Cob Jockey

Contender's blanket came in yesterday, and of course I drove the hour and a half round trip in the snow to bring it to him!  I completely guessed at sizes for all of his tack, and this is how I fared:

- Bridle, size cob: perfect fit, minus the browband which seems a bit tight

- Blanket, size 69: good enough, maybe an inch or two big (Yay, we can wear pony blankets!).  Looks long on his legs to me, but I'm not used to blanketing a Cob.

- Girth, size 40: absolutely the right size

- Saddle, 16.5", M/W tree, purchased over a year ago:  perfect fit for both of us!  This is the most unbelievable sizing, for sure.

- Woofwear boots, a gift, brand new, by the assistant trainer at my barn who bought them for her horse and they didn't fit, size medium: perfect fit

Despite asserting that I'd rather spend more to buy something once than buy it cheaply once and then replace it later, I did have to buy a used blanket (Ebay!) and a new, but cheaply made, bridle.  The blanket will get us through until I have the funds to buy a good one (it's a waterproof Weatherbeeta medium weight), and the bridle, well, all it has to do is stay on his head. I hate to be that guy, but I also need to keep the horse costs down initially so Nick doesn't get nervous.

Essential tack still to be purchased: cooler, heavyweight blanket.  Anyone have anything used?

I have to admit it, I actually had tears in my eyes when I was riding Contender in the indoor tonight.

The $500 Ebay'ed Beval Devon 2000 fits him, and me, perfectly.

That movement.  That attitude.  That soft mouth and sensitivity.  That braveness toward things he was unsure of, like the jumps stacked in the corner.  That ride made me feel like everything I've done in my equine life up until this moment has prepared me for this pony.  I'm absolutely taken with him, and I am so glad that I have him in a place where a talented trainer can help me not ruin him.

I don't want to make it sound like my overarching goal is negative, but one of the main reasons I am so relieved to keep him at my barn is that I'm afraid of ruining the training he's had so far.  I value that soft mouth and quick reflexes like gold, and I want to encourage that sensitivity, not destroy it as I'm sure I would on my own, with mixed signals and uncertain cues.  With my trainer, I can overcome that.

Ponies in horse coolers, always a barn favorite.

Tonight was just an introductory ride.  He's out of shape and hairy (though the hairy part is changing as soon as my blanket comes in!), and the arena footing can be a bit deep in places.  We did about 25 minutes or so of walk and trot, on the bit and on loose reins, hard work and conditioning work, which is hard in a different way.  Just one half lap in each direction at the canter, because by then he had sweated into a lather on his chest, and I knew it would be a long cooling out session.

I've never had to consider a long-term training plan before, and I'm interested to set goals with my trainer and see where I see myself going.  Is B/N next summer a safe goal for he and I?  I'm not sure yet, but I'm glad I have someone to bounce that off of.

There was a moment, when I watched through the windows of the indoor as Lisa and my trainer led Contender into the big barn while I was cooling out Adagio, in which I thought, "I am responsible for that."  I had the same thought when I first saw my stable management horse my freshman year of college, and I imagine it's similar to what a new parent feels for her first child.  It's a solemn feeling of having the care of something totally dependent on you for its survival entrusted to you in a moment.  Like both of those instances, though, it only lasted for a second before my brain exploded into a series of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'s.

Wet from the trailer ride and the first thing he did was roll in the stall I cleaned earlier today!  Grr!

Impatient Adagio is impatient.

It really was the worst kind of torture when I heard Lisa pull into the parking lot, since I was about 3/4 of the way into a beefy Dressage lesson on Adagio, and still needed to cool him out even with ending early.  One pony arrives, but that doesn't change the fact that the other still needs tended to!  I did finally get Adagio cooled out and taken care of, and Contender settled into his roomy stall in the little barn.  As I watched him move around the stall and munch on hay, so many questions were racing through my head.  Everything from "Is the used Weatherbeeta blanket I bought off of Ebay going to fit?" to "Is he going to enjoy jumping?" to "Can I really train this horse?"  Only time will tell - at least I only have until Tuesday to find the answer to the first one!

Tomorrow is our first ride at the barn, stay tuned!

This year, more than most years, I have so much to be thankful for.

Baby Shae

I love him.  (We had just finished eloping here!)

Blankets.  Blegh.

I've posted before that I'm a low-maintenance horse owner that fell in love with a low-maintenance breed.

But.

Now that I'll have, as Stacey over at The Jumping Percheron said this week, "...an athlete that deserves to be properly maintained," I'm coming to grips with the fact that yes, I'm going to have to trace clip, and yes, I will have to blanket.  This is also partially because my amazing barn is blanket happy, and 'when in Rome...'.

