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As we work very hard on our dressage this winter, I am dreaming of Spring and the chance to show off our hard work and improvement.  In the meantime, here are some snapshots of our beginner novice dressage at Aspen Horse Trials in September 2010.

Not too tense coming down the center line...don't even ask about that right hand of mine...and yes, pony is barefoot.


She focused and put in some lovely trot work...           



I may be bias, but this is still the cutest, most beautiful pony face in the world. My Wild Pony Princess!

Willowbrook PC Horse Trials @ Caber Farm, August 28, 2010

Kiger Frost Moon - Cross Country and Show Jumping

Rain, flood, cold, snow, ice.  That's the mix of weather in Seattle's Cascade foothills from mid to late September until early spring.  And the predictions for this winter are that La Nina will bring us lots of cold and snow.  Since my tack felt damp several mornings already this past week, I turned on the de-humidifier in the tack room.  It promptly sucked an entire bucket of water out of the air and I realized that it's already time for winter preparations.  Ugh! I haven't even finished the tack room redesign.  I guess I now have excuses for pony parties after dark in the name of finishing that project

 

Normally this would be a seasonal time to check the fence lines and do one last weed whack.  But my son can tell you loudly and grumpily -- we have a 16 month-old Kiger filly named Maya who is a climber.  If there's a fence of any kind, she has to climb it, much to my dismay as I constantly attend to scrapes and owies from her antics, but more to the chagrin of my son who has to walk the fence line daily and make repairs.  She does come by this nasty habit honestly; Her mama has climbed out of several 6-8 foot enclosures and her Dad and sister were fences jumpers at her age.  But still, we are working on building sturdier and taller enclosures, and getting her to tolerate turn out boots (hahaha says Maya).

Maya the Fence Climbing Fiend

 

Getting barn cleaning and organizing chores done now makes winter a little easier and safer, so I try to get the barn vacuumed all the way to the ceiling, including the light fixtures.  The mats get their scrub down and the stalls get a once over cleaning and any needed repair.  The feed barrels get a cleaning and kitties get their tree nook lined with extra bedding and a heated water bowl. 

 

The ponies already look like bears ready to hibernate and even the big white TB is getting a thick coat on him.  Soon it will be time to clip those in training.  So the clipping supplies get inventoried - cool lube, blade cleaner, sharpened blades and spares, extra dandruff shampoo to soothe the irritated skin.  My rule of thumb for clipping is that only ponies that are worked to a sweat 3 or more times a week get clipped.  Usually I do a trace or hunter clip, but if I am going to be going to shows and working a pony to prepare for spring events, I will do a full body clip, including legs.

 

Of course clipping means blanketing.  Several of the horses are already in rain sheets for turn out, but I am pulling out the winter clothes and checking for correct sizes.  There's always one blanket that never made it to the cleaner or needs repair because it got used late.  This year I am trying to save a bit more and do my own cleaning at the local Laundromat and tear repair with the Rambo repair kit.  I’ll let you know how that works out.  As I was bringing out the rain turn out sheets, I was finishing up washing and packing summer clothes like scrims and fly sheets to make room for all the winter blanket bulk.

 

Here in the foothills we are just weeks away from flood season, which can strand us for up to a week from getting out over the river valley and supplies getting in.  And some year’s snow and ice follows quickly.  I have been pulling out my kits and going through them to make sure I have enough winter supplies - here that means thrush and scratches remedies for sure - but also general supplies and the emergency kits.  I ordered an extra 10 bales of hay and an extra bag of grain for October in case we get flooded in early.

 

The fans are getting cleaned and ready to be put away and the tack room heater and tank de-icers will come out.  We don't usually get extended freezing weather, but it's a real pain when it does freeze.  The pasture water troughs have a de-icer 24/7 during the winter months and we maintain a spare tank for dipping out water in the barn in the mornings.  I keep Vanodine on hand to treat the water if it has been standing for a while, and that maintains it's potency in water up to 70 degrees.   

 

On the list for next month is to check tire chains, winterize the trailer, and get a load of 5/8 minus gravel, a bag of ice melt and sand, and get the horses clipped.  And if those snow predictions keep up, I may try to budget in a snow blade and chains for my lawn tractor.  Woo hoo!

 

What do you do to prepare for horsey winter?

