Show Time Part II

Along with a big crew from my barn, Maggie and I headed back to Carolina Horse Park the weekend of June 8th for a schooling day on Saturday, and another dressage test on Sunday. This was Maggie's first overnight experience (at least with me), and she handled it beautifully. She was so quiet and well-behaved in her stall that you could easily forget she was there:)

The plan was an open schooling on Saturday, with some schooling in the dressage arena and then XC schooling (and hopefully getting her over some little, Green as Grass jumps) Tropical Storm Andrea had passed through the area on Thursday and Friday, but with the great footing at CHP, it was still very rideable (although there were plenty of big puddles still around) I got on Maggie and headed over to the dressage warm-up area. She didn't even want to get near the puddles that we would have to go past, so eventually we got a lead over to the arena from my friend Sarah who was passing by.

In the arena Maggie was pretty quick and tense, and then the combination of a truck starting up/her buddy Greetly cantering towards her sent her up in the air. She continued to be very spooky with some pretty good leaps and spins, but after awhile she started to settle down and ended up with a pretty nice trot (though we ended up never getting into the actual arena to school)

At that point, we headed over to XC schooling. As I was walking over I started to feel lightheaded and sick. I'd had to ride Maggie a lot harder than I was planning, and it had gotten very hot and humid while I was riding. I don't always do well in the heat, but I've learned that I need to start 'pre-hydrating' if I know I'll be out in hot weather - I usually start downing Vitamin Waters and plain waters a day or two beforehand. I've also read somewhere that protein is important, so I try to eat more protein than I usually do. However, I realized afterwards that since Friday (the day before the schooling) had been graduation/last day of school where I work, and a bit of a crazy day, I had gone most of the day only eating a piece of cake. No wonder I couldn't handle the heat! Since the thought of fainting off my horse wasn't too appealing, I got off and headed back to the barn. Bummer.

On a positive note, talking to other riders later, I learned that a lot of the horses out at the dressage schooling had been very 'up' - I was so focused on my horse that I hadn't realized that. It made me feel better that it wasn't just Maggie acting badly - perhaps there was something in the air that all the horses were reacting to.

On Sunday, I ended up going for my own XC "schooling" by taking Maggie out to an empty field (actually where we had camped out the night before) and hacking her around. I had been really excited to let her open up her canter in a big field - that was really what I had wanted to do the day before. I had recently been able to canter Maggie around the big circular driveway at our barn, and found that when she was able to open up and not have to worry about staying in the ring, she had a super canter. I was very happy to find that same canter out in a field - she made no attempt to run away with me, and I could put my leg on and ask her for a bigger canter. So much fun!

Warming up for my dressage test, Maggie was spinning and rearing like crazy! I have no idea what was making her act so badly, but I was seriously considering scratching from the test. But once I got her into the emptier warm-up ring, she settled down a lot. And then once we started going around the arena for our test, she really settled down. We had a nice trot going, and then when they rang the cowbell (our signal to start the test), she really stretched down into a beautiful trot (I think Maggie understands this competition thing!) Our test had some great moments, and some tense moments (spooking at the judge's stand, a non-halt at the end of the test) At the end of the test, the judge very kindly told me to take my time leaving the ring, to let Maggie settle down.

There was only one more test after mine, and I stayed so that I could school Maggie in the ring and try cantering her. While I was schooling her, the judge had some very nice things to say about Maggie (including that she has a very nice walk) and took some time out to give me an impromptu lesson when I started cantering. She gave me some tips on how to get the correct lead to the right and I haven't had any problems since then! How nice that she was willing to help me out, even after a long hot day of judging. She made me feel like I have a horse with great potential - a great way to end a long, hot, tiring weekend:)

Jump for Joy!

I've been missing in action for a little while - I work in a school, so this is our extra crazy time of year. But, the year is winding down, so I'm back:)

In addition to showing, another goal that seemed eons away was jumping. My trainer and I had decided to wait until Maggie chronologically turned 4 in April to start jumping her. Maggie cooperated with this plan by giving us more than enough to work on before we could even consider jumping!

Before April, we started incorporating trot poles into our lessons. Maggie learned this very quickly - she may slow herself down approaching the poles to "assess the situation", but she has never stopped, and she always gets herself through beautifully. (This from a horse who spooked the first time she saw a pole roll!)

