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2016 4-H Horse show and WGHA Hunter Pace #1

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How show season officially kicked off this weekend for Sawyer Family Farm.  Friday evening was spent in the barn trimming hooves, kids clipping fetlocks and bridle paths, washing ponies, braiding manes, and loading the trailer.  The kids elected to spend some allowance to buy a sleazy for each pony to keep the mane a little nicer overnight before a show.  Devil didn’t seem to care about his purple sleazy as long as it had a hole to eat through.  Nike was less impressed with his green sleazy, although I believe he has likely worn one many times before.

Saturday morning, everyone was up by 5:30 for breakfast and to load ponies.  We were at the CT 4-H Horse Show by about 7:45 and spent over 9 hours on the show grounds.  It was a bright, sunny day and great weather for showing.   The Barnyard Buddies 4-H Club was represented by Alex on Nike, Vicki on Devil, and Alexis on Ace.

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L-R Devil, Vicki, Nike, Alex, Ace, Alexis

The 4-H Horse Show starts with Showmanship.  All exhibitors must do Showmanship to participate in mounted classes.  There was a bit of waiting around since Showmanship is one at a time.  Vicki got the highest score of the three in Showmanship, but in reality, none of the three enjoy it or put much effort into Showmanship.  They prefer to ride.

Throughout the day, Alex and Vicki were competing against each other.  Vicki only moved up to walk/trot/canter classes for 1 show last year.  There were 9 junior (under 13 as of Jan 1st) riders in the English W/T/C classes for Equitation (judging more of the rider position), Pleasure (judging more of the horse’s movement), and Discipline (correctly executing the movements within a specified time).  Alex got 5th in all 3.  Vicki got 6th in all 3.  Alex was simply happy to beat Vicki.  Vicki was disappointed, but I think it finally made her realize it is harder to show in those classes than she expected.

There was a fair amount of waiting in between classes while the senior riders did their classes.  Devil and Nike were both extremely well-behaved.  Nike is a seasoned show pony at 23 years old, so I think he was explaining it to Devil.  One thing about Nike is that so many people recognize him.  At this show, an instructor we had never met recognized Nike from when she taught the girl who owned him more than 10 years ago.  He is one of those gems that makes the rounds in the local barns teaching kids how to ride.

Vicki chose to enter the English Trail class.  In that class, the kids must ride a specified pattern that includes various obstacles such as a wooden bridge, weaving cones, and ground poles.  One obstacle was to stop the horse in a box made from jump poles with 2 front hooves outside the box and 2 rear hooves inside.  Then side pass the horse keeping the pole between the front and rear hooves, including a 90 degree turn around a corner.  Vicki gave it a noble effort, but Devil just didn’t understand what she wanted and they didn’t complete that obstacle.  However, the next obstacle was to back your horse through 2 cones, make a 180 degree turn around a 3rd cone, and continue to back out between the original pair.  They completed the series flawlessly and the gate attendant mentioned Vicki did better at that than any other rider she had seen.  In the end, Vicki was thrilled to learn she won the class!

Backing around the cones
Backing around the cones

Throughout the day, Amanda was very well-behaved.  Her favorite event is the cake walk, which she looks forward to all year.  She is very outgoing and always manages to find a new friend.

At the end of the day, the Gymkhana classes were held and included Bending Poles, Arena Race, and Barrels.  This year, the W/T/C Gymkhana classes had 6 entries: all juniors and all riding English (which is a little different).  It was nice to see some kids entering just to have a fun time.  Devil was the smallest pony in the class and it showed in his times.  The short legs make it hard to outrun the bigger horses.  Alex was the most experienced in the class and as a result, got 1st in 2 of the events and 2nd in the 3rd event.  That was good enough to win the Gymkhana Division (and gave him 6 total wins over his sister).

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Alex and Nike running bending poles

After a long day, we headed home.  Luckily Chinese takeout was on the way home.  We unloaded ponies and ate a quick dinner.  After dinner, the trailer was unloaded of some items and reloaded with others, because Sunday was the 1st West Greenwich Hunter Pace for the season!

One really nice thing about the WGHA hunter paces is they are close.  Since it is only a 15 minute drive, we can get up at 7 and still make it to the ride with plenty of time.  Today, Anna rode Dakota with Alex on Nike, Vicki on Devil, and Alexis on Ace.

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Amanda and I hung out at the trailer and I worked on changing out the interior trailer lights to LED lights while they were gone.  They rode 11 miles in about 1:54.  As soon as they got back, I could tell it hadn’t been a relaxing ride for the group.  The fatigue from showing on Saturday had a definite impact causing some melt downs (Vicki) on the trail.  Compounding the problem, Devil is in the best shape of his life and was full of energy and giving Vicki some trouble because he wasn’t tired at all.   After a filling lunch, everyone was feeling better.  Anna scored 3rd in her division and the kids placed 4th in the junior division.  It was amazing to see 14 junior teams at the hunter pace today!  Next time, maybe we won’t schedule the kids for 2 days of events.  Maybe.

