Jack's Journal

Yet another great lesson with Jack! I rode in my friend's antares today to try out another saddle. I liked the blocking on it and the deeper seat but there's just no way I can afford an antares. =(

Signa was out at a clinic with her current trainer to try and sell her and she tried to buck her off so that's not going very well. I'm so frustrated with that whole situation because I don't understand why she is doing that. She hasn't bucked when we weren't jumping in a really, really long time. I though we were past this. I need to sell her so bad because Jack needs his surgery and I have to pay the vet bill for his PPE.

It would be easy to say that I was stupid to buy a new horse before waiting to get another, but Jack is so amazing that he is worth the temporary struggle. He has the potential to be exactly the horse that I want and need so I really shouldn't be complaining right now. Just frustrated. Sometimes I forget that I even still own her.... We have 2 people who are asking to look at her for a dressage prospect so I am praying that one of them works out.

We leave tomorrow for the WHJA fall show in waukesha. I'm nervous but I am sure that Lane will help us get thru it. I think that by the time that I show on saturday Lane will have things headed the right direction. It's exciting but unnerving too, especially since I have to work the first day of the show so I won't get to see how it goes. Work = yuck

We dropped Jack and the other horses off at the show today. The other horses were hacked first and then Lane rode Jack. The jumps were all set up in the rings so she was able to take him over all of the jumps that we would be showing over. That's one thing that is nice about the smaller, local shows. The bigger shows sometimes don't let you jump the actual jumps and this will be extremely helpful for Jack.

He didn't peek at the jumps at all. He over jumped the first couple but after than he did really great. He never even spooked at anything which was really awesome to me considering my last horse.

Tomorrow she will show him in low jumpers so I just can't wait to see how he does!

Ok so lots to catch up on!

Yesterday, while I was at work, my trainer jumped Jack in the 2'6" - 2'9" training jumpers. Now, keep in mind that Jack had never been to a show before and had never really jumped a full course before either (at least not of ~14 jumps.) He's also only been schooling in the 2'6" range for about 2 weeks.

He was fantastic! The first class she got 2nd out of about 9 horses! His first round ever was clean! Everyone was asking Lane where we got him and who he was and telling her how awesome he was etc. He took everything so well that people didn't believe this was his first show or that he was an ottb. Unfortunately, Lane went off course the second class, but Jack was great nonetheless.

He was so good that she took him into one of the schooling jumper classes (2'9"-3') and he took fourth!

I rode today and I was impressed that I was able to take him out of his stall this morning and basically hop on and school over fences with only a brief warm up. He did great in the schooling ring chaos even though I was very nervous. My first class was the training jumpers (power and speed) and we went clean the entire course! We were very slow though so I still only got 6th out of 7, but I was very pleased since he went so well. My next class had a separate jump off but I knocked a rail in the beginning so I didn't get to the jump off so we got last.

We considered taking him in some hunter classes too but he started to get a little testy and so we decided to call it and end with our jumpers. I'm extremely impressed with how he did. He never spooked at anything (even with an airport next to the fair grounds and bag pipes playing the entire time from a scottish thing going on too) and didn't look at a single jump.

He really could not have done any better with his first show so I'm supremely pleased. The show ends tomorrow but Jack won't be in any classes, I am going in the morning to watch the other riders and to help pack up to head home. I just can't believe what an incredible horse I ended up with =)

Just one more fun note about our first show. We brought the horses home this morning after the junior riders finished their classes. After we got home the head trainer was asking how things went etc and then asked my trainer if she had gotten "that voicemail about Jack" and she said no. I guess someone saw Jack at the show and saw what barn he was with, called the head trainer and made an offer on him! WELL over what I just paid for him a month ago. We said thanks but no thanks. It's really cool to hear that he's worth that to people. I didn't even know that people made unsolicited offers on horses they saw at shows! I can't wait to see what people think in a year when he's had more training and exposure!

One picture from our jumper class this weekend. I couldn't get it to zoom in all that well, my mom was across the ring but, I don't think I even look all that bad

Happy lesson with Jack! We worked on an exercise today to help Jack with his landing and timing. He gets strung out after landing. So it was a cavaletti-2 striding-take off pole (total of 3 strides)-vertical-landing pole-2 strides-cavaletti, if that makes sense.

