OMG JUMPING!!!

First off, I didn't die.

The more I try to get back into fighting shape, the more things go on my "Must Do Without Dying" list.  I do have one.  Really, I do.  One that's been lingering is jumping.  I mean.  What?!  I used to jump ALL the time and was actually pretty boss at it.  My trainers in high school were great about telling me to just get my ass over things and be done with it.

Gotta love eventers!

Problem was, I am now acutely aware of how much guts and glory training I had.  I understand strides but would be hard pressed to hit them exactly.  I have a vague idea of how big a jump is (this one is bigger than that one!) and a laundry list of other things I never was taught/bothered to learn properly.  Natural talent gets you far as a fit youngster but once your body has been pilaged by pregnancy and injury, natural talent seems like the enemy.

Aww, you can do it!

Ugh.

So logically I began the process.  While my background seems wild and wooly, we were definitely NOT the kids jumping anything and everything just to do it.  No, it was always in lessons, clinics, or schooling days and NEVER unsupervised.  As someone that is on her own with her horses, this is a terrifying concept now.

Thinking back on my past, I decided to contact someone that I'd loved to train with before: Ruth Sawin.  Pine Hill was my favorite place to be during a trying teenage period and in some ways I feel like I'm going to Graceland when I'm there.  I contacted Ruth.  Surely she was too busy to babysit some crazy 34 year old out of shape has been.  She'd never email me back.

But she did.  Immediately.

The surge of relief and horror flew over me.  This was going to happen!  Wait, this was going to happen!?!?!  Oh crap.

The day came and it was brutally cold.  I could back out...  NO!  I needed to do this.  If I was rubbish then I could simply bail and do reining where I keep my feet on a ground.  In the back of my mind I knew that was not the right path, so I loaded up Katy (the trustworthy one) like a weenie and made the drive I will know by heart until I die.

I think when we arrived it was nipping at about 30 degrees F.  In Texas, that's cold.  And naturally there was a wind.  My mare was good - until I went to get on her.  Awesomepants.  I took a breath and just jumped on her.  She was uptight.  I was going to die.  Moving her on and focusing on work I found that we could walk, trot, canter and not die.  Going good so far.  I could call it quits and be happy probably.

Then Ruth showed up.  I was nervous, excited, happy, and frozen.  My butt.literally.was.frozen.  She was kind and had nice things to say about my Craigslist Special horse.  I was relieved and informed her that my goal was to simply jump something.  Anything.  A 6" crossrail would suffice.  They have those, right?  I have no idea.

The lesson went fine and I was relieved to find out that while I was out of shape, I wasn't going to die.  Jumping was a bit like riding a bike and that brought some confidence.  Ruth kindly let us go play over some logs - LOGS!- on cross country and we trotted through the water.  And over the bridge.  And yes, through the woods.  The jumps were tiny but I remembered now why I loved eventing.

She also pointed out that my 40 year old Stubben Sieg from Germany was not the best option for my butt.  Ruth probably said this much more eloquently but that was the gist of it.  More on that later... but for now:

Sold.   And not dead. Victory is mine!

Piper's Grindstone

Christmas break is a time of wonder for most people.  For me, as a state/University employee, it's also known as my annual vacation.  I will get around to taking a real vacation with my family sometime, but in the meantime, this is when I rock it.  By rock it, I mean ride my horses during the daytime and do things like hike with my dogs at the nearby forest.

I'm out of control, I know.

This year was different in that I had Arthur to work with and Piper, while coming along, really needed a come to Jesus set of training times.  Arthur progressed with his ground work and I ended up on him bareback with a halter.  We rode calmly for 100 feet and then a circle each way before I slid off by the end of the break. Not bad, eh?

Now for Piper.

Piper is a headstrong, confident, gutsy little thing.  She doesn't know the word no though which is a contradiction.  Part of the reason I love riding her is she is SOOO smart and will readily give me her all.  The reason I DON'T like riding Piper is that she owns her training.  In this case, her OLD and outdated training I'm trying to change.  Once she knows something, she KNOWS it.  You can build on it, but taking it down is tough.  Its about 2 hours of work on my part when I normally was hoping for about 45 minutes.

So for break, I was going head to head with the little wee beastie.  She needed to learn to get the heck off my hands and balance herself!  Piper is naturally VERY well balanced, catty, and agile.  Moving her body around is not an issue.  Compensating for a rider, even my size, is not an issue for her.  Much like a racehorse however, she was "held back" when she wanted to go and taught to pull down and out to get her way.  Awesomesauce.

The game this break was to take away her ability to lean on me.  Balance herself.  All those goodies.

My tool of choice?  A rope halter and my reining saddle.

I just went to the riding area and asked her to move around.  If she pulled on me, we one rein stopped to a halt.  She hates that.  Like a legitimate, no moving until I say go halt.  It was like her sky had fallen.  We worked on this concept of "wait until I tell you to go up a gear" and "stop means stop until I say go."  Working our way up to circles, that meant no "falling in" the circle.  If she did, she was one rein stopped to a halt again.

