Deary

E and Monte had horse camp this past week - and what a blast it was! Ever since she started Pony Club we've been told "You HAVE to go to Deary!" E was also told that it was more intense than the rallies we went to. Which had me a bit worried, because heaven knows, the rallies took quite a bit of energy!

We packed on Tuesday, trying to make sure we had whatever we might need for the coming week. And I think we did pretty good, except that a couple of key items were left behind at the last moment.

While picking up hay at the barn on Tuesday afternoon, another boarder requested some help from E (Their pony was being a butthead and pulling back while tied - but that's a whole 'nother story!). In the process of helping them out, we forgot to reload the extra stall bedding and the muck boots that had been temporarily taken out of the truck while we packed in some extra hay. Those two things would've been mighty handy once we got out to Deary since there were torrential rains a couple of nights before we arrived, turning the whole property into one huge mud pit.

I also walked out the door on Wednesday morning without my foot bands (for my plantar faciitis) and my sunhat - both things I can live without, but again, sure would've been nice to have them!

Wednesday started out very smooth, but way too early. Out of bed at 4:45 and on the road by 5:30. We picked up our friend's horse, Handsome, and hit the highway around 6. Check-in at camp was between 9 and 11, and I had been warned that earlier is better because you can choose a better camping spot. Given that we were staying in a tent, a prime spot was VERY important to me! So, we arrived at Deary around 9:30.

Entering the Pony Club camp.
This was taken after several days of no rain, so the road is no longer a river of mud.

We immediately discovered that the whole place was sopping wet, with part of the property being totally closed off to any traffic. People driving 4-wheel drive trucks couldn't even get through the road. After some truck juggling (since we only have 2-wheel drive and couldn't safely position the trailer ourselves), another rig pulled our trailer into place and we found a relatively dry, if not flat, spot to put up our home-away-from-home. I decided sleeping on a slope with toes downhill was preferable to sleeping in a bog.

E returning to the campsite after 6 a.m. horse chores....note the incline - and her smile!

Camp could now begin!

Deary is both a horse management rally and a summer camp with riding lessons. E's team was made up of younger Pony Clubers, one from her own club and two boys from others. Their counselors were also on the younger side, although both very experienced PCers. It took the team some time to figure out their rhythm and pull the tack and feed rooms together, but in the end they managed to place 7th (out of 8) in the rally.

The Red Team - ready to put on their skit. :)

The first riding lesson, on Wednesday afternoon, was led by a veteran PCer named Erin who has been coming to Deary for 32 years (she is also 32, by the way!). The other students in the group were young riders and after the lesson, E asked to be moved to a different group. Although she is still rated as only a D1, her skills are a bit above that rating. I was very proud of her for taking the initiative and approaching her instructor to ask if she could join a different group. When she asked, Erin agreed that E was definitely able to do more than was being taught and arranged for E to move to lessons with another instructor, Sarah Stanton.

Riding up to the arena for a lesson.

E's first lesson with Sarah proved to be a better placement. And Sarah was able to get E to finally SIT UP STRAIGHT AND NOT LEAN FORWARD while riding! A major, if simple, breakthrough for E. She also had the students trot over poles with no hands.

Look, mom. No hands!

The second lesson with Sarah was a jumping lesson. They jumped cross poles and small banks. Because E is so tall and her pony is not, she has to be super conscious of her body position, especially when jumping. Slight changes in her body angle can have big consequences on his balance. This makes jumping a bit difficult for Monte and E, but with practice they can be quite successful. And in the end, E will have great body control and awareness.

Thursday night was skit night for all the campers. E's team had planned ahead, bringing costumes and whatnot for the festivities. Due to E's "memorable" performance as Princess Ella, the other campers called her Princess Emily for the remainder of the week. (PC parents from our own club were surprised at how goofy she was as she's often pretty quiet during our regular lessons. If they only knew!)

E's final lesson with Sarah was on the cross country course. I was nervous about how Monte, a true arena baby, would do out in the open and in the woods. I was especially concerned about all the mud and the pond they would also go through.

Sarah schooled all the riders on how to approach the jumps - and Monte did it! In fact, I think he even enjoyed the experience. I know that E did, anyway. Huge smiles the whole time we were on the course.

Jump #3 on the beginner XC course at Deary.

The footing was still a bit messy, but safe enough.

The last jump on the XC course; they just came up a hill to jump this.

As expected, Monte was totally unsure of the pond. After 2 days of dealing with mud, he had become accustomed to mucky ground that sucked at his hooves, but entering a pond that was almost 3' deep in the center was not his idea of fun. You could see him thinking, "But I'm a desert horse, not a water pony!" E managed to coax him into the water, and I swear that if a horse could tip-toe, he would've been! We all were laughing as we watched him gingerly cross the water with his ears off to the side.

First time into the pond.

