Bring Out Your Sleighs!

Depending on who's forecast wins, we could be in for some misery...or some fun.  In the hopes that for once it's going to be fun, and hopefully big fun, we are ready!  

Everyone, especially farmers, have spent the last day or so preparing for a Kentucky Snowmageddon.  We have super low temps predicted, anywhere from 1-3" to 10-13" to 16" of snow, and fingers crossed it doesn't happen, possibly ice.  

Whatever we get, it probably won't be going anywhere until maybe March...or at least up into February.  I'm sure it will get mighty old, mighty quick, but until that happens, if we get a decent amount of snow, we're going to break out the sleigh bells and get to do something that only happens every ten years or so around here.

Short Round.  Such a fun and funny sheep.  Maybe she's already looking towards next year's Christmas card :-).

I hope this sleigh is as excited as we are.  It hasn't been out for a spin in over 20 years.  It's an Albany cutter and was built around 1905 and restored 35 years ago.   These sleighs were the sports cars of sleighs and this one seats two people "If you're married."  Tim says he's not coming out until March, so I guess it will be me and 20 :-).  

This is considered a "city sleigh" so it was not used for deep snow.  If we get deep snow, I'm going to pack down a track in the side field.   Hopefully Auntie Reg can come over and hear her dad's sleigh bells in action.  Big thanks to her for remembering we wanted to do this if it ever snowed again.

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed...for all the best outcomes.

For Fun And Fitness

Frankie and I both fall into the "fitness cookie in my mouth" camp, but we're back in the groove of working and were able to attend a Spokes and Spurs club drive at Shaker Village over the weekend.  It's a beautiful and historic area of Kentucky, south of Lexington, and it's always worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

There are miles and miles and miles of horse trails, but we stuck mostly to the paved and gravel roads.  We were allowed to drive up into the village and routed through some beautiful rolling hills with fantastic stone fences.  The weather was perfect, the company the best and we had a great day.

We headed in a little earlier than the rest of the group because I could tell Frankie was getting tired, especially on the hills.  We've mostly schooled in fairly level ground for the last few weeks as he builds his strength back up.  That carriage is heavy and I'm no lightweight...because of the cookies ;-).

I hope you enjoy taking a drive with us.

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Two Things

One of the problems with getting so far behind updating the blog is that I forget all things I want to share.  There are two more things I'd like to remember about going to the National Drive.  

First up, as I was perusing the tack swap area, a woman came over to see if I had any questions and then stopped short and said "Hey, I know you!"  She was a fellow beekeeper and we'd talked bees many years ago.  Then she added, "I was so sorry to hear about your neighbor."

We talked about Stella for a few minutes and it made me happy to think of her in such a seemingly random place, still being part of so many lives whether through her bees or her "Stella Knitting".  I'm getting ready to do some Stella knitting myself and it does help to think about her laughing about me ripping back yet another sweater.

The other thing is that when I got home, Pinto didn't talk to me for two days.  He didn't even come out into the barn lot like he does every night.  I was snubbed from afar.  He's since forgiven me...or at least is letting me slide on it.  

He's a funny sheep and a good friend.

Meanwhile, Back At Pony Camp

Last week Frankie, Bea and I headed off to The National Drive at the Hoosier Horse Park.  The HHP is rapidly becoming my second favorite place in the world :-).  This is the same venue that hosted the Combined Driving Event last month and all the arenas and rings and courses (cones and marathon) were still open to play in and that in itself would have made the trip worthwhile, but there was so much more!

The best campsite ever!

There were extra carriage trails set up, several daily workshops to pick and choose from, three clinicians you could take lessons with, train rides with the Indiana Live Steamers, a tack swap, arena derby, pup parade, safari drive, a knit night, bonfire...  There was more stuff to do than you had hours in the days.  It was like being a kid at pony camp!

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"Wait, did you say a knit night?"

I ended up stabled next to a super fun group of spinners and knitters!  Thursday night we gathered in front of their stalls to knit and a couple more people stopped by to see what we were working on and share their own projects and we're all looking forward to knitting together again next year.

I took two lessons with Frankie - one working on dressage and one out in the hazards.  The arena lesson was excellent and I got lots of good (and stern) feedback, but you'll never beat driving hazards for the best fun and again that was an outstanding lesson and we drove the water obstacle for the first time.

First we worked through three of the dry land hazards that we'd driven for the event.  I learned better turning techniques and routes to take through, especially with my two wheeled cart.  Most people use four wheeled vehicles now because they handle the tight turns so much easier.  I'm not really in the position to replace my cart, nor do I really want to, so I need to be smarter and smoother through the obstacles.

