The Times, They Are A’Changing

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

It’s certainly not what I wanted, and was never part of my “Five-Year Plan.”  But I know it’s the right thing to do.  Barring a sudden miracle age-reversal process, it’s time for Mimi to retire from competition.

I had already made the decision to retire her from 50s earlier this year.  In a way, that was the toughest decision to make.  Giving up 50s meant giving up on even bigger dreams…Tevis, 1000 mile medallion, multi-day rides.

But for her sake, I think that retirement, even from 25s, is the right decision.  I’ve always said, albeit jokingly, that I have to be the sensible one of the two of us.  She will just goGoGO until she drops, and doesn’t quite have the good sense to know when she should slow down and take it easy.  So the voice of reason has to step in a say, “No, you’re done.”  That voice of reason would be me.

She is still a phenomenal trail horse and riding companion.  I’d like to keep her that way.  I know my rides are numbered…I’m getting down to the last stretch for school, and once that is over with and all my certifications are passed, Real Life is going to take over for quite a while as I start working, and hopefully relocate.  (105* at the end of September?  Relocation can’t come fast enough.)  I know there’s not going to be a lot of time to condition an endurance horse, let alone go to rides, while I’m doing all of that.

But I’ll need the escape therapy that riding provides.  Rule Number One for court reporters: Have an outlet.  We get to hear about the dregs of society, and it’ll turn a person bitter and cynical very fast, unless there is some kind of a mental release/escapism available.  For me, that’s riding.  Even if it means just jumping on the pony and riding out for a few miles.

And that’s what I want her to still be around for.  She’s a safe, trustworthy trail horse that can sit around for a few weeks (provided she gets turnout), and not do anything stupid when I climb on her back again.  Saving her now means I will hopefully have a lot more casual trail miles left in her for years to come.

Easing the sting of all this is my father’s very generous offer to start riding his horse Beamer with greater frequency, and taking him to rides.  It works well, really.  A lot of Dad’s time is being taken up with work, and Beamer has been sitting around, not getting used all that often.  He’s a working performance horse, and needs a job to do.  So he’s without a rider half the time, and I’m now without a competition horse.  Seems to be a good match…

So we’re going to start instituting a “horse-sharing” plan.  I’ll still ride Mimi, primarily, but on the days Dad isn’t available, I’ll take Beamer out.  And we’ll share Beamer for rides.  This works particularly well for multi-day 50s, when we can each ride him for at least one day.  One-day 50s…well, we might have to flip a coin.  ;)

Beamer and I are going to do our first ride together at the end of October, at the AHAA Halloween Ride at McDowell Mountain Park.  We’re going to do the 25, for several reasons: 1) Beamer has had most of the summer off.  Granted, he’s an Arab and keeps his conditioning, but there’s no sense in pushing it.  2) Need to make sure my saddle really does fit him for distance.  It appears to work, at least in the arena, as long as I have the proper saddle pad set-up.  But the distance is what will be really telling.  3) Need to make sure Beamer and I get along for at least 25 miles.

Despite the fact we’ve owned Beamer for almost six years now (!), I’ve spent very little time on his back.  I put about 60 days total on him when we first got him, then handed him off to Dad.  I’ve spent a lot of time working with him on the ground, and more recently, with his hoof care and tending his various injuries acquired over the summer.  But I haven’t ridden him all that much.

All I can say is, this should be Interesting.

I’ve got a lot of catch up on, blogging-wise.  Friend Kaity came out for a week, and we had a grand time visiting and riding.  A lot of pictures from our ride, including a day trip to Payson, and my first ride on Beamer on trail in about four years.  Look for those to go up, as well as grand tales for the telling.  (Blogging off my laptop at school at the moment, so don’t have access to all my pictures.)

Also to come is a new blog.  I can’t very well talk about Beamer antics on Mimi’s blog, so I will have a secondary blog that covers Beamer, and some more general aspects of my life.  I’ll still keep this one going for reporting Pony antics.  This, too, should prove Interesting, as we all know the trouble I sometimes have with just maintaining the one blog.

Once I have that up and going, I will post a link to it here.

My "Other" Life

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

It’s been clear to me during this past week that I’ve been on break from school that I’m one of those people that, when functioning at normal capacity, always has one thing too many to do.  Court reporting school and working part-time for my parents and horses and non-horsey interests and things that normal humans require to function, such as regular food and sleep. 

Right now, I’m going into week two of a three-week break.  Based on the fact I’ve not yet managed to register for fall classes, you can see how thrilled I am to be starting yet another semester.  I’m over this school thing already, and ready to be done and be a working court reporter.  And once I’m working, that will merge two activities — school and work — into one.  See, timesaver. 

(Of course, this is me naively ignoring all of the aspects of Real Life that will come with having a Proper Job and Entering the Real World.)

I’ve actually been able to ride Mimi more in this past week than I have since the summer began.  That in itself is a sad commentary on my state of riding affairs of late.

That said, I’m going out riding tomorrow with a couple friends.  Yes, back on trail again!  Naturally, it would be at this time that she chooses to rub the outside of her tail, right where the crupper sits.  Tail was perfect all summer…and the week I need to start using the crupper again, she opportunistically rubs.  Ponies.

Off to hunt down all the extra fleecy, fluffy covers that might work on the crupper and give further protection, in addition to the layers of desitin liberally gobbed on the area.

