Cow Pony Chronicles Part II

Cow Pony Extraordinaire, [aka Toby] speaking.

It's been a while since my last blog and a lot has happened in my life. Ahhhh, the highs and lows of being the most awesome competition horse Kristen has ever worked with has taken its toll on me. I have mixed emotions concerning work load and lots of aches and pains in muscles that I didn't even know existed!

Here we go--for starters I'll do a quick time line breakdown of 2011 happenings...

Jan/Feb: Kristen started working me consistently and I was greatly enjoying the benefits of becoming the number one sport horse on the farm. The grey horse and the mule left in January and never came back. Kristen pointed at me told me that she was having a "clearance sale so I better mind my manners". Yikes!

So I promptly won two combined tests and also finished in the ribbons at a third.

March: I competed in my first recognized USEA event (Beginner Novice Level) at Texas Rose Horse Park.

Kristen also took me to a few cross country schooling days at which I jumped so hard that my butt hurt for days afterward. We'll spend some time talking about this issue.

April: I visited Dr. Davis at Reata Equine Hospital for a "tune-up".

May: The games begin again.

OK. Now, my honest APHAwesomeness opinion.

APHAwesomeness date: Late Feb and March.

Well, it turns out this life is really hard work. {{sigh}} Everyday I'm expected to dish out lots of APHAwesomeness. I've started to lag behind on work ethic and I felt the need to to create the APHAwesomeness Diagonal. The Awesomeness Diagonal is very much like the Vicky Mendoza Diagonal - aka - "Hot/Crazy Scale" illustrated in a How I Met Your Mother episode.

Please watch this short informational video:

Hot/Crazy Scale

Just like the "Hot/Crazy Scale", I have my very own "Worth The Hugs and Cookies? Scale".

There is a point on the “Worth the Hugs and Cookies? Scale" where work ethic (or positive effort expenditure on my part) exceeds the worth of hugs and cookies. My APHAwesomeness breaking point is about ¾ of the way up the diagonal or just in front of a novice XC box.

See below:

Thus far I have proved to be a champion at the local combined tests by bringing home the blue at several shows and always placing 1^st after dressage. When jumping I have to use my best judgment and determine positive efforts according to my “Worth the Hugs and Cookies?” Scale. Also in this situation the type of cookie is a major determining factor as to how much effort is put forth by “Your’s Truly”.

For example:

A Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème pie cookie

is worth many Novice boxes and even a small Training level combination. Where-as a sucky peppermint horse cookie

is worth only the enough effort to jump Beginner Novice fences-- and maybe if I’m feeling generous, one Novice fence.

Unfortunately for Kristen, she only brought lousy regular horse cookies to my first recognized horse trial, therefore I felt the need to punish her by pulling a rail in show jumping.

But! aah HA HA HA! I chose wisely by knocking down the 2^nd fence in a 3 fence combination so that I at least had the “hard technical combo excuse” to roll on.

Cross country was quite fun so I galloped and jumped generously for her 90% of the time on course. I did stop at a log after the water complex for particular reasons and I’m still getting grief about the refusal. What Kristen didn’t know is that I SWEAR I saw a snake by the log. She blames it on APH poor work ethic (or in my words, lack of good cookies) but there was a snake--really. I ran far away from the log until the snake had slithered away. I needed to protect my rider!!

I remember it very very clearly, it had blood sucking fangs and hissed a raspy evil hiss. It looked something like this:

Although I am entertaining the idea that maybe the snake was merely a hallucination because I was out of breath and my butt was burning so badly that I may have started to see visions of boogie critters.

Paint horses are loyal to their riders and when we see boogie critters (snakes) or aliens on or under a cross country obstacle we have an unspoken duty to carry our riders far away to safety until the scary situation resolves itself—or until the aches in our muscles subside.

I was having trouble with muscle soreness at Texas Rose Horse Park and I even pulled the muscle in my right butt cheek while on course (possibly when I executed my Grand Champion reining horse sliding stop).

Luckily, I have great humans and they gave me lots of massages and stretching exercises. Kristen stopped jumping me and told me until I’m feeling better we will have to do only flat work in the field and work with hills and trot poles. She also became really pushy and started making me move my hind end all over the place by poking me in the sides with those huge spurs she wears. I overheard her calling them “Pig Stickers” one day.

I was fairly insulted with the term (unlike bovines, I'm pretty sure pigs can’t jump 4 foot from a standstill) and would rather not be compared to such a creature. Look, look at this poor lowly creature. I almost feel sorry for it.

