Tonight was a bit of a frustrating Cloud day, but just a bit. I couldn’t make it out to the barn because I had some evaluations at Main Stay for future students. Sarah graciously offered to look in on Cloud, specifically to pull his sheet off and check that his shoes are still attached, since that has been a problem lately. Of course, Cloud was one shoe down, and one shoe loose. Frustrating! Luckily, Joe was apparently already at the barn, so the problem is solved for the moment, but I am keeping Cloud in until his bell boots come. They shipped out today, so hopefully he’ll only be in a day or two. Last year when we went through this, it stopped once the bell boots were on, so hopefully that will be the case.

As I mentioned in my last post, we are currently on a hiatus from riding owing to the fact that my riding schedule was disrupted by a nasty cold, then getting super busy at work, and now house sitting for two weeks. I am planning on heading out tomorrow after feeding the dogs/horses and letting the dogs stretch their legs a bit. Cloud’ll need to get out of his stall if he’s cooped up all day tomorrow. I’m okay with my riding schedule being off for these two weeks of house sitting, so long as I can make sure his shoes are on and at least get out to walk him around, since he’s not doing much stuck out in the mud. I’m looking forward to my spring break, which starts the day that the family gets back from their vacation. I plan on making up for lost time!

Being on a hiatus, I have had plenty of time to make a plan. Obviously a few weeks ago my plan was to get to the show ring a lot this summer, and continue to progress in dressage. But those plans have changed and so has my focus. I will continue to school dressage from a riding standpoint, I have a lot of stuff that I can work on and perfect on my own. I am back to wanting to ride in the May 26th show, which is the thoroughbred incentive program show. It really means a lot to me, and I know that we can keep up the work we’ve been doing and hopefully still be competitive.

But I also have another direction I would like to head with Cloud. Early on in our time together, I dappled in natural horsemanship with Cloud, specifically the Parelli Program. I didn’t know too much about the subject at the time, but a friend of mine was very into Parelli (and still is…her horse is incredible!), and she thought it could help me with some of our ‘retraining an ottb on my own’ issues. I knew a little bit about natural horsemanship from reading some of Monty Roberts’ books, but that’s about it. At the time, I had a little bit of fun, but grew tired of the groundwork because it didn’t have value to me.

Lately I’ve found myself enjoying my time on the ground with Cloud…last summer I spent hours handgrazing Cloud and reading, and here and there I’ve spent time handwalking and playing with Cloud in the arena. The more time I’ve spent on the ground with Cloud has made me reflect on my past experiences with natural horsemanship, and think of the potential that Cloud and I have if we give our ground-time some more focus. I know that we have a great relationship, but I know that it can go even further

As a sidenote, I am a believer that all natural horsemanship is basically the same, it just matters who you want to listen to/what tools you want to use. I own a Monty Roberts halter, which I’ve used to school Cloud in trailering. But I do really like Parelli’s stuff, so I will be going at it in a mostly Parelli-driven manner. So yeah, I will still be riding, but I want to give some more time and focus towards our natural horsemanship. More on that later

Onto more exciting/shocking news. I’ve been keeping this quiet for a bit, for obvious reasons, but the cat has ventured out of the bag so it’s time to let everyone in on it. When I made the decision to stop lessoning with Christy, I worried that I wouldn’t feel comfortable at Silver Fern Stables. It was a silly notion, but I did start looking into options for relocating. I figured if nothing else, it couldn’t hurt to look. The first barn that I looked at had access to the most beautiful trails in the immediate area, and was less than 10 minutes from home! Unfortunately, my vet had concerns with their feeding choices, and there were a few other cons as well. So I nixed that barn.

In the meantime, I let Christy know that I wouldn’t be lessoning and was relieved to find that I wasn’t uncomfortable with Christy or the other Rettger riders at all. It was a silly notion to begin with, but you never know. Fast forward a little bit, and I was finishing up my work on my budget. On the more mathematical side of things, I figured how much money I was spending per month on gas. My work is 10 minutes from home, so the big contributor to the gas expense is my trips to and from Woodstock. Had I liked the stable that I looked at, I would save almost $100 in gas alone per month. Looking at the newly completed budget, I went back to ‘it doesn’t hurt to look’-ing at barns.

