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)

Real Post Procrastination

With a lack of recent photos and some truly disgusting weather outside, I don't have much in the way of recent events to report.  However, the great thing about the equestrian blogging community is that we seem to have somehow gotten license to steal other people's cool posts to fill in the gaps (just kidding... mostly).  I'm of course referring to blog hops!  And in an informal blog hop sort of way, both L.Williams at Viva Carlos and Checkmark115 at Chasing the Dream (a brand new blog to me, I followed the link from The $900 Facebook Pony), have posted 10 questions to answer.

L's questions:

1. Is your horse spooky or bombproof? I wouldn't really describe Jazz as either, but she's definitely closer to spooky.  Luckily, (*knock on wood*) Jazz  is a good spooker.  She jumped sideways in a lesson recently at something or other, and my trainer remarked that I was lucky she 'spooks good'.  It's not much of a buck or bolt (*knocking on wood intensifies*), though it has been before.  Generally she just jumps to the side or bulges away from whatever it is a little and then stops, looks back, goes 'oh, okay. I guess I'm not dead yet from that unexpected dead leaf.  Now what?'.  Plus a nice bonus is that it's taught me a better seat correcting for the occasional sudden detour.

2. Does your horse have a long or short stride?  Uhhh....... okay this is where I admit to how long I really haven't been riding (green and green, whatuppp), and say I honestly don't know.  I'd guess that it's short because Jazz is short and it doesn't seem particularly ground covering.  Of course Jazz just loves to race around at the canter, so it gets quick and big pretty fast.  Those who've been reading a while might remember Jazz just learned to do circles at the canter.  Not 10 meter circles, half of the arena circles.  Seriously I've had actual steering at the canter for a little over a month, so I can't brag about its qualities just yet.

3.  Describe your current barn in 3 words?  Convenient, Friendly, Well-suited (to us).

4. If you could switch barns, would you?  Yes and no.  The biggest drawback to my place is the mares' pasture is so muddy.  It's annoying and not great for her feet.  That said, it is, as far as I know, the only place I'm aware of with indoor facilities in my area, price range, and preferred atmosphere.  The people are great, and the training and other boarders are close enough to my ability that I don't feel inadequate or judged, while also not worrying about other people running me down on horses they don't know how to ride.  There's a couple other barns with indoor in my area, but they're all either wayyyy too expensive, or they're more of a competition barn where I'd feel awkward about my ability level.

5. Favourite brand of breeches? The only ones I've tried that weren't hand-me-downs, Kerrits.

6. How many blue ribbons do you have? (Red if you live in Canada or Britain).  0.  I have never been to a show that gave out ribbons.  I once won a hay net and a fly mask from my gymkhana club for coming in second in flag picking, third in stakes race (I think, it might have been poles... or maybe I was third in both poles and stakes...)

7. How many saddle pads do you own?  2 English square pads, my pretty purple Lettia coolmax pad (which I'm obsessed with. I want thirty), and my blue and greenish blue shedrow affectionately referred to as the Westjet pad.  I also own 2 Western pads because I send them out to be professionally cleaned (they don't fit in my washing machine), so I always have at least one.

Pretty purple Lettia

The Westjet pad. (both these photos are reposts, sorry no good photos of the western pads on hand)

8. Is your horse your phone background/lock screen?  Yes, and yes.  She's both my phone and ipod background, and my ipod lock screen.  Three of my favourite photos of her and I.

Ipod lock screen.  It's also hanging on my bedroom wall.  Also it was my facebook profile forever and ever.  Also probably my favourite photo of me of all time. 

Ipod background.  This was taken the first time I saw Jazz after I got her for Christmas (I was out of town for actual Christmas).  Also look at my cute baby woolly winter beast! 

Phone backgound and longtime facebook cover photo.

9. Do you go trail riding often? (weather permitting)  Not really, though I really want to more.  There's lots of great people at my barn who trail ride with their experienced horses who I could go with, but Jazz's feet just aren't good enough right now for a lot of the terrain they go over (namely rocky riverbanks), so I'm looking at hoof boots and working to get her feet better in hopes of more trails to come.

10. Favourite horsey movie?  Hidalgo, hands down.  It's like Indiana Jones with horses.

Checkmark155's questions:

1.  If your horse was a person, who would they be? (you can generalize personality if you can't think of someone).   I really can't think of anyone or anything specific.  I think she's a lot like me, which is why we work well, but she's also obviously not like me or we would drive each other bonkers.  I'm gonna go for the cheesy cop-out and say if Jazz were a person, she'd be my best friend.  

2. What is one (or two... or five) pieces of equipment you cannot live without? I don't know.  Obviously I love both my saddles, they fit me and Jazz like a dream and both came at an absolute steal ($300 for my Western saddle that was so new the leather still squeaked, and $100 for my English saddle I literally cannot believe I was able to afford it's so nice).  I also love, love, love my old black Ariat cowboy boots I've had for going on six years and they are some of the comfiest shoes I own.  I'm also incredibly partial to my hoof pick. Not that it's a particularly exciting hoof pick, but I'm very pick-y (I'm also hilarious).  

No.

Nope.

Get out.  (I SERIOUSLY hate these.  You can't get any leverage with that stupid brush in the way)

Aww yiss. 