Bottom line, we progressed this way daily for about 2 hours each day with me just being consistent with these concepts.  Again, she's very smart so within the 2 weeks she figured out how to go nicely on the flat without dragging me around/wheeling in tiny circles like she's still barrel racing.  It's a work in progress and she wasn't happy but we got it done.  By the end of the training, she was much more chill and flexible in her work.  My son was her cool out rider for most of the days and he loved it.

Merry Christmas Pipes!

Arthur's Retraining Begins

Whenever I get a new horse in, I've always given them time to settle in before "real" training begins.  This doesn't mean I do nothing to them though.  I start by touching them.  In the pasture.  However and where ever I want.  Mango was the worst at this with the bunch of horses I got this year.  It may sound odd, but just like my dogs, I want them to learn that training can happen anytime, anywhere.  There is never a really true "off" time.  Granted they get to spend most of their time doing whatever they want, how they want,  and when they want so I have little sympathy.

So much like my other horses I've trained, I spent time in the pasture to start with.  For my sanity, I left a halter on Arthur since he had shown he could be a turd about being caught or basically anytime he didn't want to have a person around him (which was most always).  I normally start out while feeding since this can be the most dangerous time as the horse WANTS what you have and most horses have TERRIBLE feeding manners.  I just touch their shoulder with a flat palm or whatever (no poking) and then I dump the feed.  When they start eating, I touch their shoulder or neck again.  Most new horses will pin their ears back or something similar and I'll snort and throw my hands up and chase them away from the food.

MY FOOD!

I'll repeat this until they stop the behavior.  Less ambitious horses will sigh and I'll walk off.

This is the start of all things they hate.  Might as well get it going, right?  The other thing I start doing is following them.  This is a bit like what Monty Roberts used to talk about in his early books.  I have no idea what he does now with his training but when I want to single a horse out (basics of catching them), I follow them.  They move I move.  They stop I pause.  Most new horses hate this and will run around like idiots.  I just keep following.  Its REALLY fun to watch my older horses in the pasture, you can basically see them shaking their heads at the newbie.

So Arthur hated all this, he took his big sexy self and floated around my pasture arrogantly.  My pasture is divided into two larger portions connected by a long 20 foot wide "chute" area.  I patiently cut the other horses to one side of my body and him to the other as I stood in the chute.  He charged me.  I convincingly drove him away with the lead rope and he darted back to his side of the pasture.  This took about an hour, but he finally sighed and just stared at me as though wondering what my deal was and why I hadn't given up.  I walked over, lead rope in hand and pet him.  Then I left.  This is when they normally go "WTF" and I like leaving them with that thought.  It means they are thinking so +1 there.

Most people are so quick to snag the halter and that's not the point.  Your horse should accept your presence and wait for you to make the move.  Grabbing a halter as your first move doesn't show trust or confidence at all on your part.

The next day he was less apt to run.  I calmly touched him then his halter and then began touching his forehead.  One pat = one release.  We continued this twice a day for about a week. Once I got to the point where I could rub his face and he was seemingly happy/accepting about it, I worked on moving north and onto his ears.  He was fine with that for about as long as it would take to put a bridle on.  When I lingered longer one morning, he reared up and tried to drag me.  I let go and commenced following him around.  Recapture, retry, recapture, retry.  This went on for about an hour before I could even put one finger near the base of his ear.

We had something concrete to work on.

When I got Arthur I knew that accepting and understanding pressure was going to be his "thing."  He's a kind boy and VERY smart so I knew patience and just "messing" with him was going to be the way.  The hard part on a horse like this is you first have to "break" him.  Not by spirit, but his old habits.  Everything he did, he was good for the "normal" amount of time.  Come up with a lead rope?  He'd stand long enough for you to clip it on.  If you didn't directly do that, he'd arrogantly charge off like he'd won a prize.  Touch his ears?  Only long enough for a bridle.  "No sightseeing here please!" he was screaming.  Petting was something he simply accepted and then shut down about.  Get pushed? Shut down.  This lack of coping skills meant that at some point he'd blow.  And that was why he was considered "unpredictable" and such a dangerous horse. 

I had to break all this up like an ice flow in Greenland.  I think Greenland has ice flows...

To effectively do this however, you have to be systematic about it.  Build trust, then push it.  Build trust, then push it.  Push, pull.  That's about all there is with horses.  And patience.  Patience of a saint helps.  You cannot get emotionally involved either. Rebuild when you need and always have a plan. And always ALWAYS be willing to temporarily change that plan to help the horse understand the goals.  Keep pushing...  Keep building... Rebuild if need be.

So every day we touched and I pushed him a little further.  Touching near his ear in the pasture moved on to touching an ear.  Then the other ear.  Then petting the ears back then holding my hand on them.  Then petting them forward.  Then back.  Then I began rotating and manipulating them in my hands for as long as I pleased.  An accompanying exercise I was working on, was yielding to poll pressure.  I never did both exercises at once in the beginning.  I either did poll pressure OR the petting.  If his head went up even a fraction with poll pressure, I asked him to lower it a fraction until he did.  Once he was good with both pieces, I started putting them together.  Lower the head, touch the ears.  Lower the head, touch the ears.  Soon his head was on the ground and he was ok with his ears being inspected.  This was the point where the two exercises had effectively come together.