But, she gave me some peppermints and I granted her my forgiveness.

In April we went to Reata Equine Hospital for a vet visit. This place was terrible. Dr. Davis is my PCP and he usually comes to see me at the farm but this time Kristen said I needed to go to his home base. And for the record, I don't want to leave the farm to see him ever, ever again. He knocked me out, wrapped a chain around the tip of my nose, and then—well, I don’t know what because the chain caused me to have hallucinations of boogie critters and snakes for a short time and when I woke up I was at home in my stall. humph. "Oatmeal Crème Pie Cookies, please??"

This was followed by 4 weeks of vacation with no cookies.

Warp ahead to APHAwesomeness date: May

Since my trip to Reata I have been feeling like a million bucks! I’ve competed in two jumper shows at which I won ribbons in EVERY jumping class (ribbons are not as good as Oatmeal Crème Pie Cookies, BTW) and I’ve also finished another combined test.

Kristen finally took me cross country schooling again and I felt really really great. No back aches, no pains in my hocks, and my stifles were not pinching me AT ALL. I jumped really well because she gave me some pretty decent treats before hand. The treats were high enough on the scale that I even tackled the training level bank (jump up, one stride, jump down--the down portion sported a log on the lip of the bank) without issue for her.

I love banks, so I've decided that positive effort output for them does not rely on the APHAwesomess Scale. I'll jump banks for free.

This is it for now. Apparently there has been a very very bad horsie flu outbreak called EHV-1 and all shows in Texas have been put on hold. No jumper shows for me this month.

Thank you for reading my 2nd APH-AWESOMENESS Chronicle and stay tuned.
Yours truly, Toby, cow pony extraordinaire.

My Top Five Methods Used to Catch Equines

You may think this blog is a little out of sort for me considering most of my blogs are usually discussing my most recent Kaboom Eventing experiences. These days Toby the Cow Pony calls dibs on all of the good topics, therefore I am forced to dig down deep into my Mary Poppins bag to find some odd knowledge or experience to discuss.

Please understand that the idea for this topic came to me while I was pondering writing a blog discussing how middle age woman run themselves into a state of poverty by purchasing products from midnight infomercials. A last minute decision drew me away from health and beauty and towards an equestrian topic. So, I hope you are happy with my final choice. What is that? Me? Infomercials? Well I am just as much a victim as the rest of us. I guess I should add that right now I’m soaking in two times the amount of recommended Skin So Soft, reminding myself that it is time for me to purchase another set of Sheer Cover make-up, happily starring at my new batch of Stem Cell Therapy facial cream and softly stroking my cheek wondering if the Arbonne toner that I applied only yesterday has really made my face feel like a baby's butt over night. So yes, I too am a victim of those midnight infomercials. But my favorite topics are those that involve horses.

So here we go:

The Top 5 Methods I use to catch my equines:

I have found over the past many years of training horses that the best way to really make an impact is to set up situations which force them to make their own mistakes. Catching them is no different.

#1 THE DOVER SADDLERY METHOD

My first horse was a small chestnut trakehner mare out of a polish stallion named Sobek. She was the old school, hot, annoying araby type of Trakehner. I bought the mare as an 8 year old after riding her for a year in a lesson program. This was my first mistake—good lesson horses are never for sale. Noted. One of her many vices was loading. The moment she saw the trailer she would turn around and run away. The mare had a mule-like way of running off and even grown men could not hold on to her! So I learned to always load her with a chain, not just over the nose but under her top lip as a war bridle. When equipped with the war bridle Sigal behaved perfectly and loaded into any trailer without issue. This was a sneaky little trick on her part. Due to great behavior, every once in a while I would give her the benefit of loading with only the chain over her nose. One would have thought that I might learn not to do this the first several times it backfired. But no, I’m not that smart.
One crisp morning I found myself horseless with rope burned hands and waving good bye to my red mare as she galloped out the farm gate and headed down the road. She had about a mile gallop before she would reach the main streets of Plano, TX. The farm owner picked me up and we headed down the road to once again fetch my Polish bred horse. We finally reached the first main intersection and there she was standing self tied. While she was running down the road the cotton lead rope had fallen off of her neck and attached itself over and over again to the velcro of the Dover Deluxe shipping boots she was wearing. The rope was so short that her head was basically velcroed between her front legs and the chain was pulling on her nose. She stood patiently because she could not lift her head to find a good escape route! She had caught herself. Score!
So, thank you Dover for selling me a fat cotton lead rope, nose chain, deluxe shipping boots and most likely charging way too much for shipping. My horse caught herself.
I would also like to add that my very first post on COTH (early 2000s) was on the thread asking “what your tomb stone would say” when you died. I posted that mine would say, “my horse was made in Poland”.

