A Tail dyin' how-to

Sunbleached tail.
I mean, he could be the 6th Backstreet Boy!

I guess this is all the rage these days, so I decided to give this a try.

Hampton has lived outside 24/7 for most of his life, so naturally he has a rather sunbleached tail. I don't really care, frankly, but I really like the look of a jet black tail that you see in pictures. It seems the eventers are really into this, as are the hunters.

Also, there is no way I am going to attempt a mane so you are on your own there.

Here is my hillbilly tutorial.

WHAT YOU NEED

1. Hair Color. I purchased 2 boxes of Revlon soft black. When I do this again, I will buy 3 or 4 boxes. Two wasn't quite enough, but may be just fine for those of you with horses with less tail, or a shorter tail, etc. Hamp has an average tail, but remember he is super tall so it's quite a bit of hair. I believe each box was $2.99.

2. Latex gloves. (I recommend not using the cheap-o ones that come with the hair color.)

3. Plastic grocery bag. Might be a good idea to make sure you pony is ok with plastic bags before you wrap it onto his butt. Hamps gives zero shits, but I would have never tried this with Royale.

4. Vet wrap

5. Wear old clothes.

The bleached tail look is especially noticeable in late summer.

THE PROCEDURE

After watching some YouTube videos, there are some people who put a "bib" of sorts around the tail to protect butt fur from getting dyed. If you are like me and have a bay horse, you can probably get away with no tail bib. Also, if your horse has high white socks, or other white markings, you can cover those in Vaseline to protect those areas from getting smudged.

Sidenote: Pick a day with no flies to do this. Less tail swishing.

1. Mix your first bottle of hair color.

2. Squirt all around the tail. I used the first box to color the top half of the tail, and the second bottle to color the bottom half. (Like I said, I could have used a 3rd bottle to clean up what I missed). I started on a dry tail.

3. Rub in well, saturate as much hair as you can. Repeat for second bottle.

4. Tie the tail in a low knot. Take grocery bag and cover tail, securing with vet wrap (or whatever you choose).

I would wrap higher if you have a horse that is any color other than bay or black.
Might leave some marks.
Hampton: "Oh FML what is she doing now."

5. Throw horse in stall to wait (I waited 25 minutes or so).

6. Rinse out thoroughly. Use conditioner that comes with the color, or your own conditioner.

Ta- da!!! You have dyed your horse's tail.

It really was quite easy. And while there are spots I missed, it's not obvious and still looks natural.

I'm not sure how long this will last, but I anticipate doing about dye job in June I would think. It's easy, and cheap, and looks really sharp. I did see that Shapley's has a spray that you can also use to color your horse's hair, but I was hesitant to try that due to the smear factor. If anyone else has used that, please chime in!


... meanwhile, it's ROLEX TIME!!!!!!! Aimee and Leah are staying with me so I better get crackin on cleaning my little condo!! Can't let them see how I really live. hahaha. :)

Remember - blogger meetup on Saturday!!

Mid-Ohio Show: The Disaster

Found this photo op on one of our morning walks. haha. *cough*

Pop quiz!

Which of the following happened this weekend.

a) We got the lowest score of the show
b) We plowed over one of the top trainers in the area on a very expensive horse in the warm-up
c) Hampton bucked so big I lost my reins
d) I had an epic 13-year old girl meltdown in the warm up
e) ALL OF THE ABOVE


....


If you answered E - ALL OF THE ABOVE - you are correct!!


I waited until I had simmered down and had good sleep before writing this post. Because on Sunday if someone had offered me $1000 I would have handed Hampton over and said BYE FELICIA. Or, I was going to ask for numbers of tiger sanctuaries. I'm sure Hampton would feed a lot of tigers.

