Being given the opportunity to ride such a well trained horse as Evita certainly has been a blessing. But, it makes riding and wanting to ride the green horses a lot less motivating. I can get on Evita and pretty much put her exactly how I want her and do whatever suits my fancy. And I started to run into trouble with my greenie.
Greenie's first side rein
Merlot has an incredible work ethic and despite his spookiness, is a pretty chill dude under saddle but after prioritizing my rides on Evita I found I would get frustrated and pushy with Merlot. And it isn't fair. He toodles like a pro, but if I try and put on trainer pants, I started to expect he had an education when he didn't. Even though Ries was not a dressage pro, he had a foundation put on him and once trainer taught me to unlock and develop it, we were golden. But greenie he was not.
Mer and V Have a huge bromance. Also photo bomb by Mae and E (E is in fly mask)
So here I am sitting with a lovely pony who will work sun up to sun down and give you snuggles when the day is done. But I really don't know how to get that first step of the dressage foundation put on him. So we toodled and moved at a snails pace. I tried to do "hey look, if I weight this seat bone and put on this leg you move over" and "I know contact feels weird but I'm just going to have soft forgiving hands" and yet I felt my tool bag kind of empty.
So many smiles <3
I had my first dressage lesson on Merlot two weeks ago and that helped so much. It was enough of a push but also a "we are only focusing on one thing this entire lesson" that I finally feel I have a start in the dressage direction. I knew I looked like a sack of potatoes riding a llama but I couldn't help but smile. I didn't just buy a green horse because I think he will be fancy and he has a forgiving attitude (and I have a limited budget), but for how much I wanted to experience the process of bringing a green horse up and how much joy it gives me.
So my little hiatus lasted a little longer than planned. But that's ok, I'm here now and want to start back with a small intro to the next few posts.
1) I got engaged! Holy crap was this a total 360 in my life. Luke proposed at his birthday party (end of April) I hosted for him after blowing out the candle (I actually forgot candles for his cake and had him blow out a giant yankee candle lol). It was so lovely to have our friends and family there. I am so so thrilled. No, there is no date yet, my focus is my last semester of college!
Baby Z's third ride!
2) Ponies are doing swell. Baby Z has been rocking baby boot camp and I've even ridden him twice now! He comes home in about two weeks. Mae has been a little brat and I haven't gotten to ride her yet, she needs to graduate from my stop-being-a-brat-about-work groundwork bootcamp. Vermont has been a super steady guy and very easy for rides. Merlot definitely is showing his green side but so so willing (and gorgeous to look at omg). And finally, Evita has been my rock and so much fun.
3) I finished my second to last semester of college with a fantastic GPA. My work continues to be nice and they even gave me an internship for summer to get some credits knocked out. I'm looking forward to my future outside of college.
So many good things have been happening! Like the above picture. The arena work was started! It is about 2/3 of the way done and we have pulled out a metric crap ton of excess sand, that has been happily dumped into my once crappy paddocks that were down to the base! Life is going to get so much better out here!
Anyways, I had quite the intense weekend!
Saturday
Saturday morning after completing horse chores I drove over to CJ's to ride. This was everyone's first ride of the year. She had a light lesson planned for Sunday and wanted me to hop on both Aragorn and Tess (potential new lesson pony!). Aragorn was surprisngly great. You remember me calling him the mule headed thigh master? He was definitely SLOW but took some encouragement quite nicely! I forgot how much fun he can be, his big warmblood gaits are so unique.
Thats about 2' deep at the center
Tess was a wild card. We haven't done much with her since CJ got her and this would be her first ride under saddle. I knew she had experience with lots of kids riding her but was more of an all around horse. As a QH and 13 I expected to be pretty safe. She definitely acts SUPER green but overall seems safe. She was very insecure in the contact and either bobbed her head down or latched onto the bit and yanked it down. We kept it basic with just a few strides of trotting here and there and she wasn't mean so so far she seems like a good candidate.
Next I hopped on Evita and I was kind of nervous to ride her. I've mentioned her spooky/bolting behavior in the past and wasn't sure what horse I would have under me after a few months sitting around. Surprise to me, she was PERFECT. Definitely weak and out of shape but nearly the same as what I left off with. It felt like home being on her back again <3
I also got Mae out who presented with some soreness behind and opted to put her away. She was such a good girl though, but tweaked something while being an idiot in turn out.
Later I went home to show my cousin my place; I haven't seen her in probably 10 years! She has kids now and overall seemed disinterested but oh well.
