Double Time

When BM first told me she wanted to start introducing Bobby to the double, we were able to implement that plan into action almost right away thanks to a barn mate already having one on hand. Of course nothing about it was fit to Bobby, but it was enough to put on his face and let him get the feel of having a lot of metal in his mouth.

I started casually, very casually, looking for a double of my own, but since all new bits, reins, and a bridle cost money I wasn't too serious. Plus, you know, do we actually need a double of our own? There's no guarantee this horse is going to make it through the winter, let alone be sound or even alive for a show season next year. So no, the double was by no means a necessity.

Buuuut.....

so hot the only thing to do is try on tack anyway!

We had some "extra" money, and fuck it. The horse is capable-ish of doing fun things right now so why not take advantage of that while we can? (He is, in fact, currently lame, but the farrier is coming out Wednesday and it's balls hot out for the foreseeable future so we'll just pretend like he's still capable-ish of doing said fun things.)

So off I went bridle shopping!

And by "I", I mean I immediately contacted my personal shopper and told her to find me a double for under $100, I'll stay on the line. Being a profesh tack ho, she had me several to choose from in no time at all, and I called dibs on a used Otto Schumacher with silver piping for $80 shipped.

Thus began the saga of getting the fucker to me.

same, bobby. SAME.

I had to go into crazy harassing online psycho mode to get the seller to respond to my initial message to make sure it was still available. Then I made the mistake of asking if she had any reins available for sale as well.

Silence.

She finally got back a day later and said she was at a show that day, but would get back to me on Sunday if she did. If not, she'd invoice me for just the bridle. Okay, great! Sunday: Silence. Monday: MOAR SILENCE.

On Monday afternoon she finally got back to me with rein options. I opted for the curb rein but not the webbed snaffle as I hate web reins, and I was finally sent an invoice. And then....yep, you guessed it--silence.

In the meantime, I went on a bit hunt. I actually knew exactly what I wanted:

even what i ended up with in a round about way

Bobby has a little bitty mouth with a big, fat tongue. The bits on the double we were borrowing were too thick and too long for him in all aspects. The bradoon was also a chunky three piece which Bobby has almost no tolerance for. So my goal was first and foremost thin metal and a single jointed bradoon. I wasn't too picky about loose ring or eggbutt though I like the look of the loose ring better.

The catch was I wanted to spend as little money on these as possible as I had no idea if either of them were going to fit. There were tons of options out there, but I wasn't paying $50 per bit. I finally scoured eBay long enough to come up with a 5" curb with a low port and short shanks (The long shanks on the borrowed bridle kind of ate his face.), a 5 1/4" loose ring bradoon, and a rubber curb guard (Bobby is not a fan of curb chains, and actually uses a leather strap instead of a chain on his hackamore) all for $45.

I added everything to my cart before doing one last read-through of the descriptions where I noticed 11mm as part of the bradoon where I immediately spiraled into, "BUT IS ANY OF THIS EVEN LEGAL?!"

Assuming Bobby ever gets to show in a double, I sure as fuck didn't want to have to buy all new bits. Off I went to the rule book to make sure 1) the thickness of the bit was okay (it was) 2) the length of the shanks were okay (they are) and 3) the swivel shanks were legal (they are).

too lazy and hot to take off fly boots for pictures

Bits ordered, I debated how long I had before I could start bothering bridle seller about shipping me silver Otto. She finally got me a tracking number on Thursday at which point I had received the curb and curb guard, had ordered and received a pair of reins that I hated, and ordered a different pair of reins that were on their way. The bradoon took a week to get shipped, so this morning ALL THE THINGS came ALL AT ONCE!

As soon as I got the bridle scrubbed cleaned, conditioned, and assembled, I went right to the barn. Obviously.  And the result?

hrmm.

I'm not sure if it's the design of the bridle, the bits themselves, or Bobby's pony sized maw, but I'm not loving the way everything sits. Some tweaking got the bits to fit pretty damn well inside his mouth, but they kind of look a hot mess on the outside. Of course only riding in it will tell me how they feel to Bobby, but he was quiet as a clam once I was done adjusting everything, and with the other bridle he was constantly fussy having them on and would fling his head up when I would take them out. He simply opened his mouth and let these slide out.

