Hos owner is driving!!!

YAY! I just got the call! I am SOOOOOOOO happy and relived right now! I have the truck with me just in case I need to hook up and drive. The time will be a little bit more rushed getting on, but I should still have time to warm up. I am so happy right now I could melt! YAY!

Stress Vs. Fun Update

So I am feeling much calmer about driving to the show tonight vs how I was last night or in the morning. I am still nervous, and doubt I will sleep, but there is no crying involved. I was able to see a mental health professional for a bit today and also went back over into my old journals from when I used to be scared to leave the house and reminded myself of all the great coping strategies that I have learned. I am going to run home right now and grab the truck so I will have it tomorrow.

2 things that have helped me a lot are…

Good friends. I will not be alone, alone tomorrow. Speedy and Randsoms Owners and their friend will also be at the farm with me to load and we can also caravan over (with me in the middle) if need be. I still feel like I am going to die so I cannot promise making it all the way to the show (because then I have the fear of driving home as well) but I will at least get Texas on the trailer and drive somewhere.

Good thing number 2 is that I might not have drive at all! I am working really hard at not pinning my hopes on this one. You see Texas’s Owner was going to bring her horse to the show to school, but now she is not sure she is going to. If not there is a space for Texas in the trailer and I am off the hook! I am trying not to fixate on this solution seeing as it might not happen, but a girl can hope right?

We will see what tomorrow brings!

Stress vs. Fun

Okay…I am going to let you all in on a little secret. I know I don’t share a lot of personal information on the blog, mostly just horse stuff, but this is relevant. I used to have a very sever anxiety disorder. If you know me know you probably would never guess that it got so bad that at one point I was agoraphobic and terrified to leave my house. I had medication to stop my panic attacks because they were so severe and also went through several different types of treatment. I have conquered my demons for the most part. But sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me. I have had this post written for an hour and struggled with wether or not to post it. I just want to let you all out there know that this was very hard for me to write about. This was a secret that I kept very close to my heart.  I don’t think some of the people that I know in real life even know that about my past.

So as you all know I have a show on Wednesday. And my anxiety level for the show is a 10 right now. I am crying as I write this post. Not because I am worried about the show itself, but because I am worried about getting to the show and back. I have very sever anxiety about trailering horses. I know I have my own rig, but I really do not like driving it. I have been getting better and better the longer I have had it, but the trip to the hunter show last week was the first time that I ever really felt comfortable driving it.

I will only drive one horse at a time. I cannot mentally handle doing 2 yet. I also pick shows grounds that I have been to before and plan to have someone in the car with me in case I start to panic. I know myself and my limitations so I make sure to take precautions to keep myself and the horse safe. With my limitations I know where I feel comfortable going and where I do not. I do not feel comfortable driving to the show grounds where the show on Wednesday is taking place. I drove there 4 years ago with Genny, and at that show several people got their trucks and trailers stuck in the mud, parking on the driveway became a mess, and the roads getting to the show can be a bit tricky.

I assumed that Texas’s Owner was going to drive him, and you know what you get when you assume. I found out Friday that I was expected to drive him there myself. And so my level of anxiety has been elevated since Friday. Last night the shit hit the fan and I had a full blown anxiety attack at 1opm after reading an e-mail that we were going to make a day of going to the show and all go together. Mentally, I could not handle the thought of driving him there and waiting so many hours to drive him home and so it sent me over the edge that I have been very close to for several days now.

If you have never had an anxiety disorder, or suffered with panic attacks you don’t understand what my problem is. For those of you who do understand irrational thinking you feel my pain. Even just writing this post is very hard for me. I am trying to control my breathing to stop from hyperventilating, I am crying, shaking and feel like I am going to throw up. All this at the mear thought of driving to the show. The sad thing is I KNOW my thoughts are irrational. I know that my worst fears will most likely not come to pass, but I cannot control them at this moment.

