Snowpocalypse 2021

As pretty much everyone in the world knows by now, last week's winter storm was rather rough on most of Texas.

I'm a rabid weather-watcher, so I knew 10 days out that we were going to be in for some very rough weather. I had hay and extra grain delivered, stocked up on pet food, and made sure our pantry and fridge was stocked (although since the start of the pandemic, I've never let anything get too low, so it wasn't a huge thing). 

The forecast as of Feb 12. It ended up being worse.

With the weather supposed to roll in the night of the 14th, we spent the 13th covering some of our young trees, refilling the water trough, and adding extra layers of wrapping to the pipes. We also harvested everything possible from the garden, and ended up digging up the citrus and olive trees we'd planted in the fall, since we were pretty sure they wouldn't survive the single-digit temps we were supposed to get. 

Plants relocated to the den

So much lettuce.

We spent a nice Valentine's day with some steaks and a bottle of wine, and went to bed feeling pretty prepared.

Everybody happy and blanketed.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Monday morning around 2am the power went out, and it stayed out until midnight Wednesday (almost 72 hours). We woke up to a house that was barely 40 degrees, along with frozen water pipes. There was nearly 6 inches of snow on the ground. 

We had actual snow drifts that were over a foot high.

I knew there was a reason I owned these really expensive Thinsulate Ariat winter boots. They saved my life.

This would have been way prettier if it hadn't been 10 degrees out.

The intersection near our house. Note that we have no snow plows, no way to salt or maintain the roads at all, so after this we just had a 2 inch sheet of ice for a few days. Folks with no water/electricity/heat had no way to go anywhere because it was too dangerous to travel.

Canada can keep their shit weather next time, K?

We were so, so lucky to have a gas stove and a wood-burning fireplace, plus almost a cord of wood stored. We were able to share the wood with two of our neighbors, and they shared water. It's really great to have neighbors looking out for each other.

Literally roasting our toes in the fireplace.

We moved our bed into the den, so we had one "warm room" in the house where we packed ourselves and all the animals. Sadly, our fireplace is not built for heat output, so it was only 48-50F a few feet from the fire. The rest of the house stayed barely above freezing, but our little cottage got below freezing and stayed there (spoiler alert: this did not work out well for the pipes).

Since our bed was on the floor, the "no dogs on the bed" rule was temporarily rescinded and a certain someone took full advantage.

We almost immediately switched to a "farmer's schedule," up and down with the sun. Turns out there's not a lot to do when there's not power, and staying up past dark meant burning candles or using valuable battery power. For much of the power outage, our phones weren't working because the towers were down. We could occasionally get texts in and out, but no data.

Funny story - at one point on Tuesday I tried to start the truck, since it has an onboard generator (and also heated seats). This is when we learned that nobody down here puts additives in the diesel in the winter, so the fuel had gelled. Internet Frondz (you know who you are) tried to help diagnose the problem, and one helpful suggestion was to light a fire under the truck. Pretty sure that voids the warranty though, so we didn't try it. It started up just fine Wednesday when it reached a balmy 31 degrees.

Like many others, we ended up scooping snow for the animals and collecting meltwater off the roof, because there was no other source of water. 

Yup.

As of today, much of Austin is still under a boil water notice, but luckily it has been lifted from our part of town.

I'm so thankful for this gas stove, since we were able to have hot food and share it with the neighbors.

Pro tip: If you're going to make hot toddies during a snowpocalypse, use the 32 oz Yeti mug. This advertisement brought to you by a USB rechargeable clip-on reading light, which was SUPER useful to have.

At least someone thought this was fun.

Would have liked to borrow his coat pls.

All in all, the horses did fine. They kept eating and drinking, despite the frigid water (we had a tank heater, but with no power it was useless). We put a jollyball in the tank to keep the top layer from freezing, and that actually worked pretty well. They got to be out for part of the storm and seemed just fine, although I did discover that my 10+ y.o. blankets that faithfully get washed and waterproofed every year are no longer actually waterproof. We had to play musical blankets a little but everyone stayed toasty. Wednesday we had a little melting and then everything turned into a skating ring, so they stayed in after that. So other than going stir crazy, they're OK.

We put blankets around the chicken coop to keep the wind out, and took boiling water out to heat up the chicken's water because the entire bucket would freeze solid in a matter of hours. They mostly stayed in their coop for the duration, but were also fine.

We also played a fun game of "fridge/freezer are too warm and our food will spoil so let's put everything outside but not for too long or else the stuff from the fridge will freeze." The ice cream stayed outside for the duration.

