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.

Horse of the Year 2023 Part 4: Show Riding and Working Riding

As K had been plaiting Faith's mane before dressage, I had thought it best not to point out to her that the plaits were on the wrong side, hoping she wouldn't notice. Sadly, K noticed. She started to redo them in a flurry while I helped BarnRat get Midas ready. We decided to try Faith in the show riding with the idea that if she took a lame step we'd just retire.

BarnRat had never done her own plaits before and she did a really admirable job on Midas - I was so impressed with her. She took Midas for a walk and topped up the hay and water - that child really worked all day, in the best traditions of all great barn rats - while I checked in on Wynnie. Apparently, this show thing was tiring but not very stressful in Wynnie's eyes, because she was utterly covered in shavings. Clearly, she had had a lovely nap. She also ate twice as much hay as any of the big horses all weekend, to my awe. I have no idea where that little body puts four fully stuffed haynets a day, but clearly growing is a lot of work.

When I returned to K to make sure she was ready to warm up, the new plaits were only half done, and I managed to gently persuade her to take them out and show Faith natural. We eventually got K and Faith into the show riding ring. I'd given Arwen a short break to eat some hay and have some water, and I went back to tack her up and rode up to the show ring in time to see some of K and Faith. 

photo by Denford Studios

Their rail was really good, and Faith was as sound as a brass bell on the grass. All was perfect until Faith picked up the wrong lead in their individual test, which was a pity but just a little green mistake and to be expected. The judge was very complimentary and told K that she had a nice horse and was winning it until that mistake, so that was really nice. K really exhibited my lovely mare really well; they are a great team and I loved watching them go.

Hoping to spare the dragon after a long dressage warm-up, I didn't warm up for the show riding, since she's always good for the rail. We rode in and walked around once and then the judge lined us up and explained that since all the horses had multiple classes (and the heat, by this point, was horrifying), we would only do our individual tests, no rail. I think this was an admirable decision and one that many judges would have missed out on - sometimes they seem to forget that we are humans on flesh-and-blood horses who have needs.

For me personally, though, it gave me a bit of a wobble. I haven't ridden anything other than dressage in competition for a long time, and I got used to that predictability. The fact that we hadn't had a warm-up was also a little nerve-wracking for me. We watched as two others went and then Arwen and I headed off for our test.

photo by Denford Studios

Arwen, of course, had absolutely no need of a rail or a warmup to be a superstar. She's done this same test in this same class so many times that she could probably do it blindfolded. Our walk and trot portions were gorgeous, with a super cool lengthening thrown in there.

Then I buggered up our trot-to-canter transitions. I was a little scattered and not quite with her and I asked for the wrong lead, which she promptly gave me. She immediately snorted in disgust, trotted a step and fixed it all on her own (when did my dragon become a schoolmaster?), but the mistake was made.

photo by Denford Studios

The rest of the test was super. We did a three-loop serpentine with some really nice simple changes and our lengthening one-handed, and Arwen finished with a perfectly tidy little halt.

Unfortunately that little mistake cost us dearly, no matter how good the rest was. A super cool half-Nooitie, half-Spanish mare won the class, and a really steady little gelding came second. We pinned third, just ahead of the one who bronced spectacularly halfway through his test. The judge was super kind and told me that we had done a very nice test "except for that little mistake". I appreciated that she didn't berate me or try to carry on about bad transitions like some judges have done in the past - we'd had a mistake, I knew it, she knew it, it was just one of those things.

photo by Opus Proprium

I was a little bummed out that I'd made that rider-error slip-up, but Arwen still gave me a great ride, and anyway there wasn't much time to worry about it. It was finally BarnRat's turn to shine!

After patiently helping us out all day, BarnRat at last got her chance to hop onto Midas and head into the warmup. Midas, somewhat to my surprise, was all business. He can be a little turdblossom at shows sometimes, but he's grown up a lot lately, and he is the perfect pony for BarnRat. She takes no nonsense and is a beautiful, gentle, effective rider that I've grown to be very proud of. They had a nice long warmup to make sure Midas had worked out any spiciness from a day inside (like all my Nooities except Wynnie, he sleeps out). He was being perfect.

They headed into the working riding, BarnRat's first time trying the discipline, and the judge explained a fairly tricky course. They had to start by mounting at a block, then trot through some bending cones one-handed, trot over some more poles, and halt immediately on a mat. Next, they had to canter over to some drums, halt between them, then canter out over a little jump before trotting through a dog's leg and halting next to a spooky bale dressed up as a miner (a nod to one of our sponsors for the show).

To BarnRat's credit, she always stands Midas very still to get on him, so hopping on was no problem. They did perfect bending cones and trotting poles, but Midas took one look at the mat and said that that was not happening today, no way, absolutely not. BarnRat gave it a good effort, but when he started to panic, she petted his neck and skipped it. I was so proud of that - she was clear and positive, but listened to his feelings and accepted them. They went on with their test totally unruffled, and he was good for the drums and the jump. He gave the miner the hairy eyeball, but BarnRat kept her leg on and talked to him and he was fine. They halted perfectly and she gave him lots of gentle rubs and praise.

photo by Denford Studios

I was so happy with their ride, although unsurprised when they were second out of two. This kid is shaping up to be a super little horsewoman and Midas is growing up!

