That one time

I rode in Ireland.  So I took a huge trip last April and then promptly took an unplanned break from blogging and then never shared it with you guys.  Soooooo many adventures happened, not the least of which was riding a couple horses.  My jump trainer here spent some time in Ireland years back (circa 2000ish) and when she heard I was going gave me the name of the brothers she rode with.

So much fun

*fast forward to driving to Phoenix with her a few weeks ago.  She didn't realize that I would actually go find said brothers who have a farm in Northern Ireland.  She hadn't actually talked to them in years and had to find their e-mails via google.  She was a little worried considering they are quintessential Irish guys who throw you up on anything and say, 'go jump!'  I told her no worries, they were just like eventing racetrackers.  She laughed, agreed, and I think finally stopped feeling guilty for possibly throwing me to the wolves.

Back to my point.  I conversed with them via e-mail and then text and finally a phone call the morning we headed over.  We had spent the night near the Giant's Causeway and their farm was about a 2 hour drive south.  Backing up though check out these pictures from the northern coast.

Just us surprising local folk with our matching red hair and American accents

Can I just look at this all day?

Hellz yeah I walked over that (rope) bridge (Carrick a rede)

Giant's Causeway

I took so many pictures.  Anyways back to riding.  We arrived at the farm, I just had on jeans as I didn't want to be presumptuous, but yeah I had helmet, breeches, and half chaps waiting in the car.  This was the one place I somehow failed at taking pictures, don't hate me.  One of them was riding in the outdoor ring and promptly hopped off to show us around.  The barn was huge, full of stalls and tack rooms and indoor arena and an upstairs office/kitchen/lounge.  There were a bunch of working student type girls tacking horses and grooming and cleaning.  After some introductions and chit chat he asked if I wanted to ride.  I resisted the urge to jump up and down and clap my hands, but did dash to car to change in the back seat.  When I walked back into the barn all suited up Trevor's eyes about fell out of his head, he said something about how I could have used the bathroom to change, my husband just shook his head.  I was legged up onto a cute bay gelding, he was a good boy albeit dead to the leg.

Smiles for days

 I jumped him around a bit while he coached one of the girls.  I felt rather uncoordinated as he was a kick ride,which I hadn't done in a while.  Eugene (my husband, I always call him hubby here, but his name is Eugene) mentioned that I was used to something a little hotter, aka she gallops at the track.  Once I had sufficiently proven myself I got to get on another horse.  She was so cute!  Her name Juniper and I wanted to take her home.

Hay and bedding storage at one end of the ring

Neat perforated metal walls, blocked rain/wind but let in light

 He told me to ride around and get a feel.  I had to promptly put her to work as she was a spook, but she was light on my aids and willing to listen.  He had me go over some little things and I fell in love a bit more.

Mini brick wall

I think these jumps are 3' or 3'3"

 Then he said I could do the bigger jumps.  They felt small, but then when I was back on my own two feet I realized they were actually decent sized.  Well she jumped around like a champ and I couldn't stop smiling.  When I got off he informed me that he was very pleased to see her go around so well as he was the only one who rode her since she liked to stand on her hind legs no less than two weeks ago.  Alrighty.  She had just done well at a show the weekend before and guess I was her first ride back.  Thank goodness Eugene is used to me riding assorted horses.

Juniper's adorable face

 Then we went upstairs for tea and called Steph on video chat at 7am Idaho time.  She was flabbergasted and we all had a good laugh.

Inside one of their two lorries

And outside

 We settled into the worn leather sofas and traded stories for over an hour.  They really hit it off with the hubby wanting to hear all about American racehorse training.  We could have just stayed the whole day!

Arena is on the backside of these stalls

Not too bad

Happily munching away on hay

Bridle wall

Saddle wall

 Sadly the hubby kindof failed at getting very many pictures of me riding, no worries though it was still amazing.

Check me out waiting for the jump

 We talked about several celebrity status eventers.  They have supplied horses to many people in the US and even rode on the Irish olympic eventing team at one point.  Here is a link to their facebook page: Smith Brother's Eventing

Gallop track around the cross country course

Bank complex

Water jump

Overall it was so worth the drive and time.  Eugene and I both had a blast.

First Event Derby

Flash back friday here.  This show happened after the two day Jan clinic( day 1 day 2).

Who really needs to touch the ground anyways

 My horse arrived at the show relaxed and ready for business.  After watching Sprinklerbandit put in a good test I went and tacked up.  Prisoner cracks me up, it doesn't matter where I trailer to, he is 100% patient until I start to put his bridle on, then he decides that it is time to walk somewhere as I fumble with the buckles.

