Photo Challenge – Day 3

There was no sunrise to catch because of all the cloud cover in the morning.

Driving up the driveway always makes me happy. Seeing the farm sign send me like a burst of joy. Am I the only person who gets excited on the farm driveway?

I drove up to find the farm owner and her mare enjoying a little time together after a ride. It was so cute to see them together.

As soon as Gen heard my loud self talking in the barn he looked up, as soon as he saw me coming out to get him he walked over to the fence. He loves his mommy time!

He was trying to open the gate himself but I had to make him stop and pose for the before grooming picture. At least he wasn’t that muddy. Look into those eyes and tell me I do not have the best horse in the world.

What do you think Gen is thinking in this picture?

I walked out to the car and was walking back into the barn when I found my handsome pony wondering where went.

Isn’t my horse adorable! I think so!

Photo Challenge – Day 2

This was as close as I got to a horse yesterday. That is my Gennyral figure and plant sent to me by the barn owner when I first started this job.

The only time I got outside when it was still light out was walking to my car to go from one work location to the other. It was a beautiful day out I am told. I wouldn’t know. I worked 14 hours yesterday. I cannot believe I managed to keep up with the challenge at all!

This is the poster that hangs outside my office. I know posting this is going to give you all big hints as to what I do, but I love this poster so much I had to share it anyway.

After my long day at work I needed some cheering up. So I decided to take pictures of my ribbons. Yes, it is self centered and even could be considered rude. I love them though and nothing can make me smile like a shinny ribbon Especially these because they are the ones that I won on Gen.

I get made fun of A LOT for hanging my ribbons up, but I don’t care. I love to see them on my wall! Maybe because when I was 8 I didn’t have any so I am reliving my childhood.

It was late when I got home so I am sorry for all the odd angles and blurry pictures, but these are my Lexi ribbons. We are getting close to the one year anniversary of his death. Those ribbons so not show how much he really gave me.

This is my one and only neck ribbon. This was won by My True Heart who also passed away not long ago. That neck ribbon is just so special to me I cannot even put it into words.

Here are the ribbons from Phoenix this year. Well, just the dressage ribbons. The hunter ribbons are hanging up.

I would casually put them on the lamp as I would come home. It was fantastic by the end of the year to not have space on the lamp. Best Feeling Ever!

Photo Challenge – Day 1

The sunrise on my way to work.

The beauty of farm land on my way to see Phoenix.

Phoenix standing by the gate waiting for me to get down to him.

Phoenix watching someone ride and watching me all at the same time because of his baby horse ADHD.

HAHAHAHA…I just wanted see if his new sleezy would fit…I know it is not put on correctly…poor pony!

Phoenix’s Owner totally caught off guard as I whip out the camera. I love this picture.

Phoenix’s Owner has not been on him in a while, so I asked her to ride him at the start of my lesson in the hopes he would be very good and very grateful to have me on his back after 15 minutes with her. He wasn’t so happy about his owner getting on him at all, but my evil plan did work! I laughed so hard as she put her foot in the stirrup only to have him try and get away.

Ridding off into the sunset (and yes, I do need to learn how to hold a camera.

By the time I got to Gennyral’s it was dark. Barns always look so cozy with lights on!

A picture a day keeps the doldrums at bay

I was tagged by Melinda over at boots and saddles for Mel to do a photo challenge. And this really is going to be a challenge to me because you all know I am a bit on the wordy side of things The challenge is to take 9 pictures a day for 7 days. I know that I was tagged forever ago, but I can’t just stop writing for a week without a little notice. So for the next week you will be seeing pictures, and lots of them from me! I hope that you all enjoy. I know when I do my photo posts people usually don’t comment so I am not really sure what to expect from this week. I want to pass this challenge along to a few of my blogging friends who have not been so good with posting lately in the hopes that this will inspire them to come back to blogging!

1) Stable Hands - Gennyral’s massage therapist started a blog, but didn’t get into the blogging rhythm of things yet.

2) Marissa - I need to see more of that handsome tucker of yours…and I still haven’t seen your new place so I would love to see it in pictures!

3) Now That’s A Trot – Her blog was one of the first horse blogs I started reading and she needs to get back to blogging.

