First show on the calendar

Gone is the hairy, skinny, scraggly-looking 2 year old 4-legged beast of mine. Someone switched him out for a muscular, gorgeous-looking 3 year old! I really need to get updated photos because the progress is remarkable. It's amazing what good food will do for a horse! He is also beginning to muscle up thanks to consistent work and a growth spurt in general. Our most recent rides have been awesome. We've been doing more leg yielding (quarter line to wall and sometimes center line to wall), transitions between all gaits (except walk to canter/canter to walk of course), beginning some shoulder-in maybe once a week, groundpoles once a week, lots of changes of bend, forward and back and working on balancing the canter. I mean ... I think he's doing pretty darn good for a 3-year-old. When we ride in the arena with the other more educated horses, we are not outclassed and fit right in.
So - I've chosen a small dressage/combined training show on July 31 to take Hampton too. It's close (about 45 minutes away with a trailer in tow), and low-key. Obviously, we'll just be doing dressage (I think Training Level 1 and 2 will be appropriate), but they do have crossrail classes if we decide to return next year! So it will be interesting to see how Hampton handles the show atmosphere ... I really hope he is not like T-Bone, my previous horse, who made showing a miserable experience. And never got over it. So we'll see. Time to start practicing pieces of those Training Level tests!

I might name it, "Bruise" since it's black and blue

Well, it's official. I got a new truck. Finally! It's a Silverado 2500 with a TON of really cool features (for example, it will tell you how many miles you have left to drive on the amount of gas you have). It's a 2003 and a really pretty, although somewhat loud, blue. Leather seats (heated, too) and the electric brake is already installed. I still need to have that checked out to make sure it works ok, but at least it's there. I'll be a little more poor, but hell my dream of having a horse trailer is one step closer.

Give it a stretch

So ... no exciting "I almost got dumped" reports. Hampton has been a true gentleman, very obedient and has done everything I have asked of him. Of course, it's also about 90 degrees and humid. That might be helping. But either way, our rides have been great lately. I've now started teaching him about stretching down and out. I hadn't introduced this yet, because I wanted to make sure he was truly broke to ride before I said, "Ok horse, you may put your head down now." Today he really started to get the concept. He really started to lower his neck. He still needs to poke his nose out a little more, but I felt it was a good start for a baby. We'd probably still pull a 6 on a training level stretchy circle. Here's what I really want to avoid as far as the forward-down-out working goes. T-Bone (my previous horse, a Morgan), learned this by way of vienna reins (or running side reins). This appeared to work great for him - as he was an uptight, upheaded horse who took any opportunity brace against the contact and hollow his back. The thing is, all the Vienna reins did was teach him to unhinge at the withers. He never truly stretched into the contact, but he was great about lowering his neck as if to graze. I want to avoid this at all costs with Hampton. To be fair, Hampton is a totally different animal. He's not built like T-Bone, and does not have the same mind. Right now I see no need to use Vienna reins, as he's learned to lower his neck just fine with me opening my inside rein and "turning the key" with my hand. But how do I teach him to strrrretch and not just unhinge? ... In other news, the canter is still great. Starting to get a few more strides of straight-away each ride. Training Level 1 or 2 will be no problem. If I can get a good stretchy circle, Training 4 will be within our reach, too. Yippeee!

Little victories

Well it took almost a year, but Hampton's fear of baths is gone. Last year, you could not turn on the water without him freaking out and sometimes running backward, dragging me along with him. I continued to work with him on it, and at one point I got so mad that I locked him in his stall and sprayed him with the hose in it so he couldn't go anywhere. Eh, probably not the most sensitive thing to do but I was getting annoyed. Welp, he now stands quietly - even grazes sometimes - while I hose him off. Sweet success! The hot and humid weather recently was a big help, but I think he was going to get over it anyway. Now if only I could clip his darn bridle path ...

He's a ... goddess?

I took the quiz at http://www.horsepersonality.com/quiz.html

Hampton ended up being "The Goddess" ...

The Goddess is loved by most of the other horses and most people. They are expressive and sensitive and emotional. You will know how they feel. They try very hard to please and will worry and be anxious if you are not happy with them. In the negative they can have scattered energy that is hard to get focused. This personality can be loved on as much as you want.

Funny. This actually describes him pretty darn well.

Good thing I wore the full seat breeches.

