Practically Perfect Ponies and Pretty Ribbons

Life has been rolling on at an extraordinarily fast pace, so unfortunately the updates have been a bit fewer and farther between lately (that pesky law school thing gets in the way). But since the last post, Cole has decided that he doesn't like the idea of being Coleslaw and Riley has really stepped up to try and fill in Will's shoes. 

I was a bit distraught about Cole after taking him to KY Classique. He was so badly behaved, and he's been so badly behaved on other off-the-farm outings that I was beginning to wonder if it was more of a I-hate-being-off-the-farm thing than a green-horse thing (some horses are just like that). Thankfully over   the past few weeks he's been trying his best to behave on field trips and convince me that he's just green, and he'll hopefully grow out of it. 

The Sunday after Classic, we trailered over to the KHP for XC schooling. Cole let me know that he's going to have issues with changes in footing (i.e. grass to gravel) and light-to-dark. Other than the not-jump-issues, though, he was perfect! He jumped several starter fences and didn't bat an eye at the water. My goal with him has been to take it easy, since there's no reason to push him and risk backing him off, especially since he had almost no jumping experience when I got him. We brought Riley along for moral support for Cole and John was able to jump him over everything that Cole did. John even hacked Cole around for the second half of our schooling while I made Riley jump big boy things to see if he felt ready to go training again.

Riley loves XC schooling when John's the rider!

Cole also went to his first "horse show" the weekend after schooling. We went up to the Oldham County Fairgrounds for a small, local schooling-type show. It was no KHP, but he saw bleachers, screaming children, and plenty of other horses going in all directions around him. There were no Vietnam-style track flashbacks, and he was almost well-behaved enough to place well. I think he could sense when the judge was looking, though, because those were the only times he threw some bucks. 

Looking deceptively well-behaved.

Second! (...out of two.) He was a total champ for being so well-behaved though- he even cantered for this class.

This past weekend, I loaded both boys up on the trailer for round two of Cole's KHP show adventures. Cole was my non-compete, and Riley was signed up for training(!) at Jumpstart. This weekend was Riley's first attempt at a training level event since 2009, when I gave up on him and bought Will as an older brother to Riley who would actually jump the scary fences. Sunday was also the 6 month mark since losing Will, and I can't help but think that he was giving Riley some of his bravery on cross country. 

Friday night was a whirlwind of baths and schooling, and thank god my mom was there to help. We took both boys down to the dressage fields so I could school one after another, which was the only way I could've gotten both ridden. Riley was pretty good for the super crummy, swampy footing, and Cole was actually safely rideable above a walk (a huge improvement over Classic).

On Saturday, the footing had dried up a bit, but not very much. The warmup was complete slop, so we opted for a dry-ish grassy patch to warm up on. My warmup was pretty good and my test would've gone well if I didn't let Riley snowball out of control at the end. It was definitely better than it has been in the past, but I botched the last 4 movements. My goal was to score under 40 and we just barely squeaked by with a 39.6. 

I didn't have much time between dressage and XC, so I headed back to the barns and started getting Riles ready. The footing was a bit sloppy and the air was somewhat muggy (and Riley was borderline fit enough...), so Riley got to sport some of Will's big kid studs as well as a Flair strip. Warmup went well, although it's never very encouraging to see a fellow competitor crash into the warmup fence. 

We left the start box and Riley was rocking and rolling, albeit in his trademark giraffe style. The first few fences rode very easy and set him up well for the meat of the course, which started with a formidable double brush for #5. #6 was the clover cutouts on a 1 or 2 stride line, which I knew wouldn't be a problem. #7 was called the "fern display" and was a shared fence with prelim. I kept telling myself it'd ride fine, but it certainly was a little bit looky and VERY big when I walked it. Of course Riley being himself, it rode great, and the stone wall-ramp right after it was like a twig after he cleared #7. The next fences I had to worry about were #12A/B and #13A/B. #12 was a relatively small log, but was placed at the top of a small hill where I was concerned Riley might slip, and had a sharp turn to the B log. Of course slipping wasn't an issue, and there was tons of time to turn to the B and get a nice jump over it. 

