Riding with Bob

Bob has been trailering in to ride with me for the last month or so. 

I'm not sure I've formally introduced Bob around here. Bob is one of my all time favorite clients and I adore him.

Client Photos: Wesley and Ubee

 It's Tevis day!! Michelle and Bryn are out there on Bambi and Maddie so I'll be obsessively refreshing the webcast and Michelle's GPS tracker. In the meantime, life has been wild around here and my brain has turned to mush. I don't have mental capacity to form words, so you guys get a photo dump. As July wraps up, I'm trying to unload photos that are too numerous for the monthly recap. I'll start with Wesley and Ubee.

Wesley is the little buckskin quarter horse I work with at Ashley's. He and his young rider, Angelica, are new clients this year. I picked them up at their old barn at the end of the winter. Wesley was new to them at the time. 

He was a ranch horse in his previous life. He has a good mind and is excellent on trail. However, he has pretty limited formal training and had no concept of contact (or being in front of the leg, for that matter). 

Additionally, he had a lot of physical stuff going on. He had TMJ that forced Angelica to ride him in a hackamore, but he didn't have enough training to really go well without a bit. His back and pelvis were both out. He required a new saddle (and repeated fittings as his back changed with regular work) and extensive chiropractic work. 

This is Angelica's first horse and she's a relatively new rider. They are learning so much so fast and will be a lovely pair, I think. We balance out their combined greenery by having me ride Wesley periodically. He feels so different than he did six months ago, and I look forward to watching them progress.

Angelica and Wesley have already done two schooling shows this year and I am quite proud of their hard work. Some day, these photos will serve as "before" photos of their journey.

Photos from Ashley's

 I rarely talk about my clients on here in any kind of detail any more. Partially it's because of privacy concerns. There's also the fact that I suddenly have lots and lots of horsey media without talking about horses that aren't mine. If I'm being completely honest, I'm more than ready to retire from horse training and do something else for a living. If I could just ride ponies for fun, I'd be a happy lady. But job hunting is a b**** so I'm still here. I shouldn't complain. Business is going well. I'm just burned out. 

Anyway...

I keep mentioning horses and clients at Ashley's. For some reason, I ended up with a ton of media from this barn this month, so I'm dumping it in a post here. 

Dee is back at Ashley's for the month (and possibly through August). His owner put him on my weekly list and the consistency has done wonders for him. We even had our first few canter strides under saddle this week. Best of all, his owner has been riding him herself!

Introducing: Dee

 I don't talk about client horses in much detail any more, but this one happens to be owned by a photographer and I have media to share, so why not? Dee is an unraced six year old thoroughbred who came from New Vocations. He was in race training, but never got tattooed. He broke a splint bone and had it removed. Then, before he could resume serious work, he bowed a tendon. His connections threw in the towel and sent him to NV.

All photos in this post are by Christie Behot. 

Introducing Mega

 This post is actually less of an introduction and more of a photo dump. And on that subject: the new Blogger continues to make me cranky and it may just be because I'm an old fart who isn't good with new technology but it has definitely taken some of the joy out of blogging. Boo.

Anyway.

I seem to be working with a lot of quarter horses and quarter horse crosses this year; Silky, Lilly, Windy, Outlaw, Aneesah, Pixie, Foxy, Abigail, Amy, Deal, Latte, Trevor... and now Mega. I'm at the point in my life where a teenage QH mare sounds like the perfect candidate for my next horse for keeps. (Technically we have Oreo who is a quarter horse, too.)

Mega is special though.

Mega is a four year old papered quarter horse who came from The Strain Family Farm in New England. He is at Ashley's and belongs to the same woman whose pony I was working last month. Weirdly, I haven't actually met the owner because it's 2020 and nothing is normal these days. 

I get to ride Mega twice a week and I honestly feel like I won the lottery a little bit. If all four year olds were this nice, I would be out of a job. He has such a good brain, a puppy dog personality, and so much try that I can't even. Adorably, he flaps his lower lip when he's concentrating. I can pull him out of his stall, slap a saddle on, and just hop on board without any lunging or anything. I do some ground work in the form of shoulder-in in hand and turns on the forehand, but that has very little to do with his mind. Plus, I would have never guessed "quarter horse" from looking at him. He is fairly tall and thick, and he has this huge, easy step and a natural tendency to carry himself softly in a balanced manner. I am smitten.

