G is for Greta

It's back....

2012-02-17T00:12:00.003-06:00

... Greta's headshaking from allergies is back with a vengeance, poor girl. And the nose net is not helping in the least bit. It was relatively mild Thursday, but Wednesday when the sun suddenly came out and it was nice and muggy, she was headshaking so violently that she couldn't even walk straight during episodes.

It completely disappeared over the winter, which once again confirms it's allergenic. She also does it without anything on her head, and it's not light-related.

So, a question to you guys (and I will be asking the vet): are any of you familiar with allergenic headshaking? Was there anything (besides nose nets) that helped significantly?

I'm looking at Shake No More Gold, but before I spend that money I want her checked out and get some opinions. I also heard good things about giving an antioxidant with MSM.

Allergies suck. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ANSWERS!

The bathing process... aka story of my life

2012-02-15T23:14:00.002-06:00

Before the bath...

After the bath...

After the post-bath roll :)

Greta's New Outfit

2012-02-14T01:07:00.003-06:00

These were actually taken several weeks ago, but due to technological issues I did not get them uploaded until today :)

Anyway, Greta's old pink camo blanket was starting to fall apart (we seriously had to patch up several holes each winter, and she's not rough on her blankets at all) and look a wee bit tacky and gave her horrible shoulder rubs, so I figured I would spend the money to get her something nice that would last forever and NOT rub off her hair. Granted, I didn't end up spending that much money because Dover was having a sale on Horsewear blankets, and Greta could fit in the Amigo! I love this color on her, so glad I did not get the brick red. Maybe blue should be her new color....

Granted, she has only needed to use it twice this winter, since it has been so mild. It's a rare instance I need to wear more than a light jacket, if that!

Anyway... meet her new blanket (and her awkward looks... hahahahaha! Gotta love her!)

In response...

2012-02-12T20:54:00.004-06:00

...to jenj thinking that I think she and her family and friends are crazy: no, I think you guys are completely sane. Afterall, you did feed me. I think as a "starving" college student I'm going to be good for the next week.

To further enforce the sanity clause, let's recount today's would-be-jousting events:

We drove north to the other side of Austin for jousting practice, all bundled up, Wee Reddums and Saga Munster in trailer, got there, chatted for a few minutes, and then come outside to get the ponies ready and... IT WAS SNOWING!

So we headed back home before conditions got too bad for hauling a trailer. So much for that! BUT WE GOT TO SEE SNOW! THIS IS THE CLOSEST WE WILL EVER GET TO WINTER! So, us running around with a horse trailer in a "wintery mix" does NOT help the sanity clause.

So, because the conditions were fine on the southern side of Austin, we saddled up the pony and went for a ride in the neighborhood. By the way, riding up and down the street in armor on a Saga Munster does NOT help the sanity clause.

Once again, jenj's husband riding down the road in a medieval saddle and armor... completely normal.

OMG... a Wee Reddums! My ride. He was awesome.

The gang, with me lagging behind to get the picture. We were an odd bunch. Definitely not helping the sanity clause. Note the lance in S's hand. That sucker is heavy by the way. I tried. Not a good idea.

Another fantastic picture of normalcy: riding down the road in a suit of armor. Need I reiterate how this does not help the sanity clause?

Well... I guess your guys are kind of crazy. But in a good way. I swear.

Jousting Practice with Jenj!

2012-02-07T01:17:00.002-06:00

I had so much fun!

Watch in HD at 720p! I finally figured out how to actually get the HD part of my camera to upload haha!

Fail... but a good one

2012-02-06T22:32:00.005-06:00

Bre last posted a week ago. Womp-womp.

Anyway, let's start:

1) Greta is cleared for ten minutes of trot per week now! Wheee!! And I got a pretty sick trot out of her Saturday out on the two-mile gravel track alongside the stable property. She feels great. So great in fact, that...

2) Greta thought it would be great fun, after being so well behaved for the past five or six visits, to go nutters in the round pen during the vet check. After me having a slight anxiety attack, the vet assured me that it was not a big deal and that she looks really good. Greta feels very good now.

3) She also was very excited to ride today, and the cool weather and great deal of activity around the barn furthered her enthusiasm. Were she not recovering from an injury, this would have been one of those days where she could have used a nice gallop or hardcore flatwork session to really get her working and thinking (she was very excited to work and really wanted to). However, I'm not risking any overenthusiastic outbursts, so I decided against the ride after she sprang and pranced and danced about underneath me a few times because we were only walking (much too impatient to wait for the trot). The look on the poor pony's face when I put her up and gave her lots of pats and cookies after sitting on her for a mere minute. It was that "But... I really wanted to work today.... *sad puppy face*" sort of look. It procured a frown from me.

4)I just realized I'm reading five books right now: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Catching Fire (tenth time now, booyah), We Need to Talk About Kevin (good book, but rather scary), and two Jonathan Safran Foer novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It's one of the many perks of having a Kindle: you can read a little bit from one book and pop over to another. It's funny that they all tie together in a way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they do. I'm not a nerd, I swear.

5) I'm going to get video of Greta really working in the Micklem soon, so I can do a proper write-up on that bridle. So far I am really loving it. But definitely a certain bridle for a certain horse. She has never felt so relaxed and on the bit, but that could also be a combination of her leg recovering and my riding improving (at least, I think it has....)

6) I went to jousting practice with jenj on Sunday!! Be looking for a post with a video from that! It was so much fun!

7) Forget technicalities... all horses are "ponies". Admit it: even you with the big 16.3 h warmblood call him a "pony". It's a fact of horsey life.

Super Cool Horse Video

2012-01-29T23:13:00.004-06:00

First of all, THG trailer music makes it even better. And watch it twice, once to let it blow you away, and a second time to actually read the words, which are very well written.

Secondly, where has Bre been? I have been in the land of homework, quizzes, college, and ponies. Oh, and in a land called Lousiana. Well, almost in the land of Lousiana haha. I'll get back to you guys soon!

Also, Greta gets another vet check tomorrow! Hoping all goes well! I'll let ya know!

Okay, on dressage horses...

2012-01-21T21:01:00.007-06:00

I'm going to try and keep this just shy of bashing. Because I'm kind of tired of seeing all these baby videos of horses bred to be dressage horses, by dressage horses, out of dressage horses and, more frustratingly, the results.

The jumping horses do not have to be an entirely different animal from a dressage horse! A good dressage horse has a big, forward, sloping shoulder so they can get as much movement out of it as possible. They also should have pretty powerful haunches for collecting. They should also have adjustable gaits. Wait, that's a great deal of jumping horses! That is a good, all-around English horse! A lot of your older dressage sires had plenty of babies that could go either way. These new ones? God forbid they have the conformation or durability to potentially jump, even if it's not planned for them. It's a good, solid, tried-and-true conformation base. Why mess with it? It worked for several hundred years.

But then, we couldn't have all those flashy trots!

I'm starting to get pretty darn tired of seeing all these sale and baby videos of horses with really flashy trots. Really flashy trots. And it's all the same. You start them under saddle, and it all looks the same: working trot, extended trot, collected trot, passage even! I certainly can't tell the difference, and the difference should be pretty blatantly obvious, shouldn't it?

And what about the walk? The canter? Why can't I see video of that? If they don't have an equally impressive walk or canter, then why on earth would I want them as a dressage horse? If I wanted a horse with a flashy trot only, I would just go into Saddlebreds or gaited horses or park Morgans or just hit the Scottsdale show!

So, what is it with the flashy trots? Is it because it looks nice to Molly Moneypockets who wants to start riding dressage but doesn't have a clue about horses? (Easy sell: "Look at his flashy trot!") Or do people just think judges are uneducated enough that they'll be awed by those gaits and nothing else will matter? Wrong, in case you were wondering. Does it make up for a sloppy rider? Is it because it's easier to hide them not being genuinely round? Is it so you can "GP quality" (uh-huh, try telling that to 17-year-old "I just retired after many years of working to the top" Satchmo and owners and riders) in a significantly shorter amount of time? If so, please read my quote by Mr. Montgomery on the side bar. Rollkur, breeding: none of it makes up for good ole' time and effort!

So somebody please answer this befuddling riddle!

There's a difference between a nice, tracking-up, fluid, adjustable trot and these overly-flashy, toe-flicking, super-suspended, jumpy, "it would be easier to adjust your mortgage than to adjust this gait" trots that people seem to want to breed for now. Horses bodies aren't meant to move that way. It can really wear them down over time, as evolution has not caught up to their bodies.

Besides, they are hell to sit.

Maybe I'm just overreacting. I probably am. I just saw a string of Totilas baby videos and thought, "HOLY MOLY WHY DO THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME? WHY CAN I ONLY SEE THEIR TROT? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?!" And proceeded to have a slight spasm of frustration.

I'm probably looking at this all wrong. Somebody please correct me. Why these trots?

Stuff Riders Say - Episode 1

2012-01-21T18:26:00.001-06:00

FINALLY SmartPak did one of these "sh*t people say" for equestrians! So true!
And clucking to anything and everything? GUILTY.

Working back to where we left off... plus a cool picture

2012-01-17T09:07:00.005-06:00

This is our most recent trot picture. You might need to click on it to see it in a more larger format. Anyway, when I first saw the video, my heart sank a bit because I thought "Wow, her trot used to be so much nicer! I hope this doesn't mean anything permanent has been done!"

I was a wee bit concerned. Until I happened across her SWANA inspection papers again from when she was a wee girlie. Let's revisit this again, shall we?

Head, Neck, Body: Feminine, low set neck, deep sloping shoulder, well formed croup. (7)

Legs: thin below the knees (8)

Gaits:
Walk - energetic, ground covering
Trot - energetic, needs more suspension and understep defined
(7)

And, bam! There was my answer. I had forgotten that we had to work for that lovely trot I was getting out of her before diagnosis, at the peak of our summer training (overload haha). Just like you use your muscles differently and more efficiently to walk correctly or to sit up even, so did she to get that nice working trot. She has a great walk and canter naturally, her trot probably came from her QH momma (okay, not to hate on QHs, because they can do just about everything, but most stock-bred QHs cannot trot like Qredit. If one could, it would be called a freak). We had to work our butts off to get that engaged, more defined trot, like this:

I think we had some engagement going, hmm? But that required a lot of serpentines and all kinds of sick loop-de-loop exercises and inside leg that made her step under, which required a lot of core use from Greta. This photo was a freakishly engaged moment. Normally she was nicely engaged and stretching through the bit. This time she was like "LENGTHEN WITHOUT RUSHING? GAHBLAGHAFARGA!" and her topline muscles to stretch through to the bit were probably saying "SCREW YOU!"

Now, we won't be doing sick, perverted 10-loop serpentines down the long side for quite some time, but it makes me feel better to see that she used to trot like that and we had to work to get her up to a working level+ trot.

And frankly, looking at that first photo, it's still not bad. Even for being a tad on the forehand her shoulder not being completely in front of me, she's tracking up, and that hind leg (and that's the leg with the recovering injury lol) is still engaged, and not because I'm telling her. I put no leg on her at the trot, so she doesn't strain that hind suspensory. To ask her to lift that shoulder and bring that hind end underneath her at this stage of the game would be ill-advised.

She's kinda fat right now too (we've both lost some riding muscle heehee) so that might answer some questions too. The only time I really can do some core-strengthening exercises are at the walk, which it is quite nice to be able to work through the basics. She stretching through to the contact amazingly well.

Yay, dressage, it's like watching concrete dry AND grass grow AT THE SAME TIME!

And speaking of engagement, here's that really cool picture I mentioned. This is Lucy pony and Ally at the beach. Is this horse round OR WHAT?!

Trail Ride w/ Greta 1-15-2012

2012-01-16T23:03:00.001-06:00

Another Butters Video (don't get jealous Greta...)

2012-01-14T16:54:00.004-06:00

I'd just thought I'd post this up before I add some updates posts on Greta, the Micklem bridle, and... I'll get around to that Traditional Dress post part 2 one of these days (still trying to think of how to put it, bear with me). School begins again in two days, so I'm milking these last couple days of freedom. Granted, I feel a lot freer in college than I ever did in public school. My schedule, even though I got screwed over a bit but I'm a freshman with the min amount of hours so I was expecting that, is quite accommodating for riding and doing other things. Anyway, enjoy some Butters action from yesterday. My eq has a lot left to be desired, mainly I'm popping up a bit over fences (still getting used to the feeling of a jump) and I'm rounding my back in two-point and over fences, that's mainly from lack of core muscles (well, a different set than what's needed in dressage). At least I'm anchoring my heels more! Enough of that, enjoy Butterball the wonder horse.

Greta video update

2012-01-08T17:53:00.003-06:00

War Horse: Um... no :(

2012-01-07T17:25:00.004-06:00

Well, after all the raving I and what seems to be the entirety of the movie world had been doing, I am sad to say that War Horse was, well... okay.

Was is cute? Yes. Was it memorable? Relatively so. Do I think it should win all the awards it's up for? No. Am I glad I paid for a movie ticket and a pretzel to go see? No. Probably should have waited for Blockbuster.

I actually went to go see it Thursday with all of my fellow barn bums. Which, I will add, it is quite fun to go straight from the barn in your breeches and polos and dusty tall boots to the movies! And out of the whole group, only two of us got really choked up (I think if I had not read the book, I might have too, although I did kind of choke up one scene, but I got over it) and most of us had a great laugh about the training techniques and gasped in unison at the horse running through six strands of barbed wire and then groaning that he didn't even get a scratch! But the training has since become an ongoing joke, along the lines of "just tell him what you want him to do! It really works!"

And teaching a horse to take a harness collar by both horse and human putting their head in at the same time? Let's just say ongoing joke number two is "Let's see whose nose gets broken first!"

The cinematography was beautiful. The special effects and CGIs were incredible. Kudos to the horse trainers, because those horses were quite well-trained and believable in their actions and even had some nice expressions going on, even if they were sometimes easy to tell apart. The riding was actually quite decent (especially the calvary charge scenes, the first one actually gave me chills because it was very realistic).

There was a lot of overacting. The plot was more hoaky than it needed to be (the ending especially made me want to gag). The training inaccuaracies were a minor qualm to me compared to the general sappiness of the movie.

I think Speilberg really could have done something with this. It had the potential to be like a Schindler's List with horses: something that really moved you and really made you think about the services horses have given us in times of war and beyond. But I personally feel Disney kind of messed it up. I could definitely see their involvement, and it made the movie not enjoyable to me. I cried more and was moved more by the trailers before the movie than during the actual movie!