What are my fears? That I am going to get into a horrible accident and that Texas and I are going to die tomorrow. In my sick brain I think that is really going to happen. Rationally, I know it wont, but the panic has still taken over. And that makes me hate myself. I hate that I am thinking this, that I am letting it control me. If you knew how low I felt right now and how I ashamed I am to think what I am thinking you would have nothing but pitty for me. This is miserable. It is disgusting. It is pathetic.

I have not had a panic attack in YEARS. My daily anxiety is less then the average person. I don’t know what about driving to this show has set me off. Maybe it was because of the short notice? Maybe because of the circles? Maybe because of my negative experiences when I brought Gen there to show. I don’t know what it is. I am having a really hard time with this.

I am debating about whether or not to scratch from the show. Which is making me really angry. Because riding wise I want to be at the show. Texas and I have been working really hard lately. I hit a huge milestone in a lesson on Saturday. For the first time in my life I was able to get a horse truly round and connect without anyone riding them first. It was the most amazing feeling. Such a high. And to be sitting here on such a low thinking about driving instead of riding my tests is just so frustrating.

The crappy thing is that my brain wont allow me to relax even if I do go to the show. I have learned so many great coping mechanisms, and one of them is to hide what I am feeling so that others do not know. The other is to make excuses. I am using this blog as a way to be honest with myself and also to be honest with my friends. So they realize that I am not just weenening out. I was curled up on the floor last night hysterical. I am proud of myself for being able to calm myself down in under an hour. For me that is a huge step.

I just don’t know if I have it in me to go to the show. Becuase I am crazy. And I own up to that. I cannot control how I feel about it right now. I just wish I could stop shaking. And crying. And get a good nights sleep. Something that has been alluding me since Friday.

I am going to do my best to use my coping mechanisms and all the strategies that I have learned through therapy and counseling. And I am going to pry. Because I need help right now and I don’t know if I can provide it all myself. I am going to try and stop hating myself and being so mean to myself. Because that is not helping. I need to find the inner strength to just get to the show and back. I wish my tranquilizers were not expired, but they are and so it is too dangerous to take them. I am staying at the house of an herbalist, so I have natural remedies around me at least.

I am feeling a little better not suffering in silence. I am sure some of you are thinking, “You are not doing to die tomrrow, stop being stupid”. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that I honestly feel like tomorrow is my last day on earth. Rationally, I know that is a stupid thing to think. If I did not suffer from this disorder I wouldn’t understand it either. I hope I can find the courage to go to the show. One of the reasons I got treatment and worked so hard to get better was because of all the things I was missing out on. I don’t want to miss out on this. I hate myself for doing this to myself. I want to go to the show so I hope my brain will let me.

I am ashamed and embarrassed that I had to write this post. I am going to do my best tomorrow and that is all I can ask of myself. As scared as I am to go early I know that I need to so I can be with friends. I am terrified right now. I have literally been in life threatening situations and have felt less fear. Stupid Brain.

The Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame

Finally…I had time to write up part of my fun horsey vacation! I will start with my stop on the way up to Saratoga.

The Harness Racing Museum is located in the town of Goshen in New York on the town’s main street. If you are not a local (which I am not) it can be a little tricky to find. The signs from highway 87 are great…until right around the museum and then they sort of point towards roads that don’t take you to where you want to go. So if you go to see the museum my advice to you is to just keep your eyes open. The museum and track are located on the very end of the main street in the town of Goshen. It has several flags out front of different countries where harness racing takes place.

Once we arrived parking was a snap. You can park right out front! Once you walk under the shaded trees you see this beautiful sign and a walkway filled with bricks that have been engraved with farms and in memory of horses. The exterior of the museum does not look like a normal museum. In fact, it looks a bit like an old time barn…and that is because it was! Going inside I was greeted by a very friendly staff member who told us to go right into the museum because…THE MUSEUM IS FREE!!!! That was an excellent surprise! We started down stairs and went into a section that looked like a stable to start our education on harness racing.

