We are finalists in the Tack of the Day/Eventing Nation contest!! WOOT!!! Astute reader Sarah from The Foxhunting Friesian pointed the EN post out to me this morning in a comment and I was so excited! I was wondering whatever happened to that contest so this is a really nice surprise.
I could win a $250 gift certificate to Tack of the Day, which would really come in handy since I am a broke tackaholic.
On Sunday, Lauren took Lucy to the 2012 RISPCA Horse Ride. This annual organized trail ride benefits the RISPCA's Marvin Fund, which supplies hay, grain, shavings, veterinary care, and farrier care to local horse owners going through rough times. It is a super program and I contribute by designing the t-shirts every year.
Since I have taken Lucy to this ride a few times, I offered Lauren the chance to take her and she was very excited. After a week of gloomy weather, Sunday dawned clear, sunny, and warm. My friend Nicole came to the barn with her horse RiRa in tow to pick Lucy up, and off they went. Lucy loaded pretty well and traveled great, though it's only about a 15 minute trip from my barn to the park where the ride is held.
Lauren said Lucy was excited to be there, but overall she behaved herself. Here are some photos from the day:
Lucy and Ri snuggling in the small pen Nicole set up by the trailer
Cairo was such a ham - since Lauren was riding, I brought the dog so we
could go on a walk through the park, and Cairo was loving the warm sun,
the grass, and the attention!
Nicole and RiRa; Lauren and Lucy
At the beach
Lucy having a moment...you know how she rolls
RiRa is 1/2 Belgian and 1/2 Quarter Horse. He is so handsome and such a
good boy.
Lucy has been so good the past few weeks, but her head was elsewhere yesterday and she and Lauren had a rough ride. Today I decided to take it back a step so we went on a super relaxed walking trail ride with the dog. We walked up a winding path we haven't explored before and both Lucy and Cairo were doing very well. We walked over the bridges and went to the boat launch, where L and C both waded in the water.
about to head out - I pulled the Circle Y out of the basement!
Lucy splashing around in the water
Cairo got brave and went in up to her belly
As you can see, I had Lucy's new red ear net on because the bugs are AWFUL right now, and I suspect they may have contributed to her short fuse yesterday. She got lots of bug spray today and the ear net and these seemed to deter the bugs for the most part.
After we were done splashing around, we headed home. We got over both bridges and were walking along the trail when Lucy shook her head - maybe the ear net was bothering her? She shook it again and all of a sudden, her bridle fell off her face. I think the crown piece may have popped up on her ear during the first shake, which caused her to shake her head again, and instead of righting itself, the bridle just came off the front of her head. She was wearing the hackamore bridle, which has no nose piece and obviously no bit. The throatlatch wasn't tight so that didn't stop it from coming off. Before I knew it, I had a horse with no bridle on, in the middle of a trail ride, out in the woods. I wanted to panic but instead, sat deep in the saddle and said "WOAH". Lucy calmly halted. I silently thanked myself for installing voice commands and patted her before quickly dismounting. I saw that she had actually stepped into the bridle, so if she had taken off, it would have been ugly. She happily stood there, munching on some leaves that were growing up a tree near her, while I untangled the bridle from her leg and put it back on. Then I got back in the saddle, still in disbelief that I wasn't broken on the ground.
God help me, I signed Lucy and myself up for a one-day three-phase schooling show on the 20th of this month. I heard about it last week from my barn owner and went into insta-planning mode. Today after confirming that I could actually make it, I sent off my registration information and fee!!
Lucy will be in the advanced elementary division, which has a height of 2'3". I think we can manage that. The dressage test is the USEF BN A test. Here we are practicing last week:
I see a few things I could really improve on, but overall I am quite pleased with how well she picked it up, especially since she had a pretty easy winter with mostly trail rides, and then a solid month of next to nothing thanks to her sore feet. I am going to work on the test in bits and pieces in the upcoming weeks, since a friend warned me that horses soon "learn" the test and start to anticipate the next element. Lucy is a smart pony and I would not be surprised if she knew the test better than I did by the time we actually got to do it in front of the judge!
Brantley is a 5yo QH owned by my friend. He lives at the same barn as Lucy does. He was supposedly trained under saddle before M bought him, but when she first went to get on him, he panicked out of nowhere, bolted, and bucked her off quite deliberately. The experience shook the confidence of horse and human, so she put four months of really solid groundwork into him. She was considering sending him out for training, but I offered to give it a shot.
Day 1:
On day 1 (Wednesday of this week), M warmed the horse up with the groundwork he's familiar with. The hardest part was getting on, because he was afraid of the mounting block, afraid of me standing on the mounting block, afraid of standing next to me standing on the mounting block, etc. We were calm and patient, but also very persistent, and we took things slowly but I had clear expectations of him.
While mounting and for the first few minutes under saddle, I asked Brantley to flex his head around. This prevented him from bolting, let him see me on him so he knew what was going on, and made his "space" a lot smaller than the big ring.
Day 2:
On Day 2, I expected him to be more tolerant of the mounting block, and also I expected him to be comfortable with me standing next to him. He's very smart and caught on quickly. We started off on the line and then M let us go. Our goal for the day was going w/t around the whole ring off the line.
This was M's first time riding her horse...we're not going to count the attempt that ended so badly a few months ago :D
Day 3:
On day 3, we quickly got past mounting and going w/t on the lunge line. We cantered in both directions with no issues. I asked M to set us free, and we went off and w/t/c'd around the whole ring.
Then M got on and here is the result:
So it has been a very happy week here at the barn!
I got two pairs of fairly pricey jeans for Christmas. The brand name is Lucky and I enjoyed wearing my "Lucky" jeans when riding, because I thought maybe they'd transfer some luck to me and I would have a good ride.
This held true and I have had some good rides in my Lucky jeans. Today, though, they proved that they just can't hold up to the rigors of horse-related work, because at my 9-5 job, they split straight across the rear end when I sat in my chair.
Lucy got yesterday off, and she spent the day sunbathing and eating hay :) Today I decided we would have a fun ride out on the trails. Kenny came along and took photos. It started raining a bit while we were out but that didn't ruin our fun!
A while ago I gave Lauren an OTTB T (click here for the Facebook page) and we really wanted to do a little photoshoot with the t-shirt. Then Lucy injured her mouth, then she was too sore in her hind feet to do very much, then she stepped on Lauren's foot and broke her toe, and between all of this, Lauren and I were both insanely busy.
BUT, yesterday was the day! It was gorgeous, warm and sunny. Lucy's dapples are coming out and she seemed to be in a good mood.
Here are the photos!
I love this photo of both of them!
After they were done jumping, we went on a little jaunt off the property to a
near-by boat launch.
the light was beautiful
It took a bit of convincing, but Lucy got in the water and then seemed to
enjoy herself.
she had an itch and forgot she was in the water!
then it was play time
Lauren got absolutely soaked :D
on the way to and from the boat launch, we have to cross two bridges. you
can see how concerned Lucy is about this! ;)
