Rain, rain, and more rain. Inside me and Frankie went. He had the De-Gauge on, and I didn’t have a plan, nor could I really come up with one. So we walked, trotted, and cantered. That was all pretty good.
Frankie was a little tense today, but trying hard. I figured I would run through a dressage test for kicks. He was really good. A little icky in our upward transitions, but everything else was fine. I ran through it a few more times and called it a day.
I need to make a plan for us, otherwise we are going to loose a lot in our training.
Well I guess this is good and bad news. Luckily, he just doesn’t hate eventing so much as to stop mid gallop and start bucking. It didn’t really fit into Frankie’s work ethic or personality. However since he is older, set in his ways, I wasn’t ruling that out.
After having much anxiety about Frankie’s recent weird and reluctant behavior, I finally got an answer. Ulcers.
The unfortunate thing is that the one day format of eventing is much to blame for Frankie’s stress that must have caused the ulcers.
I feel disappointed and discouraged to say the least. He will not be going to any more events this year.
With this news, I know at least for a week or two, I will be riding him a little on the light side. Gastrogard/Ulcergard is a little pricey for me, so I started him on Ranitidine. He needs a dose every eight hours for a month for it to work. Luckily for me (and Frankie), he eats it in a bran mash, so no need to try and figure out how to force it down his throat.
Today’s ride was a little haphazard. With having no real “goal” at the moment, it was hard for me to focus on anything in particular. That being said Frankie was really good. It was really more of a hack than anything.
I gave myself and Frankie two days off. I’ve come to the conclusion that Frankie just wasn’t an event horse. The one day thing was just too much for him. He needs better accommodations and a more structured environment.
When showing him in the jumpers, he always got to the show two days before we even started showing, and even when we rode in more than one class a day, there was usually a break in between. He always had a stall, and even though I was perpetually late for my class, so was everyone else so it didn’t really matter.
Frankie is a jumper. I really want to event, and I think Frankie would excel at it and thoroughly enjoy it. But I don’t think the one day series is his bag.
After much introspection over these two days off, I got out to the barn in a weird mood. Bummed about not eventing Frankie, but excited about getting him back into the jumper ring.
I figured I would keep up the dressage work; it will only help his jumping when we again put up the sticks.
I grabbed Frankie from his paddock and took him into the barn; he was all agitated. Couldn’t stand still, head in the air. He pooped in the isle. Frankie generally likes to poop in one corner in his stall. Outside of that, sometimes when I ride (but very rarely), and if there is a wash stall, always in the wash stall. He doesn’t poop or pee in the isle. Something I really appreciate. Lately he has been doing both. It’s annoying.
Before I had him tacked up, he had already pooped eight times. I would take a load to the manure pile only to come back to another pile. WTF?
By the time I had him tacked up, it had been 11 piles that I cleaned up, only for him to go one more time as we walked out of the barn. This wasn’t my horse.
A short warm up and I started working on transitions, some figure eights, off the rail work, and the collected trot. He was very responsive, doing everything I asked, all with a ton of motor. He was not resistant or tense. However, he did screech to a halt while we were cantering out of no where, swishing his tail. Weird. But he was fine going straight back to the canter.
The ride was actually really good. I got back into the barn and the pooping continued. Two times before I got his tack off, and when I was walking out to the manure pile, he peed.
Grrr.
I hosed him off and put him in his stall. He didn’t have any personality today. There was no Frankie. Sure, under saddle he was pretty good. But I did not enjoy my time out there, nor did I really enjoy my ride. How could I? It was like riding a robot.
What’s wrong with him?
Anybody want to guess in the comments? I’ll give the rest of that story tomorrow.
A Devastating Day – Town Hill Farm Horse Trials 09/05/09
After a three hour drive, we arrived at the event only to find out we weren’t stabled on the grounds. I was asked “Didn’t you receive the email?”; no actually I didn’t. Then after being told “It’s just six minutes down the road”, we headed out in search of our stabling.
[cut to 30 minutes later]
It was dark and we finally found the barn.
Great.
We had to get up early so Frankie could chow breakfast, have some time to digest, load up, drive to the event, unload, tack up, and warm up.
Not exactly what I wanted. I got a stall so Frankie would be more comfortable, less stress, more down time. The idea was to give him peace before the competition; no driving the day of.