Did you know that Standardbred came from Thoroughbred blood lines? And almost all of them can be traced back to the same Thoroughbred? Harness racing also first took place in Pennsylvania! Go figure. The museum was filled with information on how harness racing begin and the horses and people that made it important. Considering I have never been to a harness race in my life, and the closest I get to Standardbred’s is through your blogs I did not get the impression I was the museums target audience. It was still fun to read about the history none the less.

I think if you have a Standardbred this museum would be fascinating for you. You could probably learn a lot about your horses ancestry and the farm or trainer they came from. The bottom floor was mostly historical and “museum” type information with all sorts of neat nick nacks. Did you know that there was a horse named Hambeltonian? I didn’t. I knew about the race, but not the horse. He is one of the most famous Standardbred’s ever! Although they didn’t start calling them Standbred’s until the 1920s. Because that was when they created a breed standard.

Going upstairs you will find some major kid friendliness (which I loved since I am a big kid myself). There were all sorts of interactive exhibits like getting to ride in a sulky yourself, a giant talking horse head (which scared the crap out of me because it is motion sensitive), and even a ride! They had a theme park style ride of what it is like to ride in a race (which was odd because the perspective was like you were in between the carts, but not on them, but the wind and movement made it feel like you were on the cart). They had a great exhibit on harness racing in movies (and since I love my movies I really enjoyed that one).

You also get an amazing view of the track at Goshen from the second story. As you can see from the sky the weather was not the best when I went, but it was very cool to be able to stand outside and imagine horses trotting (or pacing) down the track. I now have a favorite Standardbred! The “grey ghost” was his nickname and his real name is Greyhound, he trotted the mile in 1:55 and change! Granted this all happened back in 1932, but it was very cool to hear about and to see the paintings of. And of course he was a lovely dappled grey! So does anyone out there have a horse that goes back to his lines? I would love to hear from you.

The other part of the museum is the hall of fame which takes up half of the second floor. It is filled with names of people and horses who have made the sport. I admit that since I do not know a lot about harness racing I did sort of rush through this part. Sorry! They had these cool statues of some of the inductees though which were very cool to look at. And you know how I love my trophies so of course I had to stop and drool at these beauties!

So as you can tell I had a great time at the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone out there who is thinking about visiting. One thing that stood out to me was how wonderful the staff was. Everyone was friendly and helpful, and they even came around looking for us when we went upstairs to make sure that we got to ride the simulator! They were just so nice! The Harness Racing Museum would make a perfect day trip for anyone in the area. It was not even 2 hours from home for me and the drive was totally worth it! Plus,  because the Harness Racing Museum is right on main street you can walk somewhere for a nice lunch and have a great family day. And since there is no admission price it is cheap day trip as well! So if you ever find yourself in, or near Goshen make the trip to the Harness Racing Museum. It is not only OnTheBit approved, it is OnTheBit recommended!

So now for the fun part. Because I has such a great time at the Museum, I felt I needed to contribute to it in someway. So naturally, I made my way to gift shop and picked up some goodies for a little mini blog contest. I got a magnet from the museum which is pretty cool looking (I got one for myself) and a pin and neckless with a horse in full trot and a sulky behind them. I know I have several Standardbred readers, but this contest is open to all if you want the prize. So the question…What is my horse Gennyral’s “real name”? It is also the name I showed him under and his race tack name (hence the tie in). I will give you a hint because it is tricky…I never have written it, but have several pictures (including one of him racing…hint hint) with his name on them. The first person to write his name correctly in the comments wins!

