Friday 8 March 2024

Horse of the Year 2024: In-Hand

 I can hardly believe another year has passed and it's time for the best and most fun show of the calendar again. Despite the fact that HOY is always the most pressure, stress, and effort of the year, it's also always the most epic. Hubby and I consider it a huge highlight. Spoiler alert: this year was no exception.

I woke up on the Wednesday night before HOY and realized with horrible suddenness that I haven't actually bathed Wynnie since HOY 2023. Not that she really needs it - she is solid bay, after all - but I was gripped with panic that she wouldn't stand for a bath.

a riding school aunt took so many photos

My concerns were deeply unwarranted. Not only did Wynnie stand perfectly still to be washed from head to toe, she was perfect in our handful of in-hand sessions to prepare for her classes. At first she didn't want to trot - until she got her first click and reward for a few trot steps. After that, she trotted up effortlessly with a voice command. I didn't have to pull to get her to go or stop or stay beside me - it was pretty cool.

We also worked on standing square, which she didn't quite do on her own by the end of the sessions but she easily went there when asked. As an aside, this is the first youngster I've clicker trained, and I am absolutely going to do the same with Raya when the time comes. She's at the point where she immediately looks around for a treat when she sees a Scary Thing.

click treat, feat. ugly plaits

Getting her ready that evening in the dark was effortless. She didn't move a muscle as I clipped her legs and face. She even stood sleeping on Friday night while I plaited her mane, which was a total disaster through no fault whatsoever of Wynnie's. Her hair is really long and thick, but has a missing chunk in the middle, so I couldn't show her natural. We ended up showing in the biggest, ugliest, fattest pull-through plaits you've ever seen in your life. Sensitive viewers should avert their eyes.

Faith's prep was less promising. She has been working hard with E2 and K, but often moved short with K and we couldn't quite figure out why. I think her obesity has a lot to do with it, possibly leading to a little tenderness on her feet, but then again she would move beautifully for E2 on the same surfaces. Anyway, the week before HOY, Faith was better than ever under saddle.

Studvet Turbo, Wynnie's paternal grandsire, who is 26 now and still going strong

Show time clashes meant that I'd be showing her in the hand, so I practiced a little with K screaming at me to run faster (I've got little legs) and she was really super in hand. K had done a fantastic job before last HOY getting her to stand square and trot up easily.

Arwen's prep was pretty unremarkable. We've already settled into a fun routine of bathing, manic tail-scrubbing, and plaiting. She snoozes in the cross ties while I work; I listen to the Compelled podcast to keep my perspective, and it's almost as much fun as the actual show. While she was not amused about being locked in a small paddock for the night, she only galloped around for a couple of minutes before resigning herself to her fate of eating a huge net of hay.

Raya and Wynnie's daddy Dakota as a young stallion

We finished up on Friday afternoon with a bit of box training, just a refresher for those who hadn't been in the four-berth box before or hadn't been out for ages. Wynnie walked right in, obviously, but Faith was extremely dubious. We could get her in, but I physically couldn't shove her over enough to close the partition. Everyone started to get stressed out at that point, and it was getting late, so we took her back to the stable in the hopes that BarnRat would be able to help me close the partition.

At half past four the next morning, however, all four mares (including Erin's lovely mare and Arwen) loaded like a dream. We put the lunge line behind Faith and she was unsure, but it only took ten minutes to get her in, and hubby was able to push the partition closed. It appears I no longer need to wrap him quite so heavily in cotton wool.

With that, we were off to Horse of the Year Show 2024: my poor husband with a literal truckload of girls and mares. They traveled perfectly and unloaded calm and happy at the show, even - perhaps especially - Wynnie. She seemed to look around and say, "Oh, this place again," then immediately settled down to hand graze. In fact, I handed her to BarnRat so that I'd have both hands free to wrangle Arwen, who turned out not to need any wrangling. She was chill from the moment we got there.

