Brooklyn Updates

It seems that 2015 had one last mean trick up its sleeve, and the year ended with some tragic news. Without going into too much detail, Mike and I will be going to a wake tonight. It hasn't exactly put me in a blogging mood lately.

With that said, Brooklyn continues to do well. We've been doing a lot lately, and he's really turning into a riding horse and a pet horse. In fact, after a wonderful jump school last night, he excitedly made his first ever "cookie face" as I was unwrapping some treats that a boarder left tucked in his blanket as a surprise. His personality is starting to really blossom and I enjoy working with him. I am sure that he is going to make someone a fabulous horse.

Part of educating Brooklyn has been letting other people ride him. He has gotten very used to the idea that any random human might hop on him at any given point, and that it's his job to figure out what they're asking for.

Cameron, especially, has taken a liking to the little bay. I told her she is welcome to flat him any time she wants, but I also had her jump him around last week. I told her, "Your job is to make him believe that cross rails are sooooo boring," and by the end of the session, she had him loping over the cross rail like a saintly old school horse.

Last week, I also got a pleasant surprise when Kristin and Rachel came to visit. They are home from college (college!) and the barn is not far from where they live. It was wonderful to catch up. Of course, I let the girls take a turn each on Brooklyn. Kristin was on her school's IHSA team last semester, but hasn't ridden since May, and Rachel continued to volunteer at the therapeutic riding center, but hasn't sat on a horse since August. They are both very good riders, but were rusty from their time off. Brooklyn was a pro nonetheless.

Brooklyn got some surprises of his own last week. The first was a new friend:

He is now turned out with Cameron's four year old OTTB, Slang. Despite the fact that neither one of them had previously lived with another horse, they hit it off immediately. They instantly became best buds and are basically joined at the hip all day, every day. I even caught them napping together this week. Luckily, neither one is so attached to the other that it causes any kind of problem. When we pull one out of the field, the other simply looks on as if to say, "Alright, catcha later then!"

Becky also super generously gifted us with a new dressage bridle! I bought a used dressage saddle a few months ago and have been planning to outfit it so that I'd have two sets of tack ready at any given time. When I discovered that Brooklyn goes well in a flash, I started planning to get a dressage bridle to complete the set. Becky beat me to the punch! I'll get better photos once I put a bit on it, but we did snag some cell phone shots of Brooklyn looking very blingy in the barn aisle. Thankfully, there is no video of the giddy, squealy jumping up and down that I may or may not have been doing (but you can't prove it).

We finished off 2015 on a good note with a lovely New Year's Eve trail ride. At first, it was supposed to be just us with Lynn on Pearly, but it turned out that the day worked for April and Kristen as well. I was a little worried about riding Brooklyn out in the open with so much company, especially after a week-long monsoon left us confined to the indoor day in and day out, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to ride with some of my favorite girls. Kristen is coming back from some medical stuff, and it was wonderful to see her in the saddle and get to see Arrow again. As for April... despite an awesome two and a half year relationship, we have yet to actually ride together! It was very exciting.

We were twinning super hard that day.

Lynn came to pick me up (thank you, Lynn!) and we drove over to meet Kris and April at Perrineville Lake. I had seen the park in Lynn's photos, but had never actually been there. I was excited to ride on new trails.

Turns out Lynn has great taste in parks and this made for an excellent second trail ride for Brooklyn. It was much more interesting and varied than our first outing to Colliers Mills, and the ride was about twice as long, but it wasn't too technical or busy. We got to see dogs, some bikes, and even a pair of other horses coming head on, but there wasn't much to spook about. Although, I have to say that Brooklyn is one of the least spooky green horses I've ever ridden. He gets forward and racehorsey at times, but not much scares him.

The parking lot was quiet and we tacked up and took advantage of the conveniently located picnic table for mounting.

As I suspected, Brooklyn was pretty concerned about the other horses at first. Mostly, he was worried about getting left behind, I think. He didn't do anything terrible, but he did do some jigging in the beginning.  I simply got down and hand walked him until he was relaxed, then hopped back on. I probably could have just stayed on him, but jigging annoys me and I don't want him to make a habit out of it. This way, he learned that jigging means other horses leave you behind, and walking nicely means you get to keep up with your friends. Plus, it's good for him to learn to stand for ground mounting while other horses do their thing around him.

