My buddy Linus

Stopping to smell the flowers

Pretty farm house

It’s beautiful, peaceful, and quiet here all the time.  All the animals (horses, dogs, cats) are happy and relaxed.  It’s probably more like a week at a spa than a week at summer camp.  I ride, I go for long walks with the dogs, I take long baths, I read my books.  Did you just sigh reading that?  I sighed writing it.  It’s a horse-lovers’ paradise, basically.

I got to the farm Sunday night and got all the horses tucked in to their stalls, since it was raining.  Monday night I went to my farm and picked up Tucker, and once I got him settled in I turned everyone out for the night.  Tucker tried to make friends over the fence with Shadow (an adorable paint, the “husband horse” on the farm), who promptly squealed and told Tucker what’s what.  Tucker turned around and looked at me like, “Mom he’s being mean!” Once he realized Shadow was not, in fact, interested in becoming his new bestest friend in the whole wide world, he moved onto more important matters, namely a gorgeous field full of lush spring grass.

The next morning he wasn’t too sure about finishing his breakfast, so I went out and picked up a few tubes of UlcerGard for the week (more on that in another post).  By the time we were ready for our ride, he seemed to be feeling better and we hopped over a few crossrails in the ring, which were uneventful.  That night I turned everyone out again and this time grass was the only thing on everyone’s minds, which was good.

We had a lesson yesterday with Alicia, who came to the farm to ride one of my friend Chrisie’s horses, and Tucker was fantastic.  As much as the dressage has been kind of an uphill climb for both of us, it SO pays off when we go to jump around a course.  He is so straight that it’s like steering a car, and balancing his canter to add a stride in a line is about ten times easier.  Chrisie had a nice little course set up and Tucker and I had so much fun jumping it, two outside lines and two singles on the diagonal, nice easy hunter-ish stuff.  First time we’ve jumped an entire course in, I don’t know, forever?  Tucker was of course perfect.

Today we put the dressage tack on and went for a lovely ride in the big grass meadow with the sun shining and a cool breeze blowing.  Tucker felt amazing.  We even got the big canter that we worked on in our fix-a-test, and I felt that awesome moment when his shoulders lift and he truly moves up leg-to-hand.  I am pretty sure I heard angels singing on high.

I think all the fun of summer camp is catching up with him though.  I’ve been trying all week to get a more photogenic shot of him, and what I have is a phone full of many variations on this:

Shhh… it’s nap time.

It’s a rough life.

I loved the Judge, Mindy Elgart.  She gave lots of helpful criticism but was extremely nice to all of us.  The comments about Tucker were very complimentary which made me beam with pride.  After we ran through the test we worked on my position (which is still pretty hunter-ish, despite Cindy’s efforts to fix it) and worked on getting a bigger canter and a better canter transition.  Tucker was wonderful for all of it, and since he did exactly what we asked and he was blowing pretty hard with the extreme heat yesterday, we opted not to run through the whole test again.  Overall, though it wasn’t perfect, I was super happy with him.  No invisible monsters anywhere in sight yesterday.  Good boy!

After the test we stood and talked to the Judge for a bit, so when I gathered my reins back up he thought maybe he’d try some of his spooky/stuck stuff, but I was able to sit and support and send him through it without incident, so I am pretty happy with myself too!

Here’s the video:

Apparently, Tucker found himself in such a quandary yesterday, and had to find out just how capable we were of handling an emergency, should one ever arise.  So promptly upon coming in from turnout, he began his little experiment.  Lest we not a be particularly clever group of humans, he chose to exhibit textbook signs of distress: he pawed, he kicked his stomach, he swished his tail, he rolled, and refused to eat his hay.

To Tucker’s relief, everyone snapped into action.  Cindy (my dressage trainer and our barn manager) texted me right away to see when I could get to the barn, put a scrim on him since he was wet from the drizzle this morning, and took his temperature.  She put him on the cross-ties and he stretched his hind legs out behind him, which made us all suspect it was a gas colic, if anything.  Anyway, Tucker found this course of action and her prompt attention to his broadcast signals most satisfactory.

Ricardo (who works at the farm and helps take care of the horses) took Tucker for a walk around the indoor until I arrived, and remained visibly concerned for Tucker’s well being for the remainder of the afternoon, regularly inquiring after his health.  Tucker likewise approved of these efforts and was truly touched by his concern.

Thankfully, I was working from home so I think I also passed his little test. I pulled on breeches and a fleece in under three minutes and raced to the barn like the hounds of hell were close on my tail.  He must have been timing me and I must have made his deadline because as soon as I arrived, he took a deep breath and started munching his hay. He still had a quiet gut on the left side, but plenty of noise on the right side and didn’t seem the least bit distressed.  But hey, I’ll take a scare that amounts to nothing over a real colic any day.

