We Live & We Learn

Today was a wasted day for Dargenzio & I. We decided to go to a small, local show which turned out to be a complete bust. I was hoping one, they'd have a big enough arena for him to canter in... There was one but it was up the hill, far away from the show ring & had no jumps in it... Two, people would know how to control their horses... Oh dear lord, talk about people not watching where they're going & getting super close to you with a horse that bucks & rears. Dargenzio was definitely NOT a fan of the horses that were acting up, & NO ONE had any common courtesy to leave the arena (I mean, there were three arenas & tons of space outside to lunge)... And three, that the show would run just a little bit faster so we wouldn't be stuck there until 5 pm. If I wouldn't have had a million things to do back at home, this wouldn't have been a problem. But the show literally moved as slow as a turtle. 1 hour lunch break, which is normal... Then, it took them like 30 minutes to set up for the trail classes. Oh yeah, they had to take that down too. This was about the time we left because I didn't want to know how long it took them to set up for the jumping classes plus there were ten or so flat classes before that, along with lead line & an at liberty class. Needless to say, that bath that I gave him yesterday was useless, along with the trip over there which was an hour & a half :p But I do think this was a great schooling experience for Dargenzio, I rode him for like an hour & a half... considering I expected the jumping classes to be starting sooner. He rode in a covered arena, in an itty bitty not even dressage size arena, & got to ride with a bunch of crazy Arabians(; If he isn't scarred for life, we'll be good. Note to self - Don't take a young, very green horse to that show ever again. NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS, I came home after a pretty bad day (should I even mention that it was in the 80s with no wind blowing at all) & as I was pulling the horses off the trailer, someone started honking their horn from our front gate... Who the heck could it be? So I threw them in the pasture & ran over to the gate to get what I thought was just mail, until I realized that I had a package. It was Dargenzio's new KWPN Dutch Warmblood pad that I ordered at PHJA, last weekend. I didn't expect it to come so quickly but the lady who monogrammed it did a fabulous job... She even had to make the design (which is why I had to order it) since she didn't have it already made at the show! I absolutely love it! If you need anything monogrammed or embroidered, check out High Class Horse!

Getting To Know Each Other

Welllllll, today was the first day Dargenzio has been ridden since we got home from PHJA. He was great! We schooled my trainer's cross country course & this will be the second time he has been cross country schooling. He is finally getting the hang of eventing... Now it's me. Dargenzio has a lot more stride & power than I'm really used to so I have had to learn to let go of his face & let him be forward... which I used to think was too much. He is more than willing to do cross country & I absolutely love it. He loves it so much that he pulls me to the jumps, which he rarely does. This horse will be a cross country machine; He has the heart, will, & power to make a wonderful event horse(:

Where It All Started...

So, I started this blog with the intentions of only making it about Dargenzio but I realized that, that wasn't fair to the mare that taught me everything. If you're reading this, you probably know that I had to retire my old event horse, Savannah, in November due to hock problems. Gotcha Covered, aka Savannah, was my first event horse & even though I was only able to ride her for all of 10 months, she taught me A TON. She's the type of horse that will slam on breaks at a jump if you aren't looking up & don't have your leg on. Oh trust me, I keep my leg on now. I never fell off of my Savannah mare, knock on wood, but I "always almost" did as all of my friends would say. She took me to my first three phase, where we had a stop at the LAST JUMP -__- She also took me to my first South Region Pony Club Event Rally where we had a phenomenal weekend, ending on our dressage score of a 41 (I think?) & she took me to my first Horse Trial, where we had an error in dressage (whoops), a rail in show jumping (whoops) & a stop at the stupid stupid squid on cross country (whoops). All of those were most definitely my fault & I was anticipating a stop at the squid... so she gave it to me.

Summer Camp at my trainer's barn!

The months following my first Horse Trial (May HT @ Poplar Place Farm), were amazing & terrible all at the same time. We were really getting to know each other & we were both improving with our riding... But, the mare was going on and off lame from different things. She is very accident prone & we had Vet bills once a month for three months straight for all different things. September came around (rather quickly) & my trainer told me that the September HT at Poplar would be our last Beginner Novice if all went well. Well, all did not go well. My horse decided to puncture her knee (& run over my trainer's barn manager, sorry Amy!) which put her on stall rest for quite a while. So, we scratched from Poplar. September went by very very slowly & October went by pretty slow too. Savannah's leg was healing very well & we all thought she'd be ready to go to Poplar in November, so I signed her up! We went schooling & she was fantastic, especially since she hadn't seen a cross country course in forever.

