Horses & Other Interests
The sport changes, the advice doesn’t. In crew, rowers are told not to look at their blades. Your fingers should tell you what your oars are doing. Similarly, don’t look at the boat. It’s right there under your ass. No reason to check for it.
Look straight ahead. Hands instead of eyes. Don’t look down. Sounds like every riding lesson I’ve ever had.
(*For those of you who are neither rowers nor rowing groupies, these are Dreissigacker racing oars from Concept2. Funny-looking but fast.)
[No end-of-month commentary. I’ve done enough authorial navel-gazing this month. [I’m Baack]
Spent the weekend streaming the 36th Annual Saint Louis National Charity Horse Show, courtesy of Seehorse Video, and ignoring the multitudinous posts about the American Eventing Championships.
The big show for saddlebreds is in Louisville. However, that show does not have ASB Hunt Seat Pleasure. Therefore, the big show for these folks is in St. Louis. I watched the entire championship class, S&B ASB Hunter Classic 2013 National Championship, sponsored by Saddle & Bridle magazine. It is very winnable. Some horses had nice trots. Others had good canters. A few had cute jumps. No horse had the whole package. OTOH, the division is young. I predict massive upgrades over the 10 or so years.
None of the jumping rocked my world. The work-off was one fence on the long side. The relaxed horses were too slow. The forward horses lacked smoothness. None of the entrants had the rhythmic impulsion that made Rox Dene such a joy to watch. [Do a Google image search. You will thank me.] Part of the problem was the size of the jump. I couldn’t see the fence directly but from the effort made by the horses, it was fairly low. It’s hard to look flash over a jump that is essentially a big canter stride. It’s easier to show off a gorgeous bascule when the horse has some hang-time.
If we can find a Saddlebred who can do this as a secondary career, I am so there! There are people with horses who specialize in this class. More power to them. My attention span is too short. If I had a Saddlebred, I would want to event and do ASB hunter and get scores in USDF All-Breeds dressage and …
I’d be the same with a Thoroughbred – not that I have any particular Thoroughbred in mind when I say this. The idea is not impossible in theory. Any horse who is competitive at Preliminary should be able to hop around 3’6″ Working Hunter at local shows, swim through lower-level dressage, and go clean at 1.05m or even 1.15m, sufficient for Low/High Adult Amateur Jumper. This lovely beast might lack the movement or speed to be Regional Champion in these ancillary disciplines, but one would not be laughed out of the ring for trying.
I’m not totally about competing. I want to go on trail rides and get back into sidesaddle and try riding bridleless …
Are your dreams focused or do you multi-task?
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Update: Another post on the class, this one from 2011. Fallible memory says that everyone jumped this year, so the standard does seem to be evolving quickly. My Life as a Rider: Saddlebred Hunter Classic Championship
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Gratuitous Cat Picture, with Special Guest Star
You think I wish to be horseless*? It’s not my fault. The universe is out to get me. (*In contrast to lawn ornaments, of which we have a gracious plenty.)
Fairy Godmother had found two barns near last weekend’s show. One looked promising. Genius plan, we will combine efforts. Instructor was already horse shopping for another client, so I asked if she would play hunter/jumper trainer for a few hours. Not her discipline but she knows horses, she knows me, and her main job would be holding my paw.
Plans changed. She would be heading directly home with the horses after the show. Okay, I would get a ride in the morning with her. Husband would come over later, scoop me up, we would shop, and return home. Barn contacted. Plans finalized. Feeder of Equine Lunches lined up. Then, rain forecast for the weekend.
Hem and haw.
Our barn does not do well in rain. It can flood, particularly in the predicted gullywasher, leaving our geriatric mare splashing about. Mind you, our last round of earthworks means that three-quarters of the pen is dry even in the heaviest rains. She just choses not to stand there. She will stand here, thank you very much. If we wish to keep her feet above the waterline, we should arrange for here to be dry. This involves minor trenching, a few sandbags, putting Rodney up, and checking on the condition of the previous as the day goes along. The issue is the doorway. Any barrier to rain run-off is also a barrier to Mathilda going in and out. This is manageable, as I am usually home.
Haw and hem.
If we made a separate trip, we would have better weather and time to visit both barns. Since we were planning to drive anyway, no extra car miles would be required. Plus, having a post-horse show rider might make for sub-optimal shopping experience. Barn contacted. They agreed the weather looked questionable. Next weekend (today) it is. Feeder of Lunches put on stand-by.