Ideally I would move to a stable that is the same cost per month, or less, than Silver Fern, and end up saving the gas money. But honestly SFS boasts pretty competitive board for the area. I decided to take a look at another barn, Cliffwood Farm, which is about 15 minutes from home…and only minutes from Main Stay. While Cliffwood’s board is higher than SFS, I would end up saving on gas and shavings (at SFS I provide my own shavings to avoid hock sores, and Cliffwood uses those shavings) – and it comes out just about even, maybe even a hair less than what I’m spending now.

One visit to Cliffwood, and I was sold. Not only is it super close to home, but it is by far the fanciest stable that Cloud will ever live at (I think lol). It has so many nice amenities, and to know that I will be spending the same amount I’m spending now, and be saving drive time – it’s just a no-brainer. I will miss the friends I’ve made at Silver Fern, but I am excited obviously to make new connections, and excited to have Cloud at such nice facilities. He is gonna think he’s in heaven! The major pluses of the new barn are 4 riding arenas – 2 indoor, 2 outdoor, with good, level footing. There are limestone paddocks to avoid mudseason, and grass pastures for dry weather. There are (if I remember correctly) 11 washracks – 9 outdoor, 2 indoor (think gray thoroughbred…). And pretty much everything else that we could want. The only con that I have found is that, while they are close to Glacier Park with beautiful trails, there is no direct route. I will have to work on that. There is a trail that goes around the property, and I do have the option of giving the Main Stay horses a hack on the trails to get my trail fix (and give them a mental break), and since the park is so close I could always try to hitch a ride. The big thing was, I realized I wanted these facilities more than the con of no trail access. There are too many pluses!

So, that’s the big news. Cloud and I are moving on. SFS has been great, and I really didn’t expect for this to happen, but the chips all fell into place for us to move. Cloud and I have made a habit over the years of not staying in any one place for too long. I bought him when I was a senior in high school, so he moved to and from college and grad school with me. I intended on SFS being a permanent residence, but now I see Cliffwood as having that potential. It is very close to work, and it is so beautiful.

I am one part sad, and many parts excited! Joe (farrier) is excited for this move, too. He thinks that it is a great decision on Cloud’s behalf. He has some clients at Cliffwood, and actually was boasting about their turnout before he knew that I was looking there.

The biggest excitement for me is having Cloud even closer to home. Before SFS, I was driving almost an hour to Cloud, at SFS, I am driving 30-40 minutes depending on traffic, now I will be 15 minutes away. I can go to see him practically whenever I want That’s a very big deal for me!

Meet Cliffwood Farm!

 

A few weeks ago I came down with a cold that really took me out of the saddle in order to get well. Ever since, things keep coming up to keep me out of the saddle! The worst has been thrown shoes – we’ve had 2 lost shoes in the last 2 weeks, and I do not want a repeat of last year’s mud season. Last year Cloud threw 4 shoes in like a 2 week time frame. The thing that made it stop was picking up some bell boots. Well, over the summer one of the bell boots ripped, and I never replaced it because Cloud wasn’t throwing shoes. After Joe tacked on a shoe last night and told me that our barn is his worst for thrown shoes (didn’t like hearing that!!!), I ordered myself 2 pairs of bell boots – 1 to wear, and 1 as a back up if I lose one, one rips, or if they need to be cleaned. Hopefully that will help!

Anyways, back to our hiatus. I would really like to get back to my regular riding schedule, but now doesn’t seem to be a good time. Today I started house sitting for a friend from Main Stay. She has three dogs and 2 horses at home (plus one that is boarded nearby, but I don’t need to take care of him). So for the next 2 weeks, I will be housesitting and it is quite a time commitment. I like doing it, her house and property is beautiful and very calming/relaxing, but for Cloudy Boy I just can’t see me being able to get him back on a normal schedule until I’m done house sitting. I will try to get out and check on him, or do some light rides…because with the state of their pastures, the horses are not really moving around much. The good news is that immediately following my 2 weeks of house sitting is my spring break, which is the perfect time to get Cloud back in shape! So really, I’m not overly concerned with the next two weeks, as long as I can get out every couple of days to do wellness checks on him!

