Cleared

I had my post-op appointment today, and the doctor cleared me to ride. He said I can do whatever I want- I'm young and healthy and healed well. Yay!

Side note- never ask the internet for advice. I asked people on a Facebook group their experiences with laparoscopic appendectomies and going back to riding, and they were all "4 weeks at least." Hah. So there. Back to it I go!

Sidelined

2 weeks ago, I started getting a stomach ache on my way home from work. It wasn't too bad at first. But it got pretty bad, pretty quick, and by 8:30 I had made my husband come home from work (he works swing shift in the summer) and take me to the ER, thinking it was appendicitis. 

The ER was busy, but passing out in triage will get you in the back faster. Yay? I finally got some pain meds/anti nausea meds through an IV drip and had to wait around until they could get my in for a CT scan. By midnight, I'd had the scan and they determined it was in fact my appendix and it needed to come out. I hung out in the hospital not sleeping all night, and finally had the surgery the next day at about noon. 

Drugged and bored in the ER 

I managed to recover pretty quickly and was back to part days at work two days later, but the nurse told me I shouldn't ride for 4-6 weeks, unless I want to get internal scar tissue in my abdomen, which is apparently a bad thing. Hm. I go in for my post-op appointment this week, and I'm hoping since I'm making such a quick recovery that I can go back to riding soon. Especially since my favorite clinician is coming up in 2 weeks, and I need to get back on the pony! 

When I was talking with the Dr., he noticed my unicorn stuffie. I told him that any time someone in my group of horsey friends is in the hospital, we need to have unicorn magic. Then I realized that my friends are in the hospital more than is normal. I guess that comes with being in a high-risk sport. Even outside of the broken bones and sprains that tend to come with horses, my trainer was in and out of the hospital a couple years ago with thyroid cancer, a friend of ours just recently had a lump removed, and I had my appendix out. We are definitely using up our unicorn magic, but it's worked so far. Here's hoping it continues! 

Me and unicorn stuffie and my unicorn sweatshirt after being released

There's a blog hop going around right now, and one of the questions is something about being friends with your trainer. I am so happy to count my trainer/coach as one of my closest friends. We have been in the teacher/student relationship (both directions! I taught her an art class), the employer/employee relationship, and we're still good friends. When I texted her that I was in the hospital, she was ready to drop everything and come (she brought the unicorn and food for my husband the next morning, which was amazing...the poor guy was running between  home, work and hospital all night), and I hope she knows it goes both ways!

Anyway, I am back to working full time, and hoping to be back to riding the Tony beast soon. He's perfectly happy just hanging out on pasture all day, but I sure miss riding!

All I've done with the beast in the past two weeks

WEC July and Seriatim Shows - July 9 & 10, 2016

Well, we did it. We went to a rated show and survived! I have been groom/support system/videographer at SO many shows over the last 4 years, and I am so happy I finally got to take a horse to one of them. It's been a goal for so long, but it's always felt a little out of reach. My horse wasn't broke enough and I was broke. This year I really worked on getting my horse broke, and getting out there doing things (clinics, schooling shows, etc), and actively saved money from my side-business of pet portraits and pony painting parties (we don't paint on ponies, we paint ponies on canvas. It's fun ;) ).

So I made a plan to do 2 different shows this summer. The first one didn't work out. The timing was bad. So that left me with one. I was hoping to get my bronze scores for First Level this summer, but since I was only doing one show, it didn't really make sense to pay for all the memberships. I have my USDF and USEF, but I would need Tony's and Tony's owners' memberships. So I entered the Opportunity Classes at First Level.

My travel buddy M and I left last Friday morning (edit, this sat in my drafts for forever...we left July 8. It's August now. Yikes) to stop at the lesson barn to give the ponies baths (neither of us has a wash rack or warm water at home) before heading down to the show grounds to settle in and school. There was, of course, a wash rack back up with 7 horses leaving for the show. Good thing the eventers had left for their show the day before, or we would have been there all day. So we hung out and finally got the ponies bathed, wrapped and loaded.

So embarrassing. What you can't see are his
 rainbow unicorn pillow wraps under the pink.

We had a pretty easy drive to the show grounds. It's only about an hour from our lesson barn, and it's a beautiful drive.

You really can't grasp just how high above the water we are. 180 feet.
Narrow bridge. Horse trailer. Pedestrians. It's a fun time.

