Teachers Part 6 - Sitka

Sitka began life as a combined driving horse. She didn't spend too much time doing canter work - she was new to the sport, and a carriage accident left her too freaked out to really continue. From what I gathered, another carriage horse came at her head on and there was a collision. This made it really fun for me in the small warm-up arena at Rocking Horse, where she had flashbacks and wigged out when other horses came at her.
Anyway, Sitka was hands down one of my best / favorite teachers. She was a TB/Percheron, and got the best of both breeds. She had the laid-back attitude of a draft with the quick reactions and sensitivities of a thoroughbred. She also loved to cuddle and mooch treats by looking at you with great big eyes and pricking her great big ears. Honestly, if I had the money, I would have bought her in an instant, because she was such a good girl.
Now, anyone who has ever watched a rom com knows that every love story starts off with the two people getting off to a rocky start. Sitka and I were really no different. The first time I rode her was more than a disaster. It was actually probably just sad. She was rushing through my hand like a freight train, with a high head and a hollow back. Her canter went in seven directions at once, all while flying in the very general direction of forward at heart-stopping speeds. I was mortified. But, as these things do, it got better.
You see, that first ride was sans-Steph. The next time I rode her, I had Steph giving me instructions from the ground. Of course, this wasn't helping. I still felt like I was being dragged around the ring by a runaway truck. So, ever-patient, Steph got on board to show me what to do. This was a turning point for me. When I got back on, I was suddenly able to feel how it should be, and having watched Steph make it happen, I was also able to replicate it.
Now, that was just on the flat. Jumping still kind of looked like an episode of wild n' crazy kids. I distinctly remember heading down what was supposed to be a 4-stride line, and just knowing we were going to do it in three and that I had no say in the matter. That last stride, I basically just gave up trying for the four, put my leg on, and went with it. Thankfully, Sitka was fantastic on the fly. In fact, that was her favorite thing to do. Pat the ground? Nuh-uh. No sir. We don't sit on our bums and leave from a deep spot. Obviously, this was to become a major talking point between Sitka and I.
Over the next few months, Sitka and I put our noses to the grindstone and really got to work. On the flat, I learned the art of "rattling the cage". "Rattling the cage" refers to lighting a fire under the horses tail and reminding them that YES, you do have hind legs, and they move when my leg closes. For some horses, this takes a little swat with the whip (Dee), or a big swat with the whip (Kes). With Sitka, it took a little bump of the leg. If I really wanted rattle her cage (sometimes she liked to be stubborn and not respond as well as she should be... thus was usually on days when I got on her before breakfast. I think she was just angry at me) I would give a tiny tap with the whip. This usually resulted in a scoot and a little rear, but always managed to get the fire lit.
Over fences, we were working just as hard. As I said before, Sitka never wanted to sit down and pat the ground for a deep one. She would much rather just take the flyer. While this is sometimes acceptable over cross-country fences, it is not so acceptable over show jumps... especially when you have a tight line, or otherwise need your horse to give you anything resembling collection before the fence. To fix this, we worked on lots of little fences on tight turns, short [and I mean SHORT] one-stride lines, which sometimes devolved into Sitka and I bouncing through the last few. Eventually, though, it started to click. We could do the short gymnastic lines the way they were meant to be done, we could do the 10-meter circle to fence exercise like pros, and best of all, we could jump around a stadium course with collection and normal spots in front of the fences. Sometimes she would even take the deep spot.
Needless to say, I was having a blast making all of this progress with Sitka, and when Steph told me that she was coming to Florida and could ride her in a few events, I was thrilled.
Shortly before we left for Florida, Steph got on her for the first time on the flat in a long while, and she actually told me that she was impressed with how awesome Sitka felt! I can't tell you how great that made me feel as her lowly working student who had worked my butt off with this horse.
Once in Florida, we started really gearing up for our first event - Ocala. Fitness was a pretty big concern, since the weather was drastically hotter than it had been at home, and our only "real" conditioning had been doing ring work. So, i accordance, [and because I don't wear one going Novice], I planned to leave the watch in the trailer for cross-country and just let Sitka tell me what was best.
When we got to Florida, Steph and I had our hands full. We had 10 horses with us, and only 3 didn't need to be competition fit [Abbett, a client's youngster named Breezy, and Kes]. I continued to hone my skills on Sitka, and we were doing a last minute scramble to get our canter work in tip-top shape before Ocala. See, she was doing much, much better in the canter work, but she had begun 4-beating it sometimes, and I had to toe a fine line between strung-out and 4-beats to get the canter where it needed to be. I also took her for our first cross-country school as a team. I wasn't sure what to expect, considering how difficult it was to condense and change her canter stride on flat ground. But, much to my pleasant surprise, Sitka was a cross-country machine. She was balanced, responsive, and gung-ho for everything I pointed her at. The best part was that she felt pretty darn fit. This was especially good, since she had begun to balloon up on the fantastic alfalfa we had, and we were doing pretty much all we could to keep weight off of her.