4) A Good Horse – I want to see more pictures of your big beautiful draft pony. I know you don’t get out to the barn every day but I am sure you have enough going on that you could take pictures of every day.

5) Standardbreed Excellence - I love that she is blogging again! She went though a no post phase and it drove me NUTS! She and her mare Dreamy were recently in USDF connections and she didn’t even have time to blog about that. I miss reading all about their adventures and I hope that this is a nudge in the right direction. She has gotten back into blogging and I hope she keeps it up!

If anyone else wants to do this challenge please do. I really hope I can make it all 7 days! Oh…and since I post so early in the morning I am going to take my pictures the day before each day. I hope that is not breaking the rules of the challenge!

My 2009 Equine Affaire Contest (and shopping) Results

I had a BLAST at the Equine Affaire this weekend. I know it is not the kind of event for everyone, but I LOVE it and really enjoy going every year. Shopping was really good this year. So good, that I went UNDER budget. I don’t think that has happened to me EVER. I am normally the kind of person who has a budget, but also knows to the penny exactly how much I can go OVER that budget. I was very close to going way under, but towards the end of the day I saw some boots that a few of you wonderful readers have mentioned that I try so I had to get them. So lets take a look at the loot!

Not a bad haul for a single day right! We will start up top. I am not a sleezy person. I am just not. With Gen I wouldn’t even try to prep Mr. White the day before. I would just go to the barn at like 3am and bath and braid him that day. Lexi? My sainted paint. If you gave him a bath and put braids in he would not roll. He was a SHOW HORSE and he would never do anything to rub out his braids. Phoenix…not so much. The baby horse likes to sleep lying down at night and so no matter what we get manure stains all over our white Appy blanket at night. And more times than not Phoenix has rolled all the way over and got shaving in his braids. Not helped along by the fact he tries to rub them out. I was resisting the sleezy got a long time, but after our hunter show in July where I gave up part of my 4th of July BBQs to braid him only to find the braids all messed up in the morning, I decided it was time to buy one. And then I saw how much they cost. The cheep ones were over $80!!!!!!! I refused to spend that. Lucky for me the Equine Affaire has an awesome trade show. That ribbon and trophy filled Sleezy? Only $45.

Then there are the winter riding tights I got for only $20 because my friend ktlyn615 was making a purchase from that store. They were already cheep, but with the extra 20% off there was no way I could say no. Below the breeches and sleezy to the left is a new halter/lead rope combo for the fat spotted pony. Gen has a nice padded leather halter for every day use and I am constantly brining in new black and red lead robes as they fade for him. Phoenix’s mother used to keep his old halter together with bailing twine. Eventually, I took pitty on the poor pony and gave him a Gennyral hand me down halter. Well, after many games of halter tag the hand me down is starting to tear on the noseband. So I figured I would pick up this super cute pink and black number when I saw it. Most cute halters are all nylon. And any all nylon halter is so dangerous that you will never see one on my horse. When I saw hot pink with a break away I just had to get it. It even has an adjustable and padded nose band as well.

When we went back for the fantasia I had to stop at one of the shops we had been to earlier in the day to pick up a new hot pink cotton lead rope. Most people don’t like cotton leads because they do disintegrate over a long time. I would rather buy a new lead every 2 years than have a horse rear on me with a nylon lead. Cotton doesn’t give rope burns. It was pricey at $10 for a single lead rope, but I think Phoenix will look so adorable in his new digs. I am going to wait until his current halter completely breaks till he gets his new one so it is something to hold on to.

Next to that are Gen’s new Pegasus Air Boots. I know several of you had mentioned the Pegasus boots, but I don’t recall ever hearing about the air version of these boots. They have a large area of Velcro inside (instead of 3 strips on the outside), and the neoprine is also perforated in a ton of places to allow air in the boot. I almost didn’t buy them though because there is a little air pack in the boot that is supposed to lay on the outside on the tendon and give it extra support. That assumes that there is an area to go in on a horses leg. Normal horses have that, Gen…well not so much.

