(no subject)
May. 4th, 2009 07:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickHad a nice day at the horse show yesterday. It was rainy but still enjoyable.
I took Nick and Trysta took Mariah and we went in Hunter Hack and English Equitation. Hunter Hack was the only thing with jumps in it. English Eq was the first w/t/c flat class available in the schedule. Unfortunately, when we signed up for it, nobody noticed that it had a pattern beyond our skillz. I was the person doing the signing up but I would like to point out in typical horse-show fashion, we arrived half an hour before our first class. We tried to leave earlier. There were some unexpected difficulties involved in catching one of the horses (and we all know which one that would be). Nick was all Oh HELL no. It's raining. You never want me for ANYTHING when it is raining. One smart cookie, she is.
When we got there, I had to to sign up, unload horse, take bit off of old bridle, assemble new bridle (with stiff straps), tack up horse (acting like an idiot) and then dress myself in the appropriate (borrowed) monkey suit and, yeah, "warm up" in the approximately three seconds before I went in the ring. I do not miss dressing myself while balancing on one leg in the back of a horse trailer. (Some horse trailers have living quarters. Ours does not.)
Hunter Hack went OK. Since this was jumping outing five or so for her (lifetime), probably I should be happy with what I got. We'll practice at home some more, particularly approaches to jumps and maintaining a straight line. I will particularly practice not staring at the jump as this upsets my horse. English Eq was not good. Pattern involved canter departures. We do not have canter departures. Pattern involved lead choices. We do not have a choice of lead yet. (I am a bad trainer. I'm working on it.)
However, following the relatively unspectacular ring performances, we went over into the practice ring and worked on sedate walk-trot transitions. Those went A LOT better, with horse deciding that she could do this stuff. She settled down well and went into a frame and worked attentively despite the crazy of the practice ring (people bombing around all over in assorted directions, very busy and confusing). She relaxed. She rated and held a nice, steady speed regardless of what the people around her were doing. Canter departures still need work, horse needs cues for leads, but I did get some nice quiet canters from her. She still started off bombing but settled down into relaxed if I relaxed me first.
I do not much like showing but I think this it is a valuable experience anyway. Going to an actual show really brings out the holes that we have, which is helpful. It's one thing to *know* your canter departures suck and quite another thing to have to fail at doing them in front of people.
In other news, Meat's really heave-y this spring. (Think asthma or emphysema for horses, here. Meatly is my retired pony whom I do not ride anymore because she has heaves.) She's been getting worse as she's been getting older. This might be the year that she doesn't make it through spring. I've been feeding her antihistimine powder, not sure if it's doing any good. She looked GOOD the end of March, had good weight on (no ribs visible, back completely rounded, slight crease going down the top of her back, a bit of fat behind the withers), seemed fairly happy for a horse that wheezes and coughs all the time. Then the red maples bloomed and the pollen season started. Now she's dropped weight to where it's a concern. She's probably a bad 3 or a 2 on the scale. (Scale explained here.) She is not eating well, not good hay or fresh green grass or grain. (This is a pony that I have NEVER seen not-eat grain. Hoovering up the feed is one of her superpowers.) She stands, head level, and tries to breathe while the weight melts off of her. I was kind of hoping that the antihistimine/expectorant stuff would do her some good but it doesn't seem to be doing so. Fuck.
I took Nick and Trysta took Mariah and we went in Hunter Hack and English Equitation. Hunter Hack was the only thing with jumps in it. English Eq was the first w/t/c flat class available in the schedule. Unfortunately, when we signed up for it, nobody noticed that it had a pattern beyond our skillz. I was the person doing the signing up but I would like to point out in typical horse-show fashion, we arrived half an hour before our first class. We tried to leave earlier. There were some unexpected difficulties involved in catching one of the horses (and we all know which one that would be). Nick was all Oh HELL no. It's raining. You never want me for ANYTHING when it is raining. One smart cookie, she is.
When we got there, I had to to sign up, unload horse, take bit off of old bridle, assemble new bridle (with stiff straps), tack up horse (acting like an idiot) and then dress myself in the appropriate (borrowed) monkey suit and, yeah, "warm up" in the approximately three seconds before I went in the ring. I do not miss dressing myself while balancing on one leg in the back of a horse trailer. (Some horse trailers have living quarters. Ours does not.)
Hunter Hack went OK. Since this was jumping outing five or so for her (lifetime), probably I should be happy with what I got. We'll practice at home some more, particularly approaches to jumps and maintaining a straight line. I will particularly practice not staring at the jump as this upsets my horse. English Eq was not good. Pattern involved canter departures. We do not have canter departures. Pattern involved lead choices. We do not have a choice of lead yet. (I am a bad trainer. I'm working on it.)
However, following the relatively unspectacular ring performances, we went over into the practice ring and worked on sedate walk-trot transitions. Those went A LOT better, with horse deciding that she could do this stuff. She settled down well and went into a frame and worked attentively despite the crazy of the practice ring (people bombing around all over in assorted directions, very busy and confusing). She relaxed. She rated and held a nice, steady speed regardless of what the people around her were doing. Canter departures still need work, horse needs cues for leads, but I did get some nice quiet canters from her. She still started off bombing but settled down into relaxed if I relaxed me first.
I do not much like showing but I think this it is a valuable experience anyway. Going to an actual show really brings out the holes that we have, which is helpful. It's one thing to *know* your canter departures suck and quite another thing to have to fail at doing them in front of people.
In other news, Meat's really heave-y this spring. (Think asthma or emphysema for horses, here. Meatly is my retired pony whom I do not ride anymore because she has heaves.) She's been getting worse as she's been getting older. This might be the year that she doesn't make it through spring. I've been feeding her antihistimine powder, not sure if it's doing any good. She looked GOOD the end of March, had good weight on (no ribs visible, back completely rounded, slight crease going down the top of her back, a bit of fat behind the withers), seemed fairly happy for a horse that wheezes and coughs all the time. Then the red maples bloomed and the pollen season started. Now she's dropped weight to where it's a concern. She's probably a bad 3 or a 2 on the scale. (Scale explained here.) She is not eating well, not good hay or fresh green grass or grain. (This is a pony that I have NEVER seen not-eat grain. Hoovering up the feed is one of her superpowers.) She stands, head level, and tries to breathe while the weight melts off of her. I was kind of hoping that the antihistimine/expectorant stuff would do her some good but it doesn't seem to be doing so. Fuck.
