Scout's First Show

On December 1, 2012, Scout attended his first show - at least the first show he has been to since I have owned him. My sweet friend's daughter, L, asked to borrow him when her pony sustained a knee injury. The funny thing is, she hadn't ridden him in months, so she came over the evening before, rode him at the walk, trot and canter (in the dark), cleaned him up the best she could because it was cold, we locked him in the stall for the night and loaded him up first thing that Saturday morning to take him to the schooling show.

When we unloaded him, L walked him around for a bit, then I lunged him and rode him in the warm up arena. Surprisingly, he was VERY good!! L hopped on him and warmed him up and they seemed good to go!

L with her Mom:

Pretty L on Scout pony!

L was wise and entered Scout in the Beginner Schooling Hunter class. It consisted of one walk/trot flat class and one small course of 4 18-inch fences.

They went around very nicely at the walk and trot in the flat class.

Jumping (which he excelled at!):

I had a video of them jumping their course, but can't find it on my computer! If I can locate it, I will upload it. They jumped around twice and this was Scout's first time jumping a course of jumps since I have owned him. Not sure what he has done in the past since he came from a horse trader, but I don't think he did hunters...maybe he did, though, because he sure acted like he knew what he was doing!

Standing quietly in the line-up (It looks like he is sleeping!):

Like a story-book ending, they ended up 2nd in each class out of 6!

Which earned them Reserve Grand Champions in that division!!

Scout getting some love from his favorite borrowed jockey:



I rode him in 2 flat classes, but didn't do nearly as well as L on him. We ended up 5th in both classes out of 6. :) I haven't taught him walk to canter transitions, so he bucked on the first one, (cause I jabbed the heck out of his side with my spur when I asked him to canter - so my fault on that one...) and in the second class he spooked and bolted when some children jumped off of a log just outside of the ring. All in all, though, for his first show, I thought he did great - and the fact that he stood still in the line up was amazing, because this fellow hates to stand still for any period of time!

Very proud of L and Scout and hopefully this spring I will be able to take him out to another schooling show or two. :)

Happy Riding!

Really?!?

The very first game of the city soccer season started of mildly enough on September 8 - we had 3 games that day, as all 3 of our kids play. The first 2 games went well, not too eventful...and both kids played great. Then it was time for the big kids to play. It was the first half of the game and it was fairly intense. The 16 - 18 year olds play pretty rough, even though it is co-ed. I happened to look left to speak to another Mom and when I looked back right, I noticed all of the kids had taken a knee while the coaches and a couple of parents gathered around a kid on the ground...

A quick glance around the field and I realized the cleats sticking out of the crowd of people belonged to my kid! Talk about a heart stopping moment....

My husband and I had both been talking to other people, so we didn't see what happened. We both jumped from our seats at the same time and ran out to see if D was ok. The coaches helped him get to the bench and we grabbed some ice.

D's shin was killing him. It didn't swell very fast, but he had a small knot on his shin, about half way down his leg. He was in excruciating pain, as I have never heard him talk to his father the way he did. He told us to get him to the hospital as fast as possible.

My husband took him to PriMed thinking the wait wouldn't be as long there. He didn't think it could be all that bad because there wasn't a lot of bruising or swelling. The x-rays showed a broken tibia (right leg in x-ray below), but the way the x-rays were taken, the true damage didn't show. PriMed only x-rayed it from the front; no side views...

PriMed put him in a temporary cast and sent him home with painkillers and a referral to an orthopedic surgeon. Poor D had to wait until Monday to see the orthopedic surgeon, because the orthopedic we were referred to refused to contact the doctor on call for us, because we weren't existing patients.... Looking back, I should have called another orthopedic....

D in his temporary cast. No shower after the game - he went straight from the field to PriMed, to home, all dirty and sweaty, poor kid!

When he finally saw the orthopedic on the following Monday, there was concern of him having "compartment syndrome." The break was much worse than we realized and it should have been set on Saturday, not the following Monday. Thankfully D did not have compartment syndrome. If he had, we would have owned that doctor's office...I was so angry I couldn't see straight. They set his leg and had to split the cast all the way down so we could loosen it as his leg swelled.

After 2 weeks like this, he went back and they wrapped this existing cast with bright orange fiberglass. That cast went all the way to the top of his hip...for 10 weeks....
 

Then he went into a short cast for another 4 weeks.

After this cast, he went into a boot for 4 weeks. By December 17, he was released to physical therapy for a couple of weeks, then finally boot free!

It was a long, slow process and he isn't quite ready to play ball again. He will sit the bench for the high school this season, then play varsity next year. We are very thankful he didn't have to have surgery and he seems to be almost good as new now! 

Lexington Trial Saddle

The next saddle was a 16 inch Lexington. I loved the look of this saddle and thought for sure this would be the one.

It fit Scout well, and wasn't too big for his back, either.

Without a saddle pad:

With the saddle pad:

 I rode in this one a couple of times. I liked how it fit Scout, but it was very uncomfortable to sit in - and it was very slippery!

Still no one to take photos of me sitting in it, sorry.

The Collegiate Trial Saddle

The Collegiate was a very nice saddle, just entirely too big. It was supposed to be a 16.5 inch, but seemed much larger than that. I never measured it, since there was no point in keeping it. From the photos, you can see it was too long for Scout's back.

I don't have any photos of me sitting in it, as no one was home to make photos. It was comfy to sit in, but it swallowed me, too. On to the next trial saddle!

Is it Really February 2013??