#2 THE FOOT STOOL METHOD

We always have a mini donkey on our property because donkeys run off stray dogs and varmits. Though donkeys are great for protecting the farm they are also great at being annoying. I’m pretty sure all donkeys have the same think tank so I’m going to guess that my donkey catching method works across the board.
Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time running postal towards our donkey with a lunge whip because he always goes where he knows he should not (e.g. into the barn, into the garage, into the trailer). Because of this he’s not always keen on letting me catch him. Well, I have found that like me, donkeys will do the same stupid thing over an over. What is the definition of insanity? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yes, I think donkeys are insane. Our donkey likes to stick his head in the mounting block (Home Depot foot stool). Yup, he sticks his whole head in the foot stool and then once captured he either walks very slowly with a drunk stagger or just stands looking stupid. I have found that when I need to catch him all I need to do is put out a few of our mounting blocks and wait about five minutes. Once the foot stool has caught him it’s very easy for me to swoop in and act like the savior…with a tube of wormer or vaccinations in my hand. So, thank you Home Depot for making a foot stool just the right size to catch a mini donkey’s head.

#3 THE FUDGE POP AND ACORN METHOD

I love fudge pops. In the summer it’s pretty hot around here and I find a fudge pop stocked freezer is mandatory. One particular hot stuffy day in Azle, Tx I had the opportunity to watch my grey thoroughbred run around the farm fully tacked with reins flapping in the wind. I will spare the details of this unfortunate occurrence but I should add that my breeches were torn from knee to hip by way of the barbed wire fence and my dressage whip was somewhere out in the middle of the field. Come to think of it, I never did find that dressage whip.
There was no catching this horse. So instead of worrying about him I went into my house, grabbed a fudge pop and sat down on a muck tub by the barn to wait out the galloping fiasco. Each time the grey horse would run by me with his sh*t eatin grin I would yell, “keep your head up you dumb a$$,” because the reins were flapping in front of his thundering hooves. Well, eventually his luck ran out and he lowered his neck—at which time he jumped roped through his reins. Nope, the reins didn’t break, but the action did pull his entire bridle through his mouth and his bit was now hanging cattywompus near his left eyeball. He stopped under an oak tree (we live on a tree farm), looked around, and began eating acorns. He LOVES acorns. Once I finished my fudge pop I hopped up, walked calmly over to him and lead him back to the barn. I was fairly annoyed but not angry, so instead of yelling at him (which would have not done any good anyway) I made him stand with a cone on his head. Yup, this is how the cone head picture came to existence. Without that fudge pop I would have been blowing smoke out of my ears and bleeding fury through my aura and most likely the grey horse would have taken one smell of me and run off again. So, thank you fudge pops for being so tasty in the hot Texas summer. Oh fudge pops how you sooth my soul.

#4 THE SCENT OF A MULE METHOD

Scent of a Mule is my favorite Phish song. But don’t worry, I will not ask you to smell my mule or fire laser beams at your head unless you name is Kitty Malone. Yes, you guessed it, we have a mule too. Please do not forget these animals are one half ass and they act accordingly so. The half ass is hard to catch all the time for no particular reason. Not to worry friends because it seems as though mini donkeys are programmed with an ass catching setting!
When I need to catch the half ass I just let the mini sized full ass out with the horses and bingo! Mini Me trots ecstatically towards his jack eared counter part and either latches on to his tail bone or sticks his nose up the ass’ butt and holds on like a piranha. Problem solved. I just wait by a tree or around the corner of the barn for the mule to walk by and reach out to grab him. You see, with a little black Mini Me hanging off of his rump it’s hard to concentrate on running from humans! So, thank you God for the creation of the mini ass.

