Quiet Ride

Last night we had a lovely ride in the indoor.  I didn’t want to do too much, seeing as she’s gotten worked the last few days for the Washington Post people, and both this afternoon and Friday afternoon there are people coming to look at her.  So Rosey has been working hard this week. 

I got to the barn in a little bit of a funk, which happens occasionally for no good reason I can think of.  This time I’m blaming it on the lack of rain in Maryland- everything’s all dry and dusty and the ground is like cement, and I tend to get a little tired/crabby feeling when things are like this.  Whatever the cause, the cure usually involves something with four legs and big, pretty eyes.  Rosey delivered yesterday!

Within minutes of hitting the saddle everything just felt better.  Miss mare gets more comfortable to ride every day- she’s happily figuring out the difference between trotting quicker and trotting more forward. I know to the non-riders that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s the difference between taking lots of fast little steps, and taking long, powerful strides.  Now that she’s learning that, she’s much more comfortable for me to ride, as I have trouble finding my balance on horses that “feel” little and/or quick.  She’s going more and more like a big horse, so it’s easier and easier for me to maintain some semblance of decent equitation.

Her canter is maturing as well as her trot- to the left, it’s almost as comfortable as Klondike’s, which is a pretty big deal.  To the right, it’s not quite as well balanced, but has still improved a ton.  I concentrated a little more on this direction than usual as a result of watching Liza lunge her the other day- under saddle, the weakness isn’t quite as apparent as it is from the ground. 

All in all, a wonderful, relaxing ride.  She’s getting really good at stretching down and out, sometimes looking like she actually had a long neck when I checked her out in the mirrors.  A couple times, she even got a little beyond that to actually giving to the bit more than usual. 

Afterwards we went for a walk down the driveway and back, and I am very pleased to report that even without company and after being “done” with work, she did not offer a single complaint or hop’n’spin. 

This week has been a whirlwind of activity for her, and it’s barely half over!  She will have earned a nice rest come Saturday…

And, as a side note, her blog has received over 3,000 hits as of yesterday   Thanks for reading!

Fun With Pedigree Query

In case you didn’t already know, I am a huge nerd.  I love history and trivia and such, so looking at pedigrees has become a little hobby of mine.  I’m not really brilliant at looking at a pedigree to say what kind of quality a horse will be or what he will be good at, I’m pretty much the nerd that points and says, “hey! That horse was FAMOUS!”  So here is my geek-review of Miss Rose’s Pedigree.

First off, you can see it here, thanks to the fantastic site pedigreequery.com.  Of course I have to note that this site is largely user controlled, so there are some errors here and there.  I am operating under the assumption that this is all exactly right, because it’s way more fun that way.

At first, when I looked, I thought it was all very ho-hum, as (being an ignorant nerd), the names I recognized immediately were Princequillo and Nasrullah.  Because those are in practically every pedigree.  But there’s some interesting stuff in here.

Rose’s grandma “Honey Fox,” for instance, was a great racehorse.  She won well over $500,000, and was successful in graded stakes races.  Of course, it doesn’t appear her foals had the same success. There is a handicap race named after this mare, won in 2007 by Precious Kitten (owned by Lael Stables, owners of the fantastic Barbaro). Oops, getting a little off track there.

Then we have Rose’s great-granddad “Round Table:”

Round Table

Round Table (by Princequillo) was a very successful racehorse, with 31 Stakes wins on his record and $1,750,000 in earnings.  He was the third horse ever to earn over one million dollars (at the time, only Citation and Nashua had done so).

In Rose’s pedigree, Round Table was bred to a mare named Moccasin, who was also no slouch.  She shared Horse of the Year honors in 1965, and went on to produce seven stakes winners of her own. 

In the fifth generation, we see a mare named Shenanigans.  Shenanigans was the 1975 Broodmare of the year- and is probably best known as the dam of the phenomenal Ruffian.

Shenanigans

In the sixth generation, there’s another famous broodmare: Somethingroyal, who was the mother of the legendary Secretariat and 1973 Broodmare of the Year.  Despite never really being a successful racehorse herself, she produced four stakes winners and five more who were stakes-placed.