At this point, camp ended. But we stayed on to participate in two competitions - Combined Tests, and the Hopeful Horse Trials. Combined tests consisted of a dressage test and a stadium jumping round. In this competition, the lower the score the better; E and Monte scored 34 in dressage (all 6s and 7s, with an 8 thrown in for good measure!) and had a clean jumping round, so they ended up in 2nd place for their division. Yeah! The Combined Tests were over by dinner, and then E began the Hopeful Trials, which consisted of another dressage test, a round of stadium jumping and a cross country competition. E and Monte competed in the Nervous Novice division, along with 14 other competitors.

The dressage portion was completed Friday evening (the same test that they did earlier in the day). By the time they rode the test, Monte was done so their score was a bit higher than the first time through (40.5 - which is still quite respectable for a novice rider).

Saturday was jumping day. E was very happy that she didn't begin riding until early afternoon (a nice change after early mornings during camp). The XC course was deemed too wet in portions, so a few spots were eliminated (including the pond) and/or changed. E found that Monte was VERY nervous about entering the woods without his herd. She had to work to get him over all the obstacles but they managed to get through the course with no refusals.

The last portion of Hopeful, the stadium jumping, took place late afternoon. I hoofed it up the hill to watch the higher level competitors, thinking that I'd leave sometime during that portion to help E get ready. But the competition was so exciting I never left my spot so E had to manage on her own (which she did splendidly, btw). Watching those huge horses (and some not-so-huge horses!) speed through the jumping course was incredible.

Being in the Nervous Novice division, E's jumps were substantially lower than the first riders'. Her challenge consisted of 10 jumps, all 2' or lower. Which was plenty challenging. :) By this time both horse and rider are exhausted, but being the good pony that he is, Monte willingly did whatever E asked and knocked down only one pole at jump #4. Their main problem during the round was that E wasn't focused enough and didn't give Monte clear directions for part of the course.

In the end, she and Monte placed 6th in the Hopeful. Not bad for a first time!

A tired rider, wearing her medal, on her tired pony.

And what was I doing during all of this fun? Well, washing dishes up in the cook shack, cleaning the bathrooms one afternoon and volunteering as a jump judge during the cross country portion of Hopeful. I was plenty busy. :)

And we are both totally looking forward to next year at Deary!

Show Jumping Pictures

Pics from last weekend!












You'll notice that you can see E's feet hanging under Monte's belly. :)
So far he's the one knocking down the rails, though, not her!

Dressage and Show Jumping

We got back from the dressage and show jumping rallies late yesterday evening (10:30ish) - a very exhausting weekend but so much fun!

During the dressage competition on Saturday, E chose to complete the easiest tests, with a reader, and managed to score a 59 on Test B and a low 60's on Test A. Very respectable for her first time out. As a team (Pony Club rallies are team events, so individual scores are added together to get the "team score" for ranking), her group placed 5th out of 6 (one competitor forgot her test - hence a bad score) BUT they scored first in horse management! Not an easy thing to do, btw. E was very happy with the results and thinks their stable manager (a fellow pony clubber from her club who chose to keep the team members on track rather than ride himself) was awesome. He definitely made sure they were up to snuff on their animal and tack care and kept them on schedule for all the required inspections and competition times. Stable manager is an important job in the Pony Club rally world.

Sunday was the show jumping rally. Being fairly new to jumping, E and Monte entered the crossrail division. And this time E was moved to what is called a "catch team" comprised of 4 riders and a stable manager who came from 3 different clubs. The highlight of the day for E and Monte was that they ended up with a perfect score - no faults made during their two jumping rounds and no penalties accrued for horse management! Her team ended the day in first place for both overall team competition and in horse management.

We tent-camped during the rally, which was fine except that it did get a bit cold at night (around 48) and there were no showers available. On Sunday I found a friend with an RV and begged a short shower from them - oh the joy of hot water coming from above!

E was super exhausted by the rallies, but like last time, thought it was totally worth it.

Looking forward to our next Pony Club event at the end of the month!

Budding Dressage Princess

E has been prepping for her upcoming Dressage Rally with a few extra lessons. This is the first time she's ever really focussed on this discipline but it already seems to be a good fit for her personality. So good, in fact, that her instructor commented at the end of the first lesson that she forsees E becoming a "Dressage Princess."

I wonder what Monte thinks about this. :)

I finally figured out all the confusing entry forms for our upcoming trip to the Deary, ID, horse camp at the end of June. By joining Pony Club I feel like I've learned a whole new horsey vocabulary! I think this will be a very fun trip, though, and totally worth all the effort to get there.

Free horse?

I was offered a free horse last week - a (supposedly) nice, white older Arab. I seriously considered taking it - or at least taking a look at it - for a day or two. But then my better judgment kicked in. The woman giving it away has hit some hard financial times and needs to re-home her horse ASAP. That's fine, I get that. But....if we take the horse and it doesn't work out, I can't give it back like I've been able to do with previous animals we've tried (remember Ginger?). So we could potentially be stuck paying board for an animal that we don't want.

