Mo, Zehpyr, and Psyching out for Auditions

Life has been pretty quiet since the event last weekend. I thought I would give Mo some mellow out time before the next one NEXT weekend. We have been playing a lot online, and some at liberty, thinking about our auditions without drilling them... I hope. I have been just playing around with the concepts I know I need and hoping to set Mo up the best I can.

The best part of this came the other day in the round corral. Since I very smartly BROKE our everything in a round corral about a year ago, I have been trying very very hard to have it be a happy place for Mo. We went in the other day after a little play online, just to see, and try some figure eights. At first our figure eights we non-existant, but with a little patience and some touch it with your foot on the cones at first, it slowly built itself into a half-an-eight. Mo was pretty intrigued I think, and her play drive came out every now and again when she squealed off thinking she just HAD to circle.

Somehow I managed to keep her attention, between the herding galavanting around, and the montronious horseflies, we had a great time. We built a good figure eight in its entirety by the end, which was really cool. Its not great, but its a solid start, AND I kept Mo focused on me and not just zoning out on the rail running away. Thats pretty ok by me! In between our figure eight play, since she WAS offering to leave, We played with some circles. At first they were big circles on the rail, but slowly they got closer, which was really cool. Mostly at the trot to begin. Every time she offered to come in, I took it, since her thing in a round pen was OUT, so in was excellent! A couple of time I even managed to turn her draw into a natural change of direction, which was amazing and soft and felt lovely, and Mo was happy with it !

After some nice trots, and our piecing together a figure eight, I got brave and asked for the dreaded canter. Mo poodled out after a couple of steps so we played with 'dont make me pick up the stick' and she offered a lot more. Again, she was still offering me draws, so I would take them, and then a few times I changed direction, and she did softly, though on her turns into me she was dropping to a trot, so they werent fancy flying changes or anything. But still. Awesome! And Mo was HAPPY! And not feeling driven or micromanaged or making nasty faces. it was all calm cool and connected. Then the best thing in the whole world happened.  I thought, well, what would happen if I *asked* for a change, instead of just waiting on her question to come in. WELL! If she didnt pop out a flying change of direction for me. What a star. Then end. We stopped there. I love Mo. We wandered back to the barn at liberty and our for some grass in the yard. Mo was looking pretty smug and pleased with herself. Sometimes I feel like she knows exactly what I am asking, and deliberatley does the opposite.... until I get something right and then she gives me everything. Always my teacher, my Mo.


So, all that was a day last week sometime, then yesterday I took Mo out for a trail ride, and brought Zephyr with us, complete with her bridle headstall and bareback pad. Such a little rockstar. It was pretty hot, so we just walked the whole thing, but we went EVERYWHERE on our property. It was pretty cool, and I was really impressed with Zephyr. I feel like every young horse should get to go out being ponied, because it really helps her a lot! She sees a purpose to the porcupine game on the halter - to keep up with Mo, she sees a purpose to sideways towards - follow the leader, and watch out for that tree your rope will get hung up on. She gets confident in new environments, with the help of a buddy, she gets to snack on lots of outside-the-pasture-and-therefore-much-tastier-grass. Overall, Trailrides and Zephyr are just doing wonders for her and her little attitude.

We wandered all down the trails, over some fallen trees, through LOTS of water, some shallow, some deep, through some very tall grass, that felt like we were swimming in grass, through sludgey muddy but not quite, yuck, stuff. Weaving in and out of trees, having branches catch in ropes and manes and legs, we did everything. Mo was just in her hackamore and I hardly picked up the reins at all, which was great, and Zephyr just toodled along like a pro. THIS is how nature is meant to be experienced. From the back of a horse, out there, just the three of us, calmly checking out life, enjoying the sights. It was beautiful.

Fast forward to today. HOT. Even at 8am, it is HOT! I am happy, but the ponies not so much. I was supposed to take Mo over for a lesson today, for the next competition, but in favor of saving Mo from the heat, we cancelled. So when Zephyr wandered over, I decided it would be fun to try out what I was watching on a Mastery lesson last night, just to see if I could figure out how to apply it. For fun, I let her bridle herself too. Just to get used to wearing it and settling in her mouth. It sure didnt stop her from getting grass on the trail ride yesterday!

