Led astray

I had the same dream over and over last night.  That very rarely happens to me.  I had this file that I needed to put away, but it didn't fit anywhere.  This is the downside to being an analyst.  Even my subconscious seems to insist on everything being neatly categorized.  But the file didn't go anywhere.  No matter how any times I tried to put it away, it popped back out because it didn't fit.

I watched my test again in the harsh light of day and yeah, something's broken.  Our scores have been dropping all season.  I know it's not all about the scores, but when all of the judges think we've gone backwards, something is up.  But that's not why I couldn't put the file away.  I couldn't put it away because I was also being told it was the nicest test I've done.  I came out of the ring and thought that was really good.  I was told it was really good.  Not just 'good job doing what we wanted to do' but good as in getting a really good score.  But it's my lowest scoring.

But he sure is pretty

You can see why the file just doesn't want to fit.  I left Theo's head there.  I'm watching my test wondering why I left him like that, especially at a show.  I could have easily tucked him in a couple more degrees so that he was just a bit ahead of the vertical without messing everything up.  But I did it because I was told to in warm up.   I've been very specifically told to leave his head alone, which with Theo, means he's going to go around with his nose out.  Because that is how the Theo do and it's been weeks of me letting him do whatever with his head while we straighten him out.

Yesterday, I was that fool that goes in, isn't prepared, and then blames the judge for my poor score. 

So here I am, having a terrible revelation.  Trainer A either doesn't know we're not ready for the test or she's lying to me to make me feel better.  Either way, not cool.  If I'd gone in with the mission to go straight, no curl, and accept my rough score because that's where we're at?  I could have gone home smiling because mission accomplished.  If I'd been told to drop down to First 1 because we've had to back up to fix some things, so be it.  But I wasn't.  I was sent in thinking I was competitive.

Going First level last season

I guess I bought my trailer and scheduled my lesson just in time.  I don't want to go backwards.  I started my season all shining hope and readiness.  Now we've slid back to the point we look like we should be doing Training level.  And worse, I felt like it was a solid test.  I felt like I'd presented my horse well and correctly for the level.  Hell, two weeks ago I'd been led to believe he could move up to Second in a couple months.  Apparently, I don't know where we're at anymore.

I'm responsible for my own riding.  I know.  At the end of the day, I rode him wrong and got smacked. I'm not looking for someone to blame.  But I can't be told that it's really good by one person and that we're not ready by everyone else.

What they want

To be clear, dressage is new to me.  It's kind of weird and super subjective.  I get that.  But sometimes, you get a score and you damn well know you got screwed over.

That got a 57%, including a 5 for submission.  That test right there.  A 5 for submission.

I'm so confused.

Yes, his nose is in front of the vertical.  I made that choice.  I didn't want him to curl and he was tucking his nose in the warm up.  He was forward and straight and it felt very relaxed and nice.  He never once tried to break and none of the movements felt dicey.  Yes, the leg yield was a bit shitty, but the movements were all there and willing.

She said we didn't have enough bend on that lengthen trot movement.  What?  Seriously, what?  No comment on his actual lengthen (which I was proud of because he actually pushed), just a comment about his lack of bend at H and K.  I got 5.5s on every circle.  Not enough bend.  She said we don't have the connection required for the level.  I got a 5.5 for rider with the word 'subtly' underlined.

Now I feel completely lost.  I was feeling so good about that test when it was done.  He was so relaxed and willing in the ring of death.  I thought I had my 60.  He didn't over bend and throw his shoulders around, he didn't swing his haunches in.  Yes, he was ahead of the vertical, but geeze.  It's First level.  I thought his improved impulsion was more important.

We scored lower than my last test where I felt so bad and felt like the test was barely hanging on.  We scored five points lower than his test with Trainer A where he tried to break in the canter.  It's not like I was expecting a 70 or anything.  60 is supposed to mean you did it.  You completed the test and no one gasped or ducked or thought you weren't going to manage it.  We got beat by a horse that spun on center line and was braced through the neck due to tension for the entire test.  But by the gods, his nose was vertical.

