Dec recap, Jan goals, progress!

In Dec: pitifully low mileage with two trail rides. Also, beach ride!

Good news: I stayed on!

Jan goals:

Continue to focus on off-side mounting

Lesson??

Focused arena session once weekly

On an early Jan trail ride, I felt her switch gears jnto a true power trot. For the first time There was someone behind us that could verify. It isn't just an extended trot.  She's engaging behind and really powering through into a true frame.  It seems we're lacking in true forwards most of the time... Yep, y'all called it in comments last year.  I'm not quite sure how I want to address this and a lesson is in my future.

I do find she goes better when I get her off her forehand and really actively sit back, thinking along the same feeling as riding a gaited horse.  This is not a new concept, it's just one I seem to lose periodically.

We've been doing regular arena work because of the limited trail access.  Fetti rushes jumps.. Fetti also rushes poles.  This needs to be addressed.  Our round pen session over poles had her cantering trot poles, and rushing any set of poles 90% of the time. She does know how to trot them like a normal horse, she just rushes and accelerated in instead.  No video, but picture a normal trot - halfway around, a tiny collected trot with lots of power waiting - quarter of the way to poles, she looks at me, then ZOOM accelerates into giant canter leaps.  Oh pony.

Other updates, so I feel less guilty about all the half-written posts and go back to regular writing:

Bale bag.  

The recommendation is to start with 2" nets, decrease to 1.5", if needed decrease to 1".  I borrowed a friend's spare 1" bag and skipped the first two. She understands hay nets and eats plenty. Week one: full bale (granted, a light one) lasted five days, along with an extra flake or two of grass/alfalfa in a smaller bag.

I do think she gets frustrated some by the small holes, but I also think she's frustrated no one feeds her at the right times anymore!  The 'eat whenever' idea has not gotten through yet.  Instead, she eats at breakfast, and at dinner time, and at lunchtime when I came by I caught her napping.

Somehow, magically, she actually stayed down and let me come in and take pictures and pet her.  I've seen her down in her stall maybe three times now in more than four years.

Anything edible?

But, back to bale bags - I opted to switch for a few different reasons.  I think it's a good concept.  She's barefoot, so no shoes to get caught in the net.  Only one attachment point minimizes risk.  Giant bale bag is a bit of a pain to load (although rumor has it I really ought to get a slightly bigger one and then life is easier!), but only once a week or so.  It should be better for the potential risk of ulcers and help with girthiness if that's the cause. 
I know folks worry their horses will overeat.  That was previously a concern.  At Quicksilver this past year, though?  She had lots of hay choices and frequently chose to nap/hang out/generally not eat.  Sure, she ate, but she didn't eat all the things as I thought she might.  She's learned that there will always be hay at rides.  So it stood to reason that she could learn there would always be hay at home, too.  Indeed, she seems to have figured that one out pretty quickly.
Winter seemed like a fairly good time to switch.  It's straight grass in the bag so she's not getting a ton of alfalfa or sugars.  If she does eat a bit extra.. well, it's not awful for a not-quite-older horse to have some reserves coming out of the cold weather.  We'll work it off in the spring if need be.

It's early yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic and I'll try to update on the results periodically.

first time saddle shopping tips

**I've been battling with a persistent cough for the past two weeks, so posts are a little slow right now, but I do have two more in the works.. including the January goals post, which will probably be up by mid-January or so.  Oh well.

Emma of Fraidy Cat Eventing asked for tips for first-time saddle shopping tips, and I came up with enough that it turned into a post rather than a novel-length comment.

First off:  English saddles are usually listed from Narrow to Extra-Wide.  Each brand seems to handle their measurements differently, and measures different places, so what this really means is: your horse may go in a M in one saddle, or a MN in another, or a MW in yet another, or maybe even a Wide in another.  Confusing and frustrating?  Yep, but that's how it goes.  Western saddles seem to be a little more consistent, but my Western shopping experiences are practically non-existent, so.
That 'size' mainly addresses gullet width, and sometimes also affects the width of the 'channel' between the panels down the back.

