PROOF!!!

Crossrails were jumped.  I have proof.  Of course, it's also proof that I pump with my upper body and fling myself over tiny little jumps, but whatevs.  It was my first jumping lesson in at least 15 years and I think we look pretty good!

Schneiders Tack

I bought a few things from Schneiders Tack about a month ago.  Nothing huge, just an inexpensive cotton blanket and some roller ball spurs.  The cotton blanket was adorable but of course, as soon as I bought it, the weather turned and it started raining so it got tried on and then folded up and stored for next year.

The roller ball spurs were okay, but after only two weeks, one of the balls cracked.  They weren't very expensive so I didn't think much of it.  The ball is still on the spur, it just has a crack in it.

I received an email in my inbox from Schneiders asking me to review the products I had bought.  Since I was disappointed with the quality of my roller ball spurs, I went ahead and took the time to bitch about it in my review.  I figured it would save other people the trouble of buying an inferior product.

Well, this morning in my inbox was an email from Cheri at Schneiders:


Dear Mona,

Thank you for submitting your review of the Roller Ball Spurs.  As a valued customer, your views, opinions and findings are very important to us.

I apologize for any inconvenience our spurs may have caused and are not what you had expected. Please find a refund of 18.99 to your Visa card ending xxxx.  The credit was issued today, November 6th and will take a couple of days to show on your credit card statement. We will also pass along this information to our manufacturer to ensure the quality of our products meet our customer’s expectations.

Thank you again for taking the time to submit your review.  We hope that we can be of service to you in the future.

I never emailed them directly, never asked for a refund.  Nothing!  And they took the time to read my review, follow up with me AND gave me a refund.  Nicely done, Schneiders.

If there's one thing close to my heart, it's customer service.  I love good customer service.  Good customer service turns me into a loyal customer for life.  Schneiders Tack, you had me at "I apologize".

Also, in a few short hours I will be riding my pony over fences....or at least over poles.  Jumping lesson!

To The Gate...And Beyond!

Sunday it was drizzling.  A kind of misty, depressing rain.  However, it was ridiculously warm for November.  Thankfully, I was wearing layers.  Off came the down vest, off came the sweatshirt.  Just a short sleeved t-shirt and breeches!  My poor, hairy pony worked up a sweat pretty quickly.

In the arena, I struggled with contact.  Since I have very busy hands that like to try to put the pony's head where I want it, I focus a lot on NOT doing that.  My backup plan to my busy hands is my shoving, busy body and I'm trying not to do that either.  Which means we spent a lot of time circling around with Tessa above the bit, bracing on the bit, running out of the outside rein (did I mention I also let my reins slide through my fingers.  I've resorted to holding on to the grab strap with my hand and rein to keep that outside rein steady.  It works sometimes, but then I have to be careful about bracing my entire arm against the grab strap.).  Tessa was wiggly and very braced.

I worked on keeping her forward and allowing her to come in to the contact.  I had a good amount of forward, but the contact was pretty awful.  After we did some cantering, we did have some nice moments but for the most part it wasn't a good looking ride.  I reminded myself that in the training process, when you're learning new skills, it's normal for the rest of the skills to fall apart temporarily.  But if I keep at it, there will be that one day where I will suddenly realize that I'm not fiddling with my hands or shoving with my seat and that my horse is going forward into contact.  I'm learning patience at a whole new level.

By the time I was done with my ride, the drizzle had stopped.  I had plans to go outside of the gate so I took some deep breaths and walked Tessa over.  It took us a while to get close to the scary gate, but we got there.  First I walked her through it a few times.  Then I got on and walked her through it a few times.  Then we started down the driveway.  Step.  By.  Step.  She would take a trembling step and stop, neck high and tense, ears pricked.  I would ask her to go forward and if she didn't, I would turn her head and we would take a side step.  We inched our way abut 1/4 down the long drive, then turned around and went home.  Then we did that again.  And again.  And again.  I was so proud of Tessa and so proud of myself.

