Life with a Retired Show Horse: The Recent Story I Didn’t Tell

I believe you can always improve. I’ve been riding Saddle Seat since 2001 when I was fresh out of Kindergarten. I’m not trainer good, but I’ve got a pretty decent handle on the discipline. I was fortunate enough to have experience in both performance and equitation. Even more lucky, I could do it all with the same horse!

As I’ve written about in my previous posts, Bella and I have been trying our hand at new activities since retiring from the show ring, and jumping is the current subject we are trying to tackle.

Bella successfully going boing. 

My last Facebook post about our lesson showed nothing but progress, but I did not post anything from Thursday’s ride before then. I’ve had lessons that are good and great, but it has been a long time since I’ve had a ride that was bad. And to be quite honest, it sucked. I’m not saying in my recent lessons I haven’t learned anything or been tested. My instructors have had me try some new exercises or worked on reinforcing other things, but I had completely forgotten what a bad ride felt like.

On Thursday, Bella and I started out pretty well and began over ground poles. The first jump I asked her to go over, she hesitated for only a second before launching herself into the air. You know those Grand Prix jumpers? With all the power from their horses, the riders almost look like they are falling forward when they land. That’s how it felt when Bella launched herself, except we were only going over the lowest level on the jump standard.

Everything seemed great for the first jump, but then it wasn’t. I could not get Bella to go over another jump the rest of the ride. This was only the second time I’d ever asked her to go over a real jump, but she had ended on a good note jumping just a few days before. However, on Thursday, every time we approached the jump she ran sideways to get away from it.

Here’s what has always made Bella a great horse to learn on: She will never try to harm you while you’re in the saddle, but she will not go through with something unless you are 100% on board with what you are asking. This trait is how she shaped me into the rider I am today.

I’ve never taken a jump lesson in my life. Andrew has been helping me teach Bella to jump, but this is something I’m just doing for fun. With Bella out of training, and me looking at graduate school after finishing up the UofL Saddle Seat team in April, my show career is about to be hung up (at least for a while). I don’t care about looking like a long-time jumper or going over a three-foot tall fence, I’m just enjoying life with my favorite mare. Having a bad ride with her though, was not fun at all. I felt defeated, and it was not something I was used to.

It was not Bella’s fault. I had psyched myself out and questioned every move I made and every move she made. And that smart little mare knew it, too. If I wasn’t completely ready and confident, she was not going over that jump. I tried, and I tried, and it didn’t happen. I knew what the result was going to be, a mentality I struggled with years ago when we had cantering issues. Well, I had the issue. Bella and my instructors just made me work through it.

Two days later, the day I posted a positive message on Facebook about our ride, went much better. I was learning to push with my legs and power through without going for speed. I even learned knee off to use leg, which growing up in Saddle Seat is a big no-no (my jumping friends are cheering right now)!

 Cantering over ground poles in true Saddlebred fashion.

I wasn’t worried about every move ahead of me, I was worried about getting over one ground pole at a time or gearing Bella up for the jump ahead. I didn’t worry about what was going to happen two or three steps ahead. I focused on staying collected and accomplishing the current step.

Bella jumped the first level on the jump standard, and then the second, and we even finished on a high note by jumping the third level. While Saturday was not perfect (pilot error), it felt like a big accomplishment. My horse was happy and having fun, and so was I. The next goal will be getting over two jumps. After seeing how that goes, we'll go from there.

Enjoy the most perfect pony learning to jump over the weekend while I take notes on a case study. Obviously the former sounds more fun. pic.twitter.com/1RoQaStIWU

— Christine (@MakeMineTrimmed) March 22, 2017

We made it to the third level!

Ears pricked, a pep in her step, and head held high. While the rides might be changing from week to week, the one thing that never changes is Bella’s personality. I say this in probably every blog post, but I’m beyond thankful for a mare that lets me learn with her.

Shout out to you, Bella. You will always be number one.

What a good pony.

We get each other.

Life with a Retired Show Horse: New Heights

Bella and I have officially moved past the fallen tree limb level!

Although there are times I miss the feeling of Bella’s energy in the show ring, I really do enjoy learning new things and having fun in retirement with her. She’s smart and figures new things out pretty quick, but she also makes me work for it. That’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about Bella. She’s not an automatic horse. You have to work with her. In the show ring, I had things figured out for the most part, but I’m having to learn all over again in our new adventures.

A few weeks ago, Bella finally got comfortable going over ground poles and didn’t knock them. The next step I decided to try was a very small jump. I’ve never taken a jump lesson in my life, so Bella and I had to figure this thing out together. Thankfully, Andrew has been taking lessons at an eventing barn the past few months and he’s been able to help from the exercises he’s been doing.

At first try, I asked Bella to trot over a small jump. Apparently she thought it was easier to knock the pole out of her way instead of go over it. You would think a horse would realize it’s better to go over the pole instead of knock it after a few times, but that thought didn’t seem to occur to Bella.

Mares.

We then tried cantering over the jump and that seemed to go better, but it was clear I needed help getting Bella to power over the jump. Next ride, Andrew set up some ground poles ahead of the jump. The goal was to get Bella to keep power through the poles so we had enough to get over the jump.

While there were a few knocked poles, Bella got the hang of it pretty well. We started by laying the pole across the base of the jump, then moved it up to the lowest notch, and then the second lowest notch. There was still some pilot error causing a few mishaps, but Bella was very proud of herself. She could hardly stand still and wanted to canter around the arena to go again.

So I’ll be back out there in my Saddle Seat saddle on my retired Saddlebred trying to fix the details. We still need to work on our leads while going over poles or a jump, but I’m thrilled to still be learning with my favorite horse, and thankful Bella makes me work to figure things out with her (although she’s probably already a few steps ahead).