post-injury IPO

Doozy made it back to her first horse show since April this weekend, yay!!! Tho don’t get too crazy haha, it was a very modest affair for us. Tranquillity was hosting the July running of their summer Mill Series hunter jumper shows, a super fun and popular local show opportunity that’s got a little something for everybody. 

this pic makes it look like we’re alone in the field, but actually there’s trailers on either side and all down the driveway in front of my truck too

Lots of classes, three rings running, absolutely minimal rules re: dress, tack, equipment etc. And from what I can tell, basically anybody can enter any class for whatever reason. Really truly, it’s just a super inviting horse show for everybody.

And you might actually remember I brought Doozy here in June of last year, after we sorta bombed out of our first intended horse trial of the year. Basically, I learned the hard way that maybe both Doozy and I benefit from lots of little opportunities to “dip our toes in” vs “jumping straight into the deep end.”

can literally not emphasize enough HOW NICE 64*F is for showing in JULY omg

So ya know. When the forecast looked **legit perfect holy mother of god after all the awfulness this is absolutely lovely**, ahem, I decided to more or less repeat our experiences from last year. Except without the jumper class, obviously, since Doozy isn’t jumping yet. 

One of the rings starts with a couple sets of hack classes, so I figured I’d catch a couple of those and see how we felt.

you’re nice too, doozy <3 <3 

So we arrived about 45min before the show started — enough time to check in at the office and tack up at an unhurried pace before heading over to the ring for pre-show schooling, natch pausing every few trailers to chitchat with random friends and acquaintances. 

Doozy was, not to put too fine a point on it, the epitome of civilized. Perfect princess. Relaxed, patient, alert but unbothered, and happy to go wherever I pointed her, or pause as needed, whatever. Perfect. Good girl!

she looks like she’s being tall or up in this pic but she was honestly just taking in the sights

Which ya know… lol… She should be civilized at this point haha, she’s 8 and has been haunting show grounds for three years now. But ya know. This was literally the whole point of us being here: reestablishing that, “Yep, this seems normal!”

Ymmv but from my perspective, so much happens on a show day long before the bell rings or the announcer calls out, “you are now being judged at the walk!” And with Doozy, so much of that “so much” was often **extremely** challenging for us, that we were kinda just clinging to the edge of some semblance of composure by the time we were actually doing the thing. 

i’m pretty sure she’d chill at the in gate forever

Anyway, she continued to keep her shit together once we started schooling in the ring too. For those unfamiliar with the local hunter circuits, basically riders can show up early to warm up and jump all the jumps before the show starts. So it can be a little chaotic, especially in this particular ring bc the jumps are all kinda snug against each other, making options for cutting across the ring somewhat limited. 

There’s basically open areas on either short end of the ring, a way to get across the middle, the gap you see in the picture below, and that’s it lol. Especially with a horse like Doozy, I’m not trying to crash into anybody in a tight spot, ya know? But it was all good, she kept a lid on anyway.

was overall a very solid citizen in our classes

Still, tho, I’m pleased with myself too bc we were here for a reason: pressure test the buttons in public. I didn’t want to just sorta delicately jog my firecracker around, handling her with kid gloves etc. I wanted to ride as if we were at home, building on some of the concepts and findings I’ve been writing about. 

Specifically, my pivo-induced ‘aha!’ breakthrough about how I’ve been trying to fix rideability problems by taking away speed, when really I need to just get my leg on and ride more forward into contact. So that’s what we did!!

zero photographic proof of us doing any of that, so here’s a recent shot from a trail ride instead lol

And spoiler, it totally worked out for us!! Not like, in the sense that we won our classes or anything haha. No no god no lol. We did the pleasure hunter W-T and W-T-C hack classes, each with about 6 other riders, and placed 6th and 4th respectively lol. 

Apparently the pleasure class judging is along the lines of, “Would you want your grandma to ride that horse?” and… ha, yea, no. Doozy is not that type! Again tho, she honestly was great about all the things (except canter). Tho I sometimes got stuck on a circle — Doozy covered twice as much ground as any other horse in the class so it was hard to stick to the rail.