Shortly after we settled down, we got to our first big, open field of the day. The edges were mowed and I think Brooklyn and I were both thinking the same thing when we emerged from the trail head.

Turf course?!?!

By the end of the day, Brooklyn definitely got the memo that we were just going to stroll leisurely along for the rest of our lives. He seemed perfectly fine with that.

We went on to have a lovely ride. We laughed and chatted and took goofy selfies in the saddle.

We rode along through woods, up and down hills, around fields, past the lake, and through sand, mud, and rocks. Brooklyn led, followed, and went in the middle of the pack. Sometimes we rode together in a cluster, and sometimes we broke off into pairs. Brooklyn got comfortable even when another pair of horses would put some distance between us. I soaked up the mild temperatures, nice landscapes, and good company, and took my mind off the hard news we'd received that morning.

 

 

We arrived back at the trailer smiling and having a good time. I took a moment to photograph Brooklyn's new Manly Halter. (Horses who don't want to wear flowers shouldn't break their perfectly respectable beige halters.)

This year, we've gone back to work as usual. I have goals and plans for each ride, but I tend to keep them quiet and adjust as needed. I ride the horse I have that day, not the horse I expect to have, want to have, or had the day before. Sometimes he blows me out of the water. Sometimes we just work on having brakes.

I'm consistently working on getting him quieter and more relaxed to fences. I know the height will be there when he's ready. As we've established, scope is not a problem. We're doing lots of cross rails, lots of trotting in and cantering softly out. Not surprisingly, my posture has improved now that he's jumping less like a deer. (Raising my stirrups two holes and waiting for the gosh darned jump has helped too.)

I made Mike come out on Sunday and take pictures of us schooling in the outdoor for the first time in a couple weeks. This week, the temperatures are well below freezing and I'm back to hiding inside, even if it's daylight when I go to the barn.

O yeah... and I'm making him wear all my ridiculous polo wraps because he's actually a riding horse and I've collected an alarming number of them over the years. These particular ones were gifted to me by one of my favorite clients :)

Brooklyn has also learned that cameras=posing.

WW: Fall Photos with Shadow

Had a lot of fun doing a photo shoot with April and Shadow two weekends ago. They are both beautiful and I love working with them. The fall colors weren't being cooperative, but we got some nice shots anyway.

Standardbreds can't canter.

Saturday Snaps: O, Shadow...

Shadow Updates

I've been really bad about updating on April and Shadow's progress despite the fact that April is one of my most loyal clients. She lessons every Saturday and does her homework in between sessions. She's understanding of my competition schedule and is flexible and understanding when I do things like delay our lesson by catching a stray dog on my way there. I've been telling her for weeks that she and Shadow are the good ending to my week every week.

Those of you who follow April's blog will already know all of this, but I also wanted to share the pretty photos :)

I haven't even mentioned Shadow since Christmas (where does the time go?)

Shadow came out of the winter not-quite-sound. He kept tripping and his right hind leg kept catching periodically. He would also limp on and off. I was concerned that SRF had hidden some medical history about the horse and that April was going to end up with a pasture mate. After all, Shadow is sixteen this year, and not getting any younger.

Luckily for Shadow, his mom loves him to pieces and makes no excuses not to do right by him. She had the vet and farrier out, got a diagnosis (stifle), and started treatment (Previcox and joint supplements).

In the spring, we started Shadow back, slow and steady.

And Shadow started progressing like a rock star. Cantering is a total non-issue, and he'll trot all day long without pacing. He has gotten soft and supple and balanced, and his muscling has changed completely.

He still has good days and bad days, and sometimes we cut a session short because his leg isn't holding up 100%, but he always tries to please and gives it all he's got. On his bad days, he shuffles at the trot, lurches within the gait from time to time, and takes the occasional pacing step.

But on his good days?? He has exceeded all our expectations. During a particularly good day a few weeks ago, I lunged him over a cavaletti, just to see what he would do. He over-jumped it the first time, but made an honest effort every time after that. Before we knew it, he and April were jumping back and forth over the obstacle like they'd been doing it their entire lives. Over the next two lessons, we raised the jump to 2'3", and Shadow still sailed over it with room to spare. We're going to max him out at 2'6" because of his age and medical history, but he should have no issues at that height.  His front end looks sharp, sharp, sharp over fences, and April is a solid rider who stays out of his way while he figures things out. He still needs to work on using the landing gear in the back, but I suspect he'll get more graceful with time.