The Young Rider and Ktlyn615 talked me into it though because I spent $128 on stretch and flex boots at Devon that I don’t like for Gen. These were only $70. Why not give them a try. I will review them for you once I try them on Gen. I am going to wait for it to dry up a little just in case they don’t offer as much support as they claim. While talking to the sales guy one of the big wigs at Pegasus came over and I told him Gen’s story. He said that I have been waiting for 2 years for these air boots because they will solve all my problems. I told him I will believe it when I see it.

Next to that are splint boots for Phoenix. He is such a klutz that he tears splint boots up. Better boots than a leg right? And last but not least is my new surcingle. I am thinking that I am giving up on the lunging of Gen because I get so nervous. That being said, all my lunging stuff but the line is borrowed. When I saw a neoprine surcingle for $20 I had to get it just in case I want to give lunging a go again later. When I went to the check out at that place it turned out I got the last one. $20 was a good deal and they told me that they had brought enough to get them through Sunday, but so many people wanted them that I got the last one…and it was only Saturday morning.

So now on to the fun stuff for you. The contest! What was my budget? My original budget was $300. That was guessed by Michelle. Michelle did not win though because I got such amazing deals! The contest was to see who could get the closest to what I would actually spent without going over.

All told I spent $205 on all my loot. That means that Jen, who guessed $200, you are the winner! I know you are in the process of moving, but please leave me your e-mail address so I can get your new home address and send the prize off to you. Congratulations!

The Last Horse Show Of The Year – The Results

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I was very proud of myself that I was able to untack Phoenix all by myself and get his boots and cooler on. We did much better about being alone at this show versus last week. I put his cooler back on and asked my very non-horsey parents if they could do me a favor and just put the butt barn up when I got Phoenix in.  Gennyral was a terror to trailer. My parents laughed at how easily Phoenix loaded up because they remember the whole process it took to get Gen in. Phoenix, on the other hand, will follow you pretty much anywhere as long as you have food. I said good bye to them and went to take all my show stuff and get Phoenix some water.

I wandered over to chat with Phoenix’s Owner and one of her clients who came to watch, and then we all wandered over to watch Speedy’s Mom warm up. I kept wondering why they were not announcing the results of my classes. It was not like I thought I had won, but I just wanted to know how the judges scored us. With only 6 people in one class and 4 in the other I knew I was getting a ribbon for my efforts. It was a cold day and after 20 minutes of just standing around watching Speedy’s Mom I got so cold I went back to my truck to get a jacket and gloves. It was when I went to yet again try and get Phoenix to take a drink of water that they announced the placings of both my classes at the same time.

I could have killed Phoenix’s Owner. There is no good sport here! Phoenix’s Owner won the training 1 class. On the horse who has only been in training for a few months. And who had hardly ever been off the property. One would think that I would be happy that my trainer won, but then one would be wrong . I was only bitter because before her test even started, her mare had decided that she didn’t really want to go in to the show ring. It took some convincing and reminded me yet again that the test doesn’t start until you head up the centerline. Which is a really good thing! I was so shocked to hear Phoenix’s Owner get called first that it took me a moment to realize that I had gotten 3rd at training 1. When they announced training 2 I had gotten 3rd again.

I went to collect my ribbons and told myself that being middle of the pack on a day when you and your horse are not doing so well really is an accomplishment. I wasn’t that I was happy or disappointed about the placings. I really hadn’t given much thought to how I would place.  I walked into get my ribbons and was greeted with a fantastic surprise. I broke a 64%!!! On both tests!! Even the tough judge gave me well above a 60%.

Seeing those two 64%s I was THRILLED. Walking on air happy. I couldn’t believe how well we had scored! Or how consistently. Even just writing about it brings a smile to my face.  Since I am sure you are all dying to know I figured I would share some of the judges comments with you.

At training 1 I got a 64.782%. I got six scores at 7s and only one 4. And I even got an 8!!!! The comments range from balanced to needing balance and from slight disconnect all the way to bracing. The final comment was that even with a few mistakes we are on the right track. She even wrote good luck with him. If I do say so myself I think that people find us to be a very adorable pair.

At training 2 I got a 64.642%. This test I got eight 7s on and no 4s! And I also got an 8 on this test! One of my 7s was the collective remarks as a rider so that was a big plus for me. The comments on this test ranged from obedient to loss of connection and forward. The most common comment was that he was on his forehand. Which he was. The final comments from this judge was to be more consistent and to get him more connected through the top line.