For now we're just working on basic walk, trot, canter, and I'm spending a lot of time just staying out of Mega's way while he gets miles under his belt. He does have some typical green horse imbalances and tends to lean on your right leg, but he's improving every ride. 

In the process of fixing that crookedness, I discovered a funny quirk. I started by just putting my right leg on, and Mega seemed to be trying to hop into a counter canter, but that was easy enough to shut down with a half halt. I decided to back it up a few steps. Once I made sure he had the concept on the ground, I introduced turn on the forehand under saddle. That's when I thought I felt him get a little light in the front, but rearing would be completely out of character for a horse like this so I began to suspect something else. Out of curiosity, I changed my reins and, sure enough, Mega offered a perfect spin. I knew the horse had been broke western, but I really do wish people wouldn't teach 'party tricks' like spinning and side passing to young horses. It complicates things later on. 

Still, this boy is super honest and really wants to please, so after some quiet bending exercises and a lot of lip flapping, we got the turn on the forehand in each direction. We've started to do little baby leg yields just to get that bend through the barrel and get off the right rein, and it has also helped with his right lead canter. 

Speaking of which... the first time I cautiously asked for a canter, I nearly toppled over from the shock... in a good way. Mike, who was taking pictures from the center of the arena exclaimed, "Oh wow, he wants to do dressage!" I have to agree.

Since I'm not taking lessons myself right now, I'm using Mike's photos to self-correct a lot of bad habits, namely my tendency to collapse my left side body and hunch my shoulders while staring at my horse's withers. As a result, you guys get a billion photos of my second ride on Mega.

Foxy Photos

I don't believe I've formally introduced Foxy, though I have mentioned her in passing. Foxy is a seven year old quarter horse mare. She belongs to Ashley's mom, Linda, and I love her. She was started correctly by a western trainer in Pennsylvania, but it turns out she's also a super fancy little English horse. Linda got a great deal on her because she's in that awkward height where she's too tall to be a pony, but isn't quite tall enough to be a horse. Even at five years old, Foxy was quiet enough to teach kids and trail ride all over the place. She jumps, has an automatic lead change, and has super comfortable gaits. 

Needless to say, when I got the chance to put some training rides on this girl  last year while Linda was out of the saddle, I was delighted. What a special treat for me. :) While Foxy was safe, comfy, and responsive, she did not have any formal dressage training. I spent my rides getting her in front of my leg, and eventually introducing the concept of contact. Then we started playing with some lateral movements. Foxy already had turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches down, but leg yields were a foreign concept to her. 

Foxy does have a touch of shivers, so she occasionally cross fires at the canter. We did a lot of exercises to strengthen that hind end, including lots of marching up and down hills.

When Linda got back in the saddle, she contacted me for lessons, and we were having a blast. They are a fantastic pair and I enjoyed teaching them. Then coronavirus struck and I went into hiding. Ashley has been working from home and was keeping Foxy tuned up between Linda's rides. 

As I mentioned, I've been substitute teaching at Ashley's for the last month. This included teaching a teenager on Foxy. As it turns out, Linda was having some medical issues that are going to keep her out of the saddle for the time being (unrelated to horses). I still owed her two lessons from before lock down, so we started by having me ride Foxy twice while I was up there anyway. 

Linda has clearly been doing her homework because Foxy felt stronger and straighter than she did last fall. 

My second ride happened to fall on Labor Day, so Mike had the day off. He was picking up a new lens for his camera, so I had him swing into Ashley's to test it out. Huzzah!

Foxy has a new saddle now, and I can't decide if I love or hate it. It's a Voltaire with the sticky seat. It's extremely comfortable and gives you a really secure seat, but I felt like I couldn't move my leg in it like I usually do. With my full seat breeches on, I felt locked in. I probably should drop my stirrups even further, and I found that I rode better without them. 

It's also amazing to me how quickly you can lose rider fitness. I've been riding here and there since June, but three months off definitely took a toll, and I'm not riding nearly as much as I do in any other year. I'm making an effort to do more bareback and stirrupless riding to get some of my mojo back.

