Why I Don't Want Children...

Looking back on that summer, so many things went south for no apparent reason.

The woman, Jane, who I was helping seemed like a rational, reasonable person. All I did was give advice and suggestions based on what I was seeing and stepped in if asked for help.

Her daughter needed so much help. I was all set to watch her ride and offer feedback when... the meltdown happened.

Oh, this meltdown wasn't in the ring. It was in the crossties. Their dear old lease horse new his job as a school horse and was patient, behaved, and just ever so slightly uncooperative. Mostly when it came to bridling. To this child it was as if his lips had fused together and he grew three feet.
To me it was just hilarious.

The girl kept getting frustrated and angry. She was shouting at her mother, at the horse, at herself. It was painful to watch.

When I was finally asked for help I attempted to make it a learning moment. So, donning my best teacher voice I asked her what the steps to put on a bridle were. She refused to speak. Absolutely refused. All she wanted was for me to put it on for her.
So I switched tactic and asked if she could name any parts of the bridle which I know for a fact she could because she had been at our barn's horse camp the previous year.

Silence.

I looked to her mom for support who seemed to encourage me and then pronounced that I would do nothing with the bridle unless she named at least one part of the bridle.
I wasn't asking for her to know anything complicated. There wasn't a flash noseband or anything out of the ordinary. I would have taken reins or bit.

But instead of answering a simple question she decided to scream instead. I was appalled. She screamed and squeezed out crocodile tears. This was none of my business and beyond my (nonexistent) pay grade. So I sat down and waited.

After maybe 10 minutes of this extreme and erratic behavior her mother calmed her down. Thankfully, the girl finally sputtered out the word reins and pointed to them. I quickly hopped up and explained the bridling process while I did it.

I honesty had never experienced something like that before. But that was just the top of the iceberg with these two. More stories to come!

Life Happens

Things change, people move, college ends, and yet I still have Murphy.
I will go back to recounting my exploits as if someone cares.

Dressaging it Up

So I have entered into the world of dressage. And it's not so scary! Murphy needs to develop his topline... a lot. It's not so much that he didn't use his back properly before. It's just that he never used his back. Which is definitely mostly my fault.

It's funny though. Our canter is pretty much the ugliest thing ever right now, but his trot work has been very impressive. As in, we're actually going somewhere. Forward motion probably shouldn't be so shocking.

Look at the fancy pony!

All is well except for when Murphy got a wee bit tired. He stopped. Dead stopped. No amount of spur or crop was convincing him that forward was a good idea. He wasn't even bucking! Which, albeit, is a mighty improvement on past behavior.

So stressful. It took effort to get him to move, but I couldn't let him just get away with that behavior. Altering the aids helped but I ended up having to circle him and push him out of that into a long-legged, hysterical trot like thing. It was as if he was a poorly coordinated pacer. Ew. But, we worked through it and he is slowly understanding that he doesn't decide when we are done.

Strangely enough, the thing that helps him the best is his new Dressage saddle. After searching for a reasonably priced (read as: I am super poor) I came across an older model used Wintec 500 17" with a medium tree. And it fit him almost perfectly! Not that his CC hunter saddle didn't fit him. It fits alright, but it seems as if the extra space free around his shoulder encourages him to move out and not pretend he is a Western Pleasure pony. Jogging up to a fence is not conducive to the dressage or jumping experience.

Quick! Distract the Murphy with something he enjoys!

Not me riding him.

He gets so happy when he's jumping. Unless he has to work at it; hence the incredibly tall jump here. Which is why we're not giving up on it! I'm kind of going for a Cross-Training vibe. We'll see if anything comes of it, but for now we are going (once again) back to basics - Dressage style!

Oh Weather...

So the weather here has been miserable.  I can handle constant rain and I can handle constant heat. But what I can't handle is rain followed by humid sunshine. Over and over again throughout the day. It's impossible to know which one you're going to get before heading out to the barn.

While I know Murphy would walk with me to the barn in the rain I don't really want him to be grumpy. Just because I would be happy grooming him for an hour as rain pounds against the metal roof, doesn't mean Murphy would appreciate it at all. In fact, from previous experience, he is very sensitive to the sound of rain on metal. So, I'm just here waiting for the rain to stop. I can't even get any pictures! Maybe by the time the rain stops he will look less like a furry monster and more like... a horse!