So we are home from Aspen HT over the Labor day weekend.  The weather was the ideal late summer WA - hot in the daytime sun and cold at night.  Thank goodness for the propane heater and shade canopy.  And no rain!  Overall it was a great experience for us though we had a minor hitch (I will come to this later).  Aspen was a four day affair.  We tent camped on the grounds so we hauled in massive amounts of stuff.  Arriving Thursday about 11AM, most of the day was dedicated to setting up the stall and horse area before riding.  The horses are kept in temporary stalls and we were in "Barn B" which consisted of six double row temprorary barns.  There was also a barn A and C.  Barn B was situated up on a plateau and surrounded by a ditch that certainly must become a moat in the rain.  It was interesting watching people navigate over the pallet "bridges" and horses over the drainage ditches to get up to the stalls.  There were a few spectacular falls and leaps by both humans and equines. Trailers, trucks, RV's, etc were parked below the barns to which your horse was assigned.  We stabled with our "team mates" from No Faults Farm.   Water was located centrally in a large tank, so when we weren't riding we were hauling water and of course cleaning stalls, cleaning tack, grooming, walking the horses, braiding, unbraiding, and wrapping.

Barns B with the moats and pallets bridges
Our Thursday evening practise ride was less than ideal.  Frosty is used to turnout, and so her trailer ride and then being confined to a stall all day left her a bit grumpy.  Add to that all the commotion of the show and a warm up area four horses deep, and she was tense and ready to kick.  We spent as much time as possible just riding around the grounds looking at everything before we needed to get into an arena to work.   Frosty did relax more and find a rhythm before our training session ended as the sun began to set.  We bathed and cleaned tack by lantern light and then DH, the dog and I retreated to the heated tent.

The "small courts" for Novice dressage tests
Our dressage test was just before 10 on Friday morning, so we had plenty of time to hack again before warm up.  Again, the warm up area was high traffic, and Frosty was in wild pony mode ready to protect herself from the not-my-herd big horses running after her (or so she thought).  Luckily our dressage arena had its own warm up area for "on deck" riders, and our warm up really took place there and we hit a wonderful balance and rhythm.  Frost put in her best test to date.  She was on the bit, round and swingy most of the test.  Her trot work was lovely.  Mom had a brain fart and went off course (I still think I rode 2 circles, lol!) and so I cost us 2 points there.  Our main issues at this point are staying forward in our down transitions and that right lead canter.  But we have time, and the pony was lovely.  And so we finished our first phase standing in 15th place in a division of twenty one horse and riders.

Wild Pony Princess braided for dressage.
Saturday, day two, the Novice divisions ran staium jumping rather than cross country as the organizers were juggling divisions up through 2 star and two different cross country courses.  It was a hurry up and wait day.  Our ride time was not until 3:45.  And as those days often go it turned into hurry up, wait, hurry up, mess up!  Just as I was dressing and tacking for stadium, Murphy's Law of Everything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong kicked in.  In a rush to make my warm up, I did a very bad thing.  Tacking up my tense, wild mare who has been girthy since day one, I tightened the girth sharply in one fell swoop.  Brain fart #2.  Before it even registered, she kicked me right on the belly of my thigh.  Cow kicked me no less!  Thank goodness she's baerfoot.  I was crying and swearing and rushing and generally losing my mind as we haphazardly made it to the stadium warm up.  Now, Frost was pretty freaked out.  She knew she did a big bad, plus she had been sitting around waiting, and anticipating all day.  The warm up area was a bit overwhelming with horses galloping around, trainers yelling at riders and riders calling one of the three warm up fences as everyone went around in circles.  The first reaction Frost had when she got "attacked" from behind by a horse approaching from behind was to kick out.  Whoa wild pony!  And so we spent as much time as possible navigating open space and finding a canter rhythm.  Frost got her hrythm and got some jumps in but by that time my kicked thigh muscle was cramping and I was using my breastplate to hang on.  I seriously went into the ring just to get it over with.
The jump course was straight forward and fair, but there was a few jumps to look at and a few tricky lines for a green horse.  Frosty did really well for a pony that still requires lots of riding.  She was 100% honest and while her form was not so pretty she got the job done (it's hard to be scopey when your pilot lets you go with too little gas and stride to the base of the fence).  We had one oops and missed a fence while gawking at a tent left up from dressage to the side of the ring, costing 40 time penalties. 
Ice, ice, ice, then ice and heat.  My thigh had a nice welt and knot.  I really thought I was ready to ride XC on Sunday.  We had time to walk around and look before heading to warm up.  As soon as we started to warm up I knew I was in trouble, and after jumping a little crossbar I wondered if I should be riding.  Now my coach had made me a grab strap, which I was using, but just keeping my leg on hurt.  We decided on a "Plan B" to jump the first four fences on course and retire.  But once on course I should have listened to my body and pulled up, but instead we eliminated.  Constantly learning lessons with horses!
And so, overall, I think we had a good learning experience.  I got the feedback from the pony that I really can calm her down in a high stress situation to a dressage frame of mind, and I really do pilot over fences and give her confidence.  Aspen was a gorgeous venue and the Elliots and Aspen crew did a fabulous job with the entire event, but especially in their first 1 and 2 star offerings. 
Look for more pics of Aspen as they come in!

