We Did It! Double National Champions!

This post is a short one, but sweet indeed.  The points were tallied, the final results tabulated, and our come from behind stretch run for the 2014 SPHO National High Point Awards hosted by the SPHO-NJ was a rousing success!  

Heavymetalthunder (Saxon) once again captured top honors at the SPHO National Awards for the 2014 show season. Saxon was National High Point Champion in the General Division, Reserve National High Point Champion in Showmanship, Pleasure Horse, Hunter, Equitation, and Versatility. He was the National Champion High Point Senior Horse, and the overall 2014 National Grand Champion High Point Standardbred! With this win at age 5, Saxon backs up the overall National High Point Rookie, Green Horse, and Overall High Point Standardbred titles he won during his first year under saddle in 2012. Go Saxon! 

Saxon began his under saddle training at the age of 3. Originally bred as a pacer, he currently shows in halter, showmanship, hunt seat, western, driving, trail, contest, and games classes at the walk, jog/trot, and lope/canter. Saxon has recently started schooling over fences and hopes to add jumping, dressage, and ranch horse to his repertoire very soon. Standardbreds really can do it all if you give them a chance!  But that's not all.  We have some more big news brewing, so stay tuned!

Doors and Windows

There's a saying that when a door closes, a window is opened.  My quest for accomplishment and achievement with my Standardbreds has taken me in many doors and through many windows along the way.  

About a week ago, I mailed in my last set of show results for the 2014 SPHO national year end awards.  Since 2011, this awards series has been graciously hosted by the SPHO of New Jersey, as a parallel series to their residency restricted New Jersey state awards program.  Prior to that, their club allowed residents of all states without their own state SPHO program to participate in their NJ state awards.  They've held nothing back with their awards programs - offering a superior selection of categories, awards, ribbons, and an awards banquet that is second to none.  The NJ state awards will carry on, but the club has elected to replace the parallel national awards program in favor of regional awards restricted to residents of NJ, NY, PA, DE, MD, VA, and WV so, as I reside one state too far to the west (KY), this is truly the final set of points I will be send in and perhaps my last opportunity for year-end Standardbred achievement.

To be honest, 2014 didn't afford much of a show season for me.  With school, graduation, boards, my own physical limitations (bum leg) and starting over with an entirely new (and unprepped) autocross car I faced a delayed and limited horse show season.  I showed Saxon some in June before my decision to aim for racing my Celica at autocross nationals prevailed over my horse show ambitions for the year.  This choice was fueled by several factors - Justin wanted to autocross the Miata at Nats, focusing on autocross vs. riding would give my leg additional time to heal, and with some prompting GSL was shaping up to be a diverse and interesting class at nationals.  Under the circumstances, I was quite willing to write this off as a "rebuilding year," believing that I would have more time to devote to achieving things with my Saxon in the future when my circumstances were more favorable.  Enter the email of September 15 announcing the retiring of the national awards program.  Looking at my points to date and making a few calculations, and with the show season ending October 31, I knew it was a long-shot, but it was my last shot, so I decided to make one last bid for National SPHO Horse of the Year.  I found and entered as many shows in October as Saxon and I could muster, but I won't know for some time if my eleventh hour stretch run was enough for a repeat performance at the national high point awards.  (Saxon won the national high point Overall Horse of the Year, Green Horse, and Rookie Horse titles during his 2012 rookie season).

This is not my first experience with closing doors and seeking windows in the horse show realm.  There are no guarantees in life, or in horse showing, and I have learned to take my opportunities while they are available, because you never know what will happen tomorrow.

I had been a champion of Standardbreds in all aspects of equestrian competition for years, competing with my wonderful veteran, Legs (Veruca Salt) in open shows for many years before ever encountering another Standardbred in the show ring. We took on all breeds in a wide variety of classes and disciplines - pleasure, games/contest, trail, over fences, under saddle, equitation, reining, dressage, combined training, hunters, western.  Pretty much anything I fancied doing on horseback, Legs and I tried together.  Though I have always considered her to be truly outstanding in temperament, attitude, work ethic, and ability, I was certain that she could not be the only Standardbred capable of excelling in the show ring.  Nearly a decade ago, an internet search eventually turned up the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of Ohio where, attending one of their shows in the spring of 2005, I discovered the opportunity to compete against others of our breed, not just at individual shows, but to attain even greater - statewide - achievement, achievement such as I had never before had the opportunity to seek.  I had long fancied the idea of accomplishing something truly grand with Legs, to prove both to others and to myself how great I believed she was.  Alas, given our breed and our discipline(s), I had never had this opportunity.  At that time, the SPHO of OH offered a series of year-end awards open to all of their members and their Standardbreds, regardless of residency.  I was instantly entranced.

