Horse-cation Part 1: Never a dull moment

So the JJ Tate clinic was amaze-ballz. I never thought I would ever stoop to that level and use the term "amaze-ballz", but this clinic deserves it. So there it is.

But first.

Other stuff happened.

I have way too much awesomeness and information to still process from the clinic. That deserves a post of its own. Plus, I am waiting on video. So I am going to stall on that a bit. :)

Anyhoo, so Thursday we are all set to head to Lexington for the clinic. We are late leaving the farm because of truck troubles (my instructor was also riding in the clinic and was nice enough to haul Hampton's big ass down there). No biggie, as the clinic times get pushed back anyway due to Rolex. JJ was also coaching a rider in Rolex so we had to be flexible with times. No biggie.

We finally arrive at the farm - WHICH IS IMMACULATE - and unload.

L goes to unhitch the trailer and notices a weird, oily substance is ALL OVER the hitch and front of the trailer. Odd, we thought. We blamed it on all the construction we drove through on the way.

Remember this detail for later.

But the farm. It is gorgeous. Probably THE nicest facility I have ever had the privilege to ride at.

Indoor arena where we rode

I mean seriously.

Those side windows can open up, of course.

Hampton settled into his super nice stall.

We have enough time to to grab a bite to eat before our rides. On the way back to the farm, the truck randomly stalls out in the middle of the road.

Odd. We continue on.

We don't end up riding until almost 8:30 pm. Hampton was fresh but well behaved. Lots of cool things happened.

They have a lovely outdoor as well. Both arenas had top of the line footing.
I told Hampton not to get used to this.

After our rides, we go to head over to the hotel. The truck is now acting very weird. When L would press on the gas, the engine would rev but nothing would happen.

We both immediately think transmission problem.

And then we realize that we were probably looking at transmission fluid all over the front of the trailer.

Yes, that happened.

On Friday, we were stranded in Lexington. During Rolex. Oh man!! Bummer! I can think of a lot worse places to be stranded. After our early morning rides, we had no choice really but to go to Rolex. DARN! I had a great time walking around, and behaved myself shopping wise. I purchased a new pair of Piper breeches, in a size smaller than what I already have. Yay! Other than that I just drank booze.

Meanwhile,  L's dad (DAD OF THE YEAR) drives from Virginia to Lexington to save us. He gives L a newer truck to drive (yay yay!). We load up close to 10 pm and are home by 11:15 pm. A long day, but fun. Her dad ended up having to fly home, as the broken truck needed significant repairs. Obviously.

Then I turned around and went BACK to Rolex on Saturday. It doesn't matter how many times I watch the cross country, it is breathtaking every year! Had a great time and met some fellow bloggers as well. :) I was exhausted though by the afternoon and not the life of the party. lol. I do apologize for being a total zombie that day for those that tried to hold conversations with me.

So that's the cliff notes of "what else happened" over the past 4-5 days. As soon as I get the video, I will post the clinic roundup.

Because without the video, you simply will not believe me when I tell you what happened. :)

Insanity in the sandbox

First, I was totally blown away by the amount of support I received from my previous post. I cannot thank you enough for the comments and support. You all know who you are. :)

Hamps and I are getting ready for an INSANE month and half of activities. This week we start with the JJ Tate Clinic, in which I will be doing a full report for you all. And hopefully get some photos and videos. Meanwhile, I am stressing about what breeches I should wear! Can't show up looking like a frumpy backyard dresssahhhhggge rider.

Found these on ebay:

Pikuer breeches!

Thoughts?

:)


#noway

***

And yes I will be going to Rolex most likely Saturday and Sunday. Who wants to meet up?!

Reality

I am a realist. I think I have a pretty realistic view of my horse, his abilities and my abilities as well.

Do I think Hampton and I are going to compete all over the county and earn 70%s? Uh, no.

April 2013 (one year ago)

Do I think we are capable of someday competing at PSG at the local level? Yes.