We get there, fluff up our stalls and settle our ponies in. We opted to haul our own shavings in rather than buy them at the show office. Next time, I'll probably pay the extra $5 or so and just have them ready for me. I'm cheap though ;) After the ponies were in their stalls, happily munching on hay (or watching everything, as Tony was doing), we set up our camp. The very best part about the Whidbey show grounds is that you can camp right next to your stalls. I could poke my head out of the tent and check on the horses. Plus they don't charge a camping fee. Another plus in my (pocket)book. Our tent was seriously massive, and we had a queen airbed, one of those double high ones. M and I know how to camp right. The rest of our showing crew...not so much.

After getting all settled and taking the ponies on a hand walk around the show grounds, it was time to saddle up and school in the rings before they closed them for the night. Tony was good, looked at a couple things, but ultimately settled in and did fine in both the warm up and competition ring. The ring can be a spooky one because it's right near the woods, and deer tend to dart about. Thankfully the deer stayed away while we were riding. After riding, it was dinner, hand grazing, and bed time.

Mmmmm...grass. 

On both show days, I decided to ride two tests. Might as well get as much out of the weekend as I could. On Saturday, my first test was around 10:30. I didn't want a super long warm up, as we would be riding twice, and I knew I'd run out of horse. He's not the most fit this summer, what with me working a full time office job. Whomp, whomp. His warm up was awesome. His canter felt so good, and he was forward and on my aids.

On the way to our test. My stock tie went limp. It was my first time tying one. You can hardly see, but there's unicorns on it!

Our test was okay. We did 1-1 first. It was good, not great. I have to say, I was super happy with the kid though. We went in and got it done. He had some nice moments, but there was no sparkle. I was thankful for an obedient pony, and no spooking. We had mostly 6's, a couple 5's and 7's. One 4 on our canter transition, where he hopped behind into it and was just generally on the forehand and ugly. Our free walk was painfully slow. Just not stepping through in back, and barely in stretch in front. But we got through it, and it actually wasn't as bad in the video as it felt. Overall, I was happy with Tony. No disobedience, no talking back. Sadly we got no cute points! I am all about cute points. We usually get some sort of comment like "nice pair" or "adorable" or something. I know some riders with Haflingers do not appreciate those comments, as they feel like it's condescending, but I don't care. I ride a giant Barbie pony, and I do it with pride! I came out of the ring with tears in my eyes...don't worry, they were happy tears. It's been a long road, and we finally made it into the rated ring (even if they were "just" opportunity classes). I've worked so hard to get here, and had to save up my pennies all year to make it work, and I was just so happy. As I came out of the ring, one of my barnmates greeted me with "Well, it's too bad he bucked in the canter." Um, thanks. But no thanks. I'm happy with him so shush.

Totally cute. 

I have to say I was super disappointed when I got my test back. Not in the score. It was a 61 and change, which isn't great, but scores were low all day, and I was totally happy with it. I was disappointed that there was not one positive comment on my whole test. Lots of negative/neutral comments, and on any of the 7's I got, there was just nothing written. Sigh. The collective marks were completely illegible, and not super helpful one way or the other once we deciphered it.

Our second test (1-2) was almost two hours later, so I walked Tony back to stabling and let him chill out for a while. I opted to get one just 20 minutes before my ride, do some walking, and a super short warm up so he didn't die on me in the ring. If he's tired, it's nearly impossible to have any sort of decent canter transition. Entering the ring, I made sure to push him on right away. Our trot work was much better. More forward and sparkly. Judge said it was too quick. Whatever. I made a plan to try for more in the freewalk, but it backfired when he jigged a few steps. He still wasn't stepping through enough in the back. Things to work on. Our first canter transition, Tony cross cantered to start, so we got majorly dinged there. Even though we had a few mistakes, I thought the quality of the work was better than the first test, and I thought for sure we'd get higher marks throughout the trot, and end up with about an even score with the jigging walk and bad canter moments. Our leg yields were pretty good. Trainer said that the one to the right was perfect for a first level leg yield. It went exactly where it was supposed to, and he was moving almost parallel to the rails. I think I got a 6. Sigh. Still got about the same  marks on the trot, and lower on walk and canter for a 58 or 59%. Collective marks, which were slightly more legible this time (same judge), were that we needed more preperation for this level.

Butt-out like some sort of weird dressage/hunt seat hybrid rider. But look at my pretty pony!

