Fear itself

"...the  only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  -FDR

I have a fear. A paralyzing fear. And I have a fear of that fear. I very rationally should either not be afraid, or I should not do the thing that scares me.  This is apparently not my way. I also know the fear is my biggest problem, I tend to throw up my hands (figuratively... most of the time) and kind of try flailingly to somehow make it through.

This is the cause of significant issue due to the fact jumping scares the bajeezes out of me. And right now I'm doing it maybe three times a week (sometimes less). Last week I was in a private lesson where the flat was perfect and literally all of my wheels fell off the second the standards and poles got lugged out. I understand a lot of things in principle.  I know you just keep your eyes up, heels down, toes forward, squeeze tight with your lower legs, keep your back straight, follow with your arms, trot in canter out, downward transitions by stopping in your body not with the reins, breathe, blink, etc, etc, etc.  I also know I can know these things all I want as I make a decent line at a good forward trot, and proceed to do few (or none) of the above on the actual jumping part. The jumps where I manage to do things kind of right are not based on any actual skill, or timing, or learning. More or less fluke outliers, not worth considering in the scheme of my riding ability.

I had a riding exam about a week and a half ago where I went over maybe six jumps of the smallest possible introductory size.  I proceeded to fall off on my first attempt and be jumped way, way out of the tack on every single other. On top of this, I was told what has come to be my all time least favourite (non-life threatening) type of news.  Have you guessed it? If you thought, "Your saddle doesn't fit", then DING DING DING, you win! I just got this new saddle. I don't think I've owned it a month. It seems to be twisting. The prospect of saddle shopping is kind of strange in a way, because if I were doing it voluntarily I think it would probably be super rad (I think it would be comparable in excitement to if I were able to buy suuuper nice tall boots). But though saddle shopping means new saddle, it also means trying saddles (literally worse than scrubbing really scummy water troughs). I'm going to talk to some people, see if there's something I can do, maybe get it reflocked or something. That on top of the disaster that was most of the rest of the test, made it not the best day.

Fortunately, I did manage to pass my riding test! (Which qualifies me for a rather exciting event in the fall that I'm hoping to blog about!!!) Each movement of the required elements is scored out of 10, with 10 being excellent, 0 being you literally didn't even try, and 6.5 being sufficient (with a 65% required in order to pass the riding element).  My jumping recieved a 5.5.  5 is insufficient, and 6 is almost sufficient, so my jumping overall is almost almost sufficient.  I had a good laugh over that.  A 3 is rated as bad, so I'd definitely hate to see what a jumping score of 3 is.

I also had another pony club lesson two days later.  The exercise set up was two jumps  perpendicular to the rail and set off the track at E and B respectively, with one fence set up in the center of the ring on the diagonal. There were three of us riding, and one part of our warmup was a spiral in at the trot until we all ended up in a small circle nose to tail. It was interesting the different challenge of doing the exercise with other people.  Then, one at a time we worked over the jumps, starting at E, then the diagonal, then around to B. We started at a trot, and the goal was to get a canter transition over the poles and canter out, transitioning back to the trot between fences.  The first couple attempts I only managed to get the canter about a stride after the fence.  Then the other girls in my lesson both took a turn and I tried again with more success.  I was worrying too much about the fence when all I really needed to do was worry about timing my transition.  Really it's no different than working on the flat, trying to get a transition in a particular place like in a dressage test.  Tell that to the fear.  I also ended up doing the exercise the same, except only trotting to the first fence and cantering the rest.  It was a hot mess the first time, but the second I pulled myself together we actually accomplished it quite capably.  To go and show what a well behaved, excellent horse I have, she even did a flying change when she picked up the wrong lead after the second pole. Fancy mare.

I also, fortunately, know how to laugh at myself.  I was at a charity casino for my local equestrian park recently, and one of the ladies there showed us a video of her daughter's stadium round at a recent event.  She's a really great rider, and it sounds like she did really well.  I, naturally, responded by pulling up the video of myself at the first jump and showing it around.

(Here, enjoy a terrible quality cell phone video and take a moment to remember it's okay to laugh at yourself... that, and my horse is basically a saint for not completely turfing me).

