Travel Procedures

A friend asked me to write a blog post about prepping the horses for a journey across the continent and what is involved, obviously it's not the same as popping your horse in the trailer for a trip down the road, for those of you who are on the road frequently with horses this will be a fairly generic and boring post but for those who haven't traveled cross country with a horse it might be of interest.  The prep for the journey really begins about 3 weeks before we hit the road, first and foremost the horses have to have current coggins and health certificates in order to cross the border, so I schedule a vet check approx 2.5 weeks before we are to head out of town (health certificates are only good for one months time so you don't want to get them done too soon, coggins are good for 6 months so not such a worry) at this time I also have a full body checkup done on Nico to make sure that he is in good shape, have to make sure the horses are in tip top condition physically, this means not only having their muscles and joints taken care of but also making sure they are in good healthy weight to travel (horses tend to lose weight on long trips so you don't want to start the trip with an underweight horse-consequenlty you also don't want your horse so overweight that they're completely out of shape when they arrive).  As the days get closer I begin the process of packing the horses equipment, have to make sure we have a good selection of blankets for our time down south, also updating the first aid kit (a first aid kit for this kind of travel has to be extensive, not only with bandages and wound dressings but also some critical elements in case of emergency-sedation and banamine just in case someone were to get sick enroute-hopefully not but always best to be prepared, also a few farrier tools just in case someone gets a shoe half off or something that needs immediate attention).  The horses also start on ulcer guard prior to travel and they stay on it through the traveling days and for several days after arriving, the stress of hauling often creates ulcers in horses and it's best to treat these things proactively rather than waiting until something is really wrong.  A few days prior to travel I also like to load the horses on and off the trailer a few times just to make sure they're relaxed and easy about the loading procedure, it's been a few months now since they've traveled so I like to double check that they're easy getting in and out, only takes a couple minutes but it's a good thing to do as there's nothing worse than driving 10 hour days and getting held up because of a last minute loading issue that could have been addressed prior.  I also have to start to determine the route we will take down south, I plan the first couple of days to be shorter as we will be in winter driving conditions on those days so they are roughly 9-10 hour drives, also have to find suitable "horse motels" where the horses can offload and rest overnight.  During travel there are several things to guard against, shipping fever is a serious issue for many horses, I take the horses temperatures every morning during travel to make sure no illness is developing and for several days upon arrival to make sure everyone is healthy, also making sure the horses can put their heads down during travel, trailering with the head tied up is a major cause of shipping fever so it's important to me that the horses have mangers to eat out of when trailering long distance and not hay nets, hay nets have to be hung up high so the horse spends most of the time with their heads up eating, in a manger they have to put their heads down at chest level to eat allowing their sinuses to drain properly, I also make sure to feed them on the ground at the overnight stops to make sure that they get everything drained and this also promotes stretching of the back muscles which get tight while standing in a trailer all day.  This year I will also be weight taping the horses prior to departure, during travel and on arrival, Nico dropped too much weight during travel last year so this year I will try to avoid that happening again.  Water intake also has to be monitored very carefully during the travel, it's important to know how much the horses are drinking normally as different horses drink different amounts, as the horses obviously don't have waterers in the trailer I take a big sealable bucket of water in the back of the truck and at the stops offer them a bucketfull, some horses get used to this and drink as soon as they are offered on the road, Tango is a great traveler like that he drinks whenever offered.  It's important to pack enough hay and grain for the horses to last the trip down and for the first while to transition down there, the hay and grain in Florida is different than the products we have here so I like to gradually transition them onto the new feed, I particularly like the Purina horse feeds in the US.  I also make sure to take enough of their supplements down as you never know if you will be able to get the same product down there.  Upon arrival it's important to allow the horses some down time to rest from the journey and acclimatize to their new environment, being that Florida is such a humid environment it is important to keep watch for fungal and bacterial infections which develop easier with the horses in such a climate, I usually give them a couple days to rest and then start back with some very light riding, only stretching for the first few days and then gradually easing them back in to full work, and providing all goes smooth, life is good!:)

Countdown!