Disney did the same thing with Secretariat, so what was I supposed to expect?

So, it looks like Seabiscuit will remain my favorite horse movie. Because it wasn't hoaky. Because Disney didn't meddle with it. Which I guess is hard not to do with horsey movies.

But movie did make the SNL skit 10 times funnier.

And as a friend said, "If the guy who directed the trailer had done the entire movie, then we might have something to talk about."

So, sorry guys. Maybe you'll like it more than I did. I'll just hold out for Red Tails and The Hunger Games for my potential movies-of-the-year (but please read the books first, I think I will always enjoy them more than the movies, because you get more from them! Same goes with War Horse! I will always love the book... not the movie.)

DAY MADE

2012-01-04T21:08:00.004-06:00

Today was a wonderful day (save for finding out about an big fix-it bill for my car. Boo. Hiss.)

So wonderful, in fact, that I shall have to present to you in list format:

Greta has gone down from a 3/3 lameness upon inital diagnosis, to 2/3, to officially 1/3 today. We are cleared for trotting (5 mins total over the next 4 weeks, and then we can move to 5 mins per week for another 4 weeks, and so on.)
There was no vet tech to trot Greta out for the vet, so it was up to me, and Greta decided today would be a most opportune day to show off her fabulous trotting out skills, ground manners, and ground tying while the vet the showed me what her LH medial suspensory should feel like when I palpate it. Awesome horse. Even the vet commented on how much she loved her :)
I rode a fun little booger named Oliver today (AKA Oliver Cromwell, Ollie C, DJ Ollie C, or simply Ollie) who is not really little but a big 16 h QH bred for reining. He is a stellar dressage dude, once you get past the very strong in the bit part (he points out rider error most effectively) and just an overall sweetie and a fun ride. He's being brought back into work after a month long break (the holidays are busy!)
I forgot to check the girth before mounting up, and pretty much did the whole ride (walk, trot, canter, canter in two-point, cantering over poles, etc.) on a very loose girth. As in, Laura could get her whole hand through it. And I did not notice until she pointed it out after the ride. Rider knowledge FAIL. Rider balance and saddle fit WIN.
I might be riding in the CAQHA (ATX QH association, whom the barn owner is prez of) first show of the year on the 21st. Most likely in hunter U/S and hunter eq, just for funsies, on Butters or Ollie. Might even take Ollie out as his first show experience. We will see. Heck, I might even be taking Ollie out to several H/J shows this spring, if things fall into place nicely.
On a final note... did I mention GRETA IS A FREAKY HEALING BEAST? Patience is a virtue, and it has totally paid off. I love my pony :)
I love my pony.
Oh, yeah, I love my pony.
I'm sorry, I think I forgot to mention I love my pony.
I love my ponyponyponypony.
Sorry, is that getting a bit obnoxious? I just felt I needed to even things out to 11. Which is not an even number. Deal with it.

Hope everyone is having a decent-to-good-to-great start to their new year! I will finish up the Traditional Dress bit soon. Also, I see War Horse tomorrow, so I will let y'all know if it is as good or as bad as people say (I'm hearing both haha!)

Traditional dress: time to update? Pt. 1

2012-01-03T19:22:00.004-06:00

So, all the fashionistas want to dress like us, but nobody would really call the look "athletic" or "sporty".

The following are from various popular horsey mags, and got me a-thinkin' about the standard dress code in equestrian sports, particularly dressage. Because, let's face it: to Joe Schmoe, a guy running around on a "prancing" horse in a top hat and shadbelly coat cannot possibly qualify as an athlete. To the average viewer, if you can't look the part, how could you possibly be playing the part? I kind of feel the same way about things like ice skating: how can I take them seriously when they remind me more of a Disney On Ice show than an Olympic sport? Then I remember all the blood, sweat, and tears that go into it and it becomes a sport again. They just kill it with the frills.

Jim Wofford put it perfectly in his column in the January 2012 issue of Practical Horseman:

"...horse people are always yakking about how they want a bigger TV audience.... But then when the TV suits - who do not know anything about horse sports but really know how to increase TV audiences - tell us to change our antiquated 'competitive attire,' all I hear from the horse pols is a lot of bovine excrement about the 'sacred traditions of the sport.'

What traditions are we talking about, darling? The ones where 16th century riding master Federico Grisone was prancing around Italy practicing his rollkur, wearing a great ostrich feather in his fedora, lace cuffs on his shirts and pointy-toed booties?....

....Look, as long as you insist on careening around an arena dressed like the Phantom of the Opera, you are kidding yourself about "reaching out to the general public and increasing our audience." Joe Sixpack takes one look at you and hits the remote... he has NASCAR in his favorites, and you don't look like an athlete to him - you look like a dork."

And another reader addressed the issue of getting more men in the sport of dressage. I do believe there are quite a few men into it, just more for other purposes like eventing and jumpers and hunters and even things like reining and other western disciplines. This issue of dress, as he states, really applies to all horse riding disciplines in general. C'mon, the saddleseat dress code? Hunter shadbellies? Dressage top hats? The sparkles of western pleasure? About as sporty as it gets are the red showjumping coats and the sporty look of cross-country riders... the latter often having the biggest leaps and bounds in sportiness as any other, but still pretty slow in comparison to all the new sport-specific sneakers/clothes/etc. that come out from Nike and Under Armour and all those companies.

This is from Jack Turner, a reader from Missouri, in Dressage Today:

"From my point of view, the problem with attracting males to participate in dressage is one of image. This applies to dressage and all the equine events that demand traditional dress. Why should there be a silly dress standard when we want to have more people included in the sport? My point is not let old dress traditions impose restrictions on the growing of the sport. Allow the newer generations (and older ones too) some latitude in their dress as long as they know and understand the relationship between horse and rider and the standards of performance that are expected, along with basic safety."

I repeatedly get lots of comments from my guy friends about men in the sport of dressage: "Aren't most of them gay?" "It's a sissy sport." "They're circus people on circus ponies!" First of all, so what if they're gay? I've met many a horse riding male who was definitely not gay (and many a horse woman who definitely was haha!) Then I realize, that's a big deal to a guy who wants to maintain his macho image. Which is a lot of men. Whatever. Boys will be boys.

But seriously? The shadbellies? The top hats? The white gloves even? Even the lower-level dress is antiquated. The highfalutin horses don't help any, as much as I love 'em ;)

Dressage Today recently had a contest for riding fashions. One of them, I believe, was something along the lines of most sporty/updated/something like that. And frankly, all of those designs look downright rediculous. Monograms on your helmet? Different colored ribbons? Shadbelly-looking raincoats? Give me a break. Very little change, if any, was made. I'll just look like a multi-colored fool now (with chants of "they're circus people on circus ponies" dancing in my head... yeesh.)

But then I realized: could I do any better? No. I don't even know where to start. I kind of like Jim Wofford's bodysuit idea, but I realize... that's not really for everyone. I may be skinny, but I am by no means in fit, athletic shape. I'm just getting my core defined again, and you have to really look to see it! And not even all pro riders are built like NFL players (and heck, some of those defense players have impressive guts). Atheltic? Yes. Sculpted? No.

So scratch the bodysuit idea. We need something modernized, and a bit more athletic and formal (I use that word cautiously) than breeches and a polo. The Ariat Volant boots are an excellent start to me. Too far out of my price range, which is why they won't be in my hands for quite some time. But in the grand scheme of all things horse gear, they look pretty darn sporty. The GPA or Antares or Samshield helmets (and that style in general) look very updated in comparison to the tradition velvet hunt cap.

Equestrian sports were created to save the military horse, which were lined up by the thousands for culling after being forced to save our conflicting human butts in war after war. Not like any of those horses really thought about that, but still. So, we did that, we saved the military horse and calvary traditions. It's almost a hundred years later, I think we can start to step things up a bit and really look the role of Olympic athletes, don't you? Save the equestrian sport, perhaps?

What would you do to update the equestrian look?

2012 + SNL War Horse skit

2011-12-31T18:00:00.005-06:00

I have a philosophy that you don't need a new year to change how you live. Same as it doesn't have to be Earth Day to be eco-friendly; it doesn't have to be MLK Day to not judge people; it doesn't have to be the holiday season to be in the spirit of giving (both material and non-material things); and there doesn't have to be a marathon coming up to get in shape! There's an opportunity for that every second of the day, every day of your life. I think every change I've made in my life - what I eat, what I buy, what I support, what I choose to do and what not to do - were really spur-of-the-moment things after an accumulation of deep-thinking sessions during random times throughout the year. Time is a human implement anyway. It makes things nice and scheduled, sure, but it's quite good to just live in the now every so often. Just ask your horse, or dog, or cat, or anything that doesn't obsess over time like a human. Or Samoa. I mean, heck, Friday the 31st in the year 2011 technically never existed there, but it was a day like any other just called by a different date! A day doesn't have to dictate your life!

So this year: here's to good health, positive attitudes, and living in the moment! Because it's really only humans that know it's a new year, much less use the implement of time and years at all!

Gotta admire the critters for that, huh?

In the meantime, ring in the new year with an SNL funny!

Lesson on Butters 12/28/2011

2011-12-29T01:47:00.004-06:00

Isn't he the cutest?! Little QH gelding bred for reining and cutting but thankfully Laura saw the potential in him as a little English critter. Don't let the video fool you: he is quite hard to ride! You have to really convince him that, yes, he can jump it and, no, he won't mess up. He's also kind of lazy heehee. Thankfully riding Greta has taught me a thing or two on boosting a horse's confidence, and now Laura is helping me translate that to over fences. The big guy I rode last week, her other horse Chase, went mysteriously lame over the weekend and then had a salmonella scare. Just a bit bothersome. I have a lot of respect for Chase: he's confident, gentle, and patient and a great confidence booster unless you're learning how to sit the trot (he has an unnaturally bouncy trot, like riding a perverted carousel, you have no idea how bad it is until you actually ride it, but if you can get through that and get him to really come together, it's lovely! But indeed a challenge!) but he was definitely willing to be the benevolent leader during our lesson last week when we went after some 2.5' verticals when he needed to be, bless him! So, yes, definitely worried about the Big Boy Chase.

Butters on the other hand, once you get him going, he's pretty satisfied with himself haha! And darn cute about it, too! Especially when he goes into "dressage pony" mode (will get video of that haha!)

The bit of him refusing was A) me cutting the corner too early and taking him to a really awkward spot and B) not really convincing him to jump it. Oops! He doesn't do bending lines like been-there-jumped-that Chase!

What was NOT caught on camera was Butters saving my bum as I proceeded to almost land in a fail pile. It was his first time going over the black and white vertical on the bounce line, and he OVERJUMPED it, and I did not go with it like I should have, was just about jumped out of the saddle, was halfway down his neck with my chest hanging over his head as he was about to go over the ground poles. He made a last minute decision to not jump the ground poles, thankfully, and reared up enough for me to get myself back in the saddle and yell out "SAVED!" and Laura to start laughing. It was pretty pathetic but would have made for some awesome/funny TV to show you guys haha!

Man, I never get my REALLY bad moments on camera, do I?!

A new years resolution: get as many fails on video as I can to match all the decent-to-stellar moments I get on video!

And Greta got a major makeover today by me and the fam. She doesn't like to roll and she hates mud, but she still got a good deal on her legs and chunks in her tail. Now her tail is all braided up and out of the way of mud and she's white again! Let's see how it holds! She has her no-or-go to trot evaluation next week. Yay!

Greta the Christmas Ham 2011!

2011-12-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

Enjoy all the mayhem Greta brought about this Christmas! Especially trying to eat the plastic garland. Yikes! I love my "Christmas Ham".

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and became richer in friends and family... and well, yeah, gifts too heehee! And a Happy Hanukkah to my friends as well! Had a blast celebrating with you!

More Pehrsson pics

2011-12-21T15:12:00.003-06:00

I got a lovely email from a lady who had come across this blog while looking up info on a stallion at her barn: the one, the only Pehrsson or "Gig"! So she was kind enough to send me an email with some pictures she took of him being ridden at a Dennis Callin clinic back in September. The last picture is from the Caduceus Farm FB page, where Pehrsson has been kept for the past few years. Would you believe he is 23 years old and still in full work as a schoolmaster?!

We have family friends in CO, and that is currently where Gig is being kept. I would love to see Greta's daddy in person one of these days!

Photos from the clinic courtesy of Laura MacKinnon, and last by Caduceus Farm.

Thanks Laura for the kind words and photos! They are greatly appreciated!

Christmas funny

2011-12-21T14:45:00.002-06:00

Enjoy this lovely gem from Stirling at Going For Gold. And VOTE for her HERE!

My name is Sterling Bishir and I'm a rider in Area 3. In the photo is my 11 year old Quarter Horse Rio, shown under the name At World's End. He is a fabulous boy that, as you can see, puts up with all the "fun" I throw at him! He got lots of pats and treats after this photo was taken. We are currently competing at the Novice level with hopes of moving up soon. We cannot wait to get back out on Cross Country in the spring, hopefully wearing a new Point Two air vest! We all know and love A Christmas Story... especially [the bunny suit] scene.

We got a Micklem bridle?

2011-12-19T22:54:00.003-06:00

We actually got a brand new Micklem bridle for FREE that came from a friend who couldn't use it, and she got it from a friend who couldn't use it either. It didn't fit either of their horses' heads. Very weird. Still in package, still had tags, leather had never been oiled. The leather was very soft and supple for having been handled only twice and never oiled. I could put it straight on Greta's head without unrolling it or anything. It was also very easy to put together: it's pretty much all one piece and self-explanatory if you've ever taken apart and put together a bridle (I was drilled in doing such like they train you to take apart and put together a gun in the military haha!) I was a bit worried at first with it being "horse" sized, as Greta wears Cob or QH sized things usually, but it fits her quite well. Stayed tuned for a more formal review: we haven't ridden in it enough yet to make an accurate assessment, and Greta seems to still be figuring out whether or not she likes it!

I will say one thing about it: no headshaking when it's on. That's a start.

PONY FACE

2011-12-19T22:45:00.003-06:00

Definitely a horse person: a story from work

2011-12-03T11:07:00.002-06:00

I was fortunate enough to work during the evening of Black Friday, after all the madness had relatively died down. Not to mention I'm not working at a major supermarket chain, so there was even less madness. People at a more high-end retail store seem to be a bit more civilized (unlike the Victoria's Secret in the same mall whose windows got broken when while waiting in line a fight broke out between, strangely enough, two men. Oh the funny stories you hear in the break room!)