The problem is, I've never seriously paid attention to blanketing before.  Mary bought Venice's no-fill turnout blanket, and the only other blankets I've used have been:
- Coolers on the racehorses
- Sheets on greys and palominos the night before IHSA shows, after baths
- Blankets on the show horses we took to away IHSA shows in the dead of winter

This was a DAILY ritual with Shae! For weeks!

There's also the fact that Welsh Cobs are the hairiest animals I've ever known, and were bred for their ability to survive harsh winters without pampering.  I mean, look at this.

My ever faithful partner, always willing to groom.

New grooming technique.

And you were wondering what to do with all that hair, ha!  Some people wonder, and some create ART!

 So if I'm buying one blanket for a Cob that will be in at night, out during the day, and ridden 4 days a week (and also possibly buying a cooler off of another girl at my barn after it shrunk in the wash), what should I get?  I'm thinking maybe medium weight.  I'd love to hear some input in the comments, especially from the blanket collectors.  Don't hide your faces shamefully, you blanket collectors you, I know you're out there!

...of mice and men often go awry."

Pony delivery has been moved to Sunday, due to a variety of reasons.

This is especially sad since I also had to move my weekly riding lesson back by a few days due to the holiday and will go a week without going to the barn (aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh), but that's barn life around the holidays!  Today would have been a terrible day to get him anyway, with a dog vet appointment that went long, a bad car accident backing up traffic on the way to the barn, and horrible weather all day.  I'll go home and love on my mom's horse and donkey to try to fill that horse-shaped hole!

Festus

Little Red (since Secretariat, my mom's first love, was Big Red)

It's probably a good idea anyway, since the only time I ever go see them is when I give them their yearly shots (and usually a dewormer at the same time).

Til next time!

I know many of you follow this blog via Google Reader, so I wanted to make all of you aware of some housekeeping that's happened lately.  I'm working really hard on this blog and hope to make it into something beautiful, engaging and entertaining for all of you.  I am actually going to update five days a week (I seriously have enough stockpiled posts to do it, too), so please, check back on a regular basis!

Recent changes:

• We have a link bar under the banner that contains the following pages, all of which are new:

1. About Contender (redone today, 11/20)
2. About Cob Jockey
3. About Section D Welsh Cobs
4. Contender on Youtube (videos) (new today)
5. Contender on Flickr (photos) (new today)
6. (I'm working on adding a show results page to this as well, but I've tried to do an HTML table for it and Blogger crashes every time I try to publish it.  Hmmm...)

Nothing like starting the hour with mindblowingly difficult Dressage and ending with 2'6 oxers to make you feel like you went from math class to recess!

In both my fitness and my riding, I'm learning why I'm drawn to the sports I'm currently practicing.  In both Crossfit and eventing, there's always something new coming around the corner, always a fun activity to follow the ones that are more difficult to get through.  I love Dressage as much as I love cross-country, but for different reasons, and it feels so good to completely switch gears mid lesson.  Adagio went from slow and poky to excited and happy when we switched over, and I felt like we were two kids busting out of math class, headed for the playground.

I loooooooooove Dressage, guys.  Seriously, look it's all over my face.

I don't know if the lateral work at the trot (turns on the forehand at the trot?  Is that a thing?  That's what we did.) is more mentally difficult or physically difficult, but it's only difficult physically for me because I'm trying to force him into it rather than ask.  We had some minor successes in it, but part of the problem was his unwillingness to perform the movement and part of it was my muscle fatigue due to doing too much.  She assured me that this will take a while to get, so we drilled it for about 15-20 minutes and called it quits.  It's mental, it's physical, it's timing, it's Dressage.  It feels good to get an achievement in Dressage, but they're so few and far between.  I have to keep in mind that eleven months ago I was so screwed up, I could barely keep my stirrups through an entire lesson.  Progress comes through in the big picture.

THIS is more like it!

BUT then we moved to jumping, and both of us had a blast.  She told us we were going to go big today, and so after a brief warmup we took a 2'6 oxer as the out element of a three stride.  Woooooooooooooo!  Guys, it's not that big, but it is to someone who was afraid of a crossrail not that long ago.  I was amazed at how SMALL it felt tonight.  We just cruised over it like it wasn't even there, and it felt so smooth. 

Next thing I knew, she was raising the vertical to 2'6 and dropped the oxer to a crossrail, jumping it in reverse.  I didn't know she was raising the vertical until I was three strides out at the first element and saw her hurridly raising the jump.  And I just...did it.  No thinking, no fear, no fuss, it was just a jump.  I realize at some point I need to stop being amazed by that, but I'm going to bask in the glow of fearless jumping for a little while longer.