Normally, when you get this far back it seems silly to care, as so many Thoroughbreds these days share those far back ancestors.  But since I am a nerd, I had to notice a few other tidbits about Rose’s pedigree.

Going back further, we see four of the biggest names of the 1920 racing season: Golden Broom, John P. Grier, the incomparable Man O’War, and Upset (the only horse to ever beat Man O’ War) 

There’s also an awful lot of a horse named Teddy.  Almost every American horse (and some of the French ones) in the fifth generation of Rose’s pedigree traces back to him, some multiple times. 

 Why is this interesting?  I don’t know, except that he’s so prevalent it made me raise my eyebrows.  More interesting, maybe, is that the Teddy offspring appearing most often in Rose’s pedigree is a horse named Sir Gallahad. 

And if you search through, looking for pictures of Sir Gallahad, you see something interesting:

Sir Gallahad

See it? No? Not yet?  Try this picture (sorry, would pop it in here but don’t want to make the TBheritage gods angry!)

It’s like… Rose.  The neck, the head, overall build… it could be her brother, not her great-great-great-great-great grandfather (and also her great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, as the case may be, since he appears a bunch of times in her pedigree).  When I showed this last pic to Allie the other day, she called it the “Gallahead.” 

Rose had another session with Liza and the reporter yesterday, too- this time with video!  Hopefully we will have the full story soon so we can post it here

Rosey Embraces Fame

Well, sort of.  Yesterday Rosey got a visit from a reporter from the Washington Post, who was taking notes for a story on the retraining program.  She behaved like the star she is, and showed off her skills in the Pessoa lunging rig.  Liza worked her in both directions, showing how she is much weaker to the right and showing the things you have to do to work a horse out of that. 

Rosey Gets Famous

Later today, they will be coming back to snag some video of under saddle work, and tomorrow they will be learning about chiropractors and the various physical things that need to be taken care of with ex-racing thoroughbreds, and also observing a “learning to jump” session (which, with Rosey, can be particularly interesting).

And then, on Thursday, her royal highness Rosey will be entertaining her first potential adopter.  As usual, this prospect is exciting and sad at the same time, as I’ve grown quite attached.  Little Rosey stole my heart recently, just by turning her head and leaning it on me a little.  I’m such a softy. 

Since I don’t have much to update on riding-wise, here are some more photos from the show.  Enjoy!

Relaxing in Warmup

 

Hey, her head isn't above mine this time!

 

Standing In the Lineup

 

whee!

Rosey Takes Over Showgrounds

Rosey Meandering around the show

Today Rosalicious went to her second show, to do the same two classes we did the last time. Just a nice, easy Adult Eq division with a walk-trot class to get her used to things.

Today went much better than the last time, in terms of her getting used to showgrounds, me conquering the hop ‘n’ spin, and the giraffe-neck of last time not making an appearance. At first, she actually was a little more unsettled than last time, snorting and not standing well for getting tacked up. When I mounted up she speedwalked in a direction of her choosing (towards where I had handwalked her earlier), and we had our only little tiff of the day.

“that way!” she said

“no. This way!” I replied, with a big opening left rein and a kick

“noooo! THAT way!” she responded, with a half hop and attempted pop of the shoulder to the right.

“no… This time I actually mean it, darling.” with a couple swats of the crop and a growl.

“fine.”

That was the last I saw of the attempted Hop ‘n’ Spin move all day. Though she bulged and tried to get opinionated a few times, I think we may finally have that kicked.

Anyway, onwards we went to a warmup area behind the jumper ring, as we had gotten there a little too late to warm up in the actual ring. She started out a little quick, but settled VERY quickly at the trot. Even taking nice big steps and rounding her neck in a way I’ve never seen her do before. Her first canter was lovely, but her second got a little strong- going downhill and away from the trailers she just wanted to go. It was hardly terrifyingly fast, but she wasn’t listening, which is a worrying feeling for any rider. Fortunately (well, sort of), her fitness level is not that high yet, and the solution to this problem was turning her uphill, where she promptly ran out of steam.