We were just on a 12', since it was hot and I didnt really want her flying around, and we kept in the shady places as much as possible. I was thinking some walk, maybe trot stuff, but Zephyr had other plans! CANTERRRRRR she said as she SQUEALED off. Literally, she squealed and she took off. She is so funny. She cantered about a lap and a half [on a 12' mind you, pretty athletic for a young'en! not even pulling on me!] This was all her idea, I just laughed at her and played with drawing her on an arc. She was all over that and came in for hugs and love. Smart cookie.

Kind of out of nowhere, I thought, I wonder what would happen if I climbed over her? So I brought her over to the biggest log I have [its really not that big] and asked her to sideways towards me. Courtesy of her many ponied trail rides, out of nowhere, I had a sidewaysing super star. How cool is that? I have never even asked that of her, when not sitting on Mo, and voila, it was there anyways. SMART KID! I leaned over her, rubbed her bum with my leg, and then, she was so confident, I just slipped up and over. It was nothing! Zephyr didnt move and inch, and she looked at me when I hit the ground on the other side like ' So thats what it feels like to be a grown up horse! COOL!' and licked and chewed. She was just so confident about the whole thing. I felt no worry at all about sliding up there. It was like she was thinking "Well JEEZ! About time!" I feel like Zehpyr thinks she misses out on life because she is to little yet to do a lot. I ride Mo, and Indy and now Chance and we go do a lot of things, and a lot of the time Zephyr will follow along, if we are in the pasture, just to play too. I was circling Indy before the trail ride yesterday, and Captain Curious barrels over and just falls into line behind Indy, doing what shes doing for about five minutes. Silly pony. Then that gets boring and she barrels over to play with the cows... it goes on... :)

So climbing over went great. Confident, happy, wonderful! On the last climb over, I for some reason, decided to pause and sit a minute. Wow. What a cool feeling. I like how the world feels from on top of Zephyr! She was so cool, calm, connected, and mellow! She did her lateral flexion like a pro and then kind of saw something *over there* and thought it was a good plan to wander off and check it out. After one step I bent her [my goal here wasnt to go for a ride!] and she yeilded beautifully! So soft and just stopped and I hopped off. No fuss, no muss, no dust! Just me and my buddy gearing up for life in the future! What a cool horse she will be to develop! What a cool horse she IS! She is just so excited about life. I hope I never do anything to inadvertantly discourage that!

Such was Zephyrs 'first sit' as it were. It was awesome.

:)
S

Mo's FIRST EVENT!!!!

We LIVED! Through our whole first event, at the Nepean National Equestrian Park, in the crazy pouring rain, WE LIVED! I LOVE MY PONY! She was the best pony in the whole world! I am SO proud of her! Little Mo, my little eventer!

So our day started like this, brain wakes up at 5:15 because it was SUNNY. Wait. What? Sunny? Yes. Sunny. Didnt you just say you got poured on? Yes. Well. It was sunny in the morning. Sun woke me up after all!  I growled about earlyness and huddled under blankets until somewhere near 7am before getting up and grabbing some breakfast and heading out to see Mo.

Mo was pretty enthused to see me, and came right over and such. To the extent of following me into the barn, through the tackroom, to see what I was doing as I hooked up the hose for our bathing adventure. She was pretty clean, and I kind of thought maybe just do her feet [for whiteness brilliance] but she ended up with a whole bath [and so did I, thats how it works you know] It was a little chilly, but we managed to get through it. The hardest part was getting Mo out of the mud puddle we created without splashing her now-shiny-white-feet! She is such a good trooper. Cold water and a not so hot morning, and she just hung out like we do it every day. Best. Pony. EVER.

To dry, Mo got to hang out on the lawn, eating the good grasses, and we took a walk through the hayfield for more good grasses too. Then it was time to hang out attached to the trailer while I finished packing up and did a town/timmies run. Such a pro, just munched on her hay and hung out.

