Dressage Boot Camp

Since the ES clinic in October Bentley has been in dressage boot camp. In fact, we didn’t jump at all until this week. And the “jumping” we did was very minimal over very small jumps. But, it was also a huge improvement from the clinic! I love dressage! Going back, taking the time, and putting my focus into his flat work has really been paying off.

This past weekend I hauled him out for a dressage clinic. He hadn’t been hauled off property (other then to the vet 🙄) since Rebecca Farms in July so I had no idea how he would be. Plus we were riding with someone new to both of us. It could have been entertaining!

He is a really solid traveler but is always a handful to deal with on the ground in the riding areas. As we entered this gorgeous arena he promptly stood on his back legs to let everyone know he had arrived. Because there was a lesson going on I decided just to walk him in hand so I didn’t disturb them any further. He spent a good 5-10 minutes going between walking normally to rearing then running backwards. I’m pretty sure the spectators (although they all thought he was gorgeous) and the clinician thought I was crazy. Once the other lesson finished I hopped on and walked him on the buckle. The clinician said “you’re an eventer aren’t you” 😂

Once on him he settled right into work and we had a fantastic lesson! Thankfully I know him really well so I knew he would settle down once I was on him. She told me that I was spot on with what we need to work on as far as getting him more supple in his body and getting him to take bigger steps. We went to work doing a 4 loop serpentine with 10 meter circles every time we hit the wall. From there we progressed to nose to wall leg yields (and doing transitions with in those), leg yields, and going from shoulder in to renvers at the walk and trot. 

What I really appreciated about her was that she would have us do a task and whether or not he did it well we would go right back onto a 20 meter trot circle to put the pieces back together and then go try again. He seemed to really respond well and we didn’t rattle his brain at all. By the end his connection was much stronger and his stride length had increased significantly. She had really nice things to say about him and I think he pleasantly surprised her after his terrible first impression while entering the arena.

There was a videographer there and since I don’t have any flat video since Rebecca I got it taped. Definitely glad I did! 

We are headed to the indoor trail course this weekend and have our normally dressage trainer lesson the following weekend. Looking forward to an educational winter!

The Boys are Back

Breaking news... ALL three of my horses are currently rideable! I’m sure it won’t last but I’m going to enjoy it while it does!

Mystic and I had our first Dressage lesson back and it far exceeded my expectations. That Pony is ready to get back at it! He moves back to my main barn Friday. We also celebrated 7 years together on Monday. How lucky am I?!

Tolo and Mystic have been rooming together 😃

Tolo, the forgotten free loader, is free loading no longer! The kid that owns the barn he is at has taken him on and they are a wonderful pair. Tolo is definitely enjoying the increase in attention and a job. Plus he has been on his best behavior. The time off seemed to reset his brain and the kid is loving riding him!

Bentley has recovered from his larynx/eye problem, his rabies vx reaction problem, and his “I can’t be barefoot behind” problem (he pulled his own shoes it was not a planned barefoot experience). His nice little 3 week vacation ends today! 

I did get these cute pictures from our clinic last month. He is adorable if nothing else 😉

BWB (Bubble Wrap Boy)

I’m not sure which higher power I have pissed off in the last two years but I feel like my luck is non existent. Between the three of my boys they have done some weird 💩. 

Let me just highlight Bentleys 2017 for you so far:

-cellulitis (actually had it 3 times in fact)

-popped two splints

-choked 

-had scratches

-tore up his back leg

-cut his eye lid

-cut his larynx (yes you read that right) and was bleeding out of his nose for 4 days (nothing the vet could do about it)

-had a reaction to his rabies vaccine

-has pulled 10 shoes 

I have not even owned him a year yet. Wtf! He gets iced, linamented, wrapped, and BOT after jump schools, he gets his legs betadine scrubbed all winter, he gets daily mash with his supplements, he sees a chiropractor, I see him/check him over 7 days a week, what more could I do?! After thinking about it, between all of his extra curricular activities this year, he has had about 3.5 months off.

Currently we are at 2 weeks of no work (haven’t been able to ride since the clinic) due to the time off for his larynx to heal and the addition of the rabies vaccine reaction right after he had healed up. Due to his love for our vet he has been named BWB, or Bubble Wrap Boy, by one of my friends! 

I’m really hoping he doesn’t have anything else in store for me the rest of the year. Some days I truly think it is a miracle he is still alive with all the crap he has done to himself! People keep telling me it has to stop soon. I can only hope! He is signed up for a Dressage clinic in December. Anyone want to take bets as to if he will get to actually go or not? 😂

Clinics are not our thing

My biggest take away from our three day clinic was that my horse is NOT a clinic horse at this point in his jump training. Private lessons or no clinic at all for us at this point.