#5 THE EMPTY WATER HOLE METHOD

I’m new to the southern hospitality of cow ponies but I can image they all have the same Baptist good old boy upbringing. I think they all speak with a twang and use generic phrases such as, “yes ma’am”, “no ma’am”, “thankya ma’am”, “ya’ll”, and “all ya’ll”. I’m not sure what the intelligence level of these horses is but Toby (our cow pony) is pretty easy to catch. His feed bucket nearly always catches him but everyone already knows that trick.
I have found that the next best way to catch a cow pony is to let his water hole run dry. I did this one time and that darn cow pony stood by his water hole for hours. He could have walked over to the other trough—which was full--, but I guess that’s not the southern way. He wanted water in HIS hole. The auto ground tie was convenient because I needed to catch him anyway. So, thank you sun, for making our cow pony’s water hole run dry thus making the task of catching the cow pony easy as southern pecan pie.




This marks the conclusion of my Five Ways to Catch an Equine blog. I hope it will be helpful for someone in the future. Please note also that I not only illustrated 5 different catching techniques, but I also used five different types of equines.

1. Polish

2. Donkey

3. Thoroughbred

4. Mule

5. Cow Pony

Thanks for reading, and please let this ice melt soon so that I can get back to work and riding!

Cow Pony Chronicles Part I

Cow Pony Extraordinaire, [aka Toby] speaking.

I have not always been known as the amazing and stupendous cow pony, Tobys Lynx, I started as merely Toby the dumb trail horse. Little did my human family know I have been keeping my excellence a secret. I started my education with some cowboys in the early 2000s. These cowboys tried to make me a “header”, which in Neanderthal terms is [the horse that runs out of the gate first], and chases after a poor little cow. Those cowboys were two shakes away from dragging their knuckles on the ground and beating each other with cave-man clubs and I am NOT a usual APHA (American Paint Horse AWESOMENESS), I prefer to surround myself with intellect. I had no interest in this job so I ran very slow, kept my distance from the cows, and spooked every time the gate popped open. Problem solved.

Because of my winning cow horse attitude I was sold to a farm in Krum, Tx and left in a pasture with no job—this is when the Weekes family came to visit me. There is Cheryl and Tommy Weekes and then this other human named Kristen; she seemed to be the alpha of the herd. She looked over me with a fine tooth comb—stared me down with her hand on her chin and never smiled. When she rode me she bounced all around and kicked my sides, shoulders and flanks like she had no idea how to balance a top of an equine. I really had no idea what she was doing so I continued to trot along with little energy and taking very small flat steps as not to make her fall off. After each human in the herd rode me they talked secretly among themselves glancing over occasionally-- I was sure to always look at them with the sweetest puppy dog eyes I could dish out. To tell you the truth, the entire test was rather nerve racking. I guess I passed because a day later I was taken to a big establishment called Reata Equine Hospital where a doctor poked me, tweaked my legs and made me jog on concrete. Not my favorite experience but the day ended with a big bucket of alfalfa pellets, a 2 acre pasture with grass up to my knees, a round bale and new pasture buddy named Boomer.

Me and Boomer

I enjoyed Boomer for the most part. He was a little overly active and enthusiastic for my taste but his company was better than having no pasture buddy at all. He was not the brightest light on the tree but he was good for testing out the electric fence strength. Ok I’ll say it, what a dumb equine. The guy can’t even run and play without getting tangled in his own 4 legs. When I was bored I would ask him to race, which of course always excited him but I kept my distance just in case he tripped and wiped out, which he did occasionally to my amusement. Very often the alpha human [Kristen] would come to fetch him, see his new bruises and cuts and say very bad words before dragging him off to the barn. It was actually quite funny and I would stand in the corner under the oak trees pretending I had nothing to do with it.

Soon thereafter a new equine moved in…well, I thought he was an equine. His name was Coppertop and he had great big ears like a jack bunny but he was too big to be a donkey. I heard Kristen call him a "silly mule” one time so I figured he was neither donkey nor equine, but as stated, a silly mule [to me, aka: dumb equine with bunny ears]. I enjoyed the new arrival because he kept Boomer company and I was left to snooze and eat in peace. Those two would play “gladiator” all day. Copper the silly mule would pretend his great big bunny ears were bull horns and try to tackle that dumb grey equine down to the ground. I stood by the round bale and watched them play day after day thus [according to Kristen] becoming, “the lazy trail horse that loves to eat”. I would often hear the humans talking to their friends; they would mockingly call me the “best horse on the farm because all I do is wait by my feed bucket all day long”. Humph. Well little did they know I figured out that when I would wait at my bucket they would bring me food! Sometimes it would take them all day long though. If I did something intentionally stupid such as getting my foot stuck in the fence they would often come to feed me early. For all of my equine friends, please note humans are easy to train.