So we shall see. He needs new feet to hopefully get him sound, and it needs to not be five thousand degrees outside before any real testing can go on.

Skinny Problems

Let's clarify right of the bat that being skinny is not a problem Bobby and I are currently having. #ifonly

Our skinny troubles are more along the lines of this:

you fucker.

Bobby is not a stopper, he's more of a run out-er, only his run outs are more along the lines of, "I'm jumping the thing! The thing just might actually be air instead of the actual thing I should be going over."

Overall he's a pretty honest dude when it comes to jumping though, and we haven't had much practice with skinnies so I put Hubby to work this weekend building me one to practice over. Not that we really event anymore because I hate all things eventing up here, but what's more fun than having real cross country jumps in your horse's back yard?

clearly he was as excited as i was

We ended up making it only 2'7" tall since its 4'3" width and 4'6" length gave it plenty of technicality while still being jumpable for other people in the barn. A couple pieces of conduit pipe gave us our "flags" to help channel one Bobby Magee through, and off it went to the barn. I ended up putting it in one of the back fields off a nice curve from another jump since BM is making a couple other legit jumps and I didn't want everything fun stuck in the front field.

After a brief shower to cool Bobby down this morning as the humidity is atrocious today, we started in the indoor with a single on the diagonal and a skinny bending line. We haven't jumped in a few weeks, but Bobby was on his game while still being completely reasonable. It's amazing what all that dressage work does. He picks up the most perfect canter....and then just holds it. Magic!

We had zero issues with any of the jumps so after fifteen minutes we struck out for the back field.

He wanted to blast over the logs, but listened to me and kept his shit together. As soon as we made the turn, he locked right on to the skinny and never gave me a second's hesitation. I popped him on the shoulder anyway because it made me feel better so he jumped it like it was 4' high, but perfect canter, perfect distance, easy peasy.

Hopefully our days of falling over because he tries to sneak out at the last second are over.

unnecessary, sir. 

Book Review: Training Strategies for Dressage Riders

Where to buy: Amazon, or there are a couple used copies on eBay

When we were in Maine this summer, we spent one rainy morning driving out to Bangor to try to find a battery charger for my camera. That was a complete fail by the way, but we passed a tack store in our journeys and obviously swung in so it wasn't a complete loss of a trip. Along with my sparkly spur straps, I also perused the consignment section and grabbed a couple of older books for $8 a piece.

One of them was Training Strategies for Dressage Riders by Charles de Kunffy, and I'm so glad I snagged this. It's one of the few training types books I sat down and read from cover to cover instead of flipping through and only reading the sections I thought were relevant to me.

As an aside, I've been living a lie my whole life and totally thought his last name was de Knuffy. Surely I can't be the only one who thought this? Or are my reading comprehension skills really just that poor? Probably the latter.

First of all, the most important takeaway I got from this book is this:

everyone should wear gloves, you savages. 

This book moves along in a fairly chronological order, from an overview on the goals of classical equitation and how to emulate the best riders and their positions to exercises on bending, flexion, and gymnastics for your horse. It wraps up with a look on judging, competition (and how to throw down a proper salute), and the best tack for dressage.

This book was originally published in 1984, and the one I linked to on Amazon is from 2003. I wonder if any of the pictures got updated because one of my favorite parts of this book is seeing young Arthur Kottas and Steffen Peters in pictures.

A few other takeaways I found interesting:

• The walk. He says many riders neglect the walk for various reasons. Some find it boring, while others feel it's too basic of a gait and is reserved for beginner riders. "Most of us do not 'fall in love' with the art of riding by being attracted to it by the walk. ... Had we desired to creep along at a slow pace, we could have saddled an ox." He also says that insufficient movement during a young horse's growing stages (not enough turnout) can lead to a poor walk. 
• Changes. "The horse is ready for the flying change if he can maintain elasticity in performing the extended trot, half-passes with cadence at the trot, and collected canter." (Or if you're a racehorse and changes come easier than walking in a straight line, Bobby.) Elasticity is the key, these are just the movements that best show off if your horse has it. 
• "The Thoroughbred is an excellent horse." Promising, right? Only it's the first sentence for the chapter titled Insubordination of Horse to Rider. That made me LOL. He goes on to say that while Thoroughbreds are the embodiment of athleticism, it's that very thing that makes them more difficult as a dressage prospect. They're so sensitive and can carry a past with a lot of baggage which makes the relaxation part of dressage not come easily to them. 
• Bits. "The most gentle and therefore the most appropriate bit is a simple jointed snaffle. ... A bit with only one joint in the center is recommended." SUCK. IT. I can't stand reading people harp about how a single jointed snaffle is abuse and so harsh and yada yada. French links aren't for everyone. Bobby hates having any sort of middle piece to his bits and has always gone best in a simple single joint. 

