Fences Make Good Neighbors... but they don't make good friends

Yesterday was one of those long, hard days of work that has little to do with actually riding, and a lot to do with elbow grease, dirt, and sweat.   Last week, one of the pasture fences blew down in the middle an extraordinarily windy night.  While, thankfully, the horses were in, the other casualties included several stray jump barrels that blew into the tree line bordering the next farm over.  After finding them, it took some effort to roll them the considerable distance back home.  Is barrel wrangling a marketable skill?

However, the fence was a bit harder to fix.  We had always joked that it was more of an optical barrier to keep the horses in, than a physical one, and planned on switching to electric soon.  This storm gave us the perfect opportunity to jump-start the project.

While cutting down boards, picking up the boards, yanking up posts, picking up the posts, and filling three out of every four holes with sand sounds like quite a varied list of tasks, when you factor in the variable of time (roughly two hours to complete each element), the monotony seems endless.  In that you cannot allow your mind to drift when dealing with heavy machinery, and must instead focus entirely on pulling up one post, setting it aside, then pulling up the next, and the next, this particular task is more than a little bit like setting out on a long run.  Rather than contemplating the miles that you are about to stride over in a hopefully effortless fashion, you must instead focus on what's right in front of you: starting with a single step.  If you count the total number of steps - or posts - that lie ahead of you, your incentive to start will quickly diminish.  And so, in this way, we worked for seven hours, doing the same small tasks over and over.

On the bright side (and there always is a bright side!), I now feel proficient at driving old stick shift tractors.  After stalling, getting stuck in the wrong gear, and many other neophyte-type mistakes, which were a neverending source of humor throughout the day, my driving was getting pretty slick by the end.

I'm just glad that 1) I did my two rides in the morning, before the fence, 2) I had good (and strong) company to work with, 3) that we got the holes filled before the pouring rain arrived today, and 4) I'm living my dream, living my dream :)

Now we can look forward to putting in the posts and stringing the new fence - a process that should take significantly less time, as well as much less future maintenance.  Oh yeah, and switching the fencing of three other fields, but that will be another day's adventure!

Jack Be Nimble

In dedication to a little horse with a big heart...

I had to say a hard to goodbye Jack today, when he returned to his owner's farm.  Sadly, we discovered a cyst on his left front navicular bone, causing off and on lameness that will make him unable to work for the rest of his life.  An adorable liver chestnut with a Secretariat-style star and stripe, and an in-your-pocket personality, Jack had found his niche in foxhunting and was showing promise for a bright future before his untimely retirement.

In the spring of 2011, Jack came to us, a green, four year old OTTB who had been put out in a field after his racing career was over.  At first he just learned the basics of dressage and jumping, and how to balance himself.  But in the fall when he started hunting, we found a discipline where he shone.  He went first flight his first time out (which was incidentally my first time out too), jumped all the big boy jumps, wasn't phased by the hounds, and somehow managed to get in at least a 30 second nap at all the checks.  It was a joy to learn the ropes of hunting on a horse who took to it so naturally.

The other phenomenal story about Jack is his incredible fitness.  Within the one week of being on a foxhunting conditioning program, we couldn't get him to break a sweat or start blowing at all with up to two hour rides of trotting and cantering.  His musculature changed so rapidly, it seemed like he had turned into an incredible endurance athlete overnight.  He had literally turned into a nearly ideal foxhunter, and there were several people interested in buying him when...

It came on suddenly, as these things do, and at first we thought Jack had just gotten an abcess.  However, after several weeks of treatment with nothing coming to a head, it was clear that further investigation was warranted.  The x-rays revealed the source of Jack's soreness, and the difficult decision was made that he would leave.

However, these things happen in life, and there's always a new path to take.  These days, Jack has found a new job as a therapy horse for the Wounded Warriors program to help veteran soldiers recover from their traumatic experiences.  They couldn't have a better horse for that job; Jack absolutely thrives on attention.  So, we'll never know the sort of hunt horse he could've been, but sometimes these twists and turns in life are for the best.   This post is for the little horse we called Jack Be Nimble, the horse who galloped happily in the hunt field, whose cheerful face was always the first one to greet me as I walked into the barn every morning, whose bright spirit will now go on to help others as a shining beacon of hope.  To Jack.

WisAir Saddle

Hey gang,
Here are some details on my awesome new saddle, in response to a couple of questions.  It's a WisAir Dutton RZ cross country saddle with an extra forward flap.  Although it hasn't been warm enough yet to test the ventilation system incorporated in this monoflap, I can attest to the quality of all other aspects of the saddle.  It's super light-weight, a feature which I can already tell that my sensitive-backed thoroughbred appreciates.  It also has an adjustable gullet system and comes in two different leathers.