Pony face

 I did lots of walking around in the warm up, letting him relax and find out that it shouldn't be stressful.  We did eventually walk, trot, and canter.  He stayed rideable and mostly unconcerned about the other horses.

Someone needs a smaller saddlepad

 Finally it was time to go in the ring.  Other than wanting to look and the tiny arena fence instead of where we were going, he was pretty good.

Floating

 He loved the free walk as he always does. I got a confusing score of 6 on it though, with the comment good stretch shown.  Ummm, a 6?

Stretching

Still stretching

 I definitely left some points on the table.  Mostly due to getting a bit rushed here and there as well as having not practiced in an actually dressage arena and having questionable geometry.

Not really tracking up

Over all I was really happy with it.  I don't remember our exact score other than it was in the mid 30's.  No complaints there since I knew right where I could have fixed things and shaved more points off.

Derp face at the judge

Happy with the effort

I forgot my gloves, shame!

Courage and Bacon had stalls, so I figured that Prisoner could enjoy the trailer.  It wasn't too hot, and he had a nice full hay bag.  Then it was time to walk the xc course, peruse the tack store trailer, and cheer on friends before I tacked up again.  I typically get way more nervous in xc warm up than I do on course.  There is just such a mix of nerves and emotions from all the other riders, combined with the lack of control from some pairs.  Prisoner was perfect though, calm, controlled, jumping well.  Sprinklerbandit snapped this picture before I headed to the start box, it pretty much sums up how I was feeling, relaxed and uber happy.

Smiles for everyone

We headed over to the start box, chatting with friends, petting my horse, and suddenly it was time.  I had been envisioning this being the first event on our path rolex #dreambigmuch?  He came out questioning but willing.

We got this

The first few jumps were very simple logs, a great way to start the course.  Oh, by the way we were signed up for Beginner Novice (2'7").  We cantered between, but I chose to come back to the trot for the jumps so that he could feel his most confident.

Ears pricked, ready to go

We hadn't schooled this jump the day before

But he was still willing

It felt like things were really starting to roll along.  He was just a tiny bit sticky, but still willing to go forward when I closed my leg.

Green but going

 We had a nice canter into the next field, and coming into the blue barrels (back at the trot)  I actually can't remember if he spooked at the jump judges on the hill (or if a different horse in previous years did), this is what happens when you do a show write up 6 months after the fact.  Either way he jumped it well and we were on to the next jump.

It was a little coop that he had jumped on the very first try the day before.

This one

Well, right as he should have been going over it, he ran sideways.  I smacked him once with the whip and came back around, but he said game over here is my middle finger (hoof?), take me home.  I was kindof flabbergasted.  I pretended I couldn't hear the jump judge telling me to leave and proceeded to trot over cross rails on my circuitous route off the course.  This was a schooling show, with the specific mention that if you weren't dangerous you could finish the course.

We got this

While rather (wildly) disappointing and frustrating, it is horses.  I couldn't take it personally, it was just time to keep training and put one hoof in front of the others.  We had several successful jumps, and I hadn't felt my old enemy fear creeping in, so I would focus on those.  They say the good horses are never easy, so keeping that in mind we would live to fight another day.  The best part?  Being surrounded by friends (and watching Alyssa make her first Novice look like a freaking walk in the park)!

Giant bag of trail mix for the drive home?  Check.

Trials and Tribulations

I haven't been here much so most of you are unaware that Prisoner has been less than perfect for jumping recently.  What!?  He is a horse so I guess I can't really complain, but for the first six months of our love affair I was more of the opinion that he was a magical unicorn.  Don't get me wrong we are still making progress and taking steps to get to the other side of the funk, but the process always seems so slow.  JUST WANNA JUMP ALL THE THINGS!  Finally on the last day of our trip we did just that.

Most favoritest picture right now

 Let us just say it was quite the process to get to this point.  Wednesday I took him for two very long hand walks, we sniffed jumps, ate grass, and walked through the water (yay Dubarrys).  Possibly I should clear up that sentence, I did not personally sniff the jumps or eat the grass, just held the lead rope while Prisoner did so.

Posing dramatically as the sun came up

Day one walkabout number 2

The lady taking the above picture is over six feet tall, sitting on an over 17hh horse, she successfully made us look like a little girl and her pony.  Anyways, that evening I hopped on and Steph rode her cute 4yo thoroughbred (not off the track) and away we went for an awesome walking trail ride.

Prisoner didn't put a foot wrong, I wasn't even fighting open space/trail riding phobias, the day was grand.

I'm free to take pictures since it looks like these guys have watching both sides of the trail covered.

The next day was Thursday and with all the Novice and Training riders in our group getting coached there was no time for both of us to ride so I stole an hour when I did lunch chores and went on another trail ride.  This time I put on the hackamore that I've been playing with (if you are guessing that it is actually Sprinklerbandit's hackamore you are correct), again he was perfect.  I couldn't stop grinning.