We tucked the mares into their stables and immediately leaped into action. C and BarnRat helped Erin and K to turn out their Boerperd mares to the nines while I got Wynnie ready and helped with Faith. For the record, bay horses are the best thing ever. I sprayed some shine spray, brushed her tail, wiped her face and put her halter on while everyone else ran around painting Wompom on white legs and bemoaning grass stains. In a flurry of activity, everyone was ready, and we all set off for in-hand: K and Erin to the Boerperd arena, and Faith and Wynnie to the Bob Charter arena. Arwen came along so that she wouldn't be all alone in the stables.

Faith and I arrived at the arena gate with a little time to spare. The gigantic Bob Charter was divided in half, with the showing happening on the far end near the restaurant. Faith and I hung out on the other side for a while and I immediately knew that we were going to have a rough time of it. Faith couldn't see Wynnie and Arwen - although there were other horses in the arena with her - and it worried her hugely.

I walked her around a little and we discussed the fact that feelings are okay but running over your handler is not okay at all. She was still tense and pulling but no longer trying to squash me when the steward called us in and I showed the big girl for the first time in years.

photo by Denford Studios

She was understandably worried but actually the best I've ever seen her in hand. In motion, she was perfect. She wasn't into standing still, but did so long enough for the judge to look at her. Her trot was really cool despite my tiny legs and she pinned second in a medium-sized class, her best in-hand result yet.

After Faith's championship class, where she didn't place, we quickly trotted out and I handed her off to the girls in exchange for Wynnie. We went straight in with no time to get her settled, which turned out not to be a problem at all, because Wynnie was utterly chill. She called to Arwen once or twice, but never really looked around for her. Instead, she marched into the show arena like she owned it.

I had a pocketful of small treats and I unashamedly deployed them with frequency because my little two-year-old was foot perfect. She tossed her head a little and had an excited step or two in her trot, but didn't yank me around or jump up. She barely even fidgeted when she had to stand still in the lineup - which is a feat for a baby her age.

photo by Denford Studios

I was glowing with pride even before the judge placed her second in a class of five, which I was over the moon with. She's only two and her class was fillies four and younger, so there were much more mature girls in the class, and she stood up well against them. More importantly, she was pleasant to handle and enjoyed herself. She knows this game now and she likes it. I think she's going to be an absolute pleasure for her first ridden show.

We had a short break before the group class, which gave me time to get Arwen spot washed and polished for her baby riding classes with a little kiddo. (More on those later). I handed Wynnie to C while I was busy with Arwen and she quickly figured out that she could drag poor C all over the place. When I took her back, she tried to walk over me and got bopped in the shoulder with a showing cane. She took the correction with grace but she was starting to run out of patience - understandably for her age. Annoyingly, it took several reminders for her to stay out of my space, and this transferred into her class somewhat.

photo by Denford Studios

We headed in for her group class, where two horses from the same sire or dam are presented, and showed alongside her beautiful half-sister also by Dakota. Wynnie was getting a little irritable at this point and wiggled around in the lineup a little. I gave her the tip of the showing cane to chew and that settled her somewhat. She gave a jump when we trotted up, but never brought any feet near me, and trotted nicely by my side despite some annoyed head-shaking. I had to remind her to stay out of my space a few times, too. Nothing was horrible, she was just really over it by that point and that's okay.

Hubby was having an amazing time. He thinks Wynnie is the most beautiful horse he's ever seen, and we brought his bike along to the show, which was a stroke of genius on his part. He zoomed around happily fetching and carrying and none of the horses seemed to mind. Each time we won a ribbon, he hung it on his bike. It was delightful.

We got third in a fairly large class and then poor baby Wynnie could go for a rest. It was time to get Arwen and her kiddo into the arena, and this was the class that I was the most invested in for the whole show.

