Abhorrent Abcesses

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Britt

Abhorrent abcesses are abhorrent.

Sorry for being incognito for a couple days. I’ve been slogging through the orientations, introductions, and efforts of trying not to look like the newest twit on the block at the new job, and unfortunately spending my evenings treating poor Foster’s abcess.

I sat on him Sunday and after trotting off found him head-bobbing lame on his left front. It’s been super wet and gross recently, so it was no surprise when the farrier confirmed that he had an abcess that came out through the bottom of his foot. After a couple days of treating, Foster is still in that pathetic hobbling stage that will hopefully give way to a magically happy prancing pony soon. The only positive note to the whole thing is that I am blessed with a horse who is content to stand still (or paw with his good foot) for a whole 20 minutes, and save my fingers from the frostbite that might occur should I be forced to play with water in ~~hellish brutal frickin’ freezing subarctic~~ such cold weather.

As a result of recent weather conditions and the abcess, we will unfortunately be foregoing our first Combined Training show next weekend. Luckily, there are a couple jumper shows in two weeks so *hopefully* we can get out of the barn and go somewhere soon! Until then, thinking happy thoughts for my pony who is stuck in his stall today, but will be getting lots of treats and pats tonight!

2014 Resolutions and Goals

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Britt

As previously discussed, 2013 was a huge year for us (Parts I, II, and III here) here in the House on the Hill. I think I will always look back and smile when I think of all the changes me and mine have gone through, and be glad for the memories. However, as much fun as it is to relive those moments, now is the time to look forward to what lies ahead. Surely 2014 will not be quite as tumultuous as 2013, but I still expect to make lots of memories nonetheless! Here are some of the things I hope to see happen in the coming year.

The Horse
Blah, blah, blah, insert yet another comment about moving up to Novice here. But to get a little more specific, my hope for 2014 is to not only go Novice, but to do so with a final score below 35. So ideally, get a 65% or better on dressage and go double clear in show jumping and cross country. I know time is going to be our biggest issue, so I think I would also be pretty ecstatic if another scenario happened- like a 67% dressage test and a couple time penalties XC. Just being honest! 🙂 At the end of the day though, I will be satisfied with a happy, healthy, and fit horse!

At home, I want to nail our canter transitions (we had some great ones this weekend so this should be entirely possible!) and get our lengthenings solid enough to do a first level test and score in the mid 60s. In order to do this all of our transitions need to be sharp and supple as well, so I will be concentrating on these too.

The House
I pretty much went into this at the end of my accomplishments post, but my main two priorities are the kitchen and the landscaping. We’ve done a lot to the backyard recently (pics to come) but the kitchen will surely be the biggest project of all!

The Rest
Lately I’ve been doing some soul searching, and there are definitely ~~tons of~~ some things I would like to improve about myself. On a purely physical level, I let myself eat poorly over these holidays (who doesn’t?) and want to get back to feeling good about myself and be more in shape. I want to look into calcium supplements and try to decrease my Red Bull intake.

Seriously, it’s a problem.

Then I want to work on my attitude. I’ve always known that I have perfectionist tendencies and somewhat low self esteem, but recently the combination has had a pretty dismal effect on my general outlook. I nitpick at every thing I say or do, and it needs to stop. Waking up the morning after a social interaction and reliving every detail until I find something to feel guilty about is not healthy, and not how I want to live my life. So, I am going to try to be more positive about, and accepting of, myself. I hope in 2014 that I learn to spend more time in the moment and really focus on enjoying the wonderful friends and family I have- I am lucky to be surrounded with beautiful people and there is no reason to be unhappy!

Beautiful (erm, Handsome) on the inside and out- my husband!

I’m sure as the year goes on these goals will change, or become more specific. But for now I feel like these are all attainable with work and dedication! A fit and capable horse, an improved home, and a happy lifestyle are what I hope to cement for myself. I hope you guys will be along for the ride! What resolutions do you guys have for 2014? What changes do you hope to see?