Dressage:
I had plenty of time to warm up for dressage. He was really good. I was the first one to go, and no one knew exactly how I entered the ring. I had to go to the judge and ask her. She wasn’t happy about it.
I entered and started Training Level Dressage Test B. As I went for my first circle the whistle blew. I pulled up.
The judge said “You are supposed to be tracking left”, I say “Test B tracks right” she says “You are supposed to be doing test A”.
Great.
To make a long story short, she asked if I knew test A, I responded yes. But I actually only vaguely remembered test A. I forgot it because I didn’t need to remember it, or so I thought. So, I exited and re-entered riding Test A. I remembered it, but it was only as I was going, and I was just waiting for the whistle to blow. Frankie was tense because he didn’t know what I wanted from him. Lots of question during a circle or a transition, not really sure if that’s what I was supposed to be doing.
It was a horrible test. Not Frankie’s fault. I think he would have gotten a great score if I would have gone in riding the correct test.
Score: 38.something
We loaded Frankie back into the trailer, took him back to the stable so he could chillax’ for an hour before it was back to ride stadium and cross country. While Frankie hung out, we again drove back to walk the cross country course and learn the stadium course.
The cross country course was really nice; I was looking forward to riding it. There was a jump into water I was sure Frankie would refuse, but Josh was being Mr. positive thinker and he would not settle for my negative attitude.
I didn’t walk the stadium course, but learned it. Seemed straight forward, even ground, a two stride, and a in and out.
No time to spare, back to get the Frank.
Stadium:
I didn’t want to over-warm him up, so I just trotted and cantered two times around the schooling area and then popped him over the warm up oxer.
Then we stood at the in-gate for 10 minutes waiting for the judge to get there.
Finally, we headed in.
I probably should have walked the course. Only because the one fence we knocked down wouldn’t have been knocked down had I walked the course. I just didn’t have a good line to it. Oh well.
As I left the ring, I was told I needed to hurry down to start my cross country since the stadium had started late.
Super.
score: 4 faults
Cross Country:
I got down to the start gate and warm up area just in time to hear “one minute.”
Fantastic.
I put Frankie into a canter and then into a gallop around the warm up area and entered the start gate at 15 seconds.
Off we went. Frankie was pulling me to fence one. This time, not confused. Fence two was the same. I steadied him around the turn to fence three, and after I softened he stopped and bucked. I resigned.
I was really upset. He didn’t stop at a fence he just stopped. Weird. Depressing. Discouraging. Devastating.
I had put so much time and all my money into this. I could have handled a stop at the water, even a ditch or bank. But to stop while galloping? I just couldn’t understand it.
He was sound. I know he didn’t like the stabling, but how weird.
I loaded him up, and we headed back. I felt like I wanted to give up riding. I didn’t understand. Frankie likes to go, he likes to jump. What was this all about?
Josh tried to give me a pep talk and I was not having it. I wanted to be upset. I needed to feel bad, be angry, and try to process my feelings and better understand what was going on with Frankie.
I had to take Frankie for a spin before heading out to the event. With our horrible ride yesterday, I couldn’t just go with that.
Luckily he was not bad. He wasn’t really good, but he wasn’t bad.
I put the De Gauge on him and headed for the indoor. A quick warm up and we went straight to the dressage test.
He wasn’t bad. That’s really all I can say. I didn’t ride long enough to say give him a chance of being great nor did Frankie come out of the gate being good. At least he wasn’t resistant, spooking, or doing anything defiant.
I was looking forward to a nice relaxing ride. You know kind of care free, even though we have work to do. Nothing too serious, just running through the exercises, not taking anything too seriously.
I finally got my neck stretcher that I ordered forever ago. I didn’t really want to throw a new gadget on right before an event. But I didn’t see it having too negative of an effect. It basically does the same thing as the De Gauge, just in a different way. I even thought a softer way.
When I first put it on Frankie I was surprised that he immediately had his head down. It wasn’t super tight so I left it as is.
To the indoor we went. The warm up started good. He was a little less forward than usual, but listening pretty good. Then he turned into a bastard.
Head straight in the air, trying to look out the doors. Nothing was going on except the pastures were getting cleaned, which isn’t anything that would normally make Frankie interested. So, some fighting and then Frankie started resisting everything I was asking.
I got annoyed. His head was straight up in the air, he was completely hollow, inverted, ugly.
I got off and tightened the neck stretcher in hopes that maybe he would give to it.
