No Bucking!

Rocky was sooo much better this week than he's ever been! There was absolutely NO bucking! Not a single one for the whole lesson! Small, big, Stamped style, nothing!! So does that mean I was actually riding more with my legs?! I should hope so, because he would have made it clear otherwise.
The course wasn't to bad, good thing Rocky can do crazy little turns with out much difficulty.

We had some "first jumpitice" as K says, whatever that is....
The first jump in the course was a white vertical, and almost every time we had a messed up distance or take off, but the last time we turned to it sooner and it was fine. There was a few weirdish jumps, well not the jump, but how we got over them. Luckily I was able to get my hands out of the way so that wasn't a problem but when we first start jumping I find myself leaning at him a bit and excepting the long, which rarely comes, even on course. So I should stop that.

One of Rocky's sons, Rocket, is at the barn as well. And the girl who rides him has a lesson before me and we were talking after and comparing father and son. Rocky has the better colouring, main & tail, Rocket has the better legs and back. Rocky has a little bit of sway back, nothing to bad that's a problem, otherwise he wouldn't be getting ridden and "bench knees" not sure what those are, but he has them K was saying. Their common factors are being short, not liking bits and having a grumpy attitude. But Rocky's the cutest =P.

In Equine Science we've started body scoring as part of nutrition. So in my novice opinion Rocky's like a 7 or so. I'll have to double check on the sheet but I'm pretty sure a 7.  
5 is the best best place to be, possibly a 4 for racehorses.
1 is completely emaciated and 9 is morbidly obese.

Riding and Awkwardness..

So, awkward stuff first.
I work at the barn right, and there's no set pay day, it's kind of just whenever really. And it's not such a big deal. I work like once a week so it's pointless to waste a cheque on that little amount , but it's been like two and a bit months so, I thought I would ask.
One of the most awkward moments of my life. Next to watching Sweeney Todd and my mum came in when they were singing about eating people. It's a good movie actually, but yeah, very creepy.
Anyway, so I sent my boss a text asking if she wouldn't mind paying and that I was sorry for not being able to find a less awkward way to ask that. Have you ever had to ask your boss for a check? Turns out there was no need to find it awkward she said she'd  pay me tomorrow, yay :).

Riding! From last weekend..
On Friday I had afternoon and night chores so I got to do my lease ride with Rocky. He was pretty good I guess. He kept spooking at this spot of grass the cat had been hiding LAST week, so that was annoying. And it seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get him to circle properly. It would start out fine, but he kept squaring it off, possilbly dropping his shoulder or something? But yeah, no matter what I tired to fix, we kept having problems. But he's not the greatest shape, so we couldn't keep at it forever, and I don't want him to end up hating work either.
Crazy dressage woman was out that night too, but she was practicing jumping in her dressage saddle, looked comfy [sarcasim]. Her horse is super cute and did really well too. Jumping about 2'6" or so.

Worked mornings on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday I was able to ride with L when she came out to test her new western saddle. We rode inside because it was blistering hot. Roxy was pretty good, she chomps on the bit when we're just walking around though but other than that she was good. She's getting much better the more she realizes I won't yank on her mouth or boot her, like she's worried about so we had zero rushy trot/canter stepping thing.

Still doing nutrition in Equine Science, eventually I'll make some nice long post about it. Been super busy with other stuff and haven't had a chance.

"Can You Feed Them Meat?" and other ravings :)

My god, university is proving to be quite the treat!

So I had equine science yesterday and we are still doing lots on nutrition and we were talking about protein and what you can substitute to get it. Ie) Canola Meal when it's mixed and pelleted, Soybean meal, Field peas that can be mixed in with other things (but have less protein).
And so the prof asks, "can anyone think of other things/has anyone used other things?" some kid sticks up his hand and says "can you feed them meat?". There's a few people in the class who know nothing about horses and my guess is he is one of them. It really was probably just a simple question with no sinister motives behind it (see man that feed dead people to pigs) because meat does have protein and I'm guessing he's probably heard about feed lots that mix in meat with all the other disgusting things they feed to their animals.

