a training ride. And we have a plan, although I feel like I have said that before. But we have a plan that I believe in. I don't think this totally derails our fall plans, but they do require some restructuring. 

On to the cross country that wasn't... 

The pictures loaded out of order and I cannot be bothered to fix that because I didn't get to jump them. The course pics are also in the Cross Country App if you want to peruse better pics of the gorgeous courses there. 

Out of Florida - Bouckaert Farms part 1

For the first Chatt post, I'm going to celebrate that Butterball and I LEFT the state of Florida (with a health certificate I wrote myself, woohoo! only had to redo it once when the temp didn't enter...) and were not stopped by a hurricane or by sore feet. Overall we had beautiful weather and a lovely time hanging out at Chatt. The place is GORGEOUS. Seriously, cannot describe how pretty it is. This post is a Friday-Saturday recap. 

On the way, assessing Ellis Bros where we stopped to get some chocolate covered pecans and honey. If you're ever on 75 in mid-Georgia, skip the Buc-ee's and check out Ellis Bros. Free samples of soooo many different pecans. I snagged the grand marnier dark chocolate pecans for my dad - they were a big hit.  

Pulling in to Bouckaert, sooooo pretty 

The stalls are lovely, they come with mats and a nice window to the stall behind them

And lovely ventilated stall doors

Albeit slightly tall stall doors if you're a Butterball

But not too tall to get the snoot over

Getting his neighbor to fall in love with him 

They napped "together" like this a lot, it was adorable. His neighbor's person probably thought it was less adorable that by Saturday afternoon, said neighbor was SCREAMING every time I took Butterball out of his stall. Oops. 

Insert Ritz please 

As expected, Butterball was just a DELIGHT to travel with. He did his usual mix of eating and sleeping on the drive up. Then unloaded politely and made himself at home by helping distribute his shavings and then flopping down in them. Our schooling ride on Friday was relatively chill, so I kept it quite short. 

Dressage on Saturday wasn't until 1:20, so we had loads of time to hang out and watch the UL tests. I debated not braiding since stadium was on Sunday; it seemed silly to braid for roughly three minutes in front of a judge (so why would six minutes make it better?? LOL). In the end though, I had loads of time and no excuse not to, so the pony got braids. 

I left his mane a bit longer this time, and I liked the overall effect better. The banded braids came out a little rounder and more pleasing to my eye. 

It drizzled on us a bit during dressage warm up, but pony pants doesn't care, which is really nice. He was pretty stiff to the left and the serpentines in warm up from right to left weren't fantastic. Once in the ring, I stopped picking fights about the left bend though and focused on just riding him forward. We had our best dressage score to date! It was a bit generous in parts, but I think overall reflected the work we've been doing. It was a 29.4, good enough for a 3 way tie for 4th place out of 14. 

Proving that he is indeed the best, once we got back to the stall and I removed the saddle, he IMMEDIATELY flung himself into the shavings, intent on rubbing out his braids. I had, not realizing his feelings about braids, left him unattended for about 15 minutes after braiding him before tacking up and he HAD NOT done that prior to my test (which would 100% have meant he went in not braided). Thanks for not doing that before hand, buddy! 

The rest of the day passed peacefully, watching a few stadium rounds, and then joining friends for dinner. The drive to dinner and dinner itself were my first time back in AC. The weather was quite nice for camping in the trailer, but pretty endlessly damp the whole weekend. It was nice to be dry for a bit. 

I love doing night check and seeing this adorable face 

Peaceful dusk 

Happy One Year!!!!

I waffled back and forth on writing a long, drawn out love letter to my pony vs. keeping this short and sweet. I ended up deciding that I throw enough of "MY GOSH DO I LOVE HIM!!!" into most posts, so this is short and sweet. Happy one year anniversary, Butterball. Thanks for being the best partner I could ever ask for and for being game for any and all goofy adventures. Here's to many, many more. 

Notting Hill with a Side of Dressage

Follow up to my Independence and Assistance post, Butterball and I headed out to a jumper show at Notting Hill Stables last Wednesday. My friend met us there and provided invaluable assistance. I knew when I put this on the calendar that I would be trainerless, but since I was also expecting to be trainerless at Chatt on the 23rd, it seemed important to be able to go jump a couple of rounds at novice height without too much  hand holding. 