 

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day! I celebrated by taking advantage of the day off of work and scheduling Cloud’s spring vet visit with his long-time vet, Andrea McGowan. Cloud is a pretty good boy as far as his manners go. He behaves very well for the farrier, even though we know that usually it is an uncomfortable process. For the vet, however, he is not a tolerant boy. He’s not the worst horse, I’m sure. Drugs help that haha. He just typically kicks out when she cleans his sheath and tosses his head when she’s doing his teeth. He usually earns an extra dose of sedatives.

Today, however, he was a rockstar! Andrea said that he was “the best that he has ever been” for her. He kicked out a few times when she cleaned his sheath, but not the typical constant kicking, and not as rough of kicks either. They were more ‘frustration’ kicks, not aiming to kill. And he was just awesome for his teeth. Everyone was very happy

Andrea was pleased with Cloud’s weight, but told me to keep putting more weight on. She’s never satisfied when it comes to old tb’s. She suggested beet pulp, which Cloud has never been a fan of. But Main Stay is feeding beet pulp to all of their guys, and I’ve heard a lot about it’s benefits. So I am going to try adding some molasses (or buying sweetened beet pulp) to see if I can make it more palatable for him. So that’s his weight, she also reported that his teeth look great, which is always good news on an older horse. She was also being super optimistic and shared that she had done a lameness check on a 30 y/o OTTB last week. Haha!

So it was a very good visit. After Andrea left, I took full advantage of the sedatives and clipped Cloud. I learned from last year that Cloud is squirmy if I try to clip him on cross ties after the vet visit. Who could blame him? So this year I tried clipping him in his stall, so that he could roam around without being a pain in the butt. It worked like a charm. I clipped him without his halter on and for the most part he stood completely still, I think he was just more comfortable in his stall than in the aisle. I did a full body clip, but I left most of his face hair – last year I clipped his face and then regretted it because of the cold. I felt like he still needed his face hairs. So this year I left it, but I did trim it up to make it a little neater. I also left his leg hair below the knees/hocks, since he’s standing in cold mud and snow right now. I just trimmed his fetlock hairs to prevent the ice chunks from clinging.

It is crazy how long it takes to clip when you’re a perfectionist Finally I had to call it a day and stop looking for stray hairs. I left the clippers at the barn so I can do some touchups tomorrow if I find any spots. Cloud’s coat is awesome because if you leave clipper marks you can’t see them, but it’s also tough because you really can’t tell where you’ve clipped.

Now that Cloud’s clipped, I will be giving him a bath soon. It’ll take a few baths to get all the winter stains out, but I’ve been waiting to get that process started until after his clipped so that he dries quickly. I will obviously still wait for some nice temperatures to bathe him, but it’s nice that he’ll dry quickly. I really want to bathe and trim his mane. This has been the muddiest winter that I can remember, because of the lack of snow, and for some reason his mane is the worst of it!

So the spring makeover has begun, and I’m so proud of Cloud for his good behavior for a very not-fun day for him. So I came home tonight and baked him some new treats for tomorrow!

Before y’all freak out, Cloudy Boy is just fine. Covered in mud and in desperate need of a scrub-down, but healthy and happy.

It’s been a month since my last post. In my last post, I had mentioned that I was cutting back on lessons to save some money and save up for showing. It was a start, but last week I sat down and made my very first budget ever! I’d been thinking about making one for quite some time. My current situation is that I live at home with my parents. When I graduated with my masters, my plan was to get an apartment of my own, but I had to move home with my parents until my job started up in the fall. I started working and looking at apartments, and quickly realized that with a student loan, credit card bill, and a horse that moving out on my own was going to be a stretch. So at the time I asked my parents to let me stay a while and save money to move out. I pay my parents a minimal amount to cover my living expenses. That was a long time ago, and I want more than anything to move out and be 100% independent.