I’d say we passed Tucker’s emergency-preparedness course with flying colors, because we even managed to have Tucker’s vet arrive within the hour (he was there to do some injections on another horse, but Tucker doesn’t need to know that).  It was a good lesson about crying wolf, I mean getting to stay home from school and watch cartoons is one thing, but a trip to the doctor… well, let’s just say Tucker has heard what happens when the vet thinks you are colicking and didn’t particularly relish the idea of an arm up the you-know-what.  So once he saw Dr. S in the aisle, he promised he was feeling 100% better.  No need for poking and prodding, thankyouverymuch.

Thankfully, it seems he must have just had a gas pocket or something. I blame the drastic change in weather.  After a worrisome half hour or so, he seemed to have gotten over whatever was bothering him and I even ended up riding him (figured it wouldn’t hurt to get the gut moving).  He ate his dinner and all his hay, temp was normal, and by the time I left he had pooped three times. And yes, of course I texted a picture of the pile of poop to my concerned horsey friends!  What are horsey friends for?

Friday, May 24, 8:15pm – 9:15pm, Jr. Jumper Gamblers Choice
Saturday, May 25, 7:00pm – 8:30pm, Jr. Jumper SJHOF Classic – II,2(a)
Sunday, May 26, 6:30pm – 9:30pm, NAL Pony Jumper- II, 2(a), Adult Jumper-II, 2(b), Open Tandems
Monday, May 27, 7:00pm – 8:15pm, NAL Adult Jumper- II, 2(a)
Tuesday, May 28, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, Open Jumper-II,2(b)
Wednesday, May 29, 7:00pm-8:45pm, Open Jumper Hit & Hurry, Ladies Side Saddle, Three Gaited Show Pleasure-Limit, Hackney Pony-Open, Five Gaited Special
Thursday, May 30, 7:30pm – 10:00pm, Prerecorded sights and sounds of Devon, Wells Fargo Grand Prix of Devon
Friday, May 31, 7:00pm – 10:15pm, Open Jumper Gamblers Choice, Coaching, Park Horse Stake – Amateur, Western Country Pleasure, Fine Harness, Hackney Pony, Friesian Horse Pleasure, Three Gaited Stake, Hackney/Harness Pony, Saddlebred Show Pleasure Driving, Roadster Pony, Five Gaited Stake
Saturday, June 1, 3:10pm – 5:00pm, Open Jumper Stake AND 7:00pm – 8:10pm, A/O Jumper SJHOF Classic
Sunday, June 2, 10am – 1pm, USHJA Hunter Derby

After many, many hours of deep thought (I’m not the only one who does this right?) I came to a few conclusions:  Tucker is not a mean horse, and in fact probably doesn’t realize how scary his leaping and spooking and spinning really are.  Tucker is a smart horse, who likes being challenged and likes being rewarded for a job well done. Tucker is an evasive horse, who would rather not work too hard if he doesn’t have to and has realized that spooking is an excellent diversion from work.

So driving to the barn last night, inspired by some of the exercises in the George Morris clinic going on at Gladstone this week, I decided I would set up an exercise that would make Tucker think a little bit and would help work on forward/straight and involve some transitions within the gait.  Time to outsmart my horse, right?  Of course, when I arrived at the barn to find him spinning in circles in his stall, convinced that the driving rain pounding on the roof would lead directly to his death, I questioned just how smart this horse could actually be.  Two ear plugs later, however, calm and order were restored….

So in the indoor I set up four ground poles set on a circle, that walk six strides between each one using a natural bend like you would on any circle.  One of the poles was a skinny rail (5′ instead of 10′) for a bit more of a challenge.  Like so:

(Sorry, the Tucker-Cam was a little shaky)

I am happy to say that Tucker was wonderful and we got a lot out of the exercise.  I’m working on getting him to give me a better walk (something other than a Sunday stroll or a death march), and an actual working trot, so at the walk and trot we worked on getting him to take me to the poles.  He understood this much better than me just nagging him to go forward on an ordinary circle.  We did outside bend and inside bend, worked in some quarter-turns when I needed to for straightness, making figure-eights, and lots of changes of direction, so the exercise stayed fresh.

At the canter, at first we just worked on controlling his shoulders (not letting him fall in or bulge out), not worrying much about what strides we got.  Once I felt like he was listening to me laterally, I asked for six even strides between each pole (he was doing either five or six before), with some simple changes of direction.  Once that was smooth on each lead, I asked for five strides between each pole, and I’m happy to say he moved up really politely, I was sort of afraid he’d start dragging me around but asking him to think about turning and the next pole kept him focused.