Excited at the prospect of finally achieving something great with Legs, we set about to achieve it.  Legs and I earned the SPHO of Ohio high point horse for 2005, as well as high point adult, and reserve high point in hand.  I was stoked.  Sidelined by a stifle injury for most of 2006, Legs and I were unable to show or compete for year end awards, but I still wanted to give back to the club, and volunteered for their July show and trail ride committee, helping to coordinating the venue, determine the class list, and find a judge for that event.  By 2007, the door to compete for the Ohio year end awards had already been closed to me, an emergency club vote having been held at the beginning of the year to mandate new requirements for year-end award eligibility: a number of hours dedicated to club service, and required attendance of several club meetings.  The meetings were held some 3.5 hours away from me and telecommuting was not offered, so I chose to take my cues and quietly drew back from the club and its activities.

As luck would have it, 2007 offered an even more wonderful opportunity for me and Legs - the National Standardbred Horse Show hosted by the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey.  I set my goals and made my plans, eager to meet this new challenge and new accomplishment - making Legs a national champion.  After much planning and preparation, we made the long trek to New Jersey where we were welcomed by a supportive and enthusiastic group of Standardbred aficionados.  Though we faced many nice Standardbreds, Legs once again did not disappoint me, placing third in her halter class, and then winning every under saddle class we entered.  I felt welcomed and humbled as my fellow competitors paid me and my little mare many compliments and we were invited to attend their year-end banquet in February to receive the high point awards we'd earned at the national show.  At the banquet, I learned that the SPHO of NJ welcomed members of states who did not have a club to call their own, and offered a variety of year end high point awards, open to all members regardless of residency.  The following year, the SPHO of NJ gained an enthusiastic new member from Kentucky.  Through my involvement with the club, I gained many great friends, and had opportunities opened to me that I never would have had otherwise.  I know that the opportunities I have had to showcase Legs, my opportunity to be part of the team at the World Equestrian Games and International Equestrian Festival, the Standardbred friends I have met in many states, and my ownership of Saxon would never have happened had I not been welcomed then by the SPHO of New Jersey and its members.  In the late summer of 2008 Legs was first diagnosed with early signs of navicular syndrome, and, with collaboration from my vet and farrier to determine the most appropriate measures to balance her soundness with her show career, I felt that this was my best and perhaps last chance to attain that ultimate prize - a year end high point championship such as I had dreamed of since the inauspicious little brown mare first became mine.  Careful management proved her sound and eager to continue riding and showing, and we achieved a variety of new accomplishments in the next several years, garnering a variety of other year end awards and two other chances to reprise our role at the National Show (2009 and 2010), and the chance to demonstrate at the World Equestrian Games.

In 2011, the SPHO of NJ enacted a change in their year end award eligibility.  My initial kneejerk reaction was a flashback to the closing of the door to me for the Ohio awards in 2007, before realizing that New Jersey was retaining their original year end awards for residents of their own state, but offering a parallel set of year end awards open to residents of all states.  An understandable change, to be sure, and a thoughtful compromise to balance rewarding their state's members with their desire to reward everyone who wishes to promote Standardbreds competing in the public eye.  This 2015 change leaves me orphaned once again, as a national series will no longer be offered and Kentucky does not have an SPHO of its own (I and a few others made a fledgling effort a few years back, but were never able to get our efforts off the ground before things just sort of fizzled out).  

Though I will no longer have the opportunity to compete for year-end national Standardbred championships, I look to 2015 and subsequent seasons as a new opportunity.  To be sure, I will miss being able to use these awards as a conversation starter about the show ring capabilities of Standardbreds (When you can say things like, "My Standardbred is a national champion in _____", it opens minds to the idea that there are other Standardbreds out there showing successfully, and that yours isn't the *only* one that can canter/jump/jog/lope/succeed at halter/insert other STB myth here).  But, as this door closes, there there are new windows to seek.  The NJ group is still offering the national show, and a second Standardbred group in OH introduced a STB world show/open show concept two years ago.  School and autocross had kept me from attending these past few years, but perhaps I will be more free to pursue these now that I am free of school and my showing opportunities can be more flexible.  This year I participated rather casually with the Open Horse Show Association, and I look forward to continuing with that pursuit.  With less pressure to earn "points" geared towards specific categories, I will be more free to enter only the classes and divisions I want to ride in (bye, bye costume class and no more temptation to enter egg and spoon - balancing an egg on a spoon while trying to steer a 1200# bouncy, moving horse with one hand was never my favorite pursuit), and I will feel less pressure to enter so many classes at the horse shows I do attend - a potential for less strain and stress at individual shows as well as a savings on entry fees.  I will also feel more free to dabble in new disciplines and opportunities.  Perhaps I will join some of my friends who compete in ranch horse shows.  A Standardbred ranch horse?  Why not!  Or maybe try western dressage - some folks in my area are trying to establish an organization, and it could be fun.  Or maybe I will dabble in traditional dressage.  Saxon seems like he'd be well suited to it, and I think some formal dressage training would be good for him now that I will be less compelled to enter more standard shows.  I will always treasure the opportunities I have had, the awards I have won, and the friends that I have made via doors past, but as is my habit in a closed room, I will continue to gaze dreamily out the nearby windows.                          