The times for the Wednesday show are up…

And I am shocked to see how few people there are in my class! There are only 12 people at training 3+4…and I know half of them personally! Hahaha. This show is so small in comparison to past years. I was surprised to see my “rival” was showing in the same division that I am. This woman competed against Gennyral and I 4 years ago and she always has her trainer warm up the horse and her horse has TEMPI CHANGES! Do you know how intimidating it is to have a horse come flying across the diagonal AT YOU doing tempi changes when you are showing WALK/TROT. And she is in the show ring right after me this year so I will be in the warm up with her. My expectations this year are totally different though so I don’t think she will psyc me out like she has in the past. I was just surprised to see she was still showing training level because last year she was consistently in the 70%s and was reserve champion in the year ends at it.

The cool thing is that I will have lots of friends in my division with me. Lori, Speedy’s Mom, Texas’s Owner and the leasor of my triner’s Half-Blind Horse will all be in the ring warming up with me at some point so hopefully there will be a lot of laughter going around.

The scariest part of the day for me? I might have to drive Texas myself!!!And there are 2 circles on the way to this farm. And the parking sucks! Texas’s Owner is bringing her fancy horse to school and so I might have to be a big girl if she wants to make only one trip to the show.

So if you are asking yourself why I am not stressing about the riding part the answer is simple. No ribbons. This is a sweepstakes show for money, and considering how much I spend on horses each month and how little the prize is in comparison I really could care less about how I place. Would I love to beat my “rival”? Of course, but considering she and her horse have been together for 4 years, the horse is very well trained, and they are consistently in the mid 70%s I don’t think that is very realistic. And since there are no ribbons being handed out my ribbon junkie self does not even consider this a real show to me. What can I say…I love ribbons!

My only real goal for the day? Break 60% at training 4 so I can get a usable score towards my GMO medals.

Honest Scrap Award

I had the best time in Saratoga!!! I will fill you all in as soon as I get the chance. Trying to clean house so here so here is a very cool award that I need to pass on!

In accordance with the award rules I have to let you all know who gave me this award, 10 things about me you didn’t know before, and pass it along to 10 other blogs.

So first, let me tell you about the cool blog that I got this from. Back when I was leasing X the one good thing about that barn was that EVERYONE was really nice. Including 2 other 20 something boarders that I really enjoyed riding and talking with. They both love their ponies almost as much as I love mine and were just really cool people. One is “Boomerang” and the other is Marissa. Months after Marissa had left the not so great farm the three of us were at dinner and I gave them the link to my blog. And gave Marissa the blog bug as the story goes. I LOVE reading her blog! She is such a good writer, and an AMAZING horse woman. She worked at a breeding farm and feel in love with her horse Tucker as a baby and has raised him herself to be a fantastic 3 foot hunter! She also just bred herself her next show horse (who is a yearling now) so it is amazing to read about this foal who I saw at only a few days old! Can you tell I cannot say enough good things about this blog. You should all check out Marissa’s blog...I can promise you will be hooked on it like I am!

So now onto the 10 things about me that you don’t know…

1) I have this weird pipe dream of buying a yearling someday, sending them to a trainer on the racetrack, having them be a race horse and then when they are going to be retired (of all of 4 years old) re-training them myself to be a dressage horse. I know I could NEVER afford it, nor do I know if I would really want to own a horse running their legs off at 2, but I just have always wanted to do it.

2) I was by far the worst rider on my college’s dressage team, and yet I am one of the only ones still riding! It does go to show that I am one persistent person and that I don’t give up even when I suck at something! My two good friends, Giggles and Ktlyn615, are both WAY better riders then I am, but they have put their horse habit on hold while I am still plugging along! So it is not all about talent people…someday my perseverance will pay off.

3) For these hunter shows I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a new clothes so this summer I put on my old pony club clothes praying that they would fit. I quit ponly club at 13 years old…before I had boobs! Needless to say the breeches were fine, but the tops…not so much. I cracked and bought a new shirt, but I am riding in a navy jacket I have had for well over a decade and that was before I had boobs…I look like a stuffed sausage at the hunter shows! The pictures were hysterical! It looks like all 3 buttons are going to shoot off and hit the camera. When I am rich I will buy a new one right?