I kept her busy for a while just doing lots of little patterns, taking her over some interesting terrain where she had to pay attention to her feet, etc. When we came back to the walk, she was trail-quiet Rosey again. On a floppy rein, and “grunting” with every step. Her ears were even flopping.

Later, as we moseyed towards the ring, she started getting a little antsy and worked up again, so I followed the same drill, just asked her to work around and got her attention back, and it worked very nicely.

When we entered the ring, she was very relaxed- interested in everything but not jumpy. Remembering the trouble I had last time when taking her off the rail, I immediately cut across the ring with her, and made a little circle. She was fine with that. She started off her W/T class with a bit of a high head but not nearly as quick on her feet as last time. Our major problem was her trying to watch what was going on outside the ring, on the side opposite the judge she was very interested in a couple of spectators and the woods (not in a scared way, but a way that suggested she was trying to identify what types of trees she was looking at). At the lineup, she stood like a real lady, on a totally loose rein, not worried in the least about the other horses stepping ahead of her.

The second class went very well- she picked up her first canter like a champ, and though she was a little quicker than I’d like at points, she was very relaxed, and we had a grand time. The second direction, we missed our lead, I think three times in a row, which was her telling me, “hey dork, quit your leaning!” it just took me a little while to get the message. Oh well. Again she stood in the lineup perfectly. Such a lady!

Our ribbons were fourth and fifth, respectively. It might have gone better if I did not look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. (I apparently need a strict lady with a ruler to follow me around and smack me every time I slouch).

Video!

Jumping Lessons

After the silliness of yesterday, it was decided that maybe Rosey needed to figure out this jumping thing on her own. Especially from the trot.  So it was too the ring we went, all decked out in cute jumping boots, to try some free jumping. 

One of the early attempts:

I’m feeling a little more like it maybe wasn’t just my monkey riding yesterday, and more like it might also have something to do with her coordination and experience level. Further attempts got a little better:

and finally, she does a little better (though, admittedly from the canter)

Right after I put the camera down she did a very nice trot jump and went through the in and out, as a bounce.  Seems she got her confidence level up a little bit, anyway, which is the whole goal.  A few more rounds of this and I’m thinking we’ll be in much better shape.

Coming up for Rosey- another possible field trip to a public event… stay tuned!

Monkey-Proof Your Horse in Five Simple Steps

1- Turn and face obstacle

2- Set off at a nice trot

3- Drop your eyes and LOOK AT THE JUMP!!!!

4- Jump way ahead of the horse

5- Collapse in fits of giggles when horse has no clue what to do and stops.

Yep, that was our ride yesterday. 

To her credit, it started out very well.  We warmed up in the big jumping ring, and here is where I think Rosey really shines.  Back when Klondike was with us, he went very well in enclosed, defined spaces.  But when you brought him into the big ring, he wiggled around a lot and just seemed lost.  He would drift like crazy, and look at things more (not in a bad way, it was just like he didn’t know what to do with all that space).  Rose treats the big, fenceless ring exactly the same way she treats the small one.  Could not care less (except that there are new horses to look at turned out nearby).  She may get a little quicker as there’s more space to gather steam, but all in all, the different venue? Not a problem.

After playing for a few minutes there, we went on a little mosey again (not the original plan, but it’s hard to say no when you’ve had a bad day).  This time we tried going to the jumping trail.  It’s a fabulous, very short section of trail that has about 8 jumps in a row.  The first is a log, where you can choose-your-own-height as it is much smaller on the right than the left.  The next few are some very tiny logs and piles-of-sticks, and then there are several slightly larger obstacles, all set about 2-4 strides apart.

