Ponies in the park

Saddest story you're going to hear today: Dopie's vacation from Doing Things ended this weekend.

Whomp whomp.

Sunday, a large group of riders from the barn got together and did a trail ride at the park followed by grilling and snacking and frolicking.

all dem ponies!

It was the kickoff to a long stretch of adventures coming up for young Dopie Horse. Hunter pace season ramps up at the end of the month, and we still have six shows to get through on the calendar. Plus I'm excited to attend the Courtney King-Dye clinic my GMO is hosting next month albeit sans Opie.

But in the meantime, he got loaded on my trailer with his pasture mate Momo (which he walked right on for, no hesitation) and unloaded at the park (which he backed off the trailer for with zero dramatics) with giant eyes as he realized that for once he wasn't being ridden in a vast horseless wasteland--THE WHOLE BARN CAME WITH HIM!

he doesn't even count mo as a real horse in the field when his
bff gets taken in for riding, but they were besties for this trip

um, serious besties. every time mo got out of sight opie
started screaming. i'm worried about how this is going to
play out this weekend when he goes back to showing alone.

BM went right back to the barn to pick up another load of horses, so the six of us already there got tacked up and went for a short 45 minute loop. Since I was the only one there who knew the park, Opie was defaulted to leader the whole day. He marched along on a loose rein without a care in the world, even when the horse right behind him started breathing fire and jigging sideways into the back of him. He can be a serious pill by himself sometimes, but he makes up for it by never feeding off of other horses dramatics.

boopin' along in a new part of the park for him

dragon horse behind us mostly settled down

BM finally made it back with the second load of horses and I climbed back aboard to wait for everyone to assemble. Dopes hung out patiently watching everything go on around him. I got on and off of him in my saddle and bareback multiple times throughout the day, and he stood quietly every time I clambered aboard from my mounting block, or a bench, or the ground. He stood still each time we had to stop to wait for the slower horses to catch up, or when we stopped to peel off in groups to run around.

I have to make sure I put that out there because right off the bat when the big group set out together he pulled two Little Shit stunts.

supervising

We came to a narrow water crossing--one he's passed over pretty much every time we've come to the park--and there were a couple of kayakers unloading on the other side of the bank. He's seen kayakers before, and while these people were pretty fucking oblivious to the fact they needed to get out of the way, they weren't doing anything scary.

Opie slammed on the brakes and kept rearing and spinning away, smashing into the group crowded in behind us because the majority of them are pretty fucking oblivious to trail riding, until I finally booted him closer to the water. He was ready to go in until one of the kayakers got in and paddled just behind the reeds to lurk.

THANKS, SUPER HELPFUL.

That kicked off another round and spinning and rearing until I asked unflappable Momo to come up from the back of the group where A was stuck babysitting the stragglers. Momo plowed right in and Opie followed behind him without a second thought.

when we came out on the beach he dragged me right into the
water. 

Into the woods, not far from the crossing, we came around the corner and ran into three men walking. They politely said hello and stepped to the side of the trail to let us all pass. THIS OFFENDED OPIE GREATLY. Nevermind that we'd already passed another group of hikers with a barking dog no less and managed to walk right on by them.

Enter more theatrics, slamming and spinning into the horses behind him. Thank fuck for steady school horses that got a little wide eyed but never attempted to retaliate against the naughty baby body checking them left and right. I managed to get him stopped sandwiched in between two other horses and shimmied off his side to yank him out in hand. 10/10 do not recommend as it was super dangerous, but he was not going to move forward with me on him, and the three horses behind me had zero interest in being "brave" and leading.

I took a crop from another rider, got back on, and gave him two solid whacks behind my leg. He thought about getting nappy again over a row of giant logs, but I spanked him one more time and he didn't give me any problems from there on out. I really think he was just being a child and wanting to see if he could get away with sacrificing one of his friends to do the "hard work" of leading. He's crossed that water plenty of times before, he's been up close to kayakers plenty of times before, and he's sure as hell run into people plenty of times before.

oh hey look. kayaks in the background that floated right in front of us without
issue a few minutes later. 

After our first water play break, we stopped at a big, hilly field to let everyone romp around if they wanted. A and I took Opie and Momo to the bottom of one of the big hills and let them rip up it. There was, uhhh, a moment I was like, "Oh, fuck. I can't stop this thing." but some good comes from a history of galloping racehorses and I finessed him back like a boss. Then he hung out with a hind leg cocked and watched everyone else gallop around him also like a boss.