4th place in the Junior Division for the kids and 3rd in the Hilltopper Division for Anna
4th place in the Junior Division for the kids and 3rd in the Hilltopper Division for Anna

Tonight, I will be picking up a new horse for a pre-purchase trial.  It will be after dark by the time we get home, so stay tuned for new pictures later this week.

horse, kids, Uncategorized

Horse updates

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Last weekend was family trail riding.  Amanda rode Huey for 6 miles, including about 3 miles of it by herself, off the lead line.

This morning, Alex and Vicki had a jumping lesson with Pony Club.  It was a nice cool morning and they both did great.  Both pairs, Alex/Nike and Vicki/Devil are very well matched and we hope they will have a lot of fun together this summer.

There are no photos, but King went back into work this week.  He has recovered better than we expected from his EPM.  He has definitely lost a lot of fitness over the winter, so it will be a long, slow conditioning program.  We are cautiously optimistic that he will be in the 60-70% that are able to make a complete recovery from EPM and resume full activity.

Today we said farewell to Echo.  While we loved his personality and got along great with him, he just wasn’t quite the right match for what we are looking for.  So, our search for the next horse resumes.

endurance, horse, kids

A cold, blustery day

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This morning we awoke to just under an inch of snow.  This has been one of the weirdest winters (and now springs) since we moved to CT 10 years ago.  By the time we went out for morning chores, it was still snowing, but the snow on the ground was melting.  By lunch, the wind was blowing enough to drop the wind chill a fair amount and the snow on the trees was turning to ice.  So we went for a trail ride.

Amanda came to breakfast in her mermaid wrap that was made for her at Christmas by a family friend.

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Today’s trail ride featured 6 miles of an air temperature about 37F, wind chill in the 20s, and ice constantly hitting us (and the horses) as it blew out of the trees.  There were only 4 of us on today’s ride: I was on Echo, Alexis on Ace, Vicki on Devil, and Alex on Dakota.  The 3 ponies did great.  Echo was great for the first half.  When we hit the turnaround point, I moved him from lead horse to last horse.  He didn’t care for that and it made the second half of the ride more interesting.  He wasn’t bad, but he didn’t want to trot behind the others.  It is definitely an area we will have to keep on working on.  I did decide to run him out a little to burn off some of the energy (the ponies were all happy to keep trotting along quietly as we pulled away for a couple of minutes).  Echo established a new top end speed today at 25.8 mph.  He sustained higher than 20 mph for 1/4 mile, but we had to pull up when 3 of his 4 boots had come off and were holding on by the gaiters. I’m not really convinced the Gloves (hoof boot) are designed for speeds above 20 mph because that seems to be when we consistently have problems.  I also rode Echo in an S Hack today for the first time.  I was overall satisfied with the control and stopping power.  The advantage of riding in a hackamore when doing trail/distance riding is it is easier for the horses to stop and eat/drink at breaks along the way.  Next weekend we will do a longer conditioning ride with  at least Dakota, Devil, and Echo as we continue to prepare for our first 25 miler of the season in May.

 

endurance, horse, kids

Easter Fun

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This morning the kids were up and hunting eggs at 7.  There are no pictures, because like I said, the kids were up.  They did follow the “rules for the egg hunt”.  Vicki decided to make up rules for the Easter egg hunt and posted them on the fridge yesterday. Here are the rules:

  1. No waking anybody ’till 7:00.
  2. No starting to gather eggs ’till everybody is up and ready.
  3. No opening eggs ’till you are inside (plastic eggs filled with candy).
  4. No stealing eggs from other egg hunters. (Amanda’s rule)
  5. No bikes. (Amanda’s rule to prevent the older siblings from having an advantage)
  6. No candy before breakfast.
  7.  Have fun!

Apparently, it was also a competition (because Vicki is quite competitive) and there were pre-determined criteria for the winners.

1st place – Golden egg

2nd place – Silver egg or most eggs

3rd place – Least eggs

It took about 30 minutes for the egg hunt to be completed and judged.  I know this, because at 7:30 Amanda showed up in our room crying because she lost.  Actually, she got second, which was evident when Alex got upset because a 5-year-old beat him.   Vicki collected 70 eggs including the golden egg (can you tell she is competitive).  Amanda had 43.  Alex had 39.  There was no sympathy for the losers.  We had a discussion about losing.  Not everyone wins in this family.