4) Even though I use the boring browband that came with my bridle that doesn’t fit Phoenix, I have many others to replace it with. And yet I don’t do it. I have a brow band collection going! Every time I order from dressage extensions I buy a new one from the super sale section, yet they are all on sale for a reason and most have huge stones and I don’t think they are show appropriate (I am very conservative in the show ring) and I get them anyway! It is such a bad habit I need to break. I promised myself that if I don’t order another browband between now and Dressage at Devon I am allowed to splurge and get one of the crazy expensive ones that I will actually USE!

5)  I love Texas. There I said it. I have not felt so strongly about a horse since I got my own! I know I grump about his color, and what a pain in the ass he can be, but I LOVE him. I even bought a new stall plate for him so he wouldn’t be jelous that all the other horses have one and he does not. I could not imagine my life without my fat spotted pony anymore. He doesn’t come close to taking Gen’s place in my life, but I have found myself going over to Ridge farm to just say hello to him! I NEVER thought I would be so attatched. The baby horse was like mold…he just grew all over me with his big personality until I couldn’t help but be smothered to the point of love. I don’t know what I would do without him, lucky for me I wont have to find out.

6) I already know my big show goal for next year. I want to go to the Great American Insurance Group USDF Regional Championships (GAIGs for short) for my region next year.  Considering qualifying for THIS YEARS championships isn’t even over yet I am really weird for looking so far into thr future. I can’t help it though. Going to GAIGs is a dream of mine and so I have already set my sights for 2010. I know a lot can happen in a year and a half, but a girl can dream right?

7) I get a little germaphoic at the barn…I wont eat at the barn unless I can wash my hands, twice…and ensure that the food has not been exposed to horse germs. I have said no to amazing food over the years, even though I was hungry, because I cannot eat it with dirty hands. Even with silverware. It just grosses me out. When I would work 12-14 hours at a barn with no sink and had no breaks I would just not eat all day. Or pee…but that is a whole different level of ewwieness. Needless to say I used to feel like crap on a regular basis because of my OCD. I hope that I am not alone on this one…anyone else out there have some germ issues when it comes to eating at the barn?

I have always wanted to do a hunter pace, but have never had the opportunity. For those of you not from around here a hunter pace is a trail ride with little jumps that is timed in secret and you as a team (you cannot go out alone) have to try and ride as close to the unkown optimum time as possible. I love to trail ride and have helped out at hunter paces, but I have never gotten to go myself! Maybe this fall?

9) I am the queen of grand ideas of projects that I don’t have time to do. I have a stack of 5 horse related books and 2 horsey DVDs that I have been meaning to review for you all, but I have not gotten around to it. I wanted to train one of the mini horses, but haven’t had time, I have 2 horsey crafts I have been meaning to do and write about, and about 30 ideas for blog posts that I have never started. My only comfort is that at least I don’t give up a project because I never start it!

10) I have a secret. I did something very dangerous yesterday. I hadn’t seen my pony in 2 whole days and I was going nutty without him, so when I got back from vacation I went right to see him and he was taking a nap…and lying down. When I went in his stall he wouldn’t get up. So I went over and layed over my pony! I got off before he got up, but it was so nice to lie on his back again!  Shhh…don’t tell anyone what a bad horse person I was. I just coulnd’t help myself.

And now to pass it on…I tried to pick 10 blogs that have NOT gotten this award before, but I could be wrong so if you already got it I am sorry!

1) Solitare Mare over at A Good Horse
2) Jackie over at Ace’s Journey
3) Standardbred Excellence
4) Mary over at Yet Another XCrazy
5) Campin’ Horseluvr
6) Dressage Rider over at Confessions of a Struggling Dressage Rider
7) Michelle over at Homeschooling, Horses and Motocross
Now That’s A Trot
9) wolfandterriers from Ponies in Med School
10) Laura from Little Keebler

Baby’s First Hunter Show – Part 2

Giving my poor pony a pat on the neck so he knows it will all be okay.