Next:  English saddles also have a 'rock' to the tree.  Some saddles are better for horses with curvy backs.  Others are good for horses with flat backs.  Brands are, I think, pretty consistent as far as how they fall in this category.  If the tree is too flat for the horse, you'll probably run into pressure points at the front and back, and an area with no contact (or minimal contact) in the middle.

Saddle balance is very important.  A too-wide saddle can tip forwards, tipping the rider forwards, and vice versa for a too-narrow saddle.  Ideally, you want even contact all the way back.
Some horses also have conformation or movement that tends to shift the saddle forwards (or backwards).  Consider if that is the case with your horse, watch the saddle, and if that is the only issue (especially if it's an issue for most/all saddles on your horse), consider if you're willing to use a breastplate and/or crupper full-time.

Things to consider that are more specific:
- Withers.  If your horse has high withers, your saddle choices will be more limited to accomodate that.  If your horse has NO withers (hi Fetti!), you probably do not have to worry about wither clearance.  Standard rule of thumb seems to be that you can fit 2-3 fingers at the front of the saddle before touching the top of the withers.
- Shoulders.  Does your horse have big shoulders?  Yep, Fetti again!  Between the no-withers and big-shoulders issues, I originally looked at wide trees as ideal, but then the angle wasn't necessarily right.  I need saddles with enough flare to accommodate her shoulder movement and not just pinch.  The big test for me:  is there consistent pressure all the way down at the front of the saddle, or is it awfully tight in one spot?
- Girth groove.  Where does the girth want to fall?  Is that going to pull the saddle?  I think I have point billets on my Thorowgood that I'm using, and that helps keep things in place for me.  An anatomical girth can also help with this, but I'm hesitant to recommend that as a fix when buying a saddle.. it's great to fix an existing one, but seems like if you're buying you'd like to get things right to start with.

What pad do you want to use?  My Thorowgood fits nicely with a plain square pad.  It would be too narrow with a Woolback.  My Specialized fits nicely with the Woolback, but take that padding away and it throws off all sorts of things quite visibly.  If you're dead-set on using both a square pad and a half-pad with the saddle, try them like that.  Don't trial with a Woolback if you want to be using a dressage pad.  You get the picture.

Also.. does the saddle work for you?  It's easy to get caught in the saddle fitting the horse, but it needs to fit the rider too - even more important if the horse isn't yours.  Are knee/thigh blocks in the right place, and if not, are they moveable?  Is the twist comfortable for you?  (Narrow twists work for some folks, wide twists work for others, treeless is often extra-wide twists, especially the more inexpensive ones.)  Is the seat size right for you?

I seem to switch out gullet plates in the Thorowgood every winter and again in the late spring.  Her back and shape changes enough that decreasing/increasing a size clearly makes it a better fit.  This is not actually an option in non-adjustable saddles, but maybe most horses don't grow a ridiculously wooly winter coat that affects their width?  Who knows.  In any case, be mindful of their physical condition when saddle-fitting the first time, and be aware that it may change in a few months.

White spots are a pretty clear indicator of saddle fit not working for the horse.  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, they don't show up until it's been not-working for quite some time.
I tend to check sweat patterns to see if they're even or if there are dry spots.  There are folks that advocate against this, but it's worked for me so far so I'm sticking with it.  I like to see consistent sweat patterns without dry patches anywhere.  But!  Be mindful that if you haven't worked hard enough to get the horse all sweaty under the pad, don't judge based on a lightly-sweaty pattern.  Some areas dry faster than others and I've been fine with that.  After a two-hour trail ride, everything under the pad should be at least moderately sweaty, and matching dry spots on both sides raises concern for me (so, in my case, I switched to narrower cushions to make the tree a bit wider.  Specialized is complicated sometimes).

Some horses are loud and clear about not liking saddles.  Fetti occasionally strongly dislikes something, but mostly is just 'meh' about everything.  Until and unless she has stronger input, she doesn't get much of a say, else I'd drive myself crazy looking for invisible signs.