Earlier in the week, we spent almost 6 hours (4 of which included all the kids) working on cleaning up the tack room in the barn.  Saddles and bridles were cleaned.  Tack was reorganized.  Items were identified to be sold.  This morning, we cleaned up the tack room in the horse trailer and then loaded the trailer to haul out for a trail ride.

Today was the first time we ever hauled 5 horses and ponies in our trailer so the whole family could ride off-site.  We have a 4 horse slant load trailer, but the rear tack folds flat.  Devil and Huey have no problem sharing that space.  We left them loose like in a stock trailer and they had plenty of room to move and turn around.  We hauled out to Arcadia, which is less than 20 minutes away.  Amanda has been on many trail rides with Huey at home, but this was the first time she got to ride him at an away event.  Anna still keeps a lead line from Dakota to Huey.

The weather was nice in the mid 50s by the time we were ready to ride and we opted to ride from the Midway parking area, which gives immediate access to nice open fields.  The ride wasn’t as peaceful as some, because Amanda kept yelling “Faster!”  “Canter Huey, Canter!”  We knew her stamina wouldn’t be great with the trotting and cantering (and the temps).  Huey was a rock star.  He walked, trotted, and cantered at all the right times.  Amanda had a blast.  She is definitely a speed demon.  While she probably isn’t ready for the hunter paces quite yet, she is light years ahead of where Alex and Vicki were at her age as far as trail experience and confidence goes.

Amanda was satisfied after 4.3 miles in 50 minutes (a 5.1 mph average).  When we arrived back at the trailer, there was a quick change of Alex off Nike and onto Dakota.  Nike and Huey stayed at the trailer with Anna and Amanda while Echo, Dakota, and Devil went back out with Alex, Vicki and I for another 5.7 miles.  The second outing was almost all trotting except for short walk breaks and a little cantering at the end.  Alex and Vicki have decided they plan to join me for a 25 mile ride in May and it’s time to get kids and ponies ready for the ride.

The second round was a good workout for all involved.  Devil is the one we are most concerned about because his legs are so much shorter than Echo’s and Dakota’s.  We determined that Devil was able to maintain a nice consistent trot up to almost 8 mph.  We were able to average 6.3 mph on our second round, which is well above what we need to average to complete the ride in May.  With the kids, faster is actually better because time in the saddle and keeping them fueled with calories will be the biggest challenges.  Alex and Vicki tested out wearing their Camelbacks during the ride and that seemed to work.  It eliminates them needing any kind of saddle bags and allows them to sip water continuously during the ride.  We also bought both of them triathlon shorts to wear under their riding pants to reduce the risk of rubs from 4-5 hours of saddle time as we increase the distances.

By the time we wrapped things up, temps had dropped back into the 40s.  Everyone was happy to get home, unload all the gear, do evening chores, and head inside for dinner.  We enjoyed some Easter cupcakes for dessert made by Anna, Vicki, and Amanda.

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Vicki will ride anything

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It’s true.  Vicki is fearless when it comes to horses.  Every horse that comes on our farm is a target.  She isn’t satisfied until she gets up in a saddle on top of the horse.  Today, she finally got to ride Echo.  I started by working Echo in the arena; it’s not that he needed me to work anything out, but rather, we needed to work together.  Anna sat in the corner barking instructions “Support with your inside leg!” “Inside leg to outside rein” “Thumbs up! You have piano hands!” “Push forward!” “Loopy reins!”  I have flashbacks of Ann Bowie every time Anna gives me a lesson.

Echo has been doing very well with basic dressage training.  He is very light when I ride with a loose ring, french link snaffle.  He will collect, but it is clearly work for him.  It’s amazing how he has so much forward energy on the trails, but is actually a little lazy in the arena (so am I).  He has already shown improvement at his canter transitions and picked up the correct lead every time today.

About half an hour into my ride, Vicki came out of the barn wearing her helmet, boots, and half chaps.  She took up position on the swings to watch, clearly expecting her turn, so we gave her some saddle time with Echo.  At 16.1hh, Echo is a little taller than Devil (actually about 15″ taller).  Vicki was riding in my 18″ saddle which is a little big for her, but she did great handling Echo.  If Echo continues like today, he will achieve King’s level of sainthood with the kids.  Vicki did walk, trot, and canter work with Echo for 30 minutes until our light was fading and we returned to the barn.  Then she assisted me with a few more trailer loading drills with Echo.  I think we have that problem taken care of at this point, but he still hesitates just a little, so we will keep at it until he is as reliable as the others in the herd.

With temps in the low 60s, I don’t know of a better way to spend a March evening.  At dinner, Vicki was comparing and contrasting the ride on Echo to King, Dakota, and Devil.  Devil is still her pony, but I have the feeling she is looking at her options for the future and already sizing up my new mount for herself.

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Riding weather!