Such a good mule head <3
Once they left I hooked up my trailer, loaded Merlot, and hauled a few minutes down the street to Jannae's house (who I just recently learned blogged! Go follow her, shes an awesome person and has kickass pones). Jannae was kind of to host me and my green bean since we are arena-less but the weather is so nice. Mer was kind of a basket case to haul and was extremely apprehensive to load but hopped on like a good noodle. He got himself in a tizzy on the trailer and was shaking like a leaf when I pulled him off. Once I tied him to the trailer though, his little greenbean brain was like "oh tying. I can do this" and cocked a leg and relaxed.
So hairy but still the best <3
He was on edge again when I lead him the short distance to the arena but once I set him out on the line he got pretty comfortable. Being an adult is hard but I really like this guy is a diamond in the rough. He wants to try so hard, he is just terrified of the world.
Sunday
Sunday I woke up and kind of felt like death physically. I had TRX Friday night and combined with all the pony shenanigans on Saturday my body was TIRED. However, I did have a personal training appointment with my favorite horsey-themed personal trainer. It was also her birthday so I had an excuse to buy her coffee and a piece of cake from the local cafe. She loved it and gave me a great workout.
My cousin fed him a carrot and he just played with it in his mouth
After feeling like death warmed over again, I went home to do some homework and house chores. Luke and CJ were continuing work on the arena and moving sand into the paddocks.
In the afternoon (yay DST even though I love sleep), I went back to CJ's and even though her lesson was canceled she asked if I would hop on the ponies if she tacked them up. I agreed because I can't pass up an excuse to ride. Aragorn was still being fabulous. With Tess we worked more on actually asking her to get on the bit with inside leg to outside rein. She got steadier in the contact and we avoiding some of her anxiety by riding lots of figures.
Proving we can tie like an adult
Evita was an angel again, but got a little excited when we asked her to canter. Even though she can be a strong and intimidating horse, I actually smiled because it is refreshing to see a horse love their job so much. We got her relaxed and ended in some nice stretchy trot and she was so freaking proud of herself. That mare is becoming my second horse love (behind Ries of course).
I'm really really excited to see where the year is going, but I'm trying my darnedest to kick ass.
SO FANCY! I think hes going to be a great dressage pony if he hates jumping
Idk wtf hes doing with his hind legs but that isn't how he normally stands lol
Pats for good babeh!
While Merlot is significantly older than Czoltar, his lack of consistent training always make me question how they each will respond to something "new".
For example: because I've had Czoltar nearly his whole life and have maintained his farrier care hes nearly reliable to be trimmed and isn't too fussy. On the other hand, because I just got Merlot and finally brought him home, his past farrier care has not been regular his whole life. So when the farrier came out to trim him, he acted like Z did at 6 months old and was a spooky hot mess.
For the most part, my training with Z has been pretty lax. In a large part because I'm so busy, but also because he only turned 2 in June. I want him to just worry about being a horse while he grows up, but I have worked to make him easy to catch, easy to halter, easy to lead, and easy to load. Besides that, there isn't much more I would want him to be able to do as a 2 y/o. Since hes largely just been turned out on pasture his whole life until we moved to the new RWF, I've never worried about a blanket. But now that hes in the barn and goes out every day for group turnout, I thought getting him desensitized to a blanket would only be beneficial for his future training.
Merlot on the other hand spent most of his life (to my understanding) in a dry lot with no blanket or no cover. Hes a tough little dude. But hes always been on the ribby side and I want him to be a healthy weight and not have to spend all my money feeding him to keep his weight up.
So last week when I knew it would be cold at night, I brought out Riesling's old blankets (because I'm too lazy to measure them to buy their own) to try them on the boys. Because Merlot is broke to ride, I thought he would be good to put a blanket on, but hes also been super spooky so I wasn't 100% sure. Like a champ, he snorted at the trash bag containing the blanket, snorted at the blanket, but stood like a rock for me to put it on and let out a long sigh after everything was adjusted to fit.
I decided for Czoltar's first meeting with the blanket I'd try it on in his paddock where he would be more comfortable rather than the cross ties. He also snorted at the blanket and was a little noodly to rub it on his shoulders but really he was behaving pretty well. I was able to drape the blanket folded up on his back and he didn't seem to mind. As soon as I began unfolding the blanket and pulling it across his back though, he went bug eyed and "ran" forward (mostly like a strong power walk). I had my BF holding him for me at the time (I know I'm mean) and advised him to just walk him in circles until he relaxed. This happened rather quick and then I began to buckle the chest straps and rub my hands on top of the blanket all over him. He rushed forward to avoid the pressure again, but after a seconds of walking determined everything was ok.