But I felt good about our contact and bend, and was able to keep my legs on and ride the mare forward the whole time. Canter was… eh, far too wild. Mostly just fast, but there admittedly were a couple steps of that quintessential racehorse “flattening” which turned into a bit of careening around corners oops.

or alternatively this AI slop thumbnail suggestion from youtube for last week’s video hahahahahaha

But. Eh. All things in time, right? We only just recently started cantering on purpose again. And it’s taken this long in the rehab to just get the trot back to “normal.” Our canter was never that good anyway, so it’s no surprise that it’ll take more time and practice there too. 

Notably, tho, even after the somewhat chaotic canters, Doozy was able to return to her trot and walk to finish the class nicely. So it’s not that she unspooled or was getting worse or more tense as we went… Nope. Just normal run-of-the-mill sketchy flatwork LOL. I’ll take it!

back home + unloaded by 10:15am

Honestly I couldn’t be more pleased with the horse after those two classes. Canter needs work, sure, tell me something I don’t already know LOL, but actually the rest of the day went a bit better than I expected. And best of all, the “rest of the day” was still like, morning haha. Who doesn’t love an early show day??

Feels exciting to look forward again. Obvi I’m still paranoid about Doozy’s leg and recovery, but every day she proves her resilience. And days like this, she’s proving to be actually the “go everywhere, do everything” horse I hoped for! One step at a time!

snacks with friends!

Anybody who’s been along for the ride with Doozy knows we had a bit of a bumpy start to the year last year. For a couple different reasons — firstly bc she’d been NQR with suspected hoof bruising on and off the whole winter; but secondly bc I kinda incorrectly assumed we’d be able to just pick back up where we left off at the end of the previous season. 

field trip with friends!!!

Which… lol. Is NOT how Doozy rolls, apparently! But we got our mojo back by breaking things down into more “bite-sized outings,” an approach that was also reaffirmed by none other than Boyd Martin himself. Tho ya know. Life is what it is, and we still haven’t really made it particularly far afield this spring other than a couple lessons.

doozy trying to act like the grown up of the group LOL

But this weekend we had the perfect opportunity to check all the right boxes: A barn mate has been eager to get her bebe young Morgan off farm for positive low key experiences. Obviously, renting the rings at one of our favorite local farms, Tranquillity, could suit that purpose nicely!

taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other

AND it would be a nice venue for putting Doozy through her paces and jumping some “new” jumps, but without a full blown show atmosphere. Perfect!

bc having fun with horses is quite literally the whole point lol

Doozy doesn’t get to travel with friends all that often, but it’s always a good experience. Especially when that friend is a field mate and Doozy gets to remember that she can still focus on her own work despite maybe wishing she could socialize instead lol.

pictured: FUN!!

For our purposes, I tried to treat our warm up as if we were preparing for dressage at a show. My habit, to be honest, is to ride Doozy a little delicately at shows, just trying to keep an even keel etc, vs putting on a lot of pressure and amping up the tension. Which… ya know. Fine, right?

lol doozy is locked ‘n loaded

It remains true that our flatwork really is not good when the horse is very tense. It’s just a fact, it’s why relaxation is one of the fundamental pillars of dressage. Slowly, however, I like to believe that Doozy is learning to trust the aids, trust the connection, and hopefully learning to work into the contact even when tense, vs the two of us kinda just spiraling onto the doom loop.

wheeeeeee mare!!!

And honestly Doozy WAS super good throughout our flatwork! She stayed mostly on the aids, mostly in the correct bend(ish), and I was mostly able to stay present and active as a rider. We’re gonna call that a win lol.

ok i did actually set two jumps to BN height to at least say we did it lol

Because eventually it was time to play around with some little jumps!! I say “little” bc I only reset like three of them before getting on to ride, and only two to full height. But who cares, right? Certainly not Doozy! She’s just happy to be jumping lol.

we match the jump lol

We warmed up catching a couple little singles, then finished with a nice little 5-jump course. Nothing crazy, no related lines, just long sweeping turns to singles. Virtually all verticals, tho it is Tranquillity so there was plenty of boxes and filler etc. 

video of our little course here

And Doozy was so good! She was nicely forward and had a good feeling to all the jumps — none of the little rhythm disruptions in the last few steps like we had at the lesson with Sally a couple weeks ago. And it felt like I could find a decent balance of not holding her too backwards if I could focus on letting the hind legs travel.

straight cheesin’

All in all, quite a nice little ride. Nothing earth shattering, LOL, not perfect. But fun, positive and productive! And that’s all it needs to be, right?

no hour wasted, amirite?