The countdown to our Florida departure is officially on!  Thought I would take some time to finally update this blog, have to apologize for not updating over the summer months but life has been very very busy, in a very good way but busy none the less!  This summer was a productive one for Nico and I, we did a couple of shows at the PSG/I1 level again to get Nico's confidence back up after last winter's stressful shows in Florida, he returned to the show ring well at the home shows and earned his highest scores to date with an FEI Panel in the PSG/I1 at the Calgary Dressage Show in June.  Over the summer months we participated in two clinics with Markus Gribbe, Canada's Technical Leader, the clinics were highly productive for us and I feel we gained a lot of good insight from Markus, he was very positive about Nico and I making the transition to the Grand Prix level which was exciting and a bit scary all in the same breath, big thanks to Shelagh Hohm for organizing these clinics out in Cochrane, Alberta and for inviting us to attend.  In September we showed the PSG/I1 at the Alberta Provincial and Western Regional Championships for the last time, the FEI panel of judges was highly encouraging and had much praise for Nico and I, always nice to hear "I love your horse and I love the way you ride him" from an Austrian FEI judge!  In October, we made our debut at the I2 and GP level at the Pacific Regional Championships, although very green and lots of mistakes I was pleasantly surprised with the transition into the GP for Nico, he handled it well and the judges comments basically reflected my own feelings about the test "shows much potential for the level, now just needs time to confirm, a great starting point!"  The summer and fall months also brought excitement for several Little Dressage clients, congrats to Shawneen Jacobs on her purchase of Monty, Robin Whittal on her purchase of Jake, Leanne Peniuk on her purchase of Diamond Gem and Ann McKinnon on her purchase of Akilah!  I am now prepping to head down south to Jupiter, Florida where we will train with Albrecht Heidemann for January, February and March 2012, we will be hitting the road in a couple of weeks time, Nico had his last checkup with vet Brit Mills this week and Brit reported that he is in great physical shape right now and is very happy and healthy in his body so that's a great feeling to have going in to the new year, this year Nico will get to have some company on the drive down as Rozzie (the up and coming super mare-more on her later:) will be coming along to gain some life experience as well as Tango who will be heading down to be on the sales block (if anyone is looking for a great PSG/I1 junior/young rider or adult amateur schoolmaster keep him in mind, he is a good boy!:).  I have declared Nico for the 2012 Olympics in London however I am in no way naive about the grandeur of such a challenge, Nico is very new to this level and I'm well aware he needs time to confirm and solidify, I'm proud of him for even being at this level at his age so at this point I don't have any expectations, my foremost goal is to confirm him at the GP level and take in a couple of small shows in Florida and see how things go, if beyond that he is ready for the CDIs and the qualifiers that would be a huge bonus but I'm not putting any pressure or expectations upon him to achieve that, he has all the talent and when the time is right he will come into his own, if that happens to be now that would be great, if not I am still building upon his experience tremendously and it will make him a stronger and more solid competitor in his years to come and that's the most important thing, it's an accomplishment in itself to have brought him along from the very beginning to this stage and I'm proud of how he is developing.  In addition Rozzie will get some great exposure to life on the road which will be fantastic for her, I'm thrilled with how this gal is developing she's a super worker and is brave and sensitive, I love her personality and with time and development I think she will be fantastic!  The declaration list for the 2012 Olympics is up and it's very exciting to see that 8 riders from BC have been declared which is great for the dressage industry in this province, dressage in BC has come a very long way over the years, best of luck to all riders declared, it's a strong list of horse/rider pairs and in the end when all is decided I'm sure Canada will be sending a very strong and capable team to London!  I also have to say a big thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters who have contributed to the upcoming show year (please see the sponsor/supporter list), huge thanks to Susanne Berger for the amazing support year after year and providing me with amazing mounts and the vehicle in which they travel, thanks to all of my fantastic clients who help keep me motivated and inspired, I thoroughly enjoy working with each and every one of you, and also thanks go out to Courtenay Fraser who will be traveling up to conduct clinics at Serendipity Farms for my clients while I'm absent (if anyone is interested in riding with Courtenay please feel free to contact me at jmlittle75@hotmail.com for more information), also thanks to Sylvie, Ashton and everyone at Serendipity Farms for helping to run things on the home front while I'm gone, thanks to Mary Miller and Joanna Cockerline for their ongoing technical support and friendship and thanks to Larisa for road tripping to help with the horses and to my mother for road tripping to navigate the route from the passenger seat (providing she doesn't get me lost twice like last time!;)  I'll do my best to update this blog regularly while down south, until then Happy Holidays to everyone and all the best for 2012!:)

Finally Back Home!