Since the weather has finally cooled off (for a bit anyway), I picked Sunday to work Hampton over some cavelletti. (sp?). They were about 4-5 inches off the ground. At first I lunged him over so that he could find his own balance, and so that I could see if they were going to need adjusted for his stride. Ummm, so the first 5 or 6 times through it bumped them, tripped, basically stumbled through them. Ugh. I made minor adjustments. Bump. Stumble. Unlike the old barn, these poles are the real, HEAVY kind so eventually Hampton began to pick up his feet. Then ... he got it. He trotted a couple of times through without even touching the poles. He used his hocks, he used his neck and back and flexed those joints. Good boy! I left it at that and got on to ride.
Decided to go work in the outdoor since it was so pretty outside. The screaming and dumb behavior has stopped out there. He was his normal self. (cue foreshadowing music ...)
Just as I was preparing for a canter transition, a white van came careening around the corner. (when you drive up the driveway, you can't see the outdoor until you are basically right by it. And horse and rider can't see cars coming up either). Well, we were trotting away from the van, and WHAM ... scares the poop out of Hampton, who scoots HARD and fast. Like, my neck was whipped back and I think I closed my eyes because things went dark for a minute. I said "WHOA" and just as quickly, we were back trotting. I did some small circles just to confirm I had control. But Hampton wasn't shaken up by it. He came right back to me. What a good boy! I was pretty impressed because he could have easily hauled ass back to the barn, but he didn't. I was however, thankful that I had worn my full seats. I stuck to that saddle like glue. lol.

I put us back together and cantered in both directions. It was fantastic. Perhaps the best yet. Slow, perfect 3 beat rhythm. Yes, I need to add some jump and get him more uphill, but it's totally fine for a training level horse. Same thing in today's ride .. except I decided to go for it and try a few strides on the straight-away. Nailed it on the right rein. There was some mild wiggling on the left rein. Possibly my fault for not being totally clear that we were to keep going straight. All in all very impressive. I think I was perhaps underestimating my horse when I set my sights for big bad Training Level 1. I think in about a month I'll see where we are and possibly aim for Training Level 3 or 4. He's got the trot work.

Photos:
• He's a big boy now and standings in the aisle crossties.
• Hampton & his pasture buddy, Earl. 

Can I live while I'm young

Thank goodness I was right! The naughtiness WAS just a phase. Hampton has been back to his quiet, sweet self all week and we have made great progress - especially in the canter. I was tickled today because the BO (who rides a retired Grand Prix horse and has a lifetime of dressage experience) complimented me on what a nice job I was doing with Hampton and how great his canter looked. (GOOD THING she never saw it back in March/April. OMG!) But really, just this week we have started to really come together in the canter. It's soooo rhythmic and becoming so balanced. I have yet to attempt to canter down much of a straight-away (that's when we lose the balance), but I will soon. He is started to give me 4-5 strides of uphill, jumpy, balanced canter which is fabulous. So I know it's in there, he just needs to be stronger. No problem! I really was worried there at the beginning that he may have a "canter issue" because it was so unbalanced, borderline lateral and just ugly. I really wish I had taken video of those first canters. If nothing else, it would be humorous to watch now.
We've also been schooling leg yields quarter line to the rail. He is pretty good at these now, so I've started to just ride down the quarter line so he doesn't learn to anticipate. I've also been schooling more slow trot --> big trot transitions which really help raise his poll up. I suspect this is because it gets him more in front of my leg. He tends to sort of go BTV when he's behind my leg (not too bad, but he doesn't need to be there). I need to stay more on top of that. Umm, so I'm not sure what else to teach a 3-year old?!? Going to keep looking in 101 Dressage Exercises for more ideas ... plus I found some ground poles that boarders are welcome to use so I'm going to start incorporating those, too. New goal: Show Training Level Test 1 this fall. I think we can do it. Maybe not T4 because you have to sustain the canter for longer, but T1 for sure. I'm still going to aim to show in an FEI 4 year old test next year, which I think is totally do-able at this point. We won't win, but I'd love the experience! (and to see what the scores might be).
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In other news, I'm shopping for a new truck (to pull a horse trailer). And it's frustrating. Annoying. I may give it up for a while. Ugh.

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I'm also shopping for a new helmet. I'm looking at the Ovation line. Anybody got one? I realize it's one of the "cheap" lines, but I find them attractive, well-priced, safety certified and vented. My old IRH velvet helmet is more than 5 years old, so while I'm not going to throw it out - I would like a newer helmet to ride in on a daily basis and keep my IRH as a back-up.