Godspeed

(The view at the farm where Lesley worked for many years.)

In the fall of 2007, I graduated college, picked up my belongings, and moved to Maryland to be a working student. The original intention was to be a working student for two years before returning to Texas to attend UT. During the time I worked, I realized I wasn't cut out to work with horses as a living, and cut my stay to six months.

It wasn't a great time for me, needless to say.

However, this blog isn't about me. It's about a woman I met while I was there. This woman was one of the strongest people I have ever met. She wasn't an upper level rider. She wasn't an upper level trainer, or groom, a farrier, or a vet. She was a horsewoman.

Her name was Lesley Long.

Lesley had been part of the farm for years, and would be part of it long after I was gone. She and her daughter were horsewomen, in the pure and true sense of the word. Lesley made her living in the daily tasks of caring for horses. She cleaned stalls, scrubbed buckets, held horses for the farrier. She pulled manes and clipped horses. Lesley always had two to three horses for her and her daughter to ride. They were always off the track thoroughbreds that she had bought for her and her daughter to retrain and sell. 

They were always lovely horses.

Lesley was always to be counted on, rain, shine or snow. Her smile came easily and quickly. She ran Training for the first time on a horse named High Tech, her trainer's former Advanced horse. She was a certified ICP instructor, who specialized in teaching beginners, both human and horse. Lesley knew every trick in the book for treating thrush. She taught me how to break a horse to saddle and rider for the first time.

Around Thanksgiving this year, she was body clipping when the horse kicked her in the head. Lesley had clipped hundreds of horses before, including clipping Dante once. She was as careful as anyone could reasonably expect. Unfortunately, her brain was severely injured and she slipped into a coma. Today, December 14, 2011, she passed away without ever waking up.

I'm absolutely in shock right now. Even though she was in a coma, I never truly thought she wouldn't make it. As I said before, she was one of the strongest people I ever knew, and I thought that for sure if anyone could beat this, it would be Lesley. I write this blog right now because her story deserves to be heard. Lesley deserves to be honored for the blood, sweat, and tears she put into her horses every single day of her life.

It's a stark reminder of how unpredictable life can be, and how dangerous horses can be, even on the ground. Be careful while clipping this season and please keep Lesley and her family in your thoughts and prayers. 

If you knew her, please feel free to share stories of her in the comments. She was a wonderful horsewoman and person, and will be deeply missed.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

It's the time of year when every eventing blogger writes about how they actually like December because it gives them a chance to perfect their riding. I could go against the majority and write about how I hate December because it's boring, but the truth is, December is one of my favorite months of the year. Between school ending for the semester, the onset of my favorite holiday, and the lack of pressure while riding, this month always makes me feel that it truly is a wonderful life.

Please excuse my trite comparisons to cheesy (yet wonderful) holiday movies.

In any case, Dante has been back in full work for a few weeks now. Of course, full off-season work means I only ride five days a week generally, which is in some ways is nice. However, my brain is so wired to riding six days a week that I tend to feel antsy and lacking on Sundays. We won't begin fitness work until January, so I'm trying to acclimate myself to the new schedule. 

During the off-season, Dante and I both have things to fix.  In terms of me, I am working hard on improving my dressage position, particularly my hands and lower legs. My hands like to live in my lap and my lower legs likes to do their best water-skiing impression. To help, I have dropped my stirrups while doing any and all flat work, starting the week of Thanksgiving and going through the end of December. I still intend on riding a bit without stirrups in January as well, but I need to start picking up my stirrups that month. I find it more difficult to ride with stirrups than without at this point, so I need to be sure to practice not bracing against them at the trot.

Dante is becoming confirmed in half-pass at both the canter and trot. It is more difficult for him to half-pass from left to right, especially at the trot. Each day we practice a little bit and try to get him to step under his body a bit more with his left hind, something that has always been a bit tougher for him. His half-pass from right to left is quite good and doesn't need much repetition at this point. His lead changes came extremely easily, and we work a little bit each day on him not anticipating the change, and keeping straight through them. We also have been practicing our turn on the haunches at the walk, trying to keep him moving his inside hind instead of merely pivoting on it. It improves every day. 