It's been a busy few weeks!  Frosty has been working hard to prepare for her last one day schooling show before her first USEA recognized event.  We have been schooling dressage, show jumping, cross country, and conditioning.  Big thanks to our coach Lexi, our friends Meika and Jordan at Polestar, and Jessica and Julia at Traumhof for helping to make all the preparations possible. This past weekend we went to the Willowbrook One Day Horse Trials at Caber Farm.    Frosty was a rock star!  She took a last minute change in dressage test (=little warm up while Mom got the test memorized) in stride and stayed steady in her pace and got some nice comments from the judge.  Having just got the swing of dressage, XC then stadium, Frost was a bit thrown by doing stadium jumping first.  We had to walk through the XC warm up area to get to the stadium area.  So, she was ready to gallop and tackle some jumps when we entered the ring!  About half way though the course she settled in, and overall she hit her spots and jumped big and bold.  And she was anticipating her next fence on course, throwing in flying lead changes as if she does this all the time.
XC was a solid, fair course for BN.  Frosty has just recently started schooling bigger, solid XC fences, and so I was very pleased with her big, confident jumping on course.  The pony was quite pleased with herself and celebrated her conquest with the Daddy, slobbering all over him and getting kisses.  Dogs and the pony herd were happy to have us home.
A day off for both of us at home and then we went right back into preparation for Aspen Horse trials this weekend.  Dressage school, hack, mane pulling, clipping, and cleaning tack and laundry Tomorrow is our final jump lesson and then lots of last minute packing and off to Aspen for four days!
Stay tuned!  We have professional photos from Caber on the way and we will have videos at Aspen and John will have the digital camera too.

So wild pony Princess Frosty took a big step up at the Lincoln Creek Benefit doing her first Beginner Novice - which is 7 inches bigger in height and even more in width than our previous novice events.  She rose to the challenge and made me proud!  We had our first really nice dressage test.  By nice I mean that she was relaxed, straight, and did not spook at any part of the dressage ring or get upset by the judge's tent or trucks.  Not even the truck next to us that honked its horn for the start bell. We had a focused, relaxed test that I am proud of.  Warming up for cross country, we were already jumping bigger fences than usual but Frosty took it in stride.  I could have walked off the warm up area and called it a success.  The BN course was mostly the same course for the next weekend's USEA recognized event, and so several of the fences were max height and width, and many were types of jumps we have yet to school.  So, to be fair to myself and the pony princess, I had to go onto the course with an open mind and with a plan B.  And plan B it was by the max #2 barn coop jump!  Being a non-USEA event, you have much latitude in what you do on course.  Frosty cantered up to the barn jump and about 5 strides out her pony eyes could see how wide it was.  She slammed on those brakes and popped her eyes out.  This was not a naughty stop, it was shear surprise, then shock, kind of like, "Mom!  You almost ran me into the side of that building!"  Ok, the concept of jumping bigger more solid objects has not yet gelled for her.  Luckily, this jump had  a smaller version next to it for us to school.  We finally got over the BN side but Frosty was rattled.  And so, plan B was on, school as much of the lower fences as possible first, and skip the max table late in the course.
At this point I want to give a big shout out to volunteers who help out at events.  You don't know how crucially important they are until there are not enough at an event.  Please volunteer if you are not riding or have time after you ride!  While we were on course this day, there were volunteers positioned so that they could see several fences to maximize coverage.  The only problem was not being able to pull up riders if necessary.  So, coming around a turn to a down bank, we almost collided with a big horse flying backwards away from the bank.  Now Frosty is still a very gullible young horse.  If another horse tells her that there's a monster over the other side of that bank, she believes them with all her heart.  She has schooled banks but she was looking for the monster under this one.  She stopped and pranced and in the process of sliding down the side ripped off a bell boot.  Better the boot than skin.  We then we meandered across a field schooling a bunch of logs and small fences to get that confidence back.   She went on to jump the beginner ditch, several coops, and ran up and down her first Rebecca-boobytrap-style bank hill.  She was exhausted but pretty proud of herself at the finish.  She relaxed with ice boots and her hay bag, and posed for pictures.
I didn't anticipate how tired Frosty would be jumping that XC course with the extra height and schooling.  I almost scratched stadium but decided to give it a go.  We didn't have a clean round, but dang if that little wild pony didn't jump higher and longer than she's ever been asked before.  So I was pleased that she was willing to try so hard for me.  And now I knew that we both needed to work on fitness at this new level.
Overall, this was a great success for both me and Frosty.  We gained experience and built more trust in each other.  So now off to the next one day with our eyes on the goal of a USEA recognized event!
Below, Frosty hanging out after dressage at Camp Wild Pony Eventing