So - that covered the actual saddle fitting basic question stuff.  As for shopping..

What's your budget?
How soon do you need it?
If you need the saddle next week, your budget will obviously have to be more flexible.  The longer you can wait, the less your budget can be.
I tried lots of saddles when saddle-hunting.  I tried saddles I knew I couldn't afford.  I tried saddles I was sure wouldn't work.  I tried saddles that friends had.  If you can figure out that X brand and tree size fits your horse, it's so much easier to buy used.  It's still a bit of a crapshoot- there's no guarantee it's exactly the same as the one you tried - but personally, I'd probably be comfortable buying sight unseen/online based on trialing something with very similar specs locally.

Once you know what will work for you, look obsessively for it everywhere.  Ebay.  Craigslist.  US-wide Craigslist (adhuntr!).  Facebook tack sale groups.  Online forums.  Local consignment stores.  Local tack store bulletin boards.  Figure out what price it usually goes for, and then figure out if that's a reasonable price for you.  No?  Keep stalking.  You can probably find it cheaper eventually.

Personally..
I purchased my Thorowgood from an East Coast craigslist ad.  I knew it was an adjustable gullet and that Thorowgoods historically worked fairly well for Confetti.  The price was quite fair and I knew I could resell it for a very similar cost if it ended up not working for us.

I purchased my Eurolight based on a two or three line text ad and without asking really any questions, completely sight unseen, at a really astonishingly excellent price, and paid by a mailed money order.  I think I knew that it was a Eurolight and it was brown.  I think that's all I knew. I wouldn't actually recommend that method.. but I was willing to take the risk because the Eurolight can be semi-custom fitted to the horse.  Also because it was a ridiculously good deal and I decided I was okay being out the money if all went catastrophically wrong.  BUT.  It took a year of casual/obsessive searching for something to come up at that price.  It's also the one and only time I've actually placed a phone call based on a Craigslist ad; I hate calling people, I really hate calling strangers, and I'll disregard an ad if there's no email for me to write to.  No regrets on this one.

My first endurance saddle was given to me when it magically fit Confetti, after I'd gotten really discouraged with internet-searching in my price range.  This was the "there's no way it'll fit, but we'll try it anyway, why not" saddle.  And it fit.  So, there's that.

Good endings

Our New Years Eve ride was a great way to close out a rollercoaster of a year.

We trailered out

to the beach!

Fetti and I have been to the beach once before, with our same riding partner.  In 2012 the mares were reluctant to get anywhere near the waves, plus the tide was high.

This time around, the ponies had more confidence.  Fetti still had an invisible tether going to Cay and balked when asked to stretch it too much, but overall?  I was very pleased.

Initially, we had to be behind Cay or up next to her.  Any leg pressure or forwards cues resulted in Fetti sucking back and refusing.  That eventually resolved, and she found the confidence to even go in front after a bit, but I think it was just a matter of time and exposure.

She is, however, completely convinced that the surf is terrible and awful and should be avoided at all costs.  I hopped off and got hit with a (little tiny) wave at my feet, and she nearly lost it.  She was still safely five feet from me.  We didn't push it; I was happy enough that she'd go near the waves after that, even as she adamantly refused to get close enough they might touch her.

Pony says: "Um, they're not coming up with us.  I think we should stop and wait."

I love this photo.

I believe the pillars were intended to be the foundation for a hotel in the 1970s.  It appears that never came to fruition.  It also appears that might not have worked out so well long-term.

But they make for really excellent photos, even when the pony thinks the dripping water by the pillars is OMGTERRIFYING and refuses to get close enough for a proper photo.  Oh well.  Next time?

They're huge and we're easily at least 20 feet away, so don't be fooled by how politely small they look.

It was surprisingly fairly empty.  In fact, we were the only horses there and got lots of attention for it.

We headed back down the other direction. Here I was all pleased and excited that she'd found her brain and settled in.  