This was basically our first two - three weeks.  No lead rope, no leading, not even leaving the pasture.  I like to work my horses around the other better trained horses so they get used to distractions like that from the start.

A boy named Arthur.

Do you want a project horse?

No.

He's free!

I don't care.

Its a registered APHA (solid bred) and is like 17 hands tall.

*sigh*  Where is he? How old?

Here in town!  One mile from your house in fact!  6 years old.

*grumbles* Fine, I'll look at him.

Lets review that at this point in my life, I have 3 horses.  They're all mares ranging from 13h-15+ hands and 8 years old to about 20.  I've spent most of the past year working on them and myself to make them walk, trot, canter and not flip out over dumb crap.  I'm in the home stretch!  I'm about to be able to start them in reining, dressage, jumping, WHATEVER.

So I don't need a horse.

I looked up his registered name online and naturally, he was bred perfectly for what I'd been lusting after for about 10 years but assumed I'd always been too cheap to buy.    Here's his dad (7x World Champion, 1x World Challenge Champion, 6x Reserve World Champion; Multiple Reichert Champion , 2x APHA World Show All-Around Horse, 2010 APHA High Point English Horse The Big Sensation)  and I've been obsessed with his maternal grandsire for like ever.  Who is that?  Artful Move of course...  So yes, I was going to go see him.
 
Upon arrival the previous owner showed me to his stall and proceeded to thump thump thump on his forehead in greeting.  Any of my previous horses probably would have backed up at least or thrown their head up.  This horse just stared and took it.  OK, problem one might be checking out under stress.  The reason he was free was that the current "owner/lessee/etc" needed to move and wanted him gone ASAP.  He'd had an illustrious career of going to various trainers and while he was great to ride, he would randomly and unpredictably buck when you went to mount.

I don't believe in unpredictability.  Nothing with horses "just happens out of the blue."

So I pulled him out and decided to stress him in hopes of seeing him act up.  I stood on a muck bucket and had him move around me.  I pushed on him, I grabbed him.  When he crowded me, I cow kicked him out for being rude.  When he was calm, I was calm and he quickly reacted positively to that.  After about 15 minutes he was standing still and receptively with me on the bucket.  Hmmm.  We took him to the round pen so I could see about hi moving laterally.  He did it well, but cluelessly.  At this point he was doing the "young baby horse" thing where he's just trying to get you happy so he can escape the pressure.  But again, no blow ups.

We ended with a mounting block and me jumping up/at/on him.  His head was up but he never flinched or moved away.  After laying on his back with no reaction, I slid off and said I'd think about it.  I've NEVER pushed a horse that hard when meeting them but I wanted to see what sort of volatile beast I was getting.  When I pick out a new project, I have rules.  No bite, buck, kick, or rear.  I don't like fixing those things and I worry about a horse's trustworthiness over time.  

That night I talked to a friend of mine who works with her husband with "fixing" horses to see what she thought.  I was thinking his foundation just sucked and he was anxious as a result.  She agreed and I was left to make the decision.  "I don't need/want another horse" was the main phrase that went through my head that night.  But he was a sad lost little guy and while I'm not sentimental, he was also a hell of a horse and something that I'd always had on my "horse bucket list."

So I got him.  He's a hot mess of worry, but with time, consistency, and patience we'll get there.  And test my training skills in the process.







 

Family Trail Ride Day

With the fam kinda rocking the whole horse riding thing, I figured what was the worst that could happen if we took the show on the road?  I picked Indian Spirit Springs, a lovely ranch that's open for people to come ride.  They're gunning to be an endurance event location but right now they're awesome with plenty of nice trails, great scenery, and thoughtful amenities.  Oh and they're in town and $10 a head for a half day.

Yspls.

We took the new trailer with all three slots filled with horses (and a pony or technically two) and headed out there.  I was still working on "horses as a family" thing for this trip so I decided I would ride in my reining saddle and forego the helmet.  Helmet was for "real" riding.  Naturally this made me feel good and panicky at the same time.  Another thing to note about taking 3 horses with 3 sets of tack and only one knowledgeable person - the knowledgeable person ends up doing a LOT of work.

But it was fine and we had everyone mounted and heading out in short order.  Natrually Piper was raring to go and I wasn't going to fight with her for four hours.  She led and I had to do circles around the group as she was in her "on a mission" walk from hell.  She wasn't trotting, so no laws of mine were being violated but ugh.  Not relaxing or enjoyable riding a working horse.

Most of the ride was uneventful.

About two hours in though, Piper had a "spook" at some deer.  It was really lame and completely out of boredom.  I ended up in a compromising position and started to scramble to stay on.  Then I recalled my horse is about 2 feet off the ground, I had a good amount of control and hold on the reins, and the ground was soft.  I let go.  Then it was on like donky kong.  She wanted to work, so we worked.  The.remaining.two.hours.

Not relaxing and I did look more than once with envy at my family on their calm boring horses, but it is what is is.   Piper is not a recreational sort of horse and once I gave her a task, she was fine.  Yay trailriding?