Finally, I got all my many stuffs together and off we loaded, to go pick up trailer buddy # 1 and the rest of our team at AddaGo, where I have been taking lessons to get ready for this montronious endeavor! Mo was great on the trailer, as usual. I am so lucky that she is such a trailer vetran, for all the waiting around and tying and being patient with trailering things she does for me :) We loaded up all the stuff needed, held horses for booting and finall loaded up. Everyone loaded like rockstars and we were on the way!

The drive was uneventful, if WET. The rain started as we drove off. Oh well. We made it and got a good parking spot right near the escape [err, front] and a water tap! We got organized and Mo was a trailer pro. Out of nowhere poofed this great big tent thing, which was great and made me feel kind of special that we had a tent! Most people seemed to though, still was cool to me. Mo and I then proceded to go on a grand exploration walk! We had the time, so I took her for a walk to all the places we could get to, to see the sights, and plus, I have ALWAYS wanted to be at the Park with my horse. I h ave been there bunches of times to see the big show jumping competitions, and every time I always thought "this would be more fun with my pony...' Well now we were there! It was a really cool feeling.

So we wandered, we watched, we sniffed porta-potties and garbage barrels, generally made sure life at the Park was liveable. Mo was a star. There were lots of good grasses and she is eternally conviced she is wasting away to nothing more than a skeletal version of herself, so she was pleased. We met up with Patsy on our wander, which was a delight! We had also seen Ruth and Alexa from Oakhurst! It is so fun seeing people out and about!

Eventually we wandered back to the trailer, Mo grazed and I had a snack and lots of water. I was determined to have this NOT be one of those shows where you go all day and get dehydrated. Im terrible with that. I think I did a good job. My mom showed up not to much later [YEY!] and she also helped majorly with the whole keeping me fed and hydrated thing :)

We wandered again with Mom, though Mo got to stay at the trailer. Located all the important things, like where dressage was, where the stadium was, and where the porta potties were in case of emergency. Then it was time to warm up! We headed back, brushed Mo and braided her hair prettily in a super nice running braid. She looked so fancy! Sometimes I get distracted with Mo and her prettyness, terrible right? But true. She is just so CUTE! I want to hug her all the time :D

We saddled up, and I made a silly mistake. I put my white pad on TOP of my theraflex pad. Well! Through the course of my warm up and subsequent dressage ride, I practically rode out of my pads because the white one slipped back! Oopsy! Lesson learned, and we survived. Thank you Mo, for being so tolerant and trooping on anyways! Our warmup was good. Mo had some forward, and she seemed content in contact. Our trot/canter was the hardest, as usual. We need to play more with cantering up into contact still. Its way better, but still needs some help. She tried so hard for me though!

We got our tack checked, and off we went to watch Lindsay go right before us. Enter rain. Serious torrential downpour, as soon as we started to head to the ring. Oh well! The show must go on! Lindsay did great with her test, even though Lilly was a little scared of some things. And then it was our turn! Our turn to ride in the mud puddle of an arena, and try and get an accurate test. Luckily, I had my coach calling the test to me, so I didnt have to remember where to go. We had our trot around the outside, Mo did AWESOME with her squeeze between the ring and judges booth! In my head I was silently thanking Parelli for making Walter Zettl such a  big fancy booth beside the precision pen so we had tons of practice riding my those kind of things. Mo didnt even hardly look at it.

We splashed our way into the arena, AXHC at a trot, then continued our splashy pattern. Trotting was good. We lost some momentum on our walks, and at first Mo was convinced she couldnt canter in the slop, but we eventually did and then it was all over, halt at X and salute! I think I was laughing and giggling my way through the whole test. I was so relaxed, and all because of the silly rain! I couldnt believe we were going to do this in the poouring rain, and how could this really be our first event, and HERE at the PARK!

And so, overwhelmed, possibly, with the absurdity of the whole thing, I laughed and smiled and giggled and we slpooshed around, and consequently, things went quite well. The judges said we are a well suited pair :) We scored a sixty something... the paper is still in the truck. We were fourth after dressage.