Part of me wanted to not talk about the show. Pretend it never happened. BUT, I've always tried to keep it real on this blog. So here it is. Prepare yourselves. lol

We arrived on Friday and while Hamp hauled well, our schooling was pretty tight. He was chomping like mad on the bit, and really did not want me to touch him. He was very tight and wanted to lurch and get behind the leg and bridle. This is not unusual for him sometimes off the property, so I did not let it bother me. I made some adjustments to my bridle and that seemed to help.

He needed a chain to lead around the grounds Saturday morning. 

Saturday morning he was WILD. I thought that was good, at least he wasn't tired! I can deal with the freshness. The show grounds (a nice facility) had round pens and I let him prance around and burn off some energy. He seemed to appreciate that and was in a much better mental state. However, his back was still tight. Like, lateral cantering tight. I took him on a few more walks/hand grazes before our ride which wasn't until 5 pm.

Thank you Eden Park Equestrian Complex for the round pens!

I will say that he WON the warm up! He felt good. Still tight, but manageable. But boy, did things go in the shitter once we hit the ring.

He broke in the trot extensions (which is NEVER does). Late changes. Out of sequence changes. Piros were a clusterfuck. Nothing went right. After the right piro, I had to stop and pick up the correct lead (he was swapping everywhere), and for a split second I thought "I should just excuse myself. I don't want this score on my record." But, I didn't. I should have, but I didn't.

I don't have photos or video, but just imagine I REALLY stiff intro level TB trying to do 4th level tricks. On the forehand, not collected. Not on the bit. That was us. I was THAT GIRL.

I couldn't even  look my trainer in the face as I walked out of the arena. I was so ashamed and humiliated.

We scored a 52. The lowest score of the show. HIGH FIVE.

You guys know me, I can shake off a bad test. It happens. I made a game plan for Sunday to ride a little pissed off. No more fucking around!

The show rings

Sunday morning he was quiet, seemed very normal. When I got on to warm up, he felt ok. Less chomping the bit, etc. I did a lot of piaffe, turn on the haunches to get him on his hind leg. I was determined to keep his poll up.

Hampton is very good on pulling DOWN on you. And once he is down, I have no leverage. I would MUCH prefer a giraffe. It's so much easier to supple them around and down, than to try and lift 1300+ pounds of horse up. I'm just not strong enough.

Trotting went ok, but once we started cantering I knew I was in trouble. His back was tight as a board. Lateral cantering, and what I call an electric back - the kind where you might be bucked off any second. Super.

I did everything I could think of. Shoulder-in, leg yields at the canter, half pass, forward and back. Nothing was helping. And he just kept getting more pissy with me. Before I knew it, we were getting into an all out fight.

My coach suggested I try a line of changes. HAHAHAHA. Oh god. You know how when you see a horse buck so big that the crowd gasps and stops talking? I was THAT GIRL. He bucked so big I lost my reins for a second.

Stabling area

Then it happened. I decided ok, I need to kick him forward and gallop for a bit here. I asked for forward. Nothing. Sucking back. Propping. Pig rooting. Kicked him again. He put his head down, nose to his chest and fucking bolted right through my left rein. I had ZERO control. There was nothing I could do. I was in the middle of a one-rein stop when bad timing happened and we just happened to be passing a "big name trainer" and her VERY EXPENSIVE horse. We plowed right into her (at a gallop), knocking her into the fence. Boy did she start yelling at me! I apologized profously but SHE WAS PISSED.

I am SURE something like that has NEVER happened to her in all her years of riding.

After I got him stopped, I lost it. My eyes started to water. My lip started quivering.

I bit my lip. Dammit. I started sobbing like a spoiled little 13 year old hunter brat.

I threatened to scratch. I really did not want to get a 40%. I felt like the biggest piece of shit rider. I should not be riding 4th level. Hell, we could not have ridden training level in that state. I was humiliated. All of our hard work, all of my money (I had saved up for 5 months to go to this show), all the emotional investment just overwhelmed me right there. And now I was fucking crying to top it all off.

But my coach said "I think you should go in." And I knew I had to. I am no quitter that's for sure.

