Snow Day

Today we got a snow storm, and it's hilarious how people forget how to drive once snow is on the ground.  We live in Atlantic Canada.  It's not a surprise that we will get snow every year!

What happens when I get bored at the barn and no one is around

Even though we were also getting freezing rain and the roads turned out to be pretty slippery, I went out to the barn to see my boy.  Not surprisingly, it was quiet out there even though there was no school for the kids.

I have to say that I didn't have a good ride.  Nothing inherently bad happened.  On the contrary, he was a really good boy considering that he was cooped up because of the weather and I was too lazy to lunge him.  He did everything I asked him to, but it just felt like something was missing.

The past month's worth of rides have been so great, but then I talked to my barn owner the other day and really started to worry about whether or not my riding was adequate for the upcoming clinic.  I went out to the barn with the intention of videotaping myself and seeing a fantastic improvement in my skills.  This was probably a flawed plan from the beginning.  After all, there was nothing different really about today's ride than the rides I've been having, rides which I was ecstatic about until today.  I haven't had a chance to dissect the video yet, and unfortunately it's pretty blurry. But I was overall content with my position and hands, and Walker and I did a lot of canter work.  I was disappointed because I wanted to work on pushing him into the corners since he has a tendency to make the circle smaller, but I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be.  Then, to make matters worse, I decided to ride bareback after I exhausted us both, and I wasn't able to get him cantering.  I don't know what it is, since I have cantered him bareback before.  He was obviously tired from the ride, but I think I was probably more tired and lacked the strength.  Every time I kicked him, he just seemed perturbed with me, like when I took off his saddle, he was hoping that the ride was over.  I was already frustrated as it was that I hadn't successfully accomplished what I wanted to work on today (at least by my obviously too-high standards), so I ended up just giving up and getting off.

"Where is all the grass?  WHERE IS ALL THE GRASS?"

But I did take Walker out into the snow.  From what I gather, Walker came from somewhere warm, and I don't know if he's actually ever seen snow before.  He was puffing and blowing and was quite distressed that all the grass was gone.  You'd think that the humans didn't feed him or something, and we were going to leave him to forage through the tundra alone.  It was pretty cute.

"Maybe if I wish hard enough and long enough, it will go away"

Clinic update

I talked to my barn owner today, and apparently the kids were mistaken about the clinic.  She told them that she wouldn't take them to any QH shows unless they did this clinic because it was pointless unless they knew some of the training techniques he uses.  The clinic in January has only 6 spots, but apparently I have one of them.  From what I understand, she already told the clinician, Herb Best, that I was going to the clinic so I guess I'm doing it after all. :S  I can only imagine that having most of December off will make us great participants!  Apparently we ride twice a day for two days in this clinic, and we also have an hour of showmanship. I'm going to be exhausted!

I'm a little nervous especially because the clinic is only composed of 6 people.  Knowing what I do about the other participants, I will be the most beginner rider there.  Plus, I always get the impression that my barn owner thinks I'm a lot more of a beginner than I feel like I am (hey, maybe she's right - she sees riders all the time).  I'm afraid of what she might have told him about me.  I don't want to be worked like crazy, but I don't want to be patronized either.  I do know that she told him that Walker was a talented horse and that I was still "getting up to his level", whatever that's supposed to mean.  Walker is talented for sure, but that also means he isn't easy.  He doesn't just give up the goods for nothing!  I may not have the best form or be the most controlled, but I don't feel like an absolute beginner, that's for sure.  I don't know if I think well enough of my riding to call it an intermediate level, but hopefully an advanced beginner for sure.  I may be getting back into the swing of things (I had probably 10+ years off of riding after all), but I don't think an absolute beginner could sit through half of Walker's temper tantrums or be starting to jump (at least not at our barn - I know that some barns start jumping earlier).  What do you guys consider a beginner/advanced beginner/intermediate rider? I just hate to be patronized.  I sometimes feel like people are just patting me on the head and saying, "Oh look at Natalie.  Isn't she cute with her pony."  I work as hard as everyone else; I'm just never at the barn when people are around to watch me (other than lessons, which, if that's what people are basing their assessments off, would be fair considering our track record).