Giraffe face before fence #2.

His belly barely cleared the straw rack, fence #10.

The bunker, fence #11.

#12A and down the hill.

Turn to #12B.

#12B.

The scariest fence on course was next, and consisted of a HUGE ditch and a couple strides to a skinny-ish brush. The ditch lives right next to the Rolex sunken road, and I heard rumors that it was on the prelim and intermediate courses at Classic. It was definitely both wide and deep, with tons of room for horse eating monsters inside. It's probably a good thing that the photographer didn't get any pictures of Riley jumping the ditch, because while he was a very good boy and ignored the monsters trying to eat him, it wasn't exactly pretty. We came up to the ditch in a fastish coffin canter after I'd shown him my whip to make sure he knew I wasn't scared of beating him. He got up to the ditch, thought for a second about jumping, then thought again about running out to the left, and then finally decided that he'd better go ahead and jump it. We landed well to the left of our line to #13B, more on track for the prelim skinny/C element or a total runout of the complex. But we got it together and wiggled our way to #13B and jumped it from what felt like practically a stand still. I was so proud of him, but the rough-and-tumble riding there carried over to the next two fences, after which we got our groove back.

Over the brush!

Just a little long...

Galloping on.

The rest of the course rode beautifully. The last big questions were the bank complex and water complex, where of course he had no issues. Besides jumping the ditch, I was most proud that he came in 20 seconds under optimum time because that was an issue for us the two times we actually completed training level events (it's kind of obvious when riding him on XC why he wasn't a very good race horse!). We were 7th after dressage, but a few of the top horses had trouble making the time, so we moved up to 3rd after cross county. 

That afternoon I was able to ride Cole again and he was much better with Riley there as moral support. I figured out that he's fine with everything in the dressage fields except the big buildings on the far side and the arena closest to them- the Museum of the Horse, the Visitor's Center, and the USHJA headquarters all seem to collectively freak him out. Elsewhere around the KHP he had no issues with the Big Barn, the old indoor, or tents pitched in some of the arenas in anticipation of the Kentucky National - it was isolated to that group of big buildings right by the dressage complex. I'm not sure if it reminds him of the racetrack or what, but that seemed to be the only issue. Otherwise he was a very good boy and was much better behaved all around the park.

Riley was working very hard while babysitting Cole.

On Sunday, I was the last division to show jump in my assigned arena, so we had most of the morning to relax. I had enough time that I quickly re-braided Riley and then John and I took the boys around for a walk and to graze. Sadly we missed the Pony's show jumping round, but we were able to catch his awards ceremony. 

We got Riley ready and headed up to the SJ arena, where I was a bit early. I went with my normal early warmup protocol and jumped several fences before giving Riley a break. I picked him back up with only a few rides in front of me and suddenly turned my brain off. My warmup turned into a bit of disaster, and I even had an unplanned emergency dismount at the warmup oxer (although in our slight defense, I'm pretty sure the front rail was actually taller than the back rail). Thankfully that knocked some sense into me and I had a few good jumps before heading over to the competition ring. 

My show jumping round itself wasn't that bad. We chipped in to the second fence and maybe had one other ugly fence, but overall it wasn't the kind that makes people gasp and think "wow, they're still alive!" at the end of it. I had plenty of faith in Riley, but was still thrilled when he left all the rails up, especially because rails had been flying all morning. 

All that was left was to see where we ended the weekend- whether we kept our third or had managed to move up. The announcer took a moment to give out a special award to the lowest-scoring senior amateur in the training rider division, and I was VERY surprised when I heard my name called over loudspeaker! 

After the Play For Keeps award was presented, they still had the division left to place. At this point I'd realized that Riley had won, but was still in a bit of disbelief. I've definitely never led a victory gallop before, so I wasn't sure how to start things off or how to go about it. All in all, Riley won a cooler, a lunchbox, a saddle pad, a basket full of apples and peppermints, and a big blue ribbon. I was so proud of him for being such a good boy the entire weekend, and the first place was just icing on the cake.