More on that later. God is so good.

the first of many

Monday 4 March 2024

Sometimes Love is a Bridle

 February kicked off with the show at Penbritte and then grew somewhat quiet on the equestrian front. Thunder recovered from a pulled tendon early in the month and then promptly damaged his other front leg by getting into an argument with Diablo (25, one-eyed) about who was Rene's boyfriend. (Rene was content for them BOTH to be her boyfriend during the most violent and raging foal heat I have ever seen). It wasn't major, just a lump on the outside of his cannon bone, but Mr. Stoic got time off until it healed anyway.

Raya continued to be super adorable. She got herself into her first trouble (of much trouble, judging by how the horses have behaved lately) when Samule got away from Kathleen during his lunging session and decided that he HAD to capture and investigate Raya. He ran through a couple of fences (did I mention that a lightning strike took out our energiser, too?) and chased poor baby Raya through a couple more, separating her from her mom. Thankfully, Dusty showed up, chased Samule away, and kept Raya by her side until I got to them. Raya was none the worse for wear except for a small scrape on her nose. Samule spent the rest of the month in jail until we got the new energiser.

Lancey only had a couple of rides in February, but he was fabulous. Amazing to hack - obviously - and even better in the arena. In fact, I would have loved to take him to Horse of the Year, but the Arabs are on a weekday which is difficult to swing at the best of times and impossible given all the vet bills these dudes incurred this month.


Arwen had a chill first week in February. She went for a long hack after the show and behaved impeccably - solo is no problem for her these days. Is the dragon maturing? Perhaps we can hope so now that she's 17.


Rene had a photo shoot with her actual owner, who's hopelessly outgrown her now but had a few beautiful years riding her. Raya photobombed accordingly.


Despite Raya's best efforts, the photos still turned out totally spectacular.

photo by Erin Vogler Photography

BarnRat has her lovely new horse but is still competing Midas at SANESA this year as long as she doesn't grow too much more. He's jumping like a beast for her. We took them out to a clinic at E2's yard in Meyerton and he stopped hard at first, but kiddo rode him thoroughly through it, and they ended with a .90m track in fine style including fillers and things.

He's given this poor child a hard time, but she's also developed a fabulous seat, so there's that.


Raya's overwhelming cuteness made it really hard to get anything done. She's been one of the easiest foals we've had, although we had some trouble getting her to quit eating her mom's concentrates - I've never seen a foal eat so much solids so fast. This girl was two weeks old and chowing down on grains and hay already.


Lancey was out of work for most of February because I had a pea-sized melanoma cut out of his butt early in the month. It was the only one I could find and I wanted to get on top of it, so the vet cut it out with nice big, clean margins. He was shaky under the sedation and gave me a fright, but came out of it easily. The wound healed with no fuss at all.

The vet asked if I wanted to biopsy the lump, but like... it was a nasty black thing with octopus tentacles on a grey horse. It was a melanoma. I opted out.


Everyone had flu shots on the 7th as well, so Arwen took it fairly easy that week. The next week, though, we got right back to work and kept ticking over nicely for the rest of the month. We did a ton of work on her halts, trot-canter and walk-canter transitions, and flying changes.



Honestly, I'm not sure how we got anything done at this yard in February because of this Raya cuteness.


This is my new friend and client A's horse, Mawarda, a picture perfect little Arabian. He was kind of ribby when we got him in the winter, but these days he's a shiny, round boy.

(Relax, it's khakibos, an invasive but weirdly beneficial weed. Not that kind of weed.)


Faith was incorrigible at the show, so much so that I didn't even put her kid on her. She wasn't dangerous, just really tense and wiggly - definitely not suited for a 10-year-old. So I switched the kiddo onto Flashy instead. He's been a bit of a dunderhead lately but improving with every ride.


Hubby was allowed to start cycling in the beginning of February, and riding with him has become one of the most exquisite pleasures in my life.


Toy Town and BarnRat joined us on this particular ride, which always introduces an element of chaos. It was some of the most fun I've had on horseback this year - and I've had a lot of fun this year.