I've also gone back and re-read his section on the double now that we're starting to play with one a little bit. "The use of the full bridle must be earned by the horse and deserved by his rider." I've been reading everything I can find about the double lately because I'm kind of afraid of it still, but I thought it was funny that in this older book he preaches the use of 3-1 reins which is now considered completely out-dated.

looks way too confusing to me

Overall this is one of those books that sits on my side table instead of in my bookcase. Its extensive list of exercises and problem solving is something I keep coming back to, and his chapters on equitation always give me a kick in the ass to sit the fuck up and sit the fuck down. (Then I get sloppy and have to go back and read them yet again because dressage is hard.)

I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone interested in dressage from a basic level to those who have a real interest and passion in it. There's something for everyone, and it's an easy, engrossing read.

Thanks and Thanks

The other week I received a giveaway from Amanda's product testing mailing list. First of all, having bloggers give feedback on horse stuff via email giveaways: totally brill. Secondly, actually making cute, usable stuff that horse people will use: more brill.

purple of course.

I originally took this fun little bag to the barn with me figuring I could find something in my trunk to put into it (my trunk is a maze of boxes and tupperware and organization that still somehow is one step away from black hole status). Once I got there though, nothing jumped out at me, and the more I looked at it the more it seemed too cute to be kept at the barn. Instead I brought it back home, and that weekend it ferried my wallet and keys around the state fair.

It's well made and a perfect versatile size. Thanks, Amanda!

I also want to thank everyone who commented on my last post.

It's a sucky situation because there's not really an easy way out of it. I can't exactly block this person from my life, so I'm going to try to do my best and squirrel my personal victories away while telling myself that the little backhanded jibes that get thrown out can't diminish them.

I actually dealt with this when I first moved into my barn in PA with the BO who employed the same tactic. I didn't need her telling me how to do every last thing with my horse unlike a lot of the people in the barn, and it felt like she saw that as a threat to her superiority.

I'm not here to show other people up. I'm not here to be better than anyone else. I want to better myself and do whatever the fuck I think is fun. That's my one goal with my horse. I learned to grow a thicker skin and block it out before. I'll learn to do it again.

In the meantime?

kendrick lamar knows.

#learningshamed

Sometimes the blogosphere gets me down. Horse people, I feel, are naturally pretty fucking neurotic, crazy, and judgmental, and that can spill into blogs when people go on a tear of, "Let's fight, online style!"

I don't know what that style is or what anyone feels like they're accomplishing, but on the flip side the blogosphere can also be a really positive place. We're all crazy so let's all be crazy together!

Dudes, I need some blogosphere positivism. I vacillate between, "YAY, THIS IS THE MOST FUN!" to "Why even bother. Boo hoo, woe is me, where is the chocolate?" on the daily.

bobby, on the other hand, seems to be in the best of moods lately. he's handling
the pressure of learning all the things like he might actually be enjoying himself. 

Bobby has been stepping up to the plate like a mother fucking boss lately. For so many years this horse would be presented with a hard problem and he'd respond by flying backwards or sideways--or both--and that would be that. He wouldn't come back from it, and we'd never get anywhere. I'd get mad, he'd get mad, tantrums ensued, and we trained each other to do just enough.

But this year our relationship has finally settled. Getting knocked out of the show season with his freaky leg took all the pressure off. The goal went from DO ALL THE SHOWS to KEEP THE HORSE ALIVE. That kind of brings things in perspective, you know?

We've had a whole lot of bonding time and significantly less riding time, and I think that plays a lot into how we're both gelling so much more lately. After ten trillion years of riding this horse (close approximation), I feel like we have a stronger partnership than ever before.

All that is to say that I am SO EXCITED about how well we're doing right now. We're making tangible progress, Bobby can get pushed about hard things and he just buckles down and tries, and we're learning SO MANY THINGS.

i mean, i still can't post without looking like a fool, but lookit bobby reaching
with those legs!