Stupid-Pony Picture Time!

Riley's favorite part of winning!

Later that afternoon Riley took John cross country schooling while Cole went around and jumped several starter and beginner novice fences. I could probably do without some of Cole's enthusiasm (especially about yanking out my left arm), but I was very proud of him for jumping everything I asked him to. 

Overall the weekend was very successful and I was very proud of both boys for being so awesome. Riley's had an easy week since and has been sure to eat several of the apples he won each day I've visited him this week. 

Willard Plans a Jump Start Party

Wow, I'm soooo proud of Mom, Riley and Cole, its hard to even put into words! First, Riley and Maggie bring home 6th place (John's favorite color ribbon...Green). Second, even though Cole got the crazies left over from me, he did great out at the Horse Park schooling. Last, Cole went even further and brought home his first two ribbons for Team Riley!

Its been a hoof biter up here watching over the Team, but what can I say? I'm extremely happy. Riley and Mom pulled together at Kentucky Classique. I'm so proud of Maggie, she had been soooo stressed before hand, but I knew she could do it. And I'm so happy that Riles was the one to help her make it, I wouldn't have put that on any other horse in my eyes. I knew he would get her through it, and I was very glad to see her out on the cross country coarse again. I know it was stressful for her, but she needed it, I always had a blast running XC but it was also blast watching her ride XC. Thats why we keep Riley around though. When the going gets tough, he's right there to take care of everything.

I got a little nervous though seeing Mom on Cole that weekend. He had no idea what he got himself into. At least we know when the time comes he can piaffe, lets just see if he can do it on command.
It looked like Cole redeemed himself though and it looks like he's going to love running cross country too. I'm trying to send him some of my vibes, but I'm still trying to figure out how to send the good ones, not so much the crazy ones. Just look at the two, already bringing home two ribbons! Looks like I did a good job at teaching Maggie how to rein in a wild and crazy beast.

Of course I have to say how impressed I was with John, going cross country schooling for the first time. Finally starting to get the hang of cantering. I'm a little sad though that he never got to take me schooling. I'm happy he got to jump me once or twice, but it would've been fun taking him over some logs, mom probably would have been nervous about, but I would have taken care of John.

Last but not least I'll be cheering on Riles and Maggie this weekend at Jump Start. My baby brother is growing on up, going Training! I get to watch all the shows I want on my new big screen. Lets just hope that belly of his doesn't get him stuck over any jumps. It'd be hilarious to see, but I want mom to make it all the way around. Maybe I'll get John to head out there early in the morning and grease the jumps so he'll slide right over. All my new friends are coming over to cheer on all our friends from the barn. We've got the fridge filled, the bar stocked and an endless supply of carrots and squeezy buns to munch on.

Keep up the good work Team Riley! I'm always watching!

-Willard

Riley's Coming Out of Retirement Tour

This past Friday was a big day for me, Will, Riley, and even Cole. As of Friday, Will's officially been gone 5 months. Looking ahead to September from five months ago, I would've thought we'd have a few more prelims under our belt and be looking ahead to AECs and the CCI*. Riley would've still been on lease with his little girl. Two months ago, I was beginning to settle in to the idea that Riley just wanted to retire. And I was definitely convinced that I might never find a new show horse. A few weeks ago, I crossed my fingers and entered Riley in the open novice at Kentucky Classique and signed Cole up as a non-compete horse.

The jumps this past weekend were maxed out at 2'11", but I feel like we made it over some much bigger hurtles. For one, we all know Riley's dreamed long and hard about retirement. He started thinking about it before he even began showing, when he tried to kill himself before his first two events (#1 he tried to eat an electrical outlet and #2 he got a huge puncture wound in his shoulder). When he was diagnosed with kissing spines, his future seemed bright, but he was determined to prove otherwise (by dumping me in a few ditches and telling me that as much as I'd love to go training, it just wasn't his thing...). And this spring he'd almost talked me into turning him out once and for all, when it seemed that although his suspensory strain had healed, something else just wasn't right. Thankfully I didn't give up on him and was able to figure out that it was EPM, and he's come back as strong and healthy as ever. Riley's last show was in October of last year, before the suspensory and EPM issues.