BarnRat had working hunter very shortly after this, but I was heading into my working riding on Arwen, so K handled it all on it her own. I switched out Arwen's browband, hopped on and did a short warm-up focusing on steady square halts and popping over a little cross. K and BarnRat were heading over to the warmup as Arwen and I went to the working riding.

I knew BarnRat was in good hands with K, although I hoped I'd still get to see her go. Arwen and I entered the ring with three others - including two kiddos - and the ring steward explained the test. She had to do this a few times, because it was twisty and none of us could understand it. Finally, we grasped it, and the poor smallest kiddo had to go and do it first. She did this fabulously with her super cool pony, with whom she came fourth in the working hunter on the supremes day, no mean feat for anyone let alone a little kiddo.

The other kiddo went next on one of the most well-behaved stallions I have ever seen, and finally my fellow adult - riding a fantastic 22-year-old mare - did their thing. I still wasn't totally sure how the test was supposed to go (no one seemed to be) and I watched closely, determined that neither of us was going to win or lose based on how well we understood a test that was confusingly laid out. This lady and her mare were amazing; the mare was a real old hand, and her rider just as stylish and experienced as she was.

My admiration for them was quickly balanced out by gut-wrenching terror at the prospect of both jumps in the working riding. The first was only about 50cm, but I'd have to tackle it on my own two feet, leading Arwen. I am neither athletic nor graceful at the best of times, let alone when I'm tired, sore, dehydrated, slightly heat exhausted and wearing knee-length leather boots and a jacket. I envisioned faceplanting hard, demolishing the jump and being promptly eliminated while my dragon careened joyfully around the arena all alone.

The second jump was about 65cm, but it may as well have been the Great Wall of China to my dressagey ammy butt.

The lady and her lovely mare returned and I set off on Arwen determined to ride exactly the same shape of test that they did so that we would be competing on equal footing. (Besides, their test flowed well). With great trepidation, I basically held Arwen's reins loose and trusted her to look after herself while I sprinted up to the jump with great determination and jumped my little heart out. It was ungraceful, but I made it to the other side, and Arwen was next to me, laughing.

The mounting block was about 10m from the jump and the other competitors had had to circle back to it, but I stumbled to a halt (I had had done enough running for one day, thankyouverymuch) and Arwen obediently halted beside me. We walked over to it and she stood perfectly still while I sorted out my reins and stirrups and got on. Then I took the reins in one hand and we trotted on and immediately went through the bending cones one-handed.

That was piece of cake for a dragon, of course. I retook the reins and we turned towards a fan of poles, which admittedly I've never actually done before. It was a bit of a mess, but she picked up her toes and didn't knock them, so we made it to the other side and trotted a sharp turn onto the mat. Arwen halted perfectly on this, square and steady, and didn't move a muscle until I asked her to canter on and then to gallop. She did this with a good will and trotted easily when I asked, then halted between two drums and trotted a big figure of eight, going up and down some of the derby banks. She didn't turn a hair at this even though we passed right by the judge's box.

Then we had to canter boldly out from between the drums and jump the terrifying jump. As soon as she saw the jump, Arwen's ears locked onto it. I kicked and flailed hopelessly, and we popped easily to the other side, to my intense relief. She trotted into the dog's leg the moment I asked, halted at the end, reined back perfectly halfway out, and cantered up to the scary miner to halt on a loose rein with no trouble at all.

I gave her lots and lots of pats and hugs for that one. It wasn't an easy test, and honestly, I don't think it could have been any better. She didn't put a foot wrong and I was over the moon with her.

I was a little surprised when the judge called us up and the lady and her beautiful mare were first - they'd been great, but I thought we'd been a little better - and then as I went to stand in second place, the judge laughed at me and said, "No, no. You're number one." And then Arwen got absolutely draped in ribbons and sashes and the lovely owner of Arop Luther, Faith's grandpa who won the working riding a thousand times, came up and held out a giant silver champagne bowl filled with treats. Arwen was all for that part, and was fed numerous apples while they took pictures. Not gonna lie, that was a pretty cool moment.

photo by Denford Studios

"Do you want to get these at the judge's box later?" asked Luther's mom, holding up the prizes.

"My husband will get them," I said.

"Where is he?" she asked.

Right on cue, DH shouted from the sidelines, "YEAH! GO LIEFIE!" (which is "lovey" in Afrikaans) and she laughed and hurried over to him. Being married rocks, you guys.

We cantered out on a suitably sedate lap of honour and I immediately looked around for BarnRat, K and Midas, only to see them walking back to the stables, all smiles. Midas had dumped her in the warmup for making a habitual mistake (which is, needless to say, no longer habitual), but after that they went on to win their class and get lots of compliments from the judge. So BarnRat was grinning from ear to ear.

That ended our day on a high note, and we put the ponies to bed exhausted but merry and then headed to the lovely guest house we'd found five minutes away only to discover that loadshedding had depleted the local water supply, so we had neither electricity nor water. Luckily, my brother-in-law lives nearby, so after night check we invaded their house to shower and then got back to the guest house just as the power came back on.

Erin was nice enough to check on everyone at 9:30pm (the middle of the night, to this old lady) and had to redo Arwen's stable bandages because she had dragoned out of them. Otherwise, all was well, and we were all finally tucked away safe and sound for a nice rest after an epic day, knowing that tomorrow was the Supremes.

photo by Denford Studios