By the time we tacked him up they were already on their second class of the division before mine. Not good. The Young Rider and I hurried up to the warm up ring (which was empty) and I had some issues getting on (I can’t bend my knee all the way because of all the scar tissue from surgeries and with short hunter stirrups and no mounting blocking it was pretty funny watching me try to get on from a plastic chair they had lying around). I had only walked 2 times around the ring in the same direction when they gave a heads up for my class! SHIT! I went to get my jacket on just in case, but I was sure they were making a mistake. How do you run through 3 divisions in an hour? And wasn’t there supposed to be a jump class in Show Kids division?

I started to trot just in case. Texas was being a baby at a hunter show. He was sight seeing like you wouldn’t believe. Even though we were alone there were a ton of riders in the other 3 rings and my horses brain was out with them, not in the ring with me. I had not even gotten 2 trot laps in when they called for my division. I like to have about 20 minutes to warm Texas up because he is cold backed and I need that long to get him to relax his back. Well I had about 5 min at that point, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to go in. So there went my nerves about walking him down the hill! We marched down and into the show ring. I know you are supposed to trot in to make a good impression with the judge, but I let Texas walk around.

He was just not paying attention to me. He kept spooking at the stupid judges stand! And the jumps (which don’t look that different from the jumps at Ridge Farm). I hate to say it but my fat spotted pony was a bit of a jack ass in that class. It was only a walk trot class, but his head was in the air the whole time, he was counter bending, and he was ignoring me. I couldn’t get him anywhere near the judges stand, try as I might, so right in front of the judge every time he would try and get away, and I would fight to keep him straight and he would turn into a cross between a giraffe and a pretzel. Not a good thing to be judged on.

Now, the thing with Texas is that he is not a big spooker. He is lazy, yes, and of course he spooks some times, but he does not look for trouble generally. That is because he is usually so focused on trying to do what the rider wants that he doesn’t have the brain space to get himself in trouble. This is the horse I rode in a lesson while someone else was trying (and failing) to teach a giant draft horse to jump causing rails to go FLYING as they crashed through the fences. This is the horse that I rode while the minis were loose and UP HIS BUTT and he just let them sniff his behind. I ride him with deer jumping all around, with horses being turned out and running, with whatever. Why? Because once Texas gets focused on me I don’t worry.

The real problem at this hunter show was that I could not get him to focus on me. I did not give myself enough warm-up time, and in the hunter show I cannot do things I normally do in my warm up like serpentines, curved lines, changes or rein and spirals. For those of you that are going to say, “OnTheBit, he was just picking up on your nerves” I can tell you that I had no nerves once I got on him. I didn’t have any on the ground either until he took my arm out of its socket! I know my riding and I felt that I could handle everything that he threw at me. He was just being a textbook young horse. He didn’t want to pay attention and didn’t think he should have to. With no warm up I did not have time to correct the issue.

So the closed the gate on the class and there were 5 of us in the ring. No one else had warmed there horse up. They were all either mounted and hanging out in the shade, or didn’t get on until the class was called to the ring. I didn’t have time to warm up either so I figured at least we were on an even field. I could not shake the rushed feeling so I cued Texas into an uber fast trot. Only one other horse was as spooky as my baby, and one horse looked like a fully trained hunter, but I can tell you I was just happy I was getting a ribbon (yes, I am shallow). As long as I stayed on that is. The walk trot class was interesting. I couldn’t get my horse anywhere near the judge or the barrels, so I just did my best to not focus on the fact he was being stupid and instead focus on places I would be able to do at least some circles.