We loaded up and then wound our way the hour drive to Notting Hill. I'd never been there before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but they had a nice big grass field for parking and a large grass warm up arena and even larger grass jump arena. I paid my $50 and was told I could do multiple rounds at multiple heights for that price. The only downside compared to Majestic Oaks jumper show that was going on at the same time was the lack of Lisa Madren for fun jump pics. 

Butterball is SUCH a good dude. I never want to take for granted the fact that he self loads, travels quietly, and then unloads with zero drama. He typically tries to grab some grass before his feet have even left the ramp when he is unloading, he is THAT unconcerned about where he has ended up. So he hung out on the trailer under the fan while I walked part of the course and decided on all outside turns that made for a nice loopy course. Then another rider wanted to head in, so my friend and I watched her go, planned the last few fences, and then tacked up the pony. We nailed our first few warm up jumps and then my friend popped up the oxer. And I let him lengthen his stride out of the corner to a deep spot at the base. He went the first two times and then had enough of my crap and stopped the third time. My friend pointed out what was happening and also that maybe, just maybe, when I know it's going to be deep, I should add leg and support him instead of leaning and praying. So I half-halted out of the corner the next go round, and we got it done. Repeat off both leads and then we headed over.

We went in our for our first round, had a tight spot to one, and did some fuckery in the combination. The combination had not been there for the 0.80 and instead of just asking at the in-gate what it was, I guessed. As I rode up to it. Which led to two in a one. If it had been an oxer out he would've stopped. We recovered from that and rode the next several well. We had a bit of a gappy spot in the 7 stride line down the long side. I figured we would sit chilly for the 8. Which meant I made a decision and actually used my legs and had a powerful, but maybe not compact enough, canter, so when we got to the 7 on a longer spot, he went just fine. 

The second round we definitely smoothed out the combination to make for a prettier round overall, but did have a tight distance to fence 5 right after the combination. And I let him be for the 7 which led to actually a kind of tight 7. His canter is SOOOO different now that I'm having to re-sort out how to ride things! I'm not sure what happened with the last fence in both rounds, usually he is such a clean jumper. 

Getting the one stride right 

OUT! 

End of the 7 strides, apparently my release went out the window. I'm sorry my dude! 

Then Friday we loaded up for a dressage lesson. Ms. GY and her guy went with us and he was just the best behaved "baby" thoroughbred that there has ever been. 

Butterball and I did A LOT of work in the canter. Initially he didn't have impulsion (if I took my leg off he broke/died in whatever gait we were in), so we did a lot of cantering quite quickly to generate that. Leg off, let him slow down, light leg, he should go forward, rinse, repeat. After that we worked on some walk-trot transitions, keeping the same connection through the whole transition. It is incorrect to dive forward, heavier, but it is also incorrect to lighten and stiffen. The SAME amount of pressure should be present through the whole transition. We repeated the walk-trot transition until he was maintaining a steady contact through the whole transition. 

Then we moved on to the canter again. But every attempt to slow down the canter led to trotting, so we started with some walk-canter transitions. The first few strides he was actually lovely and light and slow. Then I would start to do weird things with my body and shove at him and he'd speed up. Our homework was to work on the walk-canter transitions and then just sitting and doing nothing if he was in the light, slow canter. If he sped up, ask to slow down. If needed can come in with a light leg to support. Eventually we'll want him to maintain with the leg off, but for the time being, light leg is okay. Then walk. Then repeat. I got scolded for not walking right away in our canter-walk. I asked what I should be doing and, because my tendency is to tense my whole body and not move as I try to walk, I was told to pull back. If he didn't walk, pull back more firmly. Well that just sounds really simple, now doesn't it sir. Shockingly it did decrease the number of trot steps we were taking. 