So I did. I was fully prepared to excuse myself if things went down the drain.

And ... I made it around. I rode VERY VERY conservatively. Frankly I was in defense mode, scared to death to touch him. Basically just nursing him around.

And hell, the test was SO MUCH BETTER than the day before. Yes, he lacked collection. There was late changes here and there. But I nailed the tempi sequences. The piros were big, but acceptable for our level of greenness. No huge blunders really.

But obviously you cannot nurse a horse around 4-3. There is no more faking it till you make it. We scored a fair 55. I was fine with that. I didn't fall off, and I was not riding my best due to my emotional state. I did what I could with what I had that day. A better rider maybe could have done better, but man he was a tough ride this weekend. When Hampton does not want to play, he is big and he is strong. And he will pull out the asshole stunts.

ASSHOLE award goes to ....

BRIGHT spot of the weekend, a SHOW KITTEH!

The fact is that horses are not machines and I could come up with all sorts of things to blame this weekend on.

It was a long haul.
Stalls were small.
Hamp never lied down
He was attached to the mare he hauled with
I put too much pressure on myself
I need to lift weights
We were overfaced
He can't maintain collection needed for 4th

blah blah blah

The thing is, I KNOW what we are capable of. It's just that for whatever reason he did not want to play this weekend. Which made me ride like shit. It was BOTH of our faults.

BUT. These shows are a major sacrifice for me. I spend a LOT Of money on this horse, and his only job is to make me happy. So, he needs to hold up his end of the bargain. His behavior was unacceptable, and it seems to me that we may have a show ring ridability problem here. It's just that at 4th level I can no longer fake my way through it.

So, I am going to think about what comes next here.

Obviously, this means no freestyle this year. And not going to regionals at 4th level.

Show season is going to get a make over, but I am not quitting. Just going to do something different. Showing is supposed to be fun for me. And this weekend was miserable. I would have been happier taking that $350 and just flushing it. Five months of saving down the tubes. No qualifying scores. Not even close. An utter waste. UGH. Part of sport I guess?

Ok, if you made it this far. Congrats.

Peace. I'll write more later.

MOADT

Mother Of All Dressage Tests.

aka Fourth Level Test 3.

aka the test I am showing this weekend.

shit.

First level

So I am just a little less scared of 4-3 since I have run through it in the ring once back in March. It is indeed a doosey, things come up very quickly, the pattern makes zero sense and if you don't use your corners you will be up a creek with no paddle.

The pirouettes are making great progress, but will still be a hail mary in the show ring. The changes are mostly good as long as I don't let him get downhill - then his croup comes up and they will be late behind. Of course I can't forget all the other movements either! I really have to nail the things we are good at to get as many points as I can if we screw up somewhere. And by we, I mean the rider.

Fourth level is much like 2nd level in that it really tests the rider's ability to ride a test. Can you use your corners? Can you string all these movements together without really having much of a rest? Do you hate yourself? Are you into bizarre self torture? Then fourth level is for you!

Second level

Third Level

So what's my plan this week?

We will do two days of piro work, probably a changes/other stuff day and A LOT of forward and back. I've also be lighting him back up and maintaining the show trot for longer and longer. I think we can get a 7 on gaits if I can keep that up for most of the test. But it's not easy. It creates tension and it's a FINE LINE between good tension (makes him fancy) and too much (lose suppleness, he starts to run off with me). I'm also going to incorporate a lot of pole work this week to keep his back mobilized.

And of course, the usual "de-yak-ing" of the horse has commenced. I have his legs clipped and I dyed his tail! (A first for me, I need to do a post on that). I still have his face to clip, ears and bridlepath to trim, and random other goat hairs to eliminate. (eh hum ... man-scaping).

He may just look like a show horse by the weekend!

I hope I can ride well and do him justice.

Fourth level

Fancy prancing nuggets

Not Carl Hester.

