(Pre)Foxhunting Fun

So the mysterious woman who piqued my interest in Midnight's pedigree was none other than Betsy of Hunter's Rest in Virgina--a bed and breakfast and barn in the heart of Virginia foxhunting country (three hunts are within 10 minutes).

His orange rubber reins were GIANT compared to my hand

Last week, just on a whim (like many of my riding exploits), I took off work and went riding with her to get a little intro to the terrain and obstacles one might encounter while foxhunting. I rode Unexplainable, or "X" as he is known around the barn, her horse who is a distant cousin of Midnight's...and who bears no resemblance to him whatsoever in appearance or temperament. Which was a good thing, since I was feeling rather frustrated and down on myself about Midnight's atrocious behavior. Trying something new, and riding different horses for a while was exactly what I needed.

Basically my lesson consisted of learning some position changes for riding long distances. Here's the synopsis:

• To avoid fatiguing yourself and your horse, it's better to perch and ride more off your thighs and knee. Funnily enough, this is how I learned to ride as a kid, but to an extreme degree--pinching at the knee, flinging my lower legs every which way, and laying on my horse's neck. Now with the dressage I've been doing, I've gone to the opposite extreme, with my leg on more than I realized, which led to 22-year-old X SPRINTING up the first hill we cantered...because I was asking him to, whether I meant to or not! 
• To stay tight in the tack at speed and over jumps, keep your center of balance by thinking about the hip-to-knee joint ratio. I think instructors have tried to explain this to me before, but it never clicked until just now. When you fold at the hip, your knee needs to straighten a bit to keep your leg under you and at the girth. And vice versa--when you sit up straight, your knee can have more of an angle in it. 

Horsenation's own Lila Gendal was one of the best examples I found

But you see the same idea with steeplechasing

• Since you are more perched in the saddle for long distances, rating your horse comes more from the seat than the leg. So we did some exercises lengthening and shortening the canter uphill, and X was quite cooperative.

I also jumped my first coop -- yay! I think it was maybe 2 ft, not sure. But it was kind of funny because Betsy gave me a lead and jumped it first, and I just sat there quietly waiting for her to turn around and give me permission to go. She looked back at me and yelled, "Come on, this isn't the riding school!"

She said that if she could just watch me ride once more she'd be comfortable taking me hunting, and it turned out that the only really easy time that worked for both of us was that Sunday...so I drove out again for another lesson on Remus, a nice, forward Percheron (now those aren't words you often hear together). This lesson was a semi-private, with someone who hadn't been riding long, but had hunted a few times. The lesson was mostly shortening and opening the trot, then jump exercises in and out of the ring.

Then we went to the Landowner's Party at the GORGEOUS Marriott Ranch in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Not the best picture as I was leaving around dusk, but there are better ones on their website

I met about a bajillion hunt members and the only one whose name I'll remember is Melvin Poe because he's 93 years old, still hunts and apparently is a living legend.

Unfortunately I think I did something to my over-flexible ankle since it's still a bit sore. It may sound like a fake problem -- "oh poor you, your heels are ALWAYS down"-- but I've sprained them several times over the years, especially when I'm tired and my weight just goes down in my heels rather than me holding myself up with my legs.

In any case...it's not that big a deal and I am going cubbing with her in October!!! Originally, I intended to just feel out the B&B as a potential mini-vacation to save up for next year during one of her foxhunting clinic weekends. But with my new income from Horsenation, I can do a day of cubbing pretty easily. Who knows...I live very close to 3 hunts in Maryland, so if I like it, foxhunting might just turn out to be my new thing.

By the way, in case you're counting, this will bring the number of disciplines tried this year to a record high of four: reining, dressage, eventing and foxhunting.

An...Interesting Jump Exercise

So this week I decided to try practicing a jump exercise one of the trainers at my farm prescribed me to make Midnight's lopey canter more show-jumpery and springy. Here is the exercise:

1. Trot in to a jump and canter out.
2. Halt in a straight line.
3. Turn on the haunches, or do a very tight turn if you have no idea how to do a turn on the haunches, like me.
4. Trot into the jump the other way and canter out.
5. Repeat steps 2-4.

There were a few things that were different when I tried it. There was a hunter lesson going on at one end of the ring. The sun was starting to set. I was using a jump that was facing the barn. But I still did not expect what actually happened.

1. Trot into the jump.
2. Take off bucking. (This is actually not unusual for Midnight in the first jump of a session, and while it's very rude, Midnight's bucks are more like graceful dolphin leaps, so I don't have a problem sitting them.)
3. Halt? What's that?
4. Oh crap. We're galloping right through the middle of someone's lesson.
5. Maybe Midnight will stop at the VERY STEEP hill at the end of the arena if I ask him to.
6. Nope, I guess not.
7. Look down sheepishly at everyone in the arena from the concrete trailer parking area on top of the hill.
8. Re-enter arena, apologize profusely for making a scene.

This happened not once, but TWICE. On the upside, I stayed on, I wasn't scared, and I was a little perversely pleased that he made it up that crazy hill. On the downside, I was completely and utterly mortified, and it kind of ruined my whole night. Doubts of whether I was the right kind of rider for Midnight kept nagging me. I don't find these kinds of displays to be amusing, or a show of his "personality." Unless his personality is being a jerk.