Other than that, Walker and I had a good ride today again.  We rode with another girl in the ring with us for awhile, and I find that when we're in close quarters like that, he gets a little forward.  This is fine with me as long as he pays attention.  After she left, he threw a mini temper tantrum because he wanted to go with her, but then he was great for me.  I even got him cantering at a decent speed, which I find much harder to accomplish in the indoor arena.  If only he would do that when I want to jump!  I was also proud of him because I got him going fast at a canter and then was able to slow him back down to a semi-slow lope.  Some speed control exercises are always good.


On a final note, here's a picture of Walker's poor chipping feet.  I feel so bad for him.  Let it snow so that the ground will not be so hard!  I would put shoes back on him, but my barn owner thinks that his feet will toughen up, especially since he's only had them off for about a month so far.  Apparently, the farrier has had that conversation with some of the other boarders at the barn, so I guess I will leave it for now, if that's what he thinks.  If they haven't improved by the time it snows/January, I'll put his shoes back on.  I'm sure that my barn owner is probably right.  We took his back shoes off when I first got him, and they used to chip like this.  Now, they aren't chipping at all.  I'm just such a sucker.

Back in the Saddle Again

"Let's get this over with then"

Finally made it to the barn today after my three (horrible) days off.  I got out there plenty early in the afternoon after passing in my paper and doing a few other chores so that I was able to have as long of a ride as I wanted.  Grabbed the pony from the paddock and gave him a nice relaxing brush.  He wasn't as dirty as I figured he would be.  However, I had a bad oops moment while grooming him.  Lately I've noticed that one of his back legs around the fetlock has got a lot of mud/dirt dried into the hair.  It's been driving me crazy, and I've been slowly and carefully cutting some of it off the way that you might cut a dog's matted fur.  Well, today I ended up cutting part of his "ergot" - the chestnut-like thing on his fetlock.  I only know this term because I freaked out when I realized what I had done, and went online to make sure that I wasn't going to kill him.  Apparently people actually do trim them (chestnuts too), so it's not as big of a deal as it could have been.  Next time I'll be a little more conscious about whether or not I'm cutting mud off my horse's leg or part of my horse's leg!

Today was mild enough so that I could ride in the outdoor arena, but I rode in the indoor anyway.  The foal was turned out in the outdoor, and I know that he has been cooped up for awhile because of the weather and because he was just recently gelded.  I knew that if I brought him in, he'd be in for the rest of the day since my trainer has started arriving around 3PM to do supper (yeah, early, I know).  There was a horse turned out in the indoor as well, but he has a huge stall and he's also like 30 years old - he doesn't do too much running!

His favorite part of the day: supper time.  We have that in common.

I was pretty happy with Walker today.  He had three days off and he was a little angel.  I didn't have to lunge him or get into any big arguments.  I even loped him with one hand for pretty much the first time successfully.  I rode him one-handed when I showed Western at the walk/jog, but I was also in novice (no lope).  I neck reined a couple of times in the outdoor arena when we were having issues and I thought he might enjoy it better, but it was never really that successful or controlled (mainly because those were the days when we got into massive arguments at the lope).  Today was the first time that I loped him with one hand that he actually paid attention, and it was very nice.  It's obvious that he prefers neck reining to two hands on the rein, and he definitely prefers as little contact as possible.  I've often noticed that using two hands and trying to wrench his head around is much less successful.  I suppose that's all in his training though.  I'm sure that I'm very entertaining to watch as I ride around in my English saddle on my Western pony while I post and neck rein.

Speaking of training, I'm proud to say that I taught Walker a trick.  Well, its not so much a trick, but I taught him how to do it all on my own.  I have taught him how to back up with me in the saddle and no hands on the reins by simply saying "back".  Yes, my horse now speaks English.  I always say "back" every time I'm on the ground backing him up or if I'm in the saddle using the reins, but a month or so ago, I was riding around the arena, no hands on the reins, practicing moving him around with just my legs when I halted him and asked him to back up.  He backed up at this point with no added aids, but I thought that he may have just associated the phrase with the action because we had done a lot of backing up that day (so he would have heard me say "back" a lot).  I left it and haven't really done much with it since (although I still say "back" every time I back him).  Today, at the end of my ride after not having backed him up once today (and not having seen him in three days), I just decided to try it out.  And back he went.  It's cool because he takes one step per every time I say "back".  So if I say "back back back", he backs up three steps.