We finally got power back after almost 72 hours (I'm sure by now everyone has heard about all the fun with ERCOT and the $10,000 power bills, so I won't go into that). Unfortunately, much of Austin had major water line bursts, so we didn't get water back until Friday, and then we got to play a fun game of "what's broken where." Despite having turned off the water and draining the pipes, we ended up replacing the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower faucets in the cottage. We also replaced a cracked galvanized cold water line with PEX line, which was an extra adventure because there are no replacement parts to be had ANYWHERE. We're not great plumbers in the best of times, so jury-rigging replacement plumbing was even more fun. And no, we couldn't call a plumber because there were plenty of folks with problems WAY worse than us (burst lines in the attic) and the response time for plumbers was understandable weeks out. We also blew three spigots, since frost-free spigots are not a thing here. Luckily we were able to just cap those and will fix them later. The biggest loss was our tankless water heater, where the copper exchange cracked. We were EXTREMELY lucky to snag a replacement on Saturday - it'll hopefully arrive on Wednesday or Thursday and then we'll install it ourselves (see above lack of available plumbers). Until then, we're taking showers at my BFFs house.

Ripping off the back wall of the cottage to get at the broken line.

Today the snow has melted and all we have to show for last week's disaster is no hot water. And we are one of the lucky ones - we had some heat, we had a way to cook, we had food and water. Even so, it was exhausting and not an experience I hope to ever repeat. We are for sure going to make some changes around here to be more resilient, because the odds seem good that something like this will happen again.

For now, I'm just grateful that it's 80 degrees out and I'm not huddled literally in the fireplace to stay warm.

In summary, 0/10 do not recommend.

Haffie-pass!

He's less balanced to the left since he tends to fall on his left shoulder (and I need to use more left leg), but he's getting the idea.

Considering that a month ago he really didn't understand the mechanics of a half-pass, I'm really pleased with his progress. There's so much to work on, but the basics are there! 

Left leg vs right leg - picking apart the biomechanics

I know, I seem to be doing a bunch of biomechanics posts of late, but that's where my brain is at so that's where the blog is at.

Following up on my last post about keeping my legs close is understanding how my right and left leg are different, how that affects my riding, and what I need to do to make them more even. My left leg is the stronger leg, and tends to stay more under me and doesn't brace or swing.

Let's start with the obvious differences. In these pics, I'm not actively focused on doing anything different with my legs. Let's call this "normal": 

Perhaps the most obvious difference here is the angle behind my knee - the right leg is MUCH more open than the left. You can also see that my lower right leg has slipped forward and is bracing on the stirrup - especially obvious because the stirrup leather is pushed forward instead of being perpendicular to the ground. My left thigh is brushing against the block and is parallel to it, while my right thigh is nowhere near the block, and the angle of the front of my thigh and the block are quite different. We could also discuss my pelvis here, which definitely affects the leg, but let's just focus on the leg.

Next set: I'm actively focused on "keeping my legs close."

The angle behind my knee is more even between the right and left legs, but the right knee is still more open than the left and the lower leg is still a bit braced and forward., which you can also see in the stirrup leather still being a little in front of the vertical. There's still a big gap between the block and my thigh on the right leg, but there's no gap on my left thigh (I should note that I don't ride jammed against the block, it's more the feeling of the fabric of my breeches brushing the block). So, keeping my legs close has helped a bit, but my legs still aren't as even as they should be, and the bracing on the right leg is going to (and constantly does) cause problems.

Final set: I'm actively focused on pushing my right heel away from the horse, bending my right knee, and keeping contact between the fabric of my breeches and the thigh blocks:

The behind-the-knee angles are MUCH more even here, and the right stirrup is parallel to the ground. The right thigh isn't quite parallel to the block, but there is no longer a gap between my thigh and the block.

Buuuut, I'm struggling to keep that position. You can see that my right knee has dropped down and back as I'm using my lower right leg to keep his haunches in line for the left bend. Ah well, it's a work in progress!

The biggest difference I feel when my right knee has more bend in it is that I'm not as stiff in the hip, and no longer pushing my right seatbone out of the saddle. Keeping my right thigh on has the added benefit of making me more stable in the saddle, especially during transitions, which is when I like to brace the most.

Which of your legs is stronger? Do you notice an imbalance between your legs, and if so, in what ways, and how does it affect your riding?

Keep your legs close

I tend to ride with my leg off the horse. From the hip all the way down.

