Pimp my Tackroom: 1996 Olympic Edition

For those of you youngsters, the Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta in 1996. I was super lucky and got to attend the equestrian events, along with a few other things. I'll never forget:

• Watching horses gallop cross-country, in places passing so close to the ropes that I could have reached out and touched them.
• Lendon Grey doing a demo of what's good and bad in a Grand Prix dressage test on her Connemara-cross stallion, who was SO PISSED at her for doing parts of the test wrong. 
• The 100 Brazilian fans being the loudest of the bunch in a packed stadium of 10,000, watching the Grand Prix showjumping finals.
• On a sad note, the terrifying bombing of Centennial Olympic Park, where two people were killed and over a hundred injured.

Anyway, I've been doing some spring (summer?) cleaning, and found all of my Olympic memorabilia tucked away in a box.  Since it's only been 17 years in storage (eeek!), I figured it was high time to do something with it. So, I bought a shadow box and assembled my collection:

Fond memories! 

My hat was signed by Bruce Davidson, and I have not washed it since he signed it (don't worry, I stopped wearing it years ago). All the pins were collected and traded for at the Olympics. The shirt was one my mom bought me at the Games, and I wore it to every clinic for like two years after - and boy were they popular. In fact, I remember going to a musical freestyle clinic taught by Terry Ciotti-Gallo, who did Gunter Siedel's choreography, and everyone there either had a shirt like this one or (even more coveted) one that said VOLUNTEER on the back. So cool!

So, now this shadow box is hanging in the tackroom, right underneath my poster of the Games. I really love seeing it every time I walk in, along with pictures of the boys and all our ribbons. It's nice to be able to keep all the horsey stuff together and on display!

I'm curious - does anyone else have any Olympic memorabilia, or any horse memorabilia that's special to you? How do you display it? I know that ribbon pillows/wall hangings are popular - what other ideas do y'all have?

Part-time weekend job: Snake Wrangler

Every year about this time, we have a 5-6 foot long bull snake show up at Wyvern Oaks. We'll see him a handful of times, and then he disappears for the rest of the year. I've blogged about him before, here.

This year, we've found him in the chicken shed half-a-dozen times, when we put the chickens to bed. He's after the eggs, although I don't think he's managed to get many. See, one of our chickens is broody, and she is NOT happy about a snake in her shed. I've seen her attack him, and the poor snake has all he can do to escape.

Unfortunately, in one of his bids to escape, he got stuck in the storage part of the shed. It gets pretty hot in there during the day, and I think he may have been in there for a few days. For whatever reason, I decided to clean a few things out of the shed this morning, and I found him curled up limply in the corner.

Poor guy. 

I put a pan of water next to him to see if he would drink. He wasn't moving much, so I got a spray bottle of water and misted him a bit to try to help him hydrate. MC got this pic while I was doing that.

Eventually I figured that he wasn't going to find his way out of the shed unless I picked him up and took him out. So I put on my gloves, took a deep breath, and nabbed him.

Yes, that's me, holding a 5 foot long bull snake.

Isn't he gorgeous?

DISCLAIMER: Don't EVER EVER EVER pick up a snake unless you know FOR CERTAIN that it's non-venomous. Also, don't pick up a wild snake unless know what you're doing. I used to volunteer at the herpetology department at the Louisiana Wildlife center, so while I'm not an expert, I can identify and handle snakes fairly confidently. Any snake can bite, and a snake this big can do some serious damage (I've been bitten by a pet King snake before that was about this size, so take my word for this). I knew I had one chance to grab him properly, and I managed to do it. I likely would not have been able to handle him if he hadn't been suffering from heat and dehydration, because a snake this size is incredibly strong. Basically, I got really lucky.

After MC snapped these pics, I set him down in the saucer of water, right next to the shed. He paused for a moment and then slithered off under the shed.  I left the saucer out today and refilled it tonight, in hopes that he's got the strength to drink something and will recover. I also left out two eggs just under the shed, in case he can eat those.

Bye-bye.

You're probably thinking that I'm a really weird bleeding heart type, all worried about a snake, and you're probably right. But this guy has been around for a while, helping to keep the rodent population at bay, and I'd hate to be responsible for his death. 

I sure do hope he makes it!

Attack of the fire ants

We've been very lucky this year to have a relatively wet, cool spring in this part of the world. I say "relatively," because just two years ago, by this time we'd already had 10 days over 100 degrees and hadn't seen a drop of rain for over six months. When you're comparing to that sort of drought, highs in the mid-90s, with a weekly or bi-weekly rain, seems quite mild.

