Carriage House Three Ring Circus 2013

In which we tied ourselves for 6th place!

More on that later.

The run-up to Carriage House was, as always, full of drama and headaches. The late thaw and frequent rain meant most of our usual riding areas were pretty soggy, so on Tuesday we trailered out to a local indoor for some practice. It was cold and rainy, but we still got some nice practice in. A bit of dressage and a jump we hopped over at various angles, and I felt pretty good. We then headed over to the vet's office for vaccines. On my way back to the truck from paying the bill, I noticed there was something hanging down from the bottom of the truck that I hadn't noticed before. On closer inspection, it appeared to be one of the metal straps holding up the fuel tank. Yeah... not good. Then the truck was back in the shop and a limbo of fixed, not fixed, then fixed again, and somehow everything came together. Except that I'd been being working like a dog at my day jobs and was pretty much exhausted by Saturday night.

Still, I dragged myself/crawled out of bed at 5am on Sunday morning to get Royal in time to make it to the show. While I am not a morning person (AT ALL), it was sort of nice to not have many other cars on the road. And it was quite pretty.

I hooked up the trailer with few problems and Royal loaded well. It didn't take us very long to get to Carriage House as we got the second to last parking spot in the big field. I got my number from the tent, got Royal all cleaned up (although I ran out of green spot remover. Must remember to get more soon), and was in the saddle by 8:00 for my 8:40 ride time. I decided to enter us in Intro B twice to give Royal some consistency. He warmed up rather well, and we ended up walking around in the warm-up just to keep warm. It was fairly cold and windy and everyone was all bundled up, and I saw a jacket with The Logo on it. That's right, Psycho McCrazypants had brought Third Reich Stables again this year. Great. And a glance over at the jumping ring showed her terrorizing all and sundry with her psychosis and craziness. Double great.

Still, we had a pretty good ride. Our ring was in the back half of the warm-up and right next to a turn-out pasture, so it was a little chaotic and Royal started the test like he normally does. "What's going on? Where am I? Why am I away from the other horses? What are we doing?" But he relaxed during the free walk and settled into the test afterwards. He felt great.

So, we had to wait a bit before the next test, which we ended up doing 15 minutes early. Apparently people just weren't showing up, which was odd. You had to pre-enter the dressage classes a week before the show, and it wasn't that cold. Oh well. This test started out better than the first, although he was a bit tense in the walk, but just at the end of the free walk, someone turned out a horse in the pasture behind the arena and everyone went galloping off. This bothered Royal greatly and I couldn't quite get his focus back. Still, it was nice to be able to give him a bit of consistency to hopefully help him relax in the future.

 

 

 

You can see where the horses ran off behind us in the video. I'll have to work a bit more with Royal on picking up the contact. He's a lot better, but he still can get quite tense and somewhat claustrophobic if there's a lot going on.

Next was jumping, and was getting cold, so I had to put on my fleece jacket. We had a bit of a wait before the cross-rail class finished up, so I met up with Anna and Piper who were also going to do some dressage and jumping class, although at a higher level than us. Anna and I were able to walk the course together, which ended up being really helpful. Then she headed off to her dressage test and Royal warmed up over jumps. We only had to pop over a few things, but as always, the warm-up was filled with rude/oblivious/both people, one of whom decided to adjust his students stirrups right in front of the cross-rail. People, DON'T DO THAT! There are few things ruder than rendering a jump unusable, and it's a good way to make everyone else hate you. After we trotted twice around the perimeter, the blockers was still there, so on the other side of the arena, I yelled out "CROSSRAIL!" as loud as I could, and finally they moved and I could jump the fence. Sheesh. Royal jumped over everything without too much fuss and we headed back to the jumping arena.

Royal was excited. He started doing his little adrenaline dance that he often does when we have to wait in a crowded area and he can see other horses RUNNING and JUMPING and he wants to RUN and JUMP too. So he was pretty jazzed up when we went into the arena, and wanted to zip around pretty fast. He didn't really look too hard at anything, although he sucked back a bit at a few jumps, but over all was pretty game and responsive. We had a clean first round, and so went on to the jump off, where I lost my brain. See, we were supposed to go over fences 1, 2, 5, 7, and the the tan combination, but I forgot that and aimed Royal at the yellow combination. D'oh! I realized my mistake about two strides out from the combo and figured "Oh, well" Royal was locked on and popped over both happily. So we went off course and were eliminated, but it was all my fault. Royal was super fantastic.

So apart from my brainfact, it was awesome! I couldn't have asked for more from him.

And, as a bonus, I got to see Psycho McCrazypants get all paranoid when one of her students started their round before the starting signal, which is, of course, Not Allowed. This caused Psycho McCrazypants to start muttering about how the judge was out to get her by taking a long to give the starting signal. [snark filter off] Yes, off course. Even though other people were eliminated for starting before the starting signal or (ahem) going off course or various other things, it was all a conspiracy to eliminate Psycho McCrazypant's students. So, what Psycho McCrazypants can do it the future is a) stop going to shows altogether so no judges are able to plot against her (yes, please!) or b) TEACH YOUR STUDENTS THE RULES OF THE SHOW. And realize that EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES AND THIS WAS THE BEST PLACE TO MAKE THEM. Seriously. It's not a big deal at Carriage House. The whole goal is (or should be) to give horses and riders experience at showing so that when they show at recognized shows, they at least know the name of the game. I hope she didn't chew out her students, although she probably did because their mistake *gasp* may have cost the stable a ribbon. Horrors! [snark filter on] Ribbons are bonuses. It's great to get them, but not the end of the world when you don't.

Speaking of which...

Remember how I said Royal and I tied ourselves for 6th place? That was in dressage, where we got the exact same score (61.25%) both times. I know! I feel like we could have gotten it a bit higher in the second test, but thems the breaks. Personally, I was just glad we broke the 60% barrier; it felt like we'd been stuck in the 50s for a while. So I was pretty happy with our green ribbon. Royal didn't really care much.

I feel encouraged. We did very well despite not having a lot of preparation and some odd circumstances. It was awesome.