This isn't to say I don't USE my leg and seat - I do, but I really have to make a fairly big movement to connect to the horse, especially since I'm pretty tall and I ride smallish horses. My leg has a long way to go to be able to influence the horse.

Legs are in correct position for SI, but outside leg is nowhere near the horse. Inside leg is probably not being effective either given that we should be doing SI but we're definitely not.

When I rode with Mary Wanless, it was immediately obvious that my thigh was completely off the horse, as I didn't use it to post and instead posted off my stirrups. Using my thigh - but without pinching with my knee - was a revelation, but also a hard habit to get into. To this day, I struggle with keeping my thigh on (it's especially hard to keep thigh on but hip open in sitting trot!), but my lower leg is even worse.

Enter the idea of "keeping your legs close." I don't need to keep them ON, because that will just cause confusion. But I need them to be more supportive, like a very light hug, so that when I DO need to cue, I can do so immediately instead of having a time gap between when I start the cue and when it actually reaches the horse.

No hug, Leo was easily able to pull me forward.

Turns out, having my legs actively (if quietly) engaged is also really helpful in keeping my seat on the horse. In downward transitions especially, or when Leo gets a little quick, I tend to brace my leg forward. This not only takes my legs forward and away from his sides, but because I'm bracing against the stirrups and literally pushing myself out of the saddle, it pops my seatbones off. In that moment, I have no way to influence the horse, either from my leg or seat. It also leaves me in a precarious position, as I am liable to have put myself behind the horse's motion, usually quickly followed by collapsing forward as the momentum catches up with me (stupid physics).

Leo fell out of the canter because my leg was forward and I was behind the motion - you can see how hollow my lower back is (another longtime struggle) and how I'm braced against the stirrups, and he's braced against me.

So, my job for the next while is to actively "keep my legs close" AT ALL TIMES when riding. This helps my balance (and therefore Leo's), AND it means I can support him more quickly when he needs a bit of help. It also magically fixed his tendency to fall out on his left shoulder when tracking right (who knew a little outside thigh could keep your horse straight??), rescue his haunches when he wants to travel with a hind leg out, and it means I can be quicker when I ask for small changes of bend, a titch more impulsion... all those things you actually need your legs for. WHO KNEW?

Still a lot to work on, but he was super balanced and light in this moment, and so was I. I want more of this!!!

Also, today is the third anniversary of the time Taran and I went to USDF Nationals. It's still the highlight of my riding career, and I will never forget the little grey pony who took me so far. May he rest in peace.

Victory lap in the Alltech <3

How a piece of bailing twine made my horse uphill (really!)

As a short-backed, short-necked drafty breed, Leo isn't exactly the most uphill creature on the planet. While he's not built downhill, he's also not a naturally uphill kind of guy. Plus, we've been working on stretching down and out and relaxing his underneck muscle, which sets him on his forehand. I also have an unfortunate habit of riding him a little (ok sometimes a lot) over-tempo, which also dumps him on his forehand.

Definitely over-tempo and on his forehand here - the RH is about to leave the ground but the LF is still solidly weight-bearing. Oops.

So, how to get your horse off the forehand 101? For me that has always been lots of transitions, and usually it works well. But while the result is overall pleasant, it's not enough to make the 2nd level movements consistently easy or get his shoulders mobile enough for the fancy stuff at 3rd. Plus, it doesn't take much for me to get tense and pull a bit, and for him to dump down and not be able to recover without a major reset (think halt-reinback).

This is pleasant but it's kind of blah.

There are these nagging problems, like our change of direction in trot tends to be rushed for a few steps because we lose balance. Or the first full stride in the canter transition is huge because we've lost balance. Or I let him get behind my leg and he loses balance. Etc etc etc.

Enter the lowly piece of bailing twine:

You too can have one of these super fancy training gadgets!

I swear you guys, this thing is MAGIC. I held it between my middle and index fingers with minimal tension around his neck, and right away I could feel his chest push down and out. Obviously I could see it too, since his poll drops, and I could feel it in my seat as well, but the feeling of the chest going down and out was really something new. All I needed to do was raise my hands up (straight up, not back) an inch or so, and that reminded him to lift his chest back up. It also helped me sit a bit deeper in the saddle in that moment, essentially half-halting with my seat, further encouraging his chest up and his pelvis under. All that without touching his face!  