What else is wondrous about school?
English! I love reading, but I hate having to pick a part the stories, plays etc, to find all the hidden meanings in them. Mostly because I can't find what everyone else seems too, and until last day that wasn't a big deal because he only asked if you put your hand up. But for whatever reason he feels he should be able to match every ones name to their face and so he's now forcing us to answer stupid things about the stories. It doesn't help that the little things I do find, someone else says just before I get the chance or he says it, and then I have nothing to say, because what is there to say after that? Luckily I escaped last day without having to answer anything, but I don't think I will be so lucky today. I was complaining to my friend that they were finding all this weird stuff in these stories and she's like, "no they're just good at making things up" HA! Very true, and I can make shit up! In fact I'm quite good at it! For example, she was telling me she had to find the meaning behind Hansel and Gretel and now a days the meaning is clearly about staying away from Internet pedos. The witch is a pedophile trying to lure the small children in to its web of creepy pedophile-ness by leaving candy (which is whatever creepy Internet people do to get people to tell them personal info) and snatching them away or whatever. See I can up crap! But the thing is, it's easier when you have at least one friend in the class. But I have got some stupid answer made up for a possible question about the latest story and how the rooster represented the kids original opinions and thoughts about his grandpa and then when the grandpas servant carried the rooster away to be killed and eaten it was like his idealize of his grandpa where being killed because now he knows what an ass his grandpa really is. Think it'll fly? I think it's pretty good all things considered, but an answer like that depends on the question too....

Enough of this, I have barn chores tonight so I get to ride both Rocky and Roxy and I'll find out if I can remember a simple dressage test :)

Wednesday

I was just looking at the stables website and there's a bit about some of the horses that are for lease and it hasn't been updated in ages! There's horses on there that were sold years ago, like Diesel. Who turns out I lied about in the last post about his height, he was 15.3hh.

I was hoping to find a picture of Rocky to use until I can take one myself but no luck. There was a bit about him under the lease horse section as well: "Rocky. 14.2 hand Morgan gelding. Rocky has show experience in low jumpers,with many wins to his name. He is also the horse I use for ponying horses in
training. This quick and agile gelding has a wonderful jump, but he is very
particular with how he is ridden so needs a quiet rider who will cater to his whims."

Ahh yes, if there's one thing I can do it's whim catering.

So we had a lesson yesterday, there's been some confussion about the lesson times and what starts when and all that stuff, but oh well.

It was tough lesson, not because the course was super hard or Rocky was being an idiot, I was in a lesson with two other people who don't ride at the same level (sorry if this sounds mean and bitchy, I don't mean it too) the one girl is a really good rider but was riding Roxy who is a bit difficult because she's so nervous and she hasn't done a lot of jumping, fine whatever. It was the other girl. She seems really nice which is why it makes me feel a bit bad to complain but she keeps making the same mistakes and not correcting them and then it takes her forever when she's told to do something or correct something and so it gets a bit boring when you have to sit there for ages waiting for your turn while someone keeps screwing up. If it was a different thing each time, that would be different but it wasn't.
Not remembering courses: yeah, everyone forgets sometimes (see last week) and sometimes it's hard to remember the first time you here it. It wasn't a hard course though!
Left lead, circle to yellow, around to white, bend to skinny, long canter, up diagonal, over white, back to skinny.
Not that helps with what the course looks like but that doesn't matter.
This girl went last, after two other people who didn't go of course! It should have been easy to figure out, it was 8 jumps and not a very complicated pattern.

But when me and Rocky finally got to go, he did really well! At the warm up he had refused the white jump, but over the course he was so good. Not at all like last week.
He was a bit more bucky than usual, which was kind of frustrating because I really wasn't using my hands very much at all, but it could have been because we had a super energetic canter and he was just excited to go. It was fun! We got to do higher jumps in the end to and I think he had a bit more fun with and he seemed to respect them a bit more.
Over the last white jump I did get a bit left behind, good thing he has lots of mane so I didn't catch him in the mouth...or face really since there's no bit.

But K did point out that will take some time to find a rhythm with him, especially with all the bucking and the round jumping.

Equine Science- Colic & Nutrition

Fuck you blogger. I had a big huge post typed out from all the nutrition & digestive stuff we did in class today and the blog just ate it and now I can't get it back.

So now I get to start all over again!

