Cob Jockey

That whole weekend of Waterloo, I was struck by how different showing felt this time around, as opposed to the last time I did it five years ago.

Gone were the nerves, the score anxiety, the feeling that I "had" to prove something to someone. There is, of course, a bit of pride to it still, and a bit of wanting to show Disco well on behalf of his progeny and his breeder. But I couldn't bring myself to care about our scores in the 50s, or the score in the 60s -they just fundamentally didn't matter to me on such a deep level.

At any rate, I did tell myself that if I expected better scores, I should have, you know, taken a lesson within the last four years or maybe ridden regularly in the last three.

The overwhelming feeling I had was gratitude and awe. For the first time, I trotted down centerline on a horse I watched grow up from the moment he slid out of his mom, wondering for the next five years what it would feel like when we did this. We did it, and I was present enough to enjoy the moment as it happened.

I still absolutely took my participation awards home (low turnout in the Pony classes, sadly!)

I was also so grateful to be showing with Kate, something I never thought I'd get to do for all of the many years she lived in California, and enjoying hanging out with her fascinating (said with love!!) family and framily.

I also met Eventing a Gogo IRL for the first time after following her blog(s) for the better part of two decades! Hers and Aimee's were the first two blogs I ever followed way back when I started blogging in late 2009.

Disco graciously accepts molestation from total strangers

(It was the craziest thing, I made an Instagram post and tagged her in it, and then she APPEARED AT THE SHOWGROUNDS like I summoned her Beetlejuice-style.)

Possibly most important to me out of anything,  I was amazed at how well my five-year-old stallion handled the atmosphere. Sure, I know he's been showing since he was five months old and has shown three different disciplines in two countries now, but you still never know. 

He went around in a flat/knotted halter all weekend, drank water like a champ, and caused several people to do double-takes and look underneath him after learning he wasn't a gelding. 

The world's most champion drinker from the moment he got off the trailer, even though it wasn't that hot.

He was looky, sure, and a bit backed off at times in the warmup ring when these massive warmbloods rode close to us, but he was far and away a better show horse than Connor was at his first show, which is saying something, because Connor's always been pretty top notch.

His behavior in particular makes me so excited for what we can achieve together. He's just always ready to go to work, and I so appreciate that about him.

One more Waterloo post - riding takeaways next! 

My incompetence at reading a show bill saved my bacon bright and early on Saturday when the show office asked if they could move my 8:00am ride to 11:00am so we could do my pony class measurements at 10:00am. I couldn't believe my ears and felt like I hit the lottery with that one!

We had to do a jog for measurements which was a new one for me.

I ended up needing the time, as I had some fits and starts with braiding. The sewn-in braids I always did with Connor predictably did not work with Disco, and I switched to a running braid technique I had only ever practiced three braids of once. It ended up working really well, and I'll probably write a whole post on that at some point. 

This is a RUNNING BRAID. I'm still amazed. It wasn't too bad for my first attempt at it, although I'm me, so there are definitely improvements I want to do next time.

Kate had the genius idea of entering the same test for all four rides that weekend to really set us up for success. Even still, I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I waved the white flag of adult amateurism hard all weekend, and Kate was very gracious about it. 

Kate read my tests for me and videod at the same time, off of the same phone, AND showed her own Castleberry horse (Belgian WBx Castleberrys Opportunity Knox). I actually don't know how she did it.

For that first test, I had her warm him up for me (I actually didn't know you could do that in Dressage until Kate offered!) and for the first time, I saw that First Level horse she told me she had schooling at home. He was a completely different horse from when I rode him, and it brought into stark relief just how much my own riding would need to improve after I take him home in October. In a good way.

Pictured: potato riding

I also had Kate read alllllllll four of my Training 2 tests. My old trainer would have died of embarrassment, but I was incapable of embarrassment over that. The mental odds were very much stacked against me, and I was going to take every chance I got to offload some stress and ride to the best of my abilities.

This post is long enough, so I'm going to summarize the first three tests (with scores in the mid-upper 50's) as follows:

1. Baby horse does the thing
2. The canter aid is kick and pray right?
3. "Canter surprise", also, OMG there are HORSES OVER THERE DID YOU KNOW THAT

Kate had put a sophisticated canter aid on him (lifting the inside seatbone) that I am more or less physically incapable of doing on my weak side, which I demonstrated by doing leg lifts in the tack stall after the first test. As a result, the canter transitions were a bit of an adventure all weekend even though with Kate he picks it up wonderfully, and he never misses leads with either one of us.

That fourth test, though.

    4. Redemption

I went into the ring feeling confident we could put it all together, and we did exactly that. The showgrounds were a bit quieter, Disco was feeling properly bored, and Kate had helped us to a breakthrough with the canter transition in the warmup.