The first day of the clinic, I used it quite a lot. The second day, Leo came out MUCH lighter in the front with very little help from the twine. My job was to rebalance him every.single.time he got a bit heavy in front - no more "oops" and don't fix it moments. I got much better and faster at helping him, and relied on the twine less and less. By the third day, he was a bit tired but he felt SO much more balanced - more engaged behind and up in front. Moving his shoulders around felt effortless, and I finally got my legs situated so I could control his hind end better (that's for another post though). 

Here are videos of trot and canter each day, for comparison:

Trot progression

Canter progression

Hopefully you can see (and hear) when he gets down in front and when he feels more balanced. I think he was best on the second day, but there is a lot to like about the third day as well.

I plan to continue to ride with the twine to help with feel and balance, although I will likely just start our rides holding it and then let it lay on his neck. It has really been a great teaching tool, allowing me to feel the "chest down" sensation in a whole new way. I need to be 100% committed to NOT allowing him to get his shoulders down, EVER. That also means that *I* cannot get my shoulders forward or look down, because it affects his balance so much. But the feeling when he is truly balanced and uphill is just so incredible and easy, I can't wait until that is our new normal!

More of this please!

Another schooling show: It could have been worse

Our local GMO is continuing to hold safe, socially-distanced schooling shows, so Leo and I did another one last weekend and rode 2-1 twice. It was a new venue, and based on our lack of warmup at the last show, I planned to leave PLENTY of time for him to get comfortable.

I also needed time to do something with this mop.

And it's a good thing I did. He was totally chill for tacking and grooming at the trailer, and was good for our 10 minute walk in-hand to look at some things. The arena was pretty scary - mirrors at one end, big judge's booth at the other, pallets and hay bales stacked on the uphill side, and it was away from everyone else. He took exception to a giant smoker outside the arena but was otherwise reasonable. A little up, as one might expect of a young horse on a cool morning in a strange place, but nothing bad.

Can we talk about how scary this arena was for a moment?

I hopped on and started walking on the grass outside the teeny warmup space. I had planned to do a lot of walking on a long rein, then gradually pick him up, like we do at home. About two minutes in, he did this very odd squeal-and-strike move which he has never done before. I laughed it off and we kept walking, although my husband said, "Well that was weird" as we walked past him. Shortly after, Leo squealed, hopped and twisted, then kicked out. He has NEVER done anything like that in the two years I've had him, so I took the hint and (heart pounding) got off. 

At least our Pumpkin Spice Haffie outfit worked out!

Luckily there was a round pen on site, so we went over, I stripped off his bridle, then stepped back and told him to "go play." He took off bucking and squealing, which he continued to do both directions for about ten minutes. I haven't had to lunge this horse in probably 18 months, so this was completely out of character for him. In hindsight, I'm SO glad he was polite enough to let me know he needed some time to play instead of just dumping me (because he absolutely could have dumped me), and I'm glad I heeded his warning. Note to self: pack lunge equipment from now on, because he may need a little time on the line at shows.

By the time he was done playing, he was blowing and steaming, and we only had about ten minutes before our ride. I re-bridled him and hopped back on to a much more relaxed-feeling pony. It turned out the rider before us had scratched, so we did our warmup in the actual dressage arena. I crammed in as many transitions as I could, and getting him to focus on me. When the bell finally rang, I felt at least prepared if not completely ready.

Supposed to be shoulder in. Is definitely not shoulder in. Significant amounts of side-eye though.

Annnd we actually put in a focused, mostly mistake-free test? He was not at all collected - between running in the round pen and our lack of warmup, he just wasn't really on my seat the way he is at home, and was heavier in my hand than usual. But he did all the things where he was supposed to more or less how he was supposed to, and did not look at a single thing for the entire ride. Considering how we started the day, I will absolutely take it!

I kept trying to rebalance this medium trot but nope. You can see how much he's on the forehand given his RH is almost off the ground but his weight is still supported by his LF. 

There are so, so many things that need work, and I can't reproduce what we have at home off-site yet. We still don't have the warmup we need to produce quality work, and I have enough problems with my own balance and straightness that I can't help him enough when things go south.

Like this 10 m canter circle which is definitely larger than 10 m.

Probably because of how crooked I get at times. Lawdy.

Still, the test scored a 64.5%, which felt generous. We pulled some 7s for the canter work and walk work, but he just needs more collection and our mediums in all gaits need more ground cover. I feel like this is something that will get better as he gets stronger - I see glimpses of it at home, but sustained power and balance just don't exist yet. And it's not as if he's got ground-covering gaits to begin with!