At one point, another boarder decided to take her horse out on a short ride and asked me if I'd like to tag along.  I said I'd follow her down the driveway and see how it went.  Tessa followed her horse like a champ, marching right along with him.  She appreciated having another horse in front of her.  We rode all the way down the long drive to the paved road.  At that point, I opted out since I was already nervous and didn't want to have to feel even more nervous about the pavement aspect of things.  I turned my pony around and we headed back.  Tessa was more nervous going back and I could feel her body tense up.  But she knew she was going home, so she plodded along turning her head this way and that.

Pony got lots of carrots and love and another tail washing. I had to cancel my Monday night lesson because my daughter was up puking last night, but Tuesday is jump day.  I'm doing it people.  I'm really doing it.

Bit O Honey

Does anyone remember the candy Bit O Honey?  It was one of my favorite candies.  It resembled a small rock when you put it in your mouth and required fierce chewing skills.  Most of the time this meant chewing with your mouth wide open for a solid ten minutes.  Yes, that was back when you had to WORK for that candy!

Tessa has been chewing her bit a lot.  Clinking and clanking and chewing.  She's currently being ridden in an 0-ring snaffle of medium to thick thickness.  It's not fancy, just a regular snaffle.  My trainer wanted me to switch to a KK Ultra, which she went well in, but I couldn't find one with small enough rings.  I love the extra link in the middle and I think Tessa would too, but the one I ordered from Dover (and then had to return and PAY to return it, I won't make that mistake again) had HUGE rings.  Tessa wears a size 5 but she needs petite rings.  I'm going to look at Bradoons since I think those are the same thing but with smaller rings.

Any thoughts?  Bits with smaller rings?  Story - You have a petite Arab.  Where do you get your bits at?

And on another note of Go Me, I rode outside again.  For longer.  This weekend I may even go out the gate and down the driveway.  Also, first jump lesson scheduled for Tuesday.  I'm hoping I can find someone to take some pictures.

Forward, Ho!

I think the phrase might be 'Onward, ho!' but forward is more appropriate for us.  Last night we had a great lesson involving lots of lovely forward trotting.  We worked a lot on lightening my seat more in the canter.  My pony HATES it when I shove and of course it's second nature for me to SHOVE.  It's like I have the belief that if I clench my butt muscles and shove forward, she'll have no choice but to canter.  Instead, it shuts her down instantly.  She's a princess pony, remember?  And so everything must be light and covered in fairy dust and glitter.  Well, everything except my outside rein, which has this habit of floating away (is that my hand up in front of my face?  how did it get there?).

So L had me put more weight into my stirrups and focus on sitting tall and relaxing.  Every time I started to get it right, Tessa broke to a trot.  On the bright side, the trot she broke to was gorgeous and forward and even sometimes on the bit.  We had some good moments all in all.

We also worked on getting my legs farther back beneath me.  They just won't stay there.  I think partly because it was adding too many new things to the mix.  Hold the outside rein, more weight in the stirrups, relax your butt, tighten your core, sit tall and now put your legs a bit farther back.  Also, the pony is convinced that if my legs are that much farther back I want her to *do* something.  We had some random leg yields, haunches in and a lot of tail swishing.  If it was up to Tessa, all cues would be done at her shoulder.

I also talked to L about my Pony Club plan.  She's on board.  I need to figure out a way to find babysitting so I can do a Tuesday afternoon jump lesson.  One of the frustrating things about my barn is that they only do jumping on Tuesdays.  I understand why they do it (our arena is small and if there are jumps set up, there's not much room to do anything else) but it's hard because Tuesdays are not a great day for me to get out there.  But I'm going to figure it out and my goal is to be able to ride a stadium course of five jumps not to exceed 18inches.

I'm also going to be working on getting outside.  One of the girls I ride with on Monday night said she lives relatively close to the barn and has a 2 acre field with a small log in it and a Steady Eddie horse for Tessa to follow.  We haven't made definite plans (I want to jump in an arena before I try the log) but my goal is to try and push forward.  The sticky spot is that once again, I don't have a trailer or truck so I need to figure out a ride.  And it's expensive to rent a horse trailer at $80 a pop and that doesn't include a truck!!  Sheesh.  I just don't think I want to invest in a truck and trailer and I'm pretty sure that's not in our budget right now anyways, but I'm getting to the point where I need to be going places.