Cheryl is my keeper and she is a wonderful, loving human. She feeds me cookies and rides me just for fun. Kristen told me that my job was to trot as slowly as possible with my neck low to make the ride very comfortable for Cheryl. I had no problems with this--what an easy life! Poor Boomer has to work his rear end off at least 5 days a week. I would feel sorry for him except he's dumb and seems to love slave labor. Though every once in a while that mean alpha Kristen would ride me and make me do a lot of really hard patterns. I figured out quickly that if I acted stupid she would ask very little of me and then give me lots of hugs and cookies when I did something correctly, such as picking up my right lead at the canter. I liked to pretend I didn't know how to execute very remedial commands (e.g. canter leads) so that I didn't need to work hard for my hugs and cookies.

~Fast forward to now~

I have been living at Fortnight Ranch for the past 6 years and for some reason I have suddenly become the center of attention! The work is OK but I love the pampering most of all. I'm groomed and hugged every day now. I also get more food at night! Kristen and Cheryl still have no clue that I know exactly what I’m doing and I will keep it that way as long as possible. The less I have to work and the easier it is for me to win cookies and the happier I am.
I’ve been jumping a few times now as well. Not sure I love the sport but it seems amusing enough. I do struggle with what Kristen calls “DK time” or the “DQ arena”. I’m not really sure what the abbreviation is short for but whenever we go to the DQ arena (or the sand pit as well equines call it) I end up doing very controlled hard work. I have watched Boomer for so many years working in the sand pit so I already know how to do all of the “DQ” stuff. But again, I can’t let Kristen know that therefore every so often I pretend to be confused and piaffe in place for my own amusement. That's right everyone, I'm so awesome I know how to piaffe. I also like to spice up the ride by pretending I'm going to lay down and roll. Kristen loves that trick--she yells, I laugh.

Kristen body clipped me so that I would not be hot during work outs. I had secretly wished that she would have left a lightning bolt or a Nike sign on my side because I’m so fast. Oh it’s OK, no worries, I can talk about my super speed because I blew my cover the other day. I went racing with Boomer and I smoked his grey butt. Kristen and Tommy saw it, gosh darn; I didn’t realize anyone was watching! I need to plan my awesomeness more carefully and only show off during the day when the human group is at work.

I actually really enjoy jumping. Kristen didn’t think I was going to be athletic enough to jump well though. OK humans, listen up, just because I talk slow doesn’t mean that I’m stupid. Did you know that a bovine can jump a four foot fence from a stand still? They can. It’s true. Furthermore, have you ever seen an athletic looking cow? Most likely not-- because there is nothing athletic looking about cows.

fat, unathletic cow

I know this because I was forced to chase the odd creatures at the beginning of my riding career. Actually I think Boomer may be of the same intelligence level as a bovine. Oh that was mean. My bad. I apologize for my rudeness. I think cows may actually be smarter than that dumb grey over achieving jock. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, cows. So, here we have an animal with no athleticism and complete lack of ability to bascule over a fence yet it can clear four feet with ease. And Kristen thinks I’m not athletic enough to jump? Give me a break. The good thing about Kristen’s way of thinking (or lack of knowledge of my APH-AWESOMENESS and inability to pick out a superstar) is when she takes me to practice over jumps a very small feat on my part gets me many hugs and cookies. This, as I stated previously, is my goal in life. Easy work = cookies.

I have had the privilege of jumping cross country already! I must say that it is loads of fun. NOT! Do humans not understand that there are evil gnomes and trolls out in the woods and hiding under those wood boxes and logs? And can I just scream, "UM HELLO! SPLINTERS!"? But don't worry, humans are true geniuses and have cut down on the XC jump splinters by covering the jumps with disgusting smelling wood lacker or nappy sticky tar. Way to go smarty pants. Sure, that makes the jumps more inviting.
I know those logs were small but it was really important that I stopped at each one before jumping to check for boogie critters, or if I did not stop to take a quick peak in air before landing.

boogie critters for sure!

Fortunately, Kristen and I were safe and escaped all dangers that may have existed. The jumping ended on a fun note with the banks (Kristen now calls me a bank expert! because I'm so AWESOME at them) but, my word-- talk about taking the joy out of a Sunday nap time!