Enough with my Italian equine adventures.  Time for something a little more down-to-earth.  Something that will silently scream "I'M GETTING A PONY ON MONDAY!" through the clenched teeth and sweet smile of someone who's spent way too much time calmly walking panicked IT users through complicated computer exercises.

Let's talk about colors, like we're teenage girls at a barn sleepover or something.

Contender is a sort of golden chestnut with a very light flaxen mane and tail.  Exhibit A:

I can't get over how much he's filled out since this picture.

This is the Welsh flag, which I'm thinking about using for color inspiration despite sort of wanting to do a blue theme, exhibit B:

I've never laid eyes on this myself, but supposedly in the breed standard, it's said that Welsh Cobs are supposed to "breathe fire" in the show ring like the Welsh dragon, and I've always loved that comparison.  They're such game, happy little guys, but at the same time, some of them can just pour that "fire" on when they need it.  It's one of the things I love best about Contender, and I'd love to honor the only "brand" the breed has in my colors, which would be hunter green with white, black and red accents.

Then again, he'd look really good in a royal or navy blue with his orange-ish coat coloring.

Blue or green, just like in the saddle pad in the title bar above, the Welsh dragon will feature prominently in all my embroidery.

Thoughts?
_________________________________________________________________________________
ETA:
Austen over at Guinness on Tap, (who is a professional graphic designer, don't hold the following against her), did some mockups of what different colors would look like on Contender.  Vote on the following:

Blue and...white

Lighter blue

Green and red

Green and white

Amid all of the equine-related-but-not-about-Contender posts, I've begun fielding questions about him.  Specifically, where is he?

Hello???  Where did you go?  Sorry, DSLR lens is still broken.

Contender is still at Lisa's, and the current plan is to move him on Monday!  I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!  In the meantime, I've been collecting the remaining tack I need, (and trying to spread those purchases out so my husband doesn't start regretting the whole pony-acquiring decision), starting my new job at the barn to pay for said pony's board and lessons, and writing enough blog posts to keep this blog going five days a week through the new year.  Seriously, five days a week, check back Monday-Friday for something new.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!

I know you've felt it.  That need, your mind and body awash with unrequited desire.  Feeling the rush of pleasure as you read endless forums, secretly watch videos and keep a hidden picture collection, all in a vain attempt to substitute for the real thing.  Nothing will satisfy it, nothing except getting your legs around...the barrel of a horse.

What kind of a blog did you think this was, anyway?

I'm looking for ponies here, probably.

By my second month in Italy (this was before Fiera Cavalli), the desire to ride was so strong that it was keeping me from living a normal, healthy study abroad life.  I would squeal walking by carriage horses and gush to my non-horsey roommates about their tack, shoes and conformation.  I would spend entire evenings on COTH and Dreamhorse instead of wandering the city like I should have been.  It got so bad that my non-horsey roommate actually called me out on it, and took me on a vacation to an agritourismo in the south of Italy, vicino Napoli.

...which is how I found myself on the single scariest horse ride of my life.  Scarier than being run off with by a dead-fit racehorse, scarier than jumping a fast, green horse when I was green myself, scarier than my first (and last) collegiate IHSA fences round.

Our lunch table.  The white/blue haze in the background is the ocean.

As we were eating lunch at a tiny restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean, I began chatting up our waiter.  Since it only took me about four seconds to disclose that I was a horse-deprived American to everyone I met, he immediately told me about his uncle's riding stable down the road, and that he'd make us a reservation for the ride that was leaving in just a half hour.  I would have been skeptical, but for the degree of my equine desperation.

...And that's how I found myself facing a tiny, scraggly little bay with the bit set way too low in his mouth, heading straight up what felt like a 45 degree asphalt road headed up a rocky mountain.  From what I could tell, these horses spent all day standing tacked and tied to a hitching post, waiting on enough tourists to come by to warrant a ride.  (This is not a tourist area by any means.)  I didn't have the language skills to discuss farrier care, deworming and proper tack adjustment, but even if I had had the language at that point, I probably wouldn't have brought it up out of not wanting to be "that American."  I can recognize a futile effort when I see one.

My other companions, one of which was a blonde in 4" stilettos, were on similarly equipped animals.  About five minutes into the ride, that blonde decided she couldn't handle her horse, a Thoroughbred mare with both front feet so clubbed, it looked like she would knuckle over at any second, so Stiletto Blonde rode double on her boyfriend's horse while Clubby alternated between following and leading, loose, still fully tacked, the entire rest of the ride.