After I do this, I will have met the requirements for D-2 Level Pony Clubber.  D-3 requires more jumping, but it just says "not to exceed 2'6" so I think I'm safe to stay at my little crossrails.   D-3 does have the Emergency Dismount requirement.  That should be....interesting.  I only have to be able to do it at a halt and walk for D-3, but I'm not sure I can fling my body off a horse with that much coordination.  At my age, I'm not convinced flinging myself off a horse on purpose is my best plan anyways.  I'll let you all know..

Pony Club Shame

I'm a master of cleaning out stuff.  Because I have moved every year since I was 16 (no, not military, I just moved out of my parents house and kept moving every year), I have become a pro at traveling light.  I'm not one for holding on to things for sentimentality.  When you're lugging boxes up three flights of stairs every year, you start paring down pretty quickly.  Especially because as the years went on, the help dwindled.  I've now lived in the same place for four years but I still have the itch to move about once a year, so I go through stuff and get rid of things by the bag full.  The one thing I have not been able to part with has been my horse books.  I'm a bit of a collector.  My library ranges from 'True Horsemanship Through Feel' by natural horsemanship trainer Bill Dorrance to "Hunter Seat Equitation" by George Morris.  I have books on riding, books on training, books on dressage, jumping, Western Pleasure and even a Pat Parelli book.

So, while I was looking through my books for the umpteenth time, I came across this gem.  At one point, I had all three books but somewhere along the way I loaned out my C Level book.  So, I have the D level and the B/HA/A level book.  I cracked open the D level book and started reading.  And, oh my, I have a lot to learn if I want to be a D level pony clubber!

I thought it would be fun to check out the tests required to move up the levels in pony club.  I mean, what a great way to make sure I am well rounded in my education (or at least in my english riding education, right?)    So I'm skimming the tests.  To Pass a D-1 test, you must be able to ride at a walk and trot safely in an enclosed arena, without a leadline.  Okay, I've got that covered.  So, I can at least hold my own with the six year old Pony Club kids.

So, moving on to the next level D-2.  Level Requirements are to be able to mount and dismount independently, shorten and lengthen reins at walk and halt, perform balance and suppling exercises....okay, there was one that I'm not sure Tessa would go for.  The old Around the World exercise, where you spin yourself around in the saddle.  I'm not sure my life is worth the risk of being backwards when she changed her mind about things. But mostly I've got that covered.

Then there was the Riding Over Fences portion.  You must be able to ride a simple stadium jumping course of four to five obstacles, not to exceed 18 inches.  Hmmmm.  I better schedule a lesson over some crossrails soon if I want to keep up with D-2 level Pony Clubbers.

And finally, the Riding in the Open section.  Yes, the section that I fail miserably.  You must be able to ride safely in a group at the walk and trot, ride with control, up and down hills, at the walk and trot and jump simple natural obstacles, not to exceed 18 inches.

Now, I get that Pony Club is developing eventers, but even if you took the jumping out of it these are skills I don't have.  My horse has been on one trail ride and it wasn't me riding her.  I've only ever ridden her in the indoor arena.  In circles.  And circles.  And circles.

Well, not anymore.  We often joke about me needing a plan for everything.  And now I've been shamed into action by the fact that at the LOWEST LEVEL of Pony Club, they can go out and ride in the open. Yes, I know, these kids are often on the ancient, bomb proof pony but I'm not so sure I have an excuse anymore.  I was at the Halloween party and if you look at those pictures, it was me and a bunch of kids.  All the other grown ups who dressed up didn't get on and I overheard more than one person saying "My horse would freak out with those decorations.  I'm not going in there."  But I did.  I didn't make excuses.  I just got my shaky legs thrown over my horse and got on and rode.

So yesterday, after our usual circles in the arena, I took my pony outside and led her over to a railroad tie that I used as a mounting block.  Was I scared?  Yup.  But I want to pass my D-2 level Pony Club test and I have to be able to ride outside.  Our barn property is fully fenced, so if I lost control we were still enclosed but with all the distractions of outside, including a very feisty and fresh yearling bucking and galloping while we rode by.  We circled the barn at a walk on a mostly loose rein.  I reminded myself to breathe.  I waved at my astonished trainer, grinning so wide it almost hurt.  I circled the barn again and found a relatively even soft spot and trotted.  It was only five steps, but I can now say that I've walked and trotted outside.  And lived to tell the tale.