Dressage rider Jane Hannigan posted these wonderful little nuggets from Carl Hester recently.

I hope it's ok that I copied them and am posting them here. Really good little tips!

(Hamp and I are preparing for our first rated show of the season next weekend. It's nose to the grindstone, but will give an update soon)

ENJOY!

To get a good walk think of rowing with your arm not just pushing more with the leg, the nose should nod forward in the walk not upwards, forwards and out with the nose and your arms

🐙 So easy to do the hokey pokey when teaching changes, you fall all over the place trying to stay up to them. The key to good changes is walk canter walk with straightness

🙈 When riding a young horse be SAFE first then work on gymnastic training

🏇🖐🏻 At 4 they don't understand leg and rein together "start with the leg stop with the reins"

👀 Look in front of the saddle for wrinkles in the neck

🙄 What are the AIDS for canter, I use outside leg, some riders say it's inside but that's not how you do flying changes

😎 The learning process is two days on then day off in the field at Carl's yard, he feels they get it on day two in the learning process

🚲 When you bend a horse you are not holding handle bars, letting the outside slip out is wrong. Keep the contact on the outside rein. Don't let them fall out the outside shoulder

🌞 If you are a one horse owner at 5 they have been ridden for one year but they are having growth spurts and such and sometimes they need a holiday

🤔 These 5 year old tests they have canter walk canter, medium trots and it takes a really good rider to train these tests. The older horses still have difficulty in these movements

👑 Half halts last for one stride, check release, let go

🏇 Get out in front of me it doesn't have to be perfect but gets the horse in front of you

😂 Horse spooked At Carl he said "I'm not that bad, I even had a shower this morning!" We all laughed

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 True meaning of short reins win medals, Keep your hands in front of the saddle that will help you ride to the bit, not the front to the back

💥 Quite hot but not forward, you need to get them genuinely in front of you to the contact

🌞🌝 Rise three steps sit rise three steps sit, to test the back to see if they change

✨ Carl at home has everyone do lots of rising trot shoulder in and halfpass

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Trot long side walk corners so you can place the hind leg in the corners. When they anticipate walk then trot the corners and close your fingers before the corner then ride forward in the short side close your fingers again before the corner then ride forward again

🍒 You will be surprised how quickly you ride 100 transitions

Who is this Carl guy and why do I care?

🌊 Long flat horses do not benefit from long stretches but short horses will benefit greatly

🍎🍊 A great Gp walk is different than a great young horse walk because the very big walks are difficult to collect, sometimes the big walks can do both

🕊 If you hold and tap at the same time that's not right because then the hind leg gets stuck

🐎 Train the horse to Anticipate going forward in collected canter

🙏🏻 You don't get the horse on the hind legs in a few minutes but it takes a few years, be patient

😍 8 meters shoulder in then straight in outside rein then go on a little diagonal line in not leg yeild, and then shoulder in again then in on the diaganol line again then shoulder in again

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Every moment has a start a middle and a finish, start is the corner before the movement

😍 Bring the horse on the spot ride forward three strides then do the change with no hands 😳

🏇 Canter on the spot then Go go go release (ask on the release) then right away back to canter on the spot so you can develop good changes. Do this around the arena on the rail ❤️❤️❤️

🦄 Teach them to canter on the spot right after the forward change

🎆 Pirouette prep: Shoulder in haunches in alternately on a 10 meter canter circle. Forward haunches in to a forward shoulder in not sitting too much

🙈 Give someone a thing to pirr around so they don't do one the size of a roundabout (Carl stood in the spot and the rider did a half pirr around him)

🍎 Trotting left to the corner halt, and turn on the forehand into the corner from your right leg then ride forward in the new direction. Teaches the horse to stop turning before you ask on the corners

🍊 In canter left, long side down to corner halt no left turn, now turn rt pick up rt canter

❤️ Some horses need to know where they are going not just being surprised in the test, valegro needed to learn the test

