Gotcha!

In light of Treenie's latest attempts to take off with Molly, I made an emergency trip to the local tack shop in search of a pony sized pelham. Fortunately, they had one and we were able to try it out on Friday before the horse show. Below is a video with Treenie in her "normal" bit - the double twisted wire...believe it or not, this is not Treenie at her worst. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being horriffic) this this is about a 5-6. Her antics last week were about an 8-9!

Here is some video of the horse show this past weekend - with the pelham. What do you think?

Big difference no? It seems that we have found the answer - for now - until Treenie pulls something else out of her bag of tricks. However, the pelham has really seemed to have given her something that she never really had before - respect. I hope that this is something we can just build upon and will be able to keep moving forward now! Molly LOVED doing the short stirrup hunters.

I had an interesting phone call this morning - it was from the woman we bought Treenie from! She needed a phone number of a mutual acquaintance. Anyway, she asked how Treenie has been and I told her fine. I did tell her about the latest development and the move to a pelham. She told me that would use a kimberwicke when Treenie got bossy. Maybe for a few weeks until she remembered who was supposed to be the boss and then would go back to her normal bit. I felt a lot better because now I know that this is the pony and not us! I also felt that I was handling the problem correctly. So I guess I DO know something!

Molly really held her own in the short stirrup hunters this weekend. She needs to work on the finer points or riding courses in a show - like getting her lead changes consistently, but up until now, the priority has just been to get to the jumps. She has all winter to perfect things. She is definitely ready to move up though - maybe I need to update the title of the blog to Adventures in Short Stirrups?

This coming weekend is our big "local" dressage championship show. I am really excited about it. Molly could take it or leave it. She really does not realize that there are very few kids her age that do dressage. The fact that she is competitive at 9 with adults is a huge accomplishment. I just wish she would appreciate it!

Ladies Who Lunch

Doesn't everyone love to get dressed for a special lunch date? If Molly and Treenie ever get invited to tea at the Plaza, they're ready - boas and pocketbook terrier included!

This past weekend was our barn horse show - it was a long and busy day concluding with a costume class. For once, Molly was ready and had been planning Treenie's costume for weeks - several trips to the Halloween store (fortunately it was in season this time!) several rummages though the costume box and several combinations and permutations of accessories until finally, the PERFECT outfit! If Molly could have figured out a way to get Treenie to wear high heels believe me, she would have had that pony tip toeing around!

By the end of the day, everyone was beat and the whole appeal of the costume class had worn off of most everyone at the show. A few die hards stuck it out to watch and pretty much everyone who had entered had scratched, but Molly had put so much effort into her costume that they found a few girls to fill the class so they could run it for Molly. It was worth it because it made us laugh so hard we forgot how tired we were!

So here's to Miss Treenie - to Molly she truly is "My Little Trinket"!

(I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille)

Devil Pony Rises Again!

Oh Boy, the evenings have been getting chilly and Devil Pony seems to have resurfaced!

We are having a barn horseshow this weekend (at regular show prices I must add). Everyone has been practicing for it over the past month. The course is set and last night the jumps were all decorated - just like a real show!

The really good news is that Molly has been able to sit up and steer Treenie to every jump - no run outs. The bad news is that now the little devil has decided that if she can't run out she will grab a hold of the bit, bear down and just run. Molly seems to handle it well, but it must be a little scary and it is definitely NOT pretty - what happened to our cute little hunter pony?

Molly's trainer said to put her anti-grazing reins and martingale back on - I'm not sure these are what she needs. As Molly was putting her things away, I made an emergency call to one of my sales reps who also happens to be a bit expert. "Hi T - Treenie has turned back into the Devil - the DOUBLE TWISTED WIRE that she currently has isn't working - what else can we do?" Of course T who has become a dear friend over the years, reminds me that she told me a while ago to get a pelham. So, after discussing the pros and cons as well as broken vs mullen mouth, I now have a mission today so that we can try it tomorrow. I happen to agree with T - once Treenie gets grabbed by the curb chain a few times (probably twice to be exact) I am pretty confident the game will be over. She is devious, but not mean or stupid. She is really the queen of evasion. So, we shall see if this does the trick - I wish I had video of last night - it looked like a combination of pony jumpers and pony race horse!