Super Size Me

Ok, ok, I admit that I've let my blogging slip again.  I was able to ride most of the summer (yipee!), and now, as the calendar turns to November, it means the end of  fun season for me and the start of the winter doldrums.  Cue the gray skies, wind, and snowflakes.  Oh, I see Mother Nature has taken care of that already...

So as described in my last post (some, uh, 4 months ago) I was in school for the past two years which definitely put a crimp on my riding and training plans during that timeframe.  More than simply being a pasture-puff, Saxon found a way to keep himself occupied - growing.  I don't know if it's the nearly unlimited Kentucky grass, the double handful of daily "pity grain" + hoof supplement, or some sort of super-hero back story-esque radioactive growth hormone he procured from some exotic source, but he. just. won't. stop. growing.

At the start of our journey, my red-headed friend was a svelte 975# (racing fit), 15.3hh 3 year old.  In a few months he will mark his sixth birthday, and he now tips the scales (or rather, swells the weight tape) to 1,250# and stands 16.1 hh.  Even at this hefty figure, there's scarcely a bit of fat on him, though, and with his compact, solid, and muscular build, he has the imposing appearance of an even larger horse.  He is often mistaken for a Warmblood, and could likely even pass for a draft cross with his solid bone and build (and giant size 2 feet).  I, on the other hand, stopped growing some years ago, and my 5'4" self replete with bum leg cannot get on him from the ground without some degree of swearing, contortions, and aggravation of an already suspect leg.

In some sort of cruel trick, the trail class at a recent show called for dismounting, ground tying, and then remounting.  I dropped my stirrups about two holes before entering the ring, but was still largely hanging off the side of him grasping the stirrup in my left hand and trying to jam my left foot into it while trying to spring off the tip of my right toe for what felt like an eternity.   I finally managed to heave back into the saddle as Saxon stood in the middle of the arena sighing with martyrdom and periodically glancing at me with a bemused expression.

It was never my intention to have such a giant horse; indeed, I always wondered why behemoths were so popular in the sport horse world, particularly in the dressage ring where it seems to me that a 10 m circle would be far easier for a 15.2 hh horse to execute than a 17.2 hh giant.  Sub-16 hh is more my style, but fate did not work that way in this case.  (But no, I am NOT interested in trading your smaller horse for my gentle red-headed giant!  This one's mine!)

Besides the need to get creative for mounting up (mounting blocks, my front porch steps, truck bumpers, fence planks, tree stumps - we've used it all), there's another downside to my incredible expando-horse...  Thank goodness we've already addressed the trailering issue; my trailer is an extra tall and with a 7'6" high roofline, and he remains comfortable in it (for now).  My tack, on the other hand...  I've already had to purchase a larger western cinch.  My old 32" model left more latigo than cinch encircling his barrel.  The new 36" is a better fit.  I have to buckle my 50" English girth on the very last hole to get it started, before I can slowly ratchet it up another hole or two to get it tight.  Ditto for the dressage girth.  My harness is on the very last hole on most of the adjustments.  But my old 76" horse blankets fit him fabulously.  Until this year.  He now measures 81".  Sheesh.  If he keeps growing at this rate I'll just have to fashion his blankets out of  army tents!  Thankfully he still eats like a 975# horse, or he'd likely have to share his space under those army tents with all of the extra hay I'd have to purchase and store!  Sometimes I think Clifford (the big red dog) or Bullwinkle (the moose) would have been more suitable barn names for him.

So as Saxon prepares to blow out his six candles next year, I have a wish for him.  Please, pretty please I wish you'd stop growing!  But no matter what his size, he's still my big loveable, Redheaded Standardbred.     

Back From the Dead

This will be a short blog post, but a post nevertheless.  No doubt, with my 18 month long absence, most of you out in cyberspace probably figured I had either fallen victim to the zombie apocalypse, moved to a remote mountain top to live "off the grid", or finally grown out of that horse phase (this last one's for you, mom and dad!).  Well, I haven't noticed an increased appetite for brains or the ability to walk as fast as others run, I enjoy modern conveniences like electricity and plumbing too much to remain in the wilderness for long, and my enthusiasm for my horses is just as strong today as it was when I was 8 years old doodling horses in all of the school notebooks and pinning horse postcards to the bulletin board in my room.  So where have I been, you ask?