Running this place can be stressful, but it's got to be some of the most beautiful land the Lord ever made.


Tarka, also belonging to A, had difficulty gaining her weight back after she arrived with her foal Azai at foot last year. These days, though, she's starting to look a little like an overstuffed sausage.


Despite some very dry weeks in January and early February, the grazing is holding up fine. Perhaps a little too fine - I'm more worried about fat horses than thin ones right this moment.


Despite being in full work, Arwen is one of the fattest ones. We're working on restoring the fences now that we have the new energiser and we're going to move the fat ones off the best grass, so we'll see how that goes. They'll lose much of it naturally in the winter.


Wedding Bliss and BarnRat have gone from strength to strength. Wedding could be quite rude and throw a few bucks, but E2 jumped on her for me and sorted her out with one ride. Kiddo handles her extremely well. They've been jumping gymnastics and tracks of 0.80m already, which Wedding finds practically effortless. She's also finally gaining some weight on the nice grass - hopefully we'll get the ribs totally covered before winter.


Arwen and I took our new livery, Donker, and his lovely owner, IG, on a hack with Flash and her non-horsy boyfriend. He was admirable about the whole thing and Flash, of course, took perfect care of him - despite having launched a poor little kid only a few minutes earlier. This is the first kid to fall off Flashy, though, in four years of riding school work, so I can't be too mad.

Our neighbor is renting our southern pastures this autumn and winter, so he put up a new fence for us.


I'm not sure I ever introduced Samule. Hubby has been pestering me for months to get him a horse of his own, but I did not. Instead, I got him a tiny, somewhat feral mule. He's much less feral these days - we've had him a few months - and becoming a really cute pet. K is training him for me and we plan to put him in harness eventually. His talents include following us around the pasture and escaping from absolutely any fence that isn't loaded with at least five thousand volts.


I sent this to Erin joking that his front legs kept getting injured so I'd just chopped them off. This was actually his first time back at work with two functioning forelegs - a lungeing session that involved a lot of squealing, leaping, and even, embarrassingly, getting away from me and running around the arena while K was trying to ride Faith. Good to know he was feeling fine, I guess.


My birthday was at the end of February, and I wandered into my house after running around all afternoon to find K, Rain, hubby, and Erin (via video call) gathered inside yelling "Surprise!" like in the movies. They'd all chipped in to buy the most epic birthday present.


After buying Arwen's brown Wintec last year, I didn't really have brown tack to match. It came with a snaffle bridle that mostly matched but had a crank noseband and rubber reins that aren't really showing legal. I bought some mismatched reins and a noseband that also didn't quite match and cobbled them together for Pre-HOY with an old Pelham that I had lying around. She goes in a Pelham - not like she goes in the double, but she goes - so I was happy with that for HOY. Nothing exactly matched, but I wasn't going to fork out a bunch of cash for a bridle that was only really necessary once. Dressage judges might get a twitchy eye from a black bridle and brown saddle, but they won't mark you down like in showing.


At the tack shop where I got the reins, though, there hung a thing of beauty: a brown double bridle exactly the same as Arwen's black one, which is perfect for both showing and dressage and suits her face really well. I thought it would be a good match for my saddle and it wasn't that expensive but, again, I'm still paying off expenses from when hubs was in hospital so it wasn't going to happen. Except that it did. They all got together and bought it for me, and it matches not just well, but perfectly.

Sometimes, love is a bridle.

K put ribbons on it

Donker has been a generally very good boy, but he presumably got into an argument with one of the others - likely Flashy - and received a kick. Being an older boy, he hasn't been healing particularly well, so I spend some time obsessing over his leggy each day.


In the absence of a tractor, an issue we've been dealing with for over a year now, hubby hooked the harrow to his SUV - which he is very precious about - and spent hours dragging the arena for me. It made an enormous difference. This man, you guys <3


M lunged Thunder a few times for me because I was embroiled in HOY prep and not able to pay him a ton of attention in the last week of February when he came back to work. I rode him on the Wednesday, though, and while - as always - he needed a little convincing to get in front of my leg, he felt as strong and supple as ever.