I have a feeling I shouldn't be telling this, but I couldn't resist... here goes:

Anyway, as I was doing my good sales associate duties, a customer comes out of the dressing room. My initial impression is bodacious. A polo and breech-like pants with what my first thought was genuine riding boots and a drawstring sunhat: something straight out of a horse show. She was older, somewhat outlandish makeup, and as she neared I also noticed the full-seat breeches and the Burghley Horse Trial logos and sponsors all over her polo. And I realized that those boots she was wearing were not the silly fashion kind for people who don't what real riding boots look like (black and lace-up, not brown and covered in weird buckles and too-big in the calves and slouchy, yikes!) but indeed, real riding boots. Polished but some stubborn slivers of dust left in there. Oh, and the riding glove tan lines. Dead giveaway.

Equestrian at 5-o-clock delta delta. I knew I had spotted a horse person. Dressage Queen, likely.

The lady comes over to me and asks where on earth were our shoes? I showed her where they were, on the other side of a polo shirt rack. "Well, why are they so out of the way?" and once she saw them "Why aren't there any boots? All you have are these ugly sneakers!"

She then proceeded to herd another poor associate around looking for this and that. I love helping people, and I have never lost my temper with a customer, nor do I ever feel the need to. With this lady, I probably would've broke out in a cheesy grin leading a pitying laugh before I ever felt the need to lose my temper. She was just too funny in how she conducted herself. In the break room, another associtate asked about her, remarking on her strange ways.

"She was a horse person," I added. "Definitely."

"What makes you think that?"

"Her outfit: the drawstring sun hat, the real breeches and boots, the Burghley polo. Her riding glove tan lines. But mostly her attitude: dramatic, slightly obsessive, and running around like she owned the place and like she was always right. Definitely a horse person."

"Why aren't you like that?"

"Because all horse people are crazy, just in varying degrees. I would like to think that I am at the lower end of the spectrum, she would be at the upper end. The very upper end."

Upset. No, wait, MAD. Pt. 2

2011-11-30T12:08:00.005-06:00

Also, to counteract all the "well, as long as they're regulated" arguments:

You want the slaughter of any animal to be truly humane? Then be prepared to pay way up.Good regulation costs money, and humane practices cost money. When you have a quota of dead animals to meet, it's hard to do it slowly, painlessly, AND cheaply! When all of America wants a freaking cheeseburger for $1, then SURPRISE! The livelihood of those cattle are not going to be taken into very much consideration. Same goes for horses, or any other meat-intended animal. It's hard to regulate something when people aren't willing to go the extra mile for it.

Anyone who has ever hunted knows that making a clean kill takes lots of time and effort, and then there's gutting the animal and making it edible that takes even more time. You also develop a respect for the animal when you actually have to chase it down and really play the role of predator. Imagine doing it that way for every animal slaughtered. Meat would be very expensive and hard to come by, like it had always been since before factory farming. Not like we're supposed to be eating as much as we do nowadays, but that's another biological discussion for another day, and blog really.

Factory farming and slaughter plants make it very easy: you put the animal in a chute, and you try to get a clean shot with a bolt gun (which rarely works on a horse because their brain is much further back in their head than a cow. It'll probably knock them unconscious or stun them,, but kill them? haha Oh, you dreamer, you!). The animal is practically handed to you on a silver platter. There is very little respect and work involved. To make it as humane and time-consuming as skillfully hunting a deer would make the whole process much longer and much more expensive, but the quality would probably very good. I'm sure the same could probably be said when America was a largely agricultural society and most families had to raise and slaughter their own meat. You knew where it came from, you recognized the costs going into it, it was done a bit more carefully because you were going to eat it, and overall a bit more respect was involved. And, yes, I know the desperate ate horsemeat too, especially in bad droughts, bad economic times, or if the horse had outlived its purpose. A bullet is much more effective and humane than an iffy bolt gun (and if you want to get down to it, it's cheaper than a euthanasia shot for all those who complain that they can't afford to put their horse down, and much more humane than slaughter or neglect.)

When you remove yourself from the raising of your own food, you develop less respect for how it's made. You want it to come fast and you want to buy it cheap. You don't realize that asking those things greatly decreases the quality of not only the final products, but also of the labor and animals and other materials going into it.

And on a final note: there's a reason the E.U. banned American horsemeat. Raise your hand if you give your horse vaccinations. How about a horse-sized amount of vaccines that could probably kill a human, because horses are larger animals with different metabolism? Now, keep your hand raised if you have given your horse phenylbutazone or another powerful NSAID? How about daily for maintenance? How about if, once again, you give the horse-sized amount that would, once again, kill a human? Oh, and what about a de-wormer? Ivermectin is quite poisonous last I checked, and so are all the other de-wormers. There's a reason they say "do not use in animals intended for human consumption" on the tube or package! Oh, and all those supplements!

Now, let's put those all together and see how many horse-patties have unsafe amounts of those in them! Many of those meds can stay in a horse's system for months, especially your long-term meds like vaccines and de-wormer. And it only takes a few months for a horse to slip through the cracks. Many thoroughbreds deemed unusable for track life can go from stable to slaughter in less than a week, perhaps still chuck-full of all those fabulous things injected into and fed to them. Because any ole' horse can go to slaughter in America, there is no regulations for how they are raised and what goes into them because, ONCE AGAIN, I have YET to meet a horse who was specifically raised for slaughter! So even if there is a selection process of sorts (which would up the price) then I doubt you would find very many horses to slaughter (thus defeating the purpose of slaughtering them for profit in the first place) because I have yet to see a horse in America that was intentionally raised for human consumption!

Still want the pony platter now? Yeah, I hope you choke.

Still want those regulations? I hope you have the money and the patience for a horse to be humanely processed and give somebody the okay to raise a pasture full of Prancers for slaughter so you can have what goes into them regulated :)

EDIT: Snowhawk is right, there are farms in Europe that specifically raise horses for slaughter. I do believe that if you put those here in America, every blessed animal rights group or activist person in the country and beyond would have a fit. Plus, if such farms were to be established, they would most definitely compete with (and probably win out over) all the random horses from the kill auctions. And if people are setting up American slaughterhouses to deal with unwanted horses, then that would defeat that purpose entirely. So it all boils back down to the fact you just can't regulate these things!

Second rant over.

Upset. No, wait, MAD. Pt. 1

2011-11-29T20:54:00.004-06:00

So, apparently the ban on horse slaughter has been lifted in the U.S. I shall now proceed to counter the argument of "well, I'd rather they'd be slaughtered than starved to death or abused":

First of all, bolt guns are what are used in American slaughter houses, and not just on horses. The concept was originally used on cattle, and people supposed it works on horses. It doesn't always. You know why? Because horses are not cattle. Maybe some long time ago in the form of a common ancestor, but definitely not now. THEN they slit their throats, sometimes the bolt gun not being effective in the first place! Sounds like a blast, right?

So, let my solution rant begin:

I would much rather there be some more free or discounted euthanasia clinics, gelding clinics, and just overall more responsible breeding practices and horse ownership. If it ain't bred in the first place, then it ain't going to be slaughtered!

After working with rescues and helping to care for some horses that were pulled from the closed slaughterhouses in TX, and knowing what goes on in there, I would never want to see a horse - especially since I have YET to see a horse bred purposefully for consumption, unlike every other livestock animal - go through that.

Plus slaughterhouses pollute horribly and do a fabulous job of contaminating the surrounding land, just like any other factory farm or processing plant. They don't create a lot of sustainable jobs if any, and I have yet to see a town who was gung-ho about a blood-and-fecal-runoff-spewing factory put up in their farmland. Just not an environmentally or economically viable solution and an easy way out, in my opinion.

I have rehabbed horses who have been starved to the point of a 1 or 2 on the body weight scale, and it SUCKS to fix or to give a graceful way to go but it is done because it's what's morally right, and I know that a bolt to the head usually only temporarily stuns a horse and some horses are still alive and conscious when they are bled out from my Ag classes. Very few of the horses I saw coming out of the slaughterhouse pens when they closed were old or crippled. Poorly bred or never had the time or money taken to be properly trained perhaps or gelded, usually. When you get a young horse: SURPRISE! You gotta train it or pay somebody else to! And if it's a colt who is not breeding quality or who you do not have to resources or know-how to market correctly to nice mares: SURPRISE! Call the gelding bus! When it comes to horses, especially when you are potentially bringing a new one into the world, it pays to be honest. Honest about the quality of the horse, and honest about your own resources and abilities.

Between starving or having a throat slit: I frankly don't like either solution. I like euthanasia and gelding. I would be all for funding euthanasia and gelding clinics like the ones that are doing well in northern CA, and for inexperienced or ignorant owners to realize that horses are a luxury item like a Jag or Vette or any pet really and are expensive not only to purchase (sometimes) but mostly to MAINTAIN, as much as you may love them. It's not fair to the animal if you can't put out the resources to care for them. There are other ways. I'm not against horses dying when there is no other choice, I'm against slaughter in general. And don't get me started on kill-buyers. A seedy, deceitful lot, all of them. I have been to enough kill auctions to know.

So glad I got out of horse rescue because it was very hard to see horses go through such abuse and neglect and get caught up in human politics, but when I see stuff like this, it makes me want to jump right back in and try and fix things again (I don't, because I don't have the RESOURCES! I'd hate to be responsible!)

I hate ranting. But I cannot help but rant on slaughter in general.

Just thought I would put in my two cents and pour out my heart. When it comes to animal welfare, boy do I pour it all out.

They told her to go to rehab...

2011-11-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

... and she's gonna gooooo, go, go!

Yes, Greta got cleared for the start of a rehab program! I thought I had told her that dank stanks and that crack is whack, but she just wouldn't listen.

Kidding. My pony is not a druggie. At least not that I know of....

Our real rehab program, at least for these next four weeks, is going to consist of thirty minutes of walking. Everywhere. I'm so excited.

The vet remarked on how patient I had been and how I actually followed orders and did nothing with Greta but four week stall rest and then 8 week paddock rest. No riding, no longeing, nothing. And I have no problem with this. I have no schedule to upkeep, and even if I did it wouldn't really be a big deal because that schedule would be thrown out the window anyway. No horse, no schedule! Where I got a little shocked was when the vet told me that she has very few clients that actually do this. They usually have already "taken them for a light walk under saddle" or "longed them lightly". And sometimes that ends up blowing up right back in their faces. I feel like teacher's pet right now!

Greta did very well on all her flex tests, had a super-extra pep in her step and was just shy of dragging the poor tech when they trotted her out. I did not realize how long it had been since I had seen Greta's nice, floaty, engaged trot. And when I say long, I mean several months before I even called out a vet to check out her legs and end up spotting the injury in the first place! She is not 100%, but hopefully with these long low-intensity session her suspensory should start on the road to re-strengthening.

So, wish her luck! She was a very good girl, playing up the feminine charm as always. Definitely a Greta Golightly day.

AND, have you heard the news? Robert Whitaker has set a new record for a bareback puissance jump atop Waterstone II. Just a 7 foot/2.12m solid wall, no big deal. And darn good equitation for a bareback puissance jump the whole way too!

Ringing in the Season with "The Small One"

2011-11-27T00:44:00.002-06:00

So, I was going through all the LPs and 45s my family pulled down and that I have the task of trying to sell at the super-cool-hippie-pipe-and-record-shop place down the road from my dorm tower (it's huge, and appropriate in a college town!) I went through them all first to see if there were any I wanted (for decoration, as I don't have a turn-table, although I knew at least one song on every album GO ME! I ended up with Will Smith's Parents Just Don't Understand for grins and giggles and Disney's The Jungle Book soundtrack and a Louie Louie record among a few others that will be framed in the flat I will get someday...) AND I stumbled across the soundtrack to the Disney Christmas short from 1978, The Small One.

If you have never seen this, look it up on YouTube and you'll be able to watch the whole 30 minutes of it. It brings a tear or ten to my eye every time, as it's such a sweet story and a wonderful way to ring in the season, even if by accident this time. Whether you're religious or not, you have to admit it's a darn sweet story. I really wish they would show this on TV again. I'd take it over Charlie Brown and Elf any day! I do remember the recent version done by Pixar/Disney of The Little Match Girl was played on TV last year... DEPRESSING! Nothing says Christmas like little kids freezing to death in beautiful animation!

So my holiday movie list: The Small One and A Christmas Story. And then I am complete. Don't worry, I won't shoot my eye out ;)

Bringing back memories, Disney donkey style!

P.S. Greta has her follow-up vet exam Monday morning. Hopefully these three months of lay-up have done her well. She certainly seems to have an extra pep in her step and really wants something to do again. And I have learned my lesson to always give your horse an extended break every now and then. Oh, Greta, it's kind of like Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games: "will I ever stop owing you?"

But yes: The Small One. Watch it. Now.

Pocket Rocket!

2011-11-16T16:57:00.002-06:00

Got this picture from the Judge My Ride facebook page. This is The Situation in the baby jumpers, an 11.2 pony and the darn cutest little pocket rocket I have ever seen!

Friday Funny: Jumping Fail

2011-11-10T21:29:00.003-06:00

Question for the Readers: Micklem Bridles

2011-11-09T20:46:00.003-06:00

If you really feel like it, that 10 minute promo up there explains a lot of the uses of this bridle. But keep in mind that it is just that, a promotional video ;)

They've been around for quite some time, and they were always just some gimmicky-looking bridle I would see when flipping through the pages of magazines. But a friend was raving to me the other day about how wonderful these Micklem bridles are, and how she can use them as a bitless bridle at home, and a bitted bridles for jumping and at shows. Her horse was also a headshaker due to facial nerve pain, and has not done so since being ridden in this bridle. (Greta's headshaking is caused by seasonal allergies, poor thing. But that is only a theory based upon the circumstanes which is arose around, as head shaking is pretty hard to diagnose unless it's photosensitive headshaking or that caused by pain. Greta's neither of those, but that was only one opinion. Hmm... anyway.............)

After looking into them further out of curiosity, they don't seem like a bad idea. A noble effort, if nothing else. They are, if nothing else, steps to solving the problem of pressure on the bars of the tongue, the molars and cheeks, and the opening of the facial nerves and major blood vessels in the face. My only thing is the strap that seems to keep the mouth shut. I've never been a fan of simply strapping a horse's mouth shut, but that doesn't seem to be the purpose of this mechanism. It seems to function more like a traditional noseband and a way to avoid putting pressure on the molars. Even in the fitting video, the demonstrator Tom MacGuinness (founder of Horseware Ireland) specified that it is not meant to be tightened. Interesting.