I've been in a foreign, yet familiar place - school.  I've been learning all about the myriad of things that affect your teeth and mouth in pursuit of a degree and license to practice dental hygiene.  Though ultimately successful, the journey was quite challenging.  Imagine taking a 4 year college degree and cramming it into 2 years.  Now image not only hours in the classroom every week (try about 18 hours in the classroom), but spending the remaining hours of the week (about 16 hours) in clinic or at offsite rotations.  Now take the hours you have left and spend them writing papers, doing homework, recruiting patients for clinic, completing copious quantities of clinic-related paperwork, and studying, studying, studying.  Now image that this all culminates in two very important examinations.  For the first, you are responsible for EVERYTHING you have ever learned about dentistry on a completely comprehensive 350 question written exam at the end of that two years.  Everything's fair game from nutrition, to general anatomy, to radiography, to research methods, to medical conditions, to microbiology and pharmacology.  Did I mention this test costs $400 and you have to wait for months to retake it if you don't pass the first time?  For the second, you must find a "board patient" for clinical boards, which is a $1,000 non-refundable hands-on subjective examination where you are evaluated on your ability to find, assess, and treat a patient who meets certain, very stringent criteria.  Stressful much?  YOU BET!  But I met a lot of great people along the way and had a great group of classmates, which made a huge contribution to my (our) ultimate success, the privilege of adding three little letters, RDH, after my (our) name (I'll save you the trouble of Googling - it stands for Registered Dental Hygienist!).  The next time you see your dental hygienist, be sure to thank them for their time and effort.  They worked a lot harder for the privilege of cleaning your teeth than you realize!

So yes, essentially, I HAVE been living under a rock for the past two years.  But now I am free!  (Though, with license finally in hand, the job search begins tomorrow.  Need an RDH?  Inquire within!)  Much like a horse being turned out after a long stall rest, I scarcely know what to do first with my new-found freedom.  Naturally, I want to dive head-first back into the activities that bring me enjoyment and fulfillment - riding my horses, racing my cars, and running.  Well, it's not quite that simple.  To make a drawn-out story very succinct, a horse related ankle injury I sustained  a few years led to a walking boot, which led to an altered gait, which led to hip problems that manifested several months after I'd been cleared to run again, which was ultimately diagnosed (after 4 months of PT for the WRONG INJURY because their protocol is treat first and do diagnostics later????)  as proximal hamstring tendinopathy and stress fractures of the "seat bones".  Apparently, these injuries are not uncommon in female long distance runners, though my running was hardly to marathon standards.  Running is currently not an option, and my doctor advised me to avoid riding and "bouncing around in the saddle" yet bicycling was not only permitted but encouraged.  I made it about four weeks just driving Saxon (another plus about the Standardbred - most come with driving skills installed) before aimlessly circling my yard in a jog cart wasn't cutting it anymore.  A few careful, easy test rides on Legs, and I determined that riding was not the culprit.  (But if I try to run, within two days I'm hobbling around like an old woman and struggling to tie my own shoe.)  I guess my doctor thought I must ride like a rag doll flopping around in the saddle or posting like a jackhammer...  So I am happily back to riding, though in a cursory nod to the doctor's orders, I am being more cautious by avoiding jumping, doing more driving when feasible, and being careful about my riding circumstances.  Anyhow, moral of the story - I'm back from the dead, hungry for brains, and ready to have more horse-related adventures.  Stay tuned.        

Black and Blue: 13 Months of "Touring" With Heavymetal Thunder

I love a good list.  And a well laid out spreadsheet makes me feel just a bit giddy inside.  As the offspring of a librarian and a research scientist, planning, organization, and prioritizing are in my blood.  How could they not be?  Even so, I've never been much for grand public proclamations of New Year's Resolutions and goals.  It seems if I try to make them public, life has a peculiar way of dealing a backhanded blow that knocks some of them into unattainability.  Sure, I may still manage to meet many of them, but I just don't like blank boxes on the checklist when all is said and done...

Internally, I know what I want to achieve, and I know there's a cause and effect relationship of inputs necessary to achieve the desired outputs.  Most humans are driven by something - desire for love, wealth, fame, happiness, companionship, career success, competitive achievement, etc.  Who is ever 100% happy with their current lot in life?  Not many, I suspect.  It seems there's always something most people would change about their situation at any point in time.  Starting a new calendar with a fresh grid of new months and new days makes a good excuse for a new beginning and reaffirming the quest for perfection - the reason that a new year spawns so many resolutions for change, albeit change that may or may not last (a day, a week, a year, a lifetime...?).  The thing to remember about one's lot in life is that it's pretty unlikely that you're ever going to be 100% happy about every single thing in life at a given point in time.  By all means, try to change the things that you feel are important to change.  And if you are a "New Years Resolution" kind of person, then use it as your impetus.  Just realize that in life, you have to take the bad with the good, the black with the blue.  Just to round out the cliches, it's like seeing the glass as half full while acknowledging that it is also half empty.     

Since starting a new calendar is also a good excuse to review the old one, I want to take this new calendar as an opportunity to take a realistic look at my 2012. My last post hit some of the highlights from the tail end of the year.  Here is a succinct month by month review of the good and the bad, the blue and the black. 

