Happy weekend, y’all! It’s been a quiet one around these parts since I opted to just give Doozy a full week off post vet visit. Lots of grooming and snacks and…. that’s about it lol.
But I did finally sit on her again yesterday for a very light ride, chaperoned by a nice steady mare, and Doozy felt fantastic! Here’s hoping we can just ease back into it over the next week or so, maybe test out some little jompies etc… We’ll see!
always with the side eye
In the meantime, tho, I figured we were due for a little hilarity practice. Specifically: braid practice. Bc. Uh. Well I probably haven’t braided a mane in 5 years… And wasn’t exactly what you would consider “good” at it back then anyway.
#SadMareDiaries
And let’s not even get into the whole relationship between tidy mane keeping habits and easy braids, m’kay?? lol…. Bc… Well. Ahem. We really don’t have much at all going for us in that regard either!
But. Eh. What the hell, let’s give it a go. Complete with pictures that absolutely do not do the devastation justice…
Step 1: Gather the materials! Pro tip: Your sensitive mare may require preliminary examination of any new products.
Step 2: We totally got this. There’s the clippy thing doing clippy things, and we have a proper comb to measure the appropriate section of hair. Check and check!
Step 3: We have achieved yarn in braid, go team!
Step….. Oh Dear: That knot might be more yarn than hair, ngl :(
Step The Next: OK, Rally, Y’all! We got another yarned braid! This time with more sauce!! Braid spray is our friend.
Step Ahead: Second attempt is vaguely more button-ish looking?
Step E for Effort: Ok we went back and redid the first (left side) braid and that one looks more-ish normal-ish-ish. Just ignore all the crazy flyaways pls.
Step … Success?: That last one on the far right looks baaaaaasically like what I’m trying to achieve here? Ish?
Closer look at it. Passable?? Mebbe?? Idk if the hair is really long enough for the Dutch braid look I was going for… But adding a lot (like a LOT a lot) more braid spray and using slightly narrower chunks seemed to produce better outcomes.
Last Step: Take more time trying to get all those knots out of there than it even took getting in LOL
poor suffering mare!
Idk. There was a time in my life (cough cough like 30 years ago…) when I could make some pretty fancy macrame friendship bracelets lol. And the few times I braided Charlie turned out decently well.
All the same, tho, I might need a little more practice to knock all that rust off! Sorry Dooz, but part of the job of helping me learn and advance my skills includes… random shit like this too.
Anyone else out there taking advantage of the budding spring to work on spiffing up grooming and show prep skills?
Wow three posts in one week lol, a sure sign that conditions are getting nicer outside!
It’s no secret my posting schedule is almost entirely a function of number of photos taken… And idk about you, but at a certain point every single photo in the winter looks like just another dusty brown blob. Horse looking cute in crossties? Yea but it’s bad nighttime lighting and everything is brown. Horse looking cute after a nice ride?? Ok, yea, but we’re indoors and again, literally everything is brown. Cute ‘between the ears’ shot?? Still literally a picture of dust.
pictured: descending into madnessthe wilderness a “normal” hack about
But lo! Longer days, later sunset and improved ground conditions = more time spent outdoors + therefore more interesting pictures, hallelujah!
live look at dooz earlier in the day. legit the most still she’s ever been in her LIFE
And even better? Earlier this week I got to the barn after work just in time to join some barn mates for a hack out! Legit my first time out with Doozy in MONTHS omg!
looking a little “less still,” having already survived our first brush with catastrophe lol
And oh lord…. Our riding companions were fantastic but it is 1,000% Spring Silly Season right now, holy mother of god. Every single paddock we passed on the trek out to the woods seemed to boil over with boisterous geldings breezing the fence lines nearest us…
doozy’s bff had to take the lead to calm his nerves, and poor doozy had to #cope with walking slower than 95mph
Our three horses held it together decently well but not gonna lie, it was sketchy AF omg. Doozy was so coiled up she could have fit all four feet on a dime omg, and I had a hand on the neck strap just trying to hold her back while one companion pranced like she was auditioning the for Spanish School and the other did a quick intentional dismount to avoid accidental launching.
she’s so funny — finds the wide open spaces more calming than the closeness of the woods
Fortunately tho we were able to put some distance (and a tree line) between us and those ridiculous geldings (who kept noisily galloping around snorting and farting and all that) and continue on more or less unscathed lol. Good girl, Doozy!
the other horses know the routine well enough to pep up on the walk home
And actually the trip into the woods was lovely! Doozy normally leads the way bc none of the other horses can keep up with her walk. It doesn’t seem like she particularly cares one way or the other about being in front or behind other horses tho, so when one horse preferred to settle his nerves by setting the pace, Doozy more or less acquiesced to following along in the woods.
poor doozy was too tired tho — almost couldn’t keep up omg!!