When they called the class to line up I knew we had done poorly. Texas was so tense. It was just bad. We did come in 4th out of 5 though, pinning one up from the other spooky horse. I was so happy I signed up for the other classes because my baby horse was being bad. And I was not about to quit after that poor performance. I had not even warmed up the canter, but we had to stay in the ring until he spooked at nothing. Period. That was my gaol. We messed up one of our leads in the canter class, but in dressage you do not need to do walk to canter transitions until second level I believe…so it is not something Texas is used to at all. I didn’t realize that walk/canters were going to be asked or else I would have been practicing them. Still in the second class he was not listening to me. We did manage to get 3rd place.

By this time my camera had died, but my trainer showed up after putting away her nieces pony. She was great at helping me get him at least a little more focused because I am such a dressage queen and I really didn’t know how to use a full arena to my advantage. For the second walk/trot/canter class I needed to do circles at the walk before the canter to get him to bend and to remind me to rock him back on his hind end. I know his weak stifle could only take so much, and if he was being good after the walk/trot class I would have quit then. He was being a pain in the ass though so I had to keep going until I got my no spook lap.

My trainer reminded me to SLOW DOWN my posting. To let go of the forward and get more steady instead. There was no “rush” in getting him to stop spooking. And maybe if I was not running him off his feet I would have more control of his shoulders, giving me more control of his neck. Duh. I just was so determined to “get around the ring” I wasn’t thinking of my riding. When they made us canter to walk, then change rein, and then canter in the new direction within about 30 seconds my baby had enough. I made a circle in the new direction real quickly and asked him to canter…and he decided I needed to get off him at that point. So my fat spotted pony launched into a 4 feet off the ground buck, and then another…into the fence…right by the stands with lots of people in them.

The crowd gasped. The Young Rider told me she thought I was coming off. People in the stands grabbed their loved ones thinking I was about to be thrown into them. When my saddle started to slip to the left I thought so too. Luckily he only bucked twice, and while my leg did hit the fence, I didn’t get stuck in it or break it. So I hung on, tried to right my saddle (which earned another above ground performance) and kept cantering. I was proud we at least got the right lead. I am waiting to see if the professional photographer got a picture of our baby moments. My big baby bucks big so there was lots of hang time to take a picture of. When they called us to line up I knew that I had gotten last place. So imagine my surprise when they called me 2nd!!! I got second place! Even after my horse tried to throw me!

My trainer said that minus my explosive bucking, he was much more rhythmical and pleasant to watch in that class. She also said my pre-canter circle was too small for an unfocused horse and that is why he tried to launch me. I stayed in the ring during the 5 minute schooling break because my baby horse needed to school. He was steadily getting better the longer I was riding him and in the last class we did get our spook free lap. So after the schooling break, where he went around nicely while other horses were jumping around him, I called it a day.

The hunter show reminded me that Texas is still a baby. And that I need to do things like this more often! If I can get a calm, focused horse at a hunter show I will never have another issue at a dressage show again! So because baby was so bad I HAVE to do another hunter show. I have to prove to both of us that it doesn’t matter what we wear or where we go…we can handle it. I know that with more warm-up a lot of my issues would have been solved. So onward and upward. The point of this show was to get experience, and we did. He learned that even if he is a jack ass (which is not normal for me) that I am still in charge and he is going to have to listen to me because I am not going anywhere. I wouldn’t call it a good show, but I will call it a good step in his training. Onward and upward right?

My next dressage show is only a few days away on July 15th! Yikes!

Steffen Peter’s 2009 Musical Freestyle From Aachen…

What a year Steffen Peter’s is having!!! He beat Anky in Aachen! All 3 days of competition! He was the 2009 Grand Prix Champion! I loved watching his freestyle from Vegas, but I had to share the video of him at Aachen because look at how on the aids Ravel is! It is something to see!