I had planned to announce our foray into dressage with an amazing post of pictures and (maybe) video, but the weather gods have denied me once again. But you heard it here, we're learning dressage! Murphy loves it! Until he gets tired... then it's back to the grumpy ole Murph I know and love.

It's already been a challenge coming from a hunter background. I still want to perch in my saddle, but luckily our dressage saddle makes that very difficult. Murphy is definitely responding well to the new stuff. My college roommate (who events) wants me to event with her... HAH! The thought of pointing Murphy at a very solid obstacle in a field is hilarious at best.

This is a very rambly post, but does anyone even read this? Nope. So I can talk about whatever I want! Hahaha!

Back From School

So the school year has officially ended and I am now a Senior in college. Wow.

I like to think about less traumatizing things, however, and went to see Murphy-doodle today. The sky was rather ominous though and it seriously looked like it was going to rain. But I have things to do gosh darn it! I decided today would have to be a lame brush and treats day with a sidebar of saddle fitting (Can't wait to explain that). In the process, however, I started speaking with an adult rider at my barn who has just leased her very first horse after riding for about 5 or so months. She is rightfully petrified.

Props to her though. She is doing everything right. The saddle she bought didn't really fit the horse and instead of making it work she went out and bought a better fitting one. She ended up with a Wintec (not entirely sure what kind) that came complete with the easy gullet change system.

Lucky dog.

Anyway, we were talking about all things horse and I gave her a few pointers on her ride that I saw.

Let me preface this next statement with a nice disclaimer.
I am NOT  trainer; but I do go to horse school, take lessons regularly, and own my own horse. So I know a few things about a few things.

This nice woman - let's call her... Jane -  told me she was worried that she wouldn't be able to afford lessons anymore and that her daughter didn't respond well to the trainer who works out of our barn. A large lightbulb went on in my brain and before I knew it I was offering myself as a dirt broke. college student who just wants to be able to pay for her horse's shoes as well as his home.

And somehow I landed myself two students. Huh. Can I handle that?

I mean, I know more theory than most people at my school, but do I know how to teach someone else? Particularly a beginner?

Well we're going to find out!

But in the meantime: Let's get summer started out right! With a week straight of rain... Great.

You do realize it's about to rain, right?

Oh how I love this chestnut pony.

Consistency... That's the key!

So, before I moved across the state I had to drive four hours to get to school from my house. As a result I barely went home and barely got to see my Murphy-doodle. I was worried that he would completely forget everything he's ever known (which wasn't that over-reactive based on past experiences) so I needed to have someone exercise him for me.

This next part needs a little background. My step-sister #1 (SS1) had been riding since she was very small and I only started riding seriously when I was ten or so, and that was Western. When my dad married my step-mom and Murphy was bought for me as a gift (bribe... whatever) I started my foray into hunter/jumpers.
SS1 thought I would suck, but strangely enough I didn't. I'm not the most confident rider but I can for sure pick up new things pretty quickly. It's a marketable skill.

I like being a giraffe!

The point of that is: SS1 thinks she knew more about horses than me. Which she might have. I don't know.

But three years ago I packed up my belongings to go to my horse college as a bright-eyed and bushy tailed 18 year old and I begged SS1 to ride Murphy while I was gone. She readily agreed and I was relieved.

Murphy is the type of horse that needs consistency in absolutely everything you do. If you let him get away with spooking at a particularly scary bush the first time... well, he's pretty much going to do it forever.
SS1 gave me updates periodically in the form of pictures. But never pictures of her riding. I found that strange, but maybe she was the only one there to take pictures.

So one day I ask her specifically what she does when she rides Murphy.
"Oh, since we don't really have a ring I just take him on trail rides."
What? That doesn't make sense... You can ride a horse in the field the same way you ride them in an arena. You just don't have walls. I do this all the time at school. But whatever. I tried to joke off my concern, "That must be fun with my close-contact saddle. Haha!"
"Well I kind of stopped using that since we were only trail riding. I've been putting the Western saddle on him."
...
You've been putting the giant Western saddle on my cold-backed, high-withered, non-trail riding horse?

Needless to say I was not pleased. Nothing I said could dissuade her from what she was doing.

I hate my life.

Little by little, every time I saw Murphy I could see the little changes in his attitude.
He broke SS1BF's (step-sister #1 boyfriend) foot because he tightened the girth too much. When I went to saddle him he would kick out with his hind feet and kick up at me with his front feet when I went to grab the girth.
He just looked like the crankiest animal I had ever seen.