Because it was Riesling's though, it was swimming on him and I didn't feel like it would be safe to keep on him so I began to pull it off his hind end towards his shoulders. Rush forward, circle, rinse, repeat. Once it was off I rubbed the blanket over him again and despite his bug eyes he stood to take his torture. Really a rather uneventful first meeting to the blanket despite how I made it sound.
Smaller rain sheets are now on order for both boys! No more nekky ponies in winter!
I've been having some really negative thoughts lately. Although Riesling wasn't a dressage horse when I first started with the discipline a few years back, he was taught some basics before I bought him. However, Merlot is truely the greenest horse I've owned that I want to develop with my new knowledge of riding.
And hes so fun and so sweet. But I can't help but feeling disappointed and pondering short cuts. I don't take them, because I've ridden a handful of horses that were trained innocrectly and with gadgets and its incredibly frustrating.
I keep trying to think of the positive and how lucky I am to have a horse with a nearly clean slate. He doesn't have baggage or really any training that I need to "undo". But its incredibly hard. I know what I want and how I want it to feel, and getting there seems impossible.
Rome wasn't built in a day. Nor has any horses' proper education. I keep reminding myself the more I chip away slowly and diligently towards the right direction, the better horse he is going to be. Eventually, I hope to look back and laugh that my current struggle of getting him connected into the bridle seems so impossible. I know my trainers and know myself as a rider and just need to trust the process.
Man this month has been nothing short of insane. But here is the story of Merlot's first horse show!
Storms a brewin
June 10th was a league dressage show at a local barn in town. J still has Mr. Merlot at her house for various reasons and was planning on doing this show so I signed us both up and she loaded the trailer! I believe Merlot has been to some rodeos (to hangout at the trailer) and trail rides, but that is about it. J pulled up to the show around 9 and our ride times began at 10. I signed us both in, and tacked him up quickly and just hopped on.
Normally when I work with him I lunge him first, not really as exercise but more for groundwork. He isn't one to get tired and that isn't by any means my goal when I throw him on the lunge. Sometimes he has some snorts and scoots to get out but that is few and far between these days. J prefers her horses to immediately start working (aka trotting) when she sends them out, but I prefer a horse to relax and walk. I personally do this because I don't want a horse to feel like the lunge line is always hard work and punishment (not implying that J does). Lately on the lunge I send him out and just have him walk a few laps and focus on my body and vocal language. I digress..
Back to the story- I walked Merlot around the trailer parking area to get a feel for his mood. He was alert and paying attention, but also fairly relaxed and stopping to steal some snacks. I was super pleased with this behavior. He definitely was looky but far from spooky. Because he is green I underestimate myself and get nervous sometimes when it comes to riding. Really he is a fantastic horse and I have nothing to be worried about.
We walked to the grass warm up arena and I hopped on. J wanted me to immediately start with some trot work to get him focused on working and not looking for things to spook at. I prefer to walk around but I can't argue that walking around wouldn't give myself time to psych out. Trotting was good for both of us mentally. He was fairly rhythmic and wasn't reaching for the contact like at home, but I was pleased. The warm up was right next to a large cross country field and the venue was also hosting an open cross country schooling that morning. Merlot definitely got nervous when he saw horses galloping and jumping huge fences next to him but I did some figures to keep him distracted. Thank goodness they were running behind, it gave me extra time to warm up.
Towards the end of our warm up we stood facing the dressage court and he was pretty relaxed and even rested a hind leg. He was alert coming out of the arena and definitely showed off his green behavior when he refused to enter the arena to do our test. We got a horse to lead us in and he was fine, minus some spooking at flowers on the letters. Once in the sandbox he wasn't very spooky. Don't get me wrong, the test was...unattractive but is pretty accurate to where we are training wise right now. I've never practiced the test on him (but c'mon it's intro..) and I really was using the show for exposure not because we are ready to kill the competitors at dressage. The test had nice moments and looked better than it felt to ride. He didn't want to stay at a consistent tempo or steer but listened to my whoah and go very promptly.
Intro B was just a few tests after Intro A and he seemed like he was ok with this whole dress up and ride in an empty arena nonsense. Mentally he was getting over it and I again had to follow a horse in the arena (yeah I could have booted and gotten mean with him but my goal was for a positive experience and getting led into an arena at a schooling show is nbd in my eyes). This test felt worse, mostly because our steering was really gone. Merlot was all "wat r circles" and "I ignore your leg aids for turning because instead I'm wondering whats up with all those horses running and jumping". Again, not necessarily bad behavior or hot and spooky but really better than how I expected him to act.
