smellshorsey

Back from Carolina's Region Pony Club Camp

We're back from five days in Tryon, N.C. at the Pony Club Carolina's Region summer camp. I love this photo, which I took on the cross-country course at FENCE. I don't know this girl but her horse was green and he jumped off of the bank jump like a happy five-year-old child who'd just discovered jumping off the side of the swimming pool. I love how he seems to be flying through the air with the mountains in the background.

Lily was also in this group of five girls and horses. It was mercilessly hot. Two of the five had to drop out due to the heat. I probably would have dropped out but moms aren't allowed to drop out. Here's a photo of Lily and Markus over the same jump. This was Lily's first time ever doing a drop bank.

Now here's one of the many, many cool things that happened at camp. See the woman whose back is to the camera? That's Sarah Hansel, who was one of the excellent instructors at camp and who has a personal connection to Markus, Lily's new horse. Sarah used to show him for the woman who had rehabbed him after his slab knee fracture at the track when he was four. She would have been an incredible instructor for Lily even if she didn't know the horse, but since she had a history with him, she was able to give extra insight -- and confidence -- to Lily.

Lily's lesson on the cross-country course with Sarah had Lily completely aglow. She said, "That's the best time I ever had in my life doing anything!"

I've never been so hot and tired as I've been over the last five days. But it was worth every drop of sweat and every pound of Tryon red clay that won't even wash out of our whites with bleach.

More to come.

Getting Ready for Pony Club Camp

School ended Friday. We're getting ready for Pony Club camp, which is in less than two weeks. I don't know what I'm getting myself into but since the materials state "this is not the kind of camp where you drop off your child and leave," I'm staying. And since I'm staying I'm bringing my horse as well as Lily's new horse.

I'm actually excited, especially since we decided to stay in a hotel instead of a stall. Or a tent. I really couldn't be civil if I slept in a stall on a cot for four nights. I'd likely start to crib, weave and take on other vices, especially biting the other campers and chaperones. I'm grumpy enough with sleep.

Lily signed up for tetrathlon shooting practice. She's never shot a gun before and has been wanting to learn. This all sounded fine until....they don't have enough pistols for the campers to use and are calling for campers to try to bring one.

Well, I have a S&W .357 magnum and two other handguns. But I don't think this is what Pony Club permits. Especially when they have middle-aged adult women (read: hormonal) sleeping in stalls. No, we do not need to be armed.

Turns out what they want is an air pistol. This sounded good. I had visions of a $20 BB gun from Wal-Mart. But no! These target air pistols are more in the $400 and up range. Ouch!

I knew that horses were expensive. But that's a lot of money for a gun you can't even use on a crack-crazy intruder or a rabid raccoon unless you really want to piss them off. It's a gun that's not a gun.

And here I was trying to plan ahead on the stuff we needed such as hay, feed, supplements, buckets (Pony Club is big on buckets), more buckets, replacement parts for everything that might break, which is everything, etc. Had to get a new Coggins on the new horse and all the shots up to date. And now I need to find and borrow a gun that doesn't really shoot and costs $400.

I called my good friend whose husband is heavily armed. Of course all of his guns shoot real ammunition. And I've got some other heavily armed friends, but I doubt any of them have arms that aren't lethal. We do have a potato gun that is great fun and was under $5. That might have to do.

I hear the tetrathlon is great fun and it's wonderful that volunteers are willing to come to camp and work with our kids. But I'm constantly amazed at the "one more thing" I need to have. (Nobody is saying that I have to have one -- don't get me wrong. Our Pony Club has nice reasonable people in it -- they're just hoping for some members who can lend us air pistols or moms who haven't already spent all their money on fly sheets.)

Anyway. I'm bringing my camera, and I plan to shoot that.

One Trendy Style Horse People Can't Wear

It's hard to be a horse person and to dress stylishly. For one thing, all the money for style goes to buy horse blankets to replace the ones that the horse thoughtlessly and gleefully shredded. And then there's the horse food. And the riding lessons.

There's also little reason to spend good money on any clothes that don't look good covered in green slobber. Or clothes that can't stand up to a good bleaching.

But then there's another obstacle for horse people who want to dress fashionably: the fashions themselves. I do believe that I would start to crib if forced to wear these cute (I guess) capris from Ann Taylor.
Is it just me? I see these pants -- I feel the ties brushing on my legs. FLIES!

I cannot and will not wear clothes that feel like I have flies crawling on my legs. Because most of the time, I do have flies crawling on my legs, and I'm constantly stomping and slapping at them.

I have a bathing suit cover-up with fringe on the bottom. One of those island print thingies. Very cute. Had to give it away. Fringe on bottom = FLIES on legs.