As the other wild ponies watch carefully, the countdown for Frosty's Event Number Two has begun.  Our second full 3 phase event.  We will be going Beginner Novice at Lincoln Creek.  This should have been our third, but we missed a show earlier in July due to hives (Frosty) and a naughty lumbar disk (me).  The road can always be bumpy with horses, but add a green, wild pony, a job, family and Murphy's Law and mayhem can ensue!  Thanks to Victoria for riding the Princess at a needed XC school while I was down!
Our main focus in training has been getting Frosty to sit on her but and use it, both on the flat and jumping.  We've done lots of schooling at some of the great local facilities like Polestar Farm and Traumhof, and working with our coach Lexi.  We've added a bit more conditioning with trot sets and an extra hill over the past weeks.  With the extra work comes extra preventative care...ice, ice, ice.  The homemade Wild Pony Eventing ice boots are great!  And I am still icing my back regularly to prevent flare ups.
So this week is the final touch up week...school the movements in our dressage test, school some jumps, tidy up the mane for braiding, scrub the trailer, pack...

Getting ready for dressage school at Traumhof

Looking over those XC jumps at Polestar

Most horse keepers who condition and jump their horses use cold therapy to prevent injuries.  I've used cold hosing and ice wraps,  and Jack Ice Boots, but I admit to coveting Jack Whirlpool boots.  I'm not interested in the compression of the whirlpool boots so much, as we aren't working that hard yet, but riding a pony barefoot on hard ground makes me wish for those boots to get legs and feet chilled at the same time.  But, the price tag for whirlpool boots are currently prohibitive.  So, I've done my research and made my own ice soaking boots that goes sole to knee.  Below are the humble but effective "Wild Pony Eventing Ice Boots."

Ok, so the beauty of these homemade boots is that they work and they are cheap.  They consist of a tire inner tube (I used an 8 inch tube but for a bigger horse you may want to go larger).  $12.99 for one, but beware, they smell bad!  Cut out the valve stem and then cut the inner tube in half, which leaves you with material for two boots.  Using duct tape, I taped up one end of the tube, and then rolled it up and reinforced with more duct tape around the end flap and under the area where the foot will rest.  Then cut the top to fit the height and contour of your horse's leg.  You can use suspenders to hold them up, or use the suspenders from your Jack boots. Total cost about $15 and time about 20 minutes to make and fit.
Voila!  It works! It's cool!  It's the epitome of Wild Pony Eventing!  Of course I may have to decorate them with some pink pony frillies...hehehe.

Summer 2010 in Western Washington state is the Year of the Pest.  Flying pests.  We had a warm, wet early summer followed by sudden heat.  It's brought out all sorts of biting insects.  I've never seen the ponies so bothered by flies!  In past summers, a horse would come in from the pasture once or twice with a few obvious bug bites.  But this summer half the herd has visible bites or tail rubbing, and Frosty has broken out in hives several times.  To make things more complicated, both Frosty and her sister Maya have reacted to fly sprays with hives, including herbal sprays.

Fly bites!
So we have a multi-tier approach.  Everyone is eating garlic and drinking cider vinegar.  Those ponies know something because when the vinegar bottle comes out, they get excited and have a drink!  Our fly spray is vinegar too (white vinegar is fine, no need for cider vinegar).  I've spread fly predators and fly tapes where ever flies congregate.  I've even hung some pennies in water bags,  Supposedly the reflections from the pennies keep flies away, though I haven't noticed a difference yet.
We've also armed ponies with fly protection wear.  Frosty is the most sensitive and so she is wearing a full hooded Amigo flysheet and a mask.  Maya and Johnny have sheets and Maya wears a mask.  Maya loves her mask - it seems to meet her inner human need to play dress up.

Maya loves her fly mask!
So far we are dealing with the excess of biting bugs, but we'll all be relieved when fly season is over.  How are you and your horses handling the Year of the Fly?