Constantly changing plans

I went out to the barn on Monday with the intention of doing a spa day for Otter and his tack, along with riding.  Spa day ended up getting scrapped because I just didn't feel like pulling out the clippers to clean him up, or felt like spending the whooping 5 minutes it takes to pull his mane.  So instead I just tacked up and went to the outdoor ring to work on our dressage skillz.

Warmed up like normal, and did some spiral circles at the trot.  Going to the left was good, right still needs work to be well balanced.  Moved into the canter and the right departures were horrible.  So started doing canter transitions, circle, canter leg yield to the rail, trot, trot leg yield to the rail, canter transition, rinse and repeat.  It seemed to help our balance and canter departures.  I was super pleased with how much he was using his hind end overall, especially in the trot.  Unfortunately, one of the side effects of him using his hind end more is a twisted shoe.

Please excuse the Thrushbuster stains.  His feet smelled a little funky when I cleaned them out

 Luckily, since our barn has so many horses, our farrier is always out at the barn on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I just added him to the list to do today.

Spent Tuesday morning finalizing some wedding stuff, then headed out to the barn.  Got there just in time to hold him for the farrier.  Otter has been pretty skittish for the farrier the past several times, because he believes the boogyman lives in the back aisle where the farrier works.  Having gotten used to him being the one the farrier could always depend on to behave, I am not okay with his new behavior and was glad to be able to be out there while the farrier was there.  I armed up with carrots, a chain over his nose, gloves and a dressage whip, and proved the point the honey catches more flies than vinegar.  Never once had to touch him because he was so into the smell of the carrots, he couldn't have cared less about his surroundings.  Yay for small wins!  Hopefully he's forgotten all about the bogeyman now, and will just be looking for carrots back there now.

Otter also had some hives on him when I went out there today.  Not sure if it's from all the fungal shampoo, or just the bugs and humidity ( I know they make me hivey and itchy).  I decided not to scrub him after today's ride, and we will see what happens tomorrow.  

Our ride today was good, but I kept it short because of the heat. I originally wanted to jump, but the footing outside just wasn't good enough.  So decided to do some more flat work, and  focus more on myself today, and in doing so, I got a lot of really good work out of Otter.  I need to really make sure that I use more of my legs and seat to balance and bend him than my legs. Tried a little bit of a sitting trot in the new saddle and was glad to find out I was able to balance a lot easier.

Hoping I'll be able to jump some in the morning before I have to head into work.

Oh the humidity!

One of the things that I definitely underestimated when I moved down here was the effect the humidity would have on everything.  I knew it would be bad, just not quite the extent of it, I guess.  This spring had been absolutely gorgeous until one day I woke up and it was a hot muggy mess.  I thought I would share some words of wisdom that I have learned the hard way down here.

1      1.  If you wait till you see signs of the funk (see example below - Although it is now gone, just need to wait for the hair to regrow) to start treating it, you have entered into a losing battle that will take you most of the next month and almost daily baths with treated shampoo to get rid of.  I have been told that it is normal for horses to get it this bad their first summer here, and next year won’t be as bad.  Thankfully it is almost completely gone now, and just need the hair to grow back.

2.       Tack must be cleaned after every ride – no exception.  If you even wait one day, it will start to get fuzzy.  Even if you clean it with certain products (I have always been a fan of Effol, but sadly it doesn’t perform under the conditions here), it’ll still start to get fuzzy.  It’s gross.  I started to use Higher Standards  leather cleaner and it has been amazing.  Cleaned my jump tack with it one day and a week later – still no fuzz.  My bridles are soft and supple.  It smells great.  Seriously can’t say enough good stuff about it.

This is what happens when tack is left alone down here.  Note - this has not been cleaned yet with Higher Standards soap.  I will do a before and after post  of it soon.

3.       Saddle pads.  Two ride maximum.  Most only get a single ride before they get washed.  They just don’t dry down here.  It’s gross and don’t even think about stopping somewhere on the ride home from the barn with one in your car.  Made that mistake once. 

 I’m sure that I will be adding to this list as it gets hotter and even more humid.   If any of my readers have any advice to help Otter and I through our first summer down in the bayou, we would really appreciate it!

Scheduling Conflicts

With the temperatures rising, I’m going to have to change my riding schedule around.  Right now, I will usually go out in the afternoon between when the training rides/AA’s have lessons in the AM and when all the kids start their lessons late PM.  I usually have an hour or two gap where the barn is fairly quiet.  I find when I go out at this time I get so much accomplished at home before I ride – the laundry get done, the cleaning gets done, etc.

 I really want to start riding first thing in the morning, when it is still relatively cool and before the barn gets busy.  Only two problems with this – the first is that I am so not a morning person, and I love to sleep in on my days off, and the second is that when I ride in the morning then come home, I feel like I never get the same amount accomplished that I do when I ride in the afternoon.

 Does anyone else have this issue?  How do you work around it?

I don't know how people ride down here all summer.

I went out to the barn after work on Wednesday (it's my short shift day at work) with the intention of going out to the jump ring.  However, when I got to the barn and checked the ring out, it was still too sloppy from the rain we've been getting and I was feeling slightly too lazy to set up jumps in the covered.