But amidst all the winds and crashing waves, we found a moment of relative silence, and some plastic tied to the cliff (not pictured) made a noise.

Farewell, pony brain.  

So we did our Big Endurance Trot until I no longer feared she'd take off, and after clearing it with my riding partner, we cantered! on the beach.

Note that we're in front, and not dying or having meltdowns.  Pony has confidence!  (Also note that we're safely away from the moving water.  Oh, Fetti.)

Surprisingly soon the sun started to go down

so we posed for sunset beach photos, obviously!

We moseyed on further down the beach.

Lots of pauses for sunset photos.  I am really pleasantly surprised at how well the iPhone camera handled all this.

Naturally, we let the mares get a good roll afterwards.  Not pictured: keeping her walking for the last 20 minutes of the ride because she really wanted to roll before we were done.  Pretty much every remaining beachgoer stopped and stared and took photos.  Many had never seen a horse roll before.

2014 was a rough year.  I'm glad we ended it on a good note.  Here's to a better and less eventful 2015.

2014 in review

Normal folks start their year-end review in January, but for context.. a year and a few days ago my lovely princess pony bucked me off.  I came away mostly unscathed aside from a mild shoulder separation.  It was, needless to say, not a great way to end/start a year.  Comments on how to work through it included the gem that she is lacking in her responsiveness to a 'forwards' cue; we're continuing to work on that even now.

February 2014

In January, I took a lesson!  It was excellent as per usual.  We started to address my canter issues, and reminded me to take more contact with shorter reins (woops, still needs work).  The dam stayed down and we kept on riding along.  Also, we met a train.  Not really recommended.

February consisted mostly of pretty pictures and walking in circles, but eventually the dam came down, so we followed a bobcat.

In March it rained.  It rained a lot.  We were safety/drag riders for ACTHA, in the mud, and I apparently never posted pictures?   Well.  Okay.



ACTHA photos by the Morgan Hill Photography Club:

It really is that steep.  Also, really that muddy on this particular day.
I admit to feeling like an eventer riding a drop.. sit back and let go!

I washed and brushed out her full-mane on the left and everything. 
Naturally, all the photographers were shooting from the right side. 

Happy happy.

This is local trail to me.  Yes, her head is blocked by the tree, but whole areas really can look like this.

My car battery died in April.  Prius batteries are expensive and it made me sad.  It kept raining, I took a non-horsey vacation, and Confetti turned 18.

...and then immediately on returning from vacation, Funder trailered us over to Mount Diablo for a NATRC ride in May.  I had more thoughts about NATRC afterward.  I mean, I know we did more than that in May, but that's about all I remember.

I guess there were hills, but I don't really remember anything feeling steep.

A new horse moved in next door at the beginning of June.  Fetti went lame, twice.  And then a minor colic.  And then lame a third time, and really June just sucked.

We completed Fireworks in July and it was wonderful even if we did come in to the finish with one boot instead of four.  Booting issues need work.  But she was sound and happy; I started to feel like maybe we could really do this endurance thing.

:-)  :-)

:-(

In August I took another lesson and jumped things!  I also broke my saddle. 

I did get the saddle back in September and that left me pondering the differences between the Eurolight and Thorowgood.  (September was a pretty terrible month for me personally, so I obsessed over saddles because it gave me something to focus on.)  Not really pictured anywhere: my tack room got a serious makeover and I am so much happier with it.

Quicksilver in October was really pretty lovely aside from the half hour in the middle where Confetti and I hated each other.  We took a week or two off beforehand due to the heat.  I also failed to test boots before the ride due to the heat wave.  Serious mistake.  Both boots had cable issues during the ride and we did most of it barefoot.

but it was gorgeous.

November was muddy and wet.  Trees came down.  We found ways around trees.  It rained some more.

December continued to be muddy and wet.  We should get a bit of sun.. and then rumor has it January will be back to muddy and wet again.  But!  On Christmas we made it out for a brief trail ride, a second trail ride after Christmas, and a small jumping session in the arena.  If all goes well, there should be a New Years Eve ride too.