Our last pit stop was the boat launch where everyone waded way in and enjoyed the lukewarm water. Opie went in up to his belly and enjoyed a serious splash fest while Momo circled around us with his head completely under water. A and I looked at each other and were like, let's do this thing. We went back on shore, dumped our saddles, and went back out.

swipe ➡️ for grey ponies trying to find deep enough water to swim in. #childgenius strikes again, doing #allthethings things with his giant dumb best friend. #swimminghorses #ithappenedipromise #didntmakeitoncamera #bestbabyhorse #fingerlakesfinest #ottb #mendonponds

A post shared by Carly Starkey (@poorwomanshowing) on Jul 8, 2018 at 3:16pm PDT

It's been so dry here this year that the pond has gotten ridiculously shallow, and we kept going out and out waiting for it to be deep enough to actually swim. I'd handed my phone off, but unfortunately she wasn't recording when we finally found a drop off and Opie swam about like a majestic grey sea horse while I giggled and squealed like a child, clinging to his mane and trying to keep the drag on my legs from pulling me off.

Most. Fun. Ever.

basically my face the whole time

i tried to get a picture of his water line but he just wanted to
follow me over to the grass for a graze

Then things kind of went south. Someone's bridle got broken, other people didn't want to go in the water, a childish pout went on that I had to turn back in the shadow of the trailers to rectify even though it had nothing to do with me, and I vetoed the extra fifteen minutes I was planning to add by going a longer route.

We got everyone untacked and dug into food while ponies grazed. BM took the first load back to the barn, and there was some more whining from the second group so I sent them off across the road to ride some more while they waited for BM to get back. Hopefully everyone got what they wanted in the end. Not my problem if they didn't. Take it up with management, yo. I'm just the GPS.

Hubby joined us with the dogs to eat and hang out, and A and I jumped on bareback to flop around the parking area while we waited for the group of riders to come back alive.

we are beauty we are grace.
we are tired and ready to punch people in the face.

i took him over to the trailer to throw his bridle on which meant he could no longer
see mo. commence screaming melt down. fucking horse.

Overall it was far less of a cluster fuck than I thought it was going to be. I did not have high hopes for this ride at all between the experience level of some of the riders and the off-property reputation of a couple of the horses. Everyone behaved miraculously well though, and I actually enjoyed myself (mostly). I kept getting requests to take people out during the week when I come, but... yeah, no. I think I'll keep my solo rides to myself, thanks.

Living that retired life

Oh wait.

It's just called excessive heat warnings. Or excessive bug warnings.

Or turns out my horse cannot even in the summer.

"OH GOD I'VE BEEN IN NATURE FOR 2 SECONDS MAKE IT END."

Dopes got his feet done last Wednesday, I gave him that day off, and then pulled him out bright and early Thursday morning for a ride before this stretch of heat warnings kicked off on Friday only to find him covered in full body hives. It took a few days, but I finally managed to knock those out.

In the meantime, I was having to go back out to the barn at noon to bring him inside, hose him down, and lock him in his stall with his fan. As soon as he finished his hay outside he'd start walking the fence line and body slamming his pasture mates in an attempt to get rid of any bugs. I finally caved and bought my very first fly sheet when I went down to PA to visit Riding Bestie Monday (at which time I also just had the barn worker leave him in all day since I wouldn't be there to save him).

sporting his own clothes and bobby's hand me down mask
and boots. we're all about reuse and recycle here. 

Being swaddled seems to have made him happier, and this is supposed to be our last day of 90*+ weather for awhile...which really means nothing since 85* and a trillion percent humidity feels hotter than the dry 96* we had yesterday. I'm looking forward to a cooler tomorrow anyway as it was already 80* when I left my house at six this morning. It took me all of two seconds to decide even with his new clothes Opie wasn't leaving the safety of his stall. He was having a meltdown over the one fly circling his belly and wouldn't pull his face away from his fan to come get his candy. I've never owned such a summertime princess in my life.

i tried to get him out for some grazing when i got back monday. it lasted maybe
three minutes total before he was going back in his stall with or without me.

Between the hives and the heat, it was a full week of "vacation" time before I climbed back aboard this Tuesday. I expected Opie to give me a little bit of sass after doing nothing but a couple of longes in a halter during that time, but I ended up with the complete opposite. I actually climbed off halfway through to grab a stick because he was so behind my leg.