Good Grief! So much has happened since the last time I posted...in August!! Please forgive me, my head is still spinning. From finally finding a saddle (bought another Wintec All Purpose), our oldest breaking his leg on Sept. 8, riding both ponies in the Jeremy Beale Clinic the end of Oct., through Thanksgiving, Scout's very first horse show on Dec. 1, Christmas, New Year's, my husband's work getting wonderfully busy (he has a new office now!!), my job getting crazy busy (thank you LORD!), my parents taking in 2 rescue horses and me making time to keep riding through it all, it has been insane. Thankfully, it has been good.

Scout is trying so hard to please - and that horse show I mentioned - my close friend's daughter rode him in the schooling hunter show and they ended up Reserve Champs in their beginner hunter division - complete with Scout jumping a small course of 4 18-inch fences!! They were an awesome team and I promise to post photos in a future post.

The ponies are doing well and the weather has been mild, so they are being ridden consistently. I am loving every minute of it. :)

Buddy and Jack sharing the one stall:

Buddy:

D on Jack:

Happy Riding and I will try to post some more photos soon!



Collegiate Saddle Arrived Today!

The Collegiate saddle arrived today, just in time for the rain! Hurricane/Tropical Storm? Isaac is supposed to dump a lot of rain on us for the next couple of days, so I'll try to be patient!

Here are photos of the saddle. It looked a lot darker in the previous post. I used the flash, so maybe that made it look different.

The saddle is lovely -

The seat feels very nice, so I look forward to sitting in it. Please keep your fingers crossed that this is THE ONE. It is getting way too expensive shipping saddles back and I am very tired of saddle hunting. However, I have met a bunch of really nice, helpful folks!

The ladies at Trumbull Mountain have been amazing to work with, too!

Oh - and my oldest is getting bit by the horse bug. He rode Cricket on Saturday:

He even rode her bareback on Sunday!

Cricket loves D and they are having fun together!

Well, That Stinks...and Better News!

After all of the positive vibes I was getting on the Stubben Edelweiss, I still had a little nagging feeling that something wasn't right and that feeling just wouldn't go away, so I decided to call my long-time friend and past trainer, Toni, to come take a look. So incredibly patient, she listened to all of the great things I had to say about the saddle and how much I loved it. We put it on Scout without the saddle pad and she pointed out that it didn't really have much clearance in the pommel for his withers and noted that when we padded it up, even more of that space would be compromised. She also noted that the points of the tree were awfully long for Scout's wither area.

I put the regular fleece pad under the saddle and girthed it up, and off we went to my little circle on a hill to ride in it for Toni's approval. We didn't ride in it for long before she began to ask questions about the way Scout was going. She of course noticed his non-willingness to go forward and many other things I had not noticed. She had me place my hand under different areas of the saddle near Scout's shoulder. It was all I could do to just partially slide my hand under some parts of the saddle. "Not good," she said. She had me get the Wintec that Nancy from Trumbell Mountain told me to adjust to the medium-wide gullet (according to the back tracings I sent her). So, we put the Wintec on Scout and I climbed on again. I started out in the medium-wide and there was an immediate improvement in Scout's willingness to go forward. He began tracking up at the walk and was much better at the trot. So much better, in fact, that he wanted to keep doing canter departs rather than trot. Not sure if that was good or bad, but he was definitely more forward, for a notable difference. We had a great mini-lesson that provided some more "tools for our toolbox." And oh, how it made me miss lessons with Toni! She is such a wonderful teacher! Just out of curiosity, Toni had me change to the wide gullet. Scout went around fine in it, but we both agreed he went best in the medium-wide.

Needless to say, I was sooooooooooooooooooo disappointed that the Stubben wasn't THE ONE, but I am relieved I didn't purchase it and ride in it long enough to cause greater problems with Scout's back. So, the immensely beautiful, incredibly buttery, oozingly supple, almost perfect saddle is on its way back to it's very kind and generous owner who allowed me to try it for over a week. My sincerest appreciation to her - hopefully the saddle will find its perfect owner in the big Labor Day tack sale in her area. If any of you are interested in the saddle, let me know and I will pass on the contact info. It is going to make someone an awesome saddle.

Many thank yous to Toni for her years of priceless experience which helped to divert us from a potential disaster. Now, on to looking for another saddle....I think I found one with good potential (below)...and this one is adjustable, so that is even more promising! I'll keep you posted.

Collegiate Convertible with adjustable gullets

On another note, one of my dearest friends picked Scout and me up this past Saturday to go to another friend's farm to ride. It was the first time since the in-hand clinic in February 2011 that Scout has been to a new place since we bought him. He was a bit anxious, but he finally settled down (with the help of some Parelli games - a fun story for another day!) and agreed to be a good pony. I was very, very pleased with him! My friend rode him for a bit and gave me suggestions that we put to use today. Scout had Sunday and Monday off, so he was ready to get back to it today and he definitely retained what he had been taught on Saturday! He is a brilliant little fellow and I am so proud of his efforts to understand what I ask of him. We are certainly learning together! We had another awesome ride this morning. They seem to get better and better!

Oh! And another exciting side note - we signed up to ride in a "Western Dressage" clinic on September 23 at the River Region Horse Council Expo and Clinic going on in our area. We will ride English and I have 2 friends riding in it with us!! Very excited about that...

Had to share these photos with you - my middle son who is 11 years old took these photos to enter into a National Geographic Kids Photo Contest. I thought they were fantastic, so I had to post them. Enjoy!

Tonto Pony

Scout's Eye

K.C. cat chillaxin' in her favorite chair