I will add because of the scary gnomes on the XC course I'm more cautious and appreciate knowing exactly what I’m going to be asked to jump before tackling a course. Please compare me to a great scholar rather than a dumb jock like that grey horse. I prefer to study and prepare myself for tasks rather than just jumping into life unprepared. I’m all about preparation and perfection. If there was a Library of Alexandria for equines, I would most definitely be the keeper. Yes folks, I’m just that smart. I should have been named Divine Comedy.

At my first Combined Test... (warning, shameless brag--where I was in 1st place with a 31 after dressage because of my American Paint Horse AWESOMENESS)~

my awesomeness

...I heard Kristen mention the words “cold turkey” and “might not be quite ready”. I did not understand what she was talking about until we entered the show jumping arena. Can I just say, Oh—My—Gawd, looking at all of those gaits, flowers, planks and boxes made me sick to my belly. I was screaming for some ulcergard! Needless to say our first trip jumping those fences was not my idea of fun. They did not look like something to be jumped but rather decorations at a children’s playground. There were a couple that I needed to check out first [including a large fuzzy green box] to be sure the take-off and landing spots were safe. Remember, I’m not the type of equine that will jump off a cliff just because the funny jockey a top of me tells me it is safe. I’d like to check things out on my own.
Luckily, all looked OK so the 2nd time around I jumped easy and clean and from the reaction of my family (Kristen, Cheryl, and Tommy) one would have thought that I had just resurrected Christ. [Yes people, it is true I’m more athletic than a bovine]. This small feat once again won me many hugs and cookies, which is what my life is dedicated to.

yey me!

Unfortunately because I stopped to check out some of the fences (instead of foolishly throwing my soul into the arms of Aether), I was moved down to 6th place. But this actually works well for my life plan. Next time I’ll jump around without peaking (but maybe knock down one rail) and show them how extraordinary I am and how I have such amazing learning capabilities—which will win me many hugs and cookies I’m sure. Humans are easy to please.

Thank you for reading my 1st APH-AWESOMENESS Chronicle and stay tuned. Kristen has an entire month of torture planned for me. Oh Joy and Rapture.
Yours truly, Toby, cow pony extraordinaire.

~mid summer night's derby dream~

Wow, I’m really late on the update, sorry! I’ve been so confused with my life that I have not had a complete thought to blog about in quite a few months.

Let’s start with the great Scary Houdini.
I thank Harry (and Kim Hunter) from the bottom of my heart for the time he spent with me.
My job was to get him jumping and Eventing—in 12 months I took him from jumping Xs to finishing 2 training level horse trials.

Scary refusing his first flowers, and then jumping a more difficult flower box with room to spare! (8/2009)










Scary cruising around a Training Level SJ course at GW! (5/2010)



Scary has now moved north/west to live and continue training with Sara Mittleider. Sara has competed him a handful of times this summer with great success and we will enjoy the start of his preliminary career this fall. His new nick name is Hou Man.

I had a wonderful time with the Scare Master, Scary Hou, Hou Man. I think my greatest memory of Scary will be when we pummeled our first XC flag. Bless his heart. He is a XC enthusiast and come XC day at Greenwood he was 90% enthusiasm and 10% brains. It’s hard to concentrate when life is so exciting!! Sometimes enthusiasm gets the better of children and other mechanisms, such as steering, fail. Such a mechanism failed us at the water complex and we crashed through the flag at the up bank out of the water. Scary took it like a man right between the eyes! The disaster dropped us from 1st place to 10th place, unfortunately. I think busting a XC flag is a right of passage though, right? We are now both ready to move on?

Quick stop after flag pummelage...
(so great that everyone was there to take pictures...rolling eyes.)



Some of Scary Hou's dressage pictures from GW. Won the dressage with a 31.





Scary's finer XC moments:





I was sad our time had come to an end but I was ready to get started with Boomer. Boomer has been working every day since May and had been sound for about 8 months prior to starting back into full work. I worked him lightly now and again through the beginning of the year and then turned him out 24/7 for 6 months. He has been jumping twice a week now for 3 months and holding soundness. I think we are in the clear and there are no worries to come.
Scary’s job was to keep me busy while Boomer received an extra year of recovery time. I think I really did well by my horse.
I knew I failed out of Biochem and switched to Biomechanics/Kinesiology for a reason! Little did I know [in 2003] that the reason was because one day the love of my life would tear two ligaments and need my expertise to gain full recovery.