As usual, I'm my own biggest critic so I keep nitpicking my posture in these photos, but look how good Foxy looks!

Am I actually smiling?

Photos From Emily's

I'm officially cranky. The new Blogger sucks and it ate this entry twice in a row.

There's still not a lot to report on the horse front. While I feel fairly comfortable outdoors where it's easy to social distance, I am still keeping things really low key around here. I now know of three people who have tested positive for COVID19 despite wearing masks in public and only doing outdoor activities (and one of them even wore a mask during said outdoor activities!) That tells me that while outside is safer, it's not foolproof. Still, this was a horse blog once upon a time, so I figured I'd share some recent photos.

For starters, Hawk's owner, Jess, has found a new pony to ride for the time being. Emily kindly offered her use of Stella, the adorable but super-green Haflinger mare Emily got as a weanling. Previously, I'd only played with Stella once or twice in passing. She is your typical Haffie: bold, sassy, a little lazy, and too clever for her own good. Despite not having a ton of miles under saddle, Stella is safe enough for kids to ride, mostly because getting her to go takes a lot of work. Getting Stella to actually work and be a grown up riding horse is going to be an interesting and fun journey. Jess is used to Hawk, who was sensitive, forward, and had a great work ethic. While a lot of what she learned in her lessons with him is going to transfer over to Stella, Jess is also going to have to learn a ton of new skills in a very short period of time. Stella is probably the greenest horse Jess has ridden. 

I want to take a moment here to mention that Other Other Jess* has played a huge part in Stella's path to maturity. She is a brilliant rider and has been putting some miles on Stella for about two months now, which has made my job infinitely easier.

*There seems to be an unusually high concentration of Jesses at this barn. Je$$ with Gunner, Jess^2 who owned Hawk, and Other Other Jess who has this gorgeous buckskin mare named Latte that I adore.

Jess has had three lessons on Stella so far and they've already made an incredible amount of progress. So far, we're doing a lot of theory talk and making sure all the basics are in order but the results are visible already.

Lesson 1

Lesson 3.

Clinic Series Recap

I guess I'm not completely out of material yet. I forgot that I never talked about the series of groundwork clinics  I was in the middle of giving before all this happened
.

All photos by my lovely assistant, Sarah, of HeyThereLefty Photography.

Ubee Updates

The only place Mike and I have gone this week is to Sandy's house to pick up some fresh beef from their cows. This is something we've been meaning to do forever now. In the past, we've had a freezer full of venison and no room for beef when butchering time comes around. That's the one piece of good timing we've had in all this, and now we definitely won't need to re-stock on meat while this is going on. Sandy also sold us two dozen eggs from her chickens and threw in some marrow bones for the dogs and some potatoes and onions from her garden. Hoping to find an equally good source of fresh veggies in the near future because the idea of going into a grocery store right now is really freaking me out.

But enough about that... it's time for some light, happy content.

My last day of teaching was on Friday, and I started my morning off with Ubee and Helen. Helen has had Ubee for just over a year now, and now that she's working nights, she's been riding him pretty consistently.

Long story short, Cara (the BO) is supposed to be moving in the near future. Since Helen is one of the only boarders who rides at all, the farm is in a bit of disarray. We've been stuck in the indoor partially because of weather, but also because the outdoor ring was under construction, and then never got done. Well, Helen spent a weekend cleaning up one of the unused paddocks by the barn to create a makeshift outdoor. The footing is not ideal and it's sort of an awkward triangular shape, but it's nice to get a change of scenery once in a while. This meant I could finally bring my camera and get some actual pictures of Helen and Ubee. Ubee was a little up to start. It was a windy day and there was a lot to look at. It was the kind of day where I normally would have gotten on and ridden through the silliness, but we were practicing social distancing so Helen worked through it herself with me coaching from the center of the ring.

It wasn't until I uploaded the photos at home that I realized just how far Ubee has come in his year+ with Helen.

This is Ubee when he first came off the track. Pro rider in Kentucky.

Ubee with Helen on Friday. The difference in his muscles is amazing!