Baby’s First Hunter Show – Part 1

So I can tell you that on July 4th I was in a pretty pissy mood about doing this show. You know the saying that “timing is everything”? Well, I did not have any timing on the 4th of July. I had the option of waking up at 4:30am on the 5th or going to the barn between the two BBQs on the 4th. I chose to prep on the 4th and it was horrible. While trying to give Texas a bath there were fireworks going off, bugs attacking us and even some random CANNON FIRE. It was not the most fun time ever. Not to mention that I was annoyed about missing family time (some of my family from out of state that I never get to see came by for the BBQ) and going to be even later then planned for my friends…and well. Let me just put my prep to you this way…

Until you have tried to braid a 5 year old horse in 100% humidity, with half your braiding kit missing, a really bad sunburn making it painful to lift your arms up, and only half his mane pulled, while you were in a bad mood, and fireworks were being set off, along with the occasional cannon fire that was so loud everything shook, in a dark barn, while bugs were eating your horses face making him shake his neck every few seconds, you do not know my frustration level. It was miserable. Poor bugger get yelled at more in one night then he did in last 6 months of my lease. The head shaking made me crazy! It wasn’t until I was 3 braids from being done that I though about fly spray (I am so slow sometimes I swear).

I still had lingering pissyness on the morning of the 5th (caused by having to get up early after going to bed way late), but I headed off to Gennyral’s to get my trailer anyway. I took FOREVER hooking my rig up! I NEVER take longer then 5 minutes anymore, but it took me 15 minutes!! I just could not get the stupid thing lined up! That did not help my mood. Neither did several large manure stains covering his formerly white butt and belly. I told myself I was not allowed to be mad anymore. If I kept up with my poor attitude I would have to not go to the show.Bad attitudes and horse shows do not mix well.

Seeing that he had kept all 18 braids in (I normally do 10-12 for dressage) did cheer me up a lot. And while they were not perfect by anyones standards he looked so cute with his braids pulled up I could not stay in a bad mood for long. I was running ahead of schedule so even though I told the Young Rider not to get there until 8:45 his owner helped me load him at 8:35! I was ready to roll by the time the YR showed up (on time mind you) and we were on our way to show!!

Now the thing I am proud of was that this was my first time really driving Texas anywhere. I am knowing for being super nervous about trailering horses (and have cried several times before doing it) so for me to go to the show and not freak out about the driving was amazing! I also didn’t freak out about parking when I got there. Granted the lot was no where near as full as it normally is for a hunter show, but still. I was really proud. Oh, and did I mention that I have no issue what-so-ever loading my fat spotted pony into the trailer? He walked right in (granted half his breakfast was waiting for him, but still). I pulled up to see my trainer waving and show kid there all dressed up with her pony. How can you not smile at the sight of a 7 year old with her pony?

I was feeling so good that I went to the secretaries stand and  filled out my entry for all 3 of the flat classes in the evergreen hunter division (I had only intended to do walk trot). I did leave a blank check instead of a filled out one knowing that I might scratch from the canter classes depending on how he was being. That is the nice thing about schooling hunter shows, you can just play them by ear. I had it all timed out in my head that I would get him out of the trailer and walk around during the second lead line division and tack and warm him up during Show Kids division. Great plan right? Well…since there were so few people there the divisions were running really fast and so I hard got to hand walk him. And coming down the hill he started to act up.

His eyes had been bugging out of his head since I put him in the trailer, but going down the hill he spooked and jerked me around a bit. I swore that there was no way I was riding him down the hill after he nearly took me out hand walking! Everything was an issue, the paper’s with the courses on them, the strollers, you name it and Texas thought it was going to eat him. Now, I know this sounds odd, but I really wasn’t getting nervous about all the spooking. Texas normally is a very level headed young horse, and so while he was acting like a young horse he wasn’t being stupid on purpose. He was really scared. I just didn’t want to go down the hill. I figured everything else would be fine.

To Be Continued…

We went to a hunter show today!

Full update tomorrow…These two pictures pretty much can give you a hint as to how the day went!

Texas spooking at the judges stand…

And Texas looking like a goofball in the ribbon line up…

More tomorrow!