HUNTERS:
I spent July and Aug attending several local hunter jumper shows with Boomer. Wow, turns out I really suck!!

During these summer series shows I:
~Managed to blow a left lead in the hack [with my 3rd level dressage horse]

~Almost impale my horse on the in-gate (well, HE was the one that tried to piece out)
~Took off so long to one fence that he completely popped me out of the tack and we landed with no reins…I still won the class though because I was the only one entered.
~I *almost* got lost and went off course because it is hard to remember a course of 8 fences that consist of straight lines [side-diagonal-side] and for those who don’t know, the diagonal to a single oxar is a very very long time to feel lost and wonder if you are jumping the incorrect fence.
~And of course there were countless moments where I self destructed mid course and blew the course due to anxiety of not knowing what to do with myself during those long canters around the end of the arena.


All in all I attended these shows so that I could figure out what I needed to work on before going to BN hunter trainer. Turns out I needed to work on everything so I decided that I should leave it to the professional to start me off on the right track.

I started taking lessons with Courtney Calcagnini
http://www.cscfarm.com/
as soon as she arrived back in Texas from her spring/summer outings. I had originally planned on showing in both eventing and the hunters but now, after my first few lessons, I find that switching between UL eventing and high level hunters is not possible.

A great analogy: I’m a proficient in jazz. Now I’m being asked to perform ballet. It is so very difficult to take those sharp quick movements that I’m used to and instead, finish my lines with softness and grace. Such a drastic change is taking a great deal of mental effort on my part and I’m not proficient enough to be able swap back and forth between the equitation types needed for each discipline.

I've got my new saddle, which is so flat I almost fell off. My fancy stitch bridle is on it's way. Added a nice KK contoured D, bought a JR8 and hair nets and won a really nice custom tack trunk at the summer schooling shows. That's the small part of the show...on to work work work, lessons lessons lessons.

So far we have:
~Changed my bit to a happy mouth [D ring], (before new D ring was purchased)
~Taken the blocks off of my saddle, (before new saddle was purchased)
~Taught me how to properly hold my reins,
~Taught me a proper release over fences,
~Removed my spurs,
~And we continue to try and teach me to ride straight--straight is so hard. ugggh!

Our conversations during lesson time go as follows:
Courtney: Do you count strides?
Kristen: Well, everything is 3 strides out of the turn so I only know how to count to 3.

Courtney: [draws square in front of fence] Do you think you could put your horse’s front feet in this square?
Kristen: Yes
Courtney: How many times?
Kristen: Hopefully at least once. Beginners luck [said with asking smile].

Courtney: Why do you ride him in a Pelham?
Kristen: um…cause I don’t have a D ring and he looks pretty in it? Bad answer?


At lease I’m honest right? Honesty is what has gotten me out of my last 3 speeding tickets so I think that telling the truth is a good bet. And if you know me personally you know that I always have a reason for everything I do. Every action is premeditated. So just ask…

I will add that I LOVE going to the hunter barn. No one knows me and there are no expectations - - and there a bunch of hot Italian guys there riding reining horses. I happily attend my beginner lessons and take with me as much homework as I can possibly remember. Baby steps right now though. Figure, I have enough trouble remembering to keep the byte of my reins on the RIGHT side!!

The funniest of my encounters thus far was a conversation with a hunter mom. We were talking about shows/clinics and Greg Best was discussed. Said hunter mom explained to me that Greg Best was a SJ’er and ex Olympian. Just incase I didn’t know…because we eventers are archaic. LMAO. I still get a giggle when I think back to the conversation.

Kristen Fact: The first horse show I attended was the Chubb Park summer 4-H fair in Chester, NJ. This was the same show (different year) that started the career of the famous Gem Twist!

EVENTING:
Greenwood will be bitter sweet for me this season. The horse trial will be my first event back with Boomer, but also my last. Unless of course I turn out to be a flop in the hunter ring in which case everyone will see me again next year in the Greenwood Farms CIC*!
I’m so pleased that the one horse trial we will attend is the Mid States COTH Adult Team Championships. Excellent timing.

!!!THEN ON TO THE HUNTER DERBIES!!!

And here is my JT. Too cute for words.
"He's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!"

~Kaboom Boyz go to their first hunter/jumper show~

Boomer says "CHEEEESE!!!"


I ventured over to the hunter/jumper arena for the weekend--and I have to say that my horses and I had a wonderful time.
Scary needs some course work before running his first Training level. NTHJC offered schooling jumpers (3'-3'3"). Perfect!