Here's What you Missed

Jazz got a new saddle! Her old one wasn't fitting right, so I finally found something that works! Unfortunately it's not exactly what I would have wanted, since it's a black synthetic, but the important thing is that it fits, so I can stand black tack for a while (can you say new bridle?).

I mean, more awkward pictures of horses probably exist.

Snapchats feat. one of the failed trial saddles.

I worked at an undisclosed location for a couple of weeks. It was a lot of long days, and a lot of missing my horse, but the paycheck  sure didn't hurt.

Mmm. Sideways spoilers.

I also celebrated my birthday the best way I could think of, by trying to give Jazz a beverage I am now able to legally consume (but wouldn't). I poured Jazz a Keystone light that was kicking around in the fridge, and she promptly swished it all over the place (and all over me) and then refused to go back near it (sadly,  no photographic evidence).

I also got bucked off a couple weeks back in a Pony Club lesson. The worst part was no one got video.

Plus another event that I think warrants its own post. Stay tuned!

Doubling up

After six weeks off, I had not one but two lessons last week, and two more this week! (and then I left this post behind in the drafts and so this was written some weeks ago in Mid-June. I decided to post it and then work on a more concise wrap up of my last couple months during my blogging hiatus.)

My usual trainer was riding Jazz for me while I was busy in May, working on w/t/c, a bit of contact and leg yielding to build up the muscles in her back.  She said it was probably good for her to have ridden Jazz herself, because she got a lot better sense of how Jazz feels and reacts to things.  We spent the entire lesson at the walk, working mostly on contact and some leg yields.  It's been really interesting seeing how Jazz is just starting to get the idea of contact.  She's taking baby steps with little tiny neck curls.  It's super weird to think this is the same horse who would lose her entire mind if there was even a teeny tiny little pull on the opposite rein when I tried to turn back when I was very first riding her.  Now she's doing cute little tiny neck curls.  It was a tough lesson for me, using a lot of riding muscles that were not impressed with me on their sudden work request.  I had a very looong hot bath with epsom salts (10/10 would recommend, epsom salts help draw lactic acid from your muscles).

Then, I drug my still sore self to my first Pony Club lesson on Jazz.  I've taken other Pony Club lessons, but back before I rode Jazz English, on another horse.  Now that we have our trailer, I finally got to go.  We also hauled for another girl from my barn who I hadn't met yet, and both her and her horse are really nice.   The instructor we have is a local eventing coach who has a great reputation.  It was really interesting to work with her, especially learning some more dressage-y approaches to doing things.  I personally blame Jen at Wyvern Oaks, and Karen at Bakersfield Dressage for my obsession with the idea of dressage.  I learned a lot, and we worked on a bit of w/t/c, and turns on the forehand.  I ended up getting a really nice couple of turns on the forehand once the new trainer explained how I needed to adjust to be clearer.  Jazz tends to throw her shoulders around a lot, so once she tried moving her shoulder, and then backing up, and then a perfect step.  The trainer also had a lot of nice things to say about my horse, such as "nice little mare", and "pretty", and "well balanced", and "she really thinks about things".  I always like to hear compliments about my horse.  Unfortunately, she also told me my saddle doesn't seem to fit correctly.  Sigh.  It's been lots of trips to the local consignment shop since then.

The following week I had another lesson with my usual trainer at home, where the main order of the day was spiraling in and out of circles, doing lots of the same work on contact and strengthening her back.

Pony club alternates lesson weeks between flatwork and jumping, so my second Pony Club lesson was jumping week.  After a good warmup and some refreshers on my position, we started with work on a trot fence. Jazz has a really short stride, so we did a lot of work on getting her to really engage and get moving forward.  Her canter runs at about 8 feet on average, so we also worked on extending her canter to something closer to the 12 feet I will be dealing with at shows someday. Then it got raised to a little baby cross rail, and we went over it a few times, before working our way up to a small grid.  It involved trotting over a ground pole, then trotting in and cantering out to a small cross rail, and finally cantering a third fence.  I had never actually cantered a fence before, so it was really awesome to get to try it! Jazz was awesome, but my two point is just slightly shy of abysmal, so the instructor gave me some exercises to work on at home to strengthen my muscles and develop more correct muscle memory.  The big one was rising canter, working on staying up for multiple strides, and then standing and sitting alternate strides.  It's also good for developing better rhythm. I felt much more in control working from a rising canter, and as a nice side note, Jazz picked up the correct lead after the fence every single time, and in all the rides I've had since.  What a smart mare!