Long Time No Blog

Phew! It's been a long time since I've able to blog about our adventures. The weather keeps taking detours to Crazytown, going from snow to sun to extreme heat to rain and a bit of hail today. But we just suit up and head out anyway.

We've slowly been working our stuff now that everything's melted. The Big Field has fairly good footing, so we've been doing a lot of stuff there. The first time we rode out there, Royal just wanted to run. So I let him run until he started snorting and sighing and gave me a stretchy springy trot. I asked him to pick up the contact and boom! He took the contact and pushed with his hind end like I'd never felt before. I'd didn't want to push it too much, so I only ask him for it a few times, but apart from a few bobbles here and there, he held the contact nice and steady.

We've also gone for lots of nice long walks and ride on the road. One day there were some crews cutting down branches on the side of the road. There was a lot of fuss and commotion and loud noises, but Royal kept his cool.

We also encountered some horse-eating boxes

And found out the Sheep of Death have lambs!

I think they're cute, but Royal is of the opinion that they are Demon Spawn.

All of this is in preparation for Carriage House, which is in a week.

I know! It snuck up on me this year. I think with the crazy weather, it's been hard to think spring, but the Three Ring Circus is just around the corner. We're finally doing dressage this year, although just staying in the walk-trot test, Intro B and doing the 2' jumpers. We could probably do Training level tests and higher fences, but considering how sometimes Royal can get a little... over-enthusiastic at the first outing of the year, I decided to keep it simple. Hopefully we can have a nice easy experience which will set us up well for Roebke's Run in July. This year we'll do it! We finally have the experience and I have the finances, so it'll be our first event of the year. We'll definitely do Steepleview again, both the schooling days and the horse trial. Maybe we'll make it to Otter Creek. but we'll see.

First step is getting Royal looking all show ready, especially his mane.

Oh dear.

I've been v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y pulling his mane using the Lynn Palm method, and once it was a good thickness, I got out the thinning shears and shortened it to a reasonable length.

Before:

After

A bit longer than I would like, but show-worthy.

Sexy Tail is back, thanks to copious amounts of detangler.

This week, we keep training! Here comes Carriage House!

The Not-Spring, Part Two

 
So, after a super fantastic bout of sunniness and warm weather, just in time for the Horse Expo, wherein everyone was walking around outside and enjoying themselves, what happened?

It snowed.

And got really cold (flirting with freezing) and windy and wet.

Sigh.

Notice the heavyweight blanket. This was on May 1st.

We did get a nice ride in before it got cold again. I let Royal trot a ways down the road before we cantered up and down a side road. He seemed happy to get out and stretch his legs a bit. He didn't even snort too hard at the Sheep of Death and the Demon Llama, who were gamboling around in the sun. I think everyone's ready for summer; I know I am. I've been trying to get his at least halfway presentable, starting with his mane and tail. The tail is fairly straightforward. I've so far just been spraying it with detangler and letting it be, and so far it's starting to look fuller. I've also been v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y pulling his mane using the Lynn Palm method, which he doesn't seem to mind at all. The trick is to take very few hair, as in half of what you think the minimum should be. So far it's going well, although I may end up using some thinning shears eventually.

Today it was nice and warm again, so I tried to take Royal out to the Big Field to see how the footing is there. But the creek that runs between the pastures and the Big Field was pretty deep and surrounded by slippery long grass, so Royal understandably wanted nothing to do with it, and we went for a nice walk instead. He didn't even spook at the garbage cans. Progress!

So, now, weather... cooperate please?

The Not-Spring

I sometimes over-schedule myself and regret it. Such was the last few weeks. Luckily the weather went cuckoo-bananas, so I didn't have to feel bad about not do much with Royal. We had ridiculous amounts of wet, sloppy, slushy, mushy snow/rain/sleet for a while and no one was happy. Even the horses would suddenly make nasty faces for no reason. They'd just be standing and all of sudden wrinkle their noses and pin their ears, and then go back to normal, all without anyone moving or doing anything. Everyone was just crabby.

So, obviously not a lot of playing or riding for Royal and me. We managed to get a few walks in, wherein I decided I was tired of Royal making bug eyes at the garbage cans every time we went past them. I politely pointed out to him that he has walked past them over a hundred times, and he is still alive to tell about the tale. So, now every time he gets snorty walking past them, I ask him to squeeze back and forth until he can touch them, and then he has to touch them at least 10 times without getting all bug eyed. So far, it seems to be working. He might get a little worried as we approach them, but then recognizes them, decides he would rather not bother with them, and walks calmly past.

He also got a nice gash on his left hind not too long ago. It must have happened not too long before I got there, as it seemed pretty fresh. So I cleaned it, dressed it, and wrapped in neon green Vetrap.

Notice all the snow. That was on April 15th.

He wasn't particularly happy, but it looked a lot better a couple days later.

So, we waited for the snow to go away. And waited. And waited some more.

And starting this weekend, Happy Summer!

No seriously. It went from snowing and cold at the beginning of the week to sunny and absolutely gorgeous this weekend. Apparently, we skipped spring and summer started just in time for the MN Horse Expo. Sweet. I was walking around the Fairgrounds all morning Saturday in just a t-shirt and jeans with my iced tea, all comfortable and happy-like. I got to see over my dream trailer ([Homer Simpson voice]Mmm, Hawk two horse straight load bumper pull with a ramp and a dressing room *drools*[/Homer Simpson voice]), try all sorts of food, stock up on Royal's joint supplement, and just have a good time. I was sort of disappointed in the demos and the lack of super fancy, over-the-top living quarter trailers, but the Expo is always fun.

So, yeah. Not much for a while, but now that the weather should stay (mostly) sane and I'm not trying to exhaust myself with my schedule, we should have lots of time to back on track and prepping for Carriage House! Bring on the nice days and fun times.

Winterspring

I realize I haven't been blogging much lately, mostly because I've been working evenings and that's when I prefer to blog. I've still had some time to play with Royal, although the weather is going crazier than usual. We had a brief reprieve with above-freezing temperatures... and it snowed yesterday.