So now, my question to you, my lovely readers (I am seriously proud of you guys for making this blog so much fun to run, by the way!) what are your thoughts and opinions on the Micklem bridle? Has anyone ever used it? Yay or "neigh"?

I'm not interested in getting one unless they are as wonderful as people make them out to be. But really, the last thing I want, need or can afford right now is a another, and potentially gimmicky, bridle haha!

Quote of the Day: Eric Lamaze

2011-11-09T17:33:00.004-06:00

“Well, I think that when you have a horse and anyone who has ridden a horse at our level knows that what these horses do for us is incredible… they become part of our family, you know, they really change our life. It’s a sport that we chose because we love it, but it’s also a sport that we chose because we love the animal…. It’s not like breaking a hockey stick or breaking a tennis racket, for us we become very close with this animal and have great respect for they do for us. We’re in the limelight with our horses, but a horse like Hickstead for sure changed my career…. For me he meant everything… It’s not easy to find a horse of the caliber of Hickstead.”

-Eric Lamaze

RIP Hickstead

2011-11-07T15:33:00.003-06:00

Saturday this was only an "unconfirmed report". Sunday I was lost in my own little world and spending quality time with Greta. And today, after a busy morning and classes, I sit down to see that the unthinkable is indeed true and that the great stallion Hickstead passed from a sudden heart attack tragically immediately after a stellar round in Verona. He had not even left the ring.

Do not, I repeat, do not watch the video of the actual death if you want to preserve some innocence. It was terrible. So many shots of people crying, and then a extremely dazed and shocked look on Eric Lamaze's face. Hickstead meant a lot to so many people, and to see that happen after one of his usual breathtaking rounds seemed cruel.

What really warmed my heart though was that the rest of the competition was stopped... at the request of the riders. The horse world is chuck full of snobs and self-centered people, but you have to admit that it's the horse itself that brings us all together, for whatever personal reasons.

"Hickstead really was a horse in a million and my heart goes out to Eric and everyone connected with this wonderful horse. This is a terrible loss, but Hickstead truly will never be forgotten. We were very lucky to have known him." Princess Haya bint Al Hussein

"Every horseman knows the proverb: For every rider there's one horse, and for every horse there's one rider - and they were that sort of partnership. Hickstead wasn't simply his partner in sport, he was his partner in his life's hopes & ambitions." Akaash Maharaj

"We are shocked. This horse was in the past few years the measure of all things." Marco Kutscher

Rest in Peace, Hickstead.

EDIT: I was stupid to buy into the heart attack theory as horses very rarely have heart attacks. It was ruled as an aortic rupture, I believe. Regardless, these kinds of things just aren't supposed to happen to beloved champions, or any horse.

Baby Daddy Shopping ;)

2011-11-04T00:10:00.006-05:00

This is what I do every now and then just for grins and giggles, me being the cool kid that I am and all.

So, if I ever were to breed Greta, which wouldn't happen for a good long time if ever, for financial reasons and whether or not it would really be a good idea and such, I had always imagined it to be to another warmblood. Until I found this guy. Well, really I saw one of his babies and heard the sire was a Clydesdale and thought, "DADDY WAS A WHAT?!" Because all of his babies look like big-boned warmbloods. He produces some lovely babies. They're all athletic, big boned, tidy jumpers, and on the more mild side as far as temperament goes, although I am all for a go-getter personality personally. I love the way these guys look. They just appear to be so sturdy and classy!

His name is Spring Water Black Powder Joe, and he is a registered Clydesdale and registered as a approved stallion for the American Warmblood Society. He is by Strong Line Smokin Joe and out of Spring Water Catherine by Donegal King. He won his breeders/owners, Fisher Ranch Warmbloods, the AWS Breeder of the Year Award in 2008 for the lovely foals he produced, mostly out of TB and TB/NSH mares. Examples:

SW Bella Donna, out of a TB mare Derby Bell by Light Of The Stars. Love the build of this gal!

SW Big Rock, also out of a TB mare. He and his owner Rebecca Meyers took the championship at the Evergreen Classic "AA" show in all of the pre-adult hunters and pre-adult equitation classes. Lovely dude, right?

SW Majestic. You can check out his class hunter rounds on YT.

SW Thor, out of TB mare Majarose. I love this guy!

Anyway, these guys look like they would be fabulous all-around horses: eventers, foxhunters, hunters, dressage. Those are the prime examples of his get that I have found, but all of them are quality kiddos.

Currently, Spring Water Joe is in Indonesia right now being bred to TB, TB crosses, and WB mares to improve the breeds on the SE Asian circuit.

I understand there are so many risks with breeding. Even if all goes well in the pregnancy, you're stuck with what you get. I would love, love, love a filly. I don't think I can ever go back to geldings at this point. Stallions, yes, so long as I take the time to school them in proper manners. But mares seem to have the brains haha! If the baby ends up a bit wonky or not quite suitable for the purpose you wanted them for, you're stuck with them. Not to mention the 4-5 year waiting period before serious training can begin, which I would rather have a trusted professional do or at least shadow and assist me. If an accident happens and he/she is deemed unrideable or not able to do the big things you wanted... once again, too bad! I could never give him/her up unless I absolutely had to for unforeseen circumstances.

All in all, it's probably a big ploy to still have a piece of my Greta even when she is gone, which hopefully won't be until a very long time from now. And frankly, I think even looking at her subjectively, she is not a poorly-built girl! She is a bit thin below the knees and has less angle than what would be desired in her hind legs, but she has her fair share of redeemable qualities, and an excellent pleasing personality and level-headed-but-protective intelligence that she could hopefully pass on or teach to her foal.

But I don't think I could ever forgive myself if the pregnancy took a turn for the worse, or if the foal ended up being far less than desirable. It may just be a risk I am too paranoid to take.

But I can dream, right? It would be quite an adventure and probably would have a lovely result!

Any dream stallions y'all like?

Monday Funny

2011-10-31T17:18:00.002-05:00

Royal Dublin Horse Show 2011 Video

2011-10-27T22:27:00.000-05:00

Walking video... what do you guys think?

2011-10-27T15:56:00.001-05:00

Okay, so she's not as lame as I thought she was. And I have a feeling a good trim will help her out. What do y'all think? And WOW about my little pity party last night haha!

She's going to get better :)

Texas Picture Spam

2011-10-23T20:37:00.006-05:00

I will be getting some pictures of Greta and I on Thursday. I realized that I have never had any nice portrait-style pictures of the Queen and I. So I'm going to change that. Now, for some spammies of Texas pictures. He's not as photogenic as Greta dear, but still cute :)

Riding Texas

2011-10-20T22:11:00.004-05:00

One of the boarders at the barn has graciously let me help in the long-term rehab process of 9 yo Dutch WB x TB named Texas :)

He is huge, and his gaits feel huge to me because I'm so used to wittle Greta girl (who, by the way, is having a blast in her new paddock making the boys in the paddocks around her fall stupidly in love with her and finally being queen of her own domain.) He is also a big sweetie, and not hard to love.

This is the big guy that I fell off of a few weeks back. It was also reeeeeealy windy Tuesday and cold, and I didn't think anything of it until Texman spooked at a mockingbird on the ground that flew away, proceeded to spin lightly and bolt, and I would've stayed on had he not made a 360 turn away from an upcoming tree that I was not excepting (we felt like we were going the OTHER way around the tree). Bless his heart, he waited for me to come get him, with that same old worried look on his face like he did something wrong, and I once again assured him that he did nothing I was going to punish him for.

All of my falls off Greta have been lame, uneventful ones. All the exciting ones happen off of geldings. They're always keeping on my toes. Or on my butt, whichever lands first.

Anyway, since this is my second fall on my head, my helmet needs replacing :( Anyway, here is the other reason why I need to replace my helmet, plus a cute crack on the inside. Yay helmets! Observe the aftermath, aka The Tear of Doom:

But hey, that could have been my scalp. That would take scalping to a whole new level. As for the crack... well, another reason to always wear a helmet. That crack could have been my noggin and not my helmet ;)

Exhibit About War Horses @ NAM London

2011-10-19T20:06:00.002-05:00

Scottish artist Laura Antebi constructed this equine sculpture made of galvanized steel barbed wire (like the kind that littered no-man's land in trench warfare) for the War Horse: Fact & Fiction exhibit at the National Army Museum in London. This exhibit will feature artifacts, first hand accounts and, of course, memorials to both the honored and unsung equine heroes of Britain over the past 1,000 years, with particular emphasis on the Boer Wars, Crimean War, and the First World War. The exhibit's website can be found here.

The game plan + question for the readers

2011-10-17T16:58:00.005-05:00

I'm very glad I have been taking periodic pictures of Greta's fetlock. When I looked at her today I temporarily sank into despair that it had not gotten any better, until I looked at photos from a day after the initial diagnosis. She is on 24/7 turnout in a small paddock all to herself, and she was actually overtracking when she walked today, plus the swelling seems to be less than I thought it was. I have not seen her do that in a while!

Anyway, I needed to write down a game plan so I can feel better about continuing treatment:

1) lots of rest
2) corrective trimming: farrier is going to work with the vet and we're going to try to fix up the back feet in a way so she's not landing so toe-first and she is not sinking on her suspensory and is not so stiff in the hind end in general. I can barely stand to see her walk it freaks me out so much. I'm hoping it's just as the vet said: "If you stare at a horse too long you WILL find lameness!" haha
3) Vet comes out again on November 16th. She mentioned that some additions to the rehab regimen may be injections, and maybe even some chiro or massage work to make for the compensation in her hips and lower back.

Now, a question for the readers:

Have any of y'all ever heard of or have tried the Iconoclast Rehabilitation Boots? They sound really promising and have some great development behind them, and they will be cleared with the vet and farrier as well, but I want to try and accumulate as many opinions as possible.

Secondly, any opinions on RecoveryEQ?

Thanks guys!

My girl really worries me every now and then.

Pony is very happy to no longer be in a stall. She craves freedom!

For Andrea, Part 2

2011-10-11T23:59:00.000-05:00

For Andrea, Part 1

2011-10-10T19:48:00.002-05:00

Okay, this is going to be a tearjerker, I'm crying right now as I type this. I know many of us have followed Andrea and Gogo from the start, or close to it, and have cheered them on as they proved that barefoot horses can do anything and later that they can make it through a nasty injury. Sadly, all good stories must come to an end, and not all ends are as happy as a Disney film.

I was watching Up the other night, because my roommate was out so I knew I could cry my eyes out in privacy, and could not help but think of Andrea and Gogo when I saw the scene above.

Andrea, I just cannot even being to fathom the heartbreak you are going through right now. All good things come to an end. And Gogo was more than just "a good thing". Gogo was a special mare, a partner, a friend. To lose someone like that is devastating. You cannot know how it feels until you feel it yourself.

Andrea, you have done the absolute best for a mare who is the absolute best. You know it is her time. You can see it in her eyes, in the way she carries herself. You love her enough to let her be free.

So know this: think of all the good times with Gogo. It was an adventure, even if it ended too soon. You two proved something to the world, and had a fantastic time all the while. You conquered mountains. You had an adventure.

And, while I cannot say I can speak for Gogo, I am beyond sure she does not want the adventure to end here. All you two have done, all you have achieved and learned, and all that Gogo has brought you will prepare you for your next adventure, whatever it may be.

And know that Gogo, deep in your heart and soul, will be watching over you every step of the way as you watched over her.

New War Horse Trailer

2011-10-04T16:54:00.000-05:00

Putting things in perspective....

2011-10-02T21:50:00.004-05:00

First of all, having a horse be injured (although making a stellar recovery so far! Yay R&R and BOT!) really puts things in perspective. I've always had my moments, especially the more and more I ride, where I want to do nothing but ride and work with horses for the rest of my life. It was very tempting and would have been quite easy to go be a working student with Wolfgang May at his new place (I could take Greta) this school year instead of going to college. But now that I'm here, having the first glimpse of me truly applying myself and not really having the option of riding 24/7, I'm starting to see the first real, tangible, palpable glimmers of the big picture. Having Greta be injured is the slap-in-the-face I need every now and then. And she doesn't seem to mind having some R&R either!

I love horses, I love riding, don't get me wrong. But when I got a taste of all the opportunities out there for me, for my love of animals and humanitarian work and conservation and just making a difference in the big scheme of things, my whole idea of riding as a living almost seems selfish. For me, that is. Not for others, just for me. It's a case-to-case situation.

When I know how much I want to make a big difference in the world, and when I that I really can, it makes me very excited and eager for the future. I can have a beyond-ideal job at a zoo or with a conservation program and still do geeky field studies around the world. I can share my love of animals with others, and try to instill a love and respect for them within in those people.

I just bombed my first set of exams. I felt horrible and stupid and like an absolute failure. I resorted back to my "easy way out": I'll just go back to the idea of riding horses for a living! In the long run it would be hard as ever, but for the time being it would be easy. After taking my pity party to facebook, plenty of people told me that it's not uncommon for to bomb your first set of exams in your first year of college. I still feel a twinge of stupidity, but I felt better. I set myself back on track and told myself that I'm in college and I really need to apply myself more than ever before. It was time to put on my big girl panties. I can do it, I just need to do it.

When I went out to the barn yesterday, per usual, Greta put things even further into perspective. I once again realized that while I love riding horses, I like just being around them. I will always have them there. If I intern anywhere I can't take Greta, I will find a way to be with horses. I want a job that I love doing, and can still support my big side hobby. I love horses, I love riding, and I would love to get into upper level eventing and upper level dressage and learn as much as I can. But I have this burning in my heart, and it's been there since childhood and definitely since I worked with rescue horses for six or so years, to see the world and help the world. Just something so I can say, "At least I tried my damnedest."

And who knows, I might do what a lot of humanitarians and conservationists do and say something along the lines of the beginning of Jennifer Connelly's speech in Blood Diamond. It might be too much. But at least I can say I tried and then go do something to help in the horse world. But I need to help. Lord knows I'm one of those weird people that likes be a sales associate because I can help people, even if it's with something as superficial as a really nice name brand (that I, too, rave about LOL).

