Endings and Beginnings

Didn't want to post this online before everything was all settled and done, but I've stopped teaching lessons at the rescue. Today was my last (windy, blustery, slipping-on-ice-with-my-bad-choice-of-footwear-y) day teaching. It actually worked out great because the original instructor wanted to come back from her maternity leave for the new year.

I haven't really posted much about the lessons (aside from the crashes) since I thought it would be kind of weird to talk about how they were going when my students could easily look it up and read it. And I did enjoy teaching--but it's definitely not all fun. It was a job, which I think I took a little too lightly going into it, especially since I was getting flipped around between different groups so much at my "real" (and also fairly new) job, which basically meant a lot of change and learning and transitions every couple weeks. And I am not a person who thrives on change.

Anyway, it just amounted to that working 6 days a week just wasn't working for me. I was exhausted on Mondays. I stopped wanting to go to the rescue and exercise the schoolies. I stopped even wanting to ride at all, which you may have picked up on with my sporadic posting this fall and my reports of "meh" rides. All I really wanted to do was stay inside and read. So I guess that settles a question I was debating months ago--at least at this juncture of my life, having a horsey job actually made riding into work.

Another issue was just interpersonal stuff. Now, I'm not really talking about barn drama per se--more that dealing with people is just hard, and I'd prefer not to do it at the barn. Sure, I can be polite and professional, but the idea that I wasn't qualified, I didn't know what I was doing, and that other people knew it and were judging me for it kept picking away at my confidence, whether it was a reasonable assumption or not.When things went wrong, I would obsess and worry over them for days. I just do not have the personality for it, I think.

Also...the more I ride and deal with draft horses...the more I realize I don't really like them unless they are very athletic and don't act like draft horses. Blasphemy, I know.

Anyway, those aspects of teaching sucked. Here's what I did enjoy:

• helping a student bring Remy back from a rough period where he was freaking out anytime he felt rein contact to being consistently balanced and relaxed at the walk, and much more adjustable and relaxed in the trot. "Supertrot" is not the automatic pace anymore; it kind of depends if he's feeling up or not. Cantering and jumping are still works in progress, but the every week they're making great strides forward (pun intended). That has been very gratifying to see. Can you tell I like having a project horse, especially when I don't have to ride it?
• planning out interesting jump exercises for my students who jumped
• the learning aspect: Possibly because I was afraid I was doing things terribly wrong, I read a lot over these past few months, listened to webinars, absorbed everything my own instructors told me, and tried to turn it around and pass useful tricks along to my students. Teaching really is the best way to learn.
• nerding out with other horse-crazed people. Don't get me wrong, bloggers, I love you too, but it was good to develop some real-life horsey friendships.
• bringing along students who had not been on a horse in years to the point where they were comfortable and happy learning to post the trot.
• our FAUX-SHOW! Which it appears that I neglected to post about. Oops. Well, remember the show I was planning on this fall? We were all set to go...and then got rained out since the host farm has only outdoor arenas. So we had our own show, with WT, WTC, command classes, and switching of horses. Everyone got ribbons, too, since GG has done some fundraiser shows in the past. I surprised myself since I didn't think Command would be my thing, but it was actually my favorite part. 
• riding outside with the students
• watching students new to riding creating some really sweet memories. When I would see them snuggling the horses or just quietly walking them back to the field, I was reminded of why we ride in the first place.

Here's a picture from our faux-show (couldn't get it to go in the bulleted list). Levi is the blurry gray on the left flinging his head up and down.

from the GGDHR Facebook page

So--all told, I think the transition is going through smoothly. Teaching just wasn't right for me, and now I can focus on my "real" job and on my goal of horse ownership.

And playing Braid on Byron's Xbox.

Howard County Chopper

So considering that the whole point of this blog is to tell you all about how I've been able to ride on the cheap in college, I figured it was high time to tell you the story of a 14hh Haflinger named Howard County Chopper. Affectionately known as Chopper, Chops, or the Chopster, she is my favorite pony of all time, and a rescue project horse that I trained for a winter.

She earned her name on Dec 28, 2010, when I attended my first auction ever at New Holland. From what I had heard, it was one of the worst kill auctions on the East Coast, although it had cleaned up its act in recent years. We Gentle Giants volunteers were on the lookout for drafts at risk of the meat man. It wasn't as dismal as I thought it would be--the horses were tied up in two rows facing the walls where they had water and hay available, but it was definitely not a happy environment.  Some of the horses were in bad shape, especially hard keepers like the OTTBs, who were underweight and nervous with all the commotion and unfamiliar horses. I knew this was the last stop before Mexico or Canada for the horses who were not lucky enough to be purchased by private owners or rescues, and it broke my heart that we couldn't help them all.

Chopper caught the Gentle Giants riding instructor's eye when another person at the auction tried to pet her. The appeal was undeniable--she was a ball of winter pony fluff, except for her ears which someone had shaved bald to show that she clipped (not exactly humane in freezing weather...). Chopper lashed out at her would-be admirer, practically taking a chunk out of her arm.

When the instructor went up to check her out, Chops was all lovey dovey. She knew a good home when she saw it. I promised Christine, the owner of Gentle Giants, that I would put some miles on her over my winter break from school. She was ours for $350.

 "My" first pony! photo via GG/Wayback Machine

She was once used to pull firewood, but someone must have hopped on her a couple times, since she knew the cues for forward and whoa. Her steering was seeeerrriously rusty though.  Here's a video of her second ride. She looks so strung out and small. I remember she would just rocket around at a supertrot until you "ran out of quarters."

I worked with her all that winter, and she soon settled into life at the rescue. When Spring Break rolled around, she had transformed into the Barbie pony I spent my childhood dreaming of.

Even I, as a HJ girl, was not going to pull that gorgeous blonde mane so I braided her up most days.

 I knew that I was too tall and that I looked rather silly on her. But I adored her. She had a wonderful temperament, loved attention, and was very willing but also smart enough to make you work for it. Though she improved tremendously with steering, sometimes those issues mysteriously resurfaced when she decided to be done for the day...

Right now Chops is either in a foster home or back at Gentle Giants (can't remember)--she was adopted out on trial, but developed lameness issues during the trial period so it was a no go. I hope she does find a little girl to love her, to kiss her sweet little nose, and to get her prettied up for occasional leadline classes. She is such a special horse, and so easy to love. Even if she isn't as sound as she once was, I think she proves that rescued horses have just as much to give as others.

And funnily enough, she hasn't bitten anyone since the day we rescued her.

Go Chops Go!

EDIT 6/7/2012: Chops is at Gentle Giants with persistent lameness...so although leadline classes are probably not in her future, she does have an early retirement and a safe home, which is just as good.

All photos from previous versions of the GG website on the Wayback Machine.