Seriously? Will this winter EVER be over? I'm tired of suiting up with long johns, wool socks, and tons of upper layers just to be outside for more than a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, everything's been melting nicely and steadily, but slowly. There's lots of puddles everywhere, but quite a few still have ice at the bottom, so no wading. We did have some puddles in the road that were ice free that were wade-able, until Royal hears a loud noise, forgets he's in a puddle, suddenly remembers that he's wading in a puddle, and freezes until he remembers that his hooves still work underwater.

"Don't really know where to go from here."

Although he still tried to climb through the big snow banks while we still had them.

Mostly we've been hand walking, which ended up being a good idea when the ice started cracking. Royal is big on context. A person moving a barrel or a tarp is no big deal, but if they move by themselves, obviously a big horse-eating monster is the culprit. Obviously. So he proceeds to lose his mind and forget that he and I are on the same planet. The best way to get him back to Earth varies with the situation, but after a couple sessions, the best plan ended up encouraging him to circle at the fastest possible trot on the road away from the ice, and Squeeze Game close to the ice. Circling let him use up his adrenaline, and Squeeze kept him from getting too emotional near the ice..

We did get a ride in, and he powered away from home, until we got to the end of the property line, where he spooked at an empty soda bottle and wanted to go home. I kept his brain occupied with Partial Disengagement and back-ups. I think he's got as much spring fever as I do. And the never-ending winter is definitely not helping, even though he looks all handsome when he's windblown.

Supposedly it's going to warm up after this weekend, and we can hopefully continue our excursions, including going to the park down the road. But first spring needs to get here and stick around until summer arrives.

Signs That Spring Will (Hopefully) Be Here Soon

March is always depressing around here, even more so this year. Last year it was in the 70s and 80s around this time, and this year it seems amazing and miraculous when it gets above freezing for a few brief hours. We keep telling ourselves that it'll be nice and warm soon, but it's hard to believe it when it stays could and snowy. But the signs that winter may eventually pack up and leave are there, such as:

1. You get to practice your ice skating skillz (or lack there of). When we have a period of slightly above freezing temperatures, lots of puddles form and turn into mini ice rinks when the temperatures inevitably go below freezing again. This only happens in areas that have been plowed. A lot of snow is still here, and the piles of plowed snow are still pretty big.

 There's also a lot of snow in the pastures, almost knee deep everywhere. It'll take a while for all that to melt, that's for sure.

2. The sun is out! A lot. Since the pastures are too deep to ride in, Royal and I have been taking walks on the road and it is very, erm, bright out there, what with the sun reflecting off all the snow and ice.

I haz sunglasses?

Hopefully the snow will start acting like a vampire and retreat to its coffin soon. It was mostly gone from the road yesterday, but the sooner it's gone from everywhere, the better.

3. Your horse starts molting. I swear Royal has lost enough hair to build 1000 bird nests, although a fair amount ends up all over my clothes. Every piece of fabric I own will take on a slight red hue for the next month or so. Such is life.

4. The horses start laying down a lot. I'm not exactly sure why this is. But it seems like they lay down more in the months of March and April than they do the rest of the year. My sister snapped this cute pic of Royal and Gabby cuddling with Royal laying his head on Gabby's back. All together now: Aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I'm trying to alleviate my cabin fever by think of this year's shows. Complicating matters is the fact that the trailer still needs to have its lights fixed, and the truck may or may not need new brakes and/or tires. Spring Otter Creek is out: just won't be possible for me to get any meaningful preparation, especially with how long winter is hanging around. The Pipe Opener is also out. I really wish it were a possibility, but it's still just too early. So, right now I'm planning for our first outing to be Carriage House at the end of May. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything fixed and we'll actually have decent enough weather to practice. We'll make our plans from there depending on how everything goes.

First the snow has to go. Then we can have some fun.

Gaming While Feminist, Part 1

This video needs to be watched by everyone who ever has or will play a video game, or anyone who knows someone who has or will play a video game, and everyone they know.

Full transcript here. It's long video, but well worth your time.

I'm a unabashed, unashamed, in-your-face feminist. It is a major part of my identity and something I feel extremely strongly about. I am also a gamer, albeit a fairly casual one, and have been playing video game for a long time. For a while, one of my favorite possessions was a red Gameboy Color, and I played the crap out of Pokemon and Super Mario Bros. I also used to play Legend of Zelda once a year at the hotel in Little Amana, Iowa and got very good at the first two hours (you had to pay by the hour). Now my games consist of Angry Bird, horse games, and Nancy Drew on my PC. I don't own any special consoles (although now that I found out that Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is available on the Wii, that may change), nor do I spend vast amounts of time gaming. But I do consider myself both a casual gamer and a feminist.

In my experience, there are two types of games: level-up and storytelling. Level-ups are fairly straightforward: you increase your skills and try to keep moving up the levels until you beat the game. They're not necessarily easy (Angry Birds tends to frustrate me frequently), but they tend to be fairly simple. Storytelling games still have the level-up component, but there's another layer of "why". You're not leveling up for it's own sake, you're leveling up in order to find out the rest of the story, and the gameplay tends to be a bit more complex. Angry Birds and about half of my horse games fall into the leveling-up category. The other horse games and Nancy Drew fall into the storytelling category. Personally, I tend to prefer the storytelling games. I like being given a "why" beyond simply beating the top level. And so those are the games I end up playing the most.

The leveling-up games tend to be gender neutral. The horse games allow you to choose the gender of your character at the beginning of the game and I don't think the Angry Birds or Pigs have been assigned genders. So, not a lot of feminist influence. But the storytelling games I play tend to be feminist friendly. The main character is always a young woman, either trying save the family farm/horses or lead her school to victory, along with increase her and her horses' skills. There's almost always a love interest (which turns out VERY badly in one of the games. Good lesson on being careful in relationships), and in the end, our heroine leads her team to victory and/or saves the ranch/horses. Very positive role models. And Nancy Drew? Nancy kicks ass. She goes on all sorts of adventures, from a ranch in Arizona to a manor in England to a haunted inn in Japan. She always finds the culprit and brings them to justice, mostly using her wits and skills. And the games are always well-researched (the game that heavily involved horses impressed me quite a bit. All the horse related information was extremely accurate. Colic and founder information? Always check your cinch/girth before mounting up? Horses aren't machines, so don't ride them too hard? Pinch me, I must be dreaming). Nancy is also a great role model.