The walk and trot work both felt perfectly fine. The canter felt like he had a flat tire that was causing him to pound the ground like an elephant and tip over while turning where I had to pull him to a stop a couple times for fear of crashing. That's when I got the whip, and with a few spanks I suddenly had a horse that could be bothered to get off his front end and hold himself upright a little bit.

aaaand splat, right back to the forehand.
it's a lazy, quitting horse work in progress, yo.

Yesterday Hubby had the holiday off and obvi I was in dire need of new media so I got the barn done and was on the horse by 8am. Game time decision, I decided it would be more fun for all parties involved if we did some jumpies.

10/10 opie approved

There were a couple singles set up in the ring, a log leftover from the barn prepping for a hunter derby last weekend, and a one stride. I made the singles crossrails, and set the one stride as a crossrail to poles or vice versa. Dopie loves going over the log so that was left as is.

I wanted videos of the jumping since jumping Xs isn't the best for pics, but I told Hubby to hold off while we schooled through the one stride first. Opie has never done one before so I wanted to do some work with him figuring out his feet and knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

LOLZ It wasn't.

"YEAH, I AM SO GOOD AT THE JUMPING!"
i love those happy horse ears.

"JK WUT R LEGS DO NOT KNO OR CARE."

I've gotta give it to the kid, though. He doesn't have a stop in him. Even after several blundering attempts through the line before I shortened the striding up by about 3' to make it easier for him, he was raring to go right back through and try again. For this being maybe the dozenth time he's jumped, I got him sorted out in no time and he was coasting through at the canter confidently and without too much rail throwing.

He's never cantered a course in his life, but off we went to give it his first try!

HOW CUTE IS HE CAN YOU EVEN.

I saw the long spot to the log, kissed and closed my leg, and he was like, "Yep, I got this!" I stuffed a candy into his mouth, let him have a quick walk, and then we went for round two.

At which point he thought he was a pro and zoomied around. He took the first jump down because who needs to actually jump and lift your legs over such tiny things? He came out of the one stride on the wrong lead but also bearing fucking down which is why you can see me check him so strongly. Happy fucking horse ears the whole time though HE'S SO CUTE YOU CANNOT EVEN.

Round three:

I had Hubby put the sorry little starting X up to a 2' vertical hoping it would get him to lift his legs--which it did. He swapped over to the right lead coming out of the corner which I felt, but it was still balanced and we were landing on the right lead anyway so I let him hold it. The one stride was a little spastic, and then he tripped and lost his balance before the last jump so I circled him to give him enough time to regroup. I love him trying to figure out his leads all on his own though BECAUSE HE'S SO CUTE.

I had Hubby make the diagonal X a 2'3" vertical since Xs were obviously becoming very boring when you're the best at jumping (or think you are at least). Opie's only jumped that height once from a trot and he launched over it in a tangle of baby antelope on roller skates legs, but I could tell he was feeling pretty invincible so we came right around to it in a new course in the canter.

AND HUBBY BASICALLY MISSED IT.

It was glorious, I promise. As soon as we finished the course I hopped off and stuffed ALL the candy in his face and told him what a #childgenius he is.

I love that he genuinely seems to enjoy learning, and I think this slooooowww process of figuring out how to be confident with one's feeties on the flat is going to keep paying off in keeping him feeling like a little stud over jumps. As long as they fit in the schedule, kiddo will definitely be doing some of the fun local hunter shows next year.

so much candy and scratches for the dopie horse

The Unfun Work

The unfun work is the work you have to do to get to the fun work. It seems like it should be fun work because it's technically the same thing as the fun stuff, it just hasn't reached the fun level yet.

In case you're still wondering what the fuck I'm talking about, I coined this phrase this morning on a trail ride (fun!) while my horse was screaming his fool head off and his face was about two inches away from breaking my nose (decidedly unfun!).

To be used in a sentence: "Opie, you mother fucker, this is exceptionally UNFUN!"

spotted: nothing.
A VAST LAND OF HORSELESS NOTHING.

I wanted to clock a couple more hours towards my TIP trail riding goal but I didn't want to go through the hassle of trailering to the park so we marched off into the suburban wilderness instead. Opie's done this trail ride before last December, but it was with two other horses. This time he was alone. And not only was he alone, we left the barn so early that no other horses were outside yet.

So basically it was a post-apocalyptic wasteland where Opie was the only horse left alive (except for the one ancient swaybacked horse hanging out with a donkey that we porpoised by that doesn't count because neither creature so much as glanced at our majesty). He knows this because he spent the whole two hours sending out a distress signal that was never returned.