So I swapped my plans around and worked on some more dressage work yesterday.  Warmed up then started doing spirals in and out at the trot, then moved into them at the canter.  He did really well at the trot and it really helped him balance up.  The canter was a little bit iffy, but we will continue to work on them.  We took a bit of a walk break then moved on to some shoulder ins and leg yields at the walk and trot.  Called it a day after that - we were both drenched in sweat and it was hot.

Cooled Otter out, hosed him off and cleaned up my tack then headed home.

Thursday I went out to the barn first thing in hopes of beating the rain storms.  I check out the jump ring and it had dried out enough to ride in. He warmed up really well, and I started jumping the X at the trot and moved into the canter after a few times.  Everything was going well, until he got a little tired, and I think I did as well/lost my focus/stopped riding, and started screwing up my distances which gets him super pissed off.  So we got a few long spots that I wasn't prepared for, and then I chipped him in to a few deep spots, and then he gave me the big old finger.  So we went back to trotting the jumps till we were on the same page again, and then moved back on to cantering them which went well for a jump or two, then started falling apart again, so we went back to the trot and got a few nice relaxed jumps and called it a day.

Lesson learned - keep jump sessions even shorter than I have been because the humidity saps both of our focus.  

Got Otter all settled up after the ride, and brought home my brushes to give a good washing to clean them up from the winter grime/spring shedding season/skin funk.  This is my weekend to work(12 hour shifts on Fri, Sat, and Sun) so I won't be able to head back out to the barn again till Monday.

Quiet days at the barn

I went out to the barn on Sunday and enjoyed a nice quiet day out there.  Did some flat work and went over the trot poles that the other girl who was at the barn had set up.  Otter was really good and quiet.  After we worked for about 20 minutes and chatted for about 10, the other girl and I went on a short trail ride around the property to cool off the horses.  It was nice having the barn to ourselves because normally it is so busy, especially on the weekends. 

 After the ride, I scrubbed down Otter’s hindquarters with the medicated shampoo again to keep the funk at bay, cleaned my tack and headed home to celebrate Mother’s day with my future in-laws.

 Tuesday I was able to go out to the barn again.  It was so humid that it was hard to get motivation to ride, but I tacked up anyways.  Went for a short walk around the outdoor rings to loosen up, then headed back into the covered arena to get out of the sun.  Otter was a bit stiff on his left side, which is normal for him some days, so we worked on lots of big loopy figure 8’s and serpentines to get him bending through on both sides evenly. 

Did a few canter departures in each direction and was happy that we were able to get them promptly.  The new saddle is so much better for both of us, but it changed my position enough that we were struggling with them for a few rides. 

 I let Otter have a walk break then we worked on some trot lengthenings for a few passes across the arena, and then cooled him out because even though we only worked for about 20 minutes again, he was dripping in sweat (and so was I).  He hasn’t had problems with the heat yet, but I am really concerned about him adjusting to working in the high heat and humidity, so I don’t want to push him too much when the weather is like this.  Do ya’ll have any cut off points for when it’s too hot/humid?

 After our ride, I hosed him off, and set him up under the fan to cool off, then turned him out just in time for a big rainstorm to come through. 

 Today marks 30 days till the wedding!  Feels like I still have so much to do…

Change is good for the soul

Welcome to version 2.0 of this blog!  I decided to make a few changes to it because I just wasn't feeling the old name, but wanted to keep the posts I had already done.  So goodbye Broke(n) Eventer, and hello Southern Fried Eventer!  I want the blog to chronicle some of the challenges I have faced with moving down here (90% humidity and all the joys that come with that).  As I stated in my last post, I am really going to try to post more regularly. 

So welcome and enjoy!

Keeping things short and sweet

I know I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon the past few months, but life has been pretty crazy recent with the move, new job, building a house and wedding planning.  I know I say this every time, but I really am going to try to have more of a presence on here – just beware it might not happen for another two months. 

Things have been going pretty well with Otter – took him to a few local shows this spring and finally scored in the 20’s in dressage.  He’s starting to look pretty fancy.  I just got a new (to me) dressage saddle that has definitely helped with some of the issues we were fighting in the old saddle that just didn’t fit us right.

Due to time restrictions, most of my rides recently have been fairly short – definitely under 30 minutes.  At first it was due to time management and trying to get rides in before I had to be at work at 11am, but after a few weeks of shortened rides, I noticed that we were getting better work sooner in the ride.  Now that my schedule has gotten better and I have more time at the barn, I have still been keeping my rides short.  I get on, we walk a bit, do some work – if he’s good we are done then, if not then we work on a few things, but without drilling on them, and then finish up.  He’s become so much more relaxed recently, and I feel like the change is due to the shorter rides. 

My spring/summer competition schedule definitely has not happened like I had thought it would – changing jobs this spring and then the wedding planning has just tied up too much time.  I can’t even imagine how I would have fit a busy show schedule in.  I am hoping to get a couple of recognized shows in this fall season though, but we will see how things go.  I have been pretty happy just riding around the farm and going to the local shows.

*Side note: If anybody is looking for a used but in good condition Wintec Isabell dressage saddle with the Cair system and exchangeable gullet plates, please let me know! I will have pictures within the next few days to send