So overall they were great comments in the fact that they are things that I am working on. I left the show feeling so happy. I know that Phoenix and I have a lot to work on, but clearly we are doing some things right. Just like the show the week before this show made me excited for the future. If we can fix some of our problems think about how well we can do!

I arrived back at the farm first and felt brave enough to try and unload Phoenix by myself. And I am proud to say that I did it! That was such a huge step for me (Phoenix’s Owner laughed at how impressed I was with myself and the fat spotted pony). It is so sad to put your show things away for the winter, but the sting is a little less when you are ending on such a good show note. I had decided that I would not go recognized next year for a variety of reasons. Scoring so well at a show with tests that were not so good has given me a lot to think about.

Fin

The Last Horse Show Of The Year – Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So walking up to the top ring Phoenix decided it would be a good time to do some sight seeing. I don’t blame him, there was a car parked on the hill, kids playing with jackets and people yelling in the warm up. I also couldn’t let him do it because I knew we did not have a lot of time. If I lost his focus now I wouldn’t have enough time to get it back before my test. I thought we had dodged the sight seeing bullet as I turned into the top ring. What I wasn’t counting on was the fact that right at that moment Phoenix’s Owner was half way through her test in the ring right below us. Phoenix saw his other mom and his sister in the ring and was totally perplexed by it. I couldn’t even be mad because the look on his face was priceless. Pardon the anthropomorphizing but I swear he is saying “Hi guys…why are you down there. What are you doing. Shouldn’t you both be up here watching me? I mean, it is not like you are a show horse like me or anything”.

I laughed at my fat spotted pony and went to turn around to try the first long side again. The judge did an “ahhem” and I looked up. Clearly she wanted me to trot by her. I figured I could do that no problem and just come by the side next to the lower ring after that. I went over to see the judge. She asked for my number, which I gave her. And then she rang the bell. I was standing in front of the judges stand. I had to decide if I wanted to go by the looky side again or allow Phoenix to go once around the whole ring. I looked at the woods next to the other side of the ring and figured that I should go all the way around. No sense in letting Phoenix know now that I pay attention to where he is looking right?

So around the outside and up the centerline we went. Phoenix was starting to go on his forehand as soon as we hit the turn. So I tried to really sit up and help him rock back on his hind end before the first half. That didn’t work so well for me though because Phoenix thought it would be more fun to brace against me. He figured that if I was really going to be there for him, he didn’t really have to work and I could hold him up. The thing I love about dressage is that when you have a crappy movement, that is all it is…a movement. So I picked up my trot again trying to think about ways to subtly get him to stop hanging on me.

As we got near the first corner I figured I had my first chance. I would leg yield him over to get him off my inside leg. Sure enough my little plan worked! He took a step sideways and realized that I was indeed in charge. He started to lean again on the circle, so I tried again to bump him off. This time it didn’t really work. I could feel him getting more and more on the forehand the longer we trotted. By the time we turned to go across the diagonal I was feeling like my fat spotted pony was trying to take over. The canter to the left was ugly. I tried to tell him to do things my way, and he tried to tell me that my way sucked. Not the best horse/rider dialog during a test. I took a deep breath before our trot transition and gave myself a quick pep talk.

Phoenix was just being Phoenix. He was not trying to be bad. In fact, he was being pretty good about the show thing. We were just arguing about training at this point. When I first started showing him my only expectation was for him to stay in the ring so we could get a score. I had raised my expectations of him, but not my show ring training. Duh. And so I had a major Ah Ha moment during my test. That is not to say that the rest of my test was a thing of beauty. It wasn’t. The rest of my test was done without a fight though, and to me that is a really good thing. Watching Phoenix in the video I can see that he wanted a fight. And starting in the second half of the test I didn’t give it to him.