For one lesson early in April, my trainer lunged Maggie over jumps. She was a little fiesty on the lungeline that night. Annie set up a grid of trot poles with a little cross rail in the middle. Maggie just took a big step over it. We turned it into a little vertical. Maggie just took a big step over it. We made it a bigger vertical (2 feet or so). Maggie finally jumped it. Like with the trot poles, she stood back a little to figure it all out, but never put on the brakes. It made me feel good that she wouldn't be the type of horse to throw herself willy-nilly at a jump. The second time through, she hit the jump, and then the last time through she jumped big to clear it (also making me feel good that she figured that out).

In the saddle, we started with a grid of trot poles with a little pile of poles at the end. The first couple of times, she just took a big step over them, but when I gave her a little kick right before the pile, she "jumped" (it was a grey area as to whether it could really be considered a jump, but from where I was sitting, it felt jump-like)

The next lesson we started the same, and then made the pile of poles into an itty-bitty vertical, which Maggie jumped just fine (no grey area that time!) We also tried a cross rail and a slightly bigger vertical, both of which she jumped perfectly. All in all, it was a non-event - Maggie jumped as if she'd been doing it forever.

In the next lesson, we continued building up, by turning the jump into a little oxer. No problem. We also changed things up by having Maggie jump in the other direction (up to this point, the little grid had been in the same spot in the ring, so that she was jumping away from the barn and turning right afterwards) Annie built a little oxer going towards the barn, and also took away the trot grid (just leaving a placing pole) Maggie didn't get herself to the jump quite right, but didn't panic and just jumped big/round to get over it. The next time through she figured it out.

Since Maggie has taken it all in stride (pun intended), we are going to just keep building up her skills. The plan is to work towards having just a placing pole in front of a single jump. Also, adding another jump to the grid (a 2-stride first and then a 1-stride) I'm also hoping to get her out to a XC schooling and see if she'll jump over the little Green as Grass jumps.

I'm excited about how well Maggie is doing so far, and she seems to enjoy jumping. Our development of a future eventing superstar is right on track!

Show Time!

During one of my radio chats with Samantha and Laine, at a time when I was struggling with Maggie, Samantha asked me what motivates me to keep going. I responded that it was the thought of my first successful show. When I said this it was cold and dreary out, but I pictured myself on a lovely spring day, proudly clutching a blue ribbon. I knew that if I could get Maggie to the point where I could show her, it would be so much more satisfying, knowing that I had done all the work to get her there. It seemed like a very distant possibility.

With Maggie's first successful off-the-farm trip and her improved performance at home, we decided that it was time for her to get out there and show off. Carolina Horse Park is hosting a series of schooling horse trials (along with combined tests and dressage only) from May through November this year. Since CHP is my "home base" it seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce Maggie to a show environment. I signed up to ride Intro A and B.

With about 2 weeks to go until the show, it was time to prepare. Unfortunately, it was also time for lots of rain. My barn has a dressage arena, but when it's wet, the footing gets a little yucky. I had actually only ridden Maggie in the dressage arena a couple of times, and it never seemed to go well. One of my biggest concerns was whether Maggie had the steerability to make the turns within the dressage arena (Caution - wide turns!) When I talked about this with my trainer, she reminded me that the primary concern with Maggie's first show would be to give her a positive experience. So, she said, if you have a great, calm test and she happens to step out of the ring and you get eliminated, we can consider that a success. It would be worse to be so concerned about accuracy that Maggie gets tense and has a melt-down. With the ring finally dried out, I was able to get a couple of practices in during the days right before the show.

My plan for the day of the show was to arrive a few hours early and hop on Maggie to hack her around and see how she felt. I was concerned about how she would handle a crowded warm-up (Who isn't terrified of a crazy warm-up ring?!?) Luckily when I took her out to school, there was only one other rider in the very large arena, so I essentially had the place to myself. Maggie started out quick and tense, but well-behaved and trying hard. I trotted her around until she was stretchy and snorty. Despite it being a schooling show, it was definitely a true competitive eventing atmosphere - lots of people and activity, blowing tents, loudspeakers. Maggie took it all in stride, even things that would have scared her at home. There is a great benefit to having a young horse who has already spent time at the track - they've learned how to deal with a lot more than they'll encounter at the typical show.