So during my last lesson, my instructor (the one I have been taking lessons from for more than a year), basically tells me Hampton won't make a Third Level horse. He doesn't have the cadence. He doesn't have a balance. He just isn't good enough. He's too downhill. I mean what she said was true. He is a First Level horse who does Third Level tricks. I have no illusions about that. It's not like last season at Second Level was wildly successful. Our best score was a 63%. Not really that impressive. I suspect it may take me all year to get a 60% at Third Level.

But I think we can do it. We both just need time to develop. If I find that Third just totally murders us, then I don't need to show all year. Or we can drop back to Second. No biggie at all. But I feel like I should try. I feel like we are ready to at least give it a shot. Because in order to get where you want to go, you have to go there.

Summer 2013 

But to say he has reached his limit at First Level? That stings.

What's even more confusing is that other (newer) gal I take lessons with, is pumping me full of ideas such as showing Fourth Level at the end of the year. Maybe even PSG! (Not ganna happen). 

Now I am full of all sort of self doubt. We are supposed to go to a clinic in a week with none other than JJ Tate. Only one of my idols whom I really admire. I wish I could ride like her. Is this going to be a giant waste of money? What am I going to tell her? We all know "that person" who marches in and says they have a Third Level horse and then it becomes painfully obvious and embarrassing that they are a training level pair. I don't want to be THAT person. But I don't want to underestimate our abilities either. I still want to be challenged and get something out of the clinic. I trust that JJ will figure us out pretty quick and form and appropriate lesson plan. She's that cool of a teacher and rider. But still. Do I have any business riding with such company?

October 2013

Yes we have our struggles. Right bend, right half pass. General suppleness. Cadence. Keeping the flying changes straight (but HOLY COW have the changes improved lately!!). But are these issues uncommon? No. At what point do you determine a horse has maxed out in dressage? Hampton is only 7, fairly young for a dressage horse. Of course he is not some nationally competitive horse, I don't expect him to be. But do I think he has more to give? Yes.

Also, I am very aware that I am 90% of the problem. I have never trained a horse this far in dressage before. This is as new to me as it is to Hampton. I do all the training myself, I don't have my instructors ride him. So that in a way is a handicap I guess, compared to others. But - I feel he deserves a chance. I still believe in him. And in us.

Am I delusional? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Am I seeing this horse through rose-colored glasses?

I am no where near giving up on him. Not even in the cards. I just want to be sure I am not asking him to do things that he can't really do. So far, I haven't encountered that. At least in my opinion. But I guess if there is a point where I need to re evaluate his career, I should do that.

I dunno.

#firstworldproblems #dressagequeenproblems #lifeisgreatanyway

Lede story

It seems we have a major lead (or a lede, as we say in newspaper land) on who has been stealing from our farm.

After the saddles vanished, I made some calls to local tack stores and gave them descriptions of the saddles and to call me if any saddles fitting those descriptions came in for consignment. I thought it was a long shot, but couldn't hurt.

That day, I get a call from one of the owners.

He immediately gave me a name of a woman. He outright called her a thief and that he would be highly, highly suspicious of her.

Her name didn't ring a bell with me, but I went ahead and passed her name on to our Barn Owner.

Imagine my surprise when my BO emailed me back and said, "Actually, she has recently boarded with us."

!!!!!!

I knew it! I knew it was someone who knew the farm, knew our schedules and was familiar with other details. In fact she had boarded with us just in August! I didn't know her, as she and her husband didn't stay too long. But they do have an OTTB - and I remembered the horse.

So our BO called around to other local farms and time and time again this woman's name came up. Seems things go missing wherever she goes. When she left our farm, she took our BO's expensive bit and a few others things (which she did end up getting back after calling this woman out on it).

It seems last year she was caught stealing a Devoucoux saddle. Charges were never pressed because the real Devoucoux saddle owner just wanted her saddle back, and said she wouldn't press charges if the saddle was returned.

Also last year, our BO got a call from Thief Woman saying she was looking for an aluminum gooseneck trailer. Intrestingly enough, a gooseneck trailer was later stolen from a farm about 3 miles from us. It was finally recovered at a race horse training facility. And what a coincidence - Thief Woman's HUSBAND is associated with this race horse training facility. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

The cops have been called. And other measures have been made to make sure our stuff is not messed with again.