As for the other hurtles, last Friday was also, obviously, the 5 month anniversary of my last show. At first I'd missed showing desperately, and was so jealous any time someone at the barn left with their horse for the weekend. But the longer I went, the easier it was, until showing just seemed like a terrible idea. My mental demons told me that Riley is terrible at dressage and that we'd be stuck at the bottom of the pack, because novice tends to be a glorified dressage competition. The show jumping demons were even there, reminding me that the last time I show jumped I had to rely on my wonderful horse to save our butt when I couldn't see or ride the distances. And worst of all, the thought of a cross country start box made my mind go wild with all that happened the last time I galloped out of one. I've had more than a few breakdowns over this whole first-show-back thing in the weeks leading up to it.

So with that being said, this weekend was the one to start moving on and getting over those awfully big hurtles. On Friday, both boys got a bath before a short trailer ride over to the KHP. John thankfully unpacked everything while I took Riley for a spin around the dressage fields, which turned out to be more nerve wracking for me than it ought to of. When I stopped showing, my nerves were 100% under control and I was able to tune out everything to get the best out of my horse. When I rode on Friday, it was like all of that had gone down the drain and I was back to square one. After my ride I attempted to make braids of Riley's 3 mane hairs and tucked the boys in for the night.

Despite nearly having a breakdown on the way down to dressage, I was able to pull it together and get a decent warmup before what I thought was a very nice test for Riley. I could've been a bit more ballsy in some of the moves, but I thought it was a pretty good test, and although it put us 12th out of 14, I thought a 34.5 was a great score.

Dressage judges never like Riley much, but I thought he put it a pretty solid test!

Next up was cross country, which I was kind of dreading. The course was tough, and I knew Riley wouldn't have any issues, but it still didn't keep me from worrying. Worse yet, the first 3 people out on course had refusals and run-outs. I kept telling myself that those were green horses, but my racing heart didn't want to believe that. We took off out of the start box and Riley ran around the course like the old pro that he is. He easily cleared every jump and was happy to gallop along at a pretty fast pace. I let him choose his own pace for the first half of the course, which meant that at the halfway mark I had to make him trot for a bit to avoid speed fault penalties (we were almost 2 minutes ahead of time, agh!!). Running through the finish flags gave me the biggest feeling of relief as well as gratitude towards Riley. Riley knows his job, knows that he doesn't have to do his job if he doesn't want to, but was still happy to pack me and all my baggage around the XC course.

Beka and Caesar made it just in time to see our XC! It was really nice of them to come down, plus we found out that Caesar likes horses- and really likes shavings.

I had been a bit concerned that Riley wasn't fit enough, but that certainly wasn't the case! I love this picture because I didn't even know Riley could get all 4 feet off the ground, let alone tuck in that big ol' belly of his!

I asked Riley to take off a bit long here, causing him to rub his hind feet on the fence, but he was still happy to clear it, even with the extra effort it took

Riley has his XC smile back!

Getting a bit excited and not wanting to slow down...

The A/B Red Forts were some of the biggest jumps on course, so of course Riley made them feel easy

Riley through the Head of the Lake!

After XC

As a side note, I attempted to ride Cole around on Saturday, but he doesn't like a) the KHP in general and b) the KHP when he's all by himself in the dressage fields. I found out that Cole can apparently piaffe, although I think in pure dressage they like the horse to be round and collected, not hollow and freaked out. We joked about blowing Cole's mind, but apparently it was actually blown. Cole's just going to have to have lots of outings before his first real show, starting with XC at the KHP this Sunday.