I took her back to the trailer until our ride times and discovered that she had reopened an old wound on her hind leg that was now bleeding. I was lucky that there were 2 vet students at the trailer next to ours, and they cleaned out the wound really well and watched Maggie jog. She was 100% sound, so they felt it was OK for me to go ahead and ride.

The warm-up ring had filled up a lot, so I ended up just walking Maggie around the outside of the schooling/showing area, with a little trot thrown in. Because of Maggie's perfect behavior, by the time I was ready to go into the ring, my biggest fear was forgetting the tests! But I didn't and Maggie performed beautifully. Our first test was very calm and quiet with some accuracy issues - a wiggly center line (no surprise there), not riding all the way into the corners, and unequal circles. Accuracy is something I know I can fix later, so I was incredibly happy with how it went. I was able to improve the accuracy of our second test, and Maggie really relaxed and showed off her trot (an 8 on gaits? at our first show? I'll take it!) Team Maggie was very happy with her first show experience! And the judges were too, because we got a 36.8 and a 33.1!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28kLcpTgiXs&feature=player_detailpage

(Intro Test A - Maggie's show-ring debut)

http://www.hightimephotos.com/CarolinaHorsePark/5-12-13-May-Starter-Horse/406-Unknown-Rider/29411893_fMmzZm#!i=2511212849&k=CHzrgB5

(check out the photos from the show - and please support High Time Photos - they sponsor my trainer!)

It Gets Better

Maggie and I made a lot of progress during the mid-late spring. Daylight's Savings made it a lot easier to get out and ride more frequently during the week. Being able to ride more often helped me to understand more what Maggie needed. I wouldn't have expected to ride my young horse with a strong rein contact, but I found that a) it was necessary to be able to react quickly and effectively to her spins and attempts to leave the ring and b) she feels more secure with a stronger contact. Maggie initially found the trot difficult and would have preferred to walk or canter most of the time, but she started to get stronger at the trot so I got less resistance.

In March I took Maggie off the farm for the first time, to a XC schooling in Southern Pines (just to introduce her to the outside world - she wasn't jumping yet) I had no idea of what to expect from her, so to prepare myself, I imagined from the worst case scenario (she's so difficult that I don't even want to get on her) to the best case scenario (she's very well-behaved and maybe I can trot her around a little and if she's being really really good, try taking her through the water) She was alert, but calm when we got there so I got up on her. My trainer had a group of about 7 of us there for the schooling. Maggie boldly took the lead on our walk through the fields and woods to get to the XC course. The rest of the group hung out while Maggie and I went to work. We found a relatively flat spot and did some trot and canter work. She handled it beautifully.

                                             Trotting at XC schooling (March 2013)

Maggie goes up a step on her first try.      Baby's first XC obstacle!

We followed along with the rest of the group while they jump-schooled. I was able to get Maggie to go up a baby step a few times, but she wouldn't go down it (even following behind other horses). She also bravely stepped over a little ditch. The last thing for us to do was to try to get into the water. I knew from my experience with puddles in the ring that Maggie's not a big water fan. We set it up to have all the other horses continuously circling through the water, and to stick Maggie in behind them and hopefully have her follow them in. Maggie's too smart for that;) She stood at the edge of the water for quite awhile, with my trainer on the ground trying to walk her into the water. For a second her whole body shook and then she took a giant leap into the water - my best guess is that she was trying to jump over the water! She walked through the rest of the water, and cantered away once she got to the other side. Water is something we'll need to revisit.

Overall, Maggie went beyond my expectations for her first XC trip. She was very well-behaved and courageous - what more could you ask of a future eventing star??!!

And the Injuries. Oh, the injuries.