Did you catch that? More than anything. Here’s where the budget came in. I put it off for a long time. Who wants to look at what they earn vs. what they spend when they know it’s not going to be pretty? The budget showed me what I already knew – I spend the majority of my money on my horse. It also showed me that there are going to have to be cuts somewhere in order to be independent. Obviously, I was spending the majority of my money on Cloud, so that’s where I looked first to make the cuts.

Time to separate needs from wants, right? I need Cloud. That’s not on the line here. And Cloud needs to be safe and healthy, which means a roof over his head, good hay, veterinary care, farrier care, and supplements. I need Cloud, and he needs those things. Lessons and showing on the other hand, came off as a want. A very big want, but still a want. It really didn’t take me very long to decide – those things gotta go! I said that I want to move out and be independent more than anything, and that means more than blue ribbons on my wall.

I made the decision quickly, but at first it was very hard to swallow. I’ve been working very very hard in my lessons and have been seeing a lot of progress. I also have been looking forward to this upcoming show season since last summer! I only made it to two shows last summer due to Cloud’s lameness issues at the beginning of the summer. I wanted to go into this season ready to take home some blue ribbons! It’s also hard to swallow knowing that Cloud is going to be 20 in April, and his showing years could be limited. So it was hard to accept that I might not get around to bringing home a blue ribbon with Cloudy Boy.

But it is do-able, and after thinking about my decision for about 24 hours I started to let it all go. There will be another time in my life for lessons, maybe even sooner than I think. There will be another time for showing, even if it ends up not being with Cloud, I can definitely live with that. Cloud and I have never been so show-driven as we have in the past couple of years. In fact, the majority of my time spent with Cloud we weren’t lessoning and definitely weren’t showing (last summer was our first show experience).

As I’ve said before, my parents are not horse-people in the slightest. When they agreed to let me buy Cloud, they assumed that buying a horse means you stopped taking lessons. I think their take on it was that we paid for lessons so that I could ride, not so that I could learn. I’m actually grateful for that. If I had lessoned with Cloud all those years, who know how far we’d be nowadays, and who knows how many pretty ribbons I would possess, but I’m proud of what he and I did, just the two of us. Cloud was a fresh off the track racehorse, and I brought him very far in his training all on my own, with very little experience. The education that THAT provided me is unbelievable.

I guess my point is that lessons are a luxury, and one that I can do without…not that I want to, but I can. When I realized that – and realized how much this will help me towards my goal of moving out – I actually started to feel liberated and excited. I will miss lessons, and I will miss showing, but I’m going back to just having fun with my horse. We may not make a ton of progress, but there’s no goal hanging over our heads. It’s just gonna be him and me doing whatever we feel like doing….and I’ve got some plans in that department, which will have to be explained in another blog entry because I have my sister-in-law’s birthday dinner to get to now.

On a final note for this topic… my tough decision was especially tough because I knew that I’d be letting Christy down. Not only in that I will obviously be taking away from her business, but I know that she was excited for Cloud and I to show this summer. I love that about Christy – that she cares so much about her students’ succeeding. Christy was absolutely awesome when I explained my situation to her. She was sympathetic and understanding. She said she was disappointed, but not upset with me. I really really appreciate that, and it speaks to her character. I definitely will recommend her to anyone looking for a trainer who emphasizes learning dressage through a partnership with your horse. I consider her a friend of mine, and I will definitely miss the progress that we make when she is in the center of the ring! Thank you Christy, for all that you’ve done for Cloud and I!

Cloud and I have been doing our best to beat the winter blues, because the season has finally decided to show up in the midwest. We have mostly been working on “whoa” – in the form of trot-halt-trot and walk-canter-walk transitions. I have to say, our trot-halt-trot work is paying off! They are going great!