We also have been revamping the way Dante goes between fences. I used to let him canter around however he wanted so long as I felt we had a good pace. However, I learned at Greenwood that when I do that and he gets excited, he ignores me and does his best impression of a motorbike around the turns, leaving us with awkward spots and a bad canter. Since then, we have been really working on staying round and soft in the mouth between the fences, and his canter has improved immensely. In the past week, his understanding of what I want has improved drastically and he has become incredibly responsive to my aids.

Similarly, Dante has always liked to do his best Zoolander impression and refuse to turn right in any manner that is conducive to jumping. When asked to turn right, he basically turned into a board, flung his head a bit, and cut the turn as sharp and fast as he could. Doesn't really work well for bending lines or roll backs. The week of Thanksgiving we introduced ten meter circles after every jump where there was a right-handed turn or bending line. Within two jump sessions, Dante had figured out what I wanted and has been getting better and better at staying soft and bending through right turns. 

Of course, with all the changes in his canter, I started missing a bit to the fences. I don't have a natural eye for a spot, but I do have a decent learned eye. Unfortunately, whenever the canter changes, I tend to have to 'relearn' my eye. Also, because Dante is more responsive to my aids, particularly my half halts, I am having to learn to be softer with my hands. So we have been jumping more frequently than normal, but with lower heights and less fences overall, to help develop my new eye. 

I am so excited about these changes in Dante and myself. I can't wait to show them off at a show after we bring it all together. First up though, XC schooling at Greenwood the weekend of January 7th, Jean Moyer dressage clinic the weekend of the 14th, and then leaving for Rocking Horse the weekend of the 21st!

(The Spanish Moss of Rocking Horse, where we'll be at the end of January!)

Giving Thanks

I am the first to admit that Thanksgiving has never meant a lot to me. As a kid I hated turkey...and stuffing, and cranberries, and sweet potatoes, and...well, you get the picture. Even though I'm an adult now, and I eat all of those things, Thanksgiving still doesn't strike a chord with me. I do love spending time with my family, but I'm in the fun position of living close enough that it seems stupid to fly, but far enough that the six hour drive (which turns into an eight hour drive with holiday traffic) is a bit much to just spend a few days at home. Combine that with the fact that Thanksgiving is generally the beginning of the end of the semester, with a myriad of tests up to the day before the holiday and a plethora of projects due in the two weeks following, and it means that I haven't made it home for Thanksgiving since my first year at UNT in 2008.

Generally, I tend to spend Thanksgiving on my own or maybe with friends, stuffing myself with whatever food strikes me fancy. Last year, it was Rudy's BBQ, and there's something wonderfully Texan about eating my own body weight in brisket on Thanksgiving. This year, I spent the day with Jessica Pye, going for a hack on our boys before we attempted to put together our own version of Thanksgiving, which included a rotisserie chicken from Walmart, green been casserole, instant mashed potatoes, and cinnamon rolls for dessert. Terribly traditional, I know.

(The view from Dante's back on Thanksgiving Day.)

Even though I'm not terribly religious, I do make an effort to think about what I'm thankful for. In 2011, there are three things I'm especially thankful for.

I'm thankful for my family. Both my parents and my boyfriend are amazing at supporting what I'm doing, whether it's college or horses. I'm incredibly lucky to have such good financial support from my parents, who also cheer with me in the good moments and console me during the low. I couldn't have done what I have without them. My boyfriend knows when to listen and when to try and fix things, when to send me a random pick me up, and how to make me smile. I couldn't ask for a better family.