Then came the break. Between dressage and the two jumping phases, we had about an hour and a half-ish to relax and re-group and give the ponies some time off. Mo got time to play with all her admirers, and give kisses and the like. She is such a diva sometimes :D I love her. Back to the trailer with us, and untack, grasses for Mo, snacks and water for me, and a nice time talking with Mom, Brandi and Jeff until it was time to go again! What a relaxing way to do the day :) It was so so so nice having friends and family there to support us. It makes a world of difference I think, rather than going it alone.

Eventually it was go time again, and this time I opted out of my secondary [purple, this time] pad, because I didnt want issues with jumping. Right about the time Lindsay and I mounted up, the rain came again, slow at first, and then as we walked the warm up ring waiting for Amanda, it poured. Again. Thanks for that, Mother Nature. The warm up area was slippery and I was getting pretty nervous about how the footing would be on course. We had a few silly jumps from Mo over a vertical, but then we figured ourselves out and got it under control. AND SUDDENLY IT WAS MY TURN!!!

We trotted in, said hello to the judges, who we very clever, and sitting in a car. Why sit out in a wet tent, when there is a dry warm car? Exactly. Dont. I do so enjoy such cleverness. I must remember that if I ever judge anything. Have car handy. Yes. So off we went. I was really proud of Mo, she was brave and willing to canter forward. UNTIL. Until the first jump was full of MO EATING FLOWERS! Damn. I really must get thee to a dollar store to stock up on these Mo eating things so I can play with that at home. She stopped. Bummer. We tried again. She stopped again. RuhRoh! Three stops and we are OUT! There was NO WAY I was going home, out of this GRAND PRIX RING, where I have wanted to ride since I knew it existed, WITHOUT JUMPING A SINGLE THING!

Me and Mo had a great pep talk, lots of WE CAN DO THIS! and GOOD GIRL! and YOURE A SUPER STAR! and then POOF, then we sailed over!!!!! YEYYY!!! We arent out yet baby! Off we went, I think I talked to her and told her how amazing she was through the whole course.  I love my horse. We rode all the other jumps, and at seven I got lost and forgot where to go, and sort of said the wrong way, but when I changed my mind back to the right way, Mo was right with me, and turning the right way like we meant to do that [...we did.. of course...] We jumped all the jumps AND in the right order!  AND at a nice forward canter AND I didnt drop her on my landings :) All of this is big stuff for Mo and me. We landed the last jump and crossed the finish line and Mo got hugs and rubs and I finally gave her the reins :D My pony is amazing :D She makes me so proud.

Right from the stadium ring, we were off to cross country, which, ironically, was a nice little cross cournty ride away. We had Lilly and Lindsay from company, while the cheering section took a short cut. We made it alive to the cross warm up ring, and jumped just one X, since we had just jumped a bazillion things, and walked around until it was our turn. Mo was great about the start box. Not a worry at all. Just another squeeze game :D

Into the box we went. There was a very nice older man there telling us what to do, all very calm and efficient. He said he did it for everyone, but it made me feel good anyways, because I wanted to be sure I didnt break any rules and not get to play cross country! Finally we had the GO and off we walked, then picked up our trot down the little hill and cantered to our first jump! Over we go and we are off! We cantered the whole way, except one tight slippy turn we trotted. We jumped ALL the jumps on the first try, and Mo was forward and happy the whole time! She was so relaxed, she stopped for a drink at the water obstacle. Only Mo. I love her. And then, all of a sudden, it was all over! How could that be? We just started! I want to do it again!

I think we were both so adrenalized that we really could have done it all again! It was so much fun, and Mo was so confident! It was GREAT! We even passed our vet check at the end without having to wait and walk, so that was a bonus too. YEY Mo is fit!

And that was the end! We had so much fun, Mo got to go back to the trailer and hang out, and we waited a long time after for placings. Turned out we got Fifth overall, out of seven :) We were fourth after dressage, sixth after jumping [two refusals and some time faults] and then Fifth after Cross country [we were to slow by a whole minute! oops! And here I thought we were flying!] What a cool day! What an amazing experience, for me AND Mo! We both had a lot of fun I think.

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support Mo and me in our crazy idea of fun! It meant the world to us to have you all there! All the love and support  made the day the best it could be :D THANK YOU!!!!



I cant wait to do it all over again in two weeks!!!
 :D
S