Phoenix and I have A LOT to work on. You can hide a lot during a ride, but not so much during a test. One of the reasons I love to show is to get other people’s opinions about my riding. I don’t ever want to be a person who only trains with one person, clinics with only the people they tell them to, and who only accept certain judges scores. I value every opinion. This judge also asked me if Phoenix was green. I guess we were just having a green horse kind of day. As I walked out of the ring I knew exactly what I wanted to go home and work on. And that is a beautiful thing to get out of a show. I knew we hadn’t done well. I figured we had not gotten the 60%s that I had wanted so I was bummed, but at the same time I was also happy to have a direction to go in with my trainer after this show. Walking out of the second ring my only worry was whether or not his owner kicked our butts on the baby horse. Everyone else in our class was a lot more experienced than us (one is even a training level eventer). I wanted to know how we stacked up agaisnt another baby horse.

To Be Continued…

But I NEED Steffen Peters!

So this has not been the best horse week of my life. I didn’t write about it because I had the show posts running, but the straw that broke this camels back arrived…so I am taking a break from show posts to bitch. This week the baby horse was a total butt head. I tried to go out on the trails on Monday and Tuesday knowing that those would be the only days I could ride this week since I am going away. I thought it would be a nice relaxing way to enjoy Phoenix and take a break from training since the show season is over. I will put it lightly by saying that Phoenix was not making good decisions. He was a bad, bad pony and did things that I just thought he would never do, especially on a trail ride, because he tends to be such a level headed guy. I don’t know what happened to my Phoenix but he has been Missing In Action for almost 3 weeks now. My new Phoenix, who makes poor decisions, is a total butt head and very lucky that I am as laid back as I am. At one point he took off with me. In a heavy wooded area. So Phoenix and I are cantering around dogging trees while my trail companions start shouting out asking if I am okay. I am laughing so hard that I cannot answer them. Who would have thought my baby horse would even TRY to do something like that?!?!  Try as I might I couldn’t stop him. Even a seesaw rein was meaningless to the baby horse. I was able to stop him, but only with the one rein emergency stop and a fence. Not good. And that was just part of the trail ride. I was happy to give Phoenix a 5 day break after a second day of riding a bad pony.

Add to that the fact that Gen was making me nervous with health concerns (which have all turned out to be okay), and lets just say I was REALLY looking forward to getting away to New England this weekend. I have been looking forward to the Equine Affaire for 2 months now. One of the things I was really looking forward to was watching Steffen Peters teach. Especially since I assumed he would be pulling in some big name trainers who wanted to ride with him. He is not great about coming to the east coast so I have a feeling that I was going to see some amazing things! I was so excited!

Why the past tense. I got it from a VERY reliable source that Steffen Peters had to pull out of the Equine Affaire in Massachusetts this year. I am so not a happy camper about this. I think the blow would have been softened if they had at least been able to get another dressage giant. They had Courtney King-Dye last year. One of the organizers knows George Williams well. You would think that at such a huge event they would really want to have some dressage star power. Not so much. I guess because of how late it was in the game when Steffen knew he couldn’t come they just got a Grand Prix rider who is already a popular New England Clinician. I am not happy about that. I really wanted to see Steffen Peters. I am sure once I am there I will be fine. Driving up to my friends house tonight is going to just that little bit harder though knowing that there is no Steffen in my future .

It is back to the show posts tomorrow. I will give you a full update on the Equine Affaire when I get back!

The Last Horse Show Of The Year – Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

My first test did not start off with a bang. Well, at least not a good one. Phoenix tried to go on auto-drive as soon as we halted. He put his nose in the air and turned sideways. Yikes. Not the first impression I was hoping for. I took a deep breath and told myself that the first centerline is just 10 points and no big deal. I wanted to pause for a moment to make sure our transition out of the halt was good. Phoenix didn’t really like that idea. He was a total wiggle worm as soon as he started to walk (mind you you are supposed to go from the halt to the trot so that already was not so good). He was taking advantage of the fact that I was worried about correcting him with my leg. I thought he would break and so I kept my nagging leg instead of making a good, clean correction. My mistake.

He went from shoulders in to haunches in and back several times. We had no straight in that first trot. Even our circle was not so accurate and we had moments of being counter bent. You can see me working really hard to slow the rhythm down. Not so successfully I might add. I think it was because when I would slow down I would accidentally bump him with my seat. So he thought it was time to canter. And I would have to catch him before he cantered every time and he would put his head up. It is kind of funny to watch the two of us playing off each other. He wants to go fast and I want him to listen to me, but only when I am asking the right thing. Poor pony.