2011
December.  I travel to New Jersey to look at a 2 year old red-headed Standardbred recommended to me by my good friend H.  She's an excellent equine matchmaker, as it turns out.  With help from H and Saxon's owner/trainer I drive him, break him to saddle on the track, like him a lot, and take him home.  The horse, Heavymetal Thunder (Saxon), the primary subject of this blog, becomes my best Christmas present ever!  

2012
January.  It was the mildest winter I can recall since moving to KY.  It gave me plenty of time to work with my new now officially 3 year-old  (All racehorses officially celebrate their birthdays on January 1st regardless of whether they were actually born in January or June.  It makes for easier recordkeeping and race entries).  We were still very early in the riding training process, but he was a quick learner, especially when it came to in hand work.  We worked on a lot of trust and cooperation exercises, like trail obstacles in hand.  I managed to get on his back every single day for over two months until the flu sidelined me.  (Some of those days were merely sitting on him in the stall or walking, steering, and stopping in the barn aisle due to inclement weather, but I still managed to get on him every day in one fashion or another.)  I spent most of my riding time in my synthetic western or dressage saddles because they afforded me the most grip in trying to ride his lofty, high-impulsion trot.  He had a lofty stride and tended to go a little high headed.  I couldn't sit his trot.  Not even sort-of.  I started making roadster silks for him because I thought he might be fun to do roadster under saddle with (and I figured his trot made him a pretty poor candidate for western pleasure, one of my favorite alternate/cross-training disciplines).  Even though he was very green and far from polished as a show horse, I attempted to take him to an indoor schooling show to see how he'd handle the unfamiliar setting and give me a better idea of what we should work on together.  The truck stalled on me before I even made it to the end of my road, ending that aspiration. 

February.  Still mild.  Saxon continued to do well in his training, getting the hang of moving off leg cues, turning, slowing down, basic transitions, etc.  We replaced a bad sensor on the truck.  I managed to take Saxon to an indoor schooling show.  He exceeded even my wildest dreams.  An out of character moment of boldness inspired me to enter him in the green horse walk-trot class prior to the in hand classes I had planned to start with.  Without any warmup, without any prior ring exposure (or experience in an indoor arena) other than leading him around the ring earlier that morning, we entered the class of 8.  I really didn't know what to expect from him.  He handled it like a pro.  And won the class.  Even after a full season of riding, showing, and working with Saxon, that one still gets me.  Three year-old rookie horses with only a few weeks of riding training just aren't supposed to do that!  (Not that I'm complaining, mind you!)

March.  We showed again.  Saxon was still good, though he scratched his cornea in the horse trailer and was squinty-eyed and a little looky.  We did another show (his first time tied to the trailer instead of getting a stall).  He was pretty anxious about that part.  I get my feet stepped on.  As I have since come to expect from him, Saxon still handled the in hand classes like a complete gentleman. He had a big freak-out when warming up in the ring under saddle, choosing to stand up on his hind legs and lose his mind in response to a cantering Friesian.  We recovered and placed well under saddle in our actual classes, but it left me a little more wary of my young horse.

April.  Saxon celebrates his actual 3rd birthday.  We did one show.  We got there late (I overslept).  It was the spookiest arena he'd been in to date and I didn't get to show it to him ahead of time.  We had some baby moments of balking, small crowhops, and general lookiness.  He had one great class where he held it together (I tailed another horse the whole time and it seemed to calm him down) and won it.  Then he saw a well-behaved family (evil, ravenous & horse eating!) during the next class.        

May.   Saxon went through something of a baby phase from April-June, being less consistent and more rambunctious than he was when he first arrived.  We went on a few field trips for experience.  A new trailer solved our trailering anxiety woes.  Saxon learned the basics of cantering and sidepassing.  We introduced some more trail obstacles.

June.  Saxon is starting to get downright lazy under saddle.  We were attacked by bees.  We go to a few shows and try some new things.  Saxon makes me proud by winning his first trail and pattern classes like a pro (and we had to canter).  Three days later he informs me in no uncertain terms that he does not like carnivals or "truck tug of war" then follows that up four days later by behaving like a pro again.   

July.  We win a halter class out of 11 horses, though Saxon continues his mistrust of carnivals.  Later that month, Saxon's brain proves water-soluble and we have a meltdown at a rainy show. Bad things happen.

August.  We do one show.  I kneel in poison ivy.  My knee swells up like a balloon.  We can't go to nationals due to school and other factors.  Saxon gets kicked in the leg, but recovers uneventfully.  Saxon gets a haircut.   