Adventures in London- Part 4- Wednesday

Precursor:  An unbelievably busy few weeks in my non-horsey life has seriously eaten away my barn time, leaving me with no posts or pictures of interest to share.  In addition to that, I spent the first half of this week on a trip to New York City with a very full schedule.  I very nearly wrote a post about what I saw at the Met, but decided to instead resurrect another nearly-finished-but-never-published museum post from my drafts.  Enjoy! 

I really need to write these London posts already before I lose what little momentum I have left on them, so be prepared for less detail than my previous posts.  Also, almost all of these pictures were taken at the British museum, where I was apparently not very good at taking pictures of descriptions of artifacts, so excuse the occasionally vague descriptions.

First up is a group of some sort of stone slabs depicting horses.  I thought these were the plaster castings of carvings from the parthenon, but I'm almost positive the parthenon ones are below.  Your guess is as good as mine.  I'm about 90% sure these are Greek.  

Apparently they didn't teach convoys of horses to leave a horse-length between their horse and the carriage in front of them in ancient Greece.

There were also many beautiful examples of Greek pottery. This type of pottery was known as red figure pottery, because the figures were the reddish-brown color of the clay.  The pots were painted everywhere except where they wanted the people (and horses) to go.  This was a newer style that became popular after the black figure style, which was just the opposite.  The figures were painted in black paint, leaving details such as the eyes in the natural color, as well as the rest of the pot.

Okay THESE are the plaster castings of carvings from the Parthenon.

The concept of naked riding just seems wrong somehow.  This carving depicts the lesser known Lord Godiva.

As much as any horse is cute, this horse is not cute. 

Whenever my horse stops to scratch like this while I'm riding, my trainer calls it an emergency itch.

Maybe your horse wouldn't be acting up so much if you had your heels down.

This next one was from some other temple that escapes me.

This was one of the top ten pieces the map recommends you see.  It's map approved.

If I remember correctly, it's the head of a chariot horse from the moon goddess' chariot (I think)

Scary parrot mouth

Technically these next statues aren't horses, but my blog has a place for the awesome and hooved.  The section on Assyria had lots of great horses in some of the better preserved stone in the museum.

"Khorsabad The Palace of Sargon

This area Mainly contains sculptures from the city and palace of Khorsabad, built for the Assyrian King Sargon II (721-705 BC). The pair of human-headed winged bulls stood originally at one of the gates of the citadel, as magic guardians against misfortune."

"Attack on an enemy town

Assyrian, about 865-860 BC

A high official, wearing an ankle-length coat of scale armour, shoots towards an enemy town.  A chariot waits behind, while a vulture plucks at the body of a dead enemy."

"Crossing a river

Assyrian, about 865-860 BC

Ashurnasirpal's boat is rowed across the river and hauled ashore.  The royal chariot is beside him and his horses swim behind. An attendant draws the king's attention to the captured town that appears on the next panel to the right."

There were also many panels depicting the lion hunt, which I apparently did not document the descriptions of.  

The african art also featured horse-shaped objects.

As did the Asian art

See the horses?

This next piece is technically not horse related, but it's incredibly beautiful and so delicate it shook whenever someone walked nearby.  

"Gilt silver openwork and filigree crown inlaid with kingfisher feathers and hardstones (some missing)

Late Ming-early Qing dynasty, 17th century AD

The decoration of this ornate crown of 'cage' construction includes flower heads, flaming pearls, dragons and phoenixes.  It would have been worn by a lady of high birth.  

Not all the horses I saw were exactly what one might call conventional...

exhibit A

Exhibit B

I also spied this bit in the exhibit on ancient Syria.

"Horse Riding

This horse bit has large bar cheek-pieces for attaching the bridle and holes for the straps.  The knobbed snaffle must have been uncomfortable for the horse but enabled the rider to control it with the slightest movement of the reins. There are considerable signs of wear at the junction of the two rings in the centre, indigating that this object had been extensively used before it was buried."