I'm not going to give this woman's name on this blog (don't want any libel suits against me, haha), but if you live in this area and want to know her name, I will happily give it to you. Email me at finalchapter.karen@gmail.com

Honestly this whole thing has pissed me off. Even though I have been lucky and my stuff has not been stolen, we all feel very violated. The farm is like a sanctuary to us. And now we all feel paranoid and pissed off. And NONE of us out there are rich. We are not one of the fancy foo-foo rich people farms. We cannot afford to just replace a saddle. Which annoys me even more. We all work so hard and sacrifice so much and this cow comes in and just takes what she wants.

Ok, rant over. Will have a post about Hampton soon! :)

Theft

We have a thief who has been visiting our barn.

Over the winter, we had some Rambo blankets vanish, a couple of half pads and a sheet. At first we thought maybe things were just getting misplaced, or blankets put on the wrong horses (it happens), but it quickly became apparent that that was not the case. This thief was taking blankets in a specific size, and they took Rambos - which shows that they knew what brands are best.

At that point we put locks on all the tack rooms.

Today there are two bridles and a Keiffer dressage saddle missing. When I got to the barn this morning, I noticed that the lock to that tackroom was unlocked. I didn't really think anything of it until I got the call about the theft. So it's either an inside job, or the lock was left unlocked yesterday. There was a fund raising event last night, so it was pretty well known that everyone from our barn would be at that event. (I was working my real life job). My gut says it's someone who knows the farm, and knows the BO.

Police reports will be filed.

Over the winter, there was a trailer stolen from a nearby barn as well. (It was apparently recovered, but I don't know the details).

We haven't been saying anything because we didn't want to draw attention, but I know there are KY folks who read this blog so just a heads up. Lock up your stuff. I'm tempted to keep my new saddle in my car, but that's not exactly smart as I work downtown which is a very dangerous neighborhood. Not sure what to do. *sigh*

Very frustrating.

Sexy Rexy update

Remember the sweet Shire/Friesian/QH gelding that spent a few months with me last summer?

He came to me a gawky, recently-castrated (and a cryptorchid at that), kind-not-really-broke fellow. He was shy, insecure and sensitive.

First ride

Over the summer he matured both physically and mentally into an absolute JOY to ride. He was not spooky, and he was sensitive in a good way. He enjoyed a job and thrived on having a leader. He especially enjoyed riding out in the jump field and was really starting to develop a steady rhythm and contact.

I am hearing good reports on him from his owner, although she is very busy and he doesn't get ridden everyday. I stole some update photos from her Facebook. Hope she doesn't mind.

I love how he is just standing by the mounting block here.
What a good boy!

He has filled out, to say the least.

And holy cow he is GIGANTIC now! 

He was one of my favorite "stepchildren" to date.

*whew*

Good news!

Hampton seems totally back to normal. No more sunken flanks and I did the skin pinch test all over his body and there is minimal tenting (he LOVED that procedure, ha.)

Photo from last year in early March. Second Level debut

For now I have added a salt/mineral supplement and also am giving him some soaked alfalfa cubes again just to make sure he is getting extra water. I had stopped the alfalfa cubes since the spring grass is coming in and he doesn't need the calories anymore, but they are so good for getting water into them and he drinks a lot more when he has a meal of the cubes. So, for now, I am going to stick with that plan.

We did a light hack yesterday, and today returned to the ring for some real work and he felt great. Even spooking a bit at the guy who was repairing the fence. So, he is just fine. :) I think I caught it early enough that thankfully no huge issues appeared.

Snout selfie

In other news, my saddle fitter came out today to look at the new saddle. He is a general saddle fitter (he is not a rep for any brand, and will adjust most any brand of saddle). His exact words were, "You have found a needle in a haystack." That is how perfect this saddle fit. You can imagine how happy this made me because as you all know - when does this ever happen?! I got so lucky finding this saddle. Right place, right time. Woot.

So onward with dancing in the sandbox!

Third Level is treating us well, although I have quickly realized that we need to add an actual fitness program in. This level is far, far more challenging on a fitness level for both of us. The horrible winter didn't help. So, more hills and trot sets for us!

After running through Third 3