Especially since my barn mate had such a positive experience too! She’d already had her mare out on some off farm adventures last year, but they were always alone and the horse was often quite stressed — especially by the trailering. Having our two horses together for this trip seemed to really help, and both horses finished the day at the trailer, including loading up to go home, looking relaxed and confident.

good girl, Doozy

Slowly but surely, Doozy is figuring out the job, realizing that it’s not getting harder or crazier or anything like that, nothing really changes even when we go other places or other horses are around. It’s just the same old thing, no big deal, no muss no fuss. Well. Eventually hopefully it’ll be “no fuss,” lol. Maybe. 

evening xc

I work at a consulting firm full of type-A geniuses, each a master of something—and everyone’s got an analogy for everything. It's like a sport: who can pull the most perfectly relatable client story out of their hat, fastest. My boss, in particular, is fond of saying, “If you’re resting on your laurels, you’re wearing them in the wrong place.”

arrived just in time to enjoy pleasantly subsiding temps + humidity

And ya know. I admit to spending maybe more time than was quite necessary basking in the glow of our wonderful Loch Moy experience last month… But. Eh. It’s been hot, I knew there was work travel on the horizon (happened last week), and let’s be real: we’re allowed to be adult amateurs who can sit back and rejoice after doing a “big thing” every now and again, right? It’s all good.

the helmet cam always makes evening look so majestic!

Tho I’m also trying to really learn and understand all the various components that help create wonderful positive experiences in the first place. Namely, for us (and me and my mental demons in particular), it seems to be steady consistent “bite-sized outings” where everything feels easy and routine and mundane and normal. 

With that in mind, I spent some time calendaring the next couple weeks between planned lessons and other outings, with an intent to balance Doozy’s trailer schedule, and decided that last night was the night to pop back over to Tranquillity for a little trip around the xc course.

not a new jump, but a good one

By now we’re all kinda familiar with the routine, right? Tranquillity just makes it so darn easy to get out and do whatever needs doing. I actually decided to warm up in one of the outdoor rings too, more or less to try to keep myself as honest as possible. 

It wasn’t a perfect warm up — Doozy definitely knew what was up and was distracted by other horses (and deer) milling about the property — but honestly it was totally fine, and she popped over the little x-rails setup in the ring as quietly as she ever gets. Good ‘nuff!

brief interruption orienting the uninitiated to Tranquillity’s inviting layout: we parked next to the two big outdoor rings along the driveway, warmed up in the third outdoor (spiral), then basically made a circuit around the various fields (notably, the hay fields only ever really have jumps on the edges if at all).

Then we were off for a nice little jaunt about. Just trying to find the jumps nicely, reminding myself to circle and get balanced whenever necessary, and trying to keep everything easy breezy. 

We started with mostly logs, but honestly Doozy was jumping fine — if a little fast and excitable. Bc, erm, it mayyyyyy or may not have been our first proper jump school since Loch Moy LOL. All good tho. 

oooh putting this together is new for us, tho!

I knew from last time that as much as I like putting little lines together, Doozy sometimes seems to do better with single jumps when she’s feeling too hot to trot. Tho, interestingly, on this particular night, we actually had our very best set of jumps after what was a nice long straight run (the above gif) — just like what we’d see at an event. 

not a new bench either, tho got quite a nice little shot to it

So it’s not necessarily that she does better on singles vs related distances, but just that she does better when she has a fair amount of time to relax into a more forward rhythm and cover some ground. Which… Is hard to trust when the shorter approaches feel so choppy and explosive. But interesting food for thought, none the less.

ooh first time with this slightly larger ramp-y triple bar!