Mouth, Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Cecum
-horses can't throw up once food passes the soft palate and if it's choking you'll see saliva coming out of it's nose.
-they use their lips to sort food, like when you try mixing vitamins/minerals with oats but they leave all the vitamins behind
-horses can't burp (not so sure, there's a horse at the barn that does...) so they're subject to gas pains
-hay and other fibers aren't easily digested in the stomach
-the small intestine is coiled into the left flank area, it's approx 70ft. It breaks down soluble carbs and protein is absorbed as amino acids, but fiber materials aren't.
-fiber moves through faster than grain
-horses don't have a gall bladder
-the large intestine has about 1billion bacteria and protozoa, they ferment the grain/fiber
-bacteria produce B vitamins
-the cecum is the junction between the small and large intestines
-1m in length with a capacity of 25-35L
-1/2 the volume of the large intestine and cecum is bacteria
-this is where the fermentation of cellulose happens which can take days
-high quality hay takes about 3-4days and lesser quality hay takes much longer and they can't eat as much as they may need because it takes so long to ferment.
-Stabled horses are at a higher risk to colic if they don't get regular exercises because movement aids the digestive process.
-consistent diets are important because a change in the diet/time of feed can upset the bacteria ie) getting a substantial amount of grain when not used to it. Large amounts of grain in hind digestive system upsets the bacteria and can lead to founder.
-energy from hay doesn't go to the mind, but energy from glucose does

Colic: Conditions in the gastrointestinal tract cause pain. The interruption of smooth muscle contractions.

1. Gas- is most common in stabled horses but walking the horse or letting it role can help
2. Impaction- the horse eats more than it can digest. This colic requires vet care to get oil into the hind gut or the palpitation of the gut to get the material to move. Not usually successful and risky.
3. Twisted Intestines- 21m of intestine, loosely wrapped with risk of them getting twisted. High risk in over weight and under conditioned horses. Lots of fat around internal/digestive organs. It cuts of the blood supply to affected area and nothing can move through. Horse will die with out vet care. The vet would preform surgery to remove the damaged tissue, this is somewhat successful, but the cost may be more than what it's worth because the horse is often not the same after.
4. Overload of grain

So he says to walk the horse, and I've heard that before but I've also heard that you aren't supposed to walk them or let them role. Does it just depend on the type of colic they have? I should have asked...

Founder/Laminitis: is inflammation of the hoof, causes pain and permanent problems if it's sever.
Its caused by excess grain, lush pasture or retained placenta.
- In mares: must make sure the placenta has been fully delivered otherwise it acts like dead tissue and releases toxins which can lead to founder.
-Healthy bacteria are not set up to use grain unless the they are used to it. If the bacteria is present in large numbers it can break down grain. Toxic material is released from damaged tissue and effects the feet. Histamine causes dilation of the blood vessels which causes problems in the legs and feet. The frog pumps the blood back up the leg but if it can't get ride of blood sufficiently it pools in the foot. The wall starts to pull away from the coffin bone and can cause permanent damage as they do not grow back together. Common in fat idle horses if the pasture is to good.
But if it's caught early ie) you know the horse got into a grain bin a vet can come out and treat the overdose early it can stop the effects of laminitis so they don't reach the onset and cause permanent damage.

Yeah, so that's basically what we did last day, there was lots about enzymes and stuff, but I think I should say that none of this should ever be considered as advice, this is just what my prof has said and may not always be right (see his opinions on standardbreds) so yeah. Don't take this advice, ever. Go call the vet :)

Standardbreds are....

...useless except for pacing/trotting.

That's my Equine Science profs opinion.
But yeah, he really thinks that. Appearntly they aren't atheltic enough for other things. Sure maybe they aren't Grand Prix matterial but really? How many horses are? Very, very few. There's loads of people here that use them for showing at the local level in both dressage and jumping and they do quite well.

I can't decide if I like this guy or not.
So on the second day of class he was talking about different breeds of horses and how they were created, stuff like that but he just went on and on and on. This class is already 1 hour and 20 minutes. Those extra 10 minutes people need to get all the way across campus to their other classes. But he's to old and senile to understand that. So the people who did need to leave started to because he had run over his time. The next day he was all pissy and was like "we have to finish breeds today as well because people just started leaving the day before" but imagine that in some horribly unappealing voice.

It's not like he doesn't know what he's talking about. He did a lot to get the pre-vet equine program going at the UofS and he's got his own horses, years of experience and was head of some big equine organization here in Alberta, until he retired to teach one class a term.
He seems nice enough, when he's not putting his jack ass opinions into what we're learning about.

