Hello, Blogland

Hi Peeps.

I've been writing this entry in my head, and occasionally actually IN Blogger, for a month or so now, but it always seems so boring and unworthy off the "Publish" button.

Why? Because I have no horse, and this is a horse blog.

I've been going through a horse crisis of sorts. Horses make me depressed, and yet I miss them fiercely. I've ridden a handful of times but a few weeks ago when I rode Maddy's horse Brantley, I ate dirt because he casually refused the Smallest Crossrail on the Planet (after basically giving me a clear memo that he wasn't going to jump it approximately five strides out) in textbook form at the TROT, and like a total jerk I casually looked at the ground and fell right over his shoulder. So really, the whole thing was a FAIL and it hurt my soul more than it hurt my body, because what the hell happened to this?

 

Lucy is flourishing in her new home, which I am so grateful for. With a horse as unique and potentially difficult as she is, I am so relieved she is secure in a great situation with a girl who loves her even when she's nutty, and a trainer who is prepared to deal with her on good days and bad.

 

I've seen photos of her sleeping in a stall full of fluffy white shavings, being cuddled by everyone at the barn, and looking calm and happy. I've heard stories of her being fed lots of treats and munching on hay that's up to her knees in her stall. She gets lots of turnout and I can tell she's in the right place. If our story together had to end, I am grateful hers continues as it is.

 

I am sad and embarrassed that I failed and became another statistic. Girl gets pregnant. Girl has baby. Girl tries to keep horse, but just cannot handle it. Girl sells horse. Girl loses that whole part of herself.

 

Classic.

 

Not that I don't love being a mom, because Hannah is my greatest joy. I just wish I could have figured out a way to do it all.



I went to Equine Affaire with Maddy, Natalie and Lauren, who was up visiting for the weekend. They all bought things for their horses. I bought chocolate and ate my feelings. I just suck so much at being horseless.

So that this entry is not totally depressing, here are some recent photos. Hannah is now 8.5 months old. She says "dada", walks with a walker and also along couches or tables, crawls, high-fives, claps, and plays peek-a-boo. She's also realllly adorable:

Equine Affaire 2013

On Thursday, Maddy and I ventured to West Springfield, MA for Equine Affaire. The only item on my agenda for the day was to attend a 2 hour marketing discussion for SmartPak that I had signed up for (not gonna lie, I was totally hoping we'd get free stuff and that's the only reason I agreed to spend two precious hours of my one day at EA talking to SP about their marketing), but we had time before the SP thing to watch a bit of the versatility.

This little mare was so cool and tried very hard!

After watching that for a while, we zipped through a portion of the vendors and then headed to the SmartPak meeting. It was more or less a brainstorming session for them to ask us, the customer, about some of their products and their ideas for upcoming projects. I took the opportunity to tell them things I really liked about their program, and things I thought totally sucked. They asked questions about their products, including blankets, breeches, and what brands we preferred. The great part about SmartPak is that they actually LISTEN to their customers, which is why I didn't really mind spending the time to talk to them. I didn't worry that my time and feedback was going to be wasted on a company that didn't care what the customers wanted.

Some of the feedback I gave them included asking them to put some kind of measuring chart on blankets so we know not only how big the blanket measures, but how it fits. Is it REALLY a 78, or is it an 81 with a tag that says 78 (Rambo/WeatherBeeta, anyone?). Will it fit a horse with a thick neck? Big hip? Short back? Simply measuring from the chest to the butt is not a all-encompassing measurement and I hate getting a blanket that does not fit right! I suggested getting some horsey models that represent some of the body types out there, like tall/lean TB, stocky QH, thick pony, draft, draft cross, Arabian, etc, giving their measurements, and giving examples of brands and models of blankets that work well for that particular horse. That would make it much easier to compare your own horse to the horsey models and figure out which blanket to buy.

The group in the room was quite diverse, with riders from all disciplines represented, including Western riders. At the end of the discussion we all got $50 gift cards to SmartPak and we were thrilled!!! Maddy and I beelined it down to the SmartPak booth and she bought Brantley a beautiful new cooler that will have his name embroidered on it. I didn't see anything I really needed or wanted so I saved mine.

We spent the rest of the day watching a few clinics and looking at the rest of the vendor booths. I bought a sweet padded leather bracelet with Honolulu engraved on it. I have wanted one for so long but couldn't justify spending $30+ on one. A booth at EA had them for $15 so I bought one and am so excited to finally be wearing it! It has pink leather padding and looks very sharp.

trying to take a photo of your own hand is totally awkward.

I also got Cairo's jacket embroidered with her name and an image of a Ridgeback on it. It looks so cute!

modeling it during our walk on Friday

All in all it was a great day!

Whirlwind Weekend!

