Aiken 2023: Part 2 | Lessons

Not a bad way to start your day.

We spent Thursday morning taking lessons with the lovely and clever SD. I asked her for a prescription for a Grand Prix warmup that would create a supple yet hot horse and boy did she nail it.

Her major point was that horses will naturally become more supple the more on the aids they become. So while it's not a bad thing to do my warm ups of counter canter, ranvers, half passes, etc. etc. it might suit me better to "adrenalize" him and THEN check in on suppleness. 

Look who did NOT untie himself from the trailer this
 year and run amuck at a top dressage barn.

Our lesson consisted of a lot of forward, back. "Quicker than you think!" she said. In canter, go forward, go forward again, come back to pirouette canter, press him and make him hot, allow back out. Repeat.

The biggest result I found in piaffe/passage. We did a lot of piaffe to medium trot. Really fire that back end. Piaffe- medium - piaffe - medium. Repeat repeat. THEN piaffe - WAIT PASSAGE - and blamo that resulted in some pretty awesome passage for Hampton. (He is not Valegro and is still very earthbound but he has more power in there!)

The BFF bringing in the boys in the morning.

We ended the lesson by touching on the GP trot half passes. She suggested I take both hands away from the direction of travel to create more sideways without having to drive him sideways. I have always thought that taking one hand above the withers creates false bend, but in this particular exercise it seemed to work. That way he had more expression sideways, without me driving him more onto his shoulders.

I now had a solid plan for warm up for the weekend show at Bruce's Field.

I also really enjoyed her teaching L and Royale, who are address some counter canter issues. I loved her clever and thoughtful ways of training and teaching a horse without stressing anyone out.

I will say both horses and humans were tired after our lessons though! Obviously we remedied that by once again having a lunch of shaved ice at Vampire Penguin. 

I would eat this every day of my life.

And dinner with friends at Whiskey Alley was absolutely delicious their brussels sprouts are AHH MAZZ BALLS. 

(Fun fact also learned on this trip: It is indeed Brussels Sprout, NOT Brussel Sprouts like pretty much all of us pronounce.)

Next: THE SHOW

Aiken 2023: Part 1 | Leisure

 Horse women are amazing because even though our group was different this year, it was no less amazing or supportive. I love how horse women can just sit down at a table, not knowing one another at all, and by the end of dinner be friends. 

I am always very thankful when we have an easy drive down to Aiken and the horses come off the trailer bright and healthy. L and I arrived at Jumping Branch Farm around 5 p.m. on a Tuesday and had just enough time to feed, grab a desperate dinner (boy that was poor planning on our part arriving on Valentine's Day and expecting to find a place to sit down and eat), and turn the boys out for the night. And by boys I mean Hampton and stepbrother Royale of course.

Wednesday we decided to take it easy and after feeding the horses, went to local favorite New Moon Cafe for some smoothies, coffee, and delicious food. We took the boys on a hack around Jumping Branch and even enjoyed a very well behaved canter around the track.

Loving Jumping Branch Farm

POV: From the back of Royale

A porkchop by a porkchop jump. I think it was a Training jump?

Obviously after our ride we went shopping at local tack stores. Big shout out to Aiken Saddlery which expanded significantly since my last visit and made my eyes quite large with joy when I walked in. 

Breyers! I am a child.

Just part of Aiken Saddlery.

We also had Vampire Penguin for "lunch" which is simply the most amazing shaved ice EVER. I would go broke (errr more broke?) if there was one local to me in KY.

More shopping downtown. lol

Our leisure day ended with dinner with friends at the absolute best restaurant Takosushi, before we all collapsed in our respective sleep locations. Thank F for friends who bring their living quarters trailer to Aiken to take in a couple of DQ strays. haha.

Next: Lessons!

Man in the Arena

 

That is the exact moment I learned I had achieved my first score toward my Gold medal.

My apologies for just jumping the shark right off the bat in regards to our annual Aiken trip but ... 

More posts coming about the glorious haven that is Aiken but we finally did it. 

Frozen, thawed, spent.

 

Winter sunrise on the farm

Welp.

I was going to say I wish I had more exciting blog content after slacking for so long, but quickly rethought that statement after the events of this week. I am in fact more than happy to have NO news regarding Hampton. He is happy, and in work and really improving his fitness thanks to swimming.

During his first swim he did 5 laps and now he is up to banging out 12 laps and recovering almost immediately. He is such a good boy and just goes along with it. I can't imagine what horses must think being asked to swim around a pool. 

He looks ... feral. He needs body clipped again badly. He has chin hairs. His mane needs trimmed. He is muddy half the time. His forelock and bridle path are embarassing.

Was 0 degrees here I believe.
Hampton totally unbothered.

But underneath that hair and dirt is a fit dressage horse. He is starting to feel like maybe he would like his hocks done, but that is not unexpected and completely normal. Other than that he is feeling really good. *knocks on wood*

Our Aiken plans are still on, but are undergoing some re-shuffling this year. I think there was 8 of us in the original group and now this year it's down to .... two. Hampton and Royale. The dressage horses. Good grief. 