I'm thankful for my friends, both horsey and non-horsey. I've never had the easiest time making friends, but in Dallas I've found an incredibly supportive group of people at Gold Chip. I can spend hours at the barn easily, watching lessons and socializing at lunch with people from all over Area V. I'm thankful for my non-horsey friends, because as much as I love horses, I sometimes just need to go to the bar, have a Shiner, and talk about football.

I'm thankful for my horse and his health. Even though Galway was a bit emotionally draining for me, it really helped me realize how much of a partnership I have with him, and how devastated I would be if he was taken from my life. Even when he was sick, he was a total beggar, hamming it up for treats and generally looking smug in his warm stall while I traipsed around in the cold and rain. No matter what, I would never be tired of seeing that face in my barn. He's been back in work for a week and a half now, and of course is going better than ever on the flat, including half passes and lead changes.

Here's to the holidays! 

And Sometimes, Everything Falls Apart

I have never been so relieved to be home from a horse show. This past weekend was one weekend that I can't wait to forget, and although we've all had weekends like that (Jersey comes to mind), I truly cannot think of one good thing about this past weekend.

Other than the rainbow, of course.

Really, it was a lovely rainbow.

It began on Thursday when I arrived at the show grounds for the day, and having not had time to pick up my packet on Wednesday afternoon, I stopped first at the office...where I promptly discovered that I rode Thursday afternoon rather Friday morning as I had thought. This meant I had to drive back to my hotel and get my dressage breeches, which made me late to get on for a long canter, which caused me to miss the riders meeting, which in turn almost made me late for the jog. I didn't catch up on my schedule until after the jog.

I actually was happy to be riding on Thursday, I just wish I had known it. The weather on Friday was supposed to be cold and wet while Thursday was sunny and overly warm. And dusty. But good conditions for keeping Dante a bit lethargic. Dante put in his best test of the season, which was still not nearly what I know what we can do but at least was mostly mistake free and relatively calm for him.

Unfortunately, the judges felt it was mostly insufficient and scored me a 70.3. I was a bit shocked, I admit. I thought for sure it would be in the sixties at least. While I don't dispute my ranking, it did appear as if the judges were scoring a bit high, with the low score in my division a 47.1. Still, once I got my test I saw that they scored me 4's across the board for his canter work because they didn't like the quality of the canter. I do recognize that Dante doesn't have the best quality canter but it's the same one he's always had and I've never gotten 4's on a canter movement that was performed without mistakes.

The weekend was only to get worse. Friday dawned overcast, cold, and raining. It felt like Kentucky to me, not California. It rained all day and the temperature dropped steadily throughout. It was very unpleasant. But the weather wouldn't have bothered me if I hadn't heard Dante cough once. And then twice. And then I saw his nose was full of yellow snot. Even though he was still his bright-eyed self, his temperature was 101.4. It wouldn't have been that alarming except that his temperature at in-barns was 98.4. I called the vet, who was off grounds, and by the time he arrived two hours later, Dante's temperature was over 103.

In the end, I had to withdraw Dante to treat him correctly. He got banamine and penicillin and his temp was down by the evening. He spent three days hanging out in isolation, which turned out to be the private vet clinic of the vet right across the street from the show grounds. He never skipped a beat in turns of eating, drinking, and being generally adorable/annoying. If he hadn't had a cough and snotty nose, I never would have known he was sick.

So in the end, Dante got a nice little vacation in California while I spent the rest of the weekend trying to be a good sport about it. Saturday was lovely, and I spent most of the day listening to Mike and the Captain comment on the 2* and 3* cross country rounds, which was very educational. Unfortunately, Sunday was miserable again weather wise, and although I stuck it out to watch Heather jump a lovely clear round in the muck, by the time the day was over, the disappointment was weighing pretty heavily on me.

Not sure what we'll do to try and finish off a season, or even how quickly he'll fully recover. I think it's time to take it day by day.