Anyway, in trying to process all that information in real time while also making snap judgments about whatever jumps happened to appear in front of us, I opted to finish the schooling with a little loop around three nice fences — two of which are familiar, and one that was slightly larger but also friendly, all of which would require some threading the needle thru the driveway trees. 

basic brown boxes are always good to us, even when i take a crazy tight approach LOL

And it was good! Tho actually I opted to throw in a last minute circle before the second jump (the new-to-us triple bar) just bc I didn’t totally love our level of straightness and canter, and preferred to circle, do a simple change of lead to Doozy’s left leg (just in case she found the weird water cooler jump on the left side a little spooky), and make it all a little more clear. 

walked over the little log bump

It obvi didn’t matter tho LOL, Doozy was fine, jumped it great, and then even jumped the final fence fine too even tho I turned wayyy too early through the trees and we weren’t at all straight. Oops. What a mare haha. 

omg there was swamp water for once!! we just snarfled through it, no real schooling

We stopped by the water mud puddle on our way back to the trailers just for the culture, more or less. Doozy was skeptical, as is natural — this ain’t exactly the world’s most inviting water complex. But she figured it out like the clever biscuit she is. 

link to quick helmet cam video here

In a way I’m kinda grateful to just have helmet camera lol, bc it hides so many imperfections and really just showcases the feelings and vibes of a ride. Which, ya know, are what core memories are made of, right? 

Like I could totally feel throughout the ride when my hands were misbehaving, or I wasn’t riding as straight as possible, or whatever other flaw you can imagine. But. Eh. That’s what the practice is for, I suppose! One little nibble at a time lol….

lesson + a little xc

Happy Monday, y’all — hope any US readers enjoyed a long weekend full of fun activities, horsey or otherwise! We managed to pack in all my faves, including a lesson, some xc, and a reunion vineyard trip with former barn mates, all without feeling overbooked or frazzled. It was nice!

somebody, not naming any names, but somebody finally chewed thru her expensive rubber nathe bit…
she’s wearing the level 1 Myler comfort snaffle in this pic, for those curious

At one point in my blogging life, I would have split everything into individual single-topic posts… But. Eh. There isn’t really enough compelling media for that, and plus… I promise, there aren’t really all that many associated words either. 

sorry to only ever really have pics of the horse at the trailer for these lessons… it is what it is!

The lesson was another good productive session that was still more or less ‘remedial trotting.’ Continuing to lean in to the idea of using bend and lateral flexion to achieve the pace I want. Which, apparently, will be our focus for the foreseeable future LOL!

ooh i took a pic of her in the ring tho!

Basically doing our best to always stay on some sort of circle — even if that means sorta spiraling down a long side to get where we wanna go. Changing bend and being more obvious and guiding with opening reins to really make it super clear what I want from Doozy. And being more intentional about truly round circles, not letting Doozy get pancake-y falling in or out on one side of the circle or the other. 

and a little snapshot of our remedial cross rails lol

Woodge was a fan of the new bit, which we wore for the first time in this lesson. She felt like our reasons for going in the nathe these last few months made sense and it was probably an effective ‘era’ for us, but that Doozy is ready for something a little more sophisticated. And that with this bit we could get more lateral bend, compared to the sort of “elevator music” reaction we sometimes got with the nathe. 

post-lesson goofy faces

And Doozy went pretty quietly in it too — none of the rattley jittery bouncing off feeling we got in the KK, which had a bit more play than this comfort snaffle. Even when we got to the jumping, she stayed pretty quiet in her mouth didn’t throw her ears into my face any more than usual (lol). 

 

another day, another set of gymnasties. this time bounces at home!

The jumping itself was good too, tho still in what I’d consider “remedial” territory. We just focused on trotting a single cross rail with placing poles, halting after. Circling off each rein until quiet and balanced with correct bend, then approaching with a careful focus on straightness. 