Looking back towards stabling 

Headed out to play in the water jump

Coming back in from the ride I had to ride through a tiny gate and go around the moving backhoe and dump truck, P-diddy did not even blink an eye.

Proof of his braveness

Friday we had a 7:30am jump school before things got crazy over at the show.  It was 50% awesome and 50% terrible.  I think there is video on someone else's phone, need to find out.  He warmed up well, trotted over logs and through the water, went over some bigger jumps like no big deal, I was thrilled.  Then we went over to the tiniest baby single riveted ditch.  The last ditch we did was at a show and he seriously drug me over it like it was the most fun jump ever.

See this is the ditch at the show, whee!

Well, not that day.  We walked around it, then we trotted a circle, got lined up and came back to the walk so he could think, then we trotted a few steps and instead of going right over he reared up and ran sideways. Gah.  He did that one more time so we went back to walking around and around it until I could feel his brain come back.  Then low and behold, over it he went, seriously Prisoner wtf.  We went over it several times and then went to go back over some jumps.  Problem, he thought he should try the rearing at jumps he had already gone over previously.  Back to the logs we went, then the bigger logs, then the coup (in the first picture) that he had already done.  Nope.  He reared up so high I may have dropped a rather loud F-bomb.  We proceeded to do other jumps and leave that one for another day.  If there is something I've found out over the last few months with Prisoner, don't turn something into a fight, he will not give up.

Day back in May that I found that out

We finished on a pretty positive note over other jumps and let me just say, this horse loves water!  Also I had him in the hackamore which has been working great for jumping at home, we are thinking that is was sensory overload for him on xc though.  Later that day I took him out for a very peaceful graze, we made our amends.

Complete bliss

Saturday evening we went for what was supposed to be another jump school.  I'd been watching xc all day at Rebecca and was pumped, we were going to rock.  I put him back in the bit (loose ring kk knockoff) and out we went.  Right off the bat I was wondering where my horse went.  He was tense and ringing his head and spooky.  Except for the few bad jumps the day before he had been bomb proof, so I was really feeling caught off guard.  I figured he would find his normal happy brain at some point so we walked on.  His horsey friend AM was a little up as well so we will just blame it on the witching hour.  Only thing is AM calmed down and had a decent work.  To let you know how off kilter Prisoner was, we were walking along when seriously out of no where we reared up straight in the air and hopped to the side.  Reason?  There was a tiny hole in front of us that apparently contained fire breathing monsters.

Horses don't give a s**t about time budgets

Let us just call that ride a total wash, one positive was we walked through water again, turns out he does that even with no brain, winning.  I was pretty upset, referred to both of us as being terrible for the ride, Steph said to not be so extreme and it just wasn't our day.  We headed back over to the show for some xc course walks and such and I held it together.  Then I drove myself back to Herron Park (where I was camping with the horses) and tried really hard to not cry.  Pretty much though by the time I got there I was convinced that I couldn't ride, ruined horses, had no talent, etc, etc, blah blah blah.  It was a dark place.  I did proceed to scroll through pictures on my phone (the perks of rarely deleting them) and caught onto a small shred of hope that I wasn't a total POS.  I went and snuggled with my horse for a few minutes before crawling into bed.  The day wasn't a total loss though, I picked up this book and forced myself to read some before I passed out for the night.

Thank you Jane Savoie!

I haven't finished it yet, but seriously guys if you are struggling with self doubt you have got to read this book!

Sunrise happiness

Sunday dawned a new day, showjumping was insane over at Rfarm, I've never seen so many rails go flying.  Roundabout 3 we went over to Herron park for the baby novice olympics, aka two girls having too much fun with their horses.  Step one put on great outfit.  Step two walk down centerline, halt, and salute for funny dressage picture.

Possibly best back drop ever

Then it was across the fields for warm up, Steph looked back at me and I gave her a big thumbs up, my horse was feeling like himself again!  Off we went galloping around, big grin back on my face.

Can I just build a house there and never leave?

We popped around some little logs and then strung a course together.  He went right over the ditch, did a line through the water, did some new jumps.  We would land, I would kick and give my hands so we could eat up the ground.  The failure of the day before forgotten, I could finally finally imagine us at an event.

Jump into the water

Splash!

Like no big deal

Best day

Lots still to work on, but success was had.  We ended on an awesome note and then just hacked around while AM did a bit more.  Get this, here we are in a massive valley walking on the buckle while his friend gallops away and towards us and past us, Prisoner never even pricked his ears.  We were just a horse and his girl triumphing over unseen ghosts of the past.