This is not the exact scene I looked down on, but it's from the same		trip.

I have flashes of memories from that ride - going up and letting my little bay pick his way gingery around the Mediterranean mountain rock and shrubs, going down that steep asphalt and being terrified that Clubby would lose her balance and roll face first down the mountain, ripping my pants on a nail sticking out of a fence post in a vineyard - but there's one memory that almost erases all the bad for me.



We finally made it to the top of the rocky mountain, and there we stood in silence on our horses for a moment, taking in what was around us.  From the beige rocky crag, interspersed with green-grey shrubs, we looked out on the endless, blue Mediterranean sea, until the horizon where it met the bright blue sky.  It was hundreds of meters below us, but that only added to the charm.  There I was, sitting on a real live horse in the most beautiful setting I'd ever ridden in.  For a moment, I forgot about the terrifying ride up.

...but then we had to go back down.

After a four hour train and bus ride from my cozy apartment in downtown Florence, Italy, I arrived at the gates of Fiera Cavalli 2008, the annual horse fair and expo held in Verona, Italy.  I was alone, hundreds of kilometers from anything familiar, and still only about an intermediate Italian speaker, but I was fearless and my eyes were surely shining as I walked underneath the banner you see at the right.  Up to that point, it had been a long, primarily horseless semester of study abroad, but a chance sighting of an ad in a magazine I had purchased in a train station a month earlier had led me to this, the mecca of equine sport in Italy.

The fair itself was impressive, and I got a quick education that things at the top levels of Italian sport are not as they are here in the US.  I saw everything from red alligator skin boots, to helmets that looked like a science fiction creation, to pitiful attempts to recreate American western wear.  But that wasn't why I was there.  I was there to see the FEI World Cup Show Jumping Qualifier.

Vintage Texas originals!  Somehow, I doubt that.

'Merica.

So many cute old guys on gorgeous horses.  I cannot overstate this Italian phenomenon.

I settled into my seat in time to catch the second half of the Prestige class, which occurred right before the FEI class, and it was during that class that I saw the most stunning display of horsemanship I've seen in my life, before and since. 

Ludger and his young horse in the Prestige class.

All of the competitors were going lights out in the class with the intention of winning it, but it was clear that that wasn't Ludger Beerbaum's intention from the moment he and his flashy young Chestnut walked into the ring.  Where others had been taking sharp rollbacks and galloping, he took the course slowly and methodically, clearly only intending to use this as a chance to give this young horse a low-pressure introduction to a big show ring atmosphere.  As he went around the course, you could see him holding this young horse's mind in his hands, shaping a confident future competitor as he guided him and picked him up after he made young horse mistakes.  That ride taught me so much about creating an independent, confident equine partner.

Ludger Beerbaum, in the FEI class.

Then for the FEI class, I'm pretty sure my jaw never left the floor.  I'd never seen a horse jump that high before in real life, and it felt like it almost defied physics that they could get that high off the ground and come back down safely.  Competitor after competitor went until we had a jump-off of three, one of whom was the hometown hero (and I'm so sorry, I can't remember his name.)


What happened next, during the jump-off, I'm still a little embarrassed about to this day.

The winner...oops...

The hometown hero, (whose name I still cannot remember, I apologize) was the second to go in the jump-off.  The first competitor had had a rail, so he needed to go clear.  He had a breathtaking ride, both full of passion and technically correct.  When he was finished, my section began cheering loudly  (these are Italians, after all, they don't do anything quietly!) and suddenly I realized that we were the only ones cheering and the rest of the stands were groaning.  My section wondered, what had happened?  Then I moved to my left and realized that the actual final jump was set up in such a way that it was behind a metal support beam and impossible for my section to have seen or realized.  It's quite likely that our cheering at the second to last fence caused him and his horse to lose concentration and take a rail on the last fence.  The third rider ended up going clear and winning the competition.

It was only one of three horse experiences I had in Italy, but the mark it left on my equestrian personality is the most indelible.  There is no forgetting an experience like Fiera Cavalli and the FEI Verona World Cup Qualifier.

Appropriately, the first time I had a Reynauds episode was right after a long, cold winter trail ride.  Specifically, it was after SMWC's 2009 Senior Holiday Ride, a tradition in which outgoing seniors, college of equine studies faculty, and special guests ride horses all through the college campus, singing Christmas carols as we go.  Decorating the horses is optional, but highly encouraged:

We were riding in 30 degree weather for over an hour and a half, some of us choosing to be festive rather than warm, and when I got back to the barn and began untacking Flash, I suddenly felt "it."  That familiar feeling of tunnel vision, clamminess and general malaise that precedes a fainting episode, none of which had ever been triggered by cold before in my life.  As quickly as I could, I walked Flash back to his stall, put him in with the halter and lead still on, shut the door and collapsed onto the hard concrete floor, willing and ready to lose consciousness.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, as it felt at the time), Mary raced over to me and talked me through it, not letting me just pass out like I wanted to by that point.  It's so much easier to let go, pass out for a few seconds and come to again rather than trying to hang on and fight those feelings.