I ran into some protesting when I asked him to come back and give me six strides again, so I skipped every other pole and worked on using my seat and leg more, until I had him sitting down and using his hind end instead of fighting my hand.  Once the canter improved, we went back to every pole and were able to get six strides, and then seven, between each pole in a nice collected canter that felt pretty balanced.

On another night I might have then asked for five strides and back to six again, but I thought it was good to end on a positive note like that, so we stopped there.  He helped me put all the poles away and I decided to take it as a good sign that he was still dutifully following me, stopping when I stopped and turning when I turned.  The cowboys like when they do that, right?

As the winter progressed and Tucker got bored with seeing the four walls of the indoor, those four walls began hiding dangerous (read: imaginary) predators.  My patience wore increasingly thin, Tucker’s theatrics grew increasingly more… spectacular (and I do not mean that in a complimentary fashion). Finally, just as I was ready to give him a vacation until the snow melted, I went back through the blog and figured out that every time he stops listening to reason, I can usually fix it by treating his tummy for ulcers.

This time instead of treating him with a prescription ulcer medication I kept him on his SmartGut and added a  half-cup of aloe juice to each of his meals.  On the advice of one of Tucker’s vets, we give him the aloe for ten days and then two days off, so his stomach pH-levels stay normal.  The spooking has become less frequent and much less explosive (ponies and children no longer cower in fear while we ride) .  Either the invisible mountain lions living in the indoor have decided to migrate elsewhere, or he’s feeling slightly better.  So that’s where we’re at on that front.

The more we worked over the winter, it became clear that Tucker had a weakness in his hind end — which is part of the reason we started doing dressage in the first place.  We decided to give him until Spring and keep working on strengthening.  When the “weakness” started looking like slight unevenness, I made a vet appointment for him, and we ended up injecting his hocks.  He wasn’t seriously lame, but Tucker is not exactly stoic when it comes to pain. Delicate little flower that he is.

So, we had three days of hand-grazing and then gradually back to work.  I took some great pictures while we didn’t have much else to do.

Day 1: Stopping to smell the dandelions

Day 2: Making friends with the retirees next door

Day 3: Raining, so we went inside and met a really good looking horse

That was about three weeks ago (sorry, I wanted to make sure he was back to work and sound before I wrote about it), and he’s feeling really great now.  An expensive vet visit, yes, but well worth it.  I’m just happy that this was the first time I’ve had to inject my eleven-year-old horse.  Unfortunately they only come with a ten year warranty…

As for me, I am loving dressage and what it is teaching me.  I feel like I’ve got a whole new toolbox full of ways to deal with all my horse’s various evasions and to get him really working to his full potential.  He’s always been like one of those smart kids who goofs off in class, so I’m trying to find the right balance between keeping him challenged and motivated, and not letting him think life is getting too hard.  We go back to jumping this week, so I imagine that will make him happy.  Hopefully not too happy.  

For right now, I’m a little too worried about the EHV-1 threat in New Jersey right now to take him to any shows, so we are going to stay home a while longer and keep working away.  I know it’s probably ultra-conservative of me, but there’s only one Tucker, so I’m not taking any chances.

Anyway, that’s where we are at.  I’m going to start providing more regular updates on the blog, so we can avoid these somewhat tedious summaries in the future.  Thank you for reading… it feels good to be back in the blogosphere!

Or that this picture was taken eight years ago (his first summer of work!):

Today is an extra special birthday for Tucker because it is also Kentucky Derby Day.  The day Tucker was born, it was Kentucky Derby Day, so Tucker was actually originally named Kentucky, which eventually got shortened to Tuck, and evolved into Tucker.  I remember when I turned to the trainer I worked for and said, “I think we should call him Tucker.”  She smiled and said, “That’s perfect, every barn needs a Tucker.”  And you all know the rest, I fell in love with the awkward, gangly baby, and had to bring him with me to law school, and then the rest of our adventures began.

Every year on the blog I usually spend some of the post gushing over my beautiful boy, and I’m afraid this year is no different.  So, here goes.  Thank you Tucker, for a decade full of countless moments of pure happiness and gratitude, teaching me how to be a better rider, reminding me to be a better person, and helping me keep all my priorities in order.  I cannot imagine what life would have been like without you.  Here’s to many more birthdays.  I love you.

I am off to take Tucker for his birthday ride, and enjoy the absolutely perfect weather we are having in New Jersey today.  Hope you all have a wonderful Kentucky Derby Day and Tucker’s Birthday Day!