I had realized I actually haven't ridden many trot-canter transitions over the years. 5-year-old Connor came preinstalled with a walk-canter transition so good, I wasn't motivated to do much with the trot-canter. After I said that, Kate had me ask for walk-canters as if he was an educated horse, and the canter transitions got SO much better, even if they did have a few steps of trot in there.

More on this in the recap post, but "stop riding him like the barely broke baby you dropped off three months ago" was A Theme this weekend.

We ended up scoring a 62%+, and I told him he won the Olympics.

Takeaways post to come! 

We are not quite a month in, and I am already so, so glad I've sent Disco to Kate.

A photo of two stallions hanging out together!

Kate videos some of her training rides for me, and narrates them, and in watching those, I've realized that it's my first time actually seeing this process of a young horse being started. And there are times where she'll laugh something off that I know I would have taken too seriously, or where she released when she felt him consider the idea of what she wants, when I would have hung on to the ask too long, and it just crystallizes how right the decision was to not do this myself.

It's made me appreciate the trainer as a professional. Kate has done this so many times, she's performing a repeatable process much the same way I do at work, and Disco is benefiting from her experience with the process in the clarity she brings to his training rides, and therefore the relative speed at which he's learning - already doing things at not quite five that Connor was closer to 10 before I stumbled into those skills with him.

Baby SI, HI and counter canter loops already!

It has also put me so at peace with being an amateur. I greatly admire my amateur friends who have started their own horses, but I'm not that kind of amateur. I'm not going to start the number of horses in my lifetime that Kate has, because I spend my days being a professional in other areas, and that's okay!

But no matter how impressed I am with how far he's gotten under saddle already, Kate giving him friends and social situations makes me the happiest. 

So far, Disco has been turned out unsupervised with one of her geldings, and has gotten supervised turnout time with another gelding and with his fellow Castleberry Cobs class of 2021 brother from another mother, Oxley, the Warmblood cross that Kate owns, who is also still intact. They haven't seen each other since they were weanlings, and they were so happy to be turned out together.

But at the end of the day, raising him in a social situation and then insisting on only sending him to trainers who are also willing to keep him in a social situation seems to have been the right call. He is just a horse who likes hanging out with other horses (and being the low man on the totem pole, no less), and he knows no other way.

Grooming each other! Don't mind Oxley's little riblets, he's going through a growth spurt.

It occurred to me recently that Disco is the absolutely perfect horse for me to learn how to start.

He's just so darn easy. I trust him under saddle more than I trust Connor, and for good reason: he doesn't spook, doesn't buck, doesn't bolt. 

Left him standing in place while I set my Pivo up, and Brynne marveled, "I think he's the most chill stallion I've ever met. Normally they're quite full of themselves, and he's just...not!"

I mean - this was his first ever "buck" under saddle during my lesson last weekend. 

Did you miss it?

His good behavior has meant that I get to focus entirely on the process of starting a youngster without dealing with some of the more challenging behaviors that often occur. And I need that - I'm not the most confident rider, and this is a big deal for me, to start one and not screw him up in the same ways I screwed Connor up.

What I haven't done yet is worry about where his head is. Brynne has been great for me in sketching out a roadmap of skills that we need. The first thing we needed was forward - go when I say go, maintain a given speed/gait without nagging until I say otherwise, and take me forward. Absolutely nothing else mattered.

Now that we finally have that, at my last Brynne lesson, we introduced the idea of following the bit, which is a precursor to a lot of other things. It's also something I was not going to introduce myself without trainer supervision to help me with the timing and just knowing how far to push it in the moment. It would be so easy for me to get against him or to not release in the right moment and leave him confused and frustrated.

Erring on the side of giving and letting him walk out of it a second too early rather than a second too late.

Brynne, who has started many young pulling breed horses in Dressage, gives me so much confidence and is such a good fit for us right now. On Sunday, she figuratively sat me down and said, "You're going to need to ride him a bit differently to teach him this skill. He needs a big, clear aid for this and the space between the reins to feel like he can turn. It's still effective riding, but it's not going to look like you'd ride a trained horse."

I needed to hear that, because I mostly have been riding him like I ride Connor, which is good and bad. Good, in that he's generally rose to the occasion so far, but bad, because when he needs me to be loudly clear, I sometimes am not giving that to him and it might make certain things harder for him to learn. 

Rocking vetwrap on his bridle because his forelock got stuck under his grazing muzzle halter and rubbed him raw last week

As she was walking out last weekend, she said, "I know it probably feels like you're not getting anywhere fast with him, but trust me, you're making a lot of progress and you're right on track. Just keep doing what you're doing and trust that this is just a stage."

...and what we're doing is creating sleepy baby horses

There is finally peace in our time.

Grazing muzzle time.