Arwen felt amazing as we prepared for Horse of the Year. We worked on flying changes, hoping to fit one into our show riding test for extra marks, and while she was still a little messy right to left sometimes, her changes left to right got to a point where they felt almost perfect. She skipped softly through them so lightly I could barely feel them.

Her extended trot became effortless again with the arena harrowed, too.


The main herd is quite large now - eleven horses - but they're getting along so well. Arwen is, obviously, the boss mare and she keeps everyone effortlessly in line. Flashy is the Big Stallion in his little mind and Midas acts as a sort of lieutenant. Faith is also quite dominant, and the rest are pretty happy to just eat grass and not have complicated social lives. Flashy and Midas are even getting along, to my surprise.


Raya and Rene temporarily got put into the arena while my hands were busy. Raya galloped madly around the arena but never came close to the non-electrified white tape surrounding it. She is very clear on the fact that fences are not for touching, a great relief to me. There are few things more frustrating than escapees.

I had professional photos taken of Raya because I'm sad not to have better photos of baby Wynnie, so I look forward to posting those.


I may be a little worried about their weight right now, but I still truly appreciate the low maintenance of these Nooitgedachters. It hardly costs me a thing to keep these two beauties in show condition. They're only on pasture with a fistful of balancer for the micronutrients, and even in full work, these girls simply blossom. No shoes, great mouths that only need the dentist occasionally, cast-iron legs, and they don't even seem to need a ton of bodywork. Thank you ladies.

old man Vastrap in the background living his best retired life

Arwen and I didn't practice our show riding a ton - we have Easter Festival dressage coming up so that's taking up a lot of our attention - but we did make the effort to play with a working riding test and ensure that the halts are still steady. Spoiler alert: the effort paid off.


Kiddo and Midas at their clinic at E2's lovely yard. They have SANESA coming up and I'm interested to see how they do. Midas jumped well at this venue last time and both he and kiddo have improved a lot - she's put in an amazing amount of work.


Another livery also went to the clinic and did this to himself in the horsebox, so that was fun. Horses gonna horse. It was surprisingly superficial and he's basically fine again now, but it was not a good moment when I stepped into the blood-streaked box.


We wrapped up the month by finally getting a good picture of Arwen in her beautiful new bridle, all ready for Horse of the Year - which was amazing.


More on that later. God is good.


































































Friday 23 February 2024

Third Level with Arwen

 Technically, our South African dressage levels (or "grades") still go by their old names, Walk/Trot, Preliminary, Novice, Elementary, Medium and Advanced. Considering we only use the American tests now, I'm sure we'll inevitably switch to the American names.

no filter for this African sunrise


Either way, Arwen and I headed to our favourite show venue in the world - Penbritte - at the beginning of February for her first ever Third Level test.

It was the weekend right after pre-HOY and I was hopeful that there would be slightly less dragoning. She loaded up next to Faith (for a kiddo), filling up our horsebox with their gigantic grey butts, and we headed off uneventfully for the 60-minute drive.

apart from traveling and standing in the stable like a champ, Faith was a butthead on this day

We dumped Faith unceremoniously into a stable, poor girl, but she behaved surprisingly well while I saddled Arwen and headed straight to the warmup with thirty minutes before our ride time. This turned out to be the perfect length of warmup, for once. I had time to ride her down if she needed it, but actually, she was pretty chill from the get-go. Forward, supple and focused, with a minimum of dragoning.

She gave me a beautiful stretch in both walk and trot, and then we ran through a few things, focusing mostly on her halts so that we would actually halt instead of manic piaffing at X. She felt steady and easy, and her extended trot, which had evaporated mysteriously the week before, was great in the large soft sand arena we warmed up in.