And we need more female role models in video games. It's a multi-billion dollar industry, with lots of people playing many different games on many different consoles. It's a HUGE industry that can appeal to a wide demographic which includes women. But it's so hard to find positive and strong female characters in games, and they're more the exception than the rule. And it shouldn't be that way. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 47% of gamers are female and women over 18 is the one of the fastest growing group of gamers. But many games seems to developed for and marketed at guys under 30, with any other group of people who may also be playing these games a mere afterthought. And if you try to point out that many video games contain bad stereotypes of women, some people freak out. The woman in the video, Anita Sarkeesian, became the target of horrifically vicious harassment and abuse when she simply created a Kickstarter to fund the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games project. It was astounding how cruel these people were. But in the end, she raised nearly $160,000 for the project (she started with a goal of $6,000) with nearly 7,000 backers. Obviously people want to this issue is important and want to discuss it. And I'm one of them.

I'll be following the series and posting the videos and transcripts as soon as I can. So far, this is the only video that's been released, but I'm very excited to see the rest. I'm very happy this project is going forward.

So You Want People To Wear Helmets

As a latent sociologist, I find the helmet "debate" fascinating. As I've pointed out before, there's really only one side: helmets are good things that save lives. Nobody's trying to ban helmets, either from competitions or retail stores. No one's arguing that competitors should be penalized for wearing helmets in shows. There aren't any multi-million dollar organizations smearing helmets as dangerous. The "debate" largely revolves around whether of not helmets should be mandatory or an option. That's it.

A fair amount of people would like riders to wear helmets every time, every ride. A lot of people don't. It seems to me, if you want to change that, the best way to start would be to figure out why people are not wearing helmets right now. Which is the approach public health researchers use when trying to find out why people don't use clean needles. (Relevant part at 3:20, but the whole video is awesome. Bonus: subtitles in 31 languages. Learn how to sound smart about public health is Czech!)

While drug use and HIV transmission are much more serious than helmet use (and not wearing a helmet is not in the league as HIV transmission), the methods they used have a broad application. For those who can't watch the video, the researchers went to various cities in Indonesia and went to popular hang-outs of heroin addicts (or smackheads, as she calls them) and asked them a bunch of questions.

Question 1: Do you know how you get HIV? Almost everyone said, yeah, by sharing needles.

Question 2: Do you know where to get clean needles? Again, the answers are almost universally yes.

Question 3: Are you carrying clean needles? 1 in 4 or less say yes, and less than 1 in 10 use clean needles every time they inject heroin.

At this point, the equivalent tactic of helmet fanatics would be to start yelling and screaming about health costs and don't you love your family and think of THE CHILDREN and you'll deserve it when you die, you junkie. Instead, the researchers did something radical and outrageous and unheard of and asked the people why they weren't using clean needles and listened to their answers. And it turns out they had a very good reason: carrying needles was against the law. If the police caught you with a needle, you'd go to jail and possibly get HIV or killed there. So, for these heroin users, sharing needles was actually the less risky choice.

So let's extrapolate this to helmets. I'm guessing if someone with a background in statistics were to stand around at a horse expo or fair anywhere in the country asked people 1) Do you know the function of helmets, 2) Do you know where to get a helmet, 3) Do you wear a helmet, we'd learn some interesting things. I'm sure pretty much everyone would know where to get a helmet (most feed stores and even Fleet Farm carry them) and what they're for, but maybe half or less would actually be wearing them. So, a good thing to know would be why.

There a common theme among helmet evangelists that nothing is less comfortable than a TBI, so nothing excuses not wearing a helmet. Which sounds like "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels," which I can tell you ain't true. Chipotle burritos, nuf said. And helmets can be EXTREMELY uncomfortable, especially if you're like me and have an oval shaped head, it's hard to find a helmet that fits and is comfortable. For years, I hated wearing helmets because they gave me headaches. It wasn't until the local tack store started carrying Charles Owens and GPAs that I figured out that helmets weren't the problem. The problem was I'd only worn Troxels and they are not very comfortable for me. Nothing wrong with them, they just don't fit me well. But most places around here only carry Troxels, so I was out of luck. When I actually got to try on multiple brands and styles, the two that fit be best were the Charles Owens GR8 and the GPA Speed Air. Both of which are expensive and not found at a lot of brick and mortar stores around here. Now imagine someone like me, but who doesn't live within driving distance of a store with many different brands of helmets. Either they order dozens of helmets from online retailers and hope they eventually find a comfortable one, or they might just forgo the helmet thing altogether.

And not wearing a helmet doesn't guarantee you'll die of a TBI, believe it or not. Anyone can point to tons of people who have ridden without a helmet - multiple times even! - and lived to tell the tale. There are people who have been riding a long time helmet-less and are still alive. So the implication that no helmet = YOU WILL DIE AND IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT is very very false. A helmet lowers your risk of a TBI, sure, and no one has ever said otherwise, but a lack of helmet does not increase your chance of an accident occurring.

And there could be plenty of reasons why people don't wear helmets. But berating them is not going to change anything. People will wear helmets when the advantages outweigh the drawbacks. How that happens is different for everyone. The USEF recently changed the dressage rules so that everyone has to wear a helmet in dressage, even in the FEI levels. But not if you're competing in an event under FEI jurisdiction, which only adds to the confusion. At Ye Olde Locale Showe, helmets for all. At Big Important International Event On US Soil, helmets for some, odd hats for others. It's just so weird.

But first, if you want people to wear helmets, ask them why they are not. And listen, instead of moralizing or berating. The answers may surprise you.

Royal and Coco Go To The Doctor

I'm still recovering (I hope) from the Plague, albeit infuriatingly slowly. I even lost my voice for a few days. It didn't get to this point,

 But it was close.

Obviously I haven't done much with Royal lately, due to feeling like death warmed over. But last Saturday, he and Coco pony went to the vet to get their teeth done. Mother Nature was feeling particularly grumpy and sent us a snowstorm of light, fluffy snow the day before, which caused me to get stuck in the driveway and it took me and my sister two hours to get my car out.