Nose to the Grindstone

Time flies when you're busy! The month of October is passing by quickly, although it's going by a little too quickly if you ask me. This is the first fall since 2008 where I've still been eventing at this point in time. In 2009, I was at the long format CCI* in Kentucky and last year Dante was recuperating from an injury. In 2008, I just about killed myself from exhaustion as I competed every two weeks for two months while moving up to Prelim at Holly Hill at the same time I began my second stint at college, taking 18 hours of Physics, Technical Writing, Calculus 3, and other time-intensive classes. It was a bit much.

So of course my final fall hearkens back to my first fall. My class load is light; twelve hours, three of which are online. Two of my classes are business, which are just that much easier than my engineering classes. However, one class is my senior design project, which can be time consuming and will only grow to be more so as the year progresses. And the thing that is taking up most of my time right now is studying for the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam, which is a fun 8-hour exam that tests everything I ever learned ever. Hooray! And when do I have to take this exam? Why, the Saturday before Galway!

Apparently I have a thing for picking two stars that fall immediately after big tests. I left for Jersey on Wednesday morning immediately following finals last semester on Monday and Tuesday. Before Galway I have an exam Monday and Wednesday for my normal classes, the FE on Saturday, and then an online exam the Monday following Galway. Yippee!

Balancing work and riding will be tough, but balancing school and riding is no picnic either.

On the horse front, Dante is looking and feeling great. Fall arrived earlier this week, with highs in the 60s. I absolutely love fall weather and the brisk cold and so does Dante. We jumped on Tuesday, and both of us were dead on everything so we only jumped a couple of courses before doing trot sets. It really is lovely to not be overheating while warming up or doing trot sets.

In between studying breaks I've been avidly stalking old Galway Downs video to try and get an idea of the grounds. It looks flat like Texas! I wouldn't mind some cooler weather because Dante's coat has slowly been growing in despite me praying to the hair gods for it not to. He isn't getting clipped before we go, I have no time and he really doesn't have enough of a coat to clip anyways. Hooray for Thoroughbreds! One of my friends is moving up to Intermediate at Holly Hill, and she had to clip her Thoroughbred in preparation because he was a hairy beast. I guess I should say to hooray to my Thoroughbred and his skimpy coat! Clipping is definitely a January chore, not an October chore.

One week until the horses leave!

All Systems Go

This past weekend was very much a checklist for Dante and I. We attended Greenwood horse trials in Weatherford, Texas. Greenwood is our local event, being only an hour from the barn. As a result, it's a good event to go to during the semester and it has a more casual feel to it than other horse trials. This year we participated in the Intermediate Championships, simple because we were qualified and because we could. There were several things I needed to check off my list in order for us to enter and attend Galway CCI**.

First was dressage, for obvious reasons. The back injections seemed to vastly improve his sensitivity to palpation until it was completely gone, but it hadn't been tested in competition atmosphere. Dante was very calm both times I rode him in the warm up before dressage, almost shockingly so. He was also very calm in warm up, but got tense in his test. However, he was a normal amount of tenseness, rather than the tight ball of muscle I felt at the AECs. We performed an ok test, highlighted by the ridiculously slow canter serpentine that felt as if we were moving through molasses. I knew it was slow and subtly attempted to create a more forward gait with my seat, but he ignored me. I was afraid a stronger response would elicit a bad reaction, but looking back I definitely should have tried a bit harder. However, overall it was a much better test, simple changes excluded (anticipation much?). We scored a 41.7 which I felt was fairly accurate and left us tied for third...out of four.

On another note, I was mildly surprised how many people asked if I was happy about my test. Was I happy? No, not really, it was a mediocre test, and on par with what we put forth all last season before Jersey. I was pleased that we had dug ourselves out of the hole we had regressed into. I was no longer embarrassed after walking out of the ring. But happy? I'll be happy when we put out improvement. I think relieved is probably the best word to describe how I felt about the test. Dante is capable of so much more, as he shows at home. He'll never be a world beater, but I see no reason that we couldn't consistently score mid-30s if we just did the same test at home at the shows.