So I said no.

Last Tuesday E's 4-H group did some work out at our old horse barn. Friend A is struggling right now (her mom is seriously ill) so we all pitched in and cleaned stalls and water troughs. Afterward, a few of the girls exercised some of her horses. E got to ride a cute little Appy named Boomer. Boomer is about the same size Curly was, but with tons more training. And Boomer has just about the smoothest trot E has ever ridden; she was so happy up on his back, going around the arena.

Boomer's big flaw is that he is spooky, just like Monte. He thinks everything is going to eat him. But unlike Monte, E said he gives you a little more warning before he jumps plus he's bigger, so it's just plain easier to sit whatever he dishes out. She REALLY likes him.

And he's for sale.

So then we ask the question - are we buying a horse for me or for E? E thinks I would like Boomer. And he would more than meet my needs. But if we are buying with her in mind, we'd have to see if he has the potential to handle her jumping and dressage needs.

Oh, and remember the no-name-horse we named Quinn (who has been renamed again to Ceasar)? Well, he was out at the barn too, and looking oh-so-beautiful. And I mean really beautiful. I heard that he is now receiving some training and that he has a beautiful English trot - nice extension, high energy, plus he likes to jump. He's for sale too.

I'm getting that anxious feeling in my stomach again.

Games Rally

Quiet barns at the Games Rally

E and I attended our first Pony Club rally this past weekend up in Wenatchee. I was totally anxious before we left, not knowing what to expect. Plus I was nervous about hauling the horses so far (180 miles) but everything went like clockwork and we had a great weekend.

This is the first horse competition in which E got through the whole event without at least one spat of tears. She was actually happy, laughing and smiling pretty much the entire weekend! And I think the difference was that NO PARENTS are allowed to assist the children in the barn area. We were totally banned from setting foot in the barns, in fact. The kids had to help each other (which they did very nicely) and there were a few adults assigned to various duties that were allowed to help if asked. It was amazing to watch all these kids work together and support each other.

E did get sick on Saturday - had to hop off her horse during the clinic, run to the bathroom, throw up and then hopped back on to complete the session. I insisted that she nap during the afternoon (thus missing part of the clinic) and I filled her up with medicine while she rested. She was good to go by late afternoon and had tons of fun "horsing" around with a bunch of the kids until bedtime.

Her team was made up of one other girl from her home club (Macy) and two other girls she had never met before. None of the four were super accomplished riders but they all seemed to enjoy the races. I asked E later if it frustrated her that some of her teammates chose to walk the relays rather than trot them and her reply was that no, that's what they needed to do and really the whole thing was about having fun and just finishing the races, not winning. What an awesome kid she is! :) In the end, they got second place for the junior division.

E and Monte, morning jog-out inspection

While E was taking care of herself and her teammates, I was chaperoning another team comprised of little girls ranging in age from 6 to 9. The 6 year old had to be the cutest thing I ever saw on a pony! She did most of her races lead-line but every once in a while she'd attempt one without the help. Her pony, Sweetie, was fairly cooperative but sometimes would decide, "I'm done" and just stop in the arena. So a coach would have to jog out with a lead rope and lead the two through the rest of the course. Too stinking cute!

The girls I chaperoned

"My team," running back after lunch

E and Monte have been focusing on jumping lessons for the past couple of months so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when Monte decided that he was supposed to jump over the white lines painted on the arena floor. It was pretty funny to see him hesitate over some chalk and then take a giant leap.

E and her chaperon talking before the final gaming session

Oh, and I almost forgot, E's chaperon gave her a new pair of half-chaps! I couldn't believe it - these things aren't cheap (and she wouldn't let me pay her for them). They were her daughters and she has been looking for another super tall, very skinny girl to give them to....pretty much describes E!

Overall, I'm totally sold on Pony Club rallies now. I know that not all of them will be as relaxed as this one is, but I can see how they are designed to empower the kids and create a safe, fun atmosphere. Next rally is in June - dressage and jumping.

Compliments

Yesterday Monte had a hoof trim. As our farrier was finishing I made a point of complimenting him on his work. He really has improved the angle and look of Monte's hooves over the past year. When we first got the horse, he appeared to have a bit of a "post-foot" in the back - almost straight up-and-down.

Mike's reply was, "Well, I always knew there was a good hoof in there just waiting to come out. And it helps that Monte is so well put together and has such good confirmation."

I have to admit that I felt unreasonably proud of our little horse at that moment and I swear you would'a thought Mike was complimenting me or one of my children! So silly! :)

Today we are preparing for a Pony Club clinic and rally in Wenatchee (180 miles away). I'm a little nervous about hauling that far, especially since we are taking another Pony Clubber's horse with us.