I do think this horse doesn't mind a trail ride. He's a little stud at the park, but he's been there enough now that it's old news. It's now a fun ride.

Trail riding down the road from your own safe house is, apparently, still new and therefore unfun. And unfortunately the only way to make the transition from one to the other is wear down his soul and spirit keep doing the same thing until it also becomes old news.

Growing up is hard work, yo.

it is pretty out this early though.

Along the same lines of unfun and being alone in a horseless wasteland, Opie's first cross country jumps!

My barn has a bunch scattered around the property for the mini hunter paces they host, but the majority of them are located in the front field where Opie gets turned out. Normally I would count that as a plus since he goes out there every single day and is familiar with the area. But I know this little horse, and I know his little brain would instantly wonder only about where his BFF was.

Fortunately, last Friday I talked a barn mate into coming out with me for the first time on the other horse Opie and his BFF get turned out with. We walked to the top of the field to warm up, she went right, I went left, and she disappeared behind a large bush.

ALSO KNOWN AS THE BLACK HOLE OF DEATH ABANDONING OPIE IN THE HORSELESS FUCKING WASTELAND.

There was a large tantrum. There was a lot of air time. Someone got spanked. And then Momo trundled back into sight, spewed forth from the black hole like horsey magic, and Opie deigned to trot around like a deranged Saddlebred on 'roid rage for awhile until his brain finally settled back in his head.

Unfun.

angry cobra neck because angry

To his credit though, he was super for the three jumps we played over. I've only just started consistently cantering him over things because it's taken him awhile to be trusted to be held responsible for his own feet and staying upright, but he's starting to really get the hang of it. We trotted the first jump, trotted the hanging log the first time, then cantered over the coop and the other two jumps a couple times apiece without any issues.

He's gotten really good about waiting to see if I have any input about where to take off instead of just winging it and going crashy crashies. I'm all about the horse figuring out how to save themselves and see their own distance, but I also need them to be tuned in. Especially when they're young and dumb. He didn't make a bad choice the whole time though (well, in regards to jumping), and we finished up in the ring with some beautiful trot work.

He finds this stuff easy now that all that hard dressage work is settling in. Could he go out and do an Intro HT right now? Probably. Is that even remotely on my radar? No. So please don't suggest what a fun event horse he'd make. Eventing around here makes me angry.

wondering if his bff magically got turned out while he was
standing here. spoiler alter: bff still in the barn where we left him.

I want to keep jumping, and I want to keep trail riding, so I need to keep slogging through the unfun as it comes. Could he be worse? Of course. But he can always be better.

Reset

One of my goals this year was to make sure I don't get caught up in what anyone else is doing. I've worked hard to make that happen, and every time a hint of envy or jealousy or self-doubt tries to creep in I immediately shut it down. Your horse is not my horse. Your struggles are not my struggles. Your wins are not a direct challenge to me to do better.

However, I did get a little carried away and start to compete with myself. I got caught up in wanting to make up for last year's lost show season, and Opie progressed so well and took everything I threw at him so mostly easily that I was able to jump right in and show show show and push push push.

Then an emotionally upsetting deviation from his schedule the day before yet another show really threw him in a mental tailspin. Fortunately it coincided right when I was planning to give him a week off anyway. Unfortunately, it happened at all.

i swear he has different snoot spots every time i look at him.

I spent that week doing a lot of grooming, cookie feeding, and nothing else. Opie started to get a little reactive though. His BFF is a bit of a mental case, and it felt like Opie was starting to pick up on his tendencies to get wide-eyed and twitchy over absolutely nothing. While I firmly believe the week to himself was a very good thing for both of us, I was eager to give him and his hamsters a job again.

We've been doing mostly long and low work followed by long trail walks. The next show isn't until the 14th, and I feel like I have ages before I have to check in and make sure he's show ring ready again. It's a great feeling as every ride has had zero expectations finally.

lots and lots of walking

Opie has responded by being super relaxed yet responsive, and all the sudden he's figured out how to stretch down at both the walk and trot. He's taking the reins all the way to the buckle and flicking his giant clod hoppers out and loving his newly discovered freedom. I still have to remind him to balance himself as he gets so carried away he starts to sort of somersault forward and out of control, but I'm hopeful we'll have an actual stretchy circle from now on instead of just having to write that movement off.

a very good pone also starting to really figure out leg yields

I've also tabled lessons for the time being. There are a few reasons, but mostly that I don't want to feel like I have to get something done by Friday to make sure I'm not wasting my own or BM's time by spending the entire lesson getting my horse to focus because I didn't feel like drilling him during the week. BM put us on a good track with the basics and I'm not doing much right now beyond making sure the w/t/c aren't a complete mess. I can handle that all by my lonesome.