I was not good at documenting signs to remind myself of which exhibit was what on the latter half of my museum trip.  So I'm fairly sure all these photos came from the area devoted to the areas around ancient Syria and Iran. 

"Stone relief showing horses

This fragment was originally part of a larger Assyrian relief showing a team of horses drawing a chariot. The Assyrians campaigned regularly in western Iran during the 9th and 8th centuries BC, and horses were among the items of booty that they particularly valued for their chariots and cavalry."

"The Cordoba treasure

Important hoards of silver artefacts were deposited in the Iron Age, and hte example displayed here was found by chance in 1915 at the Molino de Marrubial, on the outskirts of Cordoba.  The objects had been buried in a pit, the coins and two lumps of silver were in the bowl with the rest of the hoard outside.  The treasure includes a torc, eight armlets,the head of a brooch (in the form of a pair of horse's heads), rough lumps of silver and other fragments. The coins, 82 native and 222 Roman, show that the hoard was buried about 100 BC. Some of the objects are damaged and distorted, and the hoard might well have been the stock of a silversmith."


Last but not least of the artifacts was the Lewis Chessman, another of the museum's top ten.

"The Lewis Chessmen

In 1831 a remarkable hoard of carved walrus ivory was discovered on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, Scotland.  It consisted of 93 pieces and included 78 chessmen, 14 large gaming counters and an elaborately carved belt buckle.  Eleven of the chessmen are at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh and the rest of the hoard is at the British Museum.  When found, some of the chessmen were stained red. The earliest medieval chess sets appear to have combined red with plain ivory rather than black and white pieces familiar to the game today."

The day ended off really rather well with a tour of Buckingham palace! No pictures were allowed inside, but suffice it to say it was amazing.  We were allowed to snap a few pictures in the garden out back.

TOABH: Sugar Momma

Ancient blogger proverb: "That content which is lost during a week of uninteresting rides is made up for easily with blog hops."

So during a particularly dull week (walk rides woo! showing someone groundwork with Jazz for five minutes woo!), I am happy to participate in the latest installment of The Owls Approve's latest blog hop.

Sugar Momma.

Let's continue pretending that horse poop magically transforms into money instead of the other way.  So money doesn't matter.  If you could buy anything for your horse, what would you buy? 

I started seeing this hop popping up and started thinking about what I would buy for my horse.  I know exactly what I would buy for me (coughtallbootscough), and there's lots of pretty luxury tack items floating around the blogosphere that I wouldn't mind owning (fancy expensive helmets, ovlivy pats, etc.), but I was stumped by this question at first.  Most of the posts I've read listed comfier or fancier saddles/bridles/bits and treats.  Not that I have anything against any of those, but none of those answers excited me.  

And then I got to thinking about what really makes Jazz happy, and I had a eureka moment when I glanced about 45 degrees to my left to see the snow outside the window.  Jazz HATES winter.  Not even just winter, bad weather in general really.  Summer Jazz is a horse that I ride a lot, try new things with, and have a lot of fun with.  Winter Jazz is still the ponykins I know and love, but she does not like to approach the same tasks.  The past two winters I haven't even been able to ride for extended periods of time based largely on attitude.  So, with unlimited money the answer is simple: No more winter for Jazz.

Now, this is not as simple of an undertaking as moving somewhere warm.  Jazz and I have a large support system of family and friends that I consider necessary to my horse life, so what really makes the most sense is buying a huge private island with trails, state of the art facilities, vets, etc. where I can take Jazz and all her best horse buddies and their people.  No more winter Jazz, nothing but sunny skies and galloping on the beach.  There has to be amazing facilities so I can watch high level jumping, hunters, vaulting, cutting, etc. at a convenient location, and lots of other horses for me to ride from time to time.  Cows, of course, to learn to herd, trainers to teach us how to get better at everything, e3quine and human masseurs to keep the muscles from getting tight, magical arena dirt that is neither sticky nor dusty nor stinky, the list could go on forever.  Do horse jacuzzis exist? If so, there would definitely be a jacuzzi area.  