While rain is wonderful for our pastures and trees, and I won't complain about a drop of it, it has the unfortunate side effect of bringing the fire ants up to the surface. If you live in a part of the world with no fire ants, count your blessings. They are truly nasty creatures that were imported into the US in the 1930s and have been spreading since. They take over everything, decimating the local population of insects and stinging en masse anything that disturbs their nests. Stings are initially painful and then incredibly itchy. Put it this way - I won't go outside without boots on right now, and I always look where I put my feet.

Unfortunately, poor Echo wasn't as lucky. The boys were turned out in one of the front pastures the other evening, and Echo decided to roll. I watched him do it, and then shortly after noticed him rearing up and double-barrel kicking the air, repeatedly. Our neighbor was riding down the street on his horse at the time, so I thought that perhaps Echo was feeling a bit frisky with the neighbor horse in close proximity. Still, it was odd behavior. Then at night check, I noticed that Echo was behaving really strangely. He and Cash usually come in and share a beet pulp snack while I take off their fly gear and check them over. Echo was interested in the BP, but he'd take a bite, walk around in an agitated manner, sniff the ground, pester Cash, and swish his tail madly. I thought he might be colicking, but he was eating and not rolling. I finally ended up putting Cash in the stall to eat his share of the BP in peace, Echo was pestering him so much!

I watched Echo for a few more minutes, pacing constantly, all but wringing his tail, trying to figure it out. Finally he came over to me and put his head in my arms, and as I rubbed his face I noticed how the barn lights were shining against his gleaming, dappled coat... with the HUNDREDS OF WELTS ALL OVER HIS SIDE. I realized immediately that he must have rolled in fire ants, and the antics before were desperate attempts to get them off. Poor guy! I ended up calling my vet to consult about what I could give him to reduce the pain and swelling, since he was so miserable. Turns out that a nice cold hosing, along with 30 mg of Dex, was just the thing, and luckily I have plenty of that on hand for Cash. I stuffed the Dex pills in some carrots (since he was too agitated to eat anything that wasn't hand-fed) and he gobbled them up. Fortunately, by this morning, the welts were gone and Echo seems to be back to normal.

In the meantime, I purchased four containers of fire ant poison and have so far treated over 250 mounds, most of them very small. We had been using the "environmentally friendly" version, but eff that shit. I want those little bastards DEAD, immediately if not sooner.

Especially the fire ants!

The beginnings of an actual dressage horse

For realz. That was us on in our dressage lesson on Sunday.

We had our second dressage lesson on Sunday. I was pleased to report to JD that we'd been working hard on our homework (leg yields and squares, along with longeing in side reins and not falling in to the right) and that I felt like we'd really made some progress. I started off showing her our leg yields (excellent to both sides at the walk) and squares (pretty damn good when I remembered not to over-ask) and we quickly moved on to the trot. I'd also been practicing a bit of a leg yield into the trot transition, and we are getting these amazing upwards transitions. In fact, he's stepping under himself so much that he's throwing me out of the saddle. So the transition is great, but I can't stay with it so I make us fall apart. Fail.

We worked in trot almost the whole time. He was about a million times better than the previous lesson, and there were two major take-aways from this ride.

First of all, I have got to RELAX MY ARMS. This basically means having noodle-arms from the shoulder on down. I am really bad about holding my elbows away from my sides and stiffening in my shoulders, because that's how I type on the keyboard all day. Whenever Echo would brace against me (usually on the left rein), I'd immediately relax my arms and he'd go soft. Well, really what was going on is that I was tensing my arm, he'd brace, then I'd remember to let go and he would too. Poor guy was trying so hard to figure it out, and I wasn't where he needed me to be. Something I have got to work on fixing, ASAFP.

Secondly, in my very first lesson on Echo with Adopted Horse Mom, she told me that I was riding the bend "backward," especially to the right. We didn't have a chance to really break down what that meant, but JD explained it in a way that really made sense. What it comes down to is that when we go to the right, my shoulders and hips move as if we're doing a left bend. My right hip moves toward his left ear, and my shoulders are angled to the outside as well. What really needs to happen is that I need to turn my body to the right, starting with the shoulders. My left shoulder needs to lead slightly, my right needs to come back. My hips will follow my shoulders, and you know what? Damned if Echo didn't move his ENTIRE BODY in line with mine when I did that. We still had a smidge of falling in, but for the most part it was magically fixed. It's amazing how nicely your horse goes when you ride him right, you know?