The next day, we got Royal and Coco all loaded up without a problem and down the office 2-3 miles away (So convenient, I love it!). I had warned the vet ahead of time that Royal has a history of being able to hold his liquor well. He's always been the equivalent of the skinny guy who can drink all the big burly bikers under the table. He seemed a little antsy at first, but Coco handled the whole thing with his usual aplomb and Royal (thankfully) followed his lead. Coco went first, and he had a case of Old Horse Mouth. Dr. K thought he was about 30, and he's starting to lose his teeth. One even fell out during the procedure. He also had a wave, a couple hooks and sharp points, which was surprising to us. He didn't seem to have any problems eating or keeping weight on until the cold snap, so we didn't think he had any issues. Dr. K worked her magic, and while he still doesn't have the greatest mouth, he should have a lot less trouble now.

Next it was Royal's turn.

"I'll just make myself invisible."

First we had to get some photos for his Coggins and then we decided to try the normal amount of sedation, as he's stood around so well for Coco's. And whadda know, 1 cc of dorm and 2cc's of Ace and he was in LaLa Land. That has never happened. Ever. He's always had double to start with and frequently needed more, just to get him to the point where he seemed safe to work on. Nope, not this time. We theorized that it was probably because of the environment. At the old barn, everyone had their teeth 'n sheath done on the same day, which meant that horse were going in and out and here and there and whinnying and carrying on, and it was always tenuously controlled chaos. Here, it was just him and Coco (who was snoring for quite a while) in a completely non-changing environment. So, nothing to get upset about, and by the time the power tools were busted out, he was too out of it to care.

His mouth was relatively good. He had some points, a slight wave, and a small hook in the back, but otherwise looked fine. He got a little bothered when Dr. K worked on his premolars, but his only reaction was to raise his head and lean back a bit. Other than that, no issues.

Seriously. I've never seen him like this. He was so sleepy that the vet cleaned his sheath in the stocks, and has still a little unsteady afterwards. I even had to walk him around the clinic driveway to get him awake enough to travel home. We got home safely... and the rig got stuck in the snow by the driveway. The thing about fluffy snow that when it packs, it packs hard and slippery and offers no traction. So after much effort, where there was an SUV hooked up to the back of the trailer trying to pull it and the truck out of the fluff, we got the rig out, but the trailer ended up having to stay on the side of the driveway for the night. It got moved the next day back to it's usually spot where it will stay until winter leaves and take its snow with it.

After their adventure, Royal and Coco seem a lot better, especially Coco. Now we know we'll have to watch him like a hawk for any weight loss or eating issues, but he's doing pretty well for an old guy. Royal still dribbles his grain a bit, but not as much. I haven't tried a bit at all, but it'll be interesting to see if he feels different.

I still can't get over how sleepy he got. Environment is huge with these sensitive horses.

Notes From The Infirmary

I'd like to say the recent lack of posts was due to many awesome adventures in places that are not cold and being crushed beneath mounds of snow. But in reality, I've been sick with the flu and now the Cold From Hell.

It all started last Thursday, when I got the fevers and muscle aches. In some ways, it was good that I have no beau or paramour as I would have been all

Needless to say, I haven't done much with Royal lately. It's also been pretty cold lately, so that also puts a damper on any plans. But we had some nice rides, and lots of undemanding time.

Still, I will be very happy when I can breathe properly again.

We Are So Not Going To Sochi

At least not in ice skating.

This past week was interesting. It's been snowing on and off all week, so I (foolishly) hoped that the snow would provide a nice cover for the glare ice and give us a nice space to ride. And I was sort of right. Tuesday we rode in the front, and Royal was full of beans. He held it together pretty well at the walk as we steadily tramped out a "trail/rail" about the size of a small dressage arena, but as soon as we started to trot, I could feel his life come up and I just let him canter. He was light on his feet and balanced as we scooted around, and still held on to his brain pretty well. We cantered for a while before he dropped back down to the trot, snorting and sighing. Same thing the other way, only he didn't canter as long. He seemed pretty happy for the opportunity to boogie.

Thursday was a different story. I decided to try riding down to the Demonic Barn again, and at first he did very well. There was a truck that seemed very lost as it went up and down the road veeeeeeeeeery ssssssllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyyy. Royal is fine with vehicles as long as they behave like normal vehicles, either going normal speed or stopped. The truck creeping past us 3 or 4 times was not normal, and he started to get a bit worried. He snorted a bit at the Demonic Barn and the Sheep of Death, but otherwise behaved himself. However, it was very cold and windy and by the time we got home, Royal was both very cold and cranky and spooky. There was something going on in the neighbor's yard that he did NOT approve of, and he wasn't very interested in eating. I wondered he still had some ticklish feet.

Friday I resolved help him get all his excess energy out. I played with him OnLine, and he was a bit more cautious than usual. I tried playing with him out in the back, but there was still too much ice, so we moved up to the front. The Bloks I had set up in a Weave pattern were still frozen into place, so I ask Royal to do a figure-8 around two of them. It was going fine, until both of Royal hind legs slid out the right in a spectacular fashion and he landed on his butt. He popped right back up and didn't seem any worse for wear, but the session pretty much ended there, apart from asking him to trot around so I could see if he was limping. He wasn't, but I gave him a couple of grams of bute just to be sure.

Yesterday, I rode again and he seemed okay, if stiff. I let him walk for a long time until I could feel him loosen up and start swinging through his back. Trotting also helped quite a bit, but when I asked him to stretch, he was crooked to the left when we went either direction. I just played the Game of Contact and slowly took the contact on the left until he took it. It took some repetition, but by the end, he stretched down evenly on both reins. But this confirms my suspicion that he's due for a chiropractic adjustment. It'll probably have to wait until March or April after he gets his teeth done, but I figured his hips were troubling him this winter when he started resting his right hind a lot. I'll have to get some names from the vet, but we'll get Royal all fixed up.

This Will Probably Be Interpretted As An Anti-Helmet Post

"Self," I said to myself, "it's been a while since we've written a helmet rant, hasn't it?"

