Today Grier had their first “B” Rated horse show and I rode Daisy and Joey, a students horse.
We did pre-adults and the bit-o-straw classic (if you dont know what that is it is two jumping and one flat. the jumping is scored like equitation) and she did really well. We got reserve champion in the bit-o-straw and a few seconds and thirds in the pre-adults.
I tried to stay calm even though I was doing two horses in both of those divsions and had to switch saddles after every third round haha.
In the first round (from the pre adults) it was the first round of the day and we didnt get to school so she was very fresh and actually was doing some head shaking like she was going to buck me off in the beginning and after the first oxar in the line when we got the long spot and i got jumped out of the tack. Then when we jumped the brick on the rail and trotted to fix our lead Daisy wasnt really focusing and picked up the wrong lead again but i didnt harp on it since we were already in the line to the jump. The rest of the day she did all of the simple changes. She definately saved my as.s over that last jump! haha
The second course she was going real good to the first fence until we turned away from the ingate and she started head shaking… which she never did before today haha. That totally messed up my focus to the first fence, leaned over the top, and caused her to get the wrong lead on the back side. I decided to add it up through the lines because i got a short spot to the first jump on the diagonal and didnt want to run her at the second jump. Thennn i got jumped out of the tack over the brick wall but got our simple and made it over the oxar great. I should have asked for the spot instead of riding her to the base in the last line but I wanted both lines to be the same number.
The third course was the same as the first. You can tell she started to get a little tired and wasnt handing me the jumps like she was in the first two courses (which i dont expect her to do). I should have pushed her down the line away from the barn to do the 4 instead of the 5 so that I wouldnt have tried to hold her down the diagonal line I love her for carrying me over that second jump in the line and over the last oxar. I should have dug my spurs in and sucked it up.
I sat with the judge the day before for the jumper show so she knew about her leg hanging and before the show gave me tips on helping her jump better. I cant remember all the places becuase I rode both the horses and it was confusing but we got third the jumping phase of the classic and first in the flat phase making us reserve champion which i was pretty excited about. I think in the pre adult I got a 5th, 4th, and 3rd on Daisy and a 1st, 3rd, and 4th on the other horse Joey (super green too) who I rode for a student that cant seem to ride without falling off haha.
I am still really working on trying to see my distances and for the most part I got a lot of htem except a few that were super obvious. I am sure it will get better over time and Daisy will be happy to have a month off during xmas break
Anyway here is the video.
Since I came back from vacation I have been having some hard times with Daisy.
She gained about 100 pounds while I was gone and needless to say is off her evening feed and is getting her smartpaks at breakfast now. But since she was out of work and gained so much weight she is very out of shape and is having a bit of a lameness issue.
On September 1st I took her for a ride and noticed that she was a little off on one of her hind legs so I just lightly worked her and then put her away. My trainer was on her honeymoon so I didn’t want to interrupt her with my horse problem and waited until she got back on the 4th to let her know about Daisy. During the week she was gone Daisy got normal turnout and I lunged her every day.
On the 4th we pulled her out of her stall to get shod and she was so off she could hardly walk up the hill to the upper barn. We trotted her and she wouldn’t put any weight on the heel of her left hind at all so we brought her back in and shod her. After she was shod we trotted her again and she was sound. So we took her off turnout, set her up, and gave her a gram of bute.
Her lameness has been off and on for the past two weeks and we are not quite sure what is going on. She is relatively sound while trotting but when she canters on the left lead she just doesn’t bring her left hind up far enough and almost does a hop step. She is being turned out again after lunch with an older horse so they don’t run around at all but she still can get out and stretch her legs and she is not getting anymore bute. The vet is supposed to come out and look at her this week sometime hopefully.
Tonight I took Daisy out to hack in our larger outdoor for a change and to get her out of the indoor. Ellen threw a halter on Loui and rode him up bareback with me just to keep me company and to give him a change of pace as-well.
I started out just walking her on the rail and changing her bend every few strides to keep her listening and focused on me even when her friends were galloping around in the field beside the arena. After a few trips around at the walk we started our trot work doing the same thing around the rail with a few circles here and there to keep her listening. We did a lot of beginnings of lengthening and leg yields at the trot while staying balanced on the hind end and round.
When we started the canter I made sure that she was put together at the walk and went right to the canter to help her stay collected and slow. At first she tried to run out of weakness but as soon as I sat up and tightened my core she slowed and relaxed while still staying in her frame. We cantered both ways doing simple chances across the diagonal at the walk until she was comfortable and soft on both directions. I made sure while I was cantering that I didnt nag at her but did a lot of half halting instead to give her a chance to react to what I was asking her to do.
In the past when doing flying changes we only did them around a course and she had always ran through them because of how weak she was. Today I wanted to keep her slow, quiet and calm so I would canter across the ring and ask for the change with my leg and reins only, no spur. If she didnt give it to me I would canter her calmly over a pole and if she changed then I would praise her. She did it every time over the pole but only once on her own from the left to right (her strong lead) and not once did she get scared or try to run.
I recently read an article in the Hunter and Sport horse Magazine this past week about having stiff arms and how the rider really effects how the horse goes. At the end of the article he talked a lot about how when riding a horse people often ask ask ask but never give the horse a chance to respond and that we need to learn how to ask the horse and wait for a response before we ask again or it will make the horse dull to the aids and unresponsive.
I thought a lot about this concept while tacking up today and I think that is what made my ride so quiet and soft. Really focusing on what my own body is doing and how it effects how Daisy goes has opened up a whole new view for me on how I influence her.