Chuggin’ Along…

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Britt

Truthfully, I’ve been a bit boring this week. I’m sorry. The weather has actually been great, and I have been attempting to ride a bit on my quickly-getting-out-of-shape pony. What happened to all those goals about getting fit this winter? Oh yeah, it’s winter, which here in North Carolina means it may be nice, but it’s more likely to be gray, cold, and rainy. And when the arenas are closed, and it’s dark outside, that means no riding. Because while I have heard of people putting on a head lamp and riding in the dark, I prefer to value my life and not do so. If you have seen the size of some of the deer around here, you’d understand (I have a weird fear of being speared in the dark by one of the eight-pointers I’ve seen on the farm).

Oh hello deer from HELL!

So anyways, the last time I rode I set up trot poles. One set of 4 poles flat on the ground, and another that were raised at one end. We’ve done exercises like this before, but apparently it’s been too long- what a joke it was! First I took him through the normal poles, and he was not completely relaxed over them, but confident enough. So I took him through the raised set. Yikes. We cantered them, we jumped them, we stumbled through them. He got through them once with success, before I gave up on that idea and went back to the regular set so he would gain confidence. By the end of our ride he was lovely and relaxed going through these, completely soft over the top line, but picking up those feet beautifully. So, apparently footwork exercises are in our future!

Why you confuse me, mom?

Tonight I think we will go back to regular trot poles, and maybe set up one proper cavaletti (8″ vertical) to trot over. Or, if any one reading this has a fun gymnastic exercise to suggest, maybe we’ll do that and I’ll tell you how it goes- suggestions, anyone?

Coming down from Cloud 9

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Britt

Our cross country outing at the Fork was definitely a breath of fresh air and made me feel like doing the happy dance, but now it’s back to business, and the name of the game is dressage.

Cat humor + Dressage Meme… you’re welcome.

Foster got a well deserved couple days off and last night was our first semi-real ride this week. After a discussion with a trainer about his canter transitions, we decided it would be worth trying draw reins to help him understand that he can stay round and engage his hind end to transition rather than rely on his overly developed under-neck.

Under Neck Problems

So last night I tried my hand at them. As one who tends to believe that ‘gadgets’ are to be avoided less they become crutches to true training, I have never used draw reins before and it took me several minutes to figure out how to hold them. Needless to say, I now sport a fresh blister on each hand (gloves next time, duh!) but I do see how they will help get the epiphany I am looking for. Foster had two successful transitions where he used his bum, and the groans he emitted definitely reinforced that he is not used to using those muscles! We kept things pretty short so both of us would not be mentally or physically exhausted, but I see a path forward and that makes me hopeful.

Tonight we will have another go at it, and Sunday we have a lesson in front of mirrors! Today the high is 66, and on Sunday the high is 38 (that’s the high, we will be riding at 10AM, so I’m guessing it will be 32 or so). Needless to say, if I can stay on it should be interesting! That’s North Carolina weather for you though!

XC Schooling

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Britt

And so passed another weekend of going 200 mph. Story of my life. Friday night I hosted a get together for a group of lady friends, Saturday snuck out to the barn briefly to see Foster before going bridesmaid dress shopping and then finished off the night at a gala!

All dressed up for the gala!

You guys are probably most interested in my cross country schooling yesterday at the Fork though!

We arrived shortly after 1 PM, and it was clear that most of the people there were wrapping up and heading home. We got out to the beautiful cross country course to discover we had it all to ourselves- score! It was decidedly warm yesterday, around 60 degrees, and I was thanking my lucky stars that Foster was trace clipped but still worried he would run out of steam quickly, so we kept warm up pretty minimal.

We popped over one Beginner Novice fence and then proceeded to tackle the Novice course one fence at a time. It was apparent that Foster is slightly less confident (as in, not blasé anymore!) to these fences, but grew bolder as we went on, and felt pretty adjustable throughout. We even tackled a few training fences, including a bending line from a max table to a roll top- he was great!