September.  We go to more shows.  We attend our first nighttime show and our first "gaited" show (oops).  Saxon's starting to feel like a real show horse.  He makes the workout in a class of 9 and places 2nd.  We do costume class for the first time.  We have our first all weekend showing experience.  Saxon knocks me over and steps on my ankle between shows.  I suck it up, take a bunch of Advil, wrap my foot and keep showing.  Saxon overcomes his fear of the spooky white fishbowl Saddlebred arena and handles it with great success.  We place 1st and 2nd out of several classes with 10 or more horses and win two reserve championships.  We try western pleasure at a show and he loves it.  Saxon starts to think that jogging is way better than trotting.

October.  We show almost every weekend.  Saxon wins his first high point championships - OCSC High Point Champion in Halter and English.  Then he wins the HCSC Adult English high point.  He gives me a black eye one day while I'm applying hoof polish.  We go to our first out of state 2 day show (with Standardbred classes).  It's our first show with other Standardbreds in attendance.  He is on his best behavior.  We win the western horsemanship.  (Did I mention that he's really starting to like this western thing?)  He places 5th out of 23 in trail (under very spooky conditions).  We make the callbacks in a huge WT hunter under saddle class of 26, then place 3rd in the finals.  I was shocked that we'd made the call-backs and even more shocked to get 3rd.  STBs take the top 3 spots.  Woot!  Our fear of Friesians has diminished into ear pinning when they pass, but not freakouts.  Progress!  We go to our first hunter show (WT poles division) and get 1st or 2nd in every class.  I am asked if Saxon is a Warmblood.  At our final show of the season, we finish the show season the way we started it - winning a green horse walk/trot class (actually, by winning all 3 of our flat classes).

November.  We meet the editor in chief of Horse Illustrated.  I have a photos shoot with both of my horses.  Saxon and I are the fall cover photo of their Facebook page.  (How cool is that!?)  I finally go to the doctor about my foot (see September/my stepped on ankle).  My first doctor suggests "the prayer method."  I see a specialist and undergo a myriad of diagnostics.

December.  I am given a walking boot/cast and orders not to ride, run (or just about any other form of exercise), or drive stick.  (The things I love to do most in life.)  Within a week, I am ride my faithful mare Legs without stirrups (My defense is that she's a former therapeutic riding horse.  And I need her therapy!).  Saxon puts up with my club foot, too, but I still barely manage any riding time this month.  I manage to drive stick, too.  I haven't run since September.  I ride both horses on the 30th (their last official ride as an 18 year-old and 3 year-old, respectively).  Saxon hasn't been ridden in weeks and there is snow on the ground.  I have to throw snowballs at him to get him to trot (jog lazily) on the lunge line.  He's an angel under saddle.  WT and even a half dozen strides of canter on each lead.  He remembers everything perfectly.  I love this horse!  And, of course, Legs is Legs.  I love that mare, too, though that should pretty much go without saying.  I've all but confirmed her sainthood already... 

2013
January.  Well it's a bit early to summarize that month, now isn't it! Time will tell how my ankle will fare.  (I tore one of the ligaments in my ankle nearly completely when Saxon stepped on it.  Ligaments heal slower than bones.  This is going to take a long time.)  For those of you wondering why I went so long before seeing a doctor about my foot...  If you are a long-time reader, you know that I'm stubborn.  But if you want more details...  I basically assigned myself "Bute, wrapping, and restricted activity" to see if it would heal on its own.  Ace bandaging (which worked better than the initial medically prescribed splint - I think the doc underestimates the wrapping skills of horse people), OTC anti-inflammatories, and no running.  Alas, it did not heal, but I wanted to finish out the show season and was sure (and right on that count) that I would be barred from riding for an extended period of time once I saw a doctor.  By dropping my stirrups a hole, keeping it firmly wrapped, and a maintaining a careful ibuprofen regimen, riding was tolerable, albeit probably not therapeutic for my foot.  If you jump ahead to the February entry, maybe you can understand why, after coming so far during Saxon's rookie show season, I wanted to finish out.  I rationalized that he's only a rookie horse once, and I basically have all winter to heal (and so here we are)...    

February.  Using my clairvoyance to see into the future, I foresee a trip to New Jersey to visit my STB friends from across the country.  I foresee a fun evening with a big celebration and a whole lot of fun.  I foresee a bunch of big trophies and ribbons for a certain red headed Standardbred to celebrate all of his accomplishments during his first year as a riding horse.  Now don't you want to stick around and find out more!?  Because it hasn't happened yet, that means you still have time to make plans to join the fun! 

When my rose-colored glasses get too rosy and I long too much for something in the past or something that someone else has, I like to remind myself that life is not an a la carte endeavor.  Some choices and situations are a package deal.  In 2012, Saxon and I had lots of "blue" moments, such as blue ribbons and blue ribbon accomplishments & learning: standing for mounting, negotiating obstacles, going to our first horse show, establishing different speeds at different gaits, learning to collect, learning lateral work, cantering, testing new skills through new horse show classes, clipping muzzle and ears, learning to trailer calmly, learning to work together (...because the sum of one's equestrian life surely isn't measured solely by the opinion of one horse show judge on a given day).  There were also a lot of "black" moments (stepped on feet, equine meltdowns, scratched corneas, bee stings, poison ivy, black eyes, foot injuries, etc.).  But that's life.  It's neither all perfectly good, nor perfectly bad.  Or, to quote cheesy TV theme songs from the '80s "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life"  And now all of you are going to be humming that and muttering at me under your breath the rest of the day.  Sorry.  The takeaway is to remember that life is neither all good nor all bad, but you should definitely take the time to enjoy the ride and appreciate its complexities in the process.  And for me and Saxon, all in all, 2012 was a pretty great ride.      