This is cute pony....

I know!!!

How many times has your child/children said that to you when you TOTALLY know that they don't know? It drives me insane because apparently, at 9 years old Molly knows everything. (Which translates into I know nothing). I guess I just have a child genius on my hands and have never recognized this gift.



Today Molly showed at our local hunter show. The weather has been so nice and fall like until today when it turned back into summer and 90+ degrees. Of course! Because of the heat, they were trying to move the show along so they were not splitting the classes that would normally have been split. As a result, Molly had 11 in the mini stirrups. We are a little burned out with showing at this point, that I really did not care as long as it meant we could get home sooner.



The classes were fine and lasted about 5-7 minutes each. Even though there were 11 kids, there were a good 3-5 that were really not competitive - you know, basically hanging on by the seat of their pants. Molly was either 4th or 6th in every class - nothing higher and nothing in the middle - just 4th or 6th.



Schooling for the cross rail class was a little crazy with 11 horses and 3-5 kids who could barely steer - add in one stupid short stirrup rider who insisted on schooling with the mini's and was trying to jump the diagonal lines! Anyway, Molly KNEW how to school the course and kept encouraging Treenie to canter down the lines. Now she does know that that is not our plan. She is supposed to trot in and trot out both lines. She finally got it right after 3 times around so we quit before poor Treener's dropped dead on us.



Molly was 5th to go - as the 3rd kid was going I started going over the plan with Molly - 1) they specifically said no opening circle so get a nice trot as soon as you get in. 2) Get lined up with the first jump and look straight down the line. 3) Keep your heels down and eyes up... at this point I got the "I KNOW" smart remark. Rather than argue with her I told her to watch her mouth and dropped it.



So, in she goes - points 1-3 were great. I was sure she was on her way to a great ribbon - maybe even winning it. The she jumped the 3rd jump and proceeded to let Treenie canter down the line towards home. That's it - pack up and go home because now she was no longer consistent. I was livid! Molly totally knows the plan - she also totally knows how to sit up and whoa to get Treenie back to the trot. There was no excuse for this other than that she wanted to canter.

Surprisingly, Molly ended up 4th for the class - considering the inconsistency, I thought she got lucky. Molly on the other hand thought that it just meant that it wasn't so important to stick to your plan.

I REALLY need to send her to a show with her trainer as opposed to me. Hover, there is a problem with this - Our barn really only goes to stupid recognized shows which charge an obscene amount of money - the closest for example charges $25 per class, $25 Grounds fee, $17 Drug fee. Add to that $60 trainer fee and the dinky mini or short stirrups - which are unrecognized end up costing $202!!! And that's if I bring the pony over - it is another $85 if I pay for trailering. I'm sorry, but I just can't swallow that. Especially when we have been showing all summer for $65 on the cheap end and $80 in the high end. I have tried to encourage these guys to go to some of the local shows, but they are just not interested. It also kills me that my friends buy into this whole hog and just fork over butt loads of money every month when they don't have to.

So, it looks like Molly and I are stuck with each other for next season also - I just wish that she would realize and accept that I really do know what I am talking about and just listen to me - I know - never going to happen!

You've GOT to be kidding me!

Each week at camp they have "dress up". The kids come up with costumes for their horses/ponies and they have a parade. Of course, we are always scrambling at the last minute because you can not find costume stuff in July/August! I had the brainstorm that we could use our "Man in the yellow Hat" costume and Molly could be Curious George.

Here is my poor Lexi being the sport that he is (the painted saint) and Molly with 1/2 of her CG costume. I missed the "main event" of the costume extravaganza, but apparently, all of the kids were different characters from the Curious George cartoon and Lexi actually carried around Molly and another girl at the same time.

Lexi is a good boy - you can literally do anything to him - however, take a good look at the expression on his face - "I will not hurt her, but YOU will pay for this!" Fortunately we left for vaca the next day - I think he forgot about it.

Dressage Divas

Whew! We have had a whirlwind summer! I thought things would just coast along, but we were BUSY! Molly continued to horseshow throughout July and August - we even worked some of our vacations around her showing.