We had a dressage lesson a few weeks ago that was very basic and simple but really helped him relax into his flat work. We had some awesome dressage schools leading up to our jump clinic and although he hadn’t jumped much since coming back from his injury I thought we would be fine.

Day 1 was flat work. It took him about 20 minutes to settle into it but we actually got some nice work in and had some awesome canters! ES emphasizes forward (the horse taking you not youbising your legs every stride), straight, and regular. With straight meaning hind quarters following the shoulders, following the poll, on any line you choose. He has a man of keeping things as simple as possible while getting the most out of your horse. Something we should all strive to do! He definitely shows us how much we over think things. 

Day 2 was stadium jumping. This is where I learned the most about my horse. Because the group lessons were 1.5 hours I didn’t warm up (more then a 10 minutes walk) on my own before. Getting he flat work before jumping is obviously important with every horse but particularly with this one. Unfortunately, because it’s a group, you just have to get going with the rest of them and I hadn’t gotten to chance to even canter before we started a pole exercise that quickly turned into a jumping exercise. The jumps were always fine but the inbetween was not fun. Easily the worst jump ride we have ever had. He was very strong, ripping the reins out of my hands, etc. It was so not fun. So much so that he even asked to get on Bentley at the end. He very, very rarely ever gets on horses at clinics! He went back and did some flat work (what we had needed to do) and made some progress before calling it a day. 

Day 3 was XC day. To day I was dreading it would have been a fair statement. He had only been out XC once since Rebecca Farms (in July) so I knew he would be prettt hot out there already. He was again strong, ripping my reins away, flipping his head, and had an extreme lack of brakes. Not exactly the ride you want to have. Especially since we had a super jump lesson with our normal trainer the week prior. By the end he was slightly more rideable and his terrible behaviors became less and less but I, unfortunately, left thinking I had over faced my horse too much with the group situation and feared I had just set us back. It’s not that he didn’t jump things, or even that he didn’t jump things well, it was just his over all mental state. He actually jumped things quite well and did some hard things that he hadn’t done before such as:

Training log bending to novice coop

Training chevron to an angled novice roll top 

Training corner!

 There was a professional photographer there so hopefully she caught some good moments! When we were in the air it all felt great 😉 Back to the drawing board. We have a long winter of dressage and pole work ahead of us 😳😃

My Heart ❤️

Not much to say other then this horse is my heart. I will probably never trust any horse the same way I trust him. How blessed am I to call him mine?

I went 3.5 weeks without riding. And today I got to ride both of my favorite guys. Doesn't get much better then that 😃

11 Days

11 days is what it took before my normally fairly easy to handle baby OTTB lost his marbles on stall rest. Technically he started losing them on day 10 but was somewhat manageable. When he gets hot/excited he loves nothing more then to stand on his back legs and black stallion it. So we spent most of our walk yesterday doing that with the tail straight up and snorting. In his defense there was a lot of barn traffic with the eclipse and a clinic. Today however was just him losing his marbles!

  Second bandage change last weekend

I took him straight to the round pen to hand walk and within 3 seconds of leaving his stall he was airborn 😳 Once in the round pen all of his hooves were not on the ground for a solid 5 minutes. And when I gave up and decided to just let him loose in the round pen it took me another 5 minutes to get his lead rope off. The dude needed to blow off some steam! Thankfully he only carried on with his antics for a couple of minutes and it seemed to be just what he needed. Thank god he didn't have a tendon/ligament injury! Not sure he could handle that without drugs.

From bandage change 3 days ago

My regular vet is coming out when he gets back in town and I'm hoping for a shorter time frame of him being off work. He needs his job back!

Because who needs a show season?

In true Bentley fashion he has managed to earn himself yet another 2 weeks off of work. 

In case you didn't know... getting your back leg OVER the top of your paddock fence doesn't end well. How or why he decided that may be a good idea beats me. Sadly that means no Caber Farms. We were supposed to leave two weeks from today. Instead we get to spend our August wrapping a leg wound and hand walking. Thankfully he didn't get both legs over. And thankfully it all seems superficial so it's just allowing the wounds to heal. Because of the location on the front of the hock it may take a little bit of time. If all goes well he can go back to work in two weeks. We will hope for that!

Very thankful that I was at the barn teaching when it happened so t was caught instantly. Poor guy thought his leg was falling off. Non weight bearing (not because he couldn't be just because it hurt), reaching around and smelling his leg, kicking it out, etc. He thought his leg may need to be amputated! I have an amazing vet friend that came out and got some sedation on board, since he was very painful, so he could wait for the vet in a little more comfort. The vet put a bandage from his hoof up to his hock, gave me some antibiotics, and called it good. 

So for now I will leav you with some Rebecca pictures while I email the next show secretary and hope I get my money back 😩