This happened several more times that winter, always after my fingers and toes went numb while I was riding.  Usually it happened after I got off and started walking around, but once I stuck my fingers in my armpits while waiting in a group lesson and had to get off because I was afraid of passing out on the horse.  Finally, I was fed up enough to do a little research, and found out that my fingers and toes going numb were symptoms of Reynauds, a disorder that normally has an onset in women in their early twenties (oh, hi!).  The passing out thing was undocumented anywhere I've seen, but I have heard anecdotal stories from other Reynauds sufferers who complain about passing out after their fingers and toes "come back."

So now that I know I have it, I have to manage it.  Most doctors will tell sufferers to just avoid the cold, but hello, I'm not giving up riding between the months of November and March.  Fortunately, mine is not as severe as some people who have episodes at temperatures as high as 70 degrees, but it is triggered at temperatures as high as 50 if there's some pressure on my extremities (another trigger for me, in addition to cold temperatures, is pressure, such as the pressure from the stirrups or from too many socks or from socks and a HotPocket in my boot) and I've been foolish enough to underdress.

So far, I've managed it with:
1. Decent gloves
2. Lined Carhartt bibs and good coats that keep my core warm.
3. Drinking lots of hot tea
4. Smartwool socks
5. Mountain Horse base layers

This winter, in addition to the above items, I'll be trying:
1. Underarmour Cold Gear base layers
2. Winter tall boots
3. Even better gloves, as well as glove liners
4. Red wine (don't laugh!  It's a vasodilator, so supposedly a glass before you go outside helps reduce the chance of an episode.  My husband asked if we could start referring to the liquor store as the pharmacy.)
5. To avoid putting myself in situations where I have to take my gloves off, ever.
6. Possibly a battery operated coat/gloves set.
7. And, if things get real bad, doctors will prescribe Viagra (increases blood flow to extremities...ha.  ha.  ha.)

Anyone have any winter products they live and die by at the barn?  I am always open to suggestions!

It's cold enough here in Indiana that I can no longer ignore the eventuality of winter.  But along with all of the negatives of winter, there is also the positive of Christmas!  And with the timing of getting Contender, there's the major bonus of being able to structure my Christmas list around him.  So, here's mine.  What's on your Christmas list?

1. Saddle pads.  I only have one, and it's dying.

2. Tuff Rider Winter Riding boot. I may end up just buying these for myself before Christmas, as cold as it's getting now...

3. Cozy Toes.  I'll have to devote an entire post to managing Reynauds as an equestrian.

Cozy Toes

4. Stirrup leathers (so I can get rid of the 60" man leathers that tickle Contender's flank.)

5. Gearmax equestrian back pack.  I am the loser of all of my possessions at shows.  Seriously, I did that one IHSA show last weekend and nearly lost my show gloves, a wool vest and my best winter gloves.

 6. Kids Flex Rider vest (or, "the flak jacket" as my husband calls it)  It's nice being small enough that a $95 kids vest fits!

Gearmax Equestrian Back Pack

7. SSG 10 Below gloves.  Again, Reynauds.  If you don't know what it is, Google it, then imagine one of the side effects being passing out when you get off the horse and the blood returns to your fingers and toes.  Yeah, that's sort of dangerous.

8. Halter, bridle and saddle nameplates.  Nice leather tack deserves nice nameplates!

9. 2011 IEA membership and armband.

10.  And all the Underarmour and Smartwool in the world, amen.

I had one of those Dressage lessons tonight where it all comes together, and I realize that yes, I have improved as an equestrian, so much so over the last eleven months with my trainer.

How I felt in jumping-length stirrups

How I felt in Dressage-length stirrups

Adagio with his owner at Penny Oaks in August

It feels good to be alive.

I think it hit me tonight when I was discussing the logistics of getting my tack trunk to the barn.

I'm getting a pony.  And not just any pony, but the pony I've had my eye on since before I even met him.  It's happening.  My tack trunk is leaving my garage.  Holy crap.

I can think about the training, the conditioning, the riding, all day every day, but in the end it's all felt like a daydream, not reality.

For some reason though, the tack trunk brought it home for me.

Looks like I need to do some housekeeping...

Mary and her stable management horse, Max.