And suddenly, a year of lessons and frustrations and second guessing later, I've got it.  This is my horse.  This is my partner.  And together we're gonna go places and do things.  Because we can.  

The Awesomeness of Me

Sometimes I surprise even myself.  It all started yesterday, at the barn's Halloween party.  It was a cold, blustery and rainy night (it was a dark and stormy night....oooooooh) and the barn was bustling with activity.  The kind of activity that can terrify ponies.  Costumes were being thrown around, the sound of glitter spray cans being shaken reverberated down the aisles.  Some horses were restless, pacing in their stalls.  I pulled Tessa out of her stall, away from her dinner.  This elicited pinned ears, a wrinkled muzzle and a half hearted attempt to walk to the other side of her stall, followed by a deep, dejected sigh as I slipped the halter on.  She made one last grab for a mouthful of hay and followed me into the aisle way.

She hadn't been ridden in two days, so I took her in to the arena to see if she needed to blow off steam.  I'm glad I did because the arena had been decorated.  You'd think cobwebs wouldn't be that scary to horses who live in barns, but our barn is pretty clean and Tessa had not seen cobwebs *that* big.  Where the mounting block was had been transformed with hay bales, pumpkins and corn stalks.  The other mounting block had giant cobwebs and corn stalks on it as well.  This left one mounting block.  The one in the (cue scary music) GOAT OF DEATH corner.

Fairy wings AND polo wraps?  Oh, poor pony.

You can the spooky pumpkins in the corner.  

My daughter as Tinkerbell, meeting the fairy pony.

Fancy costume!

This horse was Pepe Le Pew.  If you've ever seen Pepe Le Pew and then watched this horse canter when he's hyped up, it would all make sense.

Look at me!  In a line up!  Later, there were more horses and we had to squish closer. Tessa wanted to say hi to everybody.

But at this moment, the mounting block situation was the least of my concern.  I didn't buy a 14.3 hand horse for nothing, after all.  Mounting from the ground was not an issue for us.  Our issue at the moment was Tessa and the cobwebs.  She snorted.  She froze.  She walked backwards.  I tried to walk her by them, but she scooted sideways with loud snorting.  I wasn't worried.  Instead, it was kind of hilarious.  I felt bad for how scared she was of them, but she was so genuinely  worried that it elicited more of an 'awww, you poor baby' feeling from me.  I ended up putting her on a lunge line and just having her trot around until she started to relax.  It really only took about five minutes when she realized that she was going to have to work if she wouldn't walk by the items.  I got her to the point where she would walk by them, but with her head still watching.  Just in case that pumpkin suddenly grew legs and jumped out at her. 

I know this is super blurry, but my husband didn't get a good shot and this was the best costume. This is the Swedish Chef and her horse dressed up as a Swedish Meatball.  Since he's a Swedish Warmblood this was a pretty awesome costume.

The awesome moment came later.  The awesome moment came after putting pink polo wraps on all four legs and having her randomly kick out because they felt so weird on her (this was only the second or third time she'd ever worn them).  The awesome moment came after spraying her tail neon pink and trying to attach giant fairy wings to her saddle (didn't work, finally gave up because they kept flopping backwards and tickling her).  The awesome moment came when I went into the arena, filled with scary props and now also filled with ten other horses in costumes, some with billowing sheets, some with wings and some with crowns, and I got on my horse.  In the GOAT OF DEATH corner, no less.  Oh yes, I got on using the mounting block by the goat.  And then I rode my pony around a spooky arena with a whole bunch of other horses.  And then we all lined up, which my pony had never done.  She was disappointed to find out that lining up right next to another horse did not involve touching noses and saying hello.  She was probably wondering how come I didn't want her to talk to anybody.  She just loves to be social and was so excited to hang out with all the other horses.

I didn't do anything besides walk, but I walked without a death grip on my oh crap strap.  I walked on a loose rein.  We just ambled around in an arena full of ponies and pumpkins and scary, flapping cobwebs.  And I wasn't scared....mostly.