This ride that we had today is the best ride I have had on her since I bought her and I think it had to do a lot with how I rode and the fact that I did not stress her out while riding. Daisy has a tendency to get very worried while riding when she doesnt understand or do what she is asked right away. I was very careful today not to stress her out or make her worried and she was so quiet and put together you would have thought she was a pro at this flatwork stuff.
On the third of July we took Daisy to the State College Classic to ride her in the Hopeful Hunters to see how she would do at a horse show and see how she would jump. At this point I had never seen anyone jump her and had no idea how she would go.
She wend around in the first class refusing the first jump and the third jump but then in the second round she went around clean. We didn’t get anything in the hack but she was really good.
Emily asked me if I would want to keep her there for the week until the next Thursday and see how she would do after she rides her for a while. She rode her in the Pre-Greens and she got 8th place with her.
The next Thursday I came out and had a mental breakdown because everyone had been telling me that my horse couldn’t jump and needed a new job that wasn’t jumping or dressage (like western pleasure).
After I warmed up and was waiting to go in my class Emily asked me what was going on and I told her that my horse sucked and that she couldn’t do any jobs that I could do. Emily told me that it would be okay and just to do my class and then see how it goes.
Daisy went around in the class perfect jumped all the jumps and was quiet in the class. I didn’t get anything but she was quiet and jumped everything clean.
After I was done with the hack emily asked me if I would want to ride her in the puddle jumpers just to see what would happen. I told her sure as long as she would ride her first just incase.
Emily rode her around the first round and she never spooked or looked at one jump. I jumped on and did the second class and it was just as good as the first. She never batted an eye even though she knocked a few rails. When I exited the ring Emily asked me if that was an ok job for her and I said yes.
Well summer camp has officially started and we are just getting into the groove. Yesterday we took a few counselors on a trail ride in before the children in the rookie camp session arrived.
I decided that I wanted to ride Daisy bareback because I was too lazy to put my saddle on and I just wanted us to have fun on the trail. I slapped on her bitless bridle (that is for sale fyi ) and we were off.
About halfway up the trail I realized that bareback may not have been my best option because of how bony her back still is but I dealt with it until the ride back down the hill. Daisy was super excited during the whole trip up the hill and had her big ears pricked the whole time.
Daisy and I went to our first show over the weekend at Kocher’s show grounds. We only did a pleasure hunter class (three flat classes) but she did wonderful.
We were having some lead issues but my trainer and I think it was just because she was tired and we were both disorganized because yesterday I hacked her for a few minutes and got the right leads haha.
I am so proud of her because she didn’t spook at anything, didn’t kick at anyone, and was overall great except for her lead issues which are an easy fix. She did get a new bit and doesn’t go around with her mouth gaping anymore.
When we were schooling Emily thought that it might be an idea to jump her over a few jumps even though she hasn’t really ever jumped. We were jumping a line of jumps that were like 2′ brick walls. She got to the first jump and was fine but the second jump was an oxar and she stopped at the last minute and since she is downhill anyway it is hard to stay leaning back. She put her head down and I just rolled off and Daisy proceeded to gallop all the way back to the trailer haha. She was captured safe and sound and that is when Emily decided jumping wasn’t a good plan at the horse show haha.
In late March I finally found someone to trade me my finished jumper for a prospect. She had told me ahead of time that the mare was skinny but did not have any recent pictures of her but sent some old ones. My trainer was busy during the time it was going on so the manager, who is also one of my good friends, went along with me to look at the mare. We took this picture to show my trainer how tall she was.
Apparently the woman who I got her from (the lady holding her halter) sold her to a mother and daughter months before. She went to visit the mare a few months after she was sold to find a bag of bones. She gave them their money back and took her back home.
She has been off the track 20 months (but it has been suggested from racing records it is longer than that) and had three starts at Charles Down in WV with no earnings. She was trained by her breeders and was born in 2003 but I am not sure what date exactly because some sources say march and the previous owner was told september. She was out of Truculent Schular and Bold Impression. Her racing name is Bold Interest but I have not recorded her tattoo just yet.
Needless to say she was very wary of us when we first got there because she didn’t want another incident like the one earlier to happen. As soon as she found out we were from a school and that I boarded at a large facility she relaxed and was open to all ideas of the trade. She was looking for a smaller horse that could cart children around and I was looking for a prospect to trade for (because I was having a hard time selling my pony) so it all worked out.
We were a little concerned for my pony since the mare was still skinny even after months being back on the farm but looking at her other horses (all mustang/qhs) we concluded that she just didn’t know how to feed an underweight thoroughbred. Her other horses were fit and in great shape and my little mustang pony was a very easy keeper so we had no worries.
I have had her about three months now and she has been gaining weight and progressing beautifully until the 17th of May. I was lunging her with a saddle on because she hadn’t been ridden for the two weeks I was away and wanted to hop on for a few minutes. She was going fine until she reared up (being her sassy pants self) and fell over backwards. While she was rolling over to get back up the stirrup iron snapped in half and the sharp piece that stuck in the ground cut her knee open while she was bringing her legs out from under herself. She had to get 8 stitches in her knee (of course not during office hours) and has been on stall rest until today.
The barn manager, Ellen, just called me to let me know that she turned Daisy out in the small paddock because she was squealing and bucking in her stall all by herself. So she turned her out (since it has been over 10 days as recommended by the vet) and she trotted around a little but then settled and ate some hay and sniffed some poops.
Hopefully sometime this week the vet can come out and do a followup to let us know what to do from here. Her wound is healing nicely and she is not off or swollen at all but we are afraid that if she goes out without being wrapped that she will rip her stitches out.
She is such a beautiful girl and has really developed into a great mare and an awesome friend.
) and we were off. 