Last Thursday we were learning about the genetics behind colours which is actually really cool and if I had any of my notes I'd show you a bit of what we did. But then he's talking about appaloosa colour patterns.
He only talks about 2 patterns and can't be bothered to mention there are several others.

 Leopard Appy
Blanket Appy
Snowflake
Varnish
Few Spots
Frost

His thoughts: Leopard spotted appaloosas have terrible colouring and it is undesirable. Ummmm, what? Well maybe that's an over reaction because the horse I leased for  3 years was an appy, not a leopard one, but still....

This is Firecracker aka Diesel (the varnish/frost Appaloosa/TB I rode for about 3-4 years)

 

  Haha I found these last two going through Facebook albums, quite a treat. But yeah, he decided he'd rather not jump the skinny vertical, didn't fall off, though.

These are all from about 2009.

 

 

But yes, I'm sure there will be many more "excellent" stories from this class, hopefully most of them will just be on the science part and not the instructors own opinions.

Nervous Mare

I worked on Sunday morning at the barn and got to ride Roxy again.

This time I go to learn more about her. She's here for training and eventually for lessons because the owners kid is afraid of her because she's a bit loopy but it's because she's nervous. K was saying she gets like this whenever a new person rides her because she's worried about being kicked and having her mouth yanked on.
Her weird nervous antics are when you're trying to get her to trot she does this weird canter step with her front feet when you sit down at the post, it took a lot less time this week to get her to come back to a proper trot but she's still a bit nervous. Then at the canter, she gets really scrambly or does a super fast trot. It's really hard to tell with her if she's on the right or wrong lead because she feels so weird and bumpy and the way she moves her body, she pushed your outside leg back to a weird angle and it's really hard to keep it still and in the correct position, so work to do there.

I took her over the trot poles that were out and other than get crooked to the second set she was really good. She stretches her neck out more over them and seems to relax a bit. I'm supposed to ride her again this weekend, so we'll be doing more of those. I'm trying (with little success) to find got trot pole exercises online for both her and Rocky so maybe I'll have to make up my own, unless you have some good ones to share?

As for Rocky, he was pretty good. We rode outside on Sunday since it was so nice. He was a bit more bucky because he had a lot of forward motion over the canter poles so I was trying to hold him back, clearly not the way he wanted, more things to work on! The poor girl that was taking lessons while I was riding! She said later she thought he was doing in on purpose or I was asking him to or something. Not sure why she thought that, but she's only been riding for about a month and I don't know how much time she's spent around horses before now. She's really nice though, she was like "that must be unnerving the first time he does it". I said yes a bit, but it's not. Because I know he does it, even if I think I'm not doing anything with my hands and he bucks, it just...no, it's not unnerving. It's just something that happens, like a weird take off or a fall, it happens and you have to get up and go again and fix the problem. I had a lesson with my friends mum the first time I rode Rocky and she was like "your so unphasable" when he had a few crazy jumps in a row and I'd said something about them being a surprise. I don't know that umphasable is totally correct, cause I was pretty freaked out when Pony had bolted and done her weird buck/rear thing but I still kept going, because what else is there to do?
I have friends that whine or complain when the course gets high or looks hard and I'm not a big whiner when it comes to stuff like that. Mostly I look at it and think "oh shit" but then ride it the best I can. Because whining won't change the course and being worried about Rocky bucking won't change that he does it, and worrying about Pony bolting won't stop her from doing it. Even when something like that comes as a total surprise, I try not worry about it and just be prepared for the next time. Besides, being unphasable may not always be a good thing. Or with the case of Rocky's bucking, ride better so he doesn't.

I'm actually quite pleased to be riding him and have had the time I did with Pony for all her insanity, she was a good teacher. You learn to expect the unexpected and ride better. She liked a quite rider who gave her head, and that's what I always tried to do, luckily that wasn't something I was new to doing (riding quietly I mean) same with Rocky because relying on your hands isn't the great, your supposed to ride more with your legs and body; using your weight and stuff to communicate with the horse not just your hands. So even just knowing how he reacts to to much hand use at the canter makes me more conscious of it and able to correct it when he does buck.
I always try to think of what the horses I've ridden before have taught me and Tangos lessons were loud and clear!
1. Do not look down at the jump because she will stop. Always.
2. Learn to fall. Because you will. A lot.