In our lessons and schooling rides, we have been working on levels 1 & 2, but now that spring is creeping up on us, I have been revisiting the training level tests. I am planning on spending at least the first half of the show season at training level. It’s what we are ready for. And I really want to be ready – I want to be competitive, and I have a specific goal in mind:

The Jockey Club recently announced an incentive program for facilities hosting shows with Thoroughbred awards/classes. I am very proud to own an off-track thoroughbred. As long as I have loved horses, I have loved Thoroughbreds. Their energy and personalities fit me like a glove. I am excited that the Jockey Club is encouraging the recognition of my favorite breed.

This show is my first goal for the show season. I want to be competitive. It’s hard to know who/what will show up for the High Point Award, but I hope that it will be a beautiful show full of beautiful thoroughbreds, and I want Cloud and I to ride at the best of our abilities and see how we size up to the other TBs out there!

Thursday was my first lesson in a while – I made the decision to try cutting back on lessons to every other week to try to save some money. I don’t want to hinder our progress, but I figure it’s worth a shot to try to save some money, especially since I want to show this summer. Some weeks I have felt like I needed more time to practice what we learned in the previous lesson before another lesson, so we’ll see how this goes!

At our show on Thursday, I told Christy I had been revisiting the training level tests, so she wanted to see what we’ve got going. Sarah was kind enough to record test #2.

We did pretty well with the tests. Christy told me that if we were going to a show this weekend we would be ready, which is always good to hear when my first *planned* show is at the end of May (I would like to find one schooling show maybe in April as a warm-up since the High Point is so important to me). She was thrilled with our halts, and said that if she was getting nitty-gritty I could clean up our centerlines and corners. So that is exactly what I plan to do in our next few rides. I actually haven’t ridden yet today, I need to feed the Main Stay horses their midday hay in just a bit, then will be heading to Cloud. My plan for today’s ride is to ride some off-rail squares and rectangles.

I want to keep working the training level tests while continuing to progress with our first and second level skills. Lots to do!

Yesterday I baked Cloud some new treats – Pony Pretzels! Can’t wait to see what he thinks of these!

…”That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – Juliet

Just a really cool video that I wanted to share! The best part about this video, is how much fun the riders are having. That is SO what horses are about – no matter the discipline. Forget that, and you’re in trouble.

I had a great make-up lesson with Cloudy tonight, but I am tired…so to be continued!

First and foremost, I just have to post this video. My horsey loves me so much! He left his hay and friend to come see me, and saved me a trek through the mud!

Anyhoot, since our failed lesson on Thursday, I gave Cloud the day off Friday. Saturday I showed up not really sure if I was going to try for a ride or give Cloud a bath. Cloud was too muddy for a bath – for one, he’d clog the washrack drain, and two, he’d just get muddy again lol. I try to groom Cloud thoroughly every day, so I keep him as clean as humanly possible in the winter. It’s a constant battle against stains, but I wouldn’t love grays if I didn’t love grooming!

Since a bath was a no-go I saddled up yesterday. Held my breath, crossed my fingers, and Cloudy was back to normal. We had a really good ride, working on a lot of canter transitions and some big trot/little trot transitions. I’ve been playing with flying lead changes again, I just can’t resist. He is getting SO GOOD at his left to right transitions. They are getting to be very smooth and less dramatic looking (in a good way). Right to left are improving as well, but at a different pace. Right to left are very inconsistent, but at least we are getting some true changes. Cloud enjoys this work

But today, we had to work on the things that Cloud doesn’t enjoy so much. Those things involve “whoa”. Today I really wanted to work on our trot-halts and canter-walks. I tried to mix in the “fun stuff” with some canter breaks, flying changes, and leg yields. While I was working on canter-walk, Cloud was giving me a very jiggy, tense walk. So our cool down for the day was a lot of stretchy trot transitions, followed by free walk/collected walk transitions.