A big focus this ride was letting Doozy travel more forward in trot vs holding her back on that itty bitty little restrained trot that kinda gives her no choice but to explode at the jump. But… It’s a balancing act bc the space between “more forward” and “too forward” is very very small lol. 

oooh and lookie, we’re back at the trailer again

All in all, good practice tho, and we carried all of it forward into our schooling ride at home the next day, including continuing to work on our circular circles, true bend, and traveling more forward while still in trot to a fun little bounce exercise. 

xc schooling at tranquillity!

Which, naturally led to the weekend’s most fun aspect — another little xc schooling trip to Tranquillity! Y’all might remember we sorta made a habit of frequent low key visits last fall, and I’ve been eager to get back on the band wagon. 

Tho timing can be a little tricky — most of the nicest jumps travel to Shawan for the MCTA events in June, and as of two weeks ago when we were here for the Mill show, the jumps were still just sitting in piles from coming off the trailers. I figured there would be plenty to jump regardless, but luckily the jumps have since made their way back out into the fields, yay!

the more things change, the more the stay the same lol

It was a good schooling session too. Nothing really new, nothing we haven’t really done before, but that’s also kinda the point. Just keeping it regular and routine. And in this manner we achieved a ride that was productive and efficient. Including starting with a warm up of trotting around in the field that *wouldn’t* put my coach to shame lol! 

(Compared to my normal approach of kinda just surviving a few trot and canter circles before starting to jump things)

wheeee up bank combinations!

The jumps were almost all pretty good efforts, too. No inverted deer leaps, and for the most part I was able to avoid any moments of just pulling straight back on the mare by again working to use turning and lateral bend where possible. 

trying to be civilized on long lines

It’s clear that we don’t get a ton of practice cantering fences, tho. For as much as I understand my coach’s approach in the lessons, I’m also not sure she really realizes how much better Doozy is at cantering jumps vs trotting them. Which, fair, I can totally appreciate why you might think it’d be a hot mess express lol! 

finished with something just ever so slightly bigger lol

But the same thing we worked on in the lesson at trot — traveling more forward than the tightly compressed holding back stride, but not too forward and bolting the fence — we need to practice at canter too. I made a few mistakes about holding for one-too-many (an old habit of mine) but we finished well, and got some nice practice with both single fences and semi - related distances. 

helmet cam video for those inclined

The forecast is calling for something like 3” of rain coming off the Atlantic this week, plus that crazy storm system that just devastated Texas over the weekend… So I’m not sure how much more we’re really going to get done in the coming days.

back at the trailer, yet again, ready to go home lol

I’m glad we made it out this weekend, tho — for once, the weather + timing gods seemed to smile on our plans. And any good routine has to start somewhere, amirite? Doesn’t have to be perfect, we’ll take our positive mileage and enjoy it, and hopefully look forward to the next time!

another nibble @ Tranquillity

Spoiler alert, y’all — I’m having a LOT of fun getting out and about every other weekend for our little “bite-sized” adventures! Especially given that, as predicted, Doozy keeps getting better and more reliable with every outing. Whew!

steamy summer mornings!

This weekend’s ’little snack’ included just a couple classes at Tranquillity’s Mill Series schooling h/j show. Long timers will remember past entries at these shows, including my (and Isabel’s!) first time doing 3’ jumpers back in 2015, and one of Charlie’s 2022 jumper outings.

It’s basically just a fun, relaxed and locally popular schooling series that offers everything from lead line classes to 3’ jumpers, including hunter and equitation classes. With three rings running all day, there is plenty of atmosphere too, tho the vibes are generally pretty low key.

#civilized at the trailer, good girl <3

I was eager to bring Doozy here to test out a few sneaking suspicions. Namely, especially after our trouble at St Augustine — which is run all three phases entirely on grass, and warm ups in open fields — I started to wonder if maybe the ‘limbo’ of being on uneven terrain in a slightly undefined space contributed to some of Doozy’s problems settling in to our rides. 

It might just be my imagination, but after thinking about it for a little while, I decided that our next few outings would be at venues where we could be on footing, especially for the jumping. Like at Loch Moy last week — where Doozy was definitely better than she had been at SAPC!