If it does take 6 falls to make a rider, I must be pretty damn good because there was a lot more falls than that. Diesel also reinforced the falling lessons, but the thing with both of them is they were easily 16hh, Diesel 15.3hh I think, so you have time when falling to catch yourself and try to control the fall. Less so with 13.3hh Pony, so with her there was a lot of falls on jumps or whatever because there wasn't enough time to try and land on my feet or not on the jump. 

I still have to get a picture of Rocky to put on here so you can see how cute he is! And the photos from Ride For Red that I still haven't posted...lazy lazy.

Disasters...are sometimes hilarious.

Thursday was a very...interesting jumping lesson with Rocky.

We have a jump that reminds me of Spruce Medows..on a much smaller scale. Usualy our jumps are only one or two poles, but this time one had 3 so it was special =P.
Rocky was really good for the first part, and he jumped beautifully, just round so it feels bigger than it is.

Over the practice/warm up jump, I was thinking he would take of long, but he didn't (since they usually don't over the first jump of the day so no idea what I was thinking) but after we got that one cleaned up he did really good on the first course.
Then she changed it and I forgot the turn after the second and jump and was still doing the first course by going straight through the line.
And some where between the third and forth jump Rocky lost his mind (this was also his first time jumping inside in ages). On the forth jump he put his feet through the rails, like he hadn't seen the top bar and it was like he was jumping inside the jump. Not sure if that makes sense. But anyway, the fifth jump (second in the bending line we were doing was okay, he might have knocked the top pole I don't remember) but then the last jump in the line he tried jumping inside it again. I don't know what he was doing, so we stopped after that so he could settle down and get his head back.
K said she's never laughed so hard, and that she wasn't sure if she should have been laughing at her students. But it was funny (since no one was hurt).
We started the course again, which starts over the 3 pole jump (2'3" ish) but he was not having it, he ran out several times so we went for a little hand gallop around the arena, and she lowered the top bar. So he went over that pretty well and we managed the rest of the course leaving all the rails up, when we came back to the 3 bar jump, it was 3 again, he did it perfectly, but I gave him a really retarded release, I had my arms out like chicken wings instead of straight forward, but other than my terrible arm form over that jump he did super well the last time through. Poor guy.
Hopefully Wednesday will be better for him.

There was a show on Saturday and because of our not so great lesson on Thursday I decided not to enter, but did go just to watch my two friends that were competeing. Kind of mad I didn't go now! There was 5 people in the 2'3" class and just my two friends in the 2'6" class. Could have gone! But the hosting barns outdoor arena was only finished on the 18th of August and there's a lot of sand in the arena, the footing is stupidly deep, so maybe that was good we didn't go. Rocky isn't in the best shape yet, so that would have been hard on him. It was on N's horse and he's in way better shape than Rocky or L's horse.

The next possible show is Amberlea Meadows and I'm not sure about that one, it's a big fancy show that's two days long at the end of September, entries are due this Friday but I'm thinking we won't bother this year. It's like $300 or more to enter because of stabling and I don't know that we have a chance to win anything back. Maybe next year.

Rocky, Roxy and Spruce Meadows!

So I had a jumping lesson with Rocky on Thursday, and he was super good. He seems to be getting back into the working mood quicker than was first thought.

He took two longs, the first one I was ready for so I could stay with him and then the second one was a big surprise because there was a short distance so I don't know quite what he was thinking, but I'm glad he uses a bit less bridle instead, then I don't catch him in the mouth. (Side note! Watching the Spruce Meadows Masters today, and Eric Lamaze was using a bit less bridle with his horse! Not Hickstead sadly but I thought it was quite exciting because I've never seen a pro rider use one.)
Anyway I can't really remember to much about the rider, other than the jumps were larger and he was great!