I really do love Cloud’s “willing to work” attitude. I prefer to have to say “whoa” more than I have to say “go”. I think the video of Cloud walking to the gate for our ride says it all, he really loves to work and be challenged. He has definitely improved in the past couple of months in the “whoa” department, but we’ve got a long way to go for our “whoa” to be polished. And neither of us like to practice it all that much

Tonight I was supposed to have my first lesson of the new year, but Cloud was off. His left hind was a little short, but more than that he was resisting my attempts to bend to the right and just being fidgety. Christy asked me if I wanted to reschedule, and at first I didn’t…I was riding around in denial because it felt too dejavu. We haven’t had to postpone a lesson in quite some time. I had just reflected on our lameness issues from last year, and suddenly I was confronted with a reminder. Christy reassured me that one off day doesn’t mean we’re going to be plagued again, and the warmer weather has a way of messing with the old guy, so I need to chill and just not go there….

It’s time for a wrap of 2011, and a plan for 2012.

2011 ended with a bang. I had a lesson with Christy on 12/29/11. We started the lesson working on my halt-trot-halt transitions. I have stuck to my word and have been working on halting in every schooling ride, but I’m disappointed with our progress. Cloud comes up off of the contact in our halts. We are getting pretty clean transitions with very few walk steps, but he keeps coming up off the contact. Sigh. I know that, like everything else, if we just keep working on it it will click for him. But frustrating!

After that torture, we moved on to the fun stuff - canter transitions, canter serpentines, lengthening the trot, etc. Christy was getting very excited from the center of the ring. Sure, we’ve got work to do, but in the last month or so, Cloud has come so far. All we needed was a little more challenge to get us progressing. We are still visiting the ‘basics’, which is important to not abandon, but I can tell Cloud is enjoying the new stuff. I’ve got new buttons developing in him, and Christy asked if I had noticed his new muscles in his hind

 

It’s easy to see that I have a different horse than I had at the beginning of the year! It was a year with ups and downs. I started the year laid up on the couch going through surgery on both of my feet. I had some friends riding Cloud, but I was a sad girlie missing my pony. I got on him as soon as freakin possible, in February. We started our 2011 riding with numerous soundness issues. We persevered through them, but they plagued us – and put off our show season to mid July. I managed to get Cloud to our first and second shows together. Originally I had wanted more, but I am happy with what we accomplished in the two shows. Our first show was a learning experience, and our second show went even better. The important part was that we made it there, together. It meant a lot to me, and I am excited to try to get Cloud to even more shows this show season, possibly some recognized shows. In the fall, Cloud and I traded the show ring for the trails – and I’m thrilled with Cloudy’s effort on the trails. We were going alone and with company for longer trail rides than we have ever been on. And of course, we’ve kept on working our schooling rides. I spent the year riding 5-6 days a week without many breaks from our routine. Our relationship together is stronger than ever. We celebrated Cloud’s 19th birthday and our 9th anniversary together this past year. What a year!

I am someone who likes to make, and try to keep, resolutions. Last year, my resolutions were to:

1. Get back in the saddle post-surgeries, and continue to ride 5-6 days a week (CHECK!)

2. Do everything I can to improve/maintain Cloud’s physical abilities (It took some work, but CHECK!)

3. Continue to improve my feel of Cloud’s movements to improve timing of my aides (Still work to do here, but yes, there’s been a LOT of improvement! CHECK!)

4. Improve my sitting trot position (CHECK!! We’ve done a lot of sitting trot the last couple of months)

5. Get Cloud to the show ring, have confidence that we are ready, and don’t make excuses! (CHECK!)

Pretty impressive, I think. So time for 2012 resolutions. It’s almost hard, because I’m so happy with what we’ve been doing lately. When I think resolutions for this year, I think “Just keep going how we’re going”. But here’s some specifics…

1. Continue riding 5-6 days a week;

2. Continue to maintain/improve Cloud’s physical abilities, as much as I can;

3. Get to the show ring earlier and more often than last year – starting the year in training level, ending the year in first level;

4. Update my blog at least once a week, better if more;

5. Continue to love and appreciate this amazing horse that I have been blessed with

Happy New Year, everyone!