Both of us felt relaxed and ready when we headed into the familiar arena and said hello to one of my favourite judges, who had the decency to ask if I knew the new tests. Then he rang the bell and off we went.


Our endless practice on the centreline paid off. She came straight in, halted dead still, and remained totally motionless for my salute. An easy 8.0 right there to start off her career in the upper levels.

Obviously, things did not continue in this vein. I was a little lackadaisacal with my leg in the first shoulder-in for 6.5, "some fluency loss", and our half-pass was another 6.5. I argued with her a little into the shoulder-in right which led to 6.0, "little tension, lost fluency", but the argument paid off when she slipped into a very obedient half-pass for 7.0, "fairly fluent".


Her medium trot felt fabulous for 7.0, and then we cruised into the halt. She didn't stand perfectly still - I was feeling a little rushed and didn't wait for her to put her left front down, which she tends to dither around with sometimes - which led to a slightly messy rein-back for 6.5, "slightly hurried, steps not quite equal". We can do better. At least I counted the steps properly like a grownup this time.

That led us into the walk work, often a challenge on the PiaffeDragon. Her extended walk was 7.0, "some ground cover", and then came the dreaded turns on the haunches at which I am so pitiful. I've been working hard on them and they were, in fact, better, albeit not great. The first was 6.0, "lost little rhythm", and the second was another 6.0, "some tension." On the livestream (yes, Penbritte livestreams everything because they honestly just rock), I notice that she lost rhythm in the last step out of the TOH, so that's where we can make up a half mark or so.

with my vast audience of seven

It was as we were walking to C for the canter transition (the walk 6.5, "some tension") that my brain quite simply evaporated. I knew we had to canter at C. I also knew that I had, in fact, cantered on a horse before in my life. However, I couldn't for the life of me remember how to canter. I sat there in a panic for a few seconds and then waved my legs around. Arwen bucked magnificently, which apparently jolted my brain back into gear. I applied the aids and Arwen obediently set off. That earned us a 5.0, "resistance", although I believe the resistance came from my brain cells and not my horse.

The medium canter was a bit floppy, 5.5 "more ground cover for medium", but I had returned my brain to my skull by the 10m circle which was a 7.0. Next, we headed into the flying changes. The first one, right to left, felt pretty good to me but was a 6.0, "little late behind". I tried for a bold extended canter and must have redeemed us a little for a 6.0, "bit hurried, more ground cover" (my dude she is 14.3, we have little legs). The transitions were a 6.5, and we had another 7.0 for the canter circle.

She leaped through the flying change left to right, as she does, but it was clean for 6.0, "lost fluency - jumped". We got it together for a transition to collected trot that garnered a 6.5. The wheels all fell off in unison when we went across the diagonal and I magnificently overrode the extended trot, so she broke, pirouette cantered, trotted a bit, broke again, and then gave me three good steps before we reached the corner. My bad. Those got us a 4.0 and 4.5, obviously, "broke after M (x2)" and "more difference!".


Kudos to the judge for using all the numbers, though - we had a fabulous second centreline for 8.5, "steady and straight", certainly the best mark I have ever had in graded dressage. That concluded her first ever Third test for 63.3%, rider brain farts notwithstanding.

Also, thank you Arwen for being really good in the stable for the rest of the show while I wrangled children and their desperately uncooperative mounts.

I absolutely loved riding her at this show. Not only is this the best venue I've ever had the pleasure to ride at, but I also felt the judging was extremely fair. Also, thank you America for your tests. This was such an easy test to memorise and so uncomplicated while still asking all the right questions for the level. I massively enjoyed riding it and it felt both horse and rider-friendly.

We have big dreams for this year and it feels so good to have her first Third Level in the books. Now to train for Horse of the Year!

God is so incomparably good.

Horse of the Year 2024: In-Hand

 I can hardly believe another year has passed and it's time for the best and most fun show of the calendar again. Despite the fact that ...