Centered Riding

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

I’ve spent a quiet afternoon browsing through Sally Swift’s Centered Riding.  I would love to be able to take CR lessons.  I had the opportunity four years ago to semi-audit and sit in on one of Becky Hart’s clinics, and some of the things I picked up from that experience are still with me today.  She’s a CR-certified instructor and uses those principles to apply specifically to endurance riders.

I’d love to further expand on the few bits I gleaned from that clinic.

Unfortunately, the nearest CR instructor in AZ is in Cave Creek.  That’s an hour and a half from the barn, minimum.  Not. Going. To. Happen.  Not even once a month, for as much good as a once a month lesson would do.

The only way this could possibly happen is if I find a place to keep the horses that’s close to home.  Because then, the drive would more likely be 40-45 minutes.  My ideal would probably be a lesson every two weeks.

But for now, best I can do is read the CR book, absorb what I can, and work through the principles on my own.  Maybe I can get my father to pitch in with some photography and videoing so that I can then go back and review.  it’s not an ideal world, but I will do my best to work with what I’ve got.

More Arena Schooling

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

Today, we took a step back and worked on slow, quiet arena work.  With a bit.  “Horrors!” says Mimi.  I found one of my Myler bits that does fit her properly — a Western Dee Ring snaffle with Triple Mullen Barrel mouthpiece.  Of all the bits I own, she’s the least fussy in this one, so that’s what we’ll use.

Today, I spent the entire session with her at a walk and slow trot, and we put the emphasis on her carrying herself naturally collected and not leaning on the bit.  Today went much better than Friday.  I do know what I’m doing, at least to some degree.  All of the books and magazine articles have sunk it somewhat.  And it’s amazing what happens when you slow down and just work through one thing at a time.

Well, mostly one thing.  I’m a firm believer in the principle of “what the rider is doing has a direct correlation on what the horse does.”  So you can work all you want on one particular aspect of the horse, but if what they’re doing is as a result of something you’re doing, you might not get very far.

For example: Like I mentioned, today’s task was to get Mimi to stop leaning on the bit and work on her self-carriage.  That’s going going to happen unless I make sure that my hands are light, and I’m not leaning forward and clamping down on her.  I tend to be a very forward rider, so I consciously focused on using my core, keeping my shoulder back, and not clamping with my legs or grabbing at the reins, especialyl when she tried to speed up.

Equus had a great article this month on the use of snaffle bits, and it reiterated a few things I always manage to forget.  Use gentle pressure to hold the reins until the horse gives.  You’re not going to get a horse that’s soft in the face by pulling them into position — which was how I was always taught to “collect” a horse.  So now, I’m going back and attempting to re-teach Mimi the principle that it’s up to her to hold the bit and carry it, or she’s going to be less comfortable.

She is getting it.  Baby steps, but she’s getting there.  Today, there were times were I got half a loop around the arena where she was carrying herself well, wasn’t leaning on the bit, and had some semblance of self-collection going.  We’ll take it.  :)

I’m still going to stick with bit in the arena/s-hack on trail.  In the arena, she can soften and be light in the face because she’s focused on me and what needs doing.  Out on trail, she just wants to “get on with it” so much that she tunes out the light bit cues, and I have to get much stronger with it than I prefer.  Much more responsive to a hackamore out on trail.  My hope is I can get her in the habit of going along in a more self-collected manner in arena work, and once she figures out how much easier that is, it’ll be easier to get that from her consistently out on trail.

What I do like about arena schooling in the bit is that she is very light, and it forces me to concentrate of keeping soft hands and not pulling her around.  Soft, steady hands…tighten from the fingers to pick up the slack, then loosen when she relaxes.  Big change from “take up on the reins and hold her head in place…wrestle her nose to her chest if you have to.”

But…it was all I knew at the time. 

I’m just thankful that horses are creatures of immense forgiveness, and that I have a chance to do it right this time.  Horses are the truest example of second chances, and it not being too late to try to make something right. 

A few other random notes from the weekend:

– Lining the Grffin’s short boots with moleskin on the seam area made a huge difference — no rubbing or ruffled hairs at all.  Easy fix, and moleskin tends to stay on for a few weeks at a time.

– Knee socks or half chaps.  Don’t do both.  I figured this one out last fall after Man Against Horse…too many layers of fabric and too-short of stirrups caused a major pressure point on my shin.  Dropping the stirrups helped.  So did switching to ankle-high socks under half chaps.  But for this time of year, and for arena schooling, tall knee socks work very well in lieu of half chaps.  Cotton breathes.  Suede doesn’t.

– A cheap fix to inject new life into a pair of six- or seven-year-old Terrains: Insoles!  My beloved Terrains were making a slow migration to the trash can, but I wasn’t quite ready to resign myself to throwing away one of my favorite pairs of shoes.  A trip to Walgreens, and $9 later, I have my shoes back again.  :)  Tried them while riding this morning, and they felt great!  They’re still the most comfortable shoes I own for riding, even if they’re not the absolute best for hiking.  Tread’s a little worn. 

– Still fiddling with my saddle bag setup and finding the balance between “carrying everything I need” and the “streamlined, not-a-pack-pony” look.  At the moment, I’m favoring using the Snugpax cantle bag all the time.  Of the two rear bags, it bounces the least.  I love the clean lines of not having anything up front, especially for arena schooling, but I know from past experience that never works come ride-time.  If I have to reach around to the cantle bag for anything — water, snacks, electrolytes, chapstick — it won’t happen.  But the pommel pack is also very easy to take off/put back on, so I suspect that’s what I’ll end up doing for longer training rides/competitions.  (Plus side, using both packs meants I don’t have to carry my Camelbak.)