All in all, Phillip Dutton and Ronald Zabala-Goetschel have done a really good job making a high tech and (relatively) affordable saddle.  Here's a link to their website: http://wise-equestrian.com/.  Thank you - we love these saddles!

Saddle

Usually when people move up to compete at the preliminary level, it's time to get a second saddle.  Maybe not an Albion, but at the bare minimum, it's standard to have a dressage saddle by then.

On the contrary, when I started going prelim last summer, I sold my one and only saddle.  (It got in the way of my position, anyway, and my trainer refused to let me ride in it!)  But noo, it's not what you're thinking.  I didn't ride bareback at the shows.  Although, come to think of it, that probably would have made a significant contribution toward turning eventing into a real spectator sport.

Luckily, with the support and generosity of my friends, I was able to share some really nice saddles throughout the year.  I'm constantly thankful for all of their help - I wouldn't have made it otherwise!

But today... I rode in a saddle that I own myself.  After much patience and searching, my parents finally helped me stretch the budget to get an awesome saddle.  After weeks on order, then getting shipped to the address next door, and finally being discovered by my neighbor, I found myself girthing it on to a very feisty Indy.  The epic first ride...

As soon as my breeches hit the saddle, Indy was off and running.  Spooking here, skittering there, he was determined to give the saddle a good breaking-in on its first outing.  I was happy, though, and feeling in adequate control of the situation, basking in the glory of this new little piece of leather, when we trotted around a corner to find three Christmas trees piled in the path.  Faster than the blink of an eye, my courageous steed ducked a shoulder and spun 180 degrees, then bolted.  Everything was still fine until he started the bronco act; at that point, my ride was in jeopardy.  You know the feeling - time speeds up and if you flash forward you know that you're about to get a face-full of mud.

No, I thought, this will not happen in this saddle's very first outing.  It will not suffer the indignity of being strapped haphazardly to a wild horse seen galloping and bucking crazily back to the barn.  And so, with a desperate determination, I clung on with tooth and claw, pleasantly surprised to find a pair of knee blocks right there to support me.  (The joys of nice saddles!)  Anyway, I swung back into control and decided to let Indy stretch his legs a bit before returning to the inevitable confrontation with the Christmas trees.  Branches whipping past my face, I couldn't help smiling as we flew into the wind, close call forgotten.  Next time I'll just remember to use my customary neck strap - who needs dignity?!

Indy

Indy, also known as Wild Trip, is a crazy cute little thoroughbred that I own now.

I could write a whole book of his quirks - he was more difficult for me to retrain and form a working connection with than my other two horses combined!  As a successful racehorse, Indy won his fair share of races before coming off the track at age seven (too bad I didn't own him then!).  After he came off the track, he went straight to the event world, where he advanced through the levels quickly, because of his inherent talent and athleticism.

Unfortunately, his confidence did not match his talents when I brought him home (at least with me in the saddle).  I had some early rides on him where it would take me more than an hour to get him to walk over a simple ground rail.  A slightly neurotic, pea-brained little thoroughbred, his other bad habit was backing up, rearing, and flipping over.  Obviously we had some trust issues to overcome!  I had to figure out how to establish my role as a leader in his life in a very tactful but also firm way.  With lots of patience, consistency, and, most of all, help from my trainers, Indy slowly started to come around.  I learned how to respect his personal boundaries while, more importantly, I taught him to respect mine.  It's so rewarding now every time he comes galloping up to me in the field, watches me unblinkingly as I bustle around the barn doing my chores, or saves my butt out on course!  About two years later, in 2011, he was ready to take a shot at eventing again.  Amazingly, everything started to click with him and he had a great season, moving up to prelim with me in the summer.

Seneca Valley HT, 4th

first prelim at Loch Moy

rainy Morven Park stadium round

Hello! Do you have treats?

Indy at the second Maryland Horse Trials at Loch Moy

After about two years together, we finally formed a solid partnership and started to develop his work ethic.  Indy is an uncannily catty jumper and will now get me out of just about any scrape that I put him into.  The other major improvement lately has been his topline!  Indy has always been a small guy, standing barely 16 hands at the top of withers higher than Mount Everest. Lately, though, he's traded in his skinny ewe-neck for a crest more fitting a warmblood.  All his hard work is paying off!

topline: January 2011

topline: January 2012

Just about everything else about Indy has changed too: on the ground now, he is just about as quiet and settled as grandma's horse, and he is a real gentleman to ride now.  Well, unless it's windy, unseasonably warm, or the mood is just right - you get the picture, he still has his certain "pizzazz".  However, special skills now include: cross-tying, allowing himself to be groomed, ground-tying, and recognizing the crinkle of a peppermint wrapper from distances of up to a quarter mile away!