It’s funny tho — it’s getting so much warmer and obviously the woods and fields around the barn have some seriously steep hillsides (compared to the absolute flatness of our winter spent in the arena). Doozy still has most of her winter coat and was completelypuffed by the time we made it out of the woods lol.
d’aww sweet lady, look at the camera dooz!
Like could legit almost not keep up on the last hill back to the barns haha… Silly mare, you shouldn’t have wasted so much energy jigging around in the woods!
doozy! look at the camera!!
Overall, tho, ridiculousness aside, it was a great ride and felt so refreshing to get back out into the fields and woods again. Definitely eager to make that a regular thing again. We were hacking out weekly through last fall…. but it’s just so steep in some places that with the wet slippery ground conditions we kinda just gave up over winter.
MARE!
It’s all ahead of us, tho! Doozy had her spring wellness check with my vet this week, and we added in some flexions and whatnot, spending a fair amount of time talking through that suspected hoof bruise plus Doozy’s general crookedness. And it was a good appointment!
d’aww sweet worn out biscuit <3 <3
I basically opened my checkbook in terms of doing any and every baseline diagnostic imaging she felt could be helpful — especially relating to understanding whether the bruise was truly a bruise or possibly something chronic related to the mare’s conformation. But my vet, who is immensely practical, felt reasonably confident after the exam, flexions, trotting out on hard and soft surfaces, straight and circles, that the mare is sound. She thinks whatever I’m feeling sporadically is still related to the fallout from that ice ball back in January.
back out into your pigpen now!
She advised patience and time. Which like, bleh lol sounds awful, can’t I just buy a fancy treatment instead??? /jkjk
She suggested giving the mare another 3ish weeks of relatively light duty — enough “work” to keep the mare sane ‘n civilized… But minimal tight turns or concussive exercises like jumping.
lol the #wildest, and her pony <3
Which…. in the grand scheme of things, is honestly just fine. Yea sure it’s true that we went a little backwards this winter with the time off in terms of quality and consistency in our work… But the horse has also proved that it’s all still in there.
Improvements we’ve made on the flat are holding, and she obviously still loves to jump — ain’t nothing changing that! Those skills will still be there when we’re ready.
OMFG RUDE BISCUIT!
I remember with Charlie I used to get so frustrated and almost panicky when it felt like we had a setback or that we weren’t “on track” to our goals or whatever… But with Doozy, there really isn’t any rush.
I’m eager and excited to get out and do things, and obviously am always scheming and plotting adventures and whatnot… but, eh. Another few weeks of hacking out and low impact flat rides (outdoors!!) still sounds like a treat after such a nasty winter!
Ok… less “wordless” and more “word-lite” but you get the idea lol.
I *think* we are maybe finally (hopefully?) finished with arctic blasts for the year!! And with dusk pushing past 6pm, we’re finally transitioning to full-time outdoor riding again!! Woohoo!!
Doozy would like you to know that this pleases her very much. And sure, she still had a few moments of “airs above ground” in our most recent ride… But ya know, they were joyful airs, ahem.
And besides, she’d like to point out she wasn’t the *only* naughty one in the ring lol…
The ponies were having their first outdoor ride of the season too and were full of alllllll sorts of dance moves lol… These are some good riding kids tho so giggles were had by all!
And anyway. Who can blame the horses for feeling a little fresh when the air is literally perfumed with the earliest scents of growing grass??
It’s not spring *yet* but if you squint hard enough at the distant trees, you can almost imagine that lovely haze of pale green that will surely emerge in the coming weeks!
And actually — a barn mate just sent me a photo she took of us last summer and oh man… All that green, I *cannot wait* omg. Also lol…. When I say Doozy is a “busy” sort of horse, this is what I mean haha.
She’s a good girl, tho! Actually seeing the vet today for spring shots and coggins, and actually her first proper “holistic wellness check-in” — a full exam to include flexions etc. and any other baseline imaging the vet considers useful. Sorta like a post-(but like, really post)-purchase exam. It’s something I used to do for Charlie roughly twice a year just to stay on top of things and get ready for the season ahead. Wish us luck!
Way back when Doozy had her first ever jump lesson in a random pop-up clinic, the clinician surprised me by asking whether the mare was ‘for me’ or intended as a resale project.
Not ‘surprised’ in a bad way, per se, but rather… idk, it’s a red mare with crooked legs. She ain’t exactly the most marketable horse just at face value — and that’s before you even consider her temperament or training. No no, I bought the mare for myself, for better or worse.
pics today are unrelated. doozy just loves her ponies lol
My criteria were relatively simple. I’ve known and loved a LOT of horses over the years, and was confident about picking my kind of disposition. Beyond that, I wanted an OTTB aged 6 or younger (since I expected to have Charlie for many more years, and wanted a big enough age gap to avoid owning two late teen / early 20s horses) that had nice movement and build.