After a few days of recovery I figured it was time to update with the final details of the 'hell tour'.....which really from start to end was genuinely the drive from hell!  Seeing as we couldn't get the truck in to be fixed until Monday we decided to make the most of our stay in Rapid City and rented a car to drive up to Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, I have to say I've always wanted to take in these sights so although it wasn't a planned trip I'm glad I had the chance as they were incredible to see.  I found the Crazy Horse Memorial to be very interesting, it was facinating to watch the video of the sculptor who started it and how he used to pack the dynamite up the mountainside day after day-made me really aware of just how lazy modern day society has become with all the luxuries that we take for granted every day, hard to imagine how this guy found motivation every day to hike up that mountain all by himself packing tools the whole way.  We took the truck in to the dealership first thing on the Monday morning to get the tires replaced and the alternator fixed...took them two hours to fix the alternator and ten hours to track down and put all six tires on the truck (after taking them off they ended up finding structural problems in two more of the tires so basically I managed to drive from Tennessee to Rapid City with only one half decent tire out of six-I think that's pretty darn impressive!!;)  We left Rapid City at 6:00 that night and made it to Billings, Montana where we overnighted at a very nice jumper facility, we were up at the crack of dawn and on the road again at 5:30am, heading to Libby, Montana to pick up another horse enroute to Canada.  The drive to pick up this horse involved winding up a muddy dirt road before arriving at the place where the driveway was washed out....so we had to drive truck and trailer through a lake up to the bumper to pick up the horse....the excitement never ends!  We made it to the boarder crossing around 8:00pm and this was the only portion of the trip that was easy, the poor lady at customs was so befuddled with the horses and their paperwork that she didn't even bother to look in my passport oops!!  We crossed the boarder in to Creston where we were met with a snow storm passing through so once again we were back driving around 30km up and down the mountain (I was feeling pretty thankful for the new tires at this point in time!).  We made it in to Kelowna around 2:00am and got the horses off safe and sound, I have never been so happy to see Kelowna before in my entire life!!  I had barely been home for two days before my sister in law went in to labour and had a little girl, so I arrived back home to Canada just in time to become and aunt!  Needless to say it has been an exciting week, hence the late post!  I'm back to my regular routine now of riding and teaching, have had a really productive week getting everyone back on track, my young prospect Roz is doing very well, Sylvie had been keeping her fit for me over the winter months and did a great job as little Rozzie is definitely starting to grow up and I am excited to see how she progresses over the next few months, also had some great lessons this week and am thrilled to be back working with everyone and to see that they all did their homework diligently over the winter months and also excited to have some new faces at the barn and in lessons to work with!  I plan to keep this blog going now that I am back home, the posts may be less frequent and will definitely still be mainly about horses, training and my experiences and sometimes I might throw in some other interesting topics along the way (haha be prepared it might get weird but it will always be entertaining!!:)

Never A Dull Moment!!

At the beginning of my last post I made the comment that it would likely be my last post from Florida, for the beginning of this post I am going to make the comment that I HOPE this is going to be my last post from South Dakota!!  So I figured I had better update just in case people start wondering where the heck I am, I promise I AM coming home and haven't just disappeared into the abyss (although that's what it feels like!).  So day one of the journey home began perfectly, we hit the road around 2 am and were cruising along fine, got through the agriculture inspection and crossed into Georgia, thinking life was good and we were making excellent time and then went to pull off to fuel up and bang the truck dies right in the middle of the exit ramp, I tried to turn it over several times and nothing, thankfully there was a gas station five minutes down the road so ran down and got one of the service guys to come up and he 'guaranteed' me that we had run out of fuel....now I'm looking at him skeptically because I never let the fuel guage go below a quarter tank but he assured me that was totally it (okay now I admit I'm no mechanic but I know what a fuel gauge looks like when it's empty:s) so he pumps some diesel in and says turn it over, of course nothing, then he messes around for what seems like an eternity, meanwhile people are screaming at us and honking for us to "move the truck".....right because I thought I would just park it in the middle of the exit and take a nap for a bit, sometimes you have to wonder what goes through people's minds!!  Finally he concludes that he can't fix it and we have to get it towed, now the good news in all of this is that McKenzie who was stabled at the barn with us in Florida was driving behind us with her trailer (we had decided to trailer both Nico and her horse Prinz in my trailer so that they had company to Tennessee so they were driving behind us with their empty two horse trailer) so we were able to get the trailer towed to the gas station and quickly off loaded the horses and reloaded them onto the other trailer (the one bright side to a crappy day!) so we got the truck towed in and they determined there was a problem with the pressure getting the fuel to the engine, they did some work on it and we were stuck in Georgia for the night, we had an interesting meal at a local buffet (O'Neils' Buffet to be exact and you're greeted at the door by O'Neil himself who assures you that it's the best chicken n' dumplins you'll ever have-needless to say there was not a normal sized person in this buffet;).  The next day we got back on the road around 1:00, made it to Atlanta just in time for rush hour and got in to Tennessee where Nico was about 10:00pm.  The next morning we got on the road around 7am heading out for Omaha, Nebraska, made great time in the morning, as we got past Saint Louis we stopped for fuel and pulled back on the highway just in time for it to be closed due to accident, we had to be rerouted off of the interstate and naturally the guy gave us directions that took us down all sorts of tiny side roads and twists and turns, finally we rerouted to the interstate and arrived in Omaha around 10:00 yesterday night.  We got up and hit the road this morning at 8am, heading out on our 'easy' day to Rapid City, South Dakota, making excellent time, as we pulled in to Rapid City (a full 45 mins ahead of schedule) I stopped to top up the fuel and noticed a nail in the back left tire of the truck....great......then I walked around to the other side of the truck and both the rear and front tires were completely stripped to bare......even better!  We had just enough time to rush Nico to the barn and get him settled for the evening before zipping in to Wal-Mart to see if we could get the tires replaced, as we pull in the battery light all of a sudden pops on as well.  So to make a long story short.....something in the alignment made the tires strip completely unevenly and NO ONE in Rapid City carries 19.5" tires so we are stuck waiting for new tires.....and......the alternator is in the process of crapping out on us so that will have to be fixed before we can hit the road, yikes!!!  Now the saddest part of the whole story.....I had the truck serviced last Friday before the big journey, a lot of good that did!!!  So all in all I really thought this road trip was worthy of having its own blog post as it's definitely one for the record books, so I am now on a forced holiday in South Dakota until Monday and hopefully will be back on the road as soon as possible!:p