I guess I really don't know what they want.

Mobility

Guys.

Guys guys guys guys guys.

Guys!

I use guys as a gender neutral pronoun.  Sorry, it's a Midwest thing.  I should be using y'all.

Y'ALL!

I got my trailer!

I need to rake my driveway

This was taken in my driveway.  It's here!  I HAVE A TRAILER OF MY OWN!

 Not the Behemoth, but the same size truck that I'll be using

You have to understand, my entire life I've had to beg or hitch rides or go where the barn is going.  For the first time, I can go where I want when I want!

I am too excited to breathe properly.  I need a paper bag.

It's a 2008 Sundowner Sunlite 777.  Two horse straight load goose neck with the side ramp and escape door on the driver's side. Yes, I know about the frame/floor issues in Sundowner's with a steel frame from 1999 - 2008.  This trailer is already 9 years old with zero rust and was produced after the issues were resolved.  Little known fact, Trainer A's dad is a mechanic so I'll have an expert to help me keep on top of any potential rust issues.

I got it from Theo's massage therapist and it has about 1k miles on it total.  It still has that new trailer smell.

So much space

It's warmblood size and very roomy.  I love the fact it doesn't have a seperate dressing room because that takes 3 feet off of the total length and gives Theo so much head room he won't know what to do.  I still have a whole goose neck for storage and enough room to stroll around in front of the hay bags.  My saddle will probably ride in the back seat of the Behemoth to prevent any possible scratches, but that's the only concession.  It came with a camera to watch mi papi and to back up without running over anything!

There's a bar to keep things from sliding out of the goose neck part, very nifty

I've shown out of trailers with this lay out and they're breezy in summer.  I don't trash my joints jumping in and out of the trailer.  Storage space won't be an issue.  With a nervous horse, I can just walk them out the side ramp.  Theo will have to back out because I'm not pulling down his hay bag every time I unload.

So now I the easy part is done.  I own a trailer and a truck.  Now comes the hard part.  I have to drive the damn things around.  And I have a lesson on the 21st.  Brace yourselves, my blog is about to veer off from trying to dressage and will enter the land of trying to trailer.  After my show tomorrow, of course.

I like to keep things interesting.

I HAVE A TRAILER!!!!!!

Life with ulcers

It's amazing what a difference one little thing can make.  Theo's ulcers were treated over the winter and he responded well.  But when spring came and the trailering returned, his stomach problems returned.  He's now two weeks into a full 28 day treatment with a daily dose of paste omeprazole.  Once the 28 days is done I'll wean him off, and then give him a maintenance dose whenever he goes in the trailer.  The trailering really seems to be what sets him off.

It's freaking expensive to treat ulcers.  So expensive.  Ulcerguard is about $30 a day.  I go through Abler.com and get it down to about $7 a day.  So it's about $200 a month to have him on the treatment dose.  If I wasn't going generic, I don't know if I could afford it.  It's $900 to go through a full regimen of Ulcerguard.  Yikes.

The granules I used before were useful, but apparently he wasn't consistently eating it all.  Some days he was good, some days he was biting at the cross ties.  He likes to chuck his food everywhere while eating and I'm sure he was chewing some of it up. That keeps it from making it to the parts of his digestive system that need it.  For a horse that eats politely or is fed in a stall where they can't decide to flip their bucket over, they're a great option.  For papi?  Paste is working much better.  I know he's getting his full dose every day.

The generic paste isn't flavored.  It's also not flavorless.  As is my policy, I tasted his medicine to see how bad it was.  I was in my bathroom scrubbing with a toothbrush afterward.  It's awful.  I really worried about how I was going to get that into my horse.  Turns out it's not a problem.  Theo is such a hoover or maybe it's not that bad to a horse. We now have an easy, no stress routine.