He did flip behind once, but I feel strongly that this was not a result of his back hurting as it was a response to me accidentally grabbing the curb bit instead of the snaffle bit. Flipping has always been his response to something that upsets him since I bought him as a four year old, whether it's due to pain or annoyance. As I went to adjust my reins just after our walk to canter transition, I accidentally grabbed the curb rein. Oops. My mistake. However, his back pain seems to be resolved.

Next item was soundness after cross country. The ground at Greenwood wasn't as hard as I feared, but it was still hard. The organizers did a fantastic job aerating, but with the severe drought in Texas, there was only so much they could do. As a result, the entire Intermediate division cruised around, including me. We came in 40 seconds over and since time is always extremely difficult to make at Greenwood, 40 seconds was pretty good. Interestingly, the other person tied with me for third also finished exactly 40 seconds over so we remained tied.

(Dante leaps over the first element before the water.)

After cross country, I iced Dante in Jack's Ice Boots once, then did the Game Ready while his feet soaked twice more. Poulticed and wrapped. Jogged up for my trainer, who said he looked good and sound. Yay! Step two passed.

The final item was soundness the next day. I got to the barn early to braid and rinse his legs. We jogged up and looked good again! Hurray! His coffin joints seem to be doing very well.

Show jumping wasn't on the checklist, but we're going to be working on it now. I was very unhappy with the way I rode my round. I had forgotten that Dante tends to lose all quality of canter in the big show jumping grass ring at Greenwood. He must feel as if it's XC again, and gets offended when I try to correct his assumption. We had a lovely warm up, went into the ring, and lost all semblance of a good canter when I confused forward with running and Dante obliged by attempting to pick an XC pace. I couldn't see any of my distances when I was seeing everything in warm up, and I am absolutely certain that it's due to fact that the quality of the canter was not good. So now, that is what I am going to be concentrating on during any jumping lessons.

So, barring anything serious happening, looks like we're headed out to Galway in early November. I'm excited, I've never had the chance to compete out in California, and I'm probably unlikely to be able to in the future. This is a great chance for me to check out eventing, West Coast style.

The Trouble with Kissing

I've been remiss in updating because I've had some not very good news about Dante since the AECs.

After our disastrous dressage, I decided to have my vet come check him out. I thought his back might be bothering him. He had some sore back muscles during the summer, which we previously thought was due to his sore heels. Dr. A palpated his spine and Dante was definitely sensitive. So down to the imaging clinic for back x-rays we went.

The final result?

Dante has kissing spine between his 14th/15th and his 15th/16th vertebrae.

Oh, good.

It's not the worst news. I'm glad to know that there was a physical cause of the flipped leads that plummeted our score and that he wasn't just flipping out mentally. Every time I sat deep in the canter to half halt or to encourage him to go forward or even turn, I sat right on the painful vertebrae and caused him to flip. I'm glad to know there is at least a reason.

There's two paths of treatment. The first path is injections, which is the conservative road. This is the path we'll travel first. Both the imaging vet and Dr. A thought injections would be extremely effective and both want to try the conservative approach first.

The second path is surgery. There is a newish surgery that Texas A&M has done on some horses that opens up the spaces between the vertebrae. Ironically, my friend Jessica over at Pye Equestrian has just gone through this surgery with her horse, and the imaging vet raved over her horse's x-rays without even knowing I knew her. However, the vets want to see how effective the injections will be first.

Surgery will probably be in Dante's future regardless. While the injections do seem to be working for now (Dante was injected last week), they might not work forever. Also, they seem very invasive as well as mildly painful for Dante, and have to repeated every six months. The surgery has very good results, is not too expensive, and requires only four months off. Considering I am planning on giving him an eight month hiatus anyways when I graduate while I get my life moved and settle into my career, it seems that would be a good time to do it.