Over all, I am thrilled with April and Shadow's progress. They prove, time and time again, that you can beat the odds if you work hard and never, never give up.

Saturday Snaps: Holiday Photos with April

Those of you who follow April's blog already know that I went out to take Christmas card photos for her last week. Of course her horse, Shadow, and her boyfriend, Will, were in the photos. She also brought her dogs, Gucci and Gizmo! It was a quick shoot, but it was a lot of fun. I do wish it had either been sunny or really snowing (we had flurries), but I'm happy with the results. More importantly, I think April is too! Here are my favorites from the day :) It's enough to get even grouchy old me in the Christmas spirit!

Shadow's First Show

She's all smiles in the warm up.

Way back at the beginning of the month, Shadow and April went to their first show. It was the Standardbred National Show at the Horse Park, and I gave her several reasons to go.
1. It would be a good experience for Shadow.
2. She could see what standardbreds are capable of.
3. She could feel less alone in the obstacles she faces with her new horse.
4. It was local to her and cheap to enter.

After some consideration, April entered Shadow in the two-gait green horse division, and I met her at the Horse Park to warm Shadow up and cheer April on.

It turned out to be a long day, consisting of a lot of hurry up and wait (aren't all horse shows like this?), but I'd call it a success. Shadow was pretty chill about being off the farm and surrounded by all the ruckus. I had expected as much. He's a very laid back horse in general. In fact, he was more interested in the lush green grass behind the barns than anything else.

While we were there, I spotted some familiar faces... some adopted from SRF, some not. I got to meet SRF's new trainer and the new adoption coordinator, though I kept my mouth shut and they were none the wiser about who I was. I also pointed out Homer, who I rode when he was awaiting adoption, and who went home with Amanda, the Other Ozzy's adopter. He's an older guy who got a late start to his riding career, and I thought it was important for April to see how well he is doing despite all that. Plus Homer was kind of a jerk, and Shadow isn't, so she has that advantage ;)

Shadow warmed up like a pro. After April took him around the warm up ring a few times, I hopped on him myself. Shadow seemed to really appreciate a bigger arena with 'real' footing, and moved out very nicely at the trot. He was a little distracted by the sights, but remained calm and controllable. At one point, he even offered me the nicest of nice canters. I'm excited to get to that point in his training because he really has a lovely canter when he relaxes and stays balanced.

Since I was already pushing my luck, I decided to take advantage of the lone natural cross rail set up in the warm up area. Shadow made it very clear that he had never, in his fifteen years on the planet, seen anything of the sort. In fact, his ears seemed to say, "And what would you like me to do about it? We clearly need to go around." Despite his initial wiggles, however, Shadow made a valiant effort to get us both safely over the cross rail. April's super supportive Cookie Man of a boyfriend (who reminds me a bit of Mike, actually) even managed to get a photo! I couldn't have asked for a better first attempt. Once again, I'm extremely excited to start Shadow over fences in the near future (especially now that we know he didn't have racing injuries at the track).

Lookin' sharp!

After hours of waiting for our class (highlights included Shadow trying to climb into the gazebo with us so he could get some Cheetos), they finally announced the two gait green horse division. We polished off April's boots, woke Shadow up from his nap on the rail, and sent them into the show ring with 12 other horses. Between the dozen horses gaiting around him, the loudspeakers, the grandstand, and the crowd leaning over the fence, Shadow was a little distracted. He was more forward than usual and even offered April a bit of canter in the corner. We couldn't help laughing since it was the two gait division, but we weren't about to reprimand him for the effort either! It didn't really matter anyway because the judge barely looked at Shadow.

