Back in the Groove

It has been a hot summer in Florida.  While most of the rest of the country spends their summers out riding and competing, here in the land of wilting humidity we use summer as our down season.  Translation for the Farrah pony - working on dressage.  If you recall from previous posts, while Farrah is quite talented at dressage, the entire reason she is now eventing is that she flunked out of a super posh Dressage Barn at the age of 5.

I am sure Farrah thinks this is the summer from h*ll, as Lauren and Farrah worked on submission and all things dressage.  The pair have even attended a clinic or two and while their dressage is greatly improving, Farrah still lets Lauren know that dressage is still Farrah's least favorite phase.

Now that fall is in the air (we get a whiff from time to time of slightly drier, cooler weather) we decided some of us should go school cross country at Longwood Farm in Ocala.  Longwood boasts lots of shade trees, hills and big jumps at a spectacular farm two hours north of us.  What more could we ask for?  Farrah and some of her barn mates made the journey on Monday.

Farrah had an absolute BLAST!  While she did try to bolt off after a jump (or 3, or 5??!!) Farrah gamely took whatever jump was presented and clearly thought we had been withholding all the fun stuff for far too long.  Good thing for Farrah she gets to go to the Florida Horse Park this weekend.  Farrah will be subjected to a Prelim A dressage test before she gets to jump a few stadium rounds, but Sunday they will head out to school cross country again.  Here's to next Sunday, when I am sure Farrah will once again show us why she likes to event so much!



The Red Head as a Ponying Pony?

Who Knew?

Take a fit CCI* pony, give her some time off for R&R, and then make her the lead pony for ponying a six year old on her own pony......does that sound like a recipe for disaster?  I'll admit, at first I was hesitant, but Brylie REALLY wanted to have me take her on a trail ride, mounted, and Anneke was already on Lucy (who I thought might make a better lead pony than my four year old Mia).  When I couldn't come up with a really good reason not to at least try (sans child, of course) and it worked quite well, I took Brylie out on Tara and it was FUN.  And I think Farrah actually thought it was mildly entertaining.  I was too busy watching Tara/Brylie to prevent Farrah from turning the trail ride into a never ending buffet at 4', so Farrah thought the whole thing was simply loads of fun.  The leadline tow strap also provided Farrah with plenty of opportunity for her to reinforce to Tara that the Red Head is #1.

It is now July and time for Farrah to buckle down and go back to work.  How to figure out a way to assist with the $$ for future shows/training/travel?  Anyone want some embryos or have any other great sponsorship ideas?  The fabulous Red Head needs some break out ideas to rejoin the competition fray; the bank of Beth is out of money.  Any Eventing Pony Supporters out there or fundraising ideas for Lauren and I?  Feel free to email us and let us know if you have a great idea to get this superstar eventing pony back in the competition arena and aimed at a Two Star!

Summer Doldrums

I think Farrah despises summer as much as I do.  The oppressive heat and humidity of Florida in the summer time is bad enough, but add to that spending rides working on getting Farrah fit enough to tackle some serious dressage work come July 1 with Lauren and well, you have a Red Head who is really bored.  Seriously, Farrah is thinking she must have died and gone to some horsey hell where there is simply no.jumping.ever.again.

No jumping (and I am trail riding her a bit, not drilling her in the arena) is like taking her to an amusement park with all kinds of great rides but instead of riding them, Farrah has to watch the other kids playing.  Farrah has made it abundantly clear to me that as far as the red head is concerned, this has to Stop Now, or I risk complete meltdown.  I admit, I caved.

Cantering past a small fence I thought, oh what the hell, why not?  I presented the next one to Farrah and I had the most fun loving pony back, joyfully taking small fences and being so good!!  I know Farrah was barely able to contain her enthusiasm, but I swear if I could have seen her face going over the jumps, she would have been smiling!

From Farrah to Lauren, I can just about hear her say "where the hell have you been" when Lauren gets the fit pony back in July!

Bored, fit pony

So what does a fit pony do during R & R?  Apparently the Redhead makes up new things for entertainment.  I guess I am glad she didn't start weaving or cribbing !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxPxdKd9QlY

I walked by her stall many times, trying to figure out where that sound was coming from.  It then dawned on me that it was Farrah so I went in and sure enough, she is flapping her lip on the feeder.  Lovely that Farrah also chose to slowly start dismantling her feeder.  Guess she wants a new one!

Post CCI Update with an Awesome Stadium Picture!

Photo above taken by Kristen Bateman.

I would just like to say "THANKS KRISTEN" as the photo above just rocks!  The fences are 1.15 meters (3'9) and Farrah is just as happy to stay tucked and clear them....that pony sure loves the jumping phases.  If only we could convince the Redhead that agreeing more on the dressage phase is not the end of the world, her overall scores would greatly improve.  Our summer project....DRESSAGE.

Post CCI, Farrah had a bit of swelling midway down her left front leg...probably from a hind foot strike on the XC.  The vet suggested we wait 10 days and then ultrasound, so Dr. Richter ultrasounded Farrah this morning.  Great news!  While Farrah is still tender and a bit off, there is no tendon tear or any ligament problem.  She has some bruising and inflammation, which means we will continue with the icing 2x a day and stall rest, hand grazing and limited "small paddock" turnout and then re-ultrasound in 4 weeks.  Farrah was due for her R&R anyway, I just hoped more of it would be outside grazing!  Oh well.  Farrah is still pretty fit, looks fantastic and continually tried to nip at the vet tech assistant during the vet work up.  In true Redhead fashion, Farrah played up the evil pony routine a bit.  Now to occupy that pony brain for a month without 24/7 turnout!

Show Jumping at the CCI* and some Cross Country Pics

Soraya (JD) got a lovely sequence of the water complex and Farrah at the CCI*.  Lauren said Farrah was fantastic through the water.  I will include the sequence for you, it was really fun to look at the sequence of pictures!

Another good friend and a fantastic groom for the CCI*, Kristen, has some really fantastic Stadium pics on her camera, so I will make sure they make it in the next blog update.  Farrah was really good in the SJ, bold and very rideable.  Lauren and Farrah had one rail, but Lauren said it is hard to be clean in the combinations when Farrah lands so far on the backside of a fence that a normal horse stride ends up TOO SHORT for the pony!  It's a good problem to have.  The announcer introduced Farrah as the "Pony XC Machine" :)  Farrah got her completion ribbon and finished 40th.

And now for your viewing pleasure:

The remainder of the horses competing for Black Dog Farm and DeNeve eventing finished like this: 

Cindy One and Lauren DeNeve, 5th in the Ocala CCI*!!!

Random Chance and Kelly Schutz, 1st in the Training Rider

Black Dog's Top of the Morning and Beth Davidson, 2nd in the YEH 4-year old test.

It was a great weekend!

When It Doesn't All Come Together

Sometimes it just doesn't all work out, even with the best preparation.  After a great show jumping school with Debbie Stephens and a xc school with Leslie Law, Farrah appeared surprised by the fence at 5b and did a fly by.  The remainder of the course rode really well for them and they tackled the water complex fantastically in stride.

Now we pull on our big girl panties and tackle the show jumping with a look to the future.  Farrah will have her planned time off and spend the summer focusing on dressage while we map out a fall strategy.