Some other random notes: Every aid causes tension. This came up when I told JV that I felt like in the right lead canter I had to keep my right spur in or he would dive his shoulders right. He said "let him make the mistake, then fix it." But he also shared that every aid increases tension. If it is a constant nagging aid like my right spur was, then the horse stiffens to brace against it to ignore it. If it is an aid to do something else, it causes a reaction, which causes tension. So the less you have to do to keep them straight and swinging, the less tension there will be. So let him fall in with his shoulders, quietly aid to get them back out, then take that aid off. Eventually it will be like the energy and he will maintain on his own. 

During Ms. GY's lesson, she and I both learned the aids for the canter. Her response was exactly what mine would have been "outside leg back, inside leg at the girth". She also added looking at his inside ear which prompted one of JV's hilarious "don't do that" lines that had me giggling for a minute. So looking aside, he said that inside leg should always be at the girth asking for inside bend unless you're doing something different intentionally. Outside leg moves back to be there to indicate the lead you're asking for, then the inside leg lightly touches. Touch and go. The first aid is the touch, the touch and go. If he doesn't do it, it's the kick, the kick and go. If he still doesn't do it, it is the kick and come in with the whip. 

We're probably not getting back down for a dressage lesson this week, given that we're shipping to Chatt on Friday, but I certainly have homework to practice until the next lesson! 

Independence and Assistance

So...  Real talk... Part of this jumping at home thing is making mistakes and then fixing them. I made several mistakes and rode an under powered canter to an end of lesson height jump. Butterball smartly opted no, said he didn't have enough canter to either take the long spot or pat the ground as he'd done for me twice already. But he's an honest dude and opted no at the last second and slid into the fence, scaring both of us a bit. Two days later we came back to fix our mistakes but I rode underpowered to a one stride with an oxer as the out and leaned at the in. He declined. We dropped the oxer to a vertical, re-approached and got it done. 

Looking like he forgives me for my fuck ups as long as there are cookies

We had another at home session a week later where we started out without enough pace, again, but finished up really well. He took me to the gappy spot at one oxer and popped through the two stride like it was NBD. It definitely gave both of us more confidence. 

I did in fact slowly raise these... started over the block jumps then popped the other ones up two holes after we had successfully gone around twice. Laziness in setting jumps doesn't lead to good results it seems...

Honest adult ammy talk... it took some deep breaths to come back out and fix mistakes a few days later. I, again, had that feeling like I was screwing up my perfect pony. Which is a great mindset to get in that leads to tentative riding and no real decisions. Which he just loves... gives him loads of confidence when I sit up there and go "oh SHIT, I dunno!" But it felt like something I had to fix. And we did. By dropping the fences to BN height, getting around confidently, and then moving them back up. And no one is worse for the wear. 

This week, we had our first lesson with a new eventing trainer. We solidly managed to show her all of the things we do wrong on our first trip around. But hey, if we'd come out perfect we wouldn't have learned as much. Her major pointer was to land and accelerate for two strides and then settle in to that pace to the fence. That way you're not screwing with your stride length once you've got your eye on the fence. THAT makes sense. She also had me using a slightly lifting under his belly leg aid to get him to let me access his back. Then from that swingy, powerful canter everything seems just fine. 

We did the shorter course again, which went swimmingly, then added a few fences including a 1 to a 4. I did start to imagine us stopping at the 1 stride, but I took a page from Ms. GY's book and visualized/felt him popping through it just perfectly. Which is exactly what he did. In my joy at the 1 to the 4, I COMPLETELY forgot about the last two jumps, so ignore the canter mess that occurs around the right hand turn in the last course. 

In of the 1 

Out

To the 4

Still jumped it just fine in spite of the multiple leads around the turn 

I am pretty pleased in the video that I'm not throwing away the contact anymore. When I ask him to go forward, I am, for the most part, there for him which keeps him from flattening and keeps that bouncy uphill canter. It feels like the dressage lessons with JV are also unlocking the instant responses, so when we land and I ask him to move forward, the reaction is right there. Pretty cool stuff. 

July Wrap Up

 

Starting the wrap up for July with some updated conformation pictures. Never mind the fact that these were taken in August and post-ride hosing. Not ideal, but y'know, if I was only willing to take them when he was perfectly clean and not sweaty we really wouldn't get any summer shots. I tried, and failed, to remember to take them the day his feet got done. Because I haul out to my friend's place, once he was done I just tossed him straight back on the trailer. Also, on closer inspection, her mats are over sand and not as even as the wood that this spot at Ms. GY's. 