So why the sad face?

I feel like there's a hand on top of my head holding me down while I'm trying to do a victory dance because we had our first real ride in the double and it went awesome (after trotting aimlessly for twenty minutes while Bobby worked out what all the metal in his mouth was about), or because I finally cued with the quietest aids and got the biggest canter, or because I have my own warm up plan and when it's done my horse comes out looking like a beast.

You're doing great? SIT DOWN.

It's like this person doesn't want me to actually get better. Bobby is only allowed to be fancy to a point, and I'm only allowed to learn new things to a point. Basically, don't get ahead of yourself, I am the top of the top here. Which, whatever, I'm not here to compete against anyone but myself. Calm the fuck down. But don't make me feel like shit because we're finally making progress. It's like it's a crime for me to actually be learning things and moving forward.

i can't believe i'm saying this, but i think i'm going saddle shopping again in the near
future. noooooo.

I have a hard time standing up for myself or owning it when I'm doing something right. My go-to is to turn any compliment right around and poke fun at myself. But that doesn't mean I'm not proud of what I can do right, or that I'm not excited about how well my horse is going. I'm not delusional. I know we're not some high sixties scoring pair. But I don't think we're a disgrace to dressage and riding in general.

Bobby and I are both completely new to this level. I feel like we could bluff our way through Second well enough, but as we start sticking our noses into Third more and more, spots I've missed in his training are going to show up more. Plus I just don't know how to train the "tricks". No idea.

I really, really want to learn though. I want to learn more, I want to learn everything. Don't #learningshame me, yo.

coming out of warm up stretchies read to #werk

Has anyone else ever run into something like this? Be it in lessons or barn drama or just a "friend" trying to one-up you all the time? It really bums me out.

Pony Rider

It's not often (or, you know, ever) bloggers make their way out to the booming metropolis of Rochester, so when Katlyn messaged me awhile back to ask if we could arrange a meet up, I was like, "Okay, yes, of course, but what the fuck are you doing out here?" I guess visiting family was a good reason (and the only reason Tracy made it out here, so thanks blogger families) and we got together last Friday.

I have yet to meet a blogger in person that I haven't instantly clicked with and Katlyn was just the same. She walked into the barn right as I was stuffing my face with a donut in between hacking my lungs out from allergies which pretty much sums me up in a nutshell. Bobby had been covered in his own pee that morning--not a rare occurrence--and he was hanging out in his stall in his ten sizes too small Irish knit after a quick bath, but he screamed a greeting to her too.

I love food, Bobby loves demanding attention, neither one of us is dressed well: welcome to the nut house!

we try to make it fun at least!

Bobby was in a good mood that morning and got right to work loose and relaxed. He was lovely when Tracy was out as well which means I should probably start paying bloggers to come out to shows so he's pleasant to ride. Two for two, it must be a sure thing.

After a quick w/t/c on a loose rein, I forced Katlyn into the purple spurs despite her protests that she'd never ridden in them before and sent her on her way while I popped out to my car to grab my camera. I came back in and they were trotting around like total pros with zero input.

Since Bobby's been trained almost solely by me his whole life, he goes off a lot of made up cues, but Katlyn did a fucking awesome job with him and I barely had to give her any input. I can't imagine going from a tiny pony to a giant moose, but she looked totally at home up there.

We played in the double for a few brief moments which I also forced her to participate in, and Bobby showed off his easy peasy changes which is about the only surefire fun thing I can guarantee anyone can get on and do with him.

Afterwards we ran over to Panera and talked ponies, bloggers, and how Katlyn has the worst job ever (possibly just my interpretation) before coming back to get some actual pony snuggles in. 10/10 recommend a meet up with this lady, I can verify she can go in the blogger rolodex of not being a secret online creeper.

even though she did make fun of bobby's mustache forelock. 

Anyone else have a reason to visit WNY?

NO. OF COURSE YOU DON'T, IT'S THE WORST STATE EVER.

Be Totilas

My Thursday lesson got moved up to this morning as BM has a conflict on our usual day. Bobby got Friday off so I could play with Riding Bestie's puppy, and also Saturday...so I could play with my puppies.

I just really love puppies.

mags was the only one being good which apparently makes her very sad.