I have to say, having a smart pony can be both a blessing and a curse!

Busy busy busy

My next week isn't looking too good for Walker.  After his 3 days off, I will be sure to give him lots of attention tomorrow afternoon because it doesn't look like I'm going to get to go out to the barn too often until I get my first two exams under my belt.  If I can manage it, he will probably only get ridden every other day for the next week, and frankly, I probably don't even have time for that.  Unfortunately, I also should be going to the Living Christmas Tree on Sunday, which my friend is dancing in, but right now, it's not looking doable.  I haven't scheduled it in, but I will just have to see what the end of this week brings.

December is going to be a pretty lazy month for Walker.  After my first two exams, I have about a week until my last one, which will be good for him because I don't really need a week to prepare for it.  After that, I will ride him every day for about half a week until I leave for Christmas, and then, unfortunately, the best I can do is four days in between rides (since I will have to drive 2 hours back here to ride him).  He's going to be so fat by January!

Also, if you recall, I was supposed to do a clinic at the beginning of January.  I've heard rumours that this clinic was actually just for 6 people who are supposed to be on some winter show team or whatever.  They tell me that there is another clinic at a later date.  When I talked to my barn owner about the clinic, I suppose she never specified if I was doing that first clinic or the second one.  I was a little cranky at first because I felt like I signed up for the first one and was pushed aside because I'm not one of the top riders at the barn.  However, looking at my schedule for December (and my dire financial situation), it's probably a blessing that Walker doesn't get a bunch of time off and then I expect him to be in tiptop shape for the beginning of January.  I'm still not sure what the situation is but I've sent my barn owner a message to insinuate that January 3rd may be a little early for us after all.  I want to do a clinic with this guy before I move in May, but the Christmas holidays are about spending time with family and relaxing.  I'd much rather have a few enjoyable rides and see my family and friends (including a friend of mine who is currently working out west) than stress myself out for this clinic.  Currently, the only stress I have time for is this blasted paper and my three stupid exams. :S

Can't wait to see the boy tomorrow.  Walker always cheers me up :)

The Long Stretch

Today was the last day of classes, and I finally passed in one of my two papers.  I have one more to pass in on Thursday, and then I simply have my three exams until freedom.  Unfortunately for Walker (or perhaps not so unfortunately), he is getting three days off in a row (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and we are missing our lesson.  I usually take December off for lessons anyway because of my normally very hectic exam schedule and because I go home for Christmas, but this December my barn owner let me have free lessons all December whenever I want since she knows how busy I am and because I had to miss so many lessons throughout the semester.  She has been very good to me since I got Walker.

On Thursday, I plan to have a nice long relaxing ride with the pony.  On Sunday when I was riding with M and Lark, M set up the crossrail on a diagonal in the ring, and I think I may try that out the next time I decide to jump.  Normally, I set a crossrail up along the long end of the indoor arena because it gives me the entire arena to get him building up his speed, and then the crossrail is conveniently in our road. :)  However, this is problematic because when I'm done jumping (and too lazy to get off my horse and move the crossrail), the jump is in my way.  M set up the crossrail in the middle of the arena, but not so that I would have to cut across the middle of the long end to get to it like most of the girls do.  I don't like that way because we have to make a quick 90 degree turn and then we have barely a stride before he has to jump.  He slows down on the turn and we just don't have enough momentum (#slowponyproblems).  M's way was perfect for us.  You can go around the entire arena without the jump being in the way, but I can turn at the corner and come down the diagonal.  I have included this handy diagram for your viewing pleasure.  The box is the arena, the red cross is the crossrail, and the blue line is our path (which probably actually does look that erratic in real life).  I know that I keep saying that our indoor arena is super small and it's difficult for you guys to imagine, but for reference, it takes Walker about 1 - 2 strides of a lope (lope, not canter) to do the short end and probably no more than 4 to do the long end.  I'm sure most of your horses who actually do jump would eat up our arena.