I also signed us up for a ground pole jumper division (they held a jumper show after dressage around 12:30) for more exposure. There was about an hour break between my dressage and ground poles so I hopped off and took him back to the trailer. His ground manners were absolutely fantastic and he acted like an old gentleman who has done this a time or two when I was leading him around. It was mostly the whole "riding in new places" that was weird for him.
He stood fine at the trailer while J and I ate lunch and drank victory beers. Much to my unfortunate luck, right when we needed to get on for the "jumping", it started storming. Nearly everyone was eventers and a little rain doesn't stop their fun so the show continued. The storm only lasted about half an hour and put a pause on the show. I hopped on after the showers slowed. The rain and wind really amped Merlot up though.
I had to get someone to hold him for me while I got on and he was still extremely jumpy. Because there were no jumps in the grass warm up ring they had open schooling of the show arena before each division. I made the mistake of going in and attempting to school with the other horses. This arena is about the size of a full court and there were probably ten other people attempting to school at the same time. And because it was the ground poles division, there was a slew of beginners who weren't polite about steering and getting close to us. Poor Merlot was terrified of all these horses coming at him and politely asked to just not horse. I made him stand and take the abuse of all the horses that wanted to eat him. Of course I got tons of dirty looks for having "that horse" at the show. Whatever, its not like a bunch of people haven't been in my place before. Gotta start somewhere.
I wanted to know if he would be spooky towards the bright jumper standards so I could plan my attack (because everyone knows how seriously you need to plan a ground poles trip lol). I just had him go through the course once at a walk and exited the arena of terror. We headed back to the grass warm up just to stay away from the chaos. At this point homeboy was feeling insecure and I had to hold his hand. I was admittedly a little nervous with his behavior (I mean..I did break my foot falling off him in the dumbest way last year) but tried to stay calm and supportive. As we waited for the juniors to do their rounds I kept him busy by just walking around. He was on high alert and sometimes refused to turn. I mostly just let him go where he wanted as long as he stayed reasonable and walked politely. A few girls that had just trailered in were beginning to warm up their horses with some quick cantering. This made Merlot nervous again but he got through it.
When he seemed to be more relaxed we would take a few minutes to stop and he would rest a foot and be mostly ok with the situation. As soon as he became nervous again we went back to walking and I think the regularity of me guiding him through the scary day helped him out. It was time for our round and poor dude did not want to leave the warmup. The ring steward was kind of being a bitch and wanted to skip over me (obviously need to take her job seriously at a schooling show..) and kept yelling my number saying it was my turn. She was only twenty feet away from me. Luckily some innocent bystanders were nice and were basically like "yo lady calm your tits her horse is scared just give him a few minutes its a schooling show" (not really but that's what I would like to imagine).
An older gentleman came in the ring to escort us and Merlot tried halfheartedly to escape the terrifying human coming towards him. Luckily as soon as he walked forward he realized the man was a nice hooman probably harboring cookies somewhere and following was safe. He was actually relatively calm in the arena when it was just us by ourselves. He wasn't spooked by noises or the whistle but was definitely slightly on edge. I asked for a trot and pointed at the brightly colored sticks and he was like "yeah sure whatever I'll go over things but I'm going to periscope up to monitor small children on fat ponies that might attack". He did have one random NOPE moment with a decent spook in an unrelated spot in the arena. I stopped and patted him and we moved forward pleasantly. We trotted nearly the entire thing and I was happy that he gave no fucks about the "jumps". I gave him big pats and he almost seemed relieved when we crossed the finish flags and the crowd encouragingly hollered. I hopped off right there in the arena and gave him a big hug where I could feel him release nearly all his tension.
Cringing watching this..
We had done the thing! Immediately after getting off he returned to old pro at the horse show status and I had a big smile plastered on my face as I took him back to the trailer.
The whole "jumping" phase was kind of a shit storm because of the weather and poor warm up but I'm really glad we both were pushed outside of our comfort zones and successfully completed our first show together! We even managed to get a second place at Intro A! (I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious lol) I'm super proud of how Mr Green Bean performed and am excited to come back in July!
I had a fantastic ride on Merlot on Saturday (you know, before I fell off and broke my foot) and I'd love to share some interesting things I've discovered.