I got back on and he started calming down and giving in a bit. Then he started spooking. Not a genuine spook. An excuse to not work and be distracted spook. Over and over and over again. I was not in the mood for this game.
I tightened the neck stretcher a little more so he couldn’t have his head straight in the air. It worked, but he was totally tense and still attempting to spook. I caught him every time before he would with a firm, angry “hey” or “pay attention to ME!”.
He calmed down a bit after he realized I was getting seriously angry.
Then we started going through the test. Trotting down the center line he was a dream, through the corner and the first circle…perfect. The second circle getting a little tense and right before the canter transition he would throw his head up into the air, hollow out, and go up and down. Grrr.
So, we worked on the canter transition to the left, trot to canter. Finally, he was good.
So we could get through that part. Canter circle, lengthening (icky), across the diagonal, trot transition at X, stretching trot circle (perfect), canter transition good, canter circle lengthening (not half bad), trot transition – head straight in the air tense and haunches in the center of the ring. Grr.
After working on the canter to trot transition, then the trot to walk transition without him throwing his head into the air, leaping, hopping, throwing his haunches in, I decided to get off and loosen the neck stretcher.
Then I re-warmed up. He was 20% better, with equates to not very good but not terrible.
To the test again. We ran through it two or three more times. None were great or even good. But none were terrible and he wasn’t throwing his head up and doing the things he was doing.
I don’t think the neck stretcher is what caused his behavior, but I do think if I would have had the De Gauge it wouldn’t have gotten as bad.
No more neck stretcher, at least until we are done with events.
I wasn’t going to ride him tomorrow since we are leaving in the afternoon for a 2+ hour trip. But now I think I have to.
Frankie seemed back to his normal, annoying, obnoxious, overbearing self. I tried to appreciate it instead of getting irritated. It was hard as he would grab my pony tail as I walked in front of him. The chewing on the cross ties was about enough to drive me insane. It was nice to see the ole’ Frank back to his usual antics.
Since we are going to an event on Saturday and we will be performing Training level test B, I thought we should probably prepare.
I put the De Gauge on him and we headed up to the indoor.
20 minutes of warm up is really all it took. He was ready to go and seemed very pleased to be working. During our warm up I first just got a nice, forward trot for about 10 minutes then did some trot/walk, walk/trot transitions. After some canter work and trot/canter, canter/trot transitions that were all very good I decided we should get down to business.
The first run through of the test was really, really good. Not perfect, not great, but surprisingly relaxed and fluid.
I don’t like this test as much. It’s easier to memorize, but it isn’t very fluid to ride. It’s really chopped up and there doesn’t seem to be a good flow. That is where I thought Frankie would struggle, especially at first. He didn’t though.
The canter circles were a little difficult and I doubt we will get a good score on them if we ride on grass. It’s a lengthening canter circle and with the ring as small as it is and Frankie’s stride as big as it is I don’t think, even if I ask that we will have a huge lengthening of the stride. Not out of disobedience, just because Frankie isn’t stupid and he won’t get a huge canter going on a small circle if he thinks he might not have the footing to hold it.
We ran through the test about 5 times or so and I really don’t have any big complaints. Our canter/trot transition at X was good, but his trot after the transition was tense and rushed – every time. His stretching trot circle was fantastic. But that never seems to be as good at the event as it is at home.
I guess I was impressed because I hadn’t actually worked on this test since before our first attempt at an event where we scratched because of the footing. So I didn’t really understand a dressage test until I rode one for the first time. When I did practice this test before it was just terrible. We have actually come a long way in a very short time and that is really cool.
It was a good ride. Frankie seemed happy, but ready to go back outside. I think the days off and the banana’s did some good!
Ride time: 40 minutes
Equipment Update: So I have been meaning to let everyone know about a great product I found. Frankie had become girthy about a year ago. It all started when my tree was widening by about 1/8″ after every ride. The tree was broken and it took me a little while to save up and have the tree replaced. So to make a long story short he started, understandably, resenting the tightening of the girth. Then, even after the saddle was fixed, he was just plain girthy. I thought it would go away but after a 6 months it was possibly getting worse. Biting at me, at the girth, at his chest before I even tightened it.
I was thinking of getting or trying one of those super expensive Le Tixerant girths that are supposed to be a “miracle” for girthy horses. However, I couldn’t spend the money. So I went cheap. The professional choice SMX girth. Even that was a little pricey so I went with the off shoot of that. It looked exactly the same.