Gunner Updates

Since I know Gunner is a crowd pleaser, here are some recent happenings in his life...

First and foremost, the "new" saddle made a huge difference for Jess. While I still want to lengthen her stirrups a bit, she is now able to ride securely without looking like she's coiled up in a little ball. I wasn't aware of how big of a difference the tack change had made until I saw a photo from this week's lesson compared to one from this past summer:

June

Last week.

Trail Rides with Lucy

(I was putting this entry off until I got some nice photos of Lucy at liberty, but it is currently snowing/icing and I'm off for the fifth day in a row, which almost never happens without a lot of prior planning or a big trip involved.)

I ride a lot of horses. Thirty-eight so far this year. It's not as many as in the rescue days (150 or so a year) but it's still a lot. I get attached to every horse I work with to some degree. It's impossible not to. However, it has been a very long time since I've fallen in love with a horse. At the end of the day, they don't belong to me, and I often get no say in what happens to the horses that pass through my life. Not falling in love is a coping mechanism that I've developed over the years. Twelve year old me would be horrified, but this is not the Saddle Club. It's real life, and that means having to put up boundaries if I want to stay in the horse industry and retain any of my sanity.

The last time I checked in about Frances (Booger's owner), it was 2017 and she had bought a paint gelding who ended up not being a good match for her. She re-homed him and dropped back off my schedule until the summer of 2018. That's when I got hired to do my annual handful of rides on Lilly. Fran rode her as well, in the ring at home. In the process, I mentioned my growing concerns about the mare's weight. I like my horses round in general, but Lilly was outright obese despite being on a hay-only diet. Frances got blood work done and it came back implying metabolic disease.

Once again, Fran and her horses dropped off my schedule. Frances bought a house (condo?) in the south and spent some significant time down there. Winter rolled around and she occasionally sent me horse ads by email. The endurance season picked up and business kept rolling right along.

Then, in July, Frances sent me the following video with the caption, "Seems like a nice mare. What do you think?"

Six year old MFT mare in Texas.

Hawk Updates

Jess and Hawk have also been making awesome improvements in their lessons. We've had a lot to work on, but Jess is dedicated and works hard at her homework. The difference is visible!

Jess and Hawk before they started lessons with me.

During a lesson in October over the same type of jump.

Abigail Photos

I took these back at the beginning of October, so they're outdated already, but I wanted to share some newer photos of Sarah and her mare, Abigail. Abigail has made amazing progress this year. She has gone from being tightly wound and scurrying at both the trot and the canter to really and truly relaxing. In fact, we've had to wake her up a bit in recent lessons, which is a nice change. She has learned how to actually go forward instead of just moving her little legs faster. Plus she has become the queen of stretch, which is not super surprising given her breeding.

This was Abigail at the trot in May.

Here she is October 1st, in a similar moment in her stride. 

Birthday Beach Ride

This has apparently been a year for bucket list items. Despite the fact that I've lived in New Jersey pretty much my whole life, and despite the fact that I ride horses for a living, I'd never gotten a chance to ride a horse on the beach. Last weekend, that finally changed!

Gunner Photos

You guys... Gunner has been doing so well. He has been doing All The Things this year and has become a barn favorite. This doesn't surprise me at all, but I think Jess is super proud, and she deserves to be after how hard she has worked. Gunner is a Good Egg, but he is not an easy horse. Between his standardbred gaits, his occasional lack of coordination, and his ability to flail, he has made a lot more work for his owner than is necessary. And yet... she has persisted and turned him into something really special. I've already shared some photos from their recent adventures in my monthly posts. Their adventures have included jumper shows, pleasure classes, hunter paces and trail rides. Gunner even won a command class because he had the best halt and rein back in the group.

Perhaps my proudest moment, however, was when they went to Thursday Night Dressage at DVHA in the pouring rain and scored a 64% in open company in front of a real judge! He even got an 8.0 on his halt! Best of all, Jess even admitted that she might have had fun in the process!!

I recently remembered to bring my camera to a lesson to take progress photos, which I'll share here.