Here's the video proof. It was at the end of our ride, so he was tired and really wanted to curl up and stop by the mirrors, but it had some good moments here and there. 

So my homework for the next week: turn shoulders and hips (in that order), and keep arms noodly and hands down. I may try to get FuzzyPony to longe me on Taran (he's steady on the longe) with no stirrups so I can work on getting my weight to the right... well, really, getting my weight in the center of the horse. It seems so simple, but it's so hard to keep track of all the body parts at the same time! That's the story of learning to ride, though.

In other news, I may have signed us up to go to a schooling dressage show on the 15th. That's right... Echo's first show! SO excited!!!

Custom saddle pad - made from scratch!

Last week, I did a post on how I dressed up some rather plain saddle pads. Since then, I haven't had much time to sew, but I finally got a few hours this morning to finish up the pad I made from scratch. 

The finished product.

There are a couple of sites out there on how to make pads, but most of them are baby pads that use thin store-bought quilting as the backing. That's great if you want to make cute baby pads - it's pretty quick and easy. However, I was looking for something more sturdy, and fancier. Plus - not gonna lie - I have boxes and boxes of fabric that either need to be sewn up or given away. Might as well sew it up!

For my backing, I decided to use some felted wool I had leftover from a cloak-making project years ago. If you use a wool half-pad, you know how cool wool keeps the horse's back - much more so than most of the foam-filled saddle pads that are on the market today. The felted wool I have is quite thick, but I opted to do two layers of it for additional stability. For the facing layer, I used some very nice brocade I had laying around.

To start, I laid out a dressage pad I like onto my wool, and cut out 4 of those. Next, I laid the wool on the brocade and cut out 2 of those. Be careful to make sure you've got the pattern going the right way if you're using a pattered fabric, and make sure you do a left and a right piece.

Be sure to cut your top fabric a little larger than the bottom - everything will shrink up a bit when you quilt it together, so having extra is a good thing.

One you've got everything cut out, you're going to lay all three layers of one side together, brocade on top. Then, using pins every 3-4 inches, pin all three layers together. Use lots of pins! When you're finished, you should be able to pick up the entire stack of three layers and have them all move together.

For this next step, you need chalk and a ruler. This is a dressmaker's ruler, 2 inches wide. It's a convenient width to make your quilting.

With the chalk, mark diagonal lines every 2 inches all the way across the brocade. 

Next, sew over all the lines, removing your pins as you go. When you're finished going one direction, do the same thing the other direction.

Here's what it looks like after you've quilted it together. Starting to look good!

After you've quilted both halves of your pad, trim off any excess fabric around the edges.

Next, put the brocade sides together. Using a wide zig-zag stitch, sew along the top of the pad, as close to the edge as you can get. 

Here's what it will look like when you're done. This doesn't have to be perfect, as we're going to reinforce and cover this seam in the next few steps.

Cut a strip of your backing fabric about 2 inches wide and the length of the spine of your pad. Lay the strip on the right side of the seam you just sewed, then use a straight stitch to sew it down about 1/2 inch from the edge of the seam. Bonus if you get dog hair on your fabric.

After you've sewn down the first side, fold the loose edge of the fabric under about 1/2 inch... 

Then fold it over the seam you just sewed. See how we covered that seam up?

Pin that sucker down...

And top-stitch it.

Here's what it will look like after you're done.

We did the bottom side first for a good reason... see how ugly the top seam looks, with the stitching on either side? We're going to cover this up in exactly the same way.

Cut a 2.5 inch wide strip of brocade the length of your pad, then sew it about 3/4 of an inch inside your seam.

Fold the loose edge over, then pin in place.

Here's what it looks like after you've topstitched it down.

And here's the back. Now all the ugly seams won't show on the top of our pad!

We're almost done! We just need to put on a binding, some trim, and the billet straps. 

You can purchase bias tape from the fabric store to use as your binding. However, it only comes in cotton fabric, and the number of colors are limited. I also find it to be kinda pricey, lol, so I make my own. It's really, REALLY important to use bias-cut binding instead of ribbon or straight-cut binding.  Here's why: 

Fabric is woven in two directions - the warp and the woof. If you pull your fabric in either of those directions, it doesn't stretch. However, if you pull it across the diagonal (the bias), it stretches quite a bit! You can see that here with the the fabric I used - the diagonal ripples in the fabric show the bias. The stretch in bias tape allows you to go around the curves of the pad without wrinkling the binding.

I used this super-handy-dandy bias tape maker - and my trusty iron - to make my own bias tape in a matching color (again, extra fabric laying around). 