We've also been doing some jumping, including Dopie's first (very small) cross country jumps! I'll make that its own post. It's really not that exiting, but I'm going to need some blog fodder for awhile.

We were in Ring 2 which was tucked into the furthest reaches of the show grounds. The judge... ahh, the judge. I feel like I probably should not whine about judges as much as I do, but this lady really gave the impression she didn't want to be there. She was ringing people in the second the previous rider cleared the court--not even the ring around the court--and while I was standing around waiting for scores later, she went hustling past after the lunch break exclaiming loudly, "Thank god I only have a few more!"

Also she hated me. Probably on a deep personal level by the time we were done showing.

Opie wanted no part in being in that ring all by his lonesome. We came down center line as the previous horse was leaving the ring (I seriously had barely made it into the ring and past her truck when she ran the bell for me to go in), and he stared forlornly at his best friend disappearing.

Thus kicked off an entire test on a horse who only wanted to look for all the other horses. He did the things in right places, but he was tight, braced, tense, above the bit, hurried... I think that's a summation of all our comments. Aside from the constant head wag from both my too busy hands and that being one of Opie's go-to's when he's tense anyway.

you don't have to watch the test. this should sum it all up for you.

We got a wide variety of marks for this test. 5s. 6s and 6.5s. Lots of 5.5s, and our very first 4 for the nonexistent stretchy trot circle. I came out of the ring knowing there was no way this thing was even going to make it to a 60% and I was right. A 57%+ got us fourth with the final comment of, "Stunning youngster whose rider could develop elastic feel and quiet hands to encourage horse to reach down and out to bit."

Ouch. My stunning youngster could help by growing up and paying attention, but let's be real. We're building a reputation for judges loving Opie and not being a fan of me. Just little old me over here, taking this young, not long off the track horse everywhere by myself and getting him around to the point where you judges can love him, no big deal.

Okay, I'm done with that. I promise.

could have used this stunning youngster in the ring

I was pretty fucking annoyed with Opie at that point and decided to take him right back into the warm up ring to trot around more in hopes that when I brought him out for our second test a few hours later I'd have a more tractable horse. We'd been cruising along for a good fifteen minutes without Opie showing any signs of relaxation or at the very least exhaustion when the show organizer called me over.

She wanted to know if I could move my second test up--as in, could I go back in in twenty minutes? I wanted to get off this stupid baby horse, put him back on the trailer, and dump him in his paddock where I didn't have to deal with him anymore so I quickly agreed. It turned out that about half the show had scratched after the previous day. The footing in the rings was not particularly good. It was hard and uneven, and there were quite a few complaints about it so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

I got Opie trotting again, and when they tried to call me in early again, I told them no.

gritting my teeth so hard at the canter. so over it.

Training 1

Opie was slightly more settled and therefore a bit lighter in this test. Still, the childishness hadn't gone anywhere. At the first canter depart a horse in the distance neighed so Opie answered back. He hasn't made a peep in the warm up or in tests yet, but he was a scream machine all day long. We got a few 7s in this tests, but mostly 6s and another 5.5 and 5 for the second trot circle and final halt. Fortunately she didn't comment on him tripping behind in the corners in both canters because the footing had really turned to uneven shit by that point.

(youtube is being super slow, so this might not be uploaded yet)

More overall comments on me being a bad rider with horrible position (like, a lot of these comments), but whatever. I've had worse judges, lady, and way worse rides. We ended up with a 63% and a second.

both happy to be done with this nonsense

Thus began the two hour wait for scores to get done. I scored an entire show last Sunday so I know it can be a serious hassle, but I scored by myself and had those puppies in people's hands asap. There were three people that were supposed to be in charge of it here, and it took them forever to get anything done in the most unorganized fashion possible. Then the musical freestyles started and instead of leaving someone to continue scoring, everyone emptied out to watch. Never mind the growing crowd of people milling around the scoreboard waiting to leave.

ready to leave this creature behind by this point.

Fortunately for all parties involved, today starts Opie's week long vacation I planned into the schedule at the beginning of the year. I think it's safe to see we're both ready for some mental down time. I won't even be doing lessons for the rest of the month. When I bring him back we're going to start playing over fences to get in gear for hunter paces. There's still a bunch of dressage shows on the docket, but right now I want to give the kid some variety to keep him fresh.