Next: a post of ride stats/mileage/etc from 2014!

TOABH: Shining Star

Shining Star

Let's talk about the biggest achievements your horse has accomplished.  I'm not talking about you as a rider - I want to know what your ponykins has done to make you proud.  Is there a glorious satin collection, did he/she figure out some dressage movement that took months to learn, or is it just a great day when your butt stays in the saddle?  

As much as I sing her praises and tiny accomplishments to anyone that will listen, this is hard for me to answer.  Fetti was a solidly broke horse who is not childsafe because she can be reactive and occasionally unpredictable.  Fetti is also somewhat a schoolmaster for me, as she knows the cues better than I.  She's jumped, she's done exceptionally well in PC dressage, she's been ridden bareback and bitless.  I know that I am often her limiting factor.

We've worked hard on trails because that doesn't scare me the way arena work does.  I can work up to endurance goals knowing that I have a built-in out if we fail spectacularly (even as I know I never want to use it).  

I'm proud of how far her confidence has (usually) come on trails solo.  At first she wouldn't lead.  Then she'd refuse to go out alone.  Sometimes we'd make it to the park, often we'd get stuck even before then.  Once we were in the park, she'd walk, maybe trot a few reluctant steps.

I'm not really sure how we went from the problem being 'any forwards motion on trail alone' to 'sandbagging on the way out with a moderate trot rather than full steam ahead.'  But that's where we are now.  Frustrating as it is, we can do 20+ miles alone now, and I'm grateful we've come this far.

Oh! But proudest, I think?  Is that she is now a Good Trail Citizen who can set the example for less well-behaved or inexperienced horses.  Other horse bolts: meh, whatever.  Other horse lags: she turns her nose back to check on them.  She has genuinely become a solid trail babysitter, and I can honestly say I am proud of her for that.

Good Trail Ponies stand still long enough for a "tree is no longer blocking trail" photo to be taken.

---

Miscellaneous update:  the farrier came out and trimmed the ponies on Friday.  Fetti was way long.  Not neglect-long or anything, but long and overdue.  I blame some of this on doing the October LD completely barefoot for most of the miles, and most of it on me being too demotivated to do anything with her feet in the last month.  Also, we haven't actually done a Real Ride since the day after Thanksgiving.  (Not even a Kinda Real Ride.  Nothing worth tracking whatsoever.)  So.. long hooves + farrier visit = pony is footsore.  It was definitively LH on Saturday, but Sunday was a more generalized 'uncomfortable on anything even remotely rocky'.

The forecast is for sunshine the next week and a half, so fingers crossed she improves quickly and we can get back out on the trails soon.

Today's lesson: Rivers.

Specifically, what happens to rivers after a big storm?

When there's a dam downstream and the dam goes up, the river gets higher.  Normal, sane people are aware the river is not crossable, and even us crazy trail folk won't try it when the dam is up.  River to my feet?  Fine.  River that would probably be to pony-ears?  Nope.

However, when the dam goes down, it is often safe to cross again fairly soon thereafter.  Woo, exciting!  No longer stuck going in muddy circles!

So, as the dam was down (we confirmed Saturday evening) and there had been nearly 48 hours without rain, we figured what the heck: let's try it before the next rain comes (expected late Sunday night).

We did not slip and slide down the steep section en route to the river.  It was amazing how well the water had soaked in.

It did take some convincing to get the ponies in the river.  Yes, ponies, it's okay.

However, what shows up in rivers after a storm?  Silt.  Silt means that the 'solid' bottom of the river is no longer solid, and ponies sink.  Little bit of silt?  Fine, if the rest of it is solid.  But when we get slightly more than halfway across.. my poor, tolerant pony sunk when I asked for a pause to consider how bad it was.  Bad move: stopping leads to sinking.