Anyway, horses put my life into perspective, even if they skew that perspective now and then. Thanks to Greta, I have a reason to go to college and get a good job, and thanks to all that she and other horses have taught me - patience, kindness, humility, and a urge to help - I can find a job working with animals and conservation, it would be still be a good job, and it would be something I love doing.

Horses will always be there. I will always be that little girl who wanted nothing but a pretty pony. And I will always be that little girl who idolized Steve Irwin (and cried when he died) and Jeff Corwin and Jane Goodall and watched all those animals shows on TV like The Wild Thornberries and Zaboomafu, and movies like The Lion King and Bambi, and said to myself, "I love animals. I love nature. That is what I want to have when I grow up."

Thank you Greta, for all the life lessons you have taught me. For being my constant through all the ups and downs. You will get the best place in town at Wimbledon Village Stables when I go to work for the London Zoo, and we will hack around the parks and enjoy nature all freaking day ;)

Equestrian Clearance: Horse Boots

2011-09-30T17:47:00.004-05:00

I have a guest post from fabulous Equestrian Clearance out of the UK. They have some great buys on things, and offer brands you can't find here in the US. I was so happy to see that they carried the Equilibrium Stretch & Flex training wraps in medium narrow! Here is their guest post. Enjoy!

Horse Boots

Whether you hack out, compete or enjoy any equestrian discipline, it is essential that you ensure that your horse’s legs are protected with the correct boots. However, with the enormous number of horse boots available on the market, it can be difficult to know which to use and when.

When choosing which boots to use on your horse, you will need to consider the level of protection your horse needs, which will be dependent upon what activity you’re are partaking in, his conformation and any previous injuries. For example if your horse has a tendency to over stretch with his hind legs, this can cause over-reach injuries, where the horse will clip the back of his front leg with his rear hoof. Equally if he has suffered a tendon injury previously, you will want to ensure that this area is protected.

However, whilst it is essential that boots protect the horse, it is also necessary for them to support the horse’s legs and be comfortable. Buying correctly fitting boots is essential to ensure that the boots do not restrict the horse’s movements. As all horses’ legs will vary in shape, boots which fit one horse may not fit another. Boots which do not fit can cause chafing and may slip.

Brushing boots are often used for schooling, hacking and general riding. As the name suggests, they are designed to protect the horse’s legs from ‘brushing’ injuries, caused when one leg is hit by the opposite leg or hoof. However they are also ideal for offering general protection against general bumps and knocks. These boots can be used on both the front at the back legs; however you may require a larger size on the hind legs.

Over-reach boots are bell shaped boots that cover the coronet and hoof; they are used to prevent injury caused by a rear hoof striking a front leg, which can result in cuts or even a lost shoe. This most commonly occurs when jumping or doing fast work, however over reach boots are often used in everyday riding, as prevention is better than cure.

There is a great variety of over reach boots available, the main difference between them being material (usually rubber or neoprene), colour and fastening method. The simplest over reach boots to use will feature Velcro attachments, whilst others have to be pulled over the hoof – this can be made easier by softening the rubber in hot water prior to putting the boots on. Pull on boots offer the advantage of being much less likely to come off, whereas Velcro does not offer this security.

Tendon boots are most commonly seen in show jumping classes. They are open fronted boots that are used on forelegs and feature a hard ‘strike pad’ that covers the horse’s fetlock and tendon. This prevents injury to these areas from the hind hooves. They leave the front of the leg unprotected, ensuring that the horse will ‘feel’ if he knocks any poles. This ensures that he does not become lazy with his legs and instead continues to jump cleanly over the fences.

Fetlock boots are designed to be used on hind legs. They are shorter boots that are often worn in conjunction with tendon or brushing boots on the forelegs. As with brushing boots, these boots offer protection against damage to the fetlocks caused by the two hind legs knocking together

Travel boots are used to prevent injury when the horse is in transit in a trailer or horsebox. Most commonly made from a tough outer synthetic material and lined with fleece or cotton, fastened with Velcro and featuring protective padding. Some are designed to cover the horse’s leg from hoof to above the knee or hock, shaped to fit the horse’s legs, whilst others are shorter, offering protection between fetlock and knee or hock. Travel boots are recommended for use with all horses, bar perhaps broodmares and foals.

Cross country boots are the ideal choice for riders and horses who partake in hunter trials or eventing. Usually made from lightweight, impact-resistant materials these boots can be essential to protecting your horse in this demanding sport. Look for boots that do not absorb water, as boots that become water logged can become heavy through water jumps.

Knee boots, as suggested by the name, protect the horse’s knees if they were to be knocked or if the horse was to fall onto them. This type of fall is quite common when out hacking and the horse trips, especially with young or spooky horses. It is very important to protect against this injury as it can cause lasting damage to the knee joints.

Hock boots offer the same protection as knee boots, only to the hock joints on the rear legs instead. This area is prone to injury when travelling. It is equally important to protect this area as injury can cause the hock to become chronically swollen or ‘capped’, which may result in pain and lameness.

As important as choosing the right boots is ensuring they are correctly fitted. For example, whenever fitting boots to the tendon area of the leg, for example when using brushing or tendon boots, ensure that any Velcro straps are done up from front to back.

When using knee or hock boots, ensure that the top strap is done up securely and the lower strap is fastened loosely to allow the knee and hock joints full freedom of movement. If you are unsure of how to fit boots, it is advisable to seek the help of a professional.

Whatever type of boots you choose, you will be afforded the choice of many different colours, materials and styles. Traditionally boots where often made in leather, which offers an impeccable appearance, however they can be more difficult to care for. In comparison, modern materials including plastics, neoprene and rubber are more user friendly and often offer greater protection.

Brands of horse boots to look out for include Roma, Norton, Caldene, Equilibrium and JHL; all producing a range of protective boots suited to many uses and budgets. Traditionally manufacturers of horse rugs, Masta, Saxon and Weatherbeeta also produce great travel boots, whilst Mark Todd cross country boots are designed and endorsed by their namesake; Olympic New Zealand rider Mark Todd.

A huge range of horse boots, equestrian clothing and horse riding equipment is available at Equestrian Clearance.

Story of my life...

2011-09-29T13:42:00.003-05:00

I'd never thought I'd ever say this... but I think I've reached that point where I've fallen off enough times that I don't tense up but just let myself off. Today though, if I had not been wearing a helmet, I might have actually hurt myself. Always wear your helmet, children!

I've been riding a fabulous Dutch WB gelding, even if only at the walk and a few steps of trot because he is in prolonged rehab for multiple suspensory injuries bless him, and he has had his saddle re-flocked this past week so I have been riding him bareback. Asked him for his routine few steps of trot, and I could feel him getting excited about being ready to trot. And he has a big trot. So I just kind of bounced off him, very embarassing. Thankfully nobody saw and nobody was hurt. And he was staring at me like he did something wrong, and I assured that life was good and I just got back on him, and he was okay. I will work on sitting his trot (which I can do in a saddle) once he saddle gets back :)

Greta has these fabulous new thing from Back On Track called Quick Wraps! I put some Sore No More on underneath them and so far they seem to be working, slowly but steadily. I'm taking pictures once a week for comparison. Today they just seemed to be better. Once she gets back to riding, I will start wrapping her back legs for extra support as a kind of prevention method. Yay for my girlie!

This is Stylish: Lucky Locket

2011-09-24T18:44:00.002-05:00

Sargent Reckless

2011-09-23T21:22:00.001-05:00

A Sweet Horse Girl mom video

2011-09-20T22:36:00.002-05:00

I saw this pop up in my subscriptions box on YouTube, and I thought "What a sweet birthday video for that special horse girl's mom!" The song is absolutely perfect. I would do a video like this for my Gee's birthday, but I would need to find a different song, because 'he is good' doesn't work when you have a mare :p

Like Cathy Atkinson said: "...I honestly think horses have kept an amazing amount of girls out of trouble or rescued them from trouble. Who needs to have a baby at fifteen when you already have a horse to love? Who can blow money on drugs – we have the farrier to pay for! When a man breaks your heart, it’s not the end of the world – we still have our horse."

So to all the parents of horsey girls, don't worry: your little baby is going to learn some great life lessons and will always be taken care of.

Question for the Readers: The Veruca Salt...

2011-09-20T16:15:00.005-05:00

So I am sure we have all met a Veruca Salt. Perhaps even a whole group of them, depending on your discipline or barn or whatever circumstance. The kind that are spoiled in the fact that, while not always spoiled as far as having the nicest horse or what-not, but perhaps along the lines of being spoiled in that they are allowed to be precocious, cocky, a know-it-all, a bully even. A Veronica Di Angelo from The Saddle Club, right? However you want to imagine it.

My personal opinion is that they are dangerous. Not only to themselves, but to other riders, and especially to horses. They cross the line of being bold and gutsy and into the realm of being egotistical and foolish. You know the situation, the whole "Oh sure you can walk around on him" and you turn around and see her trying to prove what a rider she is by doing something incredibly foolish and parents standing off to the side saying "Oh, what a rider she is! Look how well she does with your horse!" and you scream "Get off him, NOW" and it all goes downhill from there... yeah, like that.

My solutions for precocious, know-it-all, dangerous gals like that?

A) Send her to a hunter show. The fancy kind. She'll feel great about herself, until they all eat her alive.

B) So she apparently has great equitation and a nice horse, so she survived. If so, send her to be a working student for an old-fashion kind of trainer, preferably German or Austrian. The kind that will beat you with a whip when you try to beat the horse with one. And then make you muck out all the stalls again.

C) She didn't learn anything from that guy, either?! The final solution: it's the most humbling, perhaps cheapest method, all risks and danger aside. Get the girl an off-the-track Thoroughbred! Like, fresh off the track. The crazy, wild, horrible ground vice kind. The kind only a mother or a jumper trainer with an excellent eye and seat and patience level of a saint could love or ever want. Not the good majority of them who have a bit of spook but not much else. The really bad, rotten kind. She'll think she's super-cool-horse-trainer until the lead rope is tossed into her hands. Then you have the telephone ready to dial 911 and a prepared "we told you so" monologue to deliver over the hospital bed.

And if she does well with all of that, then you can sulk off grumbling under your breath that either she's really lucky or maybe she is a good rider, and is just an arsehole about it.

But really, don't do that. With all seriousness, the best way to deal with these kinds of people is to simply say "no". I've had my fair share of these kinds of people, once getting on Greta, and once was enough for me. I wish I had said no, much less said "Get off now" while they were on my horse. You don't have to be rude about it, but simply declining whatever Veruca-Veronica is asking for that could potentially be harmful to the entire area around her will do you well in the long run and still hopefully save face and feeling. And possibly a life.

As for parents (where I notice it usually starts) : I am so thankful my parents taught me some humility. Horses are usually great teachers of humility and patience, but sometimes a well-placed parent and/or highly-regarded superior does the best job.

Have you met a Veruca-Veronica? Have you ever had a Veruca-Veronica moment? How did that go down? I know I've had my moments... let's just say I learned my lesson.

Boo. Hiss.

2011-09-14T14:31:00.004-05:00

So, Greta had her follow-up appointment today. She's still super ouchy after the flex test of her LH. Vet did x-rays and ultrasound of both hind legs and saw the follow: a very enlarged medial suspensory ligament and the very beginnings of arthritis in the LH, and two bone chips from an old fracture on her RH, although the latter only causes minor stiffness.

We're treating it like an acute injury so as to play it on the safe side, which means 4 weeks at the least of stall rest, and hopefully another 4 weeks of pasture rest afterwards, if not just an additional 4 weeks of more stall rest (I'm really hoping for some pasture rest in there). She'll be getting turned out in the day pens like she was when she first arrived at the barn. They're big enough to walk around in but small enough so she can't get really fast and frisky.

If time has not healed things up enough after 2 months, then we will try injections. She doesn't have a lot of angle in her hind legs, so it's potentially a conformational fault that's causing this. The absolute worst case scenario is that she has degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis (DSLD), which would be caused by her conformation, but it's not too likely as it is something that usually only occurs in gaited horses. But it's still some frightening stuff.

All in all, not a good day. I feel awful. But on the plus side, hopefully the worse she will need is injections. Injections are doable. DSLD is NOT doable.

EDIT: DSLD is HIGHLY unlikely, and the vet said there's quite a few things she can do for it, but like she said: HIGHLY unlikely. It's quite mild, and there is only lameness when it's flexed, so once again the worse we can expect right now is monthly injections, and Lord knows I know plenty of ponies who get those and still do just fine. So, I'm more positive now!

Question for the Readers: fallacies and guest post

2011-09-13T16:00:00.005-05:00

A friend of mine in the UK was talking on her facebook wall about how she had put up a video of her riding her horse over his first jump after doing lots of practice up to 2.5-3 ft free-jumping. This first jump she rode him over (after practicing over a few ground poles) was a very low crossrail (6" perhaps?). He refused, and she realized she wasn't riding him right, and then fixed her problem and he jumped it confidently the second time. The horse is a greenie, give him a break right?

Anyway, her problem was a person commented on the video saying "You should always freejump a horse first if you want to jump something new so they know they can do it, no wonder it didn't do it properly."

To which my first thought was: good luck doing that on a cross country course or hunt field that you're trucking across! "Oh, hold on, he's scared of this stone wall with bushes at the base! Let me jump off quickly and try to freejump him over it!"

(My second thought was, "Did you just call her horse 'it'?!")

What would have been better advice, had said rider in the video not realized her mistake, would have been "Check how you're riding him up the fence. Were not riding confidently? Did you stop riding before the fence? Were you riding too defensively? Not enough leg? etc."

That's what my trainer would have told me. And that's what I have heard multiple times from multiple different people. Or even better, don't come across as "I know everything" but make it sound more suggestive, like you might have SOME humility and are open to other thoughts :)

So now I get to my point: I've heard some strange, and sometimes dangerous, advice as far as horse training and horse care goes. Some of them come with good intentions, others misinformation, other just plain cruelty or just plain stupid.

The most infamous one in my book?

"Put you heels down and shoulders back."

I see so many hunter riders (and many others, but it's more prevalent in that style to me) with their heels jammed down so much in the stirrups that their riding is seriously compromised. From what I understand, "heels down" often creates a stiff leg and braced feet against the stirrup, so their leg is swinging and DEFINITELY not tight and solid on the horse, and often causes a leg that slips too far back instead of being a strong support, thus throwing the rider forward and both horse and rider off balance, yada yada yada. "Shoulders back" often creates a braced back and tilted pelvis, causing discomfort for both horse and rider and almost always NO flow between the two. I watch and think, "hmmm, I wonder if I took their stirrups and saddle away, if they would be able to be in that same frame?"