If I was being just a smidgen more realistic, I would say I wanted to build a boarding stable.  But not just any boarding stable, I would want one with an appropriately huge arena (our current arena is maybe 20 x 60 or so), and trails, and all my horsey friends, and no more than a ten minute drive.  Of course that would require moving to somewhere that this kind of drive/open space is possible.  

Maybe I should just buy her another halter...

Long Overdue

Okay, I admit it.  I've been holding out on you guys.

Majorly holding out.

For longer than was probably fair.  Dedicated readers (by which I mean me rereading and overanalyzing all my old posts) may have noted the updates on what I've been doing with Jazz getting vaguer and farther apart since July or so.  The main reason being my aversion to figuring out how to put videos on my blog.  My phone is very annoying to move photos and videos off of, and I wasn't sure I wanted a youtube channel (what seemed like the easiest way to get them onto my blog).  Needless to say, it has been a looong while since I've been wholly... comprehensive, shall we say.

Then I decided to write this post and set the record straight, and ran into yet more video troubles and shelved it again.  I could ramble on and on forever about my horse (as my non-horsey friends will testify), but the hardest part of blogging for me is just getting pictures and videos taken and onto my computer.

Either way, the torture is almost over.  Here's the first teaser of things to come.

That small, grainy cell phone video was the very first time jumping for both of us, and that video was taken August 6th.  So, I definitely have a lot of catching up to do still.

Adventures in London part 3- Tuesday

a.k.a. Wordful Wednesday

a.k.a. real horses finally! 

With my hotel situated about a five-minute walk from the HouseHold Cavalry, it was inevitable the family would have to wake up and watch the changing of the horse guards at some point.  Unfortunately, our morning got away from us over a leisurely breakfast, and we arrived barely before it started, meaning a large crowd had accumulated.  We did manage to find a decent spot to wait and watch.  

The first horses we spotted were police horses, reminding people to stand behind the marked lines because the horses would by no means stop or avoid their tourist toes.  

I took a few pictures of this big bay police horse.  What a cute face! 

Finally we heard several more hooves approaching, and the cavalry guards were visible at last!

Not that they were terribly visible over the tourists.  

Business in the front, business in the back.  These were very businesslike horses.  

"What are you looking at?"

 Then this guard came out mostly to move the guests out of the middle alley.  Check out those boots!

I bet you could impale yourself on the point of those boots.  

If not the boots, the sword would definitely be capable of impaling you.  

The guardhouses here are naturally much bigger than the famous Buckingham palace ones.  These ones need to fit a horse! 

Close up of this horse's cute face! I suspect my expression mirrored that of the small child in the stroller's. 

This horse was very fidgety with his bit and kept sticking his tongue out

"Psst, human! I think that kid in the stroller might be a security threat." 

Ever vigilant.  

Notice the VERY fluffy sheepskin saddle cover

 The newly arrived horses did some synchronized cavalry-esque stuff, none of which I could really see in all honesty. It was very crowded.   If you scroll back up you'll notice the incoming guards all had red coats with white sheepskin saddle covers(? I can't imagine what else you would call them), and those who left were already there with their woolly black saddle covers (and matching black coats).

Look how woolly

So.  Woolly. 

This might possibly be the most awkward picture I've ever taken of a horse.  It's got the mid-blink going on with the teeth sticking out.  Majestic creatures, horses.  

Those are some serious boots.  

Seriously serious boots.  

"Help there's tourists in my face"

 Then, the guards in the courtyard gracefully dismounted at the same time on a command.

A view of the saddle sans rider.  That's a serious pommel.  

That is one unimpressed looking tourist.  

 Of course, the main event was yet to come.  The household cavalry has a MUSEUM!

Dem boots.  

"Practise makes perfect

A trooper takes at least 10 hours to prepare for daily inspection.  Cuirasses (breastplates) and helmets are cleaned with Brasso and chalk brushes.  Leather straps fixing the sheepskin cover to the saddle are brushed with shoe whitener. Each buckle hole must be cleaned out with a nail. 

Breeches are 'whit-sapped' while worn; jackboots are soaked in beeswax before being smothered in layers of black polish.  Wire wool is used to rub out any imperfections on the leather surfaces.  