After we finished the third hazard she asked if I'd driven the water yet.  I said no, but that I was planning to do so while I was up there.  She said "Let's go do it now. My feet are already wet, so if I need to lead you in, it won't be a problem."  I told her I thought Frankie would go on in and he did.  We let him walk around for a minute, checking things out, and then asked him to trot and then started working on the turns.  It was so. much. fun. :-D

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The safari drive was another super fun event.  There were 50 stuffed animals (be still my heart :-) placed along six kilometers of beautiful wooded trails.  Next year maybe my stuffed Fiona will join the safari group.  Or maybe 20!  He could be set up as a wildlife photographer!  He'd love watching all the carriages come by :-).

On the last day I was there they hosted a driving derby.  A derby is a group of cones and arena obstacles.  Normally it would be a timed competition, but we drove it just for practice.  I used it as a sort of "final exam" to see if I could drive the obstacles better now after my lessons.  I did much better on everything until the last gate in the second obstacle.  I didn't set my turn up as I'd planned and had to regroup to get out, but that's a good lesson in itself.  I gave myself a B.

I can't figure out a direct way to imbed the video here, but if you'd like to watch, here's a link to a group of videos posted to Facebook.  If that link doesn't open to me and Frankie, I'm wearing a white turtleneck and green vest, so we're not hard to find.

It wasn't just fun and games for me and Frankie.  Bea was pretty sure the whole party was set up just for her.  One afternoon I didn't see her for almost two hours.  Oh, I'd see her buzz by on a golf cart, then a unit, then a different golf cart...  She had the very best baby sitters :-).

It was a great time and the first real vacation I've taken in many years, but we were happy to eventually head home.

Prepping For Our Final Exam

As I sat out in the barn cleaning harness last night I thought back to the spring when a friend and I were cleaning and polishing harness for a silly little online benefit horse show.  We sure didn't need to do all that work.  It was going to be videoed with a phone and uploaded to Facebook.  No one would ever have noticed if it was clean or dirty.  We did it because that's what we did when we used to go to horse shows.

The online show was definitely a silly little show.  I never even received the ribbon Frankie won.  Still, I thought if I pushed myself to do this monthly online show series, at the end of the summer I'd have an encouraging series of videos hopefully showing how much improvement we'd made through the season and in the fall maybe we would be ready to go to a small Standardbred show.  

What wasn't silly about the show was that it clicked something in my head, or maybe my heart, to pull up my big girl pants and Go Do Something.  I was already feeling guilty enough about having a nice horse and good equipment and a supportive husband and doing nothing.  How much worse would I feel in ten years looking back...wishing I could have a do-over.  There could be so many better endings to this story.

Frankie and I worked hard all summer.  Very hard, especially considering it was summer.  After our positive experience with the Lexington Carriage Classic in June, I decided to focus on trying to get him us ready to go to a full Combined Driving Event in the fall.  It's fall...and we ship out tomorrow morning!  We are going to the Indiana CDE.

While I'm hoping most of the event will be just as I remembered from almost 20 years ago, much of the required equipment has changed.  In the olden days we could trot out wearing ball caps on the marathon (cross country) section.  Now we need helmets and safety vests and medical arm bands.  "Added to cart."  

I've been using Handy's old green harness pads for training and kept trying to pick a new color that better suited Frankie for his own set.  Nothing really struck me and as I've mentioned before, I am horribly sentimental.  We will be headed out on the marathon course on Sunday with all of our new safety gear...and Handy's vintage pads.  I bet they're going to have as much fun as we will!

Old Friends

This a post for anyone who's ever hung on to something thinking "This is something I'm using."...and then "Surely I'll use that again."...and then "Hopefully I'll use that again."...and then "I don't think I'm ever going to use that again...but I can't bear to use it for something else because that's not what it was for."...and then "I guess I'm never going to use that again...but I still can't part with it."...

...and then almost 20 years later you find yourself digging it out from where it's been stored and greeting it like a long lost friend, carefully washing it and packing into your horse trailer with a bunch of other old friends who you thankfully couldn't part with and heading off to a party.

Frankie and I (and a bunch of my old friends :-) are off to the Kentucky Horse Park for the Lexington Carriage Classic.  I had planned to take him to a smaller "practice" show in Ohio, but decided to "go big or go home"...or at least I'll be able go home each night ;-).  

We might not be completely ready for a show like this yet, but we're not far off and I'm extremely proud of Frankie for being so smart, brave and willing to try and proud of both of us for how hard we've worked to get there.  We've had outstanding help along the way!

I'll do my best to post some Instagram "stories" throughout the next few days for anyone who'd like to follow along and at very least post a wrap up post here on the blog.  

Trot on!

The Lightning Round

For installment three of our summer online horse show series I decided to set up a small cones course.  Cones are not only fun, but they are also a great way to practice steering as you have to actually make the prescribed turns, not just turn when it's convenient.  Cones are part of both Combined Driving Events and Pleasure Driving shows.

Frankie and I have only driven cones a few times and never an actual pattern, mostly just turning through whichever cones were "convenient" ;-).  I set up a simple course with easy, flowing turns and only a couple tougher lines or turns to challenge both of us.  I wanted it to be fun for Frankie, like a game, and to build his confidence.