When you're sewing your bias tape down, sew it to the bottom of your pad first.  

Fold it over and around to the top of the pad, then pin it in place. You can see how easily it's curving around the pad, and there are no wrinkles.

All pinned down and just about to sew...

And volia! Looking good.

The second-to-last step... sewing down the trim. The trim is actually the only thing I had to buy at the fabric store, lol! I used silver metallic thread to match, and just zigzagged over it.

And last but not least, billet straps! Be sure to burn the ends of the webbing (to prevent fraying) before you sew it on.

Here's the finished product. I think it looks super classy, and the wool backing gives it a good weight and nice structure. I want to give it a test ride, but I'm also thinking I might save it as a show pad! 

Ground poles are SO HARD for Baby Racehorses

We had an amazing jumping lesson today! We did tiiiny verticals (with flowers under them!) with ground poles in front of them. Echo was a star, even though he had to think really, really hard about where to put his feet and THEN jump. You could practically see the wheels turning in his brain as we approached it each time... too funny!

But, let me back up. First off, Echo has become an ANGEL to load on the trailer. Not that he was bad to begin with, but he'd hesitate now and then and require a bit of a pat on the butt. Now he just follows me right in, no problem. I may try teaching him to self-load, but we'll save that for later. :)

In warmup, all of the ground work and dressage work we've been doing has really paid off. We're doing a TON of laterals to get going - lots of leg yields down the rail and across the arena, squares, a little shoulder fore. My goal is to make sure I'm sitting evenly in the saddle (I tend to shift my weight left) and make sure he's responsive to my leg so that when we trot and everything 300x faster, he responds to my aids and doesn't fall in. Once I'm sure we've got that, we move on to trot.

I've discovered that I have to plan our rides pretty carefully, being sure not to do too much warmup so that I still have plenty of horse left for the actual lesson. It's not the he gets physically tired, it's that he gets mentally tired, I think.  On the track, workouts are half an hour, and you can totally tell when Echo's timer goes off the first time. He likes to park somewhere and pretend like he's not going to move, lol! To avoid the "but... but... we're DONE!" argument, I'm taking frequent short breaks. This also seems to be helping to allow his brain to reset since the lateral stuff is all very hard on him mentally. It really helps get him focused and attentive on me, but that's hard on his baby brain.

All the lateral work at the walk is translating into much less falling in at the trot. We had some amazing trots today, bent in the corners, soft in the poll - and of course we had some really awful moments in between, but that's OK. I'm asking for more and he's giving me more! Our canter was big, rolling, and oh-so-balanced... LOVE IT!!!

We did a couple of Xs for jump warm-up, and he was straight and nicely forward. Then, Paige added a ground pole. Echo approached it bravely enough, but sort of got his legs muddled. He was SUPER careful and didn't touch a thing, but you could tell he was thinking hard about what to do with his feet. We came though several more times, then Paige move the pole closer for a bit of a shorter distance. On the approach, I could feel him slow as he was sizing it up, and just kept my leg on. He compressed into this teeny little step, practically did a levade, and went over the fence. Good boy! A bigger distance was easier for him, and he adjusted his stride like it was nothing.

But then, we move on to another tiny vertical... WITH TWO TROT POLES. Echo's poor brain did not compute, and he stuttered to a walk on the approach. I smacked him on the shoulder with my bat and we walked over the poles, and then he daintily stepped over the vertical. We came around again at the trot, and he managed to organize his feet enough to make it through. The third time through, he forgot about his hind feet over the jump and touched it - he didn't make that mistake again! Once he was going through nicely, we moved the poles to the other side of the jump and approached it from the other direction. I swear it was like starting all over again, lol! He got better and better the more we did it, as he was able to figure out what to do with his feet. Ground poles take a lot of coordination, didn't you know?

For our grande finale, we did the vertical with two trot poles, then a big circle in the corner of the arena, then the vertical with one trot pole. After the first vertical, he landed in this perfect balanced right lead canter (the correct lead), and I went with it. We did a lovely 20 meter circle and the canter, came back to a nice trot, and trotted to the second fence. He came in a bit fast, but then adjusted his stride (all by himself!) to get a comfortable distance. He cantered away from that fence too, nice as you please, and I went with it down the long side. He was such a good boy, I was really super pleased with him, and Paige thought he did great. Naturally I have no pics or video of us in action, but here are the extremely difficult fences we jumped:

ONE trot pole. With FLOWERS! 

TWO! TWO TROT POLES! You have no idea how hard this is.