We did the test a second time, but only had two rides between tests so I kept it to walk work and a few canter transitions.  Honestly, I should have just scratched the second one, as he too tired to put in a better effort. We made our way around, but blew all three canter departs (ugh, like the previous show) and he was even more strung out for this test. We finished with a 60.7%, but it felt like it should have been in the 58% range. Oh well, lesson learned, and that's really what these schooling shows are all about.

There aren't any more schooling shows this year, but there is a rated show at the same venue in early December with local judges. I'm tempted to go so Leo can experience an overnight show, but we'll see where we are in another few weeks. I'd actually need to like... find my show coat, which hasn't seen the light of day since November 2018, when Taran and I went third level for the first and only time. Sniff... fond memories. 

Video of the first test

 

 

A schooling show with Leo

While I know a lot of folks are frustrated at having to put their showing on hold for at least part of this year, I've actually enjoyed having no pressure to do anything other than have fun with ponies. This has made my riding kind of sporadic, but it's also given me the time to really pick apart things and slowly build up our skills. I've spent a lot of time working on my biomechanical issues - which, let's be real, those will be forever a work in progress. While I haven't been at all rushed, Leo's training has come along quickly, which I find kind of surprising given my lack of focus. 

Unfortunately, the lack of focus and show goals has left us with some odd holes in his training. He does a brilliant walk pirouette, but our trot leg yield is sketchy at best. His walk/canter is really coming along (I set him up correctly obvs) but the canter/walk is more like a sliding stop because we've never quite gotten over that "big whoa" that was installed during his first 60 days with a cowboy. 

Anywho, our local GMO has started holding schooling shows again, and I had a bit of an itch to do something, so I signed us up. Due to aforementioned training holes, the question was... which tests? 1-3 was doable (with questionable leg yields), but it has SO MUCH CANTERING in it. Leo isn't in the best of shape, plus he's a hairy yak and I knew it would be in the 90s during the show, so getting through 1-3 seemed like a big ask. We did a fairly respectable rendition of 2-1 the weekend before the show, and it's a much shorter test, so I opted to go with that.

The show was run well as usual (our GMO is AWESOME!), and people mostly followed the mask and distancing mandates. We kept our masks on and showed out of the trailer, so we had no contact with anyone other than waving to a few friends. I gotta say, it was so nice to see folks, even if from a distance. I'm a huge introvert by nature, but apparently after 6 months of mostly staying home, even I am desperate for humans!

Sadly, I didn't give us nearly enough time for warmup before our first ride. Leo's been such a solid guy at home, I keep forgetting he's 6 and doesn't have much travel experience, so the 20 minutes I'd allotted for warmup was just not enough. As a result, we went into the first test with him not at all over his back due to tension, so we really struggled. He tried so hard to do all the things, but just couldn't given his level of tension. I've never had a test with so many mistakes (cantered in the medium trot, bolted in the 10 m canter circle, missed 2/3 leads in the w/c departs), but we corrected each one and moved on. 

I have no idea what caused this bolt, but we got it back together within two strides and finished the 10 meter circle blob.

When your mum does a craptastic job of setting up for the canter depart and you somehow miraculously rearrange your legs to get the correct lead.

Our second medium trot was our best one yet! He needs to be more up in front, but he was really allowing his shoulder to come forward, and he stayed super balanced under me. 

Having got the first test out of the way, we had a few rides to reorganize. I worked on more relaxation and lateral work for uphill balance, then sharpened up our transitions a bit. Unfortunately it was quite warm so we were both running out of steam for the second ride, and it showed in the judge's consistent  comments of "needs better uphill balance".  We were both much more relaxed though, and the test was mistake-free. Of course we need better mediums all around, but he's a pro at coming back to collected canter, so that scored well. He also got an 8.0 on his free walk, which I will 100% take.

Reasonably balanced in the counter-canter. Photo used with purchase.

We were pretty tired by the time we got to the final medium trot (and you can see that my face matches my shirt lol), but we did it! Photo used with purchase.

The judge was extremely generous in our first test, in some cases giving us 5s where a 3 or even a 2 probably would have been more appropriate lol. I feel like it should have scored around 57-58%, but it scored a 62%. Our second test was much more consistent but not as uphill, and scored a 65%, which I still felt was quite high. Still, I will happily take those scores and work on areas where I know we can do better.

Overall, it was a really good learning experience for both of us, and a nice low-key way to get back into the show ring. There's another show in October at a different venue, so I hope to go to that as well to get Leo more experience, and to get myself back into the rhythm of competing.  He's a good kid, we just need miles!