Connor has needed a grazing muzzle ever since he moved to this farm in 2017. I left him un-muzzled for the first three weeks just to see what would happen, and he quickly turned into a blimp shape. We've been using GreenGuards ever since, with brief, completely unsuccessful attempts with the Flexible Filly and Best Friends muzzles in there too.

Keeping the muzzle on him, though, has been a full-time job. He's a serial killer that I try to stay one step ahead of, but usually feel one step behind. He'd poke his nose out of the corners, break straps, step on it, get it off over his head, destroy scissor snaps, and no matter what I did, would bash the thing so hard into the ground, the sides would snap. I've had to buy a new one every year because he's so hard on them, and yes, if you just did that math, that's closing in on a THOUSAND DOLLARS IN MUZZLES since 2017. Thanks, buddy.

GG halter, leather GG insert, cheapo Amazon Tough 1 halter fleece, GG Houdini strap and corner twine, because the GG velcro isn't strong enough to keep his schnoz where it's supposed to be

This year, Disco got muzzled first, and I let Connor go as long as I could without one. This immediately cut down on shenanigans of all kinds, with both boys coming in with no marks for the first time in a while. And maybe Connor was grateful for that, because when I finally did muzzle him, he was...fine.

Who...is this horse?

No bashing. No getting it off. No shock-denial-anger-acceptance trying to rub it off on the ground. Just...polite grass nibbling. I haven't even had to replace any straps yet. I am SHOCKED. Stunned. Still in disbelief every time I see him politely nibbling with his GreenGuard unmolested on his face.

Not only that, he suddenly became easy to catch, too. Usually if you want to lead both boys in at the same time, you have to catch Disco, put Disco outside the gate holding the lead rope over the gate, then Connor will baaaaaaaaaaarely let you get close enough to throw a lead rope over his neck and catch him.

Morning bring-in at sunrise. Pink so I can find the bodies, I mean, boots.

After they were both muzzled? I catch Disco (who am I kidding, Disco catches himself. Walks straight up to me and waits every time he sees me. Is this real life?), ground tie him, then walk two steps over to where Connor is waiting and snap his lead rope on.

Like I said - peace. Unexpected, delightful peace. 

Since we're halfway through the year (uh, OMG?) I wanted to do a mid-year review of my 2025 Disco goals, which were:

• Trail ride as much as possible. Especially early in the year when the trails are quiet.
• Attend some smaller schooling shows, either as a non-compete or showing Intro tests, whatever he tells me he's ready for.
• Attend one show with atmosphere - maybe NDPC just for the in-hand breed show day.
• Start taking regular lessons again - more on this soon.

1. Trail ride as much as possible. Especially early in the year when the trails are quiet.

About that...

Normally you can't see that hill through the foliage...

As I write this, it's still not open, not even for day riding, despite 7 weeks of heroic efforts from a large group of volunteers and state employees. The damage was substantial, and one old timer rightly pointed out that it's going to be a generation before it even looks remotely like it did before, we lost so many trees. 

Photo taken from elsewhere in the park as it was hitting camp. Absolute nightmare fuel.

So, needless to say, the trail ride we did in April has been our only trail ride so far. Any other trail riding spots are twice the distance or more from Brown County, so they're more challenging to fit into my schedule.

Y'all, if you horse camp BRING A NOAA WEATHER RADIO WITH YOU. It was the only way to receive notification about these warnings at our camp, and none of the campers had one. It should be as essential as a fire extinguisher and first aid kit in LQs and RVs.

2. Attend some smaller schooling shows, either as a non-compete or showing Intro tests, whatever he tells me he's ready for.

I'm tentatively eyeballing a September or October show for this, although I feel like his National Drive experience sort of counts for this too.

Photo used with permission from Mark Jump Photgraphy

3.  Attend one show with atmosphere - maybe NDPC just for the in-hand breed show day.

Obviously he didn't go to NDPC this year, and I'm not likely to check this one off the list in general. That said, he's already had a LOT of experience at shows with more atmosphere than I can find anywhere in the US (looking at you, Canadian Royal), so I don't feel too bad if we don't get to this one. 

He didn't go to NDPC, but I did, and I have a new Section D stallion obsession. OBSESSED with this guy. He even politely snuggled Lisa and I in the stall afterwards (with permission, of course!).

4.  Start taking regular lessons again - more on this soon.

Yes! Brynne has made the trip over more or less consistently once a month since January, and while I would give almost anything for more regular instruction than monthly, she has been a big help to me in setting a direction for his early education, and I am so grateful for her. When she comes, she's been giving lessons to most of my boarders also, so it's more than just me that has benefited from this goal. 

Look at me, doing a real live lesson with a real live trainer on the real live property. Feels surreal! Photo by Leah.

 All in all, I'm not feeling too shabby about our goal progress so far!

"It's almost like we have to make him anticipatory right now."