And then I answer myself, "No, they'd fall flat on their arse because they're so stiff and in such an artificial frame that their legs and seat aren't used to actually BEING on the horse."

They're noble and accurate points, really, and are the result of proper equitation. Not a means to the end. A more correct verbiage would be "Toes up and/or sink your weight into your heels. Push your ribcage out and up and keep your back erect." There's a lot more that could be added there, like "soften your back and slightly tilt the pelvis up and grip with your legs like a wet rag," but that can STILL lead to even MORE confusion haha!

So now I ask you, what are some iffy things you've heard from "fellow horsepersons" and trainers? No names please, just the advice. Also, feel free to give some GOOD advice you've heard before!

And a second question, I have the opportunity to have a guest post from Equine Clearance out of the UK on any variety of horse-related topics. I'm not entirely sure myself of what I would like to have put up, so what blanket, tack, clothing, industry, etc. topic would you like to hear about?

Photography 9-8-2011 Video

2011-09-08T19:48:00.001-05:00

Snowman: from New Holland to The Ntl. Horse Show

2011-09-08T19:18:00.001-05:00

Burghley 2011: My Picks

2011-09-07T11:06:00.005-05:00

So obviously William Fox-Pitt was considered the best because he kind of won. And I will say, he did smashing, per usual... even if he does look a tad big on his horses. There were a few rides in each of the phases that really stood out to me, and I think if a rider had all three of these performances (and I was judging the dressage phase ha!) then you would've found a fabulous formula for a winner. I was rooting for Mary King, because I adore her, but on both of her horses in showjumping things went less-than-perfect. Darn shame about Kitty King's showjumping round. And one of my least favorite dressage tests was Boyd Martin's (that extended trot certainly could've been better...)

Anyway, my favorite dressage test was Sinead Halpin's on Manoir de Carneville. I think she could've gotten an even better score, BUT I am no judge. The horse looked content and moved with impulsion, and had great gaits and great training even for a "non-dressage" horse. Selle Francais are STILL nice horses haha! Sinead looked like she had done her job well, and they were just pleasurable to watch.

Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos (who had an amazing recovery after significant smoke inhalation from the Martins' horrible barn fire) had an explosive cross-country round. The Burghley cross-country course is by far the most challenging of the Grand Slam of eventing. It makes me tired just watching it, and you can tell most horses and riders are worn out by the end of course: throwing themselves over jumps, legs dragging across jumps, jumps being barely cleared, galloping slows, and I've even seen a select few riders throw two-point out the window, it's just too dang hard! But these two looked as fresh at the beginning as they did at the end. Neville was still neat and clean at the last fence, and Boyd was still doing just as well to the very end. That REALLY made me tired to watch, because you can only imagine the exertion and fitness-building that must have taken.

Mark Todd and Major Milestone had a pretty stellar cross-country round (had a wonky moment during one of the water combinations) but an icky dressage score (the canterwork was less than spectacular, I thought), so that brought him down to 21st place in the end. But this show jumping round was wonderful, and if he had done better in dressage, he probably would not be as low in the placings as he was.

What do y'all think? Who were your favorites?

This is Stylish: Cozy Ponies

2011-09-05T13:29:00.003-05:00

It's hard to see the design, so you might have to enlarge it to see them. But that's what I love about it! It's so subtly horsey! I just got one today, and even though I probably won't have to wear it outside but for another month or two (it still gets frigid in the dorm and classrooms!) it's incredibly cozy.

Why live on the edge.....

2011-09-05T00:14:00.001-05:00

Jumping video AND update

2011-09-01T23:01:00.001-05:00

This is the day before her vet appointment to figure out some stiffness in her back and hips. Jumping and poles always seem to help her loosen WAY up, but after the vet appointment I felt like an A$$ for doing that, as much fun as we both had! I need to remember that she tries so hard that she'll chug through anything!

Firstly, the vet remarked about how great she looked for her age, no arthritis or joint problems, and both the vet and the tech loved her adorable attitude and good manners (that's my girl!) BUT she had some ever-so-slight lameness, and was clean on the flex test UNTIL her LH fetlock was flexed, and then she was really ouchy. Thankfully it wasn't on the other fetlock. She also noticed her fetlock sunk down a bit at the walk, and was worried about her suspensories being strained. Her ever-so-slight back and hip stiffness was very likely from compensating for that sore LH.

We talked a bit and she asked how much she had been ridden, and I realized and told her "Oh my goodness, I've been riding her almost every day with only a break once a week since a month before summer started!" Nothing hard, but still, yikes! I felt pretty bad!

So the prognosis right now is to give Miss Greta two weeks off to giver her a break, a ten minute walk around the arena twice a week or so, but just let her chill for the most part. She'll be checked again in exactly two weeks, and if that LH is not better then there will be an examination of her suspensory. Worrisome, but I will just be happy to see Greta happy and comfy.

Overall, the vet said she's not BAD or REALLY lame, just probably strained something from all that hard work this summer!

So now I get to another point: give your horses a break! Give them a week off, do some work on the longe line to save their back, etc. Especially the super-pleasers like Greta!

I feel SO bad! I know better than that! Bless Greta's big ole heart!

For Andrea and Gogo

2011-09-01T12:09:00.003-05:00

I'm not very good at sympathy speeches. I always feel like I can never say things without sounding sycophantic or something. So, to express my sympathy for and pride for Andrea and Gogo, who have been through so much and done so much and tried so much and deserve so much more than what they've been through, I draw. End of the line or not, Gogo girl will always be rocking it.

GO-GO GOGO! Even if the scanner didn't get the colors very well......... next time you're in ATX, Andrea, this will be a-waitin'.

Dressage & Ballet [video]

2011-08-31T17:40:00.000-05:00

May the odds be ever in your favor...

2011-08-31T00:12:00.004-05:00

Sorry, I'm just geeking out about the new Hunger Games movie. Much better than watching re-runs of Jersey Shore with the roommate haha! Somebody please name their next gutsy eventing mare Katniss! For me? Anyway, if you have not read the books, then shame on you. They're excellent.

AND another book I want to shout out about is The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse that Inspired a Nation. It reads very much like Seabiscuit and not like a Saddle Club novel haha! It's a very good book. I smell yet another horsey movie in the future!

Speaking of movies, my new favorites are The Queen (a few years old, but just now saw and loved it) and the newest Jane Eyre movie with Mia Wasikowska. It's very well done and wonderfully romantic, and gave me the same feel as the book. Kudos.

And now... pictures from this morning of Greta and I jumping up to about a foot! She is the BOMB!

This is Stylish: Hang On

2011-08-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

Greta August 2011

2011-08-22T21:05:00.001-05:00

Couldn't get video of her trotting up and down the rocky gravel road today like it was nothing! Woop-woop rock-cruncher feet!

Beach Polo with RL

2011-08-12T21:11:00.003-05:00

"Though the sand hastens the pace of play, it also allows for the ponies to exhibit one of their most spectacular traits: agility. "It's a test of stamina and strength, requiring you to take your strongest horses and rewarding the best riders," says [Jack Kidd, captain of the English squad]. "The smaller pitch makes for a more physical game and a lot more contact."

I had never heard of this before, much less of England having warm beaches to play on! But most of all, imagine that stamina that must take on behalf of the horses! For any of you who have ever played beach volleyball as compared to arena volleyball, you know what I mean. Sand can be a brutal workout. Even on Sandbanks Beach.

Click on the pictures for a link to the article by ESPN writer Morty Ain. Photos by Lee Collier.

This is Stylish: RL "Collis" Slippers

2011-08-12T20:59:00.004-05:00

Gotta love my home-skillet-biscuit, Ralphie Baby!

Busy!

2011-08-11T10:09:00.004-05:00

In this past week, and definitely into next, I am transitioning quite literally into college life, even though I have not moved in yet myself haha! Poor Greta was being ridden parctically every day of the week this summer with a day off each week, and then she moved and I went job hunting and got a great job with great people (a few horse people, too!) and my favorite brand (yay!) and have only been able to ride her four times haha! She has now been moved into a relatively large paddock that is built on a hillslope and has rocky ground (yes! Her hoofies will love this!) and since there is no roundbale (fed great hay three times a day) then she doesn't have the opportunity to simply sit in a stall for half of the day and then around a roundbale for the other half. She has four other older mares with her, no fighting from the start, and Greta likes to take care of the oldest mare. It's terribly sweet.

When I did ride her, we've been focusing a lot on straightness, and she has improved in that field. Her biggest challenge is 20 meter circles at the canter, as it's a much tighter circle for her and requires a lot more bum-work! There's a big jumping arena next to the dressage arena, and I like to warm Greta up on a loose rein in all three gaits there, and that helps a lot. AND There's about a two mile stretch of rocky road that runs adjacent to the property that we're allowed to ride on, and it's on an incline! Conditioning area FTW. We're going to have a blast!

Thankfully, once school starts I will be closer to both the five-minutes-away job (driving an hour and a half to get there, but I knew it would it be for less than two weeks, so I said I would take it!) and the thirty-minutes-away stable so life will be so much easier after Wednesday!

Ah, being a big girl is going to be interesting! Seeing Greta tomorrow, maybe I will finally get video of us running around wild since I actually charged the camera?

Updates on Greta's New Place

2011-08-04T21:27:00.002-05:00

No pictures of our fun times yet, sorry! BUT Greta is settling in quite nicely, and after a very tense walk-only-and-let-me-show-you-around-the-arena ride on Tuesday (she was well behaved, but she was so tense about it the new place that it felt you I was sitting in a canoe or something haha!) we had a lovely ride today. She also got turned out into her new-new digs in a great-for-her-hoofies, oak-covered, two-nice-shelters pasture with four other mares. It was pretty anti-climatic, as Greta just minded her own business and they minded theirs. She will come in if the weather becomes bad, but seeing as we are not predicted to have rain at all this winter and into next year (no bueno!) then that probably will not happen. Ever.

But she seemed pretty happy, and I love the group of riders out there, and the place is just the perfect compliment to our experience at the old barn! Very happy! Will get pictures of us riding or something of that like soon (free jumping anyone?)

This is Stylish: Pony Pullover

2011-08-03T21:10:00.002-05:00

Austin Wizard Academy?

2011-07-31T22:25:00.003-05:00

One would think I would stop laughing at this sign eventually. I took this picture on the way back from Greta's new barn, and I still chuckle every time I see it, because I cannot help but imagine a small lot with a bunch of people running around in cloaks and scarves and pointy hats on broomsticks playing "muggle Quidditch" and trying to make a feather levitate and watching 'A Very Potter Musical' (yeah, there's a musical).

There's a reason we say "Keep Austin Weird". We got t-shirts, too :)

Another pony poetry video...

2011-07-31T20:54:00.002-05:00

Greta's New Digs

2011-07-31T19:58:00.003-05:00

Greta moved today so she'll be closer to the university! She'll be kept in a large 12'x24' stall until she's ready to be turned out in a small mare pasture. I'm really going to miss the old place, but I really like this place for both Greta and I and I'm excited for our new adventure!

I'm still chuckling about that sign at the end. ATX locals might also recognize the Salt Lick BBQ entrance, it's right down the road from the new barn haha! There's also a very grand Hindu temple and two very nice show barns nearby: Oakhaven does dressage and jumping and brings in some big name clinicians and Weddle Training Stables does Arabs at the big national breed shows.

Also, a product review: SmartCalm Ultra paste really worked. She was so chill getting off the trailer. You can see in the video she was not dopey, still alert, just not panicky. Thank goodness I did the buy 1 get one free deal. Very happy.

This is Stylish: Jodhpur Boots and Dresses

2011-07-29T17:38:00.003-05:00

Jack Wills is indeed "Fabulously British" with the floral dress, merino wool cardie and socks, and (in true touch with the UK's very prominent horse world) some brown jods.

I love Jack Wills. I don't own anything by them because it's so expensive, BUT it's all so cute!

THEY DID IT AGAIN!

2011-07-26T21:57:00.003-05:00

Setffen Peters, Ravel, and Avatar music at Aachen CHIO 2011 FTW! It's a shame they didn't win, especially when the winner Totilas and Matthias Alexander (I'm not surprised, and I didn't like the poor horse with Gal or Alexander) looked so iffy and Peters and Ravel looked so relaxed and loose, but good Lord, this one had my psyched!

Maybe I'm biased towards Peters, but you can tell from the audience reaction that I am not alone.

Musical Freestyle Music Ideas....

2011-07-21T20:13:00.012-05:00

So, I'm sure every avid dressage rider and/or fan has seen or participated in a musical freestyle. The goal of these things is to find music that highlights the horse and his strengths, grabs people's attention, pays ode to the freestyle's origin in the pre-modern courts of Europe, and is just a pleasurable piece of art to watch. Think ice skating, ballet, and all those other things. Yah? So we have that bit down.

Now, I'm no freestyle expert. Frankly, I've never done one. BUT I am saying these things based on all the ones I've spent watching on YouTube (heehee).

My biggest qualm poorly blended or chosen music. I know we can't all hire a professional to mix things up for us, but make you get several opinions from both horsey and non-horsey people to A) see if the music flows well, B) goes well with the horse's movement (a note on that below), C) has a nice beat that you and your horse can keep up with.

On B, I have seen some people do "inside joke" music: the music fits the horse's personality, BUT in no way does it fit their gaits.

I won't go on that much further, because I'm not an expert haha!

For the big, bold, dramatic mover: pick something that is just that, big, bold, and dramatic! And please, no 'Pirates of the Caribbean' music. Overdone. Same goes for 'Dancing Queen' lol. There is a lovely track from the 'King Arthur' soundtrack called "Another Brick in Hadrian's Wall". Move a little bit farther into the music and you get some wonderful bass and percussion and dramatic orchestral pieces, starting at about 0:45. It even starts to get a nice beat for a big canter.

The 'Avatar' soundtrack also has some really cool music, and if you want to add an exotic touch without going too tribal, this is also a good place to start. This is one of my favorites, and an iconic piece from the movie, called "Climbing up Ikinmaya - The Pathway to Heaven". There's a subtle beat of the maraccas in the beginning that could do well with a working trot or canter, and some of the percussion beats later on would work well with collected trots or passage, and the choral climax towards the end would do well with a burst of an extended canter.

These types of music seem to do well with a horse that has big gaits, but not very defined or snappy or electric ones. Think a big draft or heavy warmblood, yah?