My TB mare, Lucy, has the same problem. I put a fly sheet on her last summer. Although she wears a blanket all winter with no problem, she was convinced that the lightweight mesh fluttering around her was FLIES. It made her crazier than before. So, since Buddy's fly sheet had arrived missing pieces (I eventually ended up getting a credit for it but haven't shopped at that particular Internet horse store again), I just let him have hers. Which he tore up.

The flies are bad already. I know I'm a little late, but I'm starting the horses on feed-through fly control, I'm hanging fly traps (pew!) under the eaves of the barn away from the horse end, and I have (probably foolishly) ordered new fly sheets that cover from ears to tail. And then I found these cool fly leg wraps and have ordered them, too. Last year's fly masks are in usable condition, so at least I didn't have to get that.

Of course, we're running through fly spray like crazy. And we need to figure out why the fans in the barn aren't working.

But wear fashionable clothes that have ties that feel like flies brushing my legs? Forget waterboarding -- that would be torture!

How to Keep Your Horse's Hooves from Getting Dirty

Don't let them touch the ground. (I got a faster camera for my birthday and I'm having a wonderful time learning how to take pictures of Lily and her new horse, Markus. Here they are at their most recent lesson.)

When Winning Isn't Everything

Winning is never everything, but sometimes winning can be an embarrassment. We have this new horse, Markus (left), who has done a great many things, from racing to eventing at the preliminary level. And also at the beginner novice level and novice level with his previous owner. When I checked online, I saw that they had won one event at the beginner novice level, and been eliminated at other events on the cross country phase. Oops!

We know what he can do. We don't know yet what he can't -- or won't -- or possibly even worse, WILL do that we don't expect or know about.

So, when we'd had the horse a total of three weeks (and two of them are his "on trial" weeks), I was faced with a dilemma. Lily wanted to enter him in a friendly, local horse trials that she usually attends. But at what level should I enter them? She's never even ridden a dressage test on him and has only had three lessons. I don't know what he does on cross country that got him eliminated more than once. Everything I've seen him do is good, or otherwise I wouldn't have bought him. But there's this level of the unknown....

Over her objections (she wanted to go novice, which is two levels up from her previous experience), I entered her in special novice -- the same level at which she last competed. At that time she was first after dressage but ended up fifth from time and jumping faults. Enormous time faults. 

We got to the show grounds and unloaded. Markus looked around then started grazing. That's a good sign. He doesn't stand particularly still to get tacked up but he's not awful, either. They had a pretty good warm-up for dressage, but not a very good test. Their score put them next to last (fifth), with a huge difference between them and the girl in first place.

So, that was disappointing but just showed what Lily and Markus need to work on (everything in dressage). Schooling for cross country was good, and even though Lily had been warned by Markus's previous owner that he was very, very antsy and sometimes agitated in the starting box, he walked in and acted like a horse with brains. He knew where he was and was ready to go, but he wasn't stupid.

Lily had to ride him, and he hesitated as if he was going to stop at a downhill jump in a pasture fence line that he had to jump into some dark woods, but Lily growled at him and drove him (thank you, Buddy, for this good lesson) and Markus sailed over. Whew! After that she had a wonderful ride -- the time of her life. I have never seen such a happy smile on her face.

Lily was clean after cross country. But the other girls weren't so lucky. Lily found herself unexpectedly in first place. And though they had a very eccentric, fast and open-jumperish stadium round (giving the spectators their money's worth with hair pin turns, crazy approaches and almost getting off course), they were clean there. So they held on to first place.

I was proud of both of them. And I was also very, very relieved that they had not done well in dressage. The mothers and trainers of the other competitors politely asked me about this new horse, and I could tell there were some ideas that perhaps it wasn't sportsmanlike to enter them in this division. I was relieved that I was able to tell them that Lily and Markus were next to last after dressage, which meant that their first place finish was only possible because the competitors who placed higher than them after dressage lost their rankings through their own time and jumping faults. I did not enter a ringer for my child to beat their children.

My goal for the day was to enter my daughter and her new horse in a competition that would be challenging and safe, where they could come away with a good experience. That's what happened, and now we know (more or less) how he's going to act.

Lily was ecstatic during her victory gallop. She did the whole thing on the wrong lead. She has plenty to work on before next time, when she will indeed compete up a level.

Winning is great fun when you've really earned it.

Lucy's First Show

After the hay net fiasco, the horse show was fun.

We love the series of small, friendly schooling-type shows that they have about once a month in the next county. People encourage each other, the show management is relaxed and flexible, and though it is competitive, the support for the other riders and horses is greater than anyone's desire to win. It's hunters in the morning, western in the afternoon, and then a bunch of games classes. Some people ride in all three segments.