After grooming him and giving him time to finish whatever was in his mouth, I make a big show of unwrapping three of the big, soft mints that he loves.  I make sure he can see me and hear those wrappers.  By the time I'm done, he's usually whickering to himself and leaning on the cross ties.  I pull out the syringe, dial in my dose, and try to keep Theo from pulling the syringe out of my hand while I dose him.  The tip gets bent because he pulls it into his molars in his excitement.  I dose him quickly and then start shoving peppermints in his face before he can even contemplate getting rid of the paste.  There's no way he'll spit out a peppermint, so all of the nasty meds go down the hatch with the parade of mints.  It's quickly followed by his Probios treats.  By that point, the meds are long gone.  There's usually a lot of lip licking and some extra drool afterward so I think that's the aftertaste of the meds, but too late for him to protest at that point.

Theo actually likes the sight of his ulcer meds syringe now, so this seems to be working.  I'm going to teach his leaser how to dose him so I don't have to drop by the barn on her days.  He's basically the perfect horse to learn on since he holds his mouth open and begs for his medicine.  Which blows my mind because it is really rank stuff.  I guess he considers that a small price to pay for all of the mints and treats.  Usually he has to do something difficult to get so many treats.

 He's a different horse when his stomach is happy.  I really think a lot of his rage issues come down to pain.  When he first got nasty with his first owner, she was shipping him out to the beach and to clinics.  Then he was awful at shows with various riders.  Now I'm doing preventative treatments any time he gets on a trailer and it's making a very real difference.

I'll probably be managing this the rest of his life, but it feels good to know that we found the actual cause for a set of his issues.  He wasn't angry or naughty.  He was in pain.  All it takes is a half dose the day before the show and a half dose before we get on the trailer.  That's a very minor thing to manage.

If you're thinking about trying the generic option?  I've had good experiences with Abler.  Shipping can be slow, especially if you go with the free option, but I haven't had any trouble with it.  You have to pay by electronic check or wire transfer from your bank.  If you pay by check, you'll get a phone call the next day from a company verifying your order.  It seems a bit sketchy at first, but it's totally legitimate and not a hassle so long as you answer your phone or proactively call them to verify your order.  I've found no instances of people having trouble with their products and when tested, they actually found the active ingredient to be slightly above the dose in the label.  So the med is in there, which is always a concern with a generic.

Theo is getting their AbGard product in the stable pack size.  He gets 5 markers worth of paste every day and a tube lasts him 6 days.

Product Review: Ecovet

Background:  Theo breaks out in hives and/or welts when the bugs get after him.  He's also a total princess.  Combine that with the vicious array of bugs you get in New Hampshire and you have a recipe for an uncomfortable, pissy pony.  I'm pretty much willing to try anything in the heart of bug season to keep him comfortable.

The product:  Ecovet is a fly spray that acts very differently than the stuff we usually use.  Regular fly spray keeps the bugs from biting.  Ecovet claims to mess up the chemical receptors in the fly, causing them to not be able to locate your horse and sometimes die.  It's based on amino acids evaporating off of your horse and making a bit of a cloaking mechanism (Star Trek reference ftw). 

I got a free sample from SmartPak.  It's more expensive than my usual fly spray but you're supposed to use less, so it probably evens out.

Review:  This stuff is scary when you first read the instructions and reviews on line.  May cause respiratory distress, use it outside and upwind, yadda yadda.  I've heard multiple reports of horses going into fits of wheezing and trouble breathing.  It took me a couple days to get up the nerve to even try the stuff.  Also, it's described as horrible smelling so definitely don't do it in the barn aisle.

I wanted to take Theo out for a trail ride/mad gallop to avoid the bugs and thought it would be a good time to see if Ecovet was the miracle product people claim.  It was also breezy, so seemed a good day to apply the product without killing my horse.  I took him out in the parking lot, parked him with his face into the 10 mph breeze, and applied as directed on the bottle.  I got his chest, legs, and belly from midline down.  I was expecting it to smell like pure death.  It doesn't.  I didn't like the smell, but it's not like a skunk or anything.  More odd and unpleasant than anything.  I can imagine it's overwhelming if sprayed in an enclosed space.  No wheezing or coughing from Theo, just one big lip curl.  The breeze did it's job.  I tacked up as usual, noted my horse now smelled funny, and headed out.