After I hosed him off, Echo discovered the fabulous floor fan. He happily stood in front of it for about 15 minutes, without moving a single foot. I think he wants one for his birthday.

Yep, that's my maniacal ground-tied baby racehorse. Better be careful - he might inspect you for treats!

Tomorrow: Dressage lesson! Woot!!!

A come-to-Jesus episode

The other day, I was dabbing Swat on Echo's hip (he has a rub mark from his fly sheet), and he pinned his ears and stepped his butt toward me. I poked him in the flank, asking him to move over. Not only did he not move over, he leaned into me  and stepped almost on top of me. The message was clear: I could take my request for him to move over and shove it.

Let me be really, really frank here. I do NOT put up with disrespect from any of our horses. They are 1200 pound animals and I am very appreciative of how quickly they can move and how they can accidentally hurt me without trying. They know that what I say goes - I am Boss Mare. I expect them to move when I ask them to, proto. If I ask you to step your butt or shoulder over, you do it. If I ask you to back from the gate, you better move your butt. If I ask you to back off your food, then you are just gonna have to wait to eat until *I* say you can.

Of course, at the track, Echo never had to learn this, so we're starting the Boss Mare education from scratch. We've had a few sessions in the stall during feeding time where he tried to mow me down, but we quickly came to an agreement where he waits politely until I put the dish down and say he can have it. But this habit of pinning his ears and moving his butt into me - I needed to do something about it, STAT.

Enter "natural horsemanship." Let me preface this by saying I'm not a fan of any system with gimmicks and videos and horsenalities. However, I do agree with the main message behind this school of thought - your horse must respect you. Several years ago I audited a Clinton Anderson clinic, and there were a bunch of things I took away that I'd never seen before. The concept of ground work - having the horse yield his haunches, shoulder, be able to soften, back, walk politely next to you - was new. The horses I'd worked with up to that time had all been good equine citizens with nice ground manners, and while I was more than aware of the benefits of longeing, I'd really never used ground work to improve my horse's focus on me and respect for me. Shortly after the clinic, I worked with a Lipizzan mare with a biiig attitude, and boy did a few sessions work wonders. It's definitely not something I'd use with every horse (Cash, for example, would lose his poor little brain if I tried it with him, he's just too sensitive), but like every training method, there can be a time and a place for it.

Echo's time and place was this week. I've been using a rope halter on and off with him since he arrived - this instead of putting a chain over his nose. So I got that out, and a short bat (to enforce my requests in case he ignored them) and off we went.

At first, he categorically refused to move away from pressure, so I asked more forcefully until he took a tiny step away from me. Not gonna lie, I had to smack him with the bat to get a response. The next time, I didn't have to ask as hard. And today, after a week of 5-minute-a-day sessions, I can now sort of poke my finger in the air near his hip, and he steps away from me. Hooray!

But the real breakthrough came one session where he decided he didn't want to follow me as I was leading him through a gate. He's done this a few times while being led - stopped dead and refused to move. I can usually unstick his feet and have him move forward, but this time I decided we'd do some backing. We backed a few steps, and then I asked him to move forward. He refused again. We backed some more, and he decided that he preferred to back instead of moving forward. Well OK then - so we backed until he didn't want to back any more, and then we backed some more - right through the gate he didn't want to go through. We stopped on the other side of the gate, and he got this really funny look on his face, like "Waaaaait a minute... how did this happen!??!" He stood there, puffing a little (he'd backed himself halfway around the pasture and back) and I let him rest. Then we went through the gate half a dozen times, with nary a foot out of place or thought of hesitation on his part. We then went for a bit of a walk, and he followed politely at my shoulder, stopping with me, turning with me, backing when I did, all with only the lightest touch from me. He was so attentive and focused on what I wanted, instead of being off with the butterflies in Baby Racehorse land. It was really wonderful!

So now, we have daily sessions where we go through all the steps. He still has a hard time moving his shoulders, but he's getting it. Sometimes he needs a reminder poke instead of just a gentle touch to move his butt. But he's ever so much more polite to be around, and it's reflected in our under-saddle work too. He's moving away from leg pressure quite readily now, and is much more responsive. Definitely a win-win!

Don't believe a thing she says. I'm really an angel!

In fact, lest this post leave you thinking that things aren't going well, let me give you a bit of a hint as to what we've been doing under saddle: leg yields at the trot. Shoulder-fore. Relaxing the poll and jaw. Real dressage horse stuff! In fact, we have a jumping lesson on Saturday and a dressage lesson on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to a fabulous weekend of riding!