We warmed up a few minutes and then got ready to start the video.  "I'm going to do the first trip around just slow and steady.  We'll go faster on the second round."  The first trip was...slow and steady.  I knew it was slow, but I was happy with how smoothly we'd driven.  "Okay, this time we'll go fast!"

Note to self...next time we do this only Stella gets to watch and Leslie and Derek have to video.  The rest of the peanut gallery with their barely disguised silent laughing and the out loud laughing...

"I'm giving it all I've got, Captain!"

"It's the pedal on the right!"

"Be careful!"

Despite my best efforts, the second round...was as excruciatingly slow as the first one.  Honestly, even I had to laugh.  Stella said we did a good job though, which...for a green horse, we really did.  It was just hilariously slow, especially for an ex-racehorse.  

"Let's try one more time.  Come on Frankie.  You can do it!"

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It still looks pretty slow, but it's waaaay faster then the earlier attempts ;-).  

Marathon Day

One of my favorite co-workers in 'ye olden times' was one of my favorite co-workers because any time we had a big job to do we always knuckled down to do it and if at all possible...turned it into a game.  We were fierce competitors, but before you knew it, the job was finished and we'd had good fun getting it done.  

Twenty plus years later, I still use that technique to get work done.  For example, when Miss B and I skirt fleeces, as we roll the fleece and place it in a bag, we each pick up the bag and "weigh" it, make our predictions and then put it on the scale to see who "wins".  

It rained most of the day Saturday and the ground was saturated.  Sunday dawned cloudy, cold and damp and our scheduled driving lesson and virtual horse show.......ugh......  I could have easily been talked out of it, but I knew if I skipped this month, it would be pretty easy to skip more months this summer. If I completed two in a row, it would then be harder to not keep on going.  Enter a game!

The arena was too wet to use so we moved into the side field.  The terrain in there is slightly hilly and more conducive to cross country driving, so...why not!  In a combined driving event you compete in dressage, cones and marathon.  It's just like a ridden event, but with a carriage.  Dressage is dressage, cones replaces stadium jumping and marathon replaces cross country.

We built two very simple driving obstacles complete with red and white directional letters like a real horse show.  I pulled out all the marathon gear - protective wraps and boots, colorful harness pads.  Leslie  braided Frankie's tail for better ventilation (I did not know that was the purpose) and we headed out to play.

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I think Frankie liked all the dress up gear.  It wasn't necessary, but it was fun :-).

I know he loves Leslie.

Leslie Cashion has done a great job getting into Frankie's head and figuring out what he's thinking and how to motivate him and give him the confidence to learn, trust and enjoy his new job.  We had a super fun drive yesterday and I'm so glad I put out the effort.  Job done!

Showtime

We are supposed to be receiving a ribbon in the mail and I was waiting for that thinking it would be a fun way to post about the online Standardbred show series Frankie and I are participating in this summer, but it's almost time for the second show, so to get up to speed...

There is an online charity horse show series being hosted by a Standardbred retraining group on Facebook.  How it works is you have someone video you and your horse doing the prescribed activities for your particular class, post your video to the class page in the show group and a judge reviews each entry and places them accordingly.  

The entry fee for each class is a donation to an approved Standardbred rescue and you post a screen shot of your donation page receipt.  The April show raised $2100!  The other benefactor besides the rescue groups is me and Frankie.  Well, at least me.  Frankie's not so sure he's actually benefiting ;-).

We I am going to use this summer series to motivate myself to get Frankie ready for the big fall, in person, Standardbred show and hopefully some other fun activities throughout the summer.  Having a video record of each month will be a great way to track our progress. 

I got pretty down on myself last year for not putting much training time in.  To be honest, getting Frankie "up to speed" was less than motivating even without the 2020 slog.  My initial fear of not being able to slow down a race horse was quickly replaced with the fear that I'd never be able to really get him going.

He's still not going to set any land speed records and maybe he never will, but he's getting a little more confidence in his ability to pull the "heavy" cart and the fitness to finally be able to start incorporating some small hills into our workouts.  This improvement is actually in part due to phoning it in last year.

Frankie won't actually be six until this summer.  Five sounds like a plenty old enough to work hard(ish) age, but he apparently grows about as fast as he trots (in harness that is ;-).  He looks like a completely different horse this spring and he's putting himself together way faster than if I'd tried to push it last year.  He just needed a bit more time.

Sadly we were the only driving entry in our class, but I don't care about that...other than wishing some more folks would give carriage driving a try.  Frankie and I can compete with ourselves each month and I'd give pretty good odds on a big improvement by the end of the year!

 

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Our second show entry needs to be posted by the end of this month.  We'll probably just repeat the same class this time due to lambing and spring weather conflicts, but we are going to add in some good additional challenges for the rest of the summer like shipping out to a different arena, adding a second horse in the ring, a dressage test, some cones and other obstacles...  

It will be fun, Frankie!  I promise ;-).