Last Few Days:(

This will most likely be my last post from beautiful Florida, I intend to keep this blog up and running when I get back home though as I really have enjoyed writing it and I also find it really helps me to reflect on things and gain clarity.  I have to say I have such conflicting emotions about leaving Florida, on the one hand I am excited to get back home to my clients and horses as I have so much new found knowledge to share and honestly it's been a bit weird down here with only one horse for three months but on the other hand I am really going to miss the environment down here, and I'm not talking about the excitement of Wellington and all that stuff that most people equate with the Florida show scene, I'm talking about the environment of being surrounded by quality horses and riders on a day to day basis, everywhere you look down here there is quality and being around it non stop definitely brings up your expectations and ups your own riding.  On top of that I am really going to miss the small community we have had within our barn up in Jupiter, we've really had such a great group of people together and the barn has had a wonderful feeling of camaraderie, a group of riders who share the goal of bettering their understanding of the sport and who are competitive and yet don't compromise the correctness of the training or the fairness to the horse, it's been a fantastic environment to be around day to day.  In reflection, on these past few months I can honestly say I've really felt a huge transitional stage in my horse, he is changing so much right now which is very exciting and I've also felt a transitional stage in myself, my goals and how I want to go about getting there.  I've become much clearer on what I want to achieve at the end of the day (in both my day to day rides as well as my long term plans), I've realized very strongly that I want to commit more and more to the quality not quantity theory because quantity only leads to frustration, I want to keep my eyes clearly focused on the bigger picture so that I don't get distracted and lose that direction, this is a very easy sport to get caught up in the little insignificant things (in both the riding aspect as well as the personal/political aspect) and getting fixated on those little imperfections can sometimes create a nearsightedness which can cause a detour on the journey, I've decided to keep my focus very clearly directed along the path and not to add any unnecessary detours along that route:)

Lesson With Juan Matute

Yesterday we took Nico down to IDA to have a session with Juan Matute, Juan is a former member of the Spanish Olympic team and has been credited with working with multiple world class horses including Fuego (whom I assume everyone remembers from WEG) I had come down to watch him work horses before but definitely much neater to watch him work with your own horse, Crystal Kroetch also brought her gelding Lymrix and Megan Lane brought Lieran her very talented young horse.  He starts the session with the rider off and the horse in hand and then puts the rider back on at the end and works with both.  Was very very interesting to watch him work in hand, he was firm but patient and very clear about what he wanted and getting the right response, I noticed that he really followed a very disciplined procedure to get the desired results and it definitely showed.  So much to learn from watching him, he has amazing timing and also body positioning (when to change positions for transitions etc) as well as the connection and half halt he is able to achieve from the ground and a very good balance of keeping the right kind of tension (positive tension without ever letting it boil over), in a very short amount of time he had Nico's piaffe looking incredibly regular and in an amazing balance, after that I got back on and rode for about 15 mins and he felt incredible, we worked transitions from halt to piaffe to halt then piaffe to passage and back to piaffe with Juan still on the ground assisting, really was a fantastic learning experience!