Test Ride

Part of the reason for getting these horses (as opposed to my usual elephant types that are the norm for english events), was for them to be more family friendly.  There was no denying that my lovely thoroughbred that I'd owned for 10 years prior to these mares was a great horse.  He was also huge, doofy, prone to making bad decisions, and a bit to cuddly for most people to be able to take in.  My warmblood that was his pasture mate was arrogant, gorgeous, hot blooded, and sassy britches about things.  People were intimidated by them and when I did go on vacation in 2010, my horse sitter with limited experience found herself in a panic over "having" to blanket them (despite me assuring her they could make it one cold night in the barn).  She contacted her nonhorsey mother who built her confidence up enough to get the job done.

Mkay.

After the birth of my son, the horses were put on the back burner.  I WANTED to ride but now had all the obligations of if I kill myself on them, the man I love was going to have to raise this child alone.  Not that he couldn't, but well, that wasn't the objective of this exercise.  My horse boys were getting older too and it was time to decide if I was going to mount a comeback on them or not.  I decided to interview people rather than sell them and find a great home that could learn on them while understanding their aging needs.

Fast forward to this year and I once again was horse shopping.  I was SO CLOSE to making it.  Just taking lessons or leasing something  But alas, I'm too cheap for that.  I wanted a big dopey paint that would be decent at low-mid level whatever I wanted to do.  Reining, HUS, eventing, dressage, trails, just whatever hit my heart.  We know this didn't work out that way.

But, even with Piper being a 4* horse in her heart, I have Katy and Mango who are definitely chill yet ready for whatever.  They (and Piper) have extensive experience on trails and the like.  I bought the horse trailer for family outings and I'd been training the horses.  It was time to put the fam on the horses.

So yes, I was nervous underneath my cool demeanor.

Pierce had been on Katy a few times and had some lessons with me so I was less freaked out about that.  He'd been on Mango a few times on his own, so that was less crazy.  My husband though, ugh.  He'd been on a horse exactly ONCE in his life before when my sister in law had put him on a horse with no instruction and then they went on a torturous 6 hour trail ride through East Texas.  No mention to putting the weight in your heels was given, so my hubby had spent the whole ride sitting on his junk and hating every minute.

With Pierce wandering happily on Mango, I explained Katy to Joe in motorcycle terms.  "You kick gently to move up a gear, you sit down and gently take hold of the reins to gear down."  My husband is athletically gifted and also fairly analytical.  We went to the back pasture where I watched and helped as needed.  Freakishly my husband was able to confidently walk, trot, and canter Katy in an open pasture with no issues at all.  Seriously?  WHO DOES THAT?!

But I was happy and he looked great on her.  And no, he didn't have a life altering experience and still greatly prefers motor vehicles to horses.  Sadness on my part.  He'd be a fantastic event rider.  Just have to focus on the kid who is almost as good :P

Jerks. <3

Because I Bet You Didn't See This Coming...

Every fall is my favorite time for dog shows.  The weather is finally starting to not be "furnace level" and the venues are ones that I enjoy going to.  There are also shows that hit on agility, obedience, rally, and conformation at the same show.  Lots of bang for my buck.

But wait, this is the horse blog?!

Yes, yes it is.  We will get there good friend.

I decided that showing dogs would be better with an RV.  Remember my post about being logical? Well, there's a method.  Now that I owned The Sexy Beast Truck, I could haul a significant trailer.  I'd also become the owner of a rocking Town and Country minivan to help share mileage duty with my truck and my excessive driving issues.  So I could get something that the minivan could tow, or something beastly for the Beast.

Why aren't you getting a horse trailer?!?!  Living quarters are the bomb!

Yes, I agree with you.  However, due to some odd quirk, I can't get a horse trailer of any kind financed but I can buy any RV.  Huh?  Exactly.  Such has been my situation for several years so I was giving up at this time.  My old old Shelby can still and my pride can handle it, so whatever.

I stalked all sorts of RV places online.  I learned as much about them as I could and debated hauling options with my available vehicles.  All the costs involved, etc.  It was all researched obsessively cause well, that's me.  The day came when I went, research in hand, to the carefully selected and financing preapproved RV dealer that I liked and had the used RVs I wanted.  We checked out the RVs, asked questions, debated ideas.  The salesman was lovely but... it didn't feel right.  They had a REALLY nice motorhome though and hubbs fell in love with it.

FAMILY VACATIONS!  CAMPING!  SO MUCH FUN!

I bit my lip and debated.  It did sound like fun, but it wasn't the most efficient thing.  We COULD pull the Shelby with it though so therefore a living quarter/horse trailer option?  I liked that idea except... insurance was going to put this "cheap" venture way over where I wanted it.  Husband was pressuring, I was balking, so I did what I do:  asked about the bank and figured out a way to leave to think things over.

We got home and I debated.  Finally, I hit on it:  horse trailer or bust.  It made the most sense ALL AROUND.  Something with a gooseneck and pre installed AC, 3-4 horses, rear tack.  Nothing flashy, but functional and we could do anything we wanted in it... dogs, horses, camping, travel, etc.  And I prefer hauling a gooseneck over a HEAVY and LONG bumper pull.

So I called the bank the next day.  The lady was amazing and happily swapped the loan to a farm loan and told me the guidelines for finding a used horse trailer.  Since I'm an internet stalker always, I knew the horse trailer dealerships I liked best.  Well, I'd also called and tried to get financing from several of them over the years so I knew which I disliked and which would be a pita.