Poof! No more girthy horse. It took about 2 weeks, but he is no longer girthy AT ALL!
After having such a bad day yesterday, I wanted to make sure Frankie hadn’t decided he was going to shun my requests for good.
Josh set up a few jumps all at 4′+ with a warm up vertical. I warmed up quickly and got right to business.
He was still a little weird to ride. Not sore, not ADD, not being bad, just not my horse.
I was just letting him be—to the warm up vertical he just wasn’t there. One time there was either going to be a long distance or a tight one, either way he needed to adjust. I softened to let him choose. Normally he would move up. He did nothing and we crashed through it.
I needed to ride him. He wasn’t going to put anything into this. We hopped over the warm up a few more times until I knew what I had.
Then I started over the bigger fences. He was tough to ride because he wasn’t taking me to the fences. I’m used to that. Even when he is being good and not charging the fences he is still taking me to them. He wasn’t being bad, he just wasn’t him. He wasn’t excited, happy, or enjoying himself at all.
Finally, I went for the bigger of the four fences that were set up. A 4′4″ vertical. First attempt, he hit with his hind legs. It wasn’t a great distance, and he wasn’t about to try to get out of it. Second attempt was better, but still no try.
The third time he did what I asked going to the fence, got close, cleared it, and landed nicely.
Good boy.
Frankie’s heart wasn’t in it today. That makes me sad. Yesterday’s rain-soaked event really took it out of him. I think he is a bit burned out from all the dressage and then going to that horrible place of wetness. I almost feel like he thinks he was being punished.
Frankie loves to jump, he always has. Even when he’s being bad, he’s having a good time jumping. Even if he’s knocking rails down, he’s usually at least enjoying pissing me off. Today he was doing his job mechanically. Going through the motions. I felt like I was experiencing bad marriage pains in riding Frankie today. You know—we liked each other during the ride, but the love just wasn’t there.
It really made me sad.
I’m going to give Frankie the next two days off. Hopefully he will be so bored work will be fun again. I’ll go out and spend some quality non-riding time with him. I’ll groom him, give him a banana, and hopefully re-kindle our relationship. Time for a little breather.
Valinor Farms Horse Trials: Frankie’s not a Mudder 08/29/09
Even though there was supposed to be a hurricane/tropical storm/super crappy rain we decided to make the trek to our next event.
This was our first go at no stabling. 3:30am wake-up call and loaded and on the road with Frankie at 5:00am.
It was raining—not just raining, it was pouring. It was miserable. Everyone was soaked, including Frankie.
DRESSAGE:
Our dressage test was pretty good. I had about 45 minutes to warm up, and he sure needed it. We would have done way better, but our walk was atrocious. Mostly because of the rain, but also because our walk sucks. Our canter wasn’t great because Frankie didn’t want to go forward too much because of the rainy, wet, and sloppy conditions.
Score – 35 Place after Dressage – 4
STADIUM:
After a four hour wait, Frankie in the trailer and Josh and I in the truck; you could say we were happy to get out but unhappy to get out into the rain. Frankie hadn’t eaten or even attempted a sip of water. He was pissed off, I took my spurs off because he was jumping out of his skin. The downpour hadn’t let up and it was sloppy, wet, and just plain terrible outside.
Our warm-up was terrible. Even though Frankie was hyper, he was totally backed-off because of the footing and the weather. I couldn’t get anything out of him. He was jumping the fences fine, but getting to them was a difficult ride. I had no horse.
I didn’t walk the course—just memorized it. There was a combination (one to a two), a bending line (three), and another line (four), from what I could tell.
I watched two horses go before me, and could tell it was slippery. The course was hilly, and the majority of the turns needing to happen were all on hills—downhill. I wasn’t feeling good about it.
So we went in, and Frankie was being soooo careful. His usual ginormous stride was teeny-tiny, and I had nothing to work with. So we just cantered, slowly, to the bottom of every fence. Luckily, those fences were small so, we left them all standing. I suspected we had time faults though. We added a stride in every line, and the one stride was even a little long.
Faults – 4 time faults Place after Stadium- 2nd (tied)
CROSS COUNTRY:
This event featured cross country right after stadium. No wait. We had about 10 minutes to switch tack and clothing if necessary.