I'm not sure how wet I was, but I wasn't soaked and she wasn't falling over, so I asked for another step.  She dutifully rocked back, hauled herself up, and LEAPED forwards a step, only to sink just as hard.  Several more rear-leaps later and I turned her around and back towards home we went, careful to NOT stop no matter what.

Note that the pad is wet about halfway up.. and pretty much her entire front end is wet.

What a good pony.  We won't try that again, at least not today.  Maybe after the next storm blows past...

TOABH#1: History of the Horse

from The Owls Approve:

History of the Horse

Before you met, where was your horse?  Who bred him/her?  What do you know about his sire and his dam?  What do you know where he came from?  Tell me about the time before he had a trainer.

Confetti is a 1996 Haflinger mare out of a mellow chocolate Haflinger mare (Cayleen AFH) and by a feisty and athletic Haflinger stallion (Aspect).  She was bred in northern Washington by some lovely Haflinger folks up there.  I was lucky enough to connect with both the sire's then-owner and dam's then-owner through a Haflinger facebook page where 'Fetti was recognized - so I have a fair bit more history than most folks who enter their horse's story at 16.  Fetti's breeders called her "Squiggle", likely for the "L" star on her forehead. It sounds like she was a bit of a handful then, too.

baby Fetti, photo from her breeder

She is a registered Haflinger and her pedigree is here.

I know and love Cayleen, but out of respect for her current owner's privacy, they rarely get more than a passing mention on the blog.  Rest assured I spent lots of time adventuring with the two of them.  She's a solid, child-safe mare who has taken multiple children through Pony Club and I cannot speak highly enough of her.  English, Western, jumping, leadline, vaulting, and I know she was harnessed when she was younger.  Lovely true all-around Haffie.  'Fetti was her first foal; it's unclear where her second foal, Apocalypse, ended up.  Cayleen was one of several chocolate Haflingers that came from the East Coast to California.

Aspect is one I don't know so much about.  I'm not clear on where he's ended up now, either!  I do know the feisty/good jumper tendencies are common among other Aspect foals.

Fetti had basic groundwork training at her breeder, but was sold before she reached riding age.  She had two foals by age 6 (2002), both colts sired by Friesian stallions.  By then she was in California.

being a good mama?  first foal. Photo from the foal's sire's owner came titled "oy that child".

summer 2002.  that MANE!

being a good mama, second foal.

I tried following up on the second foal, but the search got stuck knowing the gelding was last sold to the Midwest somewhere, the breeder thinks.

It seems that only afterwards was she trained under saddle.  She had some solid w/t/c training, jumped a bit, and somehow ended up with a nasty buck.  My memory says she was originally Western trained, and I know she'll still do a streeeetchy on-the-forehand walk or trot like your standard Western horse, nose practically to the ground.  (I do know some horses can do it properly without being on the forehand. Thus far, she is not one of them.)  Her early under-saddle years are a little bit more of a mystery.  I have been told that at her previous-previous owner's place, the other horse they were selling had similar bolt/buck issues, so the theory is that some of her stuff probably started there.  It's hard to know.

From here, I don't have many gaps.  Her previous owner (and her dam's current owner) purchased her as a pony for her daughter when Fetti was 9.  That didn't go so well due to the aforementioned buck/bolt issues.  They worked through some of that, she jumped some more, she nearly managed to be sold to a jumper home but wasn't quite the right height, she did Pony Club with a few advanced kids, and she hung out in a nice large paddock with other ponies at home.  She wasn't a good fit for her owner and family, but it's hard to sell a middleaged large pony as primarily suitable for small adults with riding experience, and they weren't willing to sell her off to another unsuitable home.

I started leasing in August 2010.  Two years later she officially became mine. Another two years and I finally got all the paperwork: I am officially the registered owner of one very spoiled Haflinger.


Unrelated note: we're expecting some major rainfall in the next few days.  Combine that with the winter blues/low motivation.. I'm hoping to get in on most of these Blog Hops to keep the writing coming and not drop off the face of the earth for too long.