I know I owe you all a Tucker update, but will save that for another post.  Suffice it to say I’ve made some big changes lately, one of which has allowed me the freedom to do a lot more writing for Sidelines Magazine.  In this month’s issue, I wrote a really fun article about Lucy Matz, daughter of Olympian show jumper and Triple Crown trainer Michael Matz.

By the way, have you subscribed to Sidelines yet?  No?  Well, you should — I love it, and I’m not just saying that because my name is lucky enough to grace its pages these days.  Seriously, I keep mine with me all the time so I can read whenever I have a minute, and I end up reading it cover-to-cover every month.  If you don’t have a subscription yet though, you are in luck, because you can read my article about Lucy for free here.  Check it out!

I had so much fun researching and writing this article.  Lucy is incredibly sweet and, like her dad, seriously humble about her success and her quasi-celebrity status.  As for her pony jumper Wiseguy, well, I think you know how Tucker and I both feel about adorable ponies.  He’s a Connemara imported from Ireland, and he is pretty much the cutest guy ever:

Now put this pony in the Dixon Oval at Devon (you all know I think it’s the most magical place on earth), making the pony jumpers look just like a mini-grand prix, and I am straight up in love.  And Lucy is a great little rider.  She is without a doubt one to watch as she moves up to the Junior Jumpers this year.

For the interview, I asked Lucy about her rounds at Devon with Wiseguy in the NAL pony jumpers.  In 2010, Lucy won the class, but Wiseguy was a little, um, exuberant… and it wasn’t perfectly smooth.

In 2011, Lucy returned to Devon and was second in the NAL Pony Jumpers with Wiseguy.  Even though this round didn’t deliver the blue, it is pretty flawless.

When I asked Lucy which round she was more proud of (the winning round, or the better ride), she said she was happier with the 2011 round, where her pony was so good, even though it’s nice to win.  I know the feeling.  Some of the ribbons on my wall (yes of course I still hang up my ribbons even though I am supposedly a grown up) that make me smile the biggest are yellow, white, or even purple, because they remind me of an awesome round or a great day with the big brown horse.

What about you?  What makes you happier, the blue ribbon, or the good ride?

You may recall I was a little MIA for a while because of a trial that lasted all summer… this had the unintended side effect of leaving Tucker looking generally like a wildabeast.  So, before we could go anywhere we needed a little Extreme Makeover: Horse Edition.   

Before: 

(everyone always looks grumpy in the before photo)

 After:

So much better!

I’m not sure Tucker fully appreciated my efforts given that it was a little chilly that morning for a bath, but you know, the price of beauty and all that….  Thankfully it warmed up by the time we were ready to ride, and ended up being a crisp, sunny fall day.  Perfect weather for horse stuff, if you ask me.

Since the last time I rode with Jeff in the Spring, I’ve been working on getting my leg position more solid, sitting up straighter, and making my hands quieter.  Jeff was really complimentary of my leg position and my upper body posture at the posting trot (yay!) but still wants me sitting more “on my pockets” and opening my chest at the walk, sitting trot, and when I sit the canter.  My hands have definitely improved (I swear my left hand used to fidget of its own accord), but apparently I still fall back on a little left-right-left when Tucker braces, especially through transitions, and I am still dropping my left hand.  But… last time I saw Jeff he told me “quiet hands” every time he glanced my way, and this time he only commented on my hands twice.  So I think my hands have improved even if they still need work.  (I’ll take it!)

As for Tucker, we need to work on getting him to work with his nose in front of the vertical rather than behind.  Thankfully this is pretty much exactly what we are working on in our lessons with Cindy, so I suspect over time all these things will come together.  Nice to know that Jeff and Cindy’s advice is in sync though, right?  (Confirms my belief that good riding is good riding, in any discipline.)  I also noticed in the clinic that his canter to trot transitions were really weak, although those have improved over the past couple of months as well.

In the jumping portion of the clinic, Tucker was a downright angel. To be honest I had no intention of jumping, and came out with no standing martingale in a plain loose ring snaffle.  But when I told Jeff that Tucker hadn’t jumped since coming back to work (assuming we’d be on the same page about not jumping during the lesson), Jeff responded with a cheerful “oh okay, we’ll just jump a little bit then!”  (Insert moment of panic here.)

Thankfully, I had absolutely no reason to worry, since Tucker decided to wear his halo that day.  We were conservative and probably didn’t do more than a dozen jumps, but enough to make me fall in love with the big brown horse all over again.  He was soft, and responsive, and quiet, and landed almost every lead like he hadn’t missed a beat.  Such a great horse.