Josh and I were talking about scratching. I really didn’t like how Frankie was riding. I thought the course footing looked good when we walked it, but the actual weather alone was just terrible. I kept weighing the pros and cons. I really felt like Frankie was going to do the water, the course looked like fun, and nothing seemed too difficult for him. But the weather just didn’t agree with Frankie. He just couldn’t get himself comfortable. Even if the footing was okay, I don’t think he trusted it. Plus, there were a lot of hills with a few really steep ones that did worry me.
I decided I would go jump-by-jump.
We started, and the first fence was a small log. I actually thought he might stop because of a giant puddle he would be landing in. He didn’t stop—but I sure didn’t feel like I was riding my horse.
Jump two was a really small log set uphill in the woods. Frankie actually hesitated about five or more strides away from the jump, so we trotted that fence. Up another hill and down some more. We were in a trail in the woods.
Still going downhill, jump three was drop. I decided to trot down the hill to be safe. He was a trooper down the drop, and through a really big, deep puddle afterward.
So drop, giant puddle, then a turn to fence four which was a double hanging log that sort of had a drop to it. Both in and out were on a slope. But before Frankie even saw the fence, he slammed on the brakes. I tried to get him forward, and he basically told me to f#@k off! I tried a little more, and then realized that he was done. Done, done, done. We retired.
Score – Eliminated
I was pretty pissed off. I don’t like a horse that say’s f#@k off. We un-tacked, loaded, tried to dry off, and hit the road.
After some thought, I realized I would have told me to f#@k off too. What a terrible day. Terrible conditions, all with barely any sleep, a long drive, and not enough calories.
Frankie is particular. There isn’t anything wrong with that. He needs a good rider. He needs a good nights rest. good food, plenty to drink, and he doesn’t want to be soaking wet. I think those are fair requests he might have in order to put his all into something.
Including me, there were 15 training level entries at this event. Four withdrew before the event started. A fifth withdrew before the cross country. Of the ten remaining riders, four people finished the cross country with two going clear and two having 60 faults. Those odds aren’t good. And at some point, there was a loose horse on the course, so somebody had a worse day than I.
I don’t think the cross country course was that difficult. I do think the weather was an advantage for those horses who are unaffected by the weather. Frankie however, is proving to be very weather adverse. I think it’s reasonable to expect a weather weary horse to still perform in the rain. Though rain is one thing, today’s downpour was something completely else. It was a monsoon. I’m going home not pissed off.
The place with the dry water assured me that they had re-filled the water complex, so I thought it would be a good idea to try to get Frankie through some new water before our event.
Luckily, as they said, it was filled.
Surprisingly, Frankie walked right in. Good boy. He trotted and cantered right in too!
He jumped out both at a bank and a very small vertical. We tried jumping in, at the trot and he put on the brakes. Dirty even. BAD FRANKIE! But, he did then jump over the small vertical into the water at the trot and canter.
Dropping into the water was another story. Frankie said NO WAY! Codi came with me and she got in (with sneakers!) and tried to lead him down. NOPE! So, I hopped off and got into the water. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen; all four feet were touching as he tried to figure out how he was going to get down the bank.
This was definitely not a safe thing to do. I had just put the reins over his head and stood in the water, not in front of him, but he was looking like he was going to land on me. But, he slowly, shaking scared to death, put his front feet down into the water. Then one by one, his hind feet.
We did this about 2-3 times at all three of the drops.
Then I got back on. At the walk we did the drops into the water again. It was slow going, but he did it. He began to not want to do it so I upped the pace and that seemed to help.
We had a distraction of another horse that arrived to school the water. This horse hated the water more than Frankie. They asked us to try to have their horse follow Frankie in. That horse said NO! Codi ended up helping by coaxing the horse with a bucket of grain.
I was a little worried that Frankie might feed off this. But he does absolutely despise other horses, so I don’t think he would copy another horses behavior.
After a short wait, we tried again. First attempt dropping back into the water Frankie said NO. Second try he went in. After a few tries in and out of the water with the final one having zero hesitation I called it a day.
Good boy Frankie. Maybe we are at least 30% more prepared than last time!
Kristine Oakhurst encounters mud, splashes, grass stains, and dirt on the Road to the Rolex 3 day Event. Follow her and her partner, Frankie as they start from scratch after making the switch from Open Jumpers.