I realized that judges don't know where you've come from, what you are working with, or what your horse used to do. They just see what you are presenting them that day. And even though I thought Tony did amazingly, the judge saw a pair that may not be ready for First Level- a horse still on the forehand in the canter with iffy transitions, lengthenings that are not quite there yet. I'm still super happy with the beast. I'll leave a video at the end. It's nothing special, and there are mistakes, but I think it's a solid test for where we are in life. And man, we clean up nice, I have to say ;) 

A blue ribbon for each test! We may or may not have been the only pair in all of our classes...

Day 2 we left the forelock long. 

My dad videoed for me in our second test. My parents were able to watch me ride competitively for the first time ever! It was their last weekend in the country, and they made it work to watch my brother run a marathon in the morning, and then they drove an hour and a half to watch my ride and take me out to lunch. 

I won't post a recap of day two...it was almost exactly the same. We had good moments, and bad. Scores were almost identical to day 1. We were both tired, but we made it through. Tony walked around the grounds on the buckle, and was a complete gentleman. He acted like an old pro. I just love this horse so much, and I hope we can continue improving!

My Pony is Weird

I had a rather strange realization about Tony last week.

To preface this, I want to say that he is usually worse at home than he is away. He gets distracted and spooky, and he HATES it when things have moved since the last time we were in the arena. He's totally fine with gunshots, fireworks, and the UPS truck, but he does not like kittens, grass that is the wrong color, or the FedEx truck.

Last week I was riding, and he was being tense, looky, spooky, and just generally not fun to ride.

Like this. Not fun. 

Then, the farm owner came around the corner of the garage (OMG look! A human I see every day. Scary!), opened the garage (oh, but that's fine though), and turned on the loud riding lawnmower. He pulled out the lawnmower and was tinkering with it a bit on the driveway. And you know what? Tony was perfect. He let go in his back and neck and relaxed into the work. Um, ok? Apparently my pony needs a white noise machine. Can I pump lawnmower sounds into his ear bonnet? That would be swell.

Things That Have Happened

Well, it's been over a month since my last post. I started one in there somewhere about how low my motivation was. Yeah, I didn't even have enough motivation to post my low-motivation post. Fitting, I suppose.

Random adorable photo from Canada day. Look at his round little back and neck!

Although I haven't been riding as much as I should, fun things have happened since I wrote in May. Here are a couple:

1. Tony went to bootcamp
2. I rode with an almost-Olympian
3. I sent in my entry for my first ever rated show
4. I learned something new about Tony's weird mind

1. I was gone for about a week in June, right before I was supposed to ride in a clinic with Karen Pavicic. My trainer offered to ride Tony for me while I was gone so he wouldn't be a lump when I got back. Bonus- I got to ride in good footing for a few days before heading home. Our footing at home is pretty awful, and it's nice not having to worry about tipping over. Plus, Tony got to hang out with some goats.

Jelly G. Goat

Billy Bob and Tony exchanging workout tips. They've both got a "leg at each corner," as they say.

2. I rode in a Karen Pavicic clinic on June 19. She's a great teacher, and so patient. We repeated the same exercise over and over again, and she made little tweaks each time until I could really feel what was supposed to happen. Tony wants to throw his haunches to the right all the time, and we worked a ton on straightness. 

All in all, it was a successful lesson! Tony was exhausted- by the end, I felt like I couldn't even pony club kick him into the trot, and this is a horse who goes forward if I think forward! It was a very strange feeling. Could be because we went way past our 45 minutes, which is totally fine with me! Pony face can use a little butt-kicking now and then. 

My favorite part would have to be when Karen said we were a nice pair, and kept saying how cute Tony is. I think he's pretty cute myself. She also said multiple times that I have good instincts, and just need to learn what to do with them. That was nice to hear because I feel like I struggle a lot with not knowing whether or not I'm on the right track. So now I just need to learn how to work those instincts into action. 

Fancy pants McGee over here!

3. I sent in my first entry to a rated show! Okay, that's a lie. I sent one in last August, but got put on a wait-list and didn't make it in. I was not happy with how they handled the wait-list (I heard from a friend of a friend that I had been wait-listed, and then they cashed my check, and sent another back, minus the office fee. I don't think that I should have to pay the office fee for a show I didn't go to...but I digress). 