Also — and here’s what got me super excited — he is straighter!  The dressage is working!  One of the exercises was to canter up the quarter line and then about midway, turn up the diagonal to a little oxer.  When I first saw it I inwardly groaned because I was sure I’d lose his outside shoulder on the turn.  But I just remembered our “quarter turns” on the haunches, pushed his shoulders in with my outside leg and seat, and rode from one straight line to the next… And it worked!!  Lightbulb Moment Number One!  (There are more, but I’ll fill you guys in as we go.)

As for me, Jeff repeatedly said I am a “beautiful two point rider” which made me beam like a little kid, but (how come there’s always a “but”?) that means I need to stay still at the jumps because otherwise I’m jumping way ahead.  Also, when the distance is tight, then I need to get into a half seat in front of the jump so I’m out of Tucker’s way.  I could feel myself jumping ahead and was able to fix it a couple of times, but… apparently the three months off took more of a toll on me than Tucker, and while he came back swinging, I was pretty darn rusty. 

All in all though, we had a great day.  After the clinic Tucker hung out in the barn (he loves visiting Stoneleigh) with his ice boot on and the girls went to lunch and talked horse, and then we sat on the deck in the sunshine with some wine and talked more horse.  Absolutely perfect. There is nothing like getting your horse home and all ready for bed after a good day’s work, is there?

Someone was a bit tired.

I have been a terrible blogger as of late, but (prior misrepresentations and broken promises notwithstanding), I am resolving to start writing again in 2013. Life has been getting in my way again, but I have a few blog post fragments that I’ve drafted in my absence that I’ll finish up and share with you at some point next year, including:

• A Jeff Cook Clinic Recap (Tucker was brilliant, and Jeff was inspiring as always),
• A Hurricane Sandy Success Story (I swear, something good did come out of the horrendous storm that ravaged my home state and almost destroyed my childhood home),
• A Bernie Traurig Clinic Recap (a.k.a., that time I traded mounts with one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse), and
• The Tale of Goldilocks and the 300 Dressage Saddles (still a work in progress).

For now, let me catch you up on what we’ve been doing. We are still learning dressage, and I love it (go ahead DQ’s, tell me you told me so, tell me how much fun your sport is and what all I’ve been missing, I get it now). Tucker loves it too. In fact, Cindy’s been riding him once a week and he’s picking it up way faster than I am.  

All dressed up like a dressage horse!

I always suspected he’s smarter than me, and this basically proves it. These days, when I ask for something, he won’t do it if I don’t ask right. While he used to just humor me and “kind of” give me a shoulder-in, even if I didn’t ask perfectly, now I get: “um… that’s not how you’re supposed to do it.”

This results in conversations such as the following:

Hmph. Teacher’s pet.

Learning dressage reminds me of when I was learning Italian in college. I had ten years of French under my belt, and when I would struggle for a word, I’d fall back on the French word, with an Italian accent. Which was sometimes close, but almost never right. That’s what it feels like learning dressage. I’ve been riding my whole life, and I feel like I should know how to ask for something, but it’s all just a little different these days and while I have a pretty decent background, it still feels pretty foreign sometimes.

There are some awesome “Ah ha!” moments though, and I live for them. The first time I felt his haunches actually get lower behind my saddle (who knew this thing came with hydraulics?), or the other day when I got him to engage at the walk and squealed out, “OooOOh!  He just got bouncy!” — those are pretty awesome. They usually come in between me grunting and sweating and cursing under my breath (which by the way is a really bad idea when you’re wearing an ear piece with a mic — “I heard that”). Just when I feel like I’m really getting somewhere and I put in a really good workout, Cindy tells me that was just the warm-up. I’m beginning to understand why other disciplines call us Hunter Princesses.

Speaking of Hunter Princess, we haven’t ventured too far to the darkside just yet. While I am shopping for dressage saddles (more on that later), we still consider ourselves hunters. I went for a jumping lesson with Alicia last week and we both agreed that the dressage is really, really helping Tucker (and me). Turning to the jumps was just like steering a car. No bulge in the corners, no drift in the lines, no haunches slipping to the outside as we turn up the diagonal.  Best of all, Tucker is — for the first time in his life — opening up his canter in the lines and staying balanced and level. No more falling on his nose and getting strung out when I ask him to move up. This is coming partly from me learning to use my core, and partly from Tucker learning self-carriage.  

Very proud of himself after his jump school.

 So we’re using dressage as a training method to get the horse and rider stronger and straighter… I feel like we are really onto something here! Oh wait, that method’s been around for thousands of years now, hasn’t it? Well no use reinventing the wheel….