Rosey brought up the rear going up the hill to the jumps, and though she sort of stumbled her way across the first, she landed cantering and then cantered out over the others.  All but one were pretty perfect, and I’m really impressed with the way she jumps (when she jumps, that is… more on that in a bit).  I’m not the most “feeling” rider when it comes to jumping- things tend to come up quick and by the time my mind registers that we are taking off, I’m usually in the process of landing.  So it’s hard for me to sort out the mechanics of the whole thing, or really describe how it’s going.  But in Rosey’s case, she has a very neat jumping style that you can feel quite well- her shoulder rises up and she really lifts in front of you quite nicely.  It’s a cool feeling, and not one that I can recall ever feeling before.  Klondike jumped very smoothly and levelly, and my own horse just launched over everything like a cannonball when he started jumping.  My memory prior to that is fuzzy, so I’ll just stop trying to compare now.

After we came out of the woods, we tried another little jump, a small stone wall with a plank over it that connects two fields together (it’s in the middle of a little stand of trees, it sort of funnels you in and is quite inviting).  From one side it’s very small- 2′ maybe. From the other it’s slightly bigger, and I think that’s the side we jumped from.  Her first time over was perfect- she broke into the canter about four strides out and lifted over it with her amazing shoulder action, and cantered off like she had been doing it her whole life.  We did it again, and it wasn’t quite so perfect, but still pretty good.

After that, we moseyed back towards the farm, and this is where Rosey got her lessons in dealing with a Monkey Rider.  The tire jump.  I happen to love the tire jump- it’s a real XC style jump but it’s… well, it’s padded, because it’s tires.  So if they bumble their way into it, or if I should fall on it, you kind of just bounce off.   We took up our position following everyone else, and it felt very much like all systems were go, when she decided… “hmm, not so much” and ran out.

We tried again. Stop.

And again. FAIL!

Several times she got one leg over, and then sort of stalled out, not sure where to go.  At one point she even managed a foot IN the tire jump, twisting her splint boot neatly around her leg so the buckles were on the inside.  Oy.   She was not scared of the jump in any way, shape or form, like many greenbeans are, she just doesn’t seem to understand organizing her legs from the trot.  She’s trying, and she’s watched other horses do it… she just… doesn’t understand.

We kind of gave up on that count, and headed back to the barn.  Went down the driveway to try her over that stuff, and had the same sort of experience at a log that’s no bigger than the stuff she jumped in the woods.  There was much confusion and getting stuck on top of the log.

Not helped by my monkey riding… if nothing else, she will get out of this experience a great patience for all kinds of craziness from people, because I sure wasn’t helping her out.  I think we need one of those robot jockey things, it would probably work better!  In any case, our next step is to do some free jumping in the ring.  If she figures it out on her own, it will probably go much easier next time (she is super smart, after all!).

Trail Rides Gone Wild

Well, not really really wild, because Rose is fine on trails…

Today we went for a mosey with Allie, on TRUCKEE!, and Lisa on Woodmeister, figuring a mosey would be good as she’s been getting some work lately.  We headed out and everything was going very well.  Truckee needed a little help getting over having other horses go away from him (Lisa wanted to jump the tires with Woods, but when she went ahead, truckster got a little worried).  Working on that for a few minutes, though, Truck got over it. 

Rose has been through that drill enough times that it’s old hat, of course.  However, she still needs work as far as being Camera Horse.  We tried to take some pics of Woods jumping, but Rosey (while not being worried or being bad) did not understand that full stillness and cooperation are vital assets for the Camera Horse, and as a result we got a lot of this:

Woody Conquers the Tires

After this, we wandered around the woods for a little bit, then decided to go back to the good part of the stream, so we could practice wading (which again, Rosey mastered the last time out, but the boys are… well, distractable).  We arrived in the water, and Rosey happily led the way down the stream, when… well… video speaks for itself:

Gotta hand it to Rose, she paid absolutely no mind to their shenanigans (if you think Woody also did not want to lay down in the water, you’d be wrong) and rolled her eyes at them.  She was smart, and decided that the grass and greens on the bank of the stream were far more interesting than the idiot geldings and munched until they had all recovered their wits.

Back at the barn, we hopped over the little log and the ditch a few times, and suffered through another green moment (they’re getting rarer and rarer!).  We also decided that since she is packing on weight like a champ, it was a good time to take a new conformation picture.  Of course, this is not easy.  A lot of people like to critique our attempts at conformation pictures from the track, but knowing how hard it is to get a good one at home, I have to make the point that it’s not so easy getting feet lined up and lighting right and the horse not standing in a hole and the right perspective so they don’t look weak-butted or short-legged… In any case, since I am going off on a tangent, I will simply pop in a few of the better shots. 