We found out our friends were going, so we wanted to go. But which horse to take? Since Buddy's for sale, he would have to be perfectly turned out and Lily would have to ride him perfectly. She didn't want to work that hard -- she wanted to have fun with her friends. Though Markus is new and we could use the experience with taking him somewhere, he doesn't need the experience. We decided to take Lucy because she almost never gets to to anywhere. In fact, she hadn't been ridden in weeks. (Ooops. This is my horse.)

I told Lily she could ride the horse or just tie her to the trailer. Either way it would be educational for Lucy. She chose to ride her.

I liked Lucy's attitude. Ears forward, more or less doing what she was supposed to. Things weren't perfect but it was a positive experience. One class was just about perfect. First is always fun.
 

Our New Horse! (If He Vets Out)

This week is spring break. While the rest of you are escaping to the beaches or planting your gardens at home, we are buying and selling horses.

Okay. That's only half true. We haven't sold Buddy but we've found The Perfect Horse (note: calling him The Perfect Horse will ensure he flunks vetting), made an offer and will be picking him up in the morning. He's ours if he vets out. I hate this part.

I also hate the part where we're signing contracts and I'm getting insurance and trying to work out problems that aren't problems but feel like it. And when I walk outside to do something and Buddy comes to the fence to greet me I feel like I'm having an affair...

But for Lily, Christmas has come. She is ecstatic. She has forgotten all about boys. "When are we picking up the horse?" Well, I was all set. I had the truck gassed up and ready to go... then there was all this paperwork stuff.

Anyway. We live in a world where handshakes are just a way to catch colds. The people who are selling him are really nice; they're just protecting themselves in a world where handshakes are just a way to catch colds. Back in the old days.... Heck. Three years ago we brought Buddy home with no contract, no insurance, no agreed-upon price, nothing. Just a promise that we would give his blanket back if we bought him. Which we did -- buy him AND give the blanket back.

Our horse-to-be is a 10 year-old TB gelding with an old racing injury. The old racing injury is the only reason we can afford him. He's a grandson of Seattle Slew (who won the Triple Crown and was possibly undefeated but I'm not sure) and has evented at the Preliminary level. I talked to the woman who rescued him from the track before his current owner bought him, and if he's half as good as she says (and she has no reason to tell me a tale since she has a horse she'd like to sell us of her own) we have found The Perfect Horse. Here's a short clip of Lily trying him out.

Let Me Tell You Why You Shouldn't Buy My Horse

Buddy is a beautiful, delightful horse. I feel like I'm trying to sell my dog. I act like I'm trying to sell this big ugly goat.

Buddy is a big handsome guy. He is sound and healthy. Buddy has a good mind and has excellent bloodlines. Buddy is a gentleman and a great fellow. He's only for sale because he has informed me (without the use of a Horse Communicator) that he doesn't wish to comply with Lily's dreams of jumping higher and going further. So, as I've said before, he's for sale.

And I'm not the best one to sell him. In fact, I'm sure I'm the worst. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning in a stew, fussing over the house and barn (with no visible change) so that it would look like a place that would have a nice horse for sale for when my potential buyer comes.

 

And then, the potential buyer who was coming to try Buddy called and said that after sleeping on all the things I told her about him, she just didn’t think she wanted him. She thanked me for being so honest.

 

I cannot help myself. I tell everything I know, especially the bad things, even if they’ve never caused a problem (she was concerned about an injury he had before we got him – an injury that has given us no problems).

 

So, rather than come look at my horse whom she knows everything about, she’s going to go instead to look at the horses offered for sale by a man I believe to be unscrupulous. I know him from when I had another horse and boarded at a stable where he worked. I believe that he certainly will not tell the whole truth about his horses, and here I’ve lost a potential sale because of my overabundance of honesty.

 

I have to believe that God will find Buddy a good home and that I’ve done the right thing, but it doesn’t feel like it.

 

My lost potential buyer asked me what I knew of the man she’s going to see, and she told me she knew that he had a very good reputation. I said I didn’t know anything about that, but that when he was a farrier, I had to quit using him and use someone else because he was unable to shoe my horse. I didn’t tell her about the suitcase of beer he brought with him and would drink while he worked on the horses. I didn't tell her about other things. Maybe he's cleaned up his act. I don't know. I said that I couldn’t speak about his reputation as a horse trader.

 

So, I’ve been in one kind of stew and now I’ve gotten in another kind. But I’ll be all right.

 

I’m not good at this buying and selling of horses. I find it quite stressful. I got several very excited e-mails from another potential buyer that I think I ran off by telling her absolutely every bad thing I know. Not the good things. Anything that could possibly be wrong. I have a compulsion to do that.