Self considered this and agreed. "It has been a while. Why is that?"

"Well, we've been busy. And we haven't felt like it."

"Do we feel like it now?" ask Self.

"I suppose so." I said.

***

So Lendon Gray posted this on her Facebook page:

and then there is the official Parelli opinion on helmets:"Personally speaking we feel very uncomfortable wearing helmets because it affects our balance and perceptiveness." In listing the "torture" equipment seen in stallion sheds, "equipped with chains, whips, hobbles, helmets and flak jackets." And from a letter posted onlinefrom[sic] the Parelli team, "The reason you do not see our people wearing helmets is because we try to teach people that rather than be brave because they are wearing a helmet to protect them, they would be better off not riding until their horse is behaving safely.
People have called us brave for not wearing helmets, but we say they are a lot braver than we are. We would not get on their horse until we had addressed the issues that cause it to behave in unsafe ways." And no comment that I have seen at least after Linda Parelli was knocked unconscious when her own horse fell on her.
HOWEVER you can buy an extra special Parelli helmet cover from their website, for those of you brave enough to ride your unsafe horses.

I struggle with how to respond to this. I could start out by pointing out that in no place in any of the quotes above does it say that helmets are bad. Or that people shouldn't wear them. Or that people who wear helmets are bad rider solely because they wear helmets. I could point out that it merely says that they would prefer that helmets not be the first defense, so to speak, in terms of protecting yourself from injury. That your helmet won't save you from everything. That if your horse seems to think there are ninjas hiding in the corner, it may be best to not ride that day. I could point out that there are a number of Parelli Professionals who wear helmets regularly and have not had their star ranking pulled or downgraded. I could point out that I have ridden with multiple Parelli Professionals, while wearing a helmet, and nary an anti-helmet comment was said. I could point out that people have taken lessons from Pat or Linda Parelli, while wearing a helmet, and everything was fine. Copacetic. Peachy keen even.

I could point that that, until recently, you did not have to wear a helmet in pure dressage or the dressage phase of USEF recognized eventing competitions. That you still do not have wear helmets in any dressage competition at the FEI levels. I could point out that it took until 2006 for approved helmets to be mandatory for showing over fences. I could point out that you don't have to wear a helmet in pretty much any breed or western discipline if you are over 18. I could also point out that nobody has (to my knowledge) accused the USEF or FEI of being anti-helmet.

I could point out that being anti-helmet and anti-mandatory-helmet are two completely separate positions. I could point out that not being a helmet evangelist does not necessarily mean one is anti-helmet. I could point out that it is possible to be committed to wearing a helmet and still not think that helmets should be made mandatory (I myself happen to hold both positions). I could point out that nobody, least of all the Parellis, has advocated banning helmets from competition. I could point out that nobody, least of all the Parellis, has advocated banning the sale of helmets. I could point out that everyone is free to wear a helmet whenever they want (even in competitions where they are not required (because those still exist (how anti-helmet!))), and no one, least of all the Parellis, has said that they should not be free to do so. I could point that there is a fundamental difference between "I don't think X should be compulsory" and "I think X is a bad thing and anyone who does X is a bad person."

 Or I could simply post some pictures of Linda Parelli in a helmet.

 

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

I know! How anti-helmet! Won't someone think of the children?

Tickle In The Feet

"Sometimes, when I have had less exercise than usual, I have felt so full of life and spring that when John has taken me out to exercise I really could not keep quiet; do what I would, it seemed as if I must jump, or dance, or prance, and many a good shake I know I must have given him, especially at the first; but he was always good and patient.
"Steady, steady, my boy," he would say; "wait a bit, and we will have a good swing, and soon get the tickle out of your feet." Then as soon as we were out of the village, he would give me a few miles at a spanking trot, and then bring me back as fresh as before, only clear of the fidgets, as he called them. Spirited horses, when not enough exercised, are often called skittish, when it is only play; and some grooms will punish them, but our John did not; he knew it was only high spirits."
-Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

The Cold Week took its toll on everyone. The horses were cranky and crabby, as was everyone else. I discovered a nifty way to unfreeze the spigot: it took some trial and error, but I balanced it between the spigot and a pipe with the nozzle pointing at the spigot. Left it there for a couple of minutes, and when I came back, no spigot-sicle!

Obviously I didn't do much with Royal. Neither of us a particularly fond of cold, and it can be dangerous to do to much physical activity in freezing cold. It did fluctuate from negatives to single digits to teens. I couldn't feel much of a difference, to be honest. Once it gets past a certain point (mid-teens for me), it's just cold. Maybe I could feel the difference from 0 to -50, but not to the extent I could feel the difference between 0 to 50.

The first day I could do anything with Royal was Saturday, but on Friday he got the "tickle-in-the-feet" syndrome, and could not eat his grain normally. He'd take a bite, then spook at the hay bales, a bird, a horse-eating-invisible-squirrel, anything. Moving him around a bit helped, but not enough. So Saturday, we went out to the front to let him boogie for a bit and burn off some energy.

It helped. We played a bit with the figure-8 and hopping over some trees. He ate his grain like a normal horse and was no longer worried about the horse-eating-invisible-squirrel. He looks fabulous, weight wise. His ribs are still somewhat visible when he does a big theatrical sigh, but otherwise he looks great.

Coco the pony had some trouble, though. The cold was not kind to him, he's starting to have some teeth troubles, and he doesn't like to fight for a spot at the hay bales. There's plenty of space around the hay, but since everyone was so crabby, he just didn't eat enough and dropped quite a bit of weight. So now he has his own little paddock (which I can't upload pictures of, for some reason) with as much hay as he wants and a bit of SeniorGlo every day. He and Royal will visit the Tooth Fairy soon, so hopefully we'll get the tooth situation straightened out. So far, he's been pretty happy. He's been eating his hay well, and knows when it's grain time and practically bounces up and down when he sees it coming. He's on the mend.

It's been fairly warm the past few day. We got some snow on Sunday, which I hoped would provide a nice cushion over the glare ice. Unfortunately, it didn't and the back paddock and big field were as slippery as ever, but the front is still nice. We carved out a little ring close which is mostly ice free. I'm getting a little more particular about posture and not letting him bounce around shaped like a llama. He's getting batter about it, but old habits are hard to break.