I am not impressed with your empty hand.

I seem to be leaning.

Focus? What?

The point of all that?  Well, she’s gaining weight and getting pretty, don’t you think? 

Small Figure Eights

Last night I had an interesting ride on Rosey- she was quite energetic, and while I generally like the “forward” thing, I kept getting the feeling that she was running while simultaneously not being “in front of my leg.”  To add insult to injury, when I tried to bring my leg back into the correct place, I totally lost my center, and she got even quicker.  After fumbling around for a bit, I decided to stop working so hard and began to ask her for some serpentines and figure eights.

That seemed to work nicely, it got her attention, and with her slowing down a bit I was able to get myself better aligned, and even get my leg “on” more without her reacting so much to it, which gives a much nicer feeling (and makes it much easier for me to sit straighter and feel more balanced).

When we stepped up into the canter, it turned out really lovely.  I worked on keeping her mostly on circles, and just focused on me as much as possible- sitting quietly, following with my hands, and that sort of thing.  She really goes much better the more I focus on what I am doing, so I’m trying to make that the primary goal of every ride.  She’s becoming much more even (I’m thinking that Trainer Extraordinaire may have something to do with that) and I had a much easier time last night keeping her on the circle to the right. 

I do also try to make our circles more like “square” circles- occasionally she wants to motorcycle a little, since she doesn’t have bending down, so if you stay on too much of an arc, she can start diving around the turn a little bit. 

I didn’t want to do too much, since I’m still a little unsure of the riding schedule (I finally made a little calendar to put on her door, so we can all keep things straight), so we also spent a fair amount of time at the walk, learning about bending a little, and stopping/starting while keeping the head down and relaxed.  We also began some elementary turns on the forehand, but this is a little hard for her.  When she had trouble grasping the concept I got off and asked her from the ground.  She has a little trouble with the concept of crossing her inside hind in front of the other and stepping to the side- I don’t doubt she will mentally pick it up quickly, I just think she’s physically still a little weak and not really flexible.  So I will be adding some hind leg stretches to the carrot-stretch post ride routine.  

And, because pictures always make blog posts more fun, but I don’t have any new Roselicious photos, here’s some grey horse nose:

Whatcha got there?

Soft Arms

Rosey and I had a lovely, lovely ride tonight.  The weather was cool (post t-storm!), the sunset was gorgeous, and life is pretty awesome.  In any case, after our last ride, I wanted to focus on a little more forward, and on my own monkey self. 

One of the things I have to keep reminding myself when riding is to stop worrying so much about her. I kept catching myself looking at her ears, as if by looking down and reaching out with MY head, I could get her to reach out with hers.  Not so much.  Sitting deep and tall, and keeping my mind on “forward” we get much better results (amazing!)

And at one point I found myself getting frustrated- going to the left, I felt she was heavier/stiffer on the left rein, and my arm was getting tired.  Then I remembered that the same thing used to happen with my horse, and some long-ago yelled instruction echoed in my brain, to relax and stop STIFFENING my left arm.  If I get soft, she’ll get soft (and again, this is like magic!) 

Tonight we also had some very good canter work (at least, from my perspective).  We are not quite ready for perfect transitions to the canter from the walk (I was feeling ambitious and tried it), but her transitions from the trot are getting easier and easier, more balanced every time with less quickness and running.  Her circles are getting stronger as her hind end improves, and to the left I can keep her aligned very easily on those circles.  To the right, it’s a fair bit harder, but I’m not sure how much is her and how much is just that I have a horrible time closing my left leg the same way I do with my right (I need some lunge lessons).  Several times at the canter, I could feel her becoming very rhythmic and even, and felt like she was stretching out into longer, slower strides. 

After our ride, we had some nice, quality currying… She’s not spoiled AT ALL!