The idea was to get a horse that I could continue to grow and develop with, to keep pushing the boundaries of my own education, and to continue gaining experience in the sport of eventing.
i think opal loves her too <3
And Doozy is all these things! Granted, she’s less quiet overall in temperament than I expected based on my first meeting her. But she is still absolutely the horse I thought she was. I can watch this video again today and see the qualities that originally drew me to her: namely, her strong desire to connect with the people (and dogs lol) around her, her overall style of movement, and general forward thinking and interactive nature.
omg could it be?? our first ride **outside** in MONTHS???
So far, our journey together has been basically exactly what I’d hoped for in terms of getting back into competing. The mare loves to jump and seems particularly well suited to eventing. Obviously the dressage comes a little less easily given her natural tendencies toward tension and hollowness, but even so, it still feels like we’re advancing and making progress and that’s basically all I ask haha.
we both just adore this ring
I still think about contingencies, tho, especially after such a rough January with the mare’s presumed hoof bruise and subsequent slow recovery. Doozy had some straight up wild and unhinged rides trying to get going again after that time off. For better or worse, she is NOT going to be the “same horse” after a break.
In fact, I wrote this past summer that the best way to think about her is along the lines of, whatever she was yesterday, she’s a little more that way today. And even more tomorrow. Meaning, if yesterday you had an “ok” ride in that it happened and nobody died, then today maybe your ride might be ‘actually not bad!,’ and tomorrow the mare might be legitimately lovely.
It cuts both ways, tho. If the mare had yesterday off, then today she might be feeling quite pleased with her liberty, and by tomorrow might be borderline feral.
spent some time picking up all the standards that blew over in recent wind. left all the pole piles for next time tho
For a lot of folks, depending on how horses fit into the overall balance of your lives, this can pose real challenges for consistently enjoying a predictable horsey experience when other priorities in life keep us away from the barn. This has proven true for me too — whether it be bc one of my (favorite, but still) colleagues keeps selling me into projects that require more frequent travel… Or ya know, bc Doozy was lame.
pretty sure doozy was happy to be out again
The lameness itself was particularly concerning. Charlie, may he be resting in wonderful horsey heaven, was always a fragile sort of dude. The King of the Dings. We were always dealing with random stints of time off or rebuilding. But he WAS the same horse no matter what. Mr. Reliability. And by the end of his riding career, I’d found all sorts of ways to manage around his fragility while still enjoying fun adventures together.
That’s…. not quite the case with Doozy. Doozy is straight up not currently of a temperament and disposition to be fragile lol. She needs ridden. Consistently, every day, and occasionally with some degree of exertion. Like I am NOT a “wet saddle pads” kind of horse trainer, but Doozy does best when she’s had a chance to move out.
she likes spying on all the distant fields
Ideally at some point she’ll grow up a bit more and be more “confirmed” in her training that I could imagine her in a broader variety of riding jobs with different types of riders. Bc let’s be real, if she ended up not being suitable for *me,* it’s not exactly likely that somebody with greater skills or aspirations than me would swoop in to snatch her up, ya know?
oooh we had company too
Tho ya know… obviously at this point it’s all just academic navel gazing anyway. Sure, the mare challenges me and is a handful, but as long as she’s sound for the task I’m so excited for the future with her and have exactly zero hopes of needing to actually execute on any alternative contingencies.
She might not be suited for much else, but she’s *exactly right* for the job as my eventing & adventuring & go everywhere & do everything horse lol.
she’s adarlyn <3
Topics like this are interesting to me, tho. Suitability in general is such a huge topic, there are so many variables that can go into it — with massively different emphasis or prioritization depending on your own personal preferences. Like, for some folks, having a horse that can reasonably cope with a more sporadic schedule is a must.
good mare
For a lot of folks I know, actually probably most, any ‘performance potential’ in the horse is absolutely secondary (or tertiary) to disposition and temperament. The vast majority of horse enthusiasts I’ve known over the years are riding within the realm of 3’ jumping or 1st / 2nd level dressage — activities most sound + reasonably built horses can accomplish easily.
lol #wild
So it’s all the other qualities of the horse that grow in importance. Do I like spending time with the horse? Is the horse pleasant to be around, do I feel safe handling it? Riding it? Does our time together bring joy more often than frustration? Am I able to do the sorts of things I *want* to be doing with the horse, or is there an obstacle related to the horse itself that’s stopping me?
spring is coming!