I keep panicking about him gaining weight, so here's our June comparison. Which I think actually does show some weight gain. UGH! He's more dressage horse round right now than svelte event pony. We've still got a couple months of good grass, but it is sooooo sweaty/easy to create rubs right now that I'm reluctant to put his grazing muzzle on him. I need to either do that or submit another insulin level to at least make sure we're not creeping up there. It would be silly to put all this work into his fitness and supplements and such and then let that happen... 

June 

	Butterball
Training rides	3 flat rides with my friend while I was out of town
Lessons	4- 3 dressage + 1 jump
Hacks	3- including 1 pond splash
Jump rides	3
Flat rides	6
Conditioning rides	2
XC school	0
Shows	0

July was a bit slower of a month with 21 rides for pony pants, which may have contributed a bit to the weight gain as well... I'm hoping so since that's easier to up this month vs. putting the muzzle on. I took my annual summer trip to New York with family. My friend came over and rode him a few times while I was gone. We failed to successfully line up with PW much for jump lessons between my travel and the WEC summer series. We had one lesson that we only got 2/3 of the way through before major thunderstorms drove us to cover. 

But we did manage to get in three dressage lessons, and the changes are absolutely amazing. I was cantering around yesterday feeling like it was the easiest thing in the world, which is such a huge change. Our lessons in July focused A LOT on the canter. We started with straightening it, particularly to the left. The next lesson we introduced SLOWING the canter. Which was a gigantic struggle with lots of breaking to trot and making me feel like I couldn't ride my pony. I asked JV if he did training rides. He said he did, but mostly he wanted me to learn how to do it. He cited people asking him to get on to get clean changes. He said it was useful if the horse didn't understand the concept of changes, but not useful in all other cases. He did say perhaps Butterball was unclear on the concept of slowing down the canter, so a training ride might be beneficial.

Then I went out of town and my friend who rides with the same two trainers rode him while I was gone. And when I got back, we had more easily accessible buttons. Our last lesson in July, on the 31st, we ACTUALLY slowed the canter down and I felt much less incompetent. 

Honestly the lessons with JV make me want to focus on dressage the majority of the time. Butterball feels totally happy when ridden in this clear 2+2 = 4 kinda way. Even when we were struggling majorly with slowing down the canter, JV laid it out clearly for me... if he broke to trot, was the trot slower than the canter had been? If so, then pick the canter right back up to correct the break. But if the trot was faster than the canter had been, then SLOW the trot, since SLOW was what we were initially asking for. Anyways, stay tuned for our transition to dressage and trail pony extraordinaire, at least until I look at the costs of USDF showing... 

Even though we didn't get to many jump lessons, now that we're back with Ms. GY, we have the ability to set mini courses at home. Her arena is a bit larger than a standard dressage arena, so it isn't a full, full course, but we can still string 5-6 jumps together in different ways. It is GREAT to have this ability. The decision to move back to her place wasn't without some angst, especially because our former barn owner took such great care of the difficult to care for Goggles, but overall it was the right move for Butterball and me at this point. 

This.. this is why the pony is getting more and more round, but also tell me you don't want to gallop across that field 

Overall July was a productive month for us. Butterball is still sweating and feels great in his work. This time of summer in Florida always feels just focused on maintaining and surviving, so it is great that we've continued to progress in the dressage work. Knocking furiously on wood, we've only had to deal with tiny little patches of rain rot. And his feet look FANTASTIC! At his farrier appointment this week, at four weeks, his farrier gave him an award for most foot grown. And he grows strong, beautiful hoof, even in the WET summer. Thank goodness for pony feet!!! 

I started August going out of town again, but the rest of the month will be pretty focused on getting to Chatt successfully. We are headed to a schooling jumper show Wednesday and then a dressage lesson on Friday. Ms. GY is going to bring her thoroughbred, and I'm so excited to watch their lesson. I'm aiming to keep up weekly trot/canter sets OR pond rides for the remainder of August. Then in September we start our twice weekly conditioning rides for the three day in October.