I am so glad it's Friday. This weekend is going to rock because on Sunday we have the bestest hunter pace EVER, and even though it's going to rain I am still going to love every second. Monday we have the event, and thankfully the weather looks good for that! Kenny is going to come and support me, too, which of course I am thrilled about.

Aside from the Equine Affaire news, I spent all week prepping for the event on Monday. I have mostly been doing dressage schools. Wednesday's ride was quite rough; Lucy wasn't naughty in a dangerous way, but she didn't pay one second of attention to me. It was frustrating and not pretty to say the least, but on Thursday, things came together and we had a super ride. Lauren rode today and reported that she was very good.

After work, I went to the barn and cleaned allll my tack. I brought home a pile of dirty, disgusting horsey laundry to do, too. Sheesh, good thing I am a bit type A!

I plan on riding her in the kimberwicke for the hunter pace, especially since it's going to be 55 and rainy. Can you say rocket horse? Yeah, I will need some brakes for that I think! Then of course I will need the snaffle for dressage on Monday and the kimberwicke for the jumping phases.

Today during my lunch hour I filled out all of the EA paperwork, which there was a LOT of. All sorts of rules, regulations, and I even had to fill out a list of people who had my approval to handle and/or ride Lucy. I feel pretty confident about this whole thing. I like organization and I feel reassured that the people running EA seem to have their ducks in a row.

Equine Affaire 2011

I put 230 miles on my new car yesterday (yay wheels!) and spent the day in Springfield, MA at Equine Affaire. Lucy's leaser L and Dreamer's girl C came too. We had a great time but it was a very LONG day. I woke up at 5, was at the barn by 5:45 to pick up C and take care of Lucy (cleaned her stall, fed her, turned her out, got her dinner ready), picked L up at 6:30 on the way up to Springfield, and we were at Equine Affaire by 9.

We dropped some of our hay off at the Nutrena booth to have it tested before we headed over to watch Anne Kursinski's jumping clinic. My barn owner is selling the hay and Nutrena was offering free hay analysis, so I brought samples of the first and second cut that we have. Both types of hay came back with "ideal" reports, so I was happy about that. The Nutrena rep did try to convince us to switch the entire barn over to their grains even though I said I was happy with the Poulin I fed my horse, but other than that we didn't have to purchase anything to get the analysis done.

Next we went and watched the first jumping clinic, about improving equitation over fences. Anne Kursinski taught the clinic and I personally learned a lot from watching the riders. She focused a lot on automatic releases and was having the participants hold their reins upside down to encourage a following hand over fences.

Here is Anne riding one of the participants horses, a grey mare who was very
stiff and bracing against the contact. Anne got on to see if she could coax the
horse down and get her to relax. This photo was taken 30 seconds after she got
on...the horse started out very stiff and looked like a totally different animal!

bracing at the trot

and then going soft and round. Anne even got her to do some really nice
stretchy circles at the trot and canter.

you can see how she's holding the reins upside down here

and that translated into an auto release very organically. I loved this chestnut.

this horse was faaaaaancy! and the rider was very talented.

After Anne's clinic, we walked through the barns and looked at all the horses.

This foal was having a nice midday snooze!

We also did a lot of shopping. Mostly browsing, as I am slightly poor for the next 72 months, but I did get everything I needed for my secret santa for COTH. I also got a cool red half pad for $20 and some peppermint wanna-be stud muffins for Lucy. L bought some winter riding gloves and C got a nice leather halter for Dreamer. Other than that, we just browsed and had a good time trying things on and seeing everything that's available on the market.

We went back to the coliseum arena and watched a colt starting clinic. The clinician, Guy McLean, had worked with the horse the day before and ridden him for the first time, so yesterday's session was a continuation of that. He did a lot of ground work to start it off, and then got on the horse and had him going w/t/c in both directions in no time! It was amazing. Then he taught the horse to pony from another horse.

starting off cautiously

he started asking the horse for his inside hind leg ("the driving leg") and once
the horse willingly gave it to him, he drove the horse forward.

tah-da!

the horse was a real cutie :)

teaching the horse to work around another horse

lunging the horse while riding another horse

and finally, ponying.

the day before, the horse had been very weary of the tarp so he was showing
everyone how far he'd come.

The last thing we watched was the Versatility Challenge. It's a kind of working ranch horse meets gaming horse meets jumper competition. The course didn't look too bad but it proved to be very challenging!

I will take this major hunk any day!!

His owner had just gotten him two weeks prior to the competition!

the horses had to put their front feet in the kiddie pool and then rotate around
the pool. Some horses did it no problem, and some acted like the pool was
a 1' deep horse eating monster.

excuse me while I wipe the drool off my face...

jumping in a western saddle: OUCHIES

this horse was not a fan of the jumps

but the rider was very persuasive!

We didn't get home until 9:30pm and I was so exhausted, but it was a fun day overall!