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This year has been one of the mildest winters we have ever experienced in CT.  The nice weather means more time in the saddle on the trails.  On Sunday, Anna, Alex, and I went out for a ride with some new friends (including Echo’s owner).  We rode about 8 miles and the temps were in the upper 50s.

Our long time friends, Jeremiah and Tracy Minner have been in the area for a few weeks while Jeremiah is in school in Newport.  Anna and Tracy have been getting together with the kids for activities a couple of times each week.  Today, Anna took the kids to Newport where she and Tracy took them to The Breakers and spent time walking along the cliffs and shore.  Then they headed back to the resort where the Minners are staying for some time in the pool.

When I got home from work and it was 70F outside!  Anna and the kids were still in Newport, so I saddled up Echo for some solitude on the trails.  This was my first time taking Echo out alone and it went great.  We headed out without a specific agenda.  I put some Gloves on him for the first time before we went out.  It is quite rocky on the forest roads and I see it as cheap insurance.  Echo has been ridden in Renegades in the past, but I prefer Gloves for jumping and wanted to see how he did in them.  We didn’t have any issues with interference or boots coming off.  It was a short sleeves day when I headed out, but I put a lightweight wind breaker in my pack just in case.  By the time it was getting dark, temps had dropped to around 60 and there were a few drops of rain hitting me, so I put on the jacket.  Echo kept on moving while I flapped a jacket around and got it on – it didn’t phase him in the least.  The last mile and a half was a good 30 minutes after sunset.  Echo didn’t have any problems continuing to trot down the trails in the dark.  It was nice to do a ride on a horse that moves forward and isn’t afraid of every shadow.  I a really enjoying his pace and I think we will be a good team.  When it was all done, we had covered 9.5 miles – not bad for a weeknight.

I’m looking forward to more riding in the early spring weather!

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Echo, Echo, Echo…

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The weather has been great and the horse activities are in full swing.  Alex and Vicki participated in a Pony Club games clinic on Saturday afternoon and again Sunday morning.  After a quick bite of lunch, Anna and I loaded Dakota in the trailer and headed out to meet “Oh Electric Echo”.  We have been in conversation for a while with Echo’s owner, and today was out test ride.  We joined up for a trail ride that was about 5 miles long.  Everything seemed to go well, so our trailer returned home with 2 horses instead of 1.

It was after dark by the time we got home, so a couple of pictures in the barn was all we could grab.  We did get a nice group photo from the ride.  In the group photo, Anna is the second from left on Dakota and I am the right hand rider on Echo.

Echo is an 11-year-old (12 in May), 16.1hh, chestnut Arabian gelding.  He did 3 limited distance endurance rides last year.  From our test ride today, he has a serious go button, but was very confident and not nervous on the trails.  We encountered a number of logs and small things to try as jumps, and I think he has a good mind for jumping (even) though he has no experience jumping.  We have Echo on a 6 month lease to try him out, with a purchase option.  This summer promises to be a very busy horse riding summer for the entire family!

 

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Horsin’ Around

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Today we said farewell to Misti as she was returned to her previous home.  We owned her for 10.5 months, but she just wasn’t the right fit for us.  Of course, you will have to stay tuned to future updates, as I doubt there will be an empty stall for long.

On Friday, we got a nice fresh 9″ of snow.  Saturday afternoon, Alex, Vicki, Amanda, and Alexis (who boards Ace here) went out front for some more fun in the snow.  Alexis and Vicki have decided to get brave and do bareback jumping with their ponies.  Amanda was happy to ride around on Huey, but every now and then he would canter to catch up to the others.  Vicki had to take a short turn to work with Huey.  I took over 300 pictures, so I had to choose only the ones that really captured the moments.  Enjoy the pictures!

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Snow riding

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Yesterday brought the first snow storm of the season and we got about 6″, which was perfect for some fun with the horses.  This morning while working on chores, Vicki and Alexis disappeared.  We discovered them riding bareback on their ponies in the front pasture.

Alex and Amanda finished their chores and spent some time trying to build a snow fort.  Mack was helping.

After lunch, we saddled up all 7 horses for a short 4 mile trail ride.

We had a nice relaxing day on the farm with just the right amount of snow!  The day ended with a pretty sunset as we did the evening chores.

 

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Renegade Hoof Boots

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renegade boots

Not every boot fits every horse.   While we use a lot of Easy Care products on our own horses, they fall short for horses that tend to over reach with the hind feet.  There is nothing quite as frustrating as a ripped gaiter right before a competition. Dakota really taught us a lot about this issue last year when training for our endurance ride.

Renegade hoof boots have a molded plastic cage design that captures the heel bulb of the hoof.  It is particularly effective for horses that tend to over reach.  Additionally, Renegade boots are easier to put on and remove than the Easy Care products.  I am now offering fitting and sales of Renegade boots.