For the more electric horse: there's all kinds of fun things you can do! I had a friend who said she had trouble with her horse's electric gaits for a freestyle (Oh, whatever shall we do?!) She had some songs she liked, but she couldn't find songs with a consistent, snappy beat that would highlight her horse's gaits. I said, "Have you looked into remixes?"

NEVER forget to look into the remixes of songs. Let's take a lovely song called "Cosmic Love" by Florence and the Machine. A great song, but not very many parts of a consistent beat that a horse could work with. PEST has an awesome remix. The very beginning, if mixed up and repeated, would do very well for a canter, as well as most of the song. Maybe not for all the gaits, but it's a place to start. The good thing about remixes is that you can take a song you like that may not have a steady beat, and find one that does have a steady beat.

And for the Gaga lovers, there is a great remix of "Bad Romance" by Starsmith. There is plenty of play with the beat in the song, so if mixed right, could serve all the gaits and be very electric at the same time.

AND there is a wonderful style of music from the other side of the world called Bhangra and Bollywood. Don't believe me? Check out this song called "Discowale Khisko (Move Over Disco)". Need a remix? There's one on the soundtrack lol! Although I think the beat is a bit quick for a freestyle, but who knows?

Another bhangra beat that sounds both Western and exotic is "Majajne" by Suskshinder Shinda. Look at music from around the world! You can find some cool stuff.

For the cute mover: this is a bit easier! Rock n' Roll songs and most pop songs sound really cute. Try some Brit rock like The Ting Tings or Two Door Cinema club to spice things up a bit. "Shiver" by Coldplay would sound good, or perhaps "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire. Really, now is the time you can mix and match some of your favorite pop songs. You want to have some fun, make sure not to play down your horse's strong points, and keep it appropriate. Here is some lovely inspiration from Catherine Haddad. Granted, Winyamaro is not exactly a cute mover, BUT the song usage is fun and a great idea!

That last example is also a great reminder to look for instrumental versions of songs (like those P!nk songs) on YouTube. If you like a certain song but the lyrics take away from the performance, guarantee that some techie out there has taken that song pulled the lyrics. They are EVERYWHERE! Like the instrumental version of Coldplay's Strawberry Swing. Cute, cool, classy, and calm. Of course, the lyrical version sounds great as well!

P.S. that last song is what I would love to do a freestyle to. I have yet to look and see if it would fit Greta, though. It might not!

-------------------------------------------

Those are the ideas I can think up of. Let's get some freestyle input brain juices flowing!

On Vaulting...

2011-07-21T19:06:00.008-05:00

I found out there's a vaulting school here in Austin, that's where this was filmed at. It also got me to thinking about vaulting. Here are my assessment's so far:

It's BEAUTIFUL to watch.

I asked the girl why they didn't wear helmets in vaulting (I have always wanted to know why that was!) and she said that it was because 1) "vaulting is the safest equestrian sport", 2) it throws them off balance. I'm sorry, but I would be scared poopoo-less if I was standing on a cantering horse without some form of protection! I know "Fabio" is probably quite bombproof, as all vaulting horses probably are, but still! At least she wears a helmet when she rides.

Vaulting is supposed to be very good for balance, and it will definitely help you develop a feel of where the horse is underneath you: something great to know when riding!

According to studies by the FEI, vaulting horses tend to be the happiest, and they are definitely crossed trained, including upper level dressage and hunters (often both!) I mean, LOOK at the muscles and expression on those horses! They have to be truly round, otherwise you'll be riding on a hollow wreck! The horse for Team France in the video link below is one I would LOVE to ride!

It's pretty cool and at the same time terrifying to watch. Let us look at, for example, a small child at the top of a human pyramid upon a galloping horse in a very loud and crowded arena (ignore the costumes, they are French). Cool and terrifying!

I am also loving the Daft Punk music they used (think Tron: Legacy, because they helped to compose the soundtrack!)

And I've always wanted to point this out: it looks like an extremely awkward sport. You are constantly groping your teammates!

But really, I don't know much about vaulting. I had little success in gymnastics when I was a child. I still can't do a cartwheel or a backflip! I can barely somersault without feeling like I'm about to crush each of my vertebrae, because I do it too slowly and cautiously!

Vaulting is probably quite mysterious to us saddle-sitters. It confounds us and fascinates us, or just plain makes us want to say, "What are you? CRAZY?"

Thoughts on "the other white meat" of equestrian sports?

Oh, and vaulters: I really admire what you do. That takes guts and some natural talent that only very few have. And, like I said earlier, to see a horse and rider doing something like that is quite beautiful.

Quote of the Day - Mary King

2011-07-20T23:39:00.003-05:00

"Given all that we ask of [our horses], the least we can do as riders is look after them well and make sure they're as happy as possible. Mine spend a lot of time out in the fields at home. I try to vary their work and not dominate them, to keep them enthusiastic and thinking for themselves."

-Mary King

Thank you, Mary!

Speaking of all things British, I am in LOVE with this song, and kinda with the band, too :)

'War Horse' Trailer HD

2011-07-19T19:38:00.001-05:00

Is it sad that I cried when I saw this trailer, and only shed a single, incredibly pathetic tear during Harry Potter? Perhaps, but Good Lord I am happy to see a movie that really shows how important horses are to people. If you've read the book (an incredibly easy read, it's geared towards elementary school children, but, like Black Beauty, a profound and thoughtful classic nonetheless) then you understand how wonderfully it describes that partnership. I know where I'll be this Christmas!

ANOTHER Pehrsson video...

2011-07-19T00:28:00.004-05:00

Click on the link!

http://www.rockinggm.com/sale_barn/gig/gignew.htmhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

This is one of him under saddle. Seriously, this poor guy seems to have gone from place to place, just like his daughter! I guess being a drifter and finally settling in must be in the genes.

Also, Greta has a half-brother named Potenza. I cannot find any info on his new locale, if you have any let me know, just for grins and giggles I suppose!

She also has another half-brother in Santa Fe that used to be in training with Keene Dressage: free-jumping video, June 2010 video, and a May 2010 video. According to her website, he was sold to an amateur dressage rider.

And according to the Rocking M website, she also has a half-brother named Peter that was in training with Steffen Peters, but that's all I can find so far. Once again, any info would be cool.

Penelope, Pehrsson, Potenza, Prodigy, Peter, Vogue: all oh-so interesting!

2011 - Stuart Horse Trials - Socks' Helmet Cam with Commentary

2011-07-18T17:00:00.001-05:00

Doug Payne riding Rivertown Lad at the 2011 Stuart HT at prelim where "Socks" finished 8th. It was fun to listen to the commentary. I thought I heard him drop a potty-mouth word towards the end coming down the curve on the hill, but I probably would have too haha! Socks runs like Greta: they get so into the gallop and focused on what's ahead, they get really strong and your seat has to become an anchor so they'll slow up and refocus a bit! A half-halt at full gallop lol!

Lesson 7-11-2011

2011-07-18T00:03:00.001-05:00

Quick, Cheap Horsey Tricks

2011-07-17T13:54:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to do something like this for a long time, and I'm sure a lot of these y'all already know, BUT when I found out about them I had never heard of them being used that way, and it saves money in the long run rather than than buying specialty equine products:

Ivory Dish Soap - great shampoo, even for my white pony. Just use it like you would any other shampoo, and get the original kind.

Desitin cream - I first found out about this stuff when Greta had some dry, flaky skin on her nose. Resident vet tech told me about this stuff, and it worked. It also works to help heal wounds and prevent scarring. Apparently it can also work on areas affected by rain rot or scratches after the crusts have been gently removed, washed with a providine-iodine scrub, and thoroughly dried. It's active ingredient is zinc oxide, so it can be used for all kinds of things, not just diaper rashes!

Listerine - a great mild antiseptic. It can also be used to prevent tail rubbing, with or without equal parts baby oil. Use the original amber-colored kind.

Petroleum jelly - rub it into thick chestnuts for 4 to 5 days, and they will peel right off and be show-ready.

Baling twine - is amazing. I'm sure we all know of its many uses, but did you know it also works well as a sweat-scraper? It works especially well for that in places like down the leg.

Got any interesting stuff? I would kind of like to find a much cheaper liniment alternative to Absorbine's liniment and Show Sheen, as $20 a bottle can get a bit expensive haha.

Quote of the Day: Steffen Peters

2011-07-16T20:27:00.003-05:00

"A horse with amazing gaits can cover up even the most un-amazing rider."

-Steffen Peters

Haven't we all seen the rider who posts on her tippy-toes, sea-saws at the bit, has incredibly unsteady hands, flaps her legs against the horse's barrel, or flops up and down like a toddler on a trotting pony? But that very nice horse with big, lofty gaits and natural self-carriage sure makes her look like a pro, huh?

I heard him say this at his clinic in Dallas last November. Still can't find the rest of my notes!

I've heard George Morris say something similar about the GP riders who click their heels over the backs of their saddles over a jump (LOL) during a Q&A in Practical Horseman. I need to find that next!

This is Stylish: Western Flair

2011-07-16T19:35:00.004-05:00

A Visual Treat :)

2011-07-11T22:36:00.000-05:00

I would learn just so I could do this...

2011-07-10T23:51:00.004-05:00

I will admit it. I am not instrumentally talented. Not that I feel ashamed or have a problem admitting it. I have my own talents in the visual field. But as far keeping more than a basic rhythm... I'm at a loss. Remembering all those different notes and exact sounds? That's more buttons to push than it takes to execute a perfect pirouette ;)

But seriously, I would learn to play a string instrument JUST so I could do this song and this song. And I would learn to play the piano JUST so I could do this song, this song, and this song.

What would you like to learn to do? Who knows, maybe I will pursue such things some day, and maybe you will too!

If ever I DO get to do a musical freestyle, expect to see some of those pieces in there, if it would suit The Pony ;)

Artwork Commissions

2011-07-09T19:52:00.020-05:00

College is around the corner, which means I need money, which means I have finally started picking up art commissions for all kinds of pieces, mostly horse portraits and such so far. So, I thought I'd take my little business to the WORLD WIDE WEB!

Some samples:

Sample of a digital painting

Sample of a pencil sketch, just basic lines, one layer of pencil coated with a fixative.

Just to show I CAN draw other subjects

Sample of the wildly popular vinyl sticker pet portraits. They look cute on the back windshield.

Another bumper sticker design

Samples of blog headers.

My current full portfolio is located here on deviantART.

Pricing (a/o 7/9/2011):

Pencil Sketch on 11x14 Bristol paper - ($25 for 1-3 subjects, 3 or more is case-by-case)

Color or Pencil Drawing on 11x14 Bristol paper - ($50 one subject; $80 two subjects; $10 extra for art markers on art maker paper, also 11x14; 3 or more subjects is case-by-case)

Vinyl/Bumper Sticker Digital Drawing - ($10, and does not include price charged by vinyl/bumper sticker printer, I have a person who I can help you get in touch with for printing!)

Basic B&W Digital or Color Digital (color digital means no shading or blending of multiple colors, just a design done in a solid color, i.e. logos) - ($20 with a picture reference; $50 without a picture reference; prints are free of charge up to 11x10; prints over 11x10 and usage of pictures are case-by-case)

All Other Artwork (over 11x14 or other medium) - ($20/hour plus charge of extra supplies if needed, i.e. canvas, scratchboard, digital painting, etc.)

Blog Headers - ($10, and it's completely free for you to use wherever!)

If you are interested, please email me at bkb2@txstate.edu

"Horse Illustrated" Feedback

2011-07-06T23:06:00.006-05:00

So, for any of you who are subscribed to Horse Illustrated, I'm sure you read the article by Gina Miles on choosing a right bit in the August 2011 issue. My response to the magazine (probably won't be published, it's a bit long haha). My opinions, which I'm sure might be wrong in some aspects, so feel free to correct me. I do not know everything!

I agree with many of the points Gina Miles made in her article "A Bit of Advice" about choosing the right bit in your August 2011 issue, and I would readily trust her judgment and her riding skills. I believe that any horse should be able to go in a basic snaffle and still be able to perform well, and some horses do need stronger bits. I was worried, however, that certain aspects of the article might be misinterpreted and that the use of a bitless bridle or hackamore as an equally useful alternative was not mentioned. A stronger bit certainly does not always mean better performance or a happier horse. I have done catch rides on horses of several disciplines, mostly dressage and hunters, and sometimes reining, eventing, and western pleasure horses, so I have seen lots of different bits in different mouths, and I can attest that they are not all beneficial or used correctly. I sometimes see a stronger bit in the stead of proper training: they simply hide problems and make for a horse that is unhappy and does not use their body properly, which can lead to injury. The feeling of “suppleness” a rider can feel in a stronger bit is sometimes a horse simply gaping and/or over-flexing at the bit. The horse is not truly supple, and often even more rigid than before. Horses that rush jumps may jump worse in a stronger bit and should instead go back to basic gridwork and ground poles to correct this. If a horse is strong or misbehaving with a current bit, riders should also check for body pain and any dental or nervous system problems before putting a stronger bit in a horse’s mouth, and even training faults of their own such as heavy or unsteady hands, or a hard or unbalanced or unsteady seat. Bitless bridles and hackamores are also other alternatives to look into. It can re-teach a horse and rider to be much more reliant on and attentive to seat-aids rather than pure mouth control. None of this is to say that stronger bits are bad. In the right hands or on the right horse, they can be quite beneficial. But riders need to think very seriously before going to a stronger bit, do lots of research on how that bit works, consult professionals, and most importantly consider their own horse’s health and happiness before “upgrading”. I just worried that riders might misinterpret some of the article information. Keep up the good articles in this magazine and those with Gina Miles and I cannot wait to read more!

-Breanna, Texas

This is stylish: Equinite

2011-07-06T22:17:00.004-05:00

Equinite makes jewelry with "equinite" inlays. What is "equinite" you ask? It's a magical gem that was discovered deep within the diamond mines of central Africa. It has been a prized gem for centuries....

Just kidding.

It's horse hoof clippings. The kind you usually sweep up along with the stinky apples your horse leaves after the farrier.

But who knew they could be so gorgeous?

This particular example shown is the hoof clippings plus a few pieces of tail hair from the same horse. Very much on the pricey side, with almost all items in the hundreds (I did find this sterling silver pendant for only $39, though) and that also includes $50 for hoof clipping processing, plus another $20 if you want tail hairs added, BUT if you're looking something really special to commemorate your horse, I don't know if it could get any more special than this.