I figured while I'm taking the little brown fella down the road Boomer should come as well. He's been sound for quite some time now, and though I have not ridden him since January he could at least do the Pre Green hack. My intentions are to turn him into a Derby horse--but he has been out of work now for 24 months so the transition will take place gradually over the next 12 months.

I wondered over to the hunter section of COTH to ask knowledgeable folk for some critique and advice. Wed before the show Tommy videoed (for COTH critiquing) Boom working on the flat and I figured, "what the heck, he can jump a 2' oxar once or twice for my COTH friends."
He was so easy going over the fence that I decided that a course of eight 2'6" jumps wouldn't hurt him so I entered in the Pre Green o/f class as well.


:KABOOM:
Boomer was first to go at 8am Sat.
He pinned in the hack, 3rd out of 15! We were in great company and the political competition was quite steep. When we all began trotting at the start of the hack he was really confused and didn't quite understand the full arena of horses He was spectacular to the left. I was really lucky that each time we hit the long side I had plenty of room to boot him up and then float the rein to him as we passed the judges stand. We were not so lucky to the right--Boomer kept chasing the horse in front of us.



"Neaner Neaner!! Pthubbbbbb"

He was also wonderful over fences. He nailed all of his changes (thankfully he's auto because I'm change stupid) but the distances were set at an average 5 strides and for the Booms they turned out to be 4 and 3/4, and then finally he dished out 4s in the last two lines. He leaves strides out easily and without rushing so there is a chance, if everyone else sucked, he might have pinned. lol. I did not see results o/f so we'll just have to wait until they are posted online. Collecting him in the corners would have only made the distances worse because collection only adds power to the grey boy.



Though without a breast collar my saddle would not stay in place. Sporty haft spray did the trick but now his back is all sticky!! LMAO. I use Sporty Haft Spray for EVERYTHING. Kind of like the Dad's obsession with Windex in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.


He recovered without issues and seemed sound the next day.


:HARRY HOUDINI:
Scare Master then showed us what he was made of in the jumpers!



Some of these fences were a good 6" higher than what he was used to jumping. The 2nd fence on course was a fat 3'3" square oxar--and I hit it on a 1/2 spot. shucks! Luckily the miss only put more fire in his step. With each round he became more and more aware of himself and I have to say I was very pleased to feel him learn and grow during the outing.

We always say that Scary's office is XC but I think the little man has a side job in the jumper arena!




hmmm...I'm thinking Level 4 or 5 might be super fun! Gee I wonder if he has enough power?



That's it! This coming weekend is Scray's last Novice HT. On to Training Level at Holly Hill in April and we will also hit the next NTHJC show in May.

stay tuned!

Let 'um RIP!

It's time. Time to let The Scare Master rip!

I've worked really diligently to give Scary the best possible beginning and education over XC fences. But at some point a rider must 'man up' and try out the months of training over some big beefy fences.
This weekend, Scary lived up to his title: Small but Fierce.



Saturday I took the little man to Greenwood Farm which has one of the more difficult training level courses in Area V. My best eventing bud, Emily, rode with me and we took part in what I call a "chase". We warmed up over a few small fences and then came out of the start box and let'um'rip through the entire course start to finish, without any delays. Kacey went first--Harry and I followed.



Scary jumped his first Weldon's Wall, his first rated size coffin complex (with a beefy ditch, not just a little hole), his first water complex that required a canter through and extra elements, and his first beefy banks. There were also three max spreads and a max brush. He was surprised by the height and depth of the spreads and I could feel a little extra effort through his shoulder mid air over them--he thrived over the larger fences. : )
I missed that feeling. A little more air-born than usual--it’s an eventer’s dream feeling. He rocked it all.






I'm so excited to run our first Training Level at Holly Hill in a month. I've been side lined for two years so the thought of running Training gives me happy butterflies. Holly Hill is a favorite of mine but I can't deny that the max speed and max fences at Greenwood gives us adrenaline junkies a great taste of super fast fun. Running through the finish flags leaves a romantic after taste, for sure. Also, The Scare Master has such an easy going step--he allows his rider to enjoy XC 'in the moment'.





But 1st on the list is one last novice run at Pinehill in a few weeks. Scary and I were 'had' by the rubbish judging at Texas Rose and we will try to reclaim fame at Pinehill.




All photos from the Texas Rose Horse Park HT. 2/2010.