The kids officially kicked off summer with a "family" week at the beach - I stayed home and had a VERY nice week to myself. Then things jumped into full swing with camp and Thursday Dressage Shows.

Despite the fact that Molly has told me she hates dressage, she has continued to get REALLY good scores in the intro tests ( she is consistently scoring in the mid 60's!). We all even did the regular schooling show in June (Molly, me and the lady who 1/2 leases my horse ALL showed). We all got great scores - I even broke 70 for the first time! We also ALL qualified for our GMO dressage championships! Only the lady who leases Lexi is going to go. Molly, K and I are saving ourselves for the smaller local championship show.

There are some people "in our circle" that downplay our successes because we only do local/schooling shows. The bottom line is that we really only have local/schooling show level horses ( my poor horse broke his hip for crying out loud). I scribe and work at a fair amount of horseshows - I am totally open eyed to the fact that we would be completely outclassed at recognized shows. And you know what, that's okay because we found an appropriate arena to compete. We are competitive at these shows and we have fun. That's what it is all about. So we will continue to compete for our local year end awards and GMO awards because it's fun. I am sure that everyone reading this blog knows that horses and showing cost way too much to not get any enjoyment!

Both Molly and her best bud K have gotten really positive feedback from the judges. Helpful, constructive upbeat feedback - just like in the mini stirrups - NOT! This is one of the reasons that I push Molly to do this (and the fact that I am a BIG dressage fan and it is something we can do together - Lexi's hunter/jumper days are over.) I keep telling Molly and K that they will appreciate this background in the future. After all, who can argue that learning to keep a steady rhythm, make round circles, bend in the correct direction and keep your horse straight are not skills everyone needs to master?

So, since the only lessons Molly has had were during the 3 weeks she spent at the barn at camp, I set up real dressage lessons for her and I with a real dressage trainer at a real dressage barn! Molly is not so thrilled, but I can't wait! I have not had a lesson since before Lexi broke his hip in November. It just did not make sense to me to pay for lessons for myself while I rehabbed Lexi when Molly certainly needed the instruction. Balancing the costs of two horses is a challenge.

September and October will be busy show months for us. Starting this weekend, I will be at a show either with Molly or with my lessee just about every weekend. The hubby is not going to be thrilled but this is the big finale and the last push for points for year end awards. Before you know it, winter will be here and shows will be hard to come by!

Can I Help You?

This is what we see when we go out to get our pony every day! I had seen these fly masks on the web and thought they were really cute, but they were really expensive. I immediately thought - hey, I can do that! So I picked up a cute pony size fly mask and some cool colored permament markers and let Molly go to town with her design. She was really excited to do it and it is kind of cute - especially with the pink floppy ears! By pure luck, we managed to get the "glasses" right where Miss Treener's eyes are.

Molly showed again this past weekend - it was our local hunter show. Because of the holiday weekend, I really did not know what to expect as far as turnout - well, I guess the "staycation" theme has caught on because the show was packed! I could hardly find a spot to park our van and unload! The classes were huge and as a result, many of the divisions were split into 2 sections. It seems like they split the mini's by age as Molly was again in the B section. The first group of kids seemed young compared to Molly's group and they only had 7 kids while Molly's group had 9. Also, all the kids in Molly's group were pretty much at the same skill level. I have to say, it was good company this weekend because the kids were all competent mini riders. Once she finally got going, the classes ran pretty quickly - Molly was 3rd in the Eq, 4th in the pleasure and 5th in the figure 8. For some reason, she just can't seem to get the figure 8 down - the shape was better but still not 100% - oh well, something to work on.

Molly also won her cross rail class! It is the 3rd jumping class in a row that she has won - it seems like we have figured out the secret formula for this class!

This is my first attempt to upload video - it is from the FOD show a few weeks ago - Molly won this class also. At least you can finally see some action!

Thursday is our local dressage series again - I was hoping to make a nice Mom/Daughter day of it as I was scheduled to ride my musical freestyle. Unfortunately, my horse slipped and has 8 stitches on his ankle! So I guess it's pony groom for me! I am sure that Molly will do well - if only she can figure out how to make ROUND circles!!