Sunday brought stadium jumping and a double clear round on what was apparently a tough SJ, judging from the scores. I missed two distances, but Riley didn't have a problem with saving my butt and clearing the fence regardless. He was actually pretty cute, because he kept getting his eye on other fences in an attempt to make the course a bit harder and more like a jumpers course. Riley might be accompanying his little brother to some winter jumpers shows to keep him entertained.

Riley thinks he looks stylish in Dad's new hat!

Despite being utterly terrified of every phase, I survived the weekend and finished in 6th place on a dressage score of 34.5. I even was able to throw a few smiles, particularly when I managed to move up from 9th place AND not get a poo brown ribbon (for those readers not in the know, 8th place is poo brown), which I have thankfully thus far avoided in my 6 year eventing career. Riley also seemed content to be back at work, even though I'm sure he'll regret it as soon as he remembers what being the Team Riley Work Horse entails (all that conditioning! the dressage! getting his belly to clear jumps! so much work!). On Sunday he was almost too tired to chew up his carrots.

Not poo brown!?

Not poo brown! Me and Riley both seemed a bit concerned about the ribbon flying on his face and the impending victory gallop.

Post-braiding fro-time!

So very tired- poor little guy.

For more pictures from our successful weekend, be sure to check out the flickr (the link is in the top right-hand corner of this page)!

While mom is away...Riley will do whatever he can to not work

This past weekend Maggie took a trip down to Tampa Bay, Florida to pick up a moped (if you asked her back around age 16 it would be pronounced mope'd, as in the past tense of mope) that she has been itching to get for a long time. It was even the right color, royal blue. This way we wouldn't have to pull off a amateur paint job and now all it needs are some purple flames. This means I finally get my noble steed, The Iron Horse, all to myself again. I know Maggie thinks it would be hilarious to see her dad and me riding around on the moped together, but that will never happen

Maggie left town with her mom, Dawn and dad, John on Friday morning which would leave me nothing to do alllll weekend loooooong. Don't worry, I'm really not that lame and I found things to do. But of course, a weekend is not complete without visiting the barn and the boys. Before Maggie left town I asked if Riley and Cole needed to be ridden, knowing that I had nothing to do until seeing an old high school team mate play against the Louisville Bats that night. Julie was in charge of riding Cole for the weekend, which was a relief in away, I'm still scared I'll break one of the boys, and I definitely don't want to break the new one. Plus, I can always play it off like Riles did something to himself in order not to work. Riley on the other hand was supposed to have the whole weekend off...or so he thought.

So I decided to get up early on Saturday and take a trip to Midway. First, I had to stop by Kroger to get 3 lbs. of carrots because they were apparently low, and Riley was probably sobbing in his stall at the thought of no more carrots. I could now head towards the barn, it would be my first trip to ride without Maggie around. The only bad part, Riley knows me all too well now. Someone was up in the ring getting a lesson so Riley and I took off on a hack around the farm. Down by the creek Riley and I had discussion number one, for some reason he didn't want to go past the field between the creek and the barn. I've never had that problem with him before, at that point I knew he didn't want to work. We got past that point though and cut up beside the skinny field to head up to the ring. He was actually a good boy in the ring, trotting around well. That was when everyone started to realize I was actually there without Maggie and were very excited that I would actually come out alone. Not to mention I finally look like I fit in around that place now that I have breaches, half-chaps, boots and my sweet new 'Murica helmet.

I didn't give Riley too much of a workout, but I've learned he has a short attention span some days, especially when I took him for another walk around the farm. Not to mention that of course on the day Maggie isn't there everything happens...down by the creek in the corner of the boys' field a giant branch decided it would snap and fall into the creek right next to us. After that Riley was spooked like crazy and done for the day, and so was I.

All in all it was an okay day at the barn, but it might be awhile before I'm out there on my own again, I need to get Riley to remember that I won't work him that hard, at least not yet.

And don't worry Riley and Cole still got plenty of carrots, I wonder if there will ever be a day when I am no longer the Dead-Beat-Dad.