Today I worked at the barn in the moring and got to ride Roxy as well! She's quite a lot of fun, not in great shape either so we didn't do a whole lot. She's a quarter horse and K's advice was not to think she would be slow just because she was one. She has a lot of pep and was ready to trot as soon as I got on! But we just walked around to start with and when I asked her to trot, she had this super weird stride/motion, she was trying to canter with her front end but trotting in the back or vis versa, and then trying to post and pull her back to a real trot was one of the weirdest sensations. Eventually she came back and we could trot properly. She's got a nice trot when she's not doing...well, whatever that movement was. She also has a really nice canter when she's not breaking to the trot but she's out of shape so it's not a big deal.
I also did a quick hack with Rocky, and not bucking today! Lots of sweat though, poor guy, he's got suck a thick mane and it was pretty warm this morning. Not like yesterday which was 35 degrees Celsius, but still hot. He did well over the trot/canter poles and only stepped away from the mouting block twice before standing nicely.

Speaking of Spruce Meadows! We used to go to the Masters, but we haven't the past couple years *tear* it's so much fun I loved going. This morning was Suncores sponsored event and the one tonight is the BMO Nations Cup and tomorrow morning is the CN National. There's so many awesome riders this year, and some are so young, it would have been fantastic to go! I even cheered for an American! But only because she's a student of Eric Lamaze, and cause she's so young, like 17 or something. But she did amazing and almost beat her coach out, I can't remember her name though, Catlin something. Eric Lamaze won though, of course, since he always done. They said he's won $3 million at Spruce, Ian Miller "Captain Canada" has won $2.8million.
There was a young Dutch rider who was amazing as well, Stephanie Van something.
But my favorite new rider is Canadian Tiffany Foster, she only found out three days ago or something she would be riding for Team Canada, but she seems like the nicest, most enthusiastic person ever, and she's an amazing rider, I really hope she makes the Canadian Olympic team.
Looks like Canada is in 5th for the BMO cup, France, Britain, Mexico and someone else in the forth, America? I don't know. Netherlands in 6th, but the first three have a rider left, so Go Canada!

First Ride with Rocky and First day of Uni!

So yesterday was my first lesson with Rocky, K rode him on Sunday but other than that he hasn't been ridden in like a year, but he was soooo good. Besides being out of shape, but we both are. An unfit horse for an unfit rider. Good stuff.
He does buck, but only if you get really "grabby" with your hands at the canter or just start using them more than your legs. Which will be good because I think that can (and will) really help me stop relying on my hands for certain things.
He has the strangest canter, it feels like a merry-go-round horse where the motion is up and down instead of just forward. So that was a bit of a shock the first time. He also jumps super round so the >2' jumps we were doing felt waaaay bigger. K says when he does 2'6" it feels like 4' so good to know.
It's a very good thing he has a lot of mane! Except when your hands get caught, that's not so much fun.
He's not a dirty quitter like Pony was either, so he'll let you know way before the jump that he's thinking about stopping unlike Pony, who's just like "oh no, we're not doing this" at the very last second.
We didn't do a lot of stuff because we want him to enjoy work, not hate it.
But I really like him so far, he's great.
Uni! So it wasn't as bad as I thought, even though my first class is at 8am and it's a class of 275. The Prof is British and that just makes everything better, but he's really nice and kind of crazy, so I like that class..based of one day at least.
English was okay, also better than I thought, but we have to do this "peer revision" on our essays later on and that I think will suck ass, but again the prof was really nice. Not sure where he's from, kind of a middle eastern accent but you can only hear it sometimes so either he's like Ross on Friends and faking (that's always what I wonder when teachers have accents) or he's been here a long time, which is my best guess.
Stats sucked so many balls I can not even describe it. Other than to say I was day dreaming of Peaches and Cream porridge and that if I tried to pull a nail of my wall with the claw end of a hammer that I could hit myself in the face, or eye. You know it's a good class when!
French was good though, the instructor is the nicest person ever and I knew a couple people in the class which makes it better. Plus I do a decent bit of French, not enough to be in the higher classes, but enough that this first bit may be boring.

Tomorrow I have Equine Science so I'm quite excited for that class, but it's a super easy day! I have that around noon-ish and then a break and then French and then I can come home! And go riding! Yay Thursday.

Bye Pony part 3? Ride For Red Show Pictures

I lied sorry, there's only one photo right now. Both computers are being "special" so this is the only photo I have to post of the show and Pony. This is the 2'6" class.
Because the computers are beings "special" there's going to be a part 4 to this Bye Pony saga. Also I have to re name the blog eventually, but I guess I have to find out which horse I'll be riding. Not til Tuesday then.