Ready for the Head of the Lake

(To those who may not know, the “Head of the Lake” is the ginormous water complex at Rolex, and if you haven’t been to Rolex, you really need to go.  Just sayin’.)

Yesterday we had a lovely ride, accompanied by Allie and TRUCKEEEEEE!!!! (sorry, but Truckee is just a silly horse that it’s like you always have to shout his name and squeal, rather than just saying it).  We started our toodle in the usual way, casual walking back to the trails.  TRUCKEEE!!! occasionally saw some dragons hiding in the bushes and jumped or snorted- to which Rosey responded by first flinching (well, he could be right about those dragons) and then rolling her eyes as if she couldn’t believe what a dork he was.

As we continued our trail (with some trotting and cantering and such) we turned toward the creek in the woods for some water education.  Rosey is pretty good with water, even though her first real experience in the creek involved the HORRIFYING experience of having water FLUNG at her by one of the other horses on the ride.  She was pretty insulted by that, reacting much like a teenager in a silk dress might to a kid with a water gun.  On later trail rides, when no one was around to see, she gave pawing in the water a try herself, but stopped quickly, to maintain her air of maturity and superiority.

So this time, though TRUCKEEEE! is pretty decent at crossing water, we gave a lead down the creek to actually walk along it and play in the different kinds of footing that exist in stream beds.  We then managed to find a lovely stretch where the footing was even, not rocky, but also not too soft or trappy, where we could take a little trot through the water.  At first, Rosey wasn’t so sure that’s what I wanted her to do, but she picked it up fast enough and went trotting through like a champ.  Rolex? Here we come!

As I was bringing her back to a walk, I suddenly heard a peal of hysterical laughter behind me.  As we turned to look, we see TRUCKEEE! on his belly in the water, looking completely innocent, as if he had NO IDEA of how he got down there.  “Who, me?  I would never, ever, intentionally try to roll in the water.  Not me!”  Allie managed to get him up before he actually tried to roll, but couldn’t contain the giggles, which lasted for a good five minutes.  Again, Rosey looks down on this behavior, because it is so beneath her, and she’s embarrased all the time by it.  You could almost hear her thinking, “Boys…“

We made it back without incident, and because people were schooling in the big jumper ring, I took the opportunity to take her around a little up there.  Klondike was very wiggly his first time out there, with no fence and such a big space, he didn’t seem to feel comfortable his first few times.  But Rosey had no issue with that, and went all over the ring in her usual straightforward way.  After seeing the pictures of Liza riding (see previous post), and listening to how Allie described it, I tried going for a more forward trot.  I think I tend to feel a little uncomfortable on Rose at the more forward gait, if only because she’s small so I feel sort of awkward.  I’m used to slightly bigger striding horses, so it’s an adjustment for me.  I think over the next few rides I will use a neck strap or something, to help me balance on it and find where I’m supposed to be without doing anything bad with my hands.   In any case, at that more forward trot, she definitely offers to stretch her head down and out much more, at one point approaching something near Long & Low, which was pretty cool.

After a brief canter, Allie set up a small crossrail for us.  The first few attempts?  Sort of a fail.  She’ll go over anything, she just wasn’t jumping it. She was sort of crashing over instead.  Part of this was probably me- I could feel myself getting to the jump and doing the typical lean-forward thing, which really wasn’t necessary.  I don’t know if she was reacting to that, or if she was just being a goof and as a result I was feeling my mistake more, or what.  But Allie put the jump down to a pile-of-poles, and when I approached and didn’t “jump ahead” she actually picked her feet up and hopped over.  From there, back to the crossrail, I tried to remember that feeling, and she did indeed actually jump over.

When going to that crossrail away from the barn, she did get a little salty, wanting to toss her head and go back the other way.  It took a little insistence (shaken rein, a little pop, and lots of leg) but she did go over the jump, and jump it.  One more time over for good measure and she was done for the day.  My lesson… use a neck strap and find my balance better, and stop trying to jump for the horse, as they are quite large and can do it themselves, but it’s a lot harder with a monkey flinging itself at the horse’s neck.