No Autographs, Please

I've been a bad blogger.  I know it's been months since my last post, and there are details and stories swimming around in my head that I've been meaning to put to paper (or keyboard) before they fade from my mind.  Life never seems to slow down enough to allow me to serve my blog justice, so the headlines will have to suffice for now. 

So much has happened with me and my horses since my last post. 

Legs was treated and recovered from her mid-summer mystery lameness (fetlock cartilage trauma).

I got to do a photo shoot for Horse Illustrated and brag about my wonderful Standardbreds!  (It's very gratifying when your horses prove you right - your old veteran goes though all her paces like clockwork, and your 3 year-old doesn't bat an eyelash at the cars whizzing by on the road!)

Legs got her image on a T shirt along with some of my great Standardbred friends - she's the western horse (it's available via the US Trotting web store).

 Though I am a little worse for the wear from it, Saxon concluded a healthy, happy, and very successful rookie year. 

He won his first championship (3 of them, as a matter of fact).

He made his western pleasure debut (he loved it) and we continued to show western several more times, placing well in every class he went in.

He went to his first hunter show (rocking the walk-trot poles division).  (No pic from the show, but I like this shot as a stand in)

He did his first 2 day out of state show and even survived the humiliation of wearing green spandex in front of strangers. 

He donned a shower curtain and a cardboard hat and added "costume class" to his repertoire of horse show skills. 

He learned collection, lateral work and how to put them to good use. 

 

He discovered that he has the trust, cleverness, patience, and coordination (most of the time!) for negotiating trail obstacles.

He overcame his fear of Friesians and of a certain spooky white fishbowl arena.  He did his first real canter class (Hunter Under Saddle WTC) and nailed both leads.  He helped me add to my own personal "character" haplessly inflicting a couple injuries that I'm not likely to soon forget.  We made many new friends and met a fan of our blog (We have fans - who knew!?). 

We went from a green, unsure horse and rider to a true cohesive team.

And he's growing up into quite the handsome and well-mannered young man in the process. 
October 2012:  

December 2011:

And a certain redheaded Standardbred and his owner were featured on the Facebook cover page for a major national horse publication! 

You know, same old same old...

I wonder what he's going to accomplish at age 4?   



 

   

The Ups and Downs of Showing

As my devoted readers know, having a three year-old show horse in the making can be very trying.  One day they make you want to pull your hair out, the next they make you burst with pride.  Throughout the summer, Saxon and I have been struggling with inconsistency in the show ring.  When he's good, he's fantastic.  He makes me want to sing his praises and lavish him with hugs and treats.  When he's not, it's a full scale meltdown of nuclear proportions.  I'm finally starting to have some success abating these meltdowns, so that the calm, quiet (relatively lazy) horse I have at home is the same animal I bring out in public.  They say "idle hands are the devil's playground."  Idle hooves, it seems, can turn the showring into the devil's playground, too.  My new motto is "a tired 3 year-old is a well-behaved 3 year-old."  Case in point, before the August OCSC show, he got himself worked up that morning and spent 10 straight minutes galloping around the pasture until he was soaked in sweat and out of breath.  At the show, (after a good bath!) even though we arrived too late to walk the grounds and arena beforehand, he was a perfect, quiet gentleman (other than still wanting to suck on my hunt coat sleeve like a pacifier during showmanship).  Some of it may be that the whole trailering and showing thing is starting to become more routine for him, some of it may be his new pre-show preventative dose of omeprazole (I've noticed that his appetite at shows is much better now), but I have to believe that a little tiredness doesn't hurt, either.  I certainly don't want to overwork him, since he's still young and growing, but I've found that a week of steady riding with no days off and a preshow exercise session makes for a much more relaxing show for both of us (he gets his day off after the show).

Since I started this new regimen, he has been stellar on his last two outings.  At OCSC, he was so tired that he was almost lazy (a 10 minute pre-show gallop will do that!), but he cruised through his classes (including equitation and trail -  where he had to canter a bit in the patterns) like a pro.  [They gave us a dry run in trail before we did the course for real, which was a good thing, because we might not have made it past the horse-eating rain coat otherwise!  Once he thoroughly sniffed said horse-eating rain coat, he was totally unfazed by it the second time around.]  I was very pleased with his behavior, and he had the placings to match, placing well in full classes, with several wins (including the eq and trail where he had to canter!).   