NRS Trailers in Decatur always has a great influx of trailers coming through there so I contacted a salesman to give him my wish list- I was willing to wait.  He gave me a few stock numbers to check out on their online inventory and I was able to help him hone it down to what I was wanting.  At the end of the conversation, he told me about a nice trailer they'd just gotten in, but it was steel, not aluminum like I wanted.  I frowned but agreed to check it out.

I was hooked immediately.

We picked it up that Friday and now I have a beautiful, but frugal rig.  HAPPY!

Mango Tango

What do sane people do for Mother's Day with their family?  Let me guess, its not drive 12 hours round trip to buy a pony on the cheap?  Well we don't roll that way.

I'd thought about getting a pony for a while now.  They're cute, fun, and easy to get on.  Oh and I have a child now so that's a totally legit reason for me to get another horse to train.  For my son.  Right?  Anyone believing this?  Me either, well maybe a little.  So the shopping began.

Its me and if you can't figure it out, I'm looking for a bargain.  Shopping for a pony is very different from shopping for a horse.  First, people looking for a horse in some way, shape or form understand this thing can kill them.  Or at least cause injury.  Ponies?  Apparently the people buying them on the cheap don't understand at all.  I found sooooo many ads for ponies being dumped for basically not being bicycles for their kids.  Not "teaching their child to ride" and all sorts of other depressing things.


Their loss is my gain though.

I wanted something I could register, preferred a mare (see a trend going?), and I wanted it to be able to be ridden by myself.  At 5'9" and 200 lbs at the time, it was going to take some doing.  I also wanted something with color because for resale it would probably be better.  Oh and its fun.  I have issues...

I found this cute (but HUGE) pony on Dreamhorse and contacted those people.  Much like Piper her price was all over the place on the internet so I was curious.  Short version (the lady talked to me for 2+ hours o.O), the mare had been rodeoed on and was well trained in roping, poles, etc and ridden by those trainers' 7 year old son.  They'd gotten the mare for some $$$ thinking their very beginner daughter could ride the mare in 4H and endurance.

Not so much.

The daughter was unwilling to ride the mare outside the round pen and generally grew to hate her.  Sad, but enter me.  I talked to the owner on Saturday and on Sunday we drove to North Texas.   Like, almost Oklahoma, Texas.  It was 6 hours each way but my lovely husband is insane enough like me that we thought nothing of it.  With our brand new truck and crappy old Shelby trailer with very outdated plates, we made the trip.

When I make a trip to see a cheap horse, I'm normally 80% sure I'm going to get it.  The other 20% is going to depend on what I see in person but I'm normally sold before I get there.  Years of scrounging the bargain bins for horses makes you clever and quick to ask "the right" questions.  So basically, we had cash in the truck and ready to rock if we wanted.

Upon arrival we were greeted by... no one.  

Well then.  We parked where we thought was best and the house and barn were very adorable.  The land was about 100 acres of lush grass - did I mention this mare had put on a TON of weight in the 3 months these people owned her?  No, well she did.  After about 10 minutes the people drove "from up the road" and met up.  The lady brought the mare out of the barn and I did a few groundwork exercises before tossing my child on the pony (bareback).  She was literally that calm (I'm not that careless about my kid, no worries :P).  We did some trot circles and I said sold.

So Mango came home with us on Mother's Day, 2013.  Another project horse in the making.

Keep On Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

I've lived with my crazy insane yet perfectly logical thinking for a long time now.  As I've gotten older, that has been honed to a fine point.  I'm ruthless about efficiency and productivity, things that have helped me get through some wicked tough times at my job over the past 9 years.  I can also convince anyone of anything with relative ease.  Convincing myself is infinitely harder, despite how it looks.  There is always a mastermind of reasons behind every action I do, I'm calm, cool, collected.  

Always.

So when my husband convinced me to ignore my beloved 1988 Ford Bronco in favor for a 2002 BRIGHT RED Dodge 3500 dually 4x4 in 2004, I balked.  $425 A MONTH! THAT'S INSANE AND WASTEFUL.  But he wanted me in something "safer" and since he had a 2001 Dodge 2500 diesel it kinda made sense.  Also we'd just started living together and I figured I had little say in this; it wasn't like we'd end up together, right?  My past told me the stars were stacked against it, but hey, if he wanted to spoil me why not.

The Urban Assault Vehicle

It was also a killer deal.

That truck was awesome, I loved it.  So nice.  I wasn't riding much but I had my old TB, Athos and a 2 year old AQHA that I was retraining to sell.  Sure, why not?

When Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit the gulf coast, gas prices skyrocketed.  Diesel was over $4.00 a gallon and approaching $5.00 with me driving from south Houston to College Station daily for work.  Our fuel bill for me was reaching $1200 a month.  Something had to be done and as much as I hated to say it, paying for TWO diesels in that time was not going to fly.

I traded the red beast in.

It was a sad day but I convinced myself that with a yearling human baby and the other big truck, we needed a more family friendly vehicle.  Something that could hold dog crates would be nice for my dog showing hobby too.  The Saturn Outlook was a sexy crossover option with some smart features.  We bought that one and now had $600 a month payments.  But with the money we saved in fuel, it was justifiable.  