It did NOTHING.  It was no different than my Ultrashield and frankly might be worse.  Deer flies were on us while walking down the road.  The trail ride was our usual mad dash.  The flies had no problem finding my horse and latching right on.  Whatever it's supposed to be doing, it doesn't work on the biting flies in NH.  It was too breezy for gnats so can't tell you if it worked on those, but frankly, I wasn't impressed.  If I'm going to go through all that trouble to apply the product, I should be able to see at least some improvement.  I gave the rest of the sample to the barn to use on a mare suffering from sweet itch, see if it helps her.  It's useless for Theo.

So no, it's not a revolutionary break through.  If your horse isn't allergic to pyretherin, stick with the traditional stuff to handle biting flies.  I'm really quite disappointed because I'd read reviews where it really made a difference on trail rides.  It might be regional and depend on the species.  If you've got the awful, yellow/orange deer flies we have in New England, save your money. 

It looks like the trails will just have to stay closed for a bit longer.

Roads to Rome

I'm a pretty goal oriented person.  It's not a secret.  I like having something to work toward.  Once I have something to work toward, not being able to make progress is frustrating.  I've definitely been making progress with Theo, but it drags and there's fits and starts.

Some of it's just my schedule.  I have a lot going on.

Fuel for data analysts

Some of it's my horse.  He's . . . well, opinionated.

So many opinions

And some of it's my environment.  My barn is far from a competitive hot bed.  I am the only dressage focused rider.  I am the only one with a focus on sanctioned competition in any discipline.  I am the only adult competitor.  The list goes on.  I am, hands down, the most advanced rider in the barn aside from my trainer.  This means that if I share a lesson, my lesson is going to need to be down shifted.

It's starting to become a problem.

My Wednesday night ladies lesson has been rescheduled about six weeks in a row, usually to the weekend.  I think I'm just going to drop that lesson.  Yes, I enjoy the pony parade, but I find myself just flopping along.  It's more expensive than going to a bar to just hang out.

My Friday morning lessons are either privates and therefore more intense and focused or they're shared with whatever random adult beginner that needs a lesson at that time.  My last lesson, we cantered for about two minutes on our own.  The rest of the lesson we practiced straightness, which is important, at the walk and trot straight down quarter line.  No shoulder in, no haunches in, nothing because the other rider wouldn't even know what those things are much less how to do them.  I really, really need to work on my simple changes but if anyone is in my lesson, that's off the table.

I'm too focused and competitive to handle this well.  And then my training ride got rescheduled and camp is going on so it's rather chaotic at the barn and Theo's shed STILL needs to be repaired . . .

I sent out an email to set up a trailer in lesson with Mary Howard.  Surprise, surprise, she emailed me back right away and I have a lesson with her on Friday the 21st.  She's a Grand Prix rider that won the Pan Am games in 1985.  She's got a bunch of students on the same circuit as me, including a couple of adult ammies debuting at Second level this year.  I told her I was a First level rider with a draft cross and she still set me up with a lesson.  AHHHHH.

This may be the kick in the pants I need.  She's helped train up dozens of horses to FEI, I'm sure she can help me and my ploppy pony get to Second.  And if we click (meaning her and Theo, mostly), she's only 45 minutes away and I can zip out to see her for more lessons.  I guess I'm really going to have to get the lead out and buy myself a trailer of some sort.  I think I've hit the point where I really, really need to be able to go out on my own and get the experiences I need.

I guess I'm tired of trying to fit into a 'program' where I'm a completely and utterly different type of a rider.  I certainly can't move Theo to a fancy dancy dressage barn (broke and over an hour from my house), but we can go visit.  Maybe a bit of the grandeur will rub off on him.

I can hope.

Old pros

Being the owner can be awesome.