This upcoming weekend, Tony and I will be riding first level tests 1 and 2 in the opportunity classes. I'm not qualifying for championships, end of year awards, or breed awards, so I don't see the need to sign up for all the memberships for me, the horse, and his owner. That's a butt-load of money for one show. So opportunity classes it is! I'll go for the bronze medal scores next year. I'm mostly excited about ribbons and pro photos, let's be honest. 

The face of a champion, obvs.

JW Clinic Day 2...sort of

Well, I had a post written up for Jessica Wisdom Clinic Day 2, but it got deleted. Oh well. Day 1 was better anyway :)
Day 2, Tony was tired and behind the leg. We couldn't get any lateral work done, his haunches wouldn't move!

So I'll just put up pictures from Day 2 instead.

My new Pipers looked awesome...but the stitching was coming loose. On the first ride!

At least my pony's cute!

Jessica Wisdom Clinic Day 1

I am a slow clinic recap writer. This clinic was last weekend, and I'm finally getting around to putting my thoughts down.

I've admired Jessica Wisdom for a long time. She's an awesome rider, and she has Cardi! Cardi is THE BEST.

What a sexy hunk of horse flesh!

Anyway. Last year, there was talk in my local club/GMO about bringing Jessica up to teach a clinic. And we actually did it! It feels like a lot of the time, the club has ideas and doesn't follow through with them. Well, I'm the president now, so I get to push things ;) 

It was a super great weekend, even beyond the riding part. We got to socialize with Jessica, and not only is she a great teacher, she's a great person and fun to be around. 

I will try my best to summarize what happened both days in my lessons. Lots of good stuff for me to think about, and I don't want to forget any of it! Thankfully, my trainers videoed me, and stood right behind Jessica, so I've got that to study (amazing!!). 

Day 1 highlights:

-Always riding to where you could have a good halt. Could I halt right now if I wanted to? Do I have enough control? (Spoiler alert...usually not). I used lots of half halts to keep Tony listening to me, and going along at MY pace, not his. 

Collecting that ridiculously long back!

-Keeping Tony 6 feet long on both reins. This was an awesome visual that changed how I thought about collection. Imaging Tony is 6 feet long from nose to tail. Now, keep riding him 6 feet long, even though he wants to be strung out at 7 or 8 feet. AND keeping him 6 feet on both reins. I was good at keeping him shorter on his right rein, but let that left rein go way too often. 

-Being fired from my right rein. Speaking of which...I got fired from using my right rein. I was too good at bending to the right, to where there was too much bend, and terrible at bending to the left. 

-Riding hind legs into the hands/reins. Also applying to the 6 feet long principle. Imagining riding Tony's hind legs into my hands really helped me to get him bringing his hind end more under himself (at least a little bit...dude is so freaking long). 

-Shoulder fore visuals. Two that really helped were imagining which feet you'd see from straight ahead- inside hind is between front legs. Just slightly, and less neck bend than I tended to put in. The better visual for me was imagine the outside hind leg is a flashlight and is shining out the right nostril, not the shoulder, where I had it pointed. 

So much cuteness!

-Shoulder bulging. Ah the shoulder bulge. So much bulge and running out the shoulders. The best visual I got for helping me to keep it reined in was imagining arrows that point out in the direction of travel coming out the ribcage, not the shoulder (in the bend, especially in leg yield).

-5.4.3.2.1. trots. This really helped me regulate Tony's tempo, and keep him at my pace. Find my five trot, and decrease or increase by increments on my time. Just a good mindset to keep. 

-Canter snowman. This is an exercise I've done before, and I love it. Super helpful for our rushy canter. It's basically a 10-meter trot circle at the top of a 20-meter canter circle. So, canter your 20-meter circle, and at the top, change the bend, and trot the opposite direction in a "4" trot (see previous point) in a 10-meter  circle. At the completion of the circle, change bend, and canter in a "little" canter (Tony's canter is not so little, but we were getting pretty good). Rinse and repeat. If I got a really good canter going, I would do an extra 20-meter circle. The trot circles really helped us stay flexible and kept us from getting too flaily. 

Canter! So much beautiful canter!

-Best canter ever. Finally, Tony had his best canter moments ever! Watching the video, we still need to majorly work on our canter transitions (I throw away the reins and Tony lunges his giant head and shoulders forward), but he had moments of true roundness, which hasn't really happened before. Getting the canter on this beast has been ridiculous, and I am so happy we're finally getting there! 

So Day 1 was awesome! Great lesson, and Tony was a good boy. Day 2, he was definitely tired and behind the leg. That will be my next post though :)