Breezing over a Novice fence

The courses at the Fork are always relatively tough, and tend to be maxed out in height and width, and it seemed that this one was no different. The only exceptions were when technical questions were asked- such as a couple combinations and in jumping into water, etc.

Overall it was a great learning day with many successes! Julieann conquered her first Prelim fences (badass!) and schooled the training course, and overall Foster showed great competence at the Novice level. We will definitely benefit from more schooling this winter, but this was a great place to start!

Approaching a Training Table

I should be getting a video sometime tonight, and will be sure to post it so you can see our XC awesomeness! Stay tuned!

Learning new tricks

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Britt

This weekend was was one the most beautiful weekends this year. If you have never experienced fall in the Carolinas, you are missing out. The colors on the trees were stunning, and at a lovely 65 degrees, well, you get the idea.

Gorgeous.

Saturday my best friend Nikki came out and gave me a lesson on Foster. Nikki is a lovely rider that traded off with me as student coach in our Dressage Team days, so I knew she would give me great advice. I gained a couple very helpful visualization tips to help us with dressage, aiming to reduce the bracing in the upward transitions as well as lift Foster’s back and increase his swing through the walk.

After about 20 minutes or so of dressage, we switched up tack and played around with fences. Nikki has a good idea of what we have been doing, and went ahead and raised the fences so we could really have some fun. Ranging from 3′ to 3’6″, the course we did included a triple combination (one-stride to a two stride with a 3’6″ oxer) and a heck of a tight rollback to a 3’4″ish chevron fence. I was so proud of my boy for handling everything with good grace, and got another excellent visualization tip that will better my equitation over fences. Nikki then hopped on Foster and hopped over a few fences, giggling over each one as she did! Having not jumped in years, it was great to see her have so much fun!

What are you doing with me today??

After all the fun Saturday, we kept it easy Sunday, with a long and low session that went really well. Then Foster got his bath and out came the clippers! I did a simple trace clip on him, switching it up a bit from last year in that I used more curves than angles.

Foster’s clip last year, more of an Irish Clip with angles

Tonight we will do a not-to-demanding dressage school and tomorrow he will have off. With all these great tips up our sleeves I am really excited about the horse trials this weekend! At the very least I can say we are prepared for success!

I’ll be tidying up the clip job tonight and will be sure to post photos tomorrow!

No news is good news, right?

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Britt

Not much going on in the horse world, as I’ve ridden only once since the last show. While that ride did feel great, I don’t feel over the hump yet. I realized that in my journey to straightness, I have been working less on really bending through our circles, which was highlighted in the judge’s comments. So we worked on plenty of figure-eight’s and balanced transitions incorporating bend. He felt good. Maybe we ~~don’t suck~~ aren’t so bad off after all.

Tonight I may attempt jumping, and see how it goes. The quest to create the scariest jumps ever has culminated in a new monstrosity in the arena, in which the chevron jump had a love child with some barrels and the mixture of plastic and oddness is something I didn’t want to tackle right before the competition. So we will see how tonight goes!

Otherwise we have been busy (as usual) around the house getting the myriad projects I want done accomplished before all of our guests come in a few weeks. Even still, the to-do list is daunting:

Spray paint the doorbell cover to match new hardware
Spray paint the light fixture by the door to match as well
Install new fan in the sun room
Finish painting Carolina Room and hang curtains
Buy new chair for living room
Buy bed for Carolina Room
Paint the annoying piece of wall I missed in the guest bathroom
Figure out why the DVD player doesn’t work in the guest bedroom
Make-over the side table to match the dresser in the Carolina Room
For that matter, paint the darned feet on the dresser!
Get the weed-eater fixed
Apply lattice to outside of sun room

And so on and so forth…

Maybe it doesn’t seem like a huge list, but considering that the husband and I both have 9-5 jobs, a house to keep clean, and oh, not to mention my time consuming horse hobby, finding the time and energy to tackle these projects has been tricky!

Enough with the whining I suppose, let’s get to work!