Cross Country Schooling in October, at Poplar Place Farm.

Four days before the Horse Trial, Savannah started showing soreness in her hindend & my trainer didn't want me taking her to the Horse Trial, because we would get drilled for it in dressage. So, she let me take her lovely mare, Aquataine, who I had also showed in October at Florida Horse Park (because Savannah had been lame for that too). Savannah has always had hock problems since she flipped over & landed on her hocks, in February of 2012. When we got back from the Horse Trial, I was excited to get my Savannah mare going again & we were going to start double dosing her on my best friend, LubriSyn. She was sound, for the most part, all year because she was getting LubriSyn joint supplement. But after my trainer watched me do dressage on Savannah, we all had to talk. This was probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my riding career... To retire Savannah or to make her suffer & keep going? If you think about it, retired horses are generally useless... but we decided that we wanted to use Savannah as a broodmare somewhere down the road. So, that was it. We officially retired her... Oh & she hates it. As of December, I was on the search for a new horse & even though I had tried many, I didn't find "the one" until I sat on Dargenzio. Okay, he wasn't the best at my trial... but I just had a special feeling about him. The whole process of buying Dargenzio went by super fast. Two days later, we were at the Vet's office getting a Pre - Purchase Exam done... & after he passed, he came home. My parents & I were really having some doubts about him after we took him to his PPE... You're wondering why. Well, he tried to climb out the escape door of my trailer... He tried kicking the Vet, & he doesn't have the best ground manners. I'm one for a challenge so when they asked me if I was sure I still wanted him, I said yep. My trailer rattled the whole way to & from the Vet's office, with him stomping, pawing, etc. He came home to something new & really settled in within the first few days. He got to meet Savannah, who hates him, & my little Lightning McQueen pony that I love oh so much.

Ditches...

The Start Of Something New

Dargenzio(:

Okay, so I guess I should start by saying that I decided to make this blog so I could recap on all of my great adventures, years down the road. Anyway, I'm Danielle & I'm an eventer in USEA's Area 3. I just got a new horse about three weeks ago & he is already showing to be a very promising prospect. Dargenzio is a 4 year old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Cantango, & out of a Juventus mare. I was a little skeptical about him when I first got him, because he was very green... but there was also something that made me have to have him. We just got back from our first show at the Escambia County Equestrian Center, in Pensacola, FL. This was Dargenzio's first show & it was fabulous! I am beyond impressed with how well Dargenzio cleaned up his act for this show. We got to the show grounds around noon on Friday & he was a complete mess. Anything moving... or not moving, was beyond scary. But that's a typical four year old for you. I rode for almost three hours on Friday, just getting him used to everything! And I am so thankful I stayed on his back with everything that he was doing. Most of our ride was full of keeping his mind busy & WORK. We went into Saturday with very low expectations, & we really just wanted to get around. We did way more than that! I decided to enter him in the 2 ft. Open Hunter & he was phenomenal. Our first round was great... No squirming, no questions, no looking & most importantly, he listened to ME for once! I was so proud of him & got really excited for our second round because I knew it would be 100% better... I guess I was a little too excited because I went in & went off course. But hey, the one jump we did get to do was great :D

Dargenzio's first... over exaggerated jump in the Open Hunter class.
Photo Credits to Justine Chase!

 Dargenzio was beyond exhausted so he got to sleep for the rest of the day... & that is exactly what he did. When we got back to his stall, he got bathed off & then put into his stall with a ton of hay. He stood in the same place, up against the stall wall, for five hours straight. There was no waking him up either. On Sunday, I had a different horse. We were only in warm up for about 45 minutes before my trainer said we were ready to go into our first jumper class. Okay, so I was a little nervous but my horse acted like he had done it his whole life. Lets keep in mind, the horse has never cantered a course before but he went around perfectly. He even threw out some lead changes... Don't really know where he got those from since we've never taught them to him, but eh, I'll take it. We took a rail due to rider error, but the course was great otherwise. I feel like we both left the show with a ton more confidence than what we went in with, & I am so proud of him. He has the next three days off because he worked so hard(;

All smiles after our jumper class!