-John

Cole's New Mission: Self Destruction

The last time I posted, I just heard back about Riley and his EPM. Since then, Riley has been doing pretty well. He still slips a bit, but I feel like it's getting better. His slips have been mild and mostly on the part of the arena where the sand has spread out to the edge and there's no base. (Note to self during my ride last night: for a quick fix, just don't ride in that spot.) Riley even jumped last Tuesday! He was AWESOME, and felt like my old horse, only better. Unlike before, where he generally had one speed of powerful canter (fast) and our riding was a little laissez faire, I was able to collect him while maintaining the power, resulting in a more calculated and enjoyable ride. On Sunday he was very stable on the lunge line, no slipping, and was happy to help John improve his riding at the canter (I'm so proud of them both for how good they looked!). He finishes up his Oraquin paste this week and switches over to a feed-through powder.

In the meantime, the two boys started going out together last week and were best friends for a few days in the front field. They then got put in the big back field, where I think they're mostly just ok with each other, although not best friends (which I'd imagine has something to do with Cole kicking Riley, and then now Riley always pinning his ears at Cole).

At first the boys were practically sharing the same blade of grass, but of course by the time I took a photo, they stopped looking quite so adorable.

I am slightly convinced that Riley is playing Bad Big Brother. I think he's convinced Cole that it's not that hard to get a day or two off if you just try to kill yourself. Of course the next best thing to Riley getting the retirement he's always wanted (since those plans aren't working out as well as he dreamed) is to make his little brother look bad and get all the glory. Maybe they shouldn't be turned out together after all...

The reason Riley ended up jumping on Tuesday in my lesson, instead of Cole doing dressage, was because Cole was off from a nice slice on the inside of his leg, right above the hock. (How he managed to do that is both impressive and a mystery to me.) The vet said it was just barely not deep enough for stitches, but to keep an eye on it and put him on an antibiotic to prevent infection. So Cole won on Tuesday and Wednesday and got those days off. On Thursday, he was sound and the swelling had come down a bit, but he was very disappointed about working. I guess he figured he had to pull out the big guns when I rode him, by which I mean the big bucks and baby leaps. Then on Friday through Sunday, Cole was tucked up and kept having an elevated respiration rate, making me paranoid about him having heat stress or colic. He won again, with Friday off and easier works on Saturday and Sunday. He was very grumpy during his Saturday trot set and once again let loose the big bucks when I lunged him on Sunday. Because his efforts still weren't working, on Sunday he cut his cannon and his stifle, hoping that would at least be worth two more days off. Thankfully he was sound Sunday and Monday, so I'm hoping that if I just keep making him work, he'll finally figure out that it's not worthwhile to kill yourself just to not have to work.

I'm also hoping that having lame pony torture time will discourage the self destruction.

Cole not only got the swelling above his hock iced, but got a massage from Riley's awesome new back massager. 

Still having to do a 15 minute trot Saturday, only at 6:30 AM to avoid the heat. 

In other horsey news, I just finished up taking care of Sarah's horses for a little over a week. Bailey, Tristan, and Doodle Bug were all very well-behaved and made it very easy to take care of them. I wish I had a picture of Doodle to flaunt on here because he's this absolutely adorable spotted pony. Sarah's farm is usually pretty quiet, but I've never seen as much wildlife there as I did this past week. I spotted a gorgeous fox, there's a bunny that lives by her horse trailer, and then one day I spotted a doe with two fawns. Two days later, I spotted another female and a male with a small rack.

I was amazed by the doe and her two fawns- the photo doesn't do it justice, but the babies still had spots!

Tonight I have a lesson with Cole, which will hopefully go well, assuming that he hasn't injured himself further. I told everyone what a jerk he was being (refer to the huge buck comments above) and had a bit of a crisis over buying him, so of course he was perfect last night. I do still think I'll be consulting Dr. Martha, because his personality doesn't seem in line with being as big of a grumpy jerk as he was Thursday-Sunday. All the same, my fingers are crossed for another perfect ride tonight.