In the meantime, the struggle to find a better saddle has continued. I may have finally found one that works! I spotted a dusty dressage saddle in the tack room at work and asked Juli if I could borrow it for a test ride. The improvement was immediate and Jess felt much more secure. Thinking we'd found a winner, I Googled the saddle (E. Jeffries) and discovered that it's British. Of course. So if anyone has an E. Jeffries dressage saddle that they'd be willing to part with, shoot me a price! As it is I'm hoping maybe this one would be available for the right amount...

I still have a few saddles I want to try. I'd really love to  find something with an external thigh block to take for a spin. I swear... saddle shopping is worse than horse shopping.

Now I'll have to bring my camera again so we can get photos of Gunner being awesome and Jess looking more balanced.

Without further ado, here are some recent photos :)

Grace at Nationals

Let's post some good news around here for a change, shall we?

Grace, the little red roan TWH mare that I started in 2017, has been doing so so so well. She went to the NWHA National Championships in Tennessee and came home Grand Champion. I am thrilled on many levels. I love that she's having a successful show career, of course, but I'm also super happy that there's an entire national organization devoted to flat shod, naturally gaited walking horses. Also, I cannot believe how mature she looks now! She's all grown up. ❤❤❤

Photos taken from FB. I believe these are by Ken Siems.

Introducing Jagger

Jagger has already made a few appearances on the blog, and you guys have been hearing about Emily and her barn for years. Jagger is an appaloosa gelding that Emily picked up, and who I jokingly call a "very good donkey".

Recent lesson photo.

2018's Crazy Client Award

(Read this post quickly because I suspect it won't be staying up for long.)

As some of you have noticed, I have really started to move my clientele in the right direction! Over the last year and a half , I have implemented some pretty strict policies. I've increased the price of evaluations, cracked down on my driving radius, and stopped tolerating people who are inconsistent with their horses.

The racehorse gig has really helped me be able to put my foot down from a financial standpoint because I now have a steady back up income year round, just in case.

It helps that Mike is super, super supportive. His attitude on the crazies has always been, "They're not worth it, kick 'em to the curb. We'll figure it out."

I am thrilled to report that I currently have exactly zero crazy clients. I look forward to every single one of my lessons. There are still ups and downs, and days when the weather is terrible and nobody wants to leave their houses. Horses are still horses and they occasionally get hurt or have off days. Overall, however, every single horse I am currently working with is a solid citizen with a dedicated owner who lessons on a regular basis. Go me!

With that said, I did not manage to get all the way through 2018 without a single crazy client. Now that they're officially removed and blocked on Facebook, I've decided that you guys would probably get a kick out of a good old fashioned Dom's Crazy Client Chronicles story. After all, it's been a while since I got to write one of these up ;)

To make up for the distinct lack of other crazies in 2018, the winner of the annual This Is Why Dom Drinks Award is an entire family. Their names will be changed to protect the opinionated-with-big-mouths-in-the-local-horse-industry.

[Finally] Introducing Abigail

The busier I get and the more my clients are normal, sane people with good horses who chisel away at their progress and goals, the more this blog moves away from training tales. I think part of that is that I want to protect my clients from the potential scorn of the internet. I don't post pictures or videos without permission and I focus on the positives as much as possible. However, the blogosphere can be a cruel and heartless place, and there are plenty of people who like to say negative things without knowing all (or sometimes any) of the context. That's why I almost never post "before" pictures unless I also have "after" pictures to share. I've been very lucky and my readers in the last several years have been nothing but polite and supportive in the comments, which is the only reason I keep sharing client stories at all.

Photo by HeyThereLefty Photography.

I have mentioned Sarah and her mare, Abigail, in passing over the past several months. I am absolutely delighted to have both the horse and her rider in my program and I look forward to our lessons so much. If I could have a dozen clients like this, I wouldn't have to do anything else.

Kylie Updates

Epic ride story coming up soon, but I don't have time to even begin to delve into it before my afternoon lessons, and it has been a week since my last post so let's do a quick filler entry!

You may have noticed (probably not, since I can barely keep track of my own clients) that there has been a bit of radio silence regarding Kylie around here. After she got Grand Champion in her division at ESDCTA year end awards, Sam and I had grand plans of moving up a level, doing a winter series, and moving forward in leaps and bounds this season.

Unfortunately, horses have their own way of managing show goals.