Amazing!:D

This whole week has been absolutely amazing for Nico and I, I feel as though we have had a huge breakthrough mentally and physically, he is truly trying for me 110% right now which is such an incredible feeling, it's awesome when you get to that next degree of partnership with a horse, sometimes you get to a stage in training and you think maybe that's all there is to come and then all of a sudden you change a couple of things and find out there's a whole lot more in there and that feeling to me is so incredibly rewarding because it literally feels like you've taken an old friend and made them brand new again.  Nico has always been a tricky nut to crack, for my feeling he has never ever lacked in talent, he learned all of the exercises very easily at a young age but he is the type of horse who carries an internal tension about himself never quite letting go, consequently he can be very skittish and spooky at times as that tension results in a lack of throughness which of course results in distractions and lack of trust in those moments, he's the type of ride where you feel like all of the exercises are easy but that he's holding back from really giving you his all-not due to laziness but due to lack of confidence and in those moments where you want to ask a little more he likes to play it safe and hide, but this past week he has given me a whole new piece of his body and is using himself in ways that he has never before offered  (sometimes this results in some clumsy awkward movements but it is coming from such a good place that it really doesn't matter, he is trying so hard that sometimes he just doesn't know what to do with himself but as long as he is trying it's great!) finally allowing himself to push a little beyond his comfort zone, consequently he is so much more on the aids and through in the connection, all of a sudden getting him active behind and truly connecting from back to front is becoming easier and easier and he's also becoming extremely hot in his new found way of going which is allowing me to find all sorts of new gears in his work, all in all I think the training is now really starting to pay off and I also think the new saddle is helping him out immensely as he's been so much freer in the back since I've changed him over-he's a sensitive guy so when he tells me he's happier with something I'm not going to ignore him!  All in all I'm just amazed with the change in him as of late and very proud of him as he just feels like a different horse, that being said I'm now realizing that he may need a transition period and some time away from the show ring to become comfortable with his new way of going and if I feel that is the case I will respect that he needs the time, in the long run the goal has always been the international grand prix ring and if a break from the show ring at this point in time will help get us closer to that goal in the long run then I am all for it-it's so strange with horses as you can come out with a goal and a game plan in mind and then they start to give you things that gear you in a totally different direction, and yet it's a positive thing, but it just goes to show that you really can't write anything in stone with horses, you always have to be willing to make compromise and be willing to change your course of action and sometimes you have to be patient in the present to serve you better in the future.  That being said I am also excited about how I feel my eye is developing more and more as a coach, I've always considered my eye to be fairly educated but now I am finding that I am able to take the education I have now and fine tune it down to some real intricate details that I may not have noticed as much in the past, it's been a great chance to watch so many quality horses in training on a daily basis as there is not a horse in the barn who doesn't "look the part" but by watching them train day to day you start to be able to identify each and every horse/rider strengths and weaknesses even when the overall picture is quite good, I find now that I have a much more critical eye for a horse that is truly in front of the leg (and I'm not talking obvious, anyone can spot a horse that is blatantly behind the leg but I'm talking the subtle things of a step here or there where they fall behind the leg or shift the balance behind the rider), I've also started to really develop an eye for technique of the hindleg and whether or not the technique is matched in both hindlegs (again not talking obvious difference like you see in an irregular gait but small things within a regular gait such as placement and angles) most horses have minor differences in their hindleg technique and I've started to really notice the tiniest subtleties which to me is also very exciting as I know it will be something that will really help me with my teaching when I get back home.  It's important to me to have a well rounded education from the saddle as well as from the ground and I really believe that every rider (no matter what the level) needs to spend time immersing themselves in education on a routine basis, I know a lot of people try to convince themselves that it works just fine to have a lesson once or twice a week and then work on their own in between and I firmly believe that it is important for riders to work on their own at times in their career so that they can learn to apply their own skills and figure things out but I also believe it's important to take time in ones career to be absorbed in education daily for a period of time as it sharpens your skills from the saddle and educates your eye from the ground and without having that chance on a semi routine basis it becomes much too easy to become complacent in our day to day work.