3.  When did you start riding/what discipline?  Besides a few nose-to-tail guest ranch type trail rides and pony rides, I went to Western riding camp starting seven years ago.  I went for five years, and it closed two years ago.  It was also a nose-to-tail affair, but with steep hills, river crossing, bushwhacking, and speed!  It was a great way to learn a basic seat for all the gaits (especially the lope.  Oh my god I am so happy I learned a basic seat on a horse that basically steered itself and only moved in straight lines). I rode only Western until more recently.  I had not so much as sat in an English saddle until last summer.  

4. Do you have a barn dog? If so, what breed? Nope.  I'm a cat person.

5. Do you like doing stalls or nah? I'm trying to decide if I should be proud or sheepish I've never had to clean a stall.  Jazz is a pasture horse, and I haven't had to do any sweat equity... yet.

6. What treats does your horse go nuts over? Everything.  Seriously.  I have seen her refuse treats once ever, and that was a strong, hard peppermint.  She is the biggest cookie monster of all time.  I don't give her treats much anymore because a) she will look for treats in everyone's hands and pockets for literally weeks and b)her feet are junky as mentioned above largely because she got too much sugar (this year's grass was sugartastic).  That said, she will happily gobble anything you will give her.  One time she ate half of my nature valley honey and oats bar.

7. If you've switched disciplines, why? If not, also why? I switched to English for no reason I can put my finger on.  I just liked it, so I wanted to mess around with it.  I still plan to ride Western for Gymkhanas, trail rides, whenever someone less experienced will be riding, and whenever I feel like messing around with it, but I find I have better feel with less saddle, so I like precise work in my English tack.  

8. What is your least favourite discipline and why (yeah, I ain't afraid to be scandalous)?

I'm not a fan of Tenessee Walking horses and soring,  though I'm not trying to say that everyone in the sport does it.  I also have a hard time watching any discipline where I see a rider doing hard checks on the reins or otherwise having harsh hands.  

9. Who is currently your favourite rider?  I don't really follow equestrian sports closely honestly. I'm also not much for celebrity.  Johnathan Field, I guess (but he's a clinician I don't know if that counts).  

10. What is your BIGGEST pet peeve regarding horses?  For Jazz specifically, her gross strung out crazy trot.  She sometimes zooms into hyper trot when I ask for the canter and it's awful and feels so discombobulated and it makes me CRAZY.  For horses in general, pushiness/no manners.  I cannot deal with a horse with no manners, especially an older horse whose owner has just let them get away with everything for years.  I'm too spoiled with Jazz's manners to deal with pushiness.  

Quick Update

I know my posts have been a bit few and far between lately, but with school starting up again and many, many pictures from London left to share, I've found my motivation waning.  Jazz is doing awesome, and I've been having so much fun with her since I've been back, I don't think I've stopped even to take a single photo.  She lost a lot of condition on her ten-day vacation, and gained probably a hundred pounds, so it was a lot of quick walk-trot rides to get her stamina back up.  Now that she's finally fit enough for normal work, we've been doing more of the same working over poles to help me improve my position and balance.

Jazz also recently went on a short little trail ride! A friend of mine at the barn wanted to go around a small loop that goes around the back pastures at my barn, maybe a kilometre long, if that.  Both Jazz and my friend's horse are relatively green and not used to trails, so the pasture loop was a bit iffy.  I ended up just getting off and leading her, which was a big help, but the geldings in the assorted pastures we were going past were mucking about and trying to see what was going on, plus the other mare was in heat and not wanting to leave the geldings, so it wasn't quite the pleasant trail we'd envisioned.

There is a farmer's field across the road from us that we have permission to ride around the edges of all year round, and it's a short ride in a well-kept ditch with safe fencing and plenty of room to be away from the road, so we decided to try it.  It was beautiful, and much more enjoyable to be riding on nicely mowed grass next to fences that were neither barbed wire, nor electrified (the two boundaries for the pasture loop).  Jazz was doing very well (she had seen this trail once before, not so with the other one), and both horses were much calmer and moving much more willingly.  We got a few blocks down the road, and the distance between themselves and home was becoming quite apparent to both horses, so we decided to turn back and not push our luck.  About halfway back, Jazz started really acting up and being a jerk because we weren't heading home fast enough for her liking, so I hopped off and lead her the rest of the way home.  She was being kind of pushy, so there were lots and lots of halts to push her back out of my space, which of course meant that the other horse was too far for comfort and caused more silliness.  Of course the very second we stepped back on our driveway, my usual pony made a reappearance.  Funny how that works.  Either way, both horses did really well considering their level of trail experience (read: approximately one trail ride each), and were really just fussy because they knew they were homebound. Nothing that can't be fixed with a few more trails.  I think I'm going to need the contact information for a few more people at my barn, since there's lots of people who trail ride regularly where I board.

I also finally got around to putting my western saddle back on, and I'm pleased to report Jazz was her old western pony self.  I was worried after the last few rides in it that she was going to rebel against the western saddle now that she's decided she's an English pony, but she was excellent.  I even let a little girl I know at the barn ride her for a few minutes.

Lessons start up again this week too, so I hope to have some more interesting goals to work towards soon!