🎳 When you do a halfpass lean over and look at the inside hind, it helps you learn to go with the horse instead of sitting the wrong way

🏇 Do difficult change to the outside (on the wall) like if the horse is running away in its change

🏆 Be very detailed in how the horse steps forward in the downward transition

🏹 In canter Halfpass to centerline, shoulder in up centerline, do the corner past c-h haunches in like a baby schooling pirouette, repeat

🎳 Think shoulder in with two reins on three tracks not 4

🙈 Working off the track is a true eye opener in shoulder in to see who has real control of the horse

😂 It's called shoulder in not quarters out

😂😂😂 I can give you a 9, I can't give you a 10 because you are not British

😉 Taking a risk as a rider and go to a judges convention, it will teach you what you should be doing

🐎 In canter no bend take shoulders to inside of a spiraling circle, it helps straighten the shoulders

😎 Centerline in canter, shoulder in left switch to shoulder in rt then change and stay in shoulder in rt, help get you ready for canter zig zags

😳😜 Especially when she doesn't sit like a Christmas fairy she rides very well

🍎 Treat it like a trot passage so he doesn't slow down to passage, make them trot behind so they stay quicker until they get stronger

🦄 Passage Come back more active, forward the horse gets to relax they soon learn to find forward relaxing. Passage one step on the spot in very collected then forwards no hands

🐴To get to GP the horse needs to push onto the bit not be just light, light is not self carriage in a young horse

🌞Relaxed in body brain and stretch forward to the rein

🐇 Sitting and pushing are the two things we train

🐍 Straightness is the biggest thing you work on EVERY day, crooked rider and crooked horse, it's a lifetime of straightness

👜 Your not carrying a handbag this is for Saturday night, it's a workday, thumbs on top

👋🏻 Pat on the neck for stretching and relaxation to train a signal

😍 Position corrections are not a personal comment but training

👍🏻👍🏻 When your hands are parallel the straightness starts to come through your body

💨Collection should feel like "can I go forward?" not going back

❤️ Half halt is Constraining the forward energy not stopping the horse, it brings the horse in front of you not behind you

🌞 Pull your tummy to your backbone in the canter not collapse in your back(leaning back)

🏄 When you ride forward go a little forward in your position so you can sit up to bring them back, if you lean back you have no where to go

🏇 Make small neat flying changes from a shorter canter to get them from the hind leg with a young horse

🏇 short short bouncy canter on the hind leg not off the hind leg for changes

💝 Be disciplined, every transition should be light so they can step forward(don't walk in a heap or they will do this in the ring)

🚴 If you are not in self carriage then your horse will not be in self carriage ❤️❤️❤️

🍾 Work on the transitions to medium trot not tipping the horse forward to the tipping point

💃 Ride like you are dressed to go out 💃

🦄 Once the button is pressed then they should just like stay in canter don't keep asking

🎆 Piaffe and passage is trot

🎆 Good trot makes a good piaffe and passage

🐴 How we develop to passage: not passagy trot!

💃 Bigger steps and smaller steps of trot paying attention to the rhythm. Hind legs need to push, not front legs pull them forward in passage. Dwelling trot makes a difficult piaffe.

🐇 No passage first lengthen stride from seat to keep rhythm, horse must push himself forward not pull himself

🌞Ride forward ask for lift, crooked horses do leg yield towards the stiff rein in passage

🌞 Ride a quicker front leg in the passage, snappy front legs shorter and higher

🏇 Ride up to the passage not back to it, hind legs need to move.....

🐇 Passage on the spot go forward passage, touch with whip so they go forward.

🐇 Once they learn to quicken not slow down to piaffe you have transitions

😂😂😂 Those of you married to non horsey persons, it (dressage) bores them to death so change it up. Ride in the field, go up a hill. Train 4 days then play

💃 One two three four straight change for the zig zag

🍾 Do not beat yourself up your first year at GP, find your way around it and improve it for the next 8 or so years.

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