I didn't fully get to process those words from my trainer in the moment as I sat on Disco panting from the effort of getting him to canter, but I sure did later.

Disco has finally earned the "nice" bridle. Also, the Fairfax drop is the most attractive drop noseband of all time and you can't convince me otherwise.

Once again, she had asked me how much I'd ridden since my last lesson 5-6 weeks ago, and once again, I told her "Not much." 

To be fair, he was at Lisa's for 3 of those weeks and waiting on the saddle fitter for almost one, but still. How am I going to "almost make him anticipatory" if it's quite frankly been years since I rode anything on a consistent schedule?

My partner asked if he could keep bush hogging for me during that lesson, and it helped SO much. There's only so much weekend daylight for bush hogging and it all has to be done every 3-ish weeks in the growing season.

It was during a heat wave that I figured out the answer. It was going to be way too hot and humid to ride after work, and although I'd never done this before, I had the thought that I might be able to cram a ride in before work now that the barn is a quarter mile stumble from my bed. 

Turns out? I LOVE riding before work. And it might be the key to everything given the stage of life I'm in right now.

Connor holding court for the main herd outside his dutch door during my morning ride, because he can be trusted to mostly ignore them.

...mostly.

Disco doesn't need duration, he needs frequency and consistency right now, so the 25 minute rides are perfect. We warm up and practice "old" skills for about 10 minutes, I pick one new skill to work on for the next 10, and we cool down for about 5. 

"Send help, call PETA"

The change in him was almost immediate once I started giving him consistency. Everything that was previously dull and slow started to become sharper, and I could feel him paying closer attention to my aids.

Proof that I am, in fact, sitting on a horse before 7am.

It's a whole separate post, my thoughts about where I'm at with starting a young horse for the first time, but giving him a schedule and patterns that he can recognize and think through has been a game-changer for his training. Who knew.

A slightly slow mo canter GIF. Canter is a normal part of our lives now, finally.

Finally, it has been a major personal win for me too. I'm enjoying these quiet mornings and the guilt-free kid/partner time I get after work now, plus the sense of "going somewhere" with Disco is so gratifying after treading water with him since he came home. If I can keep being diligent about my bedtime, this feels very sustainable, even as I look ahead to when these mornings will be cold and dark.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Disco ended up spending three weeks at his breeder's in May and June, and covered four mares. He got a glowing report card - he was good to handle, good to the mares, and "stopped when I said stop" which is "the most important thing".

Disco and his breeder, Lisa

He also stayed at a good weight thanks to some very careful nutrition management on my part before he left, and on Lisa's while he was there. Maintaining a good weight isn't easy for an active breeding stallion anyway, and doubly so when I realized he went through a growth spurt while he was there.

My eye was immediately drawn to his withers when I picked him up - where did THOSE come from? In three weeks he grew a centimeter, and his topline is now a completely foreign shape to me. Or wait, is it familiar...

I brought him home a few days before we had a Wow fitter coming to visit, and opted to not even try to ride until she had a chance to evaluate his saddle fit.

She is a wonderful fitter and is a Wow specialist, but works on all kinds of saddles. She's coming back this fall if anyone local wants to get on the schedule.

She said his flat tree still suits him (phew, that's the most expensive part), but she did think he needed a slightly different headplate (3U instead of 3UU) and that he no longer needed tabbed panels. Tabs lower the contact surface at the front of the panel for a wide horse, and to my utter shock, Disco isn't a wide horse anymore.

I wasn't done being shocked. When she evaluated Connor (the first time he's been evaluated by a Wow professional), she said he could really do with a flat tree too. And that he and Disco are currently the exact same size in every part.

I joked when I bought a baby out of Connor's full sister that I was hoping genetics was on my side in terms of Disco fitting into the same saddles as Connor, but Lisa's herd tends to have two back shapes: native pony flat-and-wide or easily-shares-saddles-with-warmbloods. Connor has always been in the latter camp, and up to this point I thought Disco might be in the first. Can you blame me? Look at these photos from when he came home 7 months ago:

No withers here, ma'am, just a potato. (November 2024)

I tried Connor's saddles on him back in November, and the fit was terrible:

In Disco's own saddle, he's gone down from being a 4U headplate/borderline 5 headplate, to a 3U in the last 7 months.

November 2024, 4U headplate

And finally, the whole thing is a love letter to Wow. Renske said I needed a different panel shape for him now, and instead of getting a whole new saddle or new panels, I just took my spare pair of no-tab DXWG Size 1 panels out of the office, we swapped those onto the saddle and spent a half hour getting the flocking (air) just right. Boom, done. No matter which dimension he grows in and which direction he grows in, the saddle will keep changing with him.

25 minutes of w/t/c is EXHAUSTING guys, but look at that saddle fit.