First I started out on the lunge with him. He has insane lunging anxiety and just motorcycles around. My only goal was to get him to relax and walk. Just walk on the lunge. It took a little bit of coaxing and our circles were very small but he started to get the concept that lunging doesn't always mean run around like a maniac.
I spoke with J about this and she told me about how when he was first abandoned here, the owner did attempt some training with him. At one point, she had him in his paddock and was attempting to lunge him on a short lead rope and beating him with the lunge whip frequently. SO uh, that explains a lot. Poor guy.
I hopped on and he felt a little humpy in his back at first and wanted to try and pull some baby horse antics like just backing up into eternity. I'm not 100% sure on his "training" so I'm not super surprised. After a few minutes of really basic work he relaxed and settled right into his routine. He had a few issues with steering and I had a lightbulb moment.
This whole time I've been riding him like he is a greenie. I only use aids that I think he knows. As soon as I started actually riding him like a trained horse, he improved SO much. Our steering issues were 100% gone. Interesting what turning with your eyes, seat, and outside thigh can do. I reveled my discovery to J and she explained that you have to ride them like this or they never really learn how and what aids are. I felt like a moron.
Anyways, we moved forward to cantering! We both had no idea what to expect and let him just fall into it. And y'all his canter is so rhythmic and soft and lovely. I was swooning. But I was also being a bad rider and letting him fall on the forehand (he is pretty weak behind). This led to my demise.
He seems to be really struggling with getting the right lead canter. We eventually got it, and like ten seconds before I broke to a downward, I leaned/reached forward to stroke his neck and tell him he is a good boy. He is also on the forehand. He stumbled, I fell on his neck, and he threw himself up to try and catch himself from falling. At this point I was airborne and was like "well..shit". I was falling outward and was not going to land nicely on his back so I let myself fall to the side, where my left foot got a little twisted in the stirrup on the way down.
I fell on my lower back and got the wind knocked out of me. A large groan and several minutes of screaming profanities and I was sitting up. Poor Merlot was mortified and had no idea what just happened. J said that she doesn't believe anyone has ever fallen off of him before. He was thoroughly concerned I was on the ground and was snorting at me, such a confused baby horse. I gave him some pets on his head and he settled, and I let J get back on to school a lap of canter just in case.
We anticipated some saucy behavior but homie just was relaxed and went right on forward. He never did get his right lead again but he was so relaxed and willing and full of try (and also; omg nothing wears him out) we let him end and decided to work on it another day. I hopped back on to just walk him out and definitely kicked him with my right foot on the way up. Oops. He didn't even care. Ugh <3 So forgiving. We tootled around on the buckle and my feet hanging out of the stirrups. I am so impressed with the brain on this guy.
I mostly blame myself for falling. If I would have been sitting up better and reached forward with just my hand and not my entire upper body I could have picked him up from his stumble. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.
I'm super bummed to not be riding/seeing him again this week because this guy has totally stolen my heart.
Y'all probably remember Baby Winston who lived at my house that I wanted. Well, his breeder/owner is J at QR. J also was the one who purchased Monty off the track and restarted him. Now that my horse trainer CJ is getting out of breeding, shes put time and money investing into J's program. Her first crop was last year. She lost one foal but the other two, Winston & Windchime, scored silver and gold at RPSI inspection last year. They have both sold, and now we are on to the second and third crop!
There are two fillies for inspection next year, and two more fillies and a colt for the year after that. Because I can't resist baby horses, even though our riding plans got cancelled, I headed out there yesterday morning to go cuddly all the babies.
This handsome guy is Winchester, who was orphaned. Hes been bottle fed since birth and as a result, absolutely the friendliest guy around. I woke him up from his nap and snuggled him. We are hoping he will score gold and will go to the stallion test.
Even though J is a mare person, there is a gelding that seemed to have snuck in her heard. I might have a little crush on him. He is a 5/6 year old TB that was race trained but never raced. An acquaintance of hers bought him from his trainer in hopes to restart him as a sport horse. She was to board him at J's until her place was ready to go. Well after loss of communication and no payment, hes basically been abandoned at J's for the past two years. Her goal has been to restart him and sell him, but with her kids and building her barn he has been put on the back burner.
So naturally, I had to go snuggle him. He is a sweet guy and J reports he is a cute mover. I'm hoping to hop on him within the next few weeks and see what he is like.
Because he wasn't right for the track, he was never raced and was never registered. And obvi he needs a name so I can fall for him. So I've named him Merlot. He has the cutest pony ears and fluffy forelock. And because I have Riesling, I figured I'm going to start the wine theme. Can't wait to hop on him!