When the week began, we attempted to execute the new plan. The less interesting barn was responsive but had nothing for sale at the moment. We emailed the more interesting barn. Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Radio silence. Their web site disappeared, taking their phone number with it. We canceled Feeder of Lunches, again.
As it turns out, we got much less rain than anticipated. We could have gone with the original plan.
We are cursed, I tell you. Cursed!
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Gratuitous Cat Picture
After the rain, I had to swap out Pudge’s al fresco sleeping mat.
Photos by Ame Kehoe.
My blacksmith calls these ridges fever rings. Rodney has them on his hind hooves. Mathilda has them on her fronts. He estimates they represent 4-5 months growth, closer to 4. He doesn’t know why one horse has them on the front and the other has them on the hind, unless Rodney’s front rings have been filed off during shoeing.
Causes could be fever, i.e. inflammation (hence the name), moving to a new barn, colic, diet changes, or whatever. Something happened within the horse’s physiology to cause swelling in the coronet band which translated in the pronounced bump as it grew out. Four months would represent spring grass. However, Mathilda has been on the same grass for 18 previous Springs (really?!) to no effect. Rodney has seen the grass twice before. Five or so months would be when we added yeast to their diets.
Everything I have Googled indicates that such rings are formed due to stressors. I disagree. All the adaptions to the yeast have been positive. Rodney is fat and appears not to be suffering from digestive ailments. Mathilda cleans up her breakfast instead of saving a portion for elevenses. She’s still at it even after we switched half her ration to a less palatable but more nutritious senior feed. Rodney is so slick he feels as if he has been sprayed with Showsheen. It’s not from excessive application of elbow grease, I can promise you.
Plus, I think they are growing better quality hoof, best seen on the black hoof above. Blacksmith says it looks better because it’s new. OTOH, I’ve never met a blacksmith who was a dewy-eyed optimist. I’m sticking with my unfounded, positive interpretation. We’ll see what manner of hoof they have in a year.
Thanks again to Karen Briggs of Writing from the Right Side of the Stall for recommending the yeast supplement [Tiger Whistle].
Willie and I took first & second in the two Adult Walk/Trot classes and fourth in the open-to-all-comers Championship class. The winner was an 8-year-old who Instructor said I probably could not have beaten anyway. On this particular day, I wiggled. I thought I had moments throughout the day when horse and I were smokin’, but apparently at cost to my riding style. Ah well. Next show.
As we rode from warm-up, I felt the minute Willie saw the ring. ZING! ‘I’m going in the ring!’ I explained that the ring had been sectioned off with a staging area and that we weren’t actually starting the competition just yet. ‘Nope. I know this. I’m going in the ring!’ Saddlebreds are show-offs at heart.
During the victory pass for the first class, Willie cantered off. I couldn’t tell if he was revved up or spooking. Turns out it was the latter. During the second class, he spooked every time we went past that spot on the rail. It was a gentle hop or two but enough to ease me out of first place. Still, not my fault. When a horse is gonna take exception there’s nothing you can do, right? However, the owner rode in the next class and proceeded to trot and canter past the same spot without Willie turning a hair. Phooey.
Would you rather have a bad ride and win or have a good ride and not? I remember asking this to a hyper-competitive friend. She looked at me as if I was from Mars. Still, I’m undecided on the question. Of preference, both. And I can tell you that having neither sucks. Fourth out of ten is no shame if one rides well. Fourth out of ten and Instructor giving me the stink eye because I keep making the same mistake? That makes for a long ride home.
Few onsite, personal photographs due to little time and lots of rain. The barn drove over for the Academy classes. We rode. We turned around and came home. No spare time to photograph. Plus rain and therefore poor light for my autofocus p&s method of photography. We lucked out in that we got into the staging area in the ring before the rain started. However, a gloomy day and a wet scramble to get loaded for the trip back. Professional photos c/o Doug Shiflet >View Proofs button on header or Horse Show Proofs icon > 2013 Southeastern Charity > Saturday Afternoon > 095 – Aca Equitation WT Adult, 096 – Aca Showmanship WT Adult, 108 – Aca WT Championship > chestnut with big blaze, blue vest, helmet. Download rant, per usual [Photo Disclaimer Rant].
Thanks to Grace Kehoe and the Kehoe family for letting me ride Willie. He’s a sweetheart and a star.
Virtual Brush Box 