And here's where I'm going to get off on a bit of a tangent. I guess, in hindsight, I should have pressured her to sign up for the rookie horse division, with the baby racehorses straight off the track who are still pacing with their heads up in the air. I thought that would have been a little unfair since Shadow is a much better riding horse than that. But then, four out of the top six horses in the GREEN HORSE DIVISION wound up being horses who have been showing at the Horse Park for years. In fact, some of them go to open shows on a weekly basis... including Princeton Show Jumping! Someone please explain to me how the horse who got Reserve Champion in a handful of classes that day was also eligible to enter (and, obviously, win) the GREEN HORSE TWO-GAIT class. My understanding was that only horses who aren't qualified for three-gait classes can enter the two-gait ones. Then again, I guess we'll do anything for a piece of blue ribbon and some points at SPHO year-end awards (that our husbands pay for, btw). I forgot how political the show world can be.

But all that aside... I was extremely proud of both April and Shadow. They had only been together for a month at that point. Shadow tried his hardest and behaved his best, and April rode like a star, even when Shadow discovered scary monsters at the end of the ring.

I'm sure this is the first of many shows for the two of them, and I'm delighted to be a part of their journey.

Shadow Updates

It should come as no surprise that I am really enjoying working with Shadow, the standardbred. He is everything I love about the breed... sensible, level-headed, reliable, and willing to really, truly try. Mike happened to be off of work one afternoon when I drove down to work with Shadow so I wrangled him into coming with me and taking photos. When we were done, he commented that Shadow moves pretty much exactly like Ozzy. I had to laugh because it really is true.

Learning to go in side reins.

A few sessions ago, I introduced Shadow to the concept of lunging with side reins on. He needs to build fitness and balance and it seems unfair to demand he learns to carry himself and a rider at the same time. Shadow was a quick study on the concept of lunging. He is learning verbal cues at an alarming rate.

The funniest thing about Shadow was when he decided to get sassy during his first time on the lunge line. When I asked him to pick up the canter to the right, he threw a fit from sheer excitement. As Erin always said... we love the standardbreds, but they are some of god's most graceless creatures. Shadow's attempts at bucking had us in tears from laughter. It was ridiculous.

Under saddle, we continue to work on building a better trot and developing consistency within the gait. His walk-trot transition is lovely and smooth now, provided that you hold him together through it. I am slowly teaching him to default to the nice transition, even with less help from his rider. The same thing goes for the trot. He is pretty good so long as you ride him with a firm contact and push him forward with your seat the whole time. The second you give him more rein or ask for a bigger stride, he lurches forward and promptly falls apart. I've been doing a lot of medium walk to free walk and back, working on following contact without losing momentum. The concept will eventually transfer to trot work, but for now it's pretty abstract to him.

Shadow and April

I have also started cantering him a little bit here and there. He picks the canter up very willingly, but can only hold it for a handful of strides at a time. Then he gradually gets more and more lateral until he's pacing. The good news is that he knows that pacing is not the answer and he is swapping from pace to trot more and more immediately. The idea is that he'll eventually learn that he can either trot or canter... that's it.

In the course of lunging Shadow and working on his canter, I've become a little concerned about his right hip/stifle. He is not lame by any stretch, but he does have some weakness in the right hind. He is more reluctant to pick up the left lead than the right, and it's not stemming from disobedience. He also points that foot when he stands out in the pasture, and April and her farrier noted that he has a hard time holding that leg up properly to have the foot handled. I suspect we may have found the reason he was retired from racing despite a promising start to his career. I told April not to panic yet. She has only had Shadow for a month. It takes about three months for a joint supplement to properly kick in. I suspect that with maintenance and strength-building, Shadow should be just fine, and will probably also be able to jump.

The good news is that April loves him regardless of his limitations. She informed me that she would keep him even if he was pasture sound only. This horse really lucked out.

Introducing: YouGotIt (aka Shadow)

I have picked up a slew of new clients lately and haven't had time to talk about any of them. I will try to get to all of them, but I'll start with the standardbred, of course.

Shadow's adoption photo ©Vicki Wright.

Shadow's owner, April, contacted me after another client of mine forwarded her my contact information. She told me that she rode for ten years, mostly in the hunter world. She owned thoroughbreds and did a lot of jumping before she developed tendinitis in her hip, which forced her to quit riding for about six years. She is getting back into horses, and this is where the small world stuff begins.

April recently adopted a standardbred named Shadow (registered name YouGotIt). My first questions, of course, was whether she got him from SRF. She did.