On a final note, I am stealing this video from Julie at The Little Bay Princess which fits in line nicely with the other post I did on this subject.  For the record, I don't regret getting my undergraduate degree.  I don't think that university is for everyone, but I did enjoy my degree (I studied Classics, with a double minor in History and Latin - yeah, that's right, Latin).  I learned a lot of things there that I wouldn't have learned elsewhere.  I learned to be a better writer, a more critical thinker, besides all the lovely things I learned within my degree itself.  I also learned a lot of life lessons, about living away from home, growing up, etc.  However, I have always taken issue with an education system that focuses on regurgitation and which doesn't allow the mind to grow creatively.  I believe it was Margaret Atwood who said that she was glad that she never took a writing class because they would have forced her to choose a writing style, and of course she dabbles in everything. I agree with this guy's idea that education comes in many forms, and often people discount the knowledge that others have because they didn't go to university.

Fun Sundays

My other boy helping me write papers last night

Although the barn is usually pretty busy on Sundays, it was actually just me and M at the barn today.  I like riding with M and Lark because we're the only adults at the barn, and sometimes it's just nice to have another adult around.  Lark and Walker seem to get along pretty well actually, especially since Lark doesn't exactly get along with all the horses at our barn.  I also never worry about anything happening because I know that if Walker had a freak attack, Lark can handle herself and so can M.  Sometimes I just worry when I'm around kids, especially little kids, that they might get in the way at the wrong time, since they don't necessarily know any better.  I find it good practice for me to ride with M because she and I got back into riding around the same time, so it's not as intimidating as it is to ride with people who are busy being awesome while we bumble around the ring.

Today we worked on a little bit of everything.  I especially was glad to work on some cantering while another horse was in the ring because our indoor ring is so small that it is going to be difficult in lessons with 4 people.  In fact, in lessons, we usually only have room for 1 - 2 people to canter at one time, so the others have to wait.  I'm often at the barn alone, and of course, we rode outside for most of the summer and fall.  So it was nice practice to canter and maneuver around Lark, the speed demon, without also hitting M's mom who comes out to the barn with her most days.  Walker's lope and Lark's canter are two different speeds altogether, so it takes some thought not to hit each other.  We even set up some crossrails, and although Walker was lazy at first, he really seemed to get into it once he saw how excited Lark got.

Then, before we finished our ride, we practiced riding around the ring without any reins.  I do that a lot with Walker because he has nice slow gaits and he's really super about moving off the leg.  We're getting pretty good, and I can almost pivot him on the spot with just my leg.  Lark, on the other hand, being trained English, seemed quite distraught that M didn't have any contact on her mouth.  She's also so much faster than Walker, and I died laughing while Lark pretty much took M for her own guided tour of the arena at top speed.  I then convinced M to hop on Walker, and it was a whole different kind of hilarious.  Of course, he felt so slow for her, and she couldn't tell if he was trotting or walking! Then, when I convinced her to lope him, she started to yell: "Why is he putting his head down?  Why is he putting his head down!  Natalie, where is his head?!"  By this point, some other girls had shown up to ride their horses, and they were laughing also. Of course, that's Walker's thing: his head never goes above level.  Whereas sometimes, when he's feeling a little fresh, his head goes up at the trot, his head NEVER goes up at the lope or canter.  He's trained so that every time you apply leg, he puts his head down - which, might I add, really does take a long time to get used to!  All in all, it was a pretty fun ride, which is nice to have.

Other than that, I tried Walker's rainsheet on him to make sure it fit because my instructor says that it's best to start them out with a rain repellent summer sheet for Winter because of the barn being heated.  The lightweight sheet won't make him overheated while he's in the barn but will offer some protection when he goes outside.  Then we'll slowly move him up to his midweight Winter blanket that I bought him.  Unfortunately, temperatures are going back up and today after it snowed, it rained :S  I left the rainsheet hanging on his stall but I doubt he'll need it for a couple weeks again.  Make up your mind, Winter!