#civilized meandering around the various rings too!! we did our hack class in that crowded ring in the background

Technically the warm up for jumpers at Tranquillity is also on grass — a tricky little hilltop that pitches downhill in a hurry. So I tried to be clever and show up early enough to ride in one of the little hunter hack classes first as our warm up (having apparently forgotten that in Hunterlandia, you can actually come early and school in the rings, tho not the jumper ring). 

I figured it would also be good practice to do our paces “on demand,” as it were, but without it being an actual dressage pattern. Sorta like a CT-Lite lol. 

The hack class proved to be slightly chaotic with no fewer than TEN OMG ponies and kiddos all at once, but Doozy held it together and made it through the whole thing without breaking gait or creating a scene. Good girl!

finally getting back to that FUN feeling!

From there, we meandered over to the jumper ring wherein I did actually try the little warm up fences on the grass hilltop. And Doozy was actually fine! Like, not super duper quiet, but not so wild that we went skittering ass over tea kettle down the off-camber hillside LOL.

PLUS she actually jumped the jumps quite nicely and straight! Go figure, working on the details in a lesson pays off, who woulda thunk haha.

she jumped everything super well

Anyway. After that, there was nothing to do but wait for our turn at the gate. Doozy was again super patient and relaxed, and did her best to make new friends with whomever happened to be standing nearby. 

It was actually pretty cute — at one point she SWORE to her new BFF that her ears were so itchy bc I neglect her and she’s abused, so this benevolent stranger went to town itching and rubbing all over on Doozy’s ears. Never mind that I apparently require special invitation to be allowed to do the same haha. #mares….

found long and short distances but nothing awkward

Eventually it was our turn, tho, so off we went! The course looked good, some tricky turns and bending lines, but nothing very related. Plus all the jumps were super built up with flowers and boxes and all manner of filler — something I appreciate for a horse like Doozy who can sometimes be a little casual. 

minor pilot error trying to find this jump but it was nbd

Whatever it was, tho, Doozy was jumping GREAT! Trotted up to the first jump super, did a patient simple change to the second, then was a little skippy through her auto change around the short end to 3, tho you can actually see the moment I remembered to put my hands down and let the bend do the work for us instead of pulling. 

a shame her face is blocked in this pic bc look how good she looks!

The little loop around from 3 to 4 to 5 went well too, tho I lost her outside shoulder in the turn to 5 and we landed wayyy off the line for 6. Nbd, tho, Doozy was on the aids enough to execute a weird little serpentine move and then stayed straight and true to 6 anyway. 

She rolled back to the in-gate oxer at 7 like a friggin champion, made the funny 90* L turn to 8 like nbd, and rolled back the other way to the **liverpool** omg at 9 without fuss. And from there, it was an easy cruise down to 10, and then finished!

 

and happy too <3

What a good girl! I’m so glad I got video too bc it’s really easy to see the moments where I remembered to try to put my hands down, and see how nicely Doozy responds to that. It’s also nice to see that her pace generally looks pretty good all the way around, even tho it felt a little fast to me at times. 

omg we got proper video for once!

credit to the mare for her first time in this ring over a course i didn’t walk <3

I also really like seeing how positive Doozy was to all the jumps. Even when the distance came up a little close, it looks like she’s using herself well and staying organized on a steady stride (vs kinda skittering over the top). AND!! Another clear round, yay mare!!

everybody got cute treats and a sample salt supplement from a sponsor

The optimum time for the class was something like 1:49, with a set speed of 260mpm. I was pretty sure we were a bit faster than that (which is fine for our purposes, that’s a pretty slow speed) but apparently with our patient simple changes and slightly scenic route to jump 6, we were close enough to snag 3rd place — woo hoo!

3rd place in the optimum time class on clear jumping, not bad!!

And I opted to call it a day with that. Sure, we could have done more rounds… but it was already 85*F by 9am and Doozy had basically been a perfect princess all day morning. And isn’t that the whole point of the “bite-sized” outings anyway? Get in, get it done, have fun, go home. Check, check and check!

So. Another one in the books — and another one where we did better than ‘just survive,’ we actually had fun and put in a respectable performance. Woot woot, about damn time lol….