No thank you.

Eventually, the Murphy reports stopped coming. SS1 had stopped riding him and I had no idea why.

Fast forward to this past summer. My family and I had moved across state and now the drive to and from school was only two hours so I knew I would have more time to devote to my baby.

Murphy had healed from his foot injury and we were finally starting to get back into real work. It was miserable.

He would just come to a screeching halt whenever he felt like it and could not be budged. I had spurs, I had a crop, I had a trainer at my new barn. Nothing was working.
One day my dad came out to watch me ride and SS1B came along for... I have no idea, but he was there for some purpose. And he got to talking as he watched me manhandle my animal into working.

"Wow, you really don't take his crap do you?"
Obviously I was intrigued.
"When SS1 would ride him as soon as he kicked out she was done. She probably fell off four or five times because he bucked her off. She stopped riding him after she fell the last time and got a concussion from not wearing a helmet."

No wonder Murphy wanted to stop. He had freaking barely been ridden. He knew that he could get away with anything because he had consistently been told that it was okay for him to ignore his rider because there were no consequences. And he figured it out super quick.

I set a game plan for the rest of the summer. We were going to work on his listening skills. As soon as he got bored or frustrated we were going to switch to another activity and we weren't going to stop until he was listening.

Shock of all shocks, that worked!

I can go faster!

The difference was.... insane.

He was happy to do what I asked of him. And while he was not in the best of shape, he was willing to at least work with me and not against me.

Of course, that is still a work in progress.

I'm not the best rider in the world and am by no means a trainer, but I know Murphy and I know how his mind works. He will only give you what you ask of him and nothing more. And that's only if you ask nicely. But once he gets there you get amazing results. And that's why I love him.

The Traveling Murphy

Most people experience trailering drama at one point or another within their horse career. It can be stressful, but most of the time you can power through it and still have a horse at the end.

Murphy, however, likes to be complicated.

You want me to go where now?

Now, Murphy has been trailered many times in his life. His breeder wanted him to be a trail horse (another story for another time) and she had taken him several places for new trails. After it became excessively clear that he wasn't a trail horse, his breeder taught him to jump and took him to a few hunter/jumper shows where he did.... meh.

The point is: He knows what the freak a trailer is. He's been in them. Gone places. And you know what? It hasn't killed him yet.

So last year my family moved across the state and since I was going abroad to Italy for a semester we left Murphy at his current farm (which was cheap and we knew the owners) until I got back into the country.
This seemed like a good plan (once again, another story for another day).

So the time came to move Murphy to his new barn that I painstakingly picked out for him. But, I was four hours away waiting for him to arrive and had no control over how he was getting there.

Now, as a poor college student I like to take what I can get.
(Ugly burgundy crop to match my "red" horse? Thanks great aunt Matilda!)
So, when my step-sister's boyfriend offered to trailer him over for me the answer was obviously: Heck to the yes!

The appointed time of arrival came and went and I was frantic with worry. What if something had gone wrong? I don't even freaking have this boy's phone number! Blah blah freaking out blah blah blah.
But, he showed up a few minutes later. Apparently his GPS believed the barn was about three miles back on the road.

Mommy, I has an ouchie.

I stand at the window and see my baby BLEEDING FROM HIS FACE!!!
Well... more like bleeding from a few cuts and scrapes.
But to my mind he was going to bleed out in a manner of seconds.

To make matters worse, instead of waiting for SSBF (step-sister's boyfriend) to calmly untie and lead him out, Murphy jerked the rope, breaking the twine, and jetted off the trailer as fast as his legs could back up.

The sight of him did little to appease my nerves. His front right knee was swollen and every single area of his body had at least one bleeding gaping wound. Or small little cuts easily covered with Wound-Kote. Whatever.

Then came the pièce de résistance. He had cut off his left hind heel bulb. Cut it off. It was gone.
I'll spare you the gruesome image, but suffice it to say: No Hoof, No Horse.

I got a band-aid!

At least I got to know my new farrier really well?
And I was lucky enough to have him on hand to help me out with Murphy's first of many bandages. I was also lucky enough to have just studied making foot bandages in school. Yay for horse school!
His first summer back in work and it starts without a foot.

That is just my horse.

What other things can I break myself on?