For me, personally, my answers to these questions might be fluid and change over time. What I want in a horse today might not be the same as in 5 years, or 10. And ya know… As was true with Charlie, sometimes we adapt and evolve with our horses’ changing abilities over time too.
There are so many ways to derive joy and fulfillment from a horsey lifestyle, ya know? Tho at least for me, at this moment in my life, I’m still really eager to get that saddle time every day — to be working toward competition goals that involve running and jumping lol. And so far, Doozy seems to be all aboard with that objective.
Here’s hoping for more of the same in the year to come!
It’s still winter, y’all. Surprise surprise. But I sat down with the calendar last week to spend time sketching out ideas and possibilities, and am feeling pretty good about things.
sn*wy biscuit
Or at least, I’m feeling good enough to not be too too annoyed by recent little snow squalls lol.
lookie guys, i’m getting better at a no-pull method that **doesn’t** involve scissors lol
Tho one howling windy night last week, I figured that sometimes discretion was the better part of valor and opted to do spa night instead of a ride lol. Judge me if you want! Doozy’s mane needed attention, tho, and I’m determined to keep it tidy without resorting to trimming with scissors like I did for Charlie.
she’s teaching me lessons, y’all
A former barn mate showed me a ‘no-pull’ method using a SoloComb, wherein you basically go through the motions as if you’re going to pull the mane: keep hold of the longest strands while back-coming the rest. But instead of then wrapping those strands around the comb and pulling, you just get the SoloComb as close to the neck as possible, then activate the cutter.
good girl #coped with some chaos this week haha
If done patiently enough, it basically has the same effect as pulling, but without… ya know… the pulling. Which Doozy appreciates. This mare, I swear. She has strong feelings. You couldn’t even snip her mane with scissors when I first got her — she’d be so indignant, like, Bitch did you just CUT ME??
Like. C’mon Dooz. I know you feel everything at an eleven, but does your **hair** really hurt???
we had quieter days too tho
Ahem. Anyway. Our rides this week have otherwise been more or less ok. Some kids were getting ready for the Loch Moy Derby this past weekend and every night seemed to be Practice Night lol. But they’re cute and sometimes a little chaos is good for Doozy, so meh, fine.
ooooh and we had our first field trip in weeeeeks!!
We got enough reps in to FINALLY get back off property again for our first time since right after New Years — with a trip to see dressage trainer C, yay!
i set up my helmet cam too, tho obvi screenshots are pretty potato-y
Trainer C is always really good about asking how I want to spend our lesson time together. Bc sometimes we are looking for help getting a test ready for competition, and sometimes we just want to let her have her way with us, ya know?
For this ride, tho, I asked for something sorta in between — not actually running through tests, but more structure and raised expectations re: promptness for both us of.
the video is pretty meh overall, but i’m including a clip below in case you’re innerested
Our last dressage test of the year at Waredaca was a bit disappointing despite Doozy being relatively relaxed and quite good in warm up. It just felt like we sorta whipped through the movements, with me reverting entirely to survival mode vs any intentionality.
My plan had been to squeeze in as many schooling dressage shows this winter as possible. But so far… Well. No dice there, womp.
it was a good lesson, and the video helps with #accountability
So for this lesson, trainer C tried to help fill the gaps a little bit, with having us do more rapid fire transitions and shifts from movement to movement. We also spent more time using the full long sides of the ring. Key takeaways include continuing to work on straightening my torso — keeping equal space between my rib cage and hips on both sides of my body, and keeping both legs down square underneath me.
I get especially crooked when I feel like Doozy is getting away from me, which presumably only exacerbates her balance disruptions.
#SadMareDiaries
Overall, Doozy continues to get significantly more rideable. I didn’t have the metronome going during the ride, but you can still see enormous improvements there — which have a direct bearing on her ability to balance and hold herself together.
such a sweetie tho <3
She was a little less steady on the aids for much of the lesson — but actually that’s basically exactly why I wanted to kinda practice pushing her buttons a little more. She’s learning to have really lovely soft moments of carriage, but it’s a bit fragile and delicate — and easily disrupted by like, turning or going straight, or transitioning or…. staying the same lol.
I wanted to spend more (supervised) time going through the various motions while still having the accountability of Trainer C right there to remind me to slow down or sit up or what have you.
arghhhhh muddy biscuit!!!
Overall, time well spent imho. And hopefully if things go to plan (which like, we all know how that goes), I’ll be able to get back over there more often through the rest of the spring.
Doozy is so clever, she’s such a quick learner and seems to appreciate ‘tasks’ and patterns… It really feels like she’s in a place to really benefit from more regular lessons. Plus, getting her off property is so key for keeping her civilized LOL.
We’ll see I guess! As always... First we gotta survive all this mud OMG haha….