Why don't I tell people all the wonderful things about this horse? He is very special. Is there something called being too honest?

Probably I'm not being too honest -- I'm probably being too negative, and no, it's not because I don't want to sell him, though deep down I probably don't. But we have to, if we're going to get a horse that will do the things that Lily wants to do. I want him to get a good home and everybody to live happily ever after. Us. Him. His buyer. Our new horse.

Another prospect is coming next week to look at him. I think I'll excuse myself and let Lily and her teacher show the horse. That is, unless I talk to the prospective buyer again and talk them out of coming. 

Time to Change Horses

We've been wrestling with a tough decision here for a few weeks. No, longer than that. It's been about three months. Lily's horse, Buddy, has decided that jumping is for other horses, dogs and kangaroos, not for him.

Lily says it's not fun anymore. He doesn't want to jump (though he jumps gloriously here at home). She wants to jump. She keeps trying to jump him at Pony Club and other farms. And he has become dead set against it.

I don't know how we got here and don't want to go into all the things we've tried and failed. All I know is that it's not working. It could be our fault. But we are where we are -- and it's time to move on.

Her trainer and I have suggested to Lily that we get her another horse.

There's been much weeping, and I'm not far from it myself. I can't tell you how many times we've had the following conversation:

"Mom, have you ever known a horse with as much personality as Buddy?" she asked between sobs.

"No," I confessed.

"Mom, have you ever known a horse as affectionate as Buddy?" she asked.

"Well, the others get pretty affectionate if you have food," I tried.

"You know Buddy doesn't need food to love us," she said. True, but it helps.

"I never want to sell him," she said. "I love him, and he does everything great but jumping."

"But jumping is what you want to do," I said.

"Nobody has as good a personality as Buddy," she retorted.

"You don't ride on the personality," I said.

Things changed last week. I took Buddy and her teacher's horse off to school at another farm. Buddy was absolutely fabulous. He stood quietly at the trailer while we tacked him up. He was calm and interested in his new surroundings, but stayed quiet and perfect.  He warmed up and looked like a million bucks. Then, when it was time to jump, he quit. Nothing doing. No jumping.

This horse has been evented a few times and never once had a refusal. He's gone in shows and never had a refusal. But he has decided that he isn't jumping -- and we're not going to make him.

We tried. I won't go into everything, but we tried. He has made a decision. No jumping except at home. And that's not good enough.

The thing that was different last week is that Lily's smart teacher brought her own horse, Ollie, and after Buddy had disappointed Lily, her teacher said to get on Ollie. Lily jumped Ollie over several courses. And we asked, "Did you have fun?"

"Yes. But I have fun on Buddy when I take him trail riding and do flat work and go places with him. I just can't jump him," she said.

"What if you got a horse that did all the things that you love to do with Buddy, and that horse jumped, too? In fact, you could take that horse places and jump -- not just at home," we said.

Lily was as dead set against replacing Buddy as Buddy is dead set against jumping.

The instructor sent Lily off to jump some more on Ollie. And this time it seemed to register what she was missing. Riding horses and jumping is her very favorite thing to do.

So we've made a heart-breaking decision. We're going to sell our precious Buddy and get a horse that wants Buddy's job. Lily will fall in love again.

The multi-talented but non-jumping Buddy will get a good home (we'll see to that). And he won't miss us nearly as much as we're going to miss him.

Pony Club Rating in the Cold, Cold Rain

I haven't been blogging because I've been spending the past two weekends at Pony Club things. Last weekend was Lily's rating day. Rating days are expensive, so Pony Clubs don't have them but once or twice a year. The clubs have to pay for the raters to come, so our club combined with the one in Aiken for our rating day to cut costs.

And once you've got it all scheduled, you go ahead and have it -- no matter what the weather. So we went to Aiken last weekend for one miserable, cold wet day. The temperature hovered between 37 and 44. The rain poured.

One drenched mother said, "They ought not even test them and should let all of us go home. No kid would have shown up in this weather if they weren't sure they were going to pass."

Alas, they didn't shortchange any phase of the testing. We left home at 8:30 a.m. and got home at 6:00 p.m. Lily passed her rating and even said she had fun but had never been so cold.

It's warm today and raining. There was a horse show. We didn't go. I stayed in bed and was so grateful to be warm and dry with nowhere to rush to. Lily's working on her science project.

She decided to postpone her birthday celebration and go to Pony Club Quiz Rally next month instead. She's making new friends at Pony Club and told me, "Mom, if you go hang out with the other mothers, you'll probably make friends, too."

On the next warm, dry day, I will.