Today we went for a walk on the road. As usual, we try to make it to the Sheep of Death farm, and at first it went well. However, as we approached the Sheep of Death, he lost his mind over the nondescript light gray barn and equally nondescript light gray mailbox in front of it. He just completely shut down and refused to move in any way, snorting and blowing at the barn he walked past all summer and fall long without incident. Why? I don't know. Maybe the gray looked weird against the snow. Maybe he saw something in the woods beyond the barn. Maybe Satan and his demons were having a rave in there. Whatever the reason, I ended up having to get off and play with him on the ground, trying to help him rediscover his brain. We eventually got past the Sheep of Death (he was fine with them, by the way), and after I got back on, slowly inched our way back and forth towards the Demonic Barn. There was a lot of circling and pooping and chewing on the bit and frenetic stretching, and I'm sure the sheep and their people thought we were absolutely nuts, but after about a half an hour, I got him to walk semi-calmly past the Demonic Barn, if a little quickly. We made it home without further incident, and I let him mosey around the front ring to clear his mind. There was a lot of sighing and snorting.

I'll try to get us back to the Evil Area soon, but it's going really cold again, with a few days in the single and negative digits again. So, it may be a while. We have to survive the next cold snap and dream of warmer days in the future. Soon, but not soon enough for me.

Geez, It's Cold! GEEZ!

Times like these are when I start to question my sanity. When I start wondering why anyone settled in this place, and chose to stay here. Why I'm staying here.

Last week was a challenge. Days of above-freezing temps led to lots of snow melting, and eventually the temperatures dipped below freezing. Which meant glare ice everywhere. The "arena" Royal and I had tracked out? The lower half is pretty solid ice, with the top part not being much better. We got a bit of snow, which helped slightly, but you don't have to go too far before hitting ice. The road is slightly better, but we still have the same problem as before: close to home is fine, but you run into more glare ice as you go up the hill. The good news is that the front field is a bit higher, so not a lot of ice there, and the parts that are ice are easily avoidable. Royal and I played a bit up there on Saturday.

We can create a pretty good track from walk/trot stuff that has reasonable traction. I prefer to use that area for jumping normally, but the snow has made it a nice flatwork area. Which we will hopefully be able to use eventually, because on Sunday, it got cold. Like bone-crunching cold.

The projected highs have either been in the single positive digits or the negative. Combine that with lots of wind and I'm ready to pack it in and move south. Or west. Anywhere but here.

And it doesn't help when things go wrong. Yesterday it never got out of the negatives, but I went up to see Royal anyway and wanted to give him and the other horses lots of Pity Cookies to help keep their spirits up. Imagine my shock when I go to give Royal his grain in the morning (when it was -8 without factoring in wind chill) and see both gate hooks (the fences are two lines of electrical wire/rope) lying on the ground. The top one was still attached to the line, which was completely slack as far as I could see down the line, and the bottom line was no longer attached to the hook. Which was not good. At all. We do have problems with the lines stretching in the wind, but sometimes it looks like a wild animal hit the line, got shocked, panicked, and broke through. I'm not sure what broke the top line, but it must have happened overnight, and I'm guessing one of the horses saw the top line was down and stepped on the bottom and broke it. Luckily all five were in the paddock when I arrived and looked okay.

I had brought Royal's food with me and hoped I could just let him eat while I fixed the fence. I restrung and tightened what I could of the top line, but Coco wanted to come with, so he stepped under it and followed us. I had to grab my spare 12 foot and put him back, but Gabby decided to join the fun and she got out too. So I chased her back in (and Coco away from the gate), retied the bottom line, and put that back in place. I then started tramping around the fence line to see where the break was. It was pretty far down, but it broke hard, taking a lot of the insulator hooks with it (which makes me think it was a wild animal, because those had been holding the line fine). I had to keep going to find the other half of the break, and bring it back, wrapping it around some of the insulators. I eventually made it back and retied the line with a quadruple knot just to be safe. Now, I had unplugged the fence so I could handle it, and Coco figured that out. I looked back at the horses just in time to see him squeeze between the lines to get to Royal's grain. I ran across the field yelling "COCO! NO! BAD PONY!" which was a stupid thing to do, considering how icy it was. Coco managed to get a mouthful or two before going back through the lines. Royal decided to follow him and broke through the top line, separating it from the hook. So I had to retie the line to the hook, plug the fence back in, get Royal, bring him back to his grain, and baby-sit him until he finished. And then I had to do the task I had originally planned on do, which was chipping off the ice layer a few inches above the water that is formed by rapidly heating and cooling air that passes above the heater. By the end of it, I was cold and coughing up a storm from breathing all the cold air, so no one got any Pity Cookies then.

After warming up inside the house, I went back out to recheck the water, and saw that I hadn't replugged the fence all the way. The same cord is also connected to the heater, so it wasn't operating at full capacity and a thin layer of ice had formed on the water. I plugged everything in fully, broke up the ice, and when back inside because I was coughing so much. I came out again later, finally gave everyone the Pity Cookies, and chucked all the ice chunks out so the heater wouldn't have to work so hard to warm up the water. That seemed to help a lot when I checked it one last time before I left, because it had reached a nice temperature then.

Coco say he's sorry about the whole escaping thing, and he would really like a cookie.

I would really like for winter to be over now.

Returning To The Land Of The Living

Well, 2013 got off to a terrible start didn't it?

I'm moving on as best I can for now. I'm not entirely sure if I'll try applying for vet school again this year or not. There's a very teeny-tiny chance that Wisconsin could come through for me, but I highly doubt it. In the meantime, I'm making plans for the coming year and trying to get back to normal.

It's been a nice week, weather wise. Mid-to-high thirties all week, so Royal and I have been out doing stuff.