The horse's hooves are brushed with oil and their white legs chalked up.  Using a furnace, farriers make and fit shoes for each horse.  The whole kit including saddles, collar chains, sword slings, plumes and cuirasses must be fitted correctly.  If the helmet is too loose, it tips back.  Too tight, it causes an unbearable headache.  The inspection is taken by the Adjutant. The trooper graded best is awarded guard duty in the sentry boxes, with the worst carrying out guard duty dismounted."  

Apparently it's top honors to stand out front in the guard houses! I guess that dismounted guard from earlier had an unsatisfactory kit.  

"Shabraque (saddlecloth) with a black sheepskin cover, as worn on an officer's horse of The Blues and Royals.  These are only worn when the Sovereign or members of the Royal Family are present.  They are made from fine red cloth and cut to a regimental pattern with pointed ends (those of the Life Guards are rounded) with a gold lace border. The Monarch's Crown and Garter Star, with battle honours richly embroidered in scrolls appear on each corner." 

So wooly.  I really wanted to touch them and probably easily could have, but I've had too much 'don't touch anything in a museum' programmed into my brain.  

This was the best I could do picture-wise.  The saddle rack was significantly taller than I was.

"Officer's Pattern Saddle

This design was in use from 1918 until it was replaced in 2003.  It has extended fans at the rear and broad points at the front arch which help to distribute the weight of the rider and his kit evenly across the horse's back.  Saddle panels are stuffed with wool and made of leather which is stained brown on top but left unstained on the underside where contact is made with the horse.  The seat is made of hog skin and the skirts and saddle flaps are made from solid skirt hide with hog skin print."

This was the matching bridle.  It was essentially the same as the current one, but simpler.  Still had the fancy crownpiece and bit shanks.   

"Life Guard Officer's Saddle

Life Guard officers wear a bearskin over their saddle while Blues and Royals officers wear an astrakhan cover.  At the front of the saddle under the bearskin there are two rubber pistol pouches where the officer would have kept his pistols when mounted but pistols are no longer carried on parade today." 

Mmm that's good photography.  

"The Other Ranks Saddle

The saddle on display has been in service since the early 1900's.  It has a laminated beech wood tree with steel arches at the front and rear.  The saddle is webbed and has a blocked seat made from the same kind of tough leather that you would find on the soles of your shoes.  The girth attachments can offer slight adjustments to the unique curves of each horse.  The various brass fittings were used to attach swords and rifle buckets."

"Saddle used at the battle of Waterloo by an officer in the Blues.  Officers had to provide their own horses and saddlery for military duty."

I really don't want to re-write all three captions when this photo is clear enough to read anyway. 

"The Zetland Trophy, 1874

When Lord Zetland left The Blues in 1874, he failed to give the customary leaving present to the Officer's Mess.  When he was asked about this omission, the wealthy Zetland casually remarked, 'Oh, buy a piece of silver and put it on my bill'.  The officers took him at his word and duly commissioned this enormous table centerpiece. It took four men to lift it and cost them the then astronomical sum of £1000.  The central column depicts The Blues at the Battle of Waterloo, topped by a figure of Mars, the god of war."

This was definitely my favourite non-horse memorabilia in the museum.

"Officer's winter dress frock coat

Worn by Colonel Frederick Burnaby while serving with the Royal House Guards (the Blues), 1859-1885.  He was a giant of a man, 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing well over 20 stone. He was extraordinarily strong, and worked out regularly in a London gym lifting weights, something that his brother officers found rather odd."

I can't imagine wearing something so fancy to ride a horse, but then I'm not a 19th century cavalry officer.

"Universal Pattern Saddle

with sword and Lee Enfield rifle, 1902-1914.  This saddle was designed to spread the burden more evenly across the horse's back.  Each man carried the .303 Lee Enfield rifle in the rifle bucket on the off-side, with thirty rounds of ammunition in a bandolier over his right shoulder.  A further sixty rounds were carried around the horse's neck.  A highly effective new sword, introduced in 1908, designed for thrusting, was also carried on the saddle."

There was a display of little cavalry figurines in formation.

One in particular caugt my eye. 

That is a little tiny miniature Queen Elizabeth II

For those not fans of miniatures, there was a slightly larger scale figure for the measly sum of  four hundred and twenty pounds ($685)