Conformation

After reading this post by SprinklerBandit, I've become a little obsessed with conformation.  I tried to take some pictures of Walker and compare them to SprinklerBandit's thoroughbred, but this was an inherently flawed plan since Walker is not a thoroughbred.  Walker is pretty fat by my standards, but as a general rule, quarter horses are just not as slim and trim as other breeds.  I personally love looking at ads for jumpers online and laughing at how much slimmer they are than my boy.  Don't get me wrong.  I love that Walker is chubby, and in fact, it is due to this characteristic that we continuously won ribbons in Halter Gelding in the summer.  Judges like their quarter horses with a little meat on their bones apparently.

So I looked through a few pictures I had of him to try and compare his progression, but unfortunately pictures really don't do him justice in that way.  The quality of most of them just don't show off the parts of him that I want to compare.

The first picture is one I found of him online.  It was taken before he came to me, and although I don't know how old he is, I would imagine he was around 4 - 6 at the time.  The second picture was taken this past August.  He definitely seems a little thicker in the belly, but generally the same.  He's all shined up here because I had just washed him, so the sun really gleams off him.  I also love how perturbed he is with me in this.


I also went and found this photo from the American Quarter Horse Association.  Apparently it is a painting that was done in order to show the "perfect" quarter horse.  Comparing it to Walker is difficult since you can't really see all the muscles in the same way, but it's clear that Walker is still a little more overweight than "ideal".  I read online that quarter horses bred for halter classes have a tendency to be a little thicker than their performance counterparts, and so perhaps this is why Walker has got such a belly.  I was actually worried that he was losing weight until I started looking at pictures like these.

As a final comparison, I found this photo of Zips Chocolate Chip (one of the horses that is in Walker's pedigree and a pretty famous quarter horse, around here anyway).  In  my opinion, he seems slightly comparable to Walker, although I think that it would help if I had a good shot of Walker with his head carried level (unlike the one in August).

Finally, for my own amusement, I tried to take a more recent conformation shot when I was at the barn the other day.  Walker obliged, since he didn't want to come in from the fields, but he has a weary eye on me just in cases I try something smart!  I'm posting this photo not as an accurate conformation shot, but as a laugh.  Walker has put on his winter coat (he started putting it on in August actually) and he looks so shaggy here.  Considering the dreary backdrop of dying grass and hard ground, he almost looks like one of those backyard ponies that you see sometimes, instead of a horse who is very well-looked after!  Also, notice that he is not wearing a tail bag.  I then had to go through the field looking for it.  Bad pony!

Don't worry, love, you look better in person

Today we put an extra 500 bales of hay in the barn.  My barn owner always gets 5000 bales of hay per year for the horses, but she always does the last load at the end of November to give us a chance to make a dent in the first load.  At my barn, the barn owner gives us a discount if we help put the hay in, so it's usually a pretty fun affair, with a whole bunch of people around and hay EVERYWHERE.  My barn owner was running around like a maniac trying to rake up the loose hay which was getting all in her brand new footing in the arena.  All the kids tacked up their horses to ride afterwards, and I drug out all my riding gear, planning to do the same.  But then there ended up being 5 - 6 kids trying to ride, and they decided that the outdoor arena was still frozen.  Our indoor arena can barely hold 4 at a time, and because I was running late as it was, I decided Walker wouldn't mind a few more hours outside in the sunshine with his friends.  I'll ride him tomorrow to make up for it.  

I took this photo of one of the horses the other day in the field.  This is Ash, the horse that my friend H rides in our lesson.  He has boundary issues.  When you go in the field, he comes right up to you, and after I took this photo, he even put his nose in my hair before I got angry and shooed him away.  He's a pretty fun guy to ride, or so I'm told, although he is a little stiff in one direction (aren't they all?).  However, he has some serious tacking up issues.  He pins his ears against his head the minute the saddle touches his back, and H tacks him up with a crop in her hand because he always bares his teeth like he's about to bite.  He's fine in every other way - he just absolutely hates to be tacked up.  I'm assuming that he must have had problems in the past with a rough kid maybe.  It's unfortunate because he's really like a big dog - he loves being scratched behind the ears and being brushed. 

Now back to my dreaded papers. :S