We all survived The Great Freeze Of Eternity here in the midwest, however my job as an insurance adjuster is now incredibly busy and my mere existence is exhausting. Every pipe in the Greater Kentucky Area And Beyond ruptured and spewed all over the place. I have worked for almost 3 weeks straight with no days off. Plus barn chores, and riding Hampton on top of that. My condo is a disaster area as that fell to the bottom of all priorities. 

Shirt I wore to my family Christmas. heh heh

Buckley of course continues his reign and would never let me forget to feed him.

There is light at the end of this tunnel I think and I am hoping to start planning some lessons and shows shortly. Keep on keepin' on!

I'm going to need those TPS reports Buckley.

An aquatic Porkchop

Hampton swimming. Unsure if he likes this new activity.

In an effort to increase Hampton's fitness over the winter, I jumped on the chance to tag along to a little place called Bluegrass Aquatic Rehabilitation just south of town. 

It's not fancy, but the people were nice and knew what they were doing. Because of their excellent horsemanship, there were no problems and no theatrics getting first-time swimmer Porkchop into the pool. At first they took him around for just one lap to give him the idea of the activity. Then they took him back in for another 5 laps.

Pool overview

Hamp did great, although his eyes were bugging out of his head and I kept getting some major side-eye. It was also interesting noting the difference in how the horses would breathe while swimming. Hampton almost seemed to hold his breath at times, while his barn mate took a very rhythmic 13 breaths per lap. 

After the horses swim, they spend about 30-40 on the hot walker to dry off and keep their muscles moving. It's really a great workout and low-impact on Hampton's feet. He had never been swimming before (although has done the aquatread) so I wasn't sure if he would 1) cannonball in 2) drown or 3) run someone over.

Definitely adding this to our list of winter fitness activities! 

One foot in front of the other

It's a miracle - I have taken the time to blog.

My new job and Hampton and life in general has kept me quite busy and exhausted and trying to multi-task to my maximum abilities. 

But it's all good.

This is the kind of adventures I get to go on
for my new job.

Anyway, Hampton is doing much better these days. It seems that little period of unsoundness was a result of a nasty case of sulcus thrush in his left front foot. This falls entirely on me for not keeping on top of it. It was so bad that when I gently stuck a hoofpick in that sulcus crack it started to bleed. Kind of a lot. So clearly he had some necrotic and painful tissue.

So - I have been soaking ALL his sulcus cracks with Tomorrow (dry cow mastitis stuff), because he has contracted heels in all 4 feet really. But the left front I then butt floss some gauze into that crack so it will open up and allow air in there.

The nerdiest of nerds.

Then he got expensive frog pad shoes to help mechanically open up his heels and offer him some cushion. I also left his bell boots off because I was afraid they were trapping crap and moisture. Naturally, Hampton pulled a front shoe on Thanksgiving. Thank fuck he pulled the shoe off the good foot. So I guess the bell boots go back on.

I love horses.

He is back to feeling much better and working great so I will take it.

This brings up a good point. He apparently can feel that foot. This is the foot that was nerved just a year ago. So that development is quite disappointing. So I am not sure how much longer Hampton will remain serviceably sound. I don't think I would do the neurectomy again since he seems to regenerate nerves at a bizarrely rapid pace.

However, at the moment he is going great and I will just enjoy that while I can and will cross other bridges when we come to them. Not sure what else there is to do. I mean technically none of us know how long our horses will be sound so .... *shrug*

You know I have adventures planned as well. Annnnnd got suckered into fostering another cat. This cute guy still has his trouble puffs so he has to live in my spare bathroom. It makes me feel terrible but I guess it's better than a cold cage or death. I named him Sly. lol

Porkchop the Schoolmaster

Hurricane deployment number 1 in the books!

Probably the cutest place I saw the entire 11 days. 
Cute park in Sebring, FL.
Not pictures, 3 cop cards and some drug lords.

I survived, and will never move to Florida. Moving on.

I cannot thank the plethora of people who took care of my boys while I was away. I believe this was the longest I have ever been away from Hampton. He of course seemed unbothered.

Hampton got to play Schoolmaster while I was gone and he was SUCH a good boy. 

He was a lesson horse for a really fabulous teenager. She was very deserving of the ride
and I was more than happy to offer it.

My barn friends traded some rides on him and I am so thankful they kept his muscles moving. The more movement the better for Hamp. Even though he lives outside 24/7, he still sometimes gets stiff when he has more than 2 days off in a row. #oldman

And a very deserving teenager took a lesson on him. It made my heart burst when I got video of her doing tempis with him! I'm not sure she has done them before! And there goes Hampton just the perfect schoolmaster. Somehow this 2 year old random gelding I bought in 2009 is now giving FEI level lessons to a young rider. I'm not sure how this all happened. *sniffle*

Unfortunately, Hampton is back to suffering lameness on his left front. I'm not sure if his neurectomy is no longer effective, or an abscess? Or what? It's very disheartening. It's almost a year to the day since his nerve surgery. Not going to go to dark places just yet as I have not even consulted a vet yet about it, and the girls DID find a stick wedged in his frog and some seepage of goop so will hold off on being depressed until we can figure out what exactly is going on. Horses, man.

Anyway I am very happy to be home and catching up on blogs, sleep, Buckley demands, eating actual meals, laundry and usual orders of business. Whew.