Next up was our first event together. It was so surprising to get to Ocala and be amongst the best of the best. Steph and I spoke with Ralph Hill in the dressage warm-up, we were parked next to the O'Connors, and I saw all sorts of amazing riders all day. For instance, just in my division were Ralph, Allison Springer, Jennifer Carter, and Heather Morris. Granted, they weren't riding their top horses, but it was still exciting.
Our dressage test was pretty darn fantastic.  Sitka nailed down a 36, and we had a steady, workmanlike test with a proper 3-beated canter.

Next up was cross-country.  The course was a pretty impressive Novice track, but after our fantastic school, I was pretty excited to attack it.  Sitka didn't disappoint.  We simply rolled along through the whole course.  We had one weird, icky jump out of the water, where she had broken to trot and then kind of stepped/tripped over the out.  Here are shots of the jumps at the water [including the icky jump]:

 We finished clear and were tied for 8th going into Stadium.  My main goal in Stadium was to avoid letting her get running and strung-out.  I wanted her to really pat the ground before the fences instead of launching.  My goal was a success and we had a pretty nice round:

Over all?  3rd place!

As you can see in those photos, Sitka had been given a full-body clip [by yours truly ... I clipped all of the horses in a disposable painting suit, which helps, but you still end up accidentally eating/inhaling a ton of tiny little hairs] with her legs still furry.  Well, after Ocala, I decided that a) I didn't like the look of hairy yak legs on a sleek body and b) those hairy yak legs managed to get super sweaty and gross all the time.  So, I made the decision to at least trim them up.

The barn we were staying at didn't have any aisle, or cross-ties, or impressive lighting.

As you can see, it was a shed row attached to a large field.

So, I went ahead and stood Sitka in front of the stalls, grabbed the great big body clippers, and got to work.  By the time I got to her back legs, she was standing with her lead rope unattached to me or anything else, and she stood like a perfect little statue the entire time.  Now, I probably wouldn't have done that with any other horse.  I definitely wouldn't have done that with my own horse [he was an absolute monster when I clipped him, and thank goodness he wasn't showing, because he had gross clip lines everywhere.]  Sitka, on the other hand, was not the average horse.  She even ground tied like that at events.  If you told her to stay put while you were working, she stayed put, no questions asked.  That's the type of thing I try to teach my own horses.  Dee was getting fairly good about it after our rides [I find that's the best time to start teaching it, because they're usually kind of tired and relaxed and don't feel incredibly inclined to cause trouble].
Anyway, the point of all that is to say when we went to Rocking Horse, she was sleek and pretty all the way down to her tootsies.
Speaking of Rocking Horse, that event was a little disappointing to me.  Not because of Sitka [she was lovely] but because she tried her heart out for me, did what both Steph and I thought was a nicer dressage test, and ended up with a 44.2.  Did the fact that we went into the ring after Bruce Davidson make a difference?  I'll never know for sure, but I do have my theories.  I mean, I shouldn't complain - we were in a division with Bruce riding 2 horses, Jon Holling, Dorothy Crowell, and several other big names.
On cross-country day, Sitka's owner came to watch us go.  I'll admit, that was a little nerve-wracking.  It didn't help that when we got into the tiny warm-up, Sitka started having flashbacks and scooting off every time a horse came at us.  Then, we had a very interesting moment on the way to the start box, where a turkey came out of the bushes and scared the bejesus out of poor Sitka.
Once we left the start box, our first 4 or so fences were not so great, and I was about ready to kill Sitka. See, at Rocking horse, you leave the box and then canter along next to the trailers for the first few fences.  Well, Sitka was screaming her head off for that entire part of the course.  She was still jumping everything, but it was incredibly obnoxious, and she got a pretty significant boot to the ribs as we cantered away from the trailers because she had thoughts about getting nappy.  The rest of the course went smoothly, though, and she came home without penalties.
We did end up with a rail down in show jumping, and to this day, I'm not sure what happened.  Steph said it looked like she didn't even bother to pick up her feet.  It was the first jump, I thought we were going to have a perfect distance, and then she just sort of crashed through it.  The rest of the course was brilliant, so the rail was pretty disappointing, but she finished well.  I guess that's what counts.

This has been incredibly long, but Sitka was a pretty big deal.  She deserves it.