Playing and riding in the snow has been good for him, I think. Instead of schlepping around like he normally wants to do, he has to pick up his feet and start using some different muscles than he's used to. I've tried to be very careful in how we're going about this; given that he had so much time off, I'm trying to slowly increase our time spent in the snow, other than when he decides to go running around on his own time. So far we're up to about 15 minutes walking and 5 minutes trotting at a time. We've also gone for walks on the dirt road, which is exciting and hair-raising. The road close to the house is fine, but turns into glare ice when we start to go up the hill, so we have to stick really close to the side and occasionally go tramping through the snow in the shoulder. I imagine that's what a passage feels like.

But Royal would often act cold on our rides, so I went down to Dover Saddlery on Tuesday and got a light blue quarter sheet. It was a hit with the cats.

Royal also seemed to like it too, after I go it all figured out. At first it was really moving around, and being blown around by the wind, but the best configuration appears to be having it between my legs and the saddle (holding the front in place) and having the tail cord under the tail (holding the back in place). 

Sorry about the crappy quality. One day I will have a cell phone that takes good video.

Anyway, he apparently felt so good about the sheet that he turned into Philosopher Royal. Philosopher Royal likes to stop and stare into the distance for no reason, but is happy to be gently nudged on again. Except for the time he took off briefly, but he was easy to stop and we resumed our walk.

Now of course, it's cold again, so I may not be able to do stuff with Royal for a while until it warms up later in the week. 2+ months to go until spring.

Rejected. Again

What the rejection e-mail says:

What the rejectee reads:

Crap.

Happy 2013!

We made it! The world is still here (Take THAT, people-who-don't-understand-how-calanders-work-and-think-ancient-people-were-magic), and it's still winter. I survived the holiday craziness despite have the cold from hell, and would really like to please start doing stuff with my horse again if the weather can find it in its metaphorical heart to cooperate. I know this weekend is supposed to be nice, but if that could last for the rest of winter, that would be super fantastic.

Anyway, 2013! The odometer has kicked over and it's time to assess last years *New Year's Resolutions(tm)* and tentatively consider new ones.

For myself are:
-Cook at least 1 meal per week, something that involves mixing, or stirring, or grilling, or baking. I absolutely hate cooking and find it much easier to get something on the way home or stick something in the microwave, but I'll try some new stuff this year. Sorta-kinda successful. It went really well for a while, but after a string of failures in the spring (I may have succeeded in turning chicken into rubber), I kinda gave up for a while. I've been trying again, but I think I'll always be "cooking challenged." <sigh>
-Begin running in the spring/summer. I tried this last year and between the bizarre spring and horrid summer, never got the energy up for it. And I can't afford a gym membership or treadmill, so it's outside or nothing. Hopefully this year the weather cooperates. Complete failure. I tried, but the weather went absolutely insane again this year, and I was never able to go beyond a couple of days. I really want to run as a habit, but I just can't seem to get beyond the first week.

For me and Royal
-Compete in the Starter division at the spring Otter Creek Horse Trials, and finish with a score. Nope. Too close to finals, and was able to go to other local schooling shows instead. Not a complete failure.
-Compete in the Beginner Novice division at the Roebke's Run Horse Trials and at Steepleview Horse Trials, and finish both with a score. Fail on the former, complete and total success on the other! I didn't have the finances for Roebke's Run, but was able to get it together for Steepleview and we not only finished with a score, we brought home our very ribbon from a recognized HT!
-Take at least one cross-country jumping lesson. Sorta-kinda fail. We was able to do some xc schooling in Bayfield, but no one was yelling at me about my leg or hand positions. I would have loved to have gone to the Schooling Days, but it fell on the same weekend as the Tour Stop. So, maybe this year.
-Go trail riding more! Success! We forayed up and down the dirt road and to a local park, and even faced down the Sheep of Death more than once. I wasn't able to get to the park as much as I wanted, since extensive work on the bridge that runs through started mid-summer and didn't end until recently, but I want to get there more and trailer to the local state park a few times this year.
-Compete in at least 2 schooling shows. Success and then some! We made it four (Pipe Opener, Carriage House, schooling HT, and Hunt Cup). None ended in complete disaster and we had a good time at the PO, CH, and HC.
-Self-assess to Level 3 in On-Line, Freestyle, and Liberty and be well into Level 4 by the end of the year. Almost there. I would say we're solid L3 Online and Freestyle, and I'm not sure about Liberty. We keep progressing, but I've stopped putting level labels on them. We've just having fun.

So, a mixed bag. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed. I really wanted to make it to Otter Creek and Roebke's Run, and I'll do everything I can to make sure we get there this year. But what else do I want to do this year?

For me:
-Take up running. No, really. For real this time. I hope.
-Figure out how to use an "exotic" piece of cooking equipment. Crockpot/Slow Cooker? Panini Press? Wok? Who knows? I'll figure something out, even if it involves writing the names of various types of cooking equipment on slips of paper and throwing darts at them.
-Finish my crochet hat, start and finish the earband, and make something challenging, like socks or mittens.

For me and Royal:
-Go to Otter Creek's Spring HT in either the Starter or Beginner Novice division and finish with a score.
-Go to Roebke's Run Summer HT in the BN division and finish with a score.
-Go to Otter Creek's Summer HT in the BN division and finish with a score.
-Go to Steepleview's HT in the BN division and finish with a score.
-Keep road riding and trailer to the local state park at least four times
-Take a proper xc lesson
-Swim in Lake Superior again!

All in all, I hope I have a more successful year in 2013. I lost so many core institutions after May/June when I graduated from college and had to take an involuntary leave of absence from the job I'd held since I was sixteen (not due to anything I did; there's a majorly annoying and pointless contract dispute with a different group that means no one in my department is working now), and I felt lost and directionless for a while. Now my life is slowly getting on track again and I feel a lot better. I feel this could be a better year for me.

Speaking of which, long time readers may remember that I got rejected from vet school almost exactly a year ago. I did a file review and made most of the suggested improvements (at least the ones I could) over the summer/fall. Still, the applicant pool changes every year, and I'm so scared to get my hopes up. I'm somewhat embarrassed to report that my heart races every time I check my e-mail and there's a new message.

It's mostly spam/unimportant stuff, though. :/

I would like to stop freaking out about it. I worry about getting the big "R" letter again, although they do try to soften the blow.

Happy 2013 everyone!