The Outlook sucked from day One.

Le suck.  Day One

I hate to say it, but it did.   It was a FABULOUS vehicle, well thought out, fun to drive, sleek, shiny, wonderful for dog shows.  But it had issues from the start- annoying little things here and there, but HEY! they're covered under warranty so whatever.  It was working out the kinks, no?  We had an extended warranty and sure enough, at 65,000 miles the evaporator coil exploded.  Freon and all sorts of fun gasses filled the vehicle while I was driving back from Ft. Worth one day.  In July.  I was so miffed but managed to limp the thing home once I figured out it wasn't an engine issue.  When I got home we looked for estimates for the repair.  $4000-6000+.  Apparently the sleek vehicle was badly designed and to access those parts, you have to remove the entire dash.  The.entire.dash. of the vehicle.  W.t.h.

So I traded it in angrily as is for a new 2011 Ford F150.  My husband had had a Ford work truck that he'd driven all over these four states and put 50,000 miles on it in less than a year with no whimpers out of it and just regular oil changes.  I wanted reliability! My new truck was pretty basic.  I was hoping to keep the mpgs from the Outlook as much as possible and was hoping by compromising on the engine (I went with the little V6) and no 4x4, and just power windows/locks/cruise and the one "fun" thing as the SYNC system, that I could save some on the payments.  Yes, we were about to pay $800 a month.  For a $30,000 truck.  I was mad.  I felt stuck.  I wanted my old Bronco back.

Trusty fella

We got it and I was extremely thankful for our dealership for working it out, they were truly supportive and wonderful.  As a previous car salesmean myself, that's saying something.  So I drove the F150.  It was reliable.  It was comfy.  It was great.  We put a cap on the back and the dogs rode in there 3 months of the year and in the cab the other 9.  I drove that truck from here to Missouri for a week long dog show.  It was a champ.  Within two years though, I was approaching 40,000 miles.  What?  The warranty was out and it was hitting the break even point on the Blue Book Value.  It was time to decide to keep it forever and end up with a truck not worth a thing later on, or trade it in now.

I will admit, it is amazing being able to pay $800 a month, I'm extremely thankful for the situation I'm in.  The younger version of myself thought $800 a month would buy something more like a BMW, Corvette, really really nice diesel truck.

Hold the phone!

If I was going to be bleeding out the wallet, I wanted to be like HELL YEAH THATS MY TRUCK!  So I thought about what would be my dream truck and without hesitation, I was like KING RANCH DIESEL!  I decided to keep an eye on local truck dealers for a nice used King Ranch.  Hopefully it would have all the accessories on it as I always like those, but never put them on.  Within a few weeks, the wonderful dealership that had sold us the F150 had one roll in.  It was big.  It was sexy.  It was my big sexy beast.

When I stopped at the dealership after work that day, I went right to the finance manager.  "Can we work the numbers?"  He was accommodating and in my insane shock, he said yes.  The payments were barely $100 more than my F150.  My mouth went dry.  It was like all those years of paying off debt were suddenly paying off.  The golden retriever of a salesman then asked for the 500th time if I wanted him to go drive it over from the other facility.  I paused.  Naturally they let me take it "no pressure" and I glared.  "Fine."  20 minutes later it pulled up and I swear, my heart skipped a beat.

Hello you sexy beast.

My husband was there by this time (gosh that man must love me) and got in grumbling.  I assumed it was the money or something but we drove off.  The next day he was still miffed and I confronted him.  "I want something nice and shiny like this!!"  Ahh!  I asked him what he'd rather have than his truck (it was his dream truck out of college) and he paused.  "Fine, get the damn thing."  We signed the papers the next day after I nit picked every tiny thing that was wrong with it.  They agreed and we got a killer interest rate and a bad ass truck. 2019 can't get here soon enough for this to be paid off! *dies

Up next, trailer?  Poor husband.  

Teh Sexy Beast

Along Came Katy

My original goal when I first got A horse again was that I would keep it at the local boarding barn.  I HATE fixing fences and making sure all that is farmlike is just functioning.  I have a horse, I want to be with my horse not doing farm chores.  There is a nice boarding place about a mile away from the house that I had utilized in college and thought it would be nice to return.

The day we got Piper I decided that I was going to be cheap and keep her at the house.  The cost for boarding was around $250 (not bad for full board) but I got to thinking how much cheaper it was at my own house.  I already pay the mortgage.  I have the money invested already and the land available.  The trailer is at my house so there was little reason aside from an arena and maybe the round pen.  I HAD been looking for some camaraderie though but taking a tour of the barn didn't reveal the environment that I had left years ago.  If I was going to be on my own, I might as well be at home.

So the thing with horses, even brave headstrong, head mares like Piper, is they still want to be around other horses.  Our property isn't really protected from wildlife and I've had my old boy Athos run through the fence before when he was housed alone.  Within a week, Piper was permanently set up in the corner nearest the closest horses and wouldn't leave it. 

Awesome...