We had a really hard time with it at first. The first 3 strides were easy but he lands so far away from the jump that it was impossible to get the last 3 in. We got 2 consistently going left and I could get 3 to the right. Apparently, he doesn't engage his hind end to the right so he has less power so it's easier to pull him up to get the extra stride in. We got it by the end because Jack started to fix his jump stride so he didn't take up so much ground after the jump.

Tomorrow we will do a course. I also asked my trainer if we could shoot to try and do the derby relay at a show next year and she thought that would be fun. I'm really excited for next year because I think he's going to be incredible by then!

Ugh. Is it Wednesday yet? This whole "work" thing is for the birds! I want to ride!!!!!

We had a good lesson today. We worked on a really good exercise for me today. It was just a single vertical, a landing pole and some guide poles on the ground after it. The purpose was to get Jack to land closer to the jump and to get me to recover faster after the jump so I have him put back together to get the lead change between the guide poles before we turn. I didn't do very well, but I did get better. I think it's a very good exercise for me.

It was a little frustrating for me because my ankles are still causing me big problems. It feels like shin splints but on the outside/back of my ankle on both ankles and it hurts so bad when my heels are down. They don't hurt when I'm hacking but when we start jumping they hurt so bad that I have to stop sometimes. I can't get my weight into my heels and so my whole body pitches forward. Add to that Jack is built downhill, pulls and my saddle seems to pitch forward and I'm just having the hardest time.

My trainer keeps asking why I'm torturing myself riding in this saddle but she just doesn't understand that I can't fork out a couple grand to get a new saddle right now (or in the foreseeable future) so I have to cope with this one even though it doesn't work with Jack. We are going to try a pair or jointed stirrups tomorrow and see if that helps.

I pitch forward so much. I just can't seem to get my shoulders back. It's very frustrating.

Ugh, why do they do this? Jack peed in the cross ties (we are working on that) and I went to clean it up and he stepped on my foot. Fortunately he only got the last couple of toes and my foot because if he had gotten the big toe I would have lost it.

Last summer my other horse (the one I just can't seem to sell) stepped on the same foot and only got my big toe. She stepped down hard and then twisted and pulled my toe nail partially out. There was blood and it hurt. The toe nail fell off eventually, but it hasn't grown back right. The nail can't quite get past the skin on one side so it's pretty painful.

Fortunately, the ball of my foot was relatively unharmed so we went on with the lesson. I borrowed a pair of jointed stirrups and I think they did help. I think I was just anticipating pain when I put my heels down so I wasn't getting deep into my seat but ultimately it will help. It's just too bad that the jointed stirrups cost over $200 and I have absolutely no cash so I will have to just suffer for a couple more weeks. =(

If I can't sell Signa by the end of the month she is going to have to come home to my place so I can save money. Unfortunately, she isn't the type of horse that can sit around and not turn into a psycho so I'm a little freaked out as to how this is going to work out. I'd donate her but I REALLY need some cash so I might just have to keep dropping the price but I'm really in trouble on that front.

Frustrating lesson again though. Jack is great but he pulls a lot and my seat is terrible so he pulls me forward and I lose my balance. I'm being told by my trainer that I'm being to hard on myself and that I'm getting better, but I basically just feel like I suck big time right now! We are going to work without stirrups to work on my seat this weekend which is terrifying. If I could afford a different saddle and those irons it would help a lot (and has when I ride in other peoples stuff) but well...

We didn't end up doing no stirrup work because the outdoor was being worked on so we rode in the hunt field instead. (It was way too nice to ride inside).

We worked on transitions and trying to teach Jack to use his hind end properly. Figure 8s with a transition in the middle and then a lot of canter to sitting trot. He seemed like he was getting it and was pretty sweaty by the time we were done.

Then today, I hacked him and I couldn't replicate what we were doing yesterday for the life of me. He was bracing against me and I just couldn't seem to push him up into the bit except for at the walk. It was very strange because he just seemed like he was working so hard to not give to the bit. I ended up giving up on that and just did some no stirrup work walking and halting so we could end successfully.

After I got home we took the dogs to a local state park to go hiking and I came home to log my lesson. Picked up my computer and the monitor is all screwed up on one side! I guess 5 years is pretty good for a net book but considering that my other horse still hasn't sold and our oven just broke, I don't have the money to replace it. Oh well, that's life I suppose.