Poor Baby Maggie became a target for the fiesty mares in her turn-out. (My previous horse, Piper, was definitely the "mean girl" of the herd, so it may have been a little bit of karma for me) I don't know Maggie's herd history, so I have no idea if she was ever turned out with horses other than her mom. But at her new home, she seemed to get in the way, and not know how to get out of the way. She has spent a lot of this year growing hair back on her hindquarters from all the bites she got there. Far worse, though, were the many kicks she got on her legs. To date, she has probably had 5-6 wounds from kicks that needed treatment. And they mostly seem to be near joints, which scares the bejeezus out of me (my trainer has a horse who developed an infected joint, so it's something we all worry about) The worst was probably the kick to her hock that she got in late January. The hock got huge, so of course we worried about infection. My vet put her on an injectible antibiotic for a week, and I learned how to do a really good hock wrap! I also found that lots of cold hosing alternating with hand-walking worked best to start to bring the swelling down. But the hock still stayed very big for a few weeks. Fortunately, there was no lameness with the injury (though the swelling did reduce her range of motion on that hock, making it uncomfortable for her to walk) I spent most of February up to my elbows in bute and antibiotics, and doing a lot of cold-hosing/hand-walking - which meant very early trips to the barn so I could then get to work on time. Eventually I was able to add some riding back in, even though the hock was still pretty big. Ironically and with pure coincidence I'm sure, after Maggie skidded on her butt through a closed but not latched gate (a dinnertime escapade), her hock finally started to really get back to normal. (And fortunately there were no injuries associated with the butt-skidding) There have been several other wounds that needed a lot of treatment, including antibiotics for some (and anxiety-reducing techniques for me every time). With all of this experience, we've learned about Maggie's typical healing process. Her leg/joint tends to swell up huge and take awhile to come back down to normal. She may show some lameness a few days after the injury, but typically it doesn't last long. And the wounds take quite awhile to heal. Which means that I have a large supply of bute and antibiotics on hand waiting for the inevitable, and my vet on speed-dial. And I knock on every kind of wood that I see, hoping that Maggie will figure out that it hurts when you let another horse kick you.

It's Not all Sunshine and Roses...



Through October and the beginning of November, Maggie continued to do very well during our rides. Looking back, I guess this was our "honeymoon" period. One thing she started to do was what we referred to as "exit stage left" - she would pop out her shoulder towards the barn and then her body would follow that shoulder. Because she didn't fully understand leg and rein aids yet, my attempts to get her back into the ring resulted in her getting "jack-knifed" off to the side of the ring, and then she would just stop, ignoring all aids to go forward. We worked through this by initially riding her away from the barn, therefore increasing the distance she would have to travel (and increasing my odds of keeping her in the ring), and also anticipating her exit, which usually occured at the same spot, and getting her moving really forward. She also picked up a fun new trick of rearing. The first time she did it, I was riding her all alone at the barn, so for safety sake, I immediately got off my now-rearing 3 year old racehorse. Of course, being a clever mare, Maggie figured out that rearing is a great way to get out of doing something she doesn't like. She started doing a lot of "spin-and-rears" that fortunately didn't escalate, but still made for difficult rides. Maggie's behavior on the ground was also bad at this point. To be honest, none of this behavior was unexpected for a 3 year old TB and it certainly could have been a lot worse, but it still shook my confidence quite a bit. My trainer was not concerned about my ability to ride through these behaviors (I do have good "stickability" - Maggie's very worst, when she did a sudden big rear-buck-twist, still only managed to knock me out of my position a little); I was just scared. My trainer rode Maggie a couple of times (and of course she was perfect), and then we did some ground-work lessons to help me rebuild my confidence and develop some good habits for Maggie. Leading up to Christmas, I was honestly too scared to ride a lot of the time. A 5-minute walk with Annie right by my side was a big success for awhile. As we got into the beginning of 2013, I was increasing my confidence bit by bit, riding for longer, adding some trot back in, and learning how to be a tougher rider. I found that if I just pretended that Maggie's "incidents" were no big deal, eventually they started to really feel like no big deal. I've had some challenges in my riding career, and this ranks among the toughest. I had to force myself to be bold, even when I was feeling it the least.



Maggie tries to "exit stage left" - November 2012







What kept me going during the rough patches was moments
like this, when I could see I had a talented horse on my hands (November 2012)

 

Chat with Laine Ashker and Samantha Clark - Eventing Radio Show

Listen to my latest episode of the Eventing Radio Show, where I update Laine and Samantha on Maggie's great progress in the last few weeks. I get some tips on how to convince Maggie to go down a baby step and how jumping is like Zumba.

http://eventingradio.horseradionetwork.com/2013/05/21/eventing-radio-episode-249-by-bit-of-britain-chc-international-oconnor-jarvey-maggies-first-show/