My wake up call this show morning?  7:30am.  And I had time to stop by the barn to pick up my braiding bands, grab myself an iced coffee from Dunks, and drive up to the show.  Trainer A and her teen du jour took care of loading and leaving this morning since I did the prep and packing on Saturday.  The ride times were kind of cruel.  Her teen started at 10am, finished at about 1:30pm (her very first three phase), and Trainer A rode at 4pm.  Ew.

I played groom all day.  I kept Theo cool, bug free, and happy as he waited all day for his turn.  I cheered for our teen as she went forth and conquered her first cross country course.  She was technically eliminated when her pony refused one jump three times, but she got him over it on try four and completed the course.  Since it was a schooling show, she also finished stadium.  It was quite the learning experience for her, needing to put all three challenges together in the span of a couple of hours, but she's already excitedly talking about her next show.  Next time, a number and not a letter!

 Theo in his most conservative turn out: white saddle pad and silver clinchers browband

Most of my day was spent either hand grazing Theo or keeping an eye on the ponies while they were tied to the trailer, snacking on hay.  The boys were very good in tight quarters.  We had one incident when the canopy the teen's family were using for shade pulled up from it's stakes and took flight right at the pony Juicebox.  Juicebox was, understandably, completely freaked.  Theo was also not pleased.  Trainer A was close enough to yank Juice's tie loose before he could hit it.  I was too far away and Theo snapped his breakaway halter when he flew back.

Winning the tail game

So it did it's job, Theo was uninjured, but he was also loose and rather freaked.  Well, shit.  Fortunately they had the canopy under control and being collapsed very quickly so he didn't bolt.  He trotted a few steps, then stopped to check out the grass.  I pulled off my belt and made a show of crinkling a wrapper as I walked over.  That little butt head snorted, shook his head at me, and trotted off a couple steps.  Another rider heard me calling out 'loose horse' and headed him off before he could make a break for freedom.  I threw my belt around his neck and another helpful stranger handed me a halter.

I love eventers.  Everyone dropped everything to come help me catch my horse with smiles.  Of course there was a loose horse, it's a horse show.  It happens.  No harm done and Theo  went right back to his haynet like nothing happened.

Very chill, almost like he knows what he's doing

I'll admit, there was a shift in the tone and culture when the eventers finished up their day and the dressage crew started to show up.  A lot more white breeches, a lot more white polos, a lot more snark.  It's a very small schooling show so a certain amount of 'big fish in a little pond' going on.  Let's just say, these weren't faces I see at the big, sanctioned shows in the area.  While the eventers definitely have a vibe of being in this together, the dressage crew was there for just themselves.  It's unfortunate.

Tracking right up like a real dressage horse

Trainer A was a bit anxious.  It dawned on me that she hasn't shown this year and last year she only did Intro.  How did that happen?  But once she was on Theo, everything was fine.  We'd worried about whether or not he'd work for her once the pressure was on.  He's a very emotional ride and they're more prone to bickering.  We didn't need to worry.  86*, waiting all day, brutal sun with very little shade, and he still went into the ring and went to work for her.  The occasional comment, but nothing like what he's capable of.  They had to take breaks in the shade while his respiration came down, but she timed her warm up well.  They went into the ring like the pair of old pros they are.

Yes, he wanted to melt by the end of the canter work.  You can see him going 'please can I be done?!', but he didn't throw a fit.  He took her word for it that the flowers were not, in fact, going to eat him.  This is a huge step forward in their relationship.  They got a 62%.  I thought some of the marks were a hair harsh, I thought it was more of a 64%, but I'm trying not to get in the habit of quibbling over a percentage point or two.  We're close enough that I feel like the judge and I saw the same test.  She seemed quite happy with them and there were a lot of 7's.

The attempted breaks at the canter kind of killed them, but it's Theo in July.  We knew it was coming.

Trainer A said she had fun and that she could be talked into showing him at Second next time.  When the temperatures are lower so poor papi isn't begging for mercy by the end of his six minute test.  Yay!

It was a good day.  Trainer A had fun, Theo looked quite proud of himself on his walk back to the trailer, and I got to spend all day being the owner.  Which means I smile, say supportive things, and write the checks.

It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.