So yes, the need for another horse (or to commit to the boarding place) was upon me and fast.  I knew what I wanted: something that lived off of air, was useless and would just be a companion.  I didn't really want to train another horse and I didn't expect my family to participate in horses.  I cruised my normal online places and began to entertain the idea of something more like I would "normally" own: taller, more TBy, possibly less of an easy keeper...  I could have it be the yin to Piper's yang...  And while I was in my Genetics 301 lab "working" I found her on Craigslist for $800.

I loved her eye and I loved her alert but not panicked look mixed with the relaxed pose.  She was a little thin, but so is everything you find in dark corners with horses these days.  I texted the "owner" and found out they were cosigners that sold horses for other people. 

I like middle men.

Middle men are great because while they are trying to sell a horse, they have to maintain a reputation.  Granted most horse people don't have that great of a reputation but it is what it is.  I asked some basic questions the ad didn't address: height and age.  She was 15.2 and "at least" in her mid teens.  I liked the first answer but the second one didn't make me excited at all.  I started pulling away and then when I got home I debated the pluses.  If she WAS older and WAS kind like I suspected, maybe she was a nice ride?  She'd probably seen and done a lot and while that can be bad, it can also be very good.

She was literally 5 miles from my house so I made arrangements to meet her that night.  She was a bit head shy but not overly so and the lady warned me of some habits they had found out.  Oh and she revealed they had only had the horse about 3 days.  That's a plus in my favor normally.  We went to ride her and the lady mentioned that she was hard to mount and proceeded to pull her head to the side as she mounted the slowly spinning horse.  Um.  OK?  But then the mare went through all three gaits nicely each direction with nice transitions and I was like wow.  Easy.

Now it was my turn and the lady held the horse for me.  There was no spinning, nothing so I just got on.  We worked through our paces and she was a very kind horse.  There were items of a horse nature littered around the arena (barrels, cones, poles, etc) that she approached each with a "go around this?" "go over this" type of attitude.  All three gaits were simple and while she needed some work on balance, it was a nice difference from Piper.

At this point I'll talk about some things people don't like to mention about horse ownership.  First, when you're away from horses you lose your confidence around them (if you're a smart person that understands horses).  The idea that they're likely to kill you in 10000 ways becomes more apparent when you return.  While I had owned Athos and Marco for a while, I had ridden them little.  I hadn't done ground work with them.  Aside from feeding and making sure they were healthy, I'd done little since before my son was born.  Now that I was horse hunting, it had been almost 5 years since I'd ridden for any duration and basically 15 years since my glory days.  The muscle memory is still there and the knowledge is still in my head.  When I get on a horse, I feel like I'm home.  None of that had left.  What HAD left was my muscle STRENGTH.  They KNEW where to be, but I couldn't keep them there.  Old injuries I had rehabbed from before my son were now borderline dangerous in their stiffness and inability to function.  I had no abs.  I have no shoulders.  No leg definition.  After years of being tight as a tick on a horse, the feeling that you can't keep things where they should be when a horse is behaving makes you nervous for when it won't.  Knowledge tells you that you need to just "get back in the saddle" and work on those things.

As much as I like Piper, she needs a lot of work.  She's very catty and fast and sometimes its hard to stick.  Not exactly a confidence builder.  What I found in Katy was what I needed: a treadmill.  This was a horse that I could use to get into shape while I trained Piper up and provided her with companionship.

I hopped off and began looking at her legs, teeth, etc.  Her teeth were worn completely off in the front (cribber probably) and even broken into a V formation.  I was lost on that at the time but later realized she had a penchant for cribbing on T posts, hence the weird wear pattern.  Her ears were very sensitive and she needed weight.  They had no current coggins on her and there were a few other things.  I firmly offered $500 after pointing out that they would need to put that into her for feed/vet bills.  The owner was called and the deal was made.  We picked Katy up the next day and brought her home to begin the next chapter in her life.

Starting Over. Again.

This post was written much later in the year (2013) - November in fact.  Originally I was just going to do what I normally do which is acquire a horse, retrain it, and go about my business.  Throughout the year things changed and I decided to start recording things down.  It made sense to go back to the beginning.  Well, at least the beginning of this part of the journey.

I'd been horseless for about 2 years I believe when it happened.  Naturally it was my husband's fault as he always equated motorcycles with horses.  I finally "allowed" him to get another bike after a job change left him working 2 miles down the road from our house with the most dangerous thing he'd encounter being a deer or rogue cow.  A year passed and I was debating options for being more active.  Going to the gym was boring and that left me only thinking about horses.  The year before I'd gone through this when he got the bike and even went to look at a lovely Appaloosa filly here locally.  The timing didn't feel right and I was actually enjoying my time free from horses and their cost/responsibility/etc.  This spring however, I was going to do something about it.  Just something simple: a "fun" horse preferably of some color and registered.  A mare, I'd always liked those for fun things like trails.  My goal was something around 15.2 hands and an all around horse but nothing spectacular.  Cheap of course as I like my projects.  I found some nice young horses for a reasonable price, but young horses aren't really my specialty and I'd never tackled one.  Besides, I wanted to ride.