Anyway, I figured I probably ought to give the old stallion a spin before our lesson so as not to completely embarrass ourselves. We had trouble in our last lesson with not putting in enough warm up to get the best work, but I had plenty of time to let Bobby have a long walk and then stretch at the trot for a million laps on Sunday. Some days you can jump right on him and put him to work, but I think in either case he enjoys the slow mental warm up.

He was much better for Sunday's ride, and I got on half an hour before today's lesson to repeat our long warm up so we'd actually get some productive work during billing hours. That strategy was definitely the ticket and we were ready to be tortured by BM from the get-go.

We were on a circle for pretty much the entire lesson which is some people's idea of torture, but it's my idea of perfection. For one I can't hear for shit. Also though I feel like giving me free rein of the arena just gives me more space to fuck things up. My crazy is easier contained to half the arena.

BM started us right off in the canter since we were already warmed up. We'd worked a little on trying to get some collected canter last week, but Bobby wasn't quite up to the challenge in the amount of time we had. Today he was in it to win it.

BM has to break things down into kindergartner terms for me because while I know what she's talking about, and afterwards I'm able to get it sorted in my head, I have a hard time processing what she's asking me to do while I'm trying to do it unless it's spelled out into the absolute simplest words.

So my collected canter "aids" were: forward, catch, release.

Basically send him forward, catch the forward so it doesn't become an extension (a medium), and then release with my fingers so I'm not restricting. Channel him forward and upwards into the collection. Bobby caught on pretty quickly and soon he was so in tune to the game that if I gave him too strong of a half halt off my seat or didn't release it quickly enough he sat down and offered up a really lovely collected trot instead. Not what we were going for, but the responsiveness to every twitch of my body was fun.

not featured in today's ride, but still exciting!

To the right he was surprisingly just as strong and light so we ended with that pretty quickly as a reward. She told me to ride Bobby like he was Totilas--if I believed he was that fancy, Bobby would believe it, too. Whatever you say, BM. I'm just happy when we can make right turns without falling over.

We moved on to the collected walk after a nose-dragging stretchy trot break. We'd done a few turns on the haunches right at the beginning of the ride, so BM was using the collected walk to segway into a walk pirouette. Holy fuck, this was way harder than the canter work. Bobby doesn't have a great walk to start with. He was light in the bridle which is always nice, and he was bending around my leg really well and actually doing a good haunches in when we asked for it, but BM wanted his hind end more active.

She picked up a dressage whip and tapped him a couple times on the back legs on our circle. That got his attention and bro was like, "My butt doesn't come any further underneath me, I'm marching, bitches!" Once we got that, BM had me bring the haunches in on the circle and then boom, move the shoulders around her into the pirouette. We never really nailed it, but for the first time working on it he was pretty stellar.

bobby says his butt is tired and he would like to
go outside instead of participate in these shenanigans.

Back to the canter to work on moving between collection and extension. BM had us collect the canter on the circle and then go across the diagonal with a few strides of opening up into however big of a stride Bobby offered up before collecting again at the rail and either doing a simple or flying change. Bobby was on his shit. We've always sucked at opening up the canter, but he flowed right into it before coming back and popping a clean change both ways.

We finally finished with a little collected trot. Bobby actually finds this relatively easy (for where we are at our level of collected work) despite the fact that he's built like a fucking malformed moose, so BM challenged us to make the steps even smaller and more active. He was getting tired so we didn't have great success there, but I can try the exercise again another day.

Overall though? Dude is getting some legit buttons and some legit butt muscles. Taking the time to go back and let him do long and low for a few weeks did him a world of good. He feels like an educated horse. He's got a lot of learning left to do, but it was a really encouraging peek into what we need to work on for Third.

look, i was just really excited about his first time
in a double, okay? don't judge me.

Afterwards BM pulled out the double to let him get a feel for it. He needs a slightly smaller bridoon and possibly a new bit set up altogether, but since we were just letting him stand there and eat a million cookies, it worked fine. He'll get to wear it on the ground a couple more times before we take it to the ring for some walks. I've never ridden with a double before so I'm in no hurry to try it without serious adult supervision.

I hope I get to take him out next year to show, but in the more immediate future I hope he's tuned up enough to be a fun ride for Katlyn this Friday!