Our next show was a real test of his fortitude.  I took him to the Pioneer Saddle Club open show.  From the photos on their Facebook page, I could tell it was a pretty casual show in terms of dress, the kind where people show in whatever tack and casual clothes they have and spectators back their vehicles up to the arena to watch.  I wasn't sure how distracted he would get by the cars and spectators, but it's something he'll have to get used to if I want to start taking him to more of the county fair shows next year.  The show grounds was nice, but the atmosphere was pure pandemonium.  It was almost exclusively gaited horses, and riders were weaving behind and around the parked trailers at a high rate of speed.  I arrived plenty early, but they had the arena closed up so I couldn't walk him around in there.  I walked him around the outside of the arena, but was stopped after a few laps because they didn't want horses near the (completely empty) bleachers.  I found a grassy area as far away from the packs of random riders as I could and lunged him.  He seemed calm enough, so as long as the ringside white cinderblock building (that he snorted at on our walk) and spectators starting to park ringside didn't faze him, I thought he'd be ok.  Nevertheless, when I registered for his classes, I asked if I could enter both the English and Western halter classes.  I explained that he was just 3 and I wanted to give him as much chance as possible to get comfortable in the ring.  They said ok, so I signed up for those two and one riding class.  I wanted to see how he reacted to the ring atmosphere before I committed to more under saddle classes.  I later overheard someone talking to the registration person and mocking me for entering both halter classes.  

He was good in halter, though he was the only non-gaited horse in either one.  The judge didn't seem to spend much time looking over the horses, barely glancing at just their front legs.  We only placed so-so, and I had another competitor motion me over later that night to tell me she thought I'd been "ripped off" in the halter classes.  (Which made me smile that she was complimenting my horse.)  We had a pretty good break before our first riding class, so I spent some time chatting with the older gentleman showing out of the trailer next to me, and rode Saxon around the show grounds for a while.  I was pleasantly surprised by how calmly he handled the chaos of the spectators around the arena, horses stomping around inside and next to their trailers, children jumping around, the ice cream truck at the nearby neighborhood, and the speed racking horses careening recklessly past him from all directions. 

The sun was going down by the time my class was ready to go.  Just as we were ready to go in for our class, wouldn't you know it, they turned on the arena lights, the wind kicked up, and it started to spritz rain.  There were eight of us, and I was the only non-gaited horse in the English Pleasure Walk-Favorite Gait (No Canter) class.  As one lady in a tank top entered the ring ahead of us, she whipped her horse sharply with the end of her reins.  It was a sign of things to come.  I stuck to my plan of staying off the rail and away from the other horses.  A little girl opened her pink and purple umbrella by the rail as we walked by, and Saxon hardly noticed (As luck would have it, we had been working on sacking out with grocery bags and umbrellas earlier that week.  How convenient!).  He was a superstar.  He was steady at both gaits, stayed on the bit, and remained calm about the racking horses snorting and racing by on the rail.  It was a nice enough trip to win just about any class we'd gone in all year.  He was just a little antsy in the lineup about having to face away from the flagpole (with blowing flag) in the center of the ring.  As they called out the placings, I started to wonder what I was missing. We were finally called in DFL.  Eighth out of eight.  I know showing is subjective and you are paying for someone's opinion.  Some days, the judge loves your horse, and other days it's just not your day.  But to have horses place above us that were actively spooking, alternating between the running walk and trot, and lugging on the bit barely in control was an absolute insult.  It seemed the faster, higher kneed, higher headed, and more frantic your horse went, the more this judge liked you.  There was clearly no place in his modus operandi for a relaxed, low-headed, efficient-moving hunter horse. 

I knew my "victory" was how well my three-year old handled the chaotic atmosphere of his first nighttime show.  I also knew there was no point in entering any other classes.  I couldn't have asked for a better performance from Saxon under those or any circumstances.  There was absolutely nothing to be gained by sticking around, or ever coming back for that matter.  Nowhere on the showbill did it say the show was for gaited horses only.  The only stipulations on it were that show tack/attire were not required, no artificial equipment other than plain bell boots was allowed, and 1/2" or smaller pads were allowed, but no wedge pads (though I saw that the top placing horses in most classes had wedges).  Though I am proud of my horse for his stellar behavior, met some pleasant people there (particularly the older gentleman at the adjacent trailer who, incidentally, also left early because the judge didn't like his natural moving, lower-kneed, well-behaved gaited horses), and I generally liked the showgrounds, I will never attend another show by the Pioneer Saddle Club again.  If it's supposed to be exclusively for gaited horses, so be it, but please advertise it as such so that other owners of non-gaited horses don't make the same mistake I did.  As for me and Saxon, we'll chalk it up as a learning experience, and I hope he continues his calm and mannerly ways.  Maybe at our next show we'll once again have the results to match (as we did at OCSC).