After looking off and on for a while, I found an APHA mare on Craiglist and I'd seen her on several of the for sale websites as well.  Her price had been a bit all over the place and it never hurts to ask questions.  I emailed her owner and offered her 25% less than her asking price at the time.  Along with the offer I detailed out the type of life she'd have and how I trained/showed/kept my horses.  "Kate" was nice enough to agree to the price and began to tell me the story of this black and white horse named Peppi.  She'd gotten her as an 8 month old foal and they'd had years of adventures sharing their childhoods together.  I was feeling awful about possibly taking a girl's horse and it pained me to think about my first horse and how that was a bit what happened to me at that age.  Taking a deep breath, I looked one last time at the horse's ad and noticed a picture I hadn't seen before:

Kate had been trying to explain her horse to me and it was an odd mix of contrary things.  I was really certain that this was not the horse for me.  She was too small first off.  14.1hands is by far the smallest horse I've ever even BEEN on let alone looked at as a potential purchase.  Kate was describing a hot, hard to handle horse that needed regular work.  I didn't have that sort of time.  But that picture... I doubt any of my past eventers would realize that was even a jump.  So I asked if she had any videos of the horse.  She did, and they were jumping ones:

VIDEO VIDEO

I saw no trace of a hot horse.  She looked sane, happy, and no hesitation.  Definitely worth a trip to look; after all, she was only 45 minutes from my house.  I'll never forget my first thought when I saw this chunky monkey of a horse: definitely too small.  And I began my plans to exit as quickly and as politely as I could.

Kate was nice as could be, adding to my guilt and wariness of the situation.  She saddled Peppi while tied to a tree.  The bridle that she'd borrowed possessed a gag style barrel bit that literally hung to Peppi's incisors rather than sitting on her bars.  When she mounted the horse, she walked off immediately and I noted that she'd need work on standing for mounting and then followed them to the field, nbd.  Kate rode Peppi through her three gaits as I'd asked and I decided to get on.  Donning my helmet I hopped on and sighed as I felt like I was towering over this small mare.  I was expecting some grunting, some issues with my weight versus her size.  Nope, nothing.  Nothing but curiosity and I thought huh...  I moved her through her gaits again and all I had under me was straight energy, happiness, great work ethic.  Sure there were things to iron out and she was a raw material, but she was a gusty little thing with boundless amounts of try built in.  I knew she was going to go home with me as I rode back over with a smile.  Its been a while since I've smiled on a horse this untrained.  But there was so much potential that I couldn't help myself.  So we loaded the girl up and took her home.

Kate texted me the next morning to check on Peppi and I began thinking how I'd have to wean her off the horse but that was to be expected in her situation.  I also pondered if that's the sort of thing I'd want to have back when I'd had to sell my mare in high school.  I decided I did not but with today's technology I was going to have to "put up" with this prior owner for the time being.

The first few weeks with Peppi were not my favorites, but then again, I normally hate the first few weeks of anything new (why don't they know the program yet?!).  I renamed her Piper and realized that she was a handful.  I debated selling her.  I debated sending her to a trainer.  I wasn't in the best shape and after a series of bad accidents on my previous horse I wasn't too terribly confident despite knowing facts about the horse and facts about my level of riding.  Even if that riding skill was in my head and not in my muscles.

I called some trainers and then made a list of what I needed to work on with her.  Kate had said that Piper knew the Clinton Anderson exercises and I vaguely recall when the whole "Horse Whisperer" movement began that he was the one I agreed with the most.  I'd always been fortunate to have like minded people that encouraged me to use groundwork and roundpen work with my horses and so I was used to the idea.  Seeing it in action and the marketed was amazing.  I decided to start with Clinton and see what Piper knew.

First thing is first, Clinton is a marketing genius.  This means also that his information is expensive but well organized.  I liked that well organized but the price was a bit off putting.  I found a Kindle book for $14 and bought that.  It outlines his program perfectly if you know your way around horses (which admittedly is not his target audience) and it was nice to have a guide to remind me to not leave out things as well as give me new ideas on old tricks.
 

At this point I ordered a few things.  I got a stick and a "clinician's lead" from horse.com and bought some mecate reins from B&H rope halters.  I was beginning to feel like a groupie but whatever.  I knew his program worked because it mirrored what I'd done with horses over the years when I "flipped" them.  Once everything arrived a few days later, I grabbed Piper and started seeing what she knew.  The exercises relaxed her which built up my confidence.  There were some holes in what she knew or remembered so we worked on that.  I was once more reminded of what a willing student she was and all thoughts of selling or sending her out for training was forgotten.

This is basically the start of my journey with Piper.  Kate and I still stay in touch regularly which has turned into something I actually enjoy.  I am so busy that I have to stop at times to remind myself to text Kate a picture or a message about something funny Piper did, but its been nice.  I've never been "tied" to a horse's former owner as I prefer to buy from feedlots or auctions so it was definitely an adjustment.  It is however nice to have someone to share this journey with this horse.  Most things I do I end up going on that pathway alone.

Piper still has a lot of work to go through and things to learn.  I struggle with deciding to train her in jumping or reining for the most part.  I'm sure I'll figure it out in time, but for now, we're just working on solid foundations and then more advanced techniques.  She's the lead mare of a herd of 4 at this time.  She can be a huge brat in the pasture.  She loves to get her way.  I have to remind her that I am head mare when I'm out there and while I doubt he fully believes that, so at least goes along with what I ask and rises to most of the challenges I offer up to her.