And yes, I did run him into the canter to the left. And yes, he did 4 beat his canter right before he broke. Yes, Phoenix broke at the canter. I felt him four beating but I just couldn’t correct him in time. To the right his trot was not so good. My lesson the night before his Owner and I really worked on me not being so obvious about when we are making a mistake. Watching that I am not sure how good we did at that His canter right looked good though, like he just needs more strength and to come from behind. And finally, at the very end of the test I got Phoenix’s nice trot. It was only for half a long side and the center line, but it was in there and that was good enough for me. The judge said he looked a little green, but also said that we had a lot of potential. I thought that was nice of her to talk to me after the test. She made me laugh when she said that it was okay that we made mistakes because being perfect isn’t as fun. Considering the test as a whole was not so good she really made me smile and leave the ring on a good note.

I left the ring and was literally called up to do my 2nd test. They were running ahead in that ring. I took a deep breath and smiled. Was that first ride a winning test. No. Not a chance. Was that test a pretty accurate representation of where we are right now? Yup. I had another chance to do better and so I decided to wipe the last test from my mind and go up to start over again.

To Be Continued…and yes…I am enjoying the fact that most of you just groaned that I am not done writting about this show yet. I think it is better to do it in chuncks because no one wants to read a 10,000 word post all at once!

The Last Horse Show Of The Year – Part 2

Part 1

As soon as I was all dressed for the show ring I grabbed Phoenix’s bridle and went to put it on him. I was told by someone who has tons of experience with young horses to always put the bridle on before I unloaded taking away a chance that the horse would get away when you take the halter off later. It has been good advice, so all year that is what I have been doing. Phoenix gets a bit up at shows (what horse doesn’t?) so it can be a challenge to get his head still enough to do it. Saturday was no exception. Luckily Speedy’s Mom is very patient. As soon as I unloaded Phoenix his owner came by on her way to get her baby horse ready. I took advantage of someone having 2 free hands and made her hold him while I put the saddle on.

I was impressed with myself at how smoothly the tack up process had gone. In no time flat I was ready to head up to the ring. My game plan was to walk Phoenix for a good 15 minutes before we did anything else. He is cold backed and young so walking around gives him a chance to settle down before I really put him to work. Since his owner still needed to get her baby horse ready she grabbed Speedy’s Mom for help and I went up to the warm up alone. It was quiet, which surprised me because there were two rings going at the show. It was so quiet that it was just Phoenix and I and a girl on her (very cute) pony. It gave me time to clear my head and really focus on getting Phoenix connected from my inside leg to outside hand. By the time his Owner came up I had already walked/trotted/ and cantered.

How was my warm up going? It was okay. Phoenix was kind of listening to me, kind of not. He was absolutely looking to me for comfort and hanging on my hands, yet at the same time throwing his face in the air. We had moments of not steering, moments of not being in rhythm, and moments of beauty. If I had to use just one word to describe my warm up it would be inconsistent. Phoenix was acting like a baby horse. It has been the same for two weeks when I started to bring him back to work. He would listen when he wanted and would fight when he didn’t want to. Which annoyed me because I expected more of him at this point. At the same time watching Phoenix’s Owner on her baby horse reminded me that Phoenix was not really acting like a baby. He was acting untrained. Big difference.

Why was he acting that way? Most likely it was something I was doing. I have no video of the warm up so I don’t know for sure. His owner told me to try and canter one more time to the left right before I went into the show ring. And for the first time in a long time Phoenix did not pick up the left lead. That was my fault though because instead of rising to the transition I was not prepared and had run him into it. Nothing like a reality check right before you head into the show ring right? Regardless of how inconsistent he was being it was my job as the rider to stay totally solid. I needed to cut him a break, we had only been canter for about 6 days at this point. He was not strong at the canter. I needed to be his rock in that show ring. I marched right out of the warm into the show ring. I took a deep breath and willed my baby horsey to listen to me. The judge in this ring is known for being nice so I wanted to take advantage of that and break a 60%. We had the potential to do it. So up the centerline I went.

To Be Continued…