SRF, predictably, didn't give her any information on her horse. All she knew was his registered name and that he is 15 years old. They couldn't even tell her if he was a trotter or a pacer. I wanted to face desk pretty hard since I know SRF has free access to the US Trotting database. With a registered name and/or tattoo, they can get the horse's entire life story from birth to retirement. To add insult to injury, Shadow hasn't raced since 2000, and has likely been in SRF's program since then. How do you not have any basic information on a horse you've owned for thirteen years?

Photo from FB.

After my evaluation, I went home and did some of my own research. Despite the fact that Shadow had trotted willingly during our first ride, I had a feeling he might be a pacer. I was correct!

Here is what else I learned about Shadow:
Shadow is a 1998 pacing gelding by Electric Yankee out of a Kelly Lobell mare named Glen Head. His immediate breeding is not very impressive, but he does go back to No Nukes, a famous pacing stallion.. No Nukes grand-babies tend to make awesome riding horses, so yay!

He was born in Indiana. His mom had six other foals. Out of all of them, he was the best racer. It looks like he never went through the sales as a yearling, so his breeders must have been pretty invested in him.

Shadow was actually a pretty successful racehorse in his short time on the track! He made 10 starts and won six of them! He also came in second twice, which means he had an 80% success rate of finishing in the money. He made $62k, which is not too shabby! His record was 1:55, which is pretty fast for a two year old.

I vaguely remember having to track Shadow's owners down for follow-up paperwork when I worked at SRF. My guess is that Shadow suffered some kind of career ending injury at the track and was placed with SRF, where he was placed in some sort of a riding home. Judging by my own rides on him, I'm guessing he was used as a trail horse with very little formal training (not that there's anything wrong with that). I have no way of knowing for sure, but I suspect he was returned to SRF either because the owners hit hard financial times or because they failed to comply with SRF's strict follow-up policies.

Trail riding with April.

April told me that SRF didn't have him for long before she adopted him. The trainer there only rode him once or twice. They were unable to answer any of her questions about him at the time. In fact, she would have missed him entirely if she hadn't specifically written his name down ahead of time.

Apparently SRF's new farm is laid out in three big pastures. One pasture has rideable mares. One has rideable geldings. The third pasture contains companion horses and is located across the street. Last I checked, there are about 40 riding horses on the farm, so I'll let you visualize what going out to meet the horses looks like.

April says, "They make you sign a waiver..."

But enough about SRF... let's talk about Shadow.

Shadow is about 16hh with a huge head and kind, intelligent eyes. He has great ground manners and his default response to life is to go to sleep. He is a big sweetheart without a mean bone in his body. He stands perfectly still for mounting, doesn't spook at pretty much anything, and tries so so hard to please.

So what's the problem?

Headshot by Vicki Wright

Basically, despite being 15 years old with potentially 13 years of riding under his belt, Shadow is green as grass. He has a big, swingy walk, but still turns like a cart horse, with no idea about moving his shoulders or engaging his hindquarters. Because he was taught not to pace by being rushed into the trot, he has developed a huge, lurching trot transition that jars his rider out of the saddle. You can imagine that this would be very unpleasant with a bad hip. The trot itself is pretty much a sloppy racehorse trot. April says he does pick up the canter, but she hasn't even tried to tackle that since she brought him home (smart girl).

I was very pleased with the work that April has done with Shadow so far. As I said, he's a gentleman on the ground and at the mounting block. April also installed my favorite parking brake before I even met her, taking a lot of the initial work out of it for me.

I spent the first two sessions working with Shadow on softening his poll, lifting his shoulder, and rolling into the trot instead of launching into it. It's very basic stuff, but it's hard work for the lumbering horse. The good news is that Shadow is a fast learner and is already offering baby leg yields at the walk. He is getting lighter in the bridle already, and when he gets the transition right, it's lovely. In fact, his trot is just plain gorgeous once you get it organized. He can only hold the nice trot for three quarters of the arena so far, but what I've seen so far is lovely, and I'm excited to get photos of him under saddle in the near future.

April is also willing to work hard and has a good foundation as a rider, even if she's a bit rusty from her time off. I had her get on Shadow on Thursday for the second half of her lesson. It took a few tries, but she was able to get that nice transition out of him. The smile on her face was priceless. I suspect she'll be showing him in no time.

I get to work with a lot of really cool horses these days, but I think I'll always have a soft spot for the standies.