We ended up just walking back and forth over the jump (it was like 18") and doing the exercise that way just to end on a "Hey, taking off bucking and galloping up the hill is not allowed" note. Next time I think I'll demote the exercise to just a pole on the ground...and in an arena with a FENCE.

Ugh. So frustrating. I also thought about whether I should ask his owner if I can try a different bit for jumping. Right now he has a loose ring snaffle with a copper peanut in the middle, and this isn't the first time the brakes have been less than responsive with him, though it was certainly the most SEVERE example. I don't know...I don't want to be the type of rider to just escalate to more severe bits, but this is a bit of a safety issue so maybe we could use a different bit to fix the running-through-the-aids issue and then go back to his regular bit.

Notable Names in Midnight's Pedigree

So this weekend I was talking to someone whose horse, as we found out, shares many of the same ancestors as Midnight, and I got to thinking--I really know next to nothing about Thoroughbred racing, and I only know the stories of a few of the most famous horses. So I thought I'd do some research and learn a bit more about his famous forbears.

Midnight's (AKA He's a Bobcat) pedigree

Alydar (1975-1990): Midnight's grandsire

His body type is so similar to Midnight's--more beefy than your typical TB.

I did know a bit about Alydar from Midnight's owner, who mentioned that he was Midnight's grandsire the first time I met her. I had no idea what that meant, so I nodded, smiled, and later looked up who he was.

Really quite a thrilling, but tragic story. Alydar went neck-and-neck with Affirmed in each race of the 1978 Triple Crown...and always lost by a hair. He went on to become a very successful stud at Calumet Farm in Lexington, KY, earning $12 million a year in stud fees.

Alydar vs. Affirmed in the Belmont Stakes

But despite that, in 1990 Calumet Farm was in the red, and Alydar was put down after (supposedly) kicking his stall door so hard he broke his hind leg. Side note--I actually knew a horse who this happened to, but with his foreleg, and he also had to be put down--it's near impossible to keep a horse that hot quiet enough for stall rest. But breaking a hind leg is a different story--much harder to do. Years later, when the owner of Calumet was being tried for other charges, it was found out that the break was so severe Alydar couldn't have inflicted it upon himself--and that foul play was almost certainly the cause of the largest equine insurance payout in history--$36.5 million.

Which still wasn't enough to save the farm, by the way. You're probably doing something wrong if you need to off your most famous horse in order to stay in business.

Raise a Native (1961-1988): Midnight's great-grandsire

Raise a Native, son of Native Dancer, is famous for siring both Alydar and Mr. Prospector. Meh. I wasn't that captivated by his story--but there's the source of Midnight's long back!

Intentionally (1956-1970): Midnight's great-great grandsire via his great-dam (this is getting complicated!)

One of the very few true black Thoroughbreds--and likely the reason Midnight is such a dark bay he's almost indistinguishable from black. Intentionally was the top sprint horse in 1959, but never made it to the Triple Crown due to an injury.

Princequillo (1940-1964): Midnight's great-great-great grandsire via his great-dam

The drama of Princequillo begins before he was even born. His sire, Prince Rose, was quite successful in Belgian racing, but was whisked away to France to avoid being commandeered by the Germans once World War II began. Eventually he was seized, but before that, he was bred to Cosquilla, and Princequillo was born. Both mare and foal were shipped to the US by boat--a daunting proposition in general, but especially so when you had U-boats to tangle with.

At first Princequillo didn't seem like he'd amount to much, but with the help of trainer Horatio Luro, he went from the $1500 claiming races to the Jockey Club Gold Cup as a three-year-old. Other races, blah blah blah, then he sired a bunch of babies, yada yada yada. This account tells the story better than I can.

He looks like a sweetie--and what a hunk! He looks so solid and well-balanced in his conformation.

The person I was talking to (more on this mysterious person later, I promise...unless we get rained out) also was going on about a bunch of racing terms I didn't quite get--so there's a HorseNation idea. I'm sure a lot of OTTB aficionados are in the same spot--pretty far removed from the racing world, and lacking knowledge about what the racing life entails. Personally I always found all the pedigree charts kind of dull since I didn't understand what I was looking at, but once you get into the financial dealings of the owners, how the horses' careers progressed, etc. it becomes a lot more interesting.

TB owners out there--who's the most interesting name in your horse's pedigree?

Why Horse Girls Get Manicures

So Midnight has a pretty bad case of scratches/nasty fungus stuff on his white sock.

Unfortunately, I've been a really bad nail biter my entire life. Especially when I write...great career choice, right?

 

I tried. My little stubs had pretty much no effect on pulling off the scabs--all I really succeeded in doing was annoying Midnight.

$55 later...

...and I had a Betty-Boop-esque pattern that I did not like at all. The tiny, obsessive, loon-feather-like pattern of dots was what appealed to me, not the fact that they were polka dots. So I took off the polish and redid it at home.

That's better. Now off to the barn for the real reason I got acrylics...

So gross but so satisfying at the same time. Well, not for Midnight, but who can blame him--getting scabs picked off and medicated is not fun.

In other news I may have rustled up some barn friends to go do a Murder Mystery trail ride this fall...I hope it works out because the event sounds really fun!