They have all kinds of items, including money and tie clips, cuff links, charms, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, earrings: the whole bejeweled shi-bang.

EDIT: at the back of Horse Illustrated in their "Blue Ribbon Deals" section they usually have a %10 coupon for Equinite products!

Pehrsson - Greta's sire

2011-07-06T21:56:00.006-05:00

^Pehrsson, by Urbino and out of Viveka

This is the only video I have been able to find of him. I have also found a few pictures out there, and only one video of any of his offspring (besides those of Greta haha). This mare, Greta's half-sister, Vogue, is out of an Oldenburg mare I believe, so she has a much flatter topline than her sire. She's being kept at Caduceus Farm, where Pehrsson is also being kept as a schoolmaster. And as of yet, I cannot find ANY pictures or info (save a pedigree) of Greta's dam, Mite Oh Been by Azure Request and out of Sister Mito. But I can find plenty of stuff about her damsire! He apparently was real big on the Appendix QH racing circuit, and I have been told his offspring are a popular choice for people looking for eventing appendix QHs.

I can actually see a bit of Greta's sire in her, really in her topline build, her soft expression, and how she moves and behaves when she gets excited or spooky about something!

Equestrian fashion: delia*s

2011-07-06T21:54:00.001-05:00

An end to a very eventful day...

2011-07-05T20:51:00.003-05:00

This has been a very eventful day with mixed results, at both the national (bad result, boo, hiss) and the personal level (good, sometimes odd results! Like my really loud and terribly funny squeaky shopping cart at WalMart today. There are some things that are not worth getting embarassed over, you just have to laugh at them!)

I also found out that my last "insider" connection to the horse rescue world, the Fugly Horse of the Day blog, is being sold. So, in celebration of of 5 years of exposing bad trainers, animal abusers, faux rescues, abusive and silly training techniques, slaughter industry evils, and (of course) some of those very shoddy breeders and the poor horses that ended up as a result of their work (or unhappy accident) AND all the happy endings and court-of-law justice that came from such unfortunate situations, I am putting up the top things Cathy Atkinson said we should learn from her blog. And believe me, ANY horse person should have these things on record. Ah, the end of a good era, although it will still continue away from the public eye! And she will still be writing the occasional article for Horse Illustrated!

Let us begin:

- Old horses are never skinny because they are old. Old horses that are skinny have a problem that can be fixed 99% of the time.

- Slaughter is never the right answer. Slaughter provides a paycheck for irresponsible ownership and irresponsible breeding. Are there more horses than homes right now? You bet. The solution is the same sort of anti-breeding campaign that has worked VERY successfully in dogs and cats.

- Stallions are never ill-behaved because they are stallions. Stallions are ill-behaved because of a human permitting them to bounce around like an orangutan on crack. Expect gelding behavior from your stallion and you will get it from most stallions, of any breed. If he’s still an idiot, that means he needs to be a gelding. Great stallions are not a threat to everyone in a 20 foot radius when led down the aisle.

- There is no miracle about birth. Mosquitos breed. A thirty year old horse that is still in a great home and receiving excellent care…THAT is a miracle and something to be heartily applauded.

- That sick feeling in your stomach is NEVER wrong. If you feel it about a trainer, barn, etc. – RUN and take your horse(s) with you.

- Breeding animals responsibly isn’t easy. It actually takes a lot of research, knowledge and money. Most people should never breed an animal.

- Horses appreciate having a kind, fair, consistent leader — not a best friend that they can plow over and push around.

- That said, temper tantrums are counterproductive in everything from horse training to the job world. Learn to have self control. Not every impulse needs to convert itself into an action. Walking away is always better than losing it.

- Every time you think “oh, I should fix that, but it’ll be fine for tonight” — it won’t be. This is like a law of nature. Fix it tonight.

- Every time you think that something might be a bad idea, it is probably a bad idea. Remember the gal who tied the lead rope to her waist…

- The reason you have to report abuse or neglect is because horses and other animals can’t type or use the telephone. You are the only chance they have. Take pictures FROM THE ROAD…NEVER trespass. Go down to animal control or the sheriff’s and file a report. Call in a few weeks and follow up. If you fear you are being ignored, and that the situation is urgent, call your local media. Post to horsey message boards and blogs with the numbers to call to demand action. Getting a prosecution is a long, difficult but very rewarding road, especially when you see the horses safe in new homes that do take care of them.

- You cannot tell a rescue is good from their web site or Facebook page. Please support GFAS Accredited Rescues or rescues that you can visit in person (ideally, on a regular basis) and verify are taking proper care of their animals. Also look for a lot of before/after pictures proving the horse improved, as well as the ability to account for the whereabouts of horses adopted out years ago.

- You will not enjoy riding and your horse more from attending clinics or watching videos. You will enjoy riding and your horse more from riding a lot and taking lessons from a good trainer so that riding becomes easier and your ability to communicate with your horse improves. The better you ride, the less equine misbehavior you will experience. If you have fear issues, the #1 most valuable thing you can do to combat them is improve your riding, because that makes scary things happen less often.

- Also, on fear issues, allow me to quote something I read on Facebook and loved: “Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes. ~ William Gibson” Stop thinking you’re a shitty rider because your trainer is an insecure asshat who has to yell at and belittle students to make him/herself feel better. GET A NEW TRAINER.

- Turn-out is NOT optional. How well would you perform if you were locked in a shower stall whenever you weren’t at work? All horses need regular turn-out.

- Colic is 99% avoidable with daily turnout, regular rotational deworming (or fecals to determine what is needed), fresh and clean water available 24/7, a low stress environment, sand treatment if you’re in the sandy part of the country, and a consistent diet. If you are having colics frequently, figure out why.

- Proper conditioning is the #1 thing you can do to lower your vet bills and extend your horse’s useful life. When you do not ride all week and then go out on hilly trails for six hours on Saturday, do not come crying to me when your horse pulls a suspensory. That is like you trying to run 20 miles once a week after sitting in your recliner eating Ding Dongs the rest of the time … let’s see you do it. And folks, when your trainer is telling you in a lesson to push your horse past what YOU know your horse’s fitness level is, you have to say no. Ask yourself who will be paying the vet bill…will it be your trainer? Uh, no. So you have to have the guts to say, he’s tired, I want to quit now and cool him out. Even if he’s being bad, do something easy that he can get right, and then quit. There’s no value to making a training “point” that results in a horse that is out of commission for six months!

- It really is true…the vast majority of equine misbehavior results from pain. Before you punish, check for a sore back or neck, lameness, or dental problems. Check saddle fit, make sure the horse hasn’t been crammed into too-small shoes.

- Parents, put a helmet on your child every time they are on a horse. It is a long way down and all it takes is landing wrong to be a quadriplegic. When you are an adult, you can do as you see fit, and assume the risks you see fit, but a 5 year old cannot make those kind of adult choices. While we’re on the topic, stop overmounting your kid…the rest of us are all tired of watching in horror to see if the child will survive the parade on the jiggy horse who looks about to explode, or the hunter round on the horse who is clearly running off, or the barrel run on the horse who is bouncing off the arena walls like the meth-head stripper on “Intervention” was bouncing off her room walls.

- No one person has all the answers when it comes to horses. Any of you might come up with an amazing solution to a training or health issue (or diagnose a pesky health issue that the vet couldn’t figure out). Read, read, read, and watch the trainers in your discipline whose horses are both performing well and seem happy (i.e. bright expression, happy ears, fluid movement, a general aura of enthusiasm while performing). I highly recommend The Horse for learning more about horse health. I also highly recommend the Chronicle of the Horse message board as a resource…you’ll find excellent information there.

- Finally, when you are between that proverbial rock and a hard place, and I know those situations happen, euthanasia is (100% of the time) a better solution than the auction. Yes, it will cost a few hundred dollars, so make the call while you still can, after you have made a true good faith effort to place the horse in a checked-out, proper home, but before you are down to your last $50 and your unemployment has run out. The only one who suffers when a horse is euthanized is his owner…he just goes to sleep. I never think of euthanasia as a tragedy. I always think of a horse being shoved onto a double-decker as a tragedy.

Bareback 7-5-2011

2011-07-05T18:20:00.000-05:00

She looks a bit downhill in this video. Weird. Counter-canter to rebalance her, didn't work out so well. BUT we had fun!

2 Years of a Sunny, Funny Face

2011-07-05T00:22:00.002-05:00

So, our two year anniversary was actually May 19 lol BUT I just could not come up with anything suitable for such an amazing horse that I have been blessed to have. Re-watched Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire a month ago, and realized the title song was the perfect song for Miss Greta.

Here's to many more years of fun, my dear!

This is Stylish: Cheval Fashions Riding Shirts

2011-07-05T00:14:00.004-05:00

A wonderful and chic idea that I hope ends up being cheaper in the future or made cheaper by another equestrian clothing company! When you're on a budget, a schooling shirt and a show shirt in one is a great idea!

Equine Americana

2011-07-04T18:39:00.016-05:00

Happy Fourth of July!

I amazed by the beauty of America. Even just driving up North I-35 through the ranchland between Austin and Dallas, or through the vast Hill Country to Lampasas, or down 290 to Elgin, or the short spurt of oak forest to the get to the barn - places I'm familiar with - the beauty of it blows me away. The enchanting desert of the Southwest, the feeling of stun and amazement and humility peering into the Grand Canyon or driving through the Rockies, the peaceful quiet felt watching a herd of elk from the other side of a crystal river in Yellowstone, looking across the beautiful Southern Appalachians from Lover's Leap in Chattanooga, or driving through the Smoky Mountains on a cool morning with old pines and carefully crafted stone walls rushing by you - all of it fill me with a love for this country.

Because this blog is about ponies, I thought I bring to you some pictures of another place of beauty I found myself in: the lush bluegrass region of Kentucky. If you've never drove through the backroads outside of Lexington, alongside Scottish stone walls and white and black wooden fences, or sat by yourself on a cool misty morning at the Keeneland Track while the lone jockey and horse warmed-up on the track before you, or awed at the golden roof and extravagantly detailed gate of a sheik's stables, or sat under the shade of some old trees at Claiborne Farm paying your respects over Secretariat's grave... then you are missing a truly enchanting and restorative experience. The horse country of Kentucky is a wonderful mix of grandeur and simplicity. It is simply beautiful.

First, some theme music from one of my favorite movies which takes place in Kentucky, and NOW....

Here is some equine Americana from 2008:

A beautiful star spangled banner outside of a Cracker Barrel near Lexington.

Scene from the scenic drives outside of Lexington, on the way to Paris.

My dream barn! This IS the land of opportunity, right?

Scenic drive to Versailles. Many towns in Kentucky were named after French towns, cities, and nobility as a sign of gratitude for French aid during the American Revolution.

Almost all of the famous stone walls that line the back roads of the bluegrass region were hand done by hired Scottish masons. Most have been in place since the 1700s and 1800s! When some of these roads were widened less than a decade ago, the walls were carefully taken apart and redone once again by Scottish masons.

The polo fields and banquet tent at the Horse Park. There was a couple of polo tournaments being held at this time, although they were not open to all!

Riders awaiting their turn during a Saddlebred breed show at the Horse Park. Saddlebreds are a signature Kentucky breed, and an original American breed as well. What an honor it would be to compete there!

The Horse Park's Secretariat memorial. Big Red himself is buried at Claiborne Farm a few miles away in Paris, KY, where he lived out the rest of his days as a stud. His stall still remains uninhabited as they wait for a suitable successor. Such a great American stallion will be extremely hard to live up to. There was an even grander War Admiral memorial a few steps away. Both are popular spots for wedding photos.

Two Freisian horses on vacation at the Horse Park graze on a cool, misty Kentucky morning on green Kentucky grass.

Forego, a racing great, is buried at the Horse Park along with many other great horses, such as Bask and Bret Hanover. It is also the current vacation home for greats like Cigar.

The Buck Davidson statue at it's original location near the entry to the Horse Park. The amazing new stadiums were still under construction for the WEG 2010 at this time, and once they were completed this statue was moved to the entry of the new outdoor stadium, where American greats like Steffen Peters rode and brought home a bronze for his adopted country after some tough competition. Read the quote by Akiko Yamazaki, owner of Peter's WEG mount Ravel, about the opportunities she and Team Ravel found and made true in America.

More lovely Kentucky scenery. Wouldn't you like to be the person who woke up to such beauty in that house every morning?

Grazing Thoroughbreds. Many farm owners made the move from traditional white fences to black fences to save money on maintenance. They still look classy!

More Kentucky greenery.

The Keeneland Racetrack, home to some of the largest Thoroughbred auctions in the country. I love going to this track, because it's free to watch the jockeys warm-up (very) early in the morning and to go to the big auctions! You can rub elbows with sheiks and millionaires, and even though you probably won't be able to buy any of the yearling stock, it's an amazing experience.

The Keeneland courtyard. This track was used to film the match race scene between War Admiral and Seabiscuit in the 2003 movie, because it is one of the few American tracks that still retains it's original turn-of-the-century design. A very classy and well-groomed track.

The Keeneland track in the late morning. On my 2008 trip, I had gotten to the track too late in the morning to see the jockeys warming up. But on my first trip in 2005, I got to watch them and, like I have said, it beats watching the Derby any day.

The signature Keeneland jockey statues. You'll find these all over Kentucky, sometimes painted with a stable's silk colors, and often just for decoration. But they were first made popular at the Keeneland track!

Rolex also made big clocks like the ones seen at the Horse Park for the Keeneland track as well. They are huge in person and seem to be all over the place. I'd much rather these all over the place than Starbucks shops! And because they are Rolex quality, they rarely need maintenance, which is good because I can only imagine the cost to fix one of these

"Jumping" 7-3-2011

2011-07-04T12:26:00.004-05:00

Who knew one needed to canter over ground poles like that? hahaha Yeah, excuse my eq, it's been a while, but it's getting there. I need to actually, you know, get OUT of the saddle over a jump! I've had a jumping lesson recently, and it helped a lot, but I didn't realize how unwilling I was/am to give a bit on the reins and to stay in two-point all the way over a jump haha. I also need to work on not roaching my back. Granted, I have seen worse, but I still need to work on it. This will be wonderful for my core!

Greta loves jumpies and dressagies. What a good girl!

The tall girl who would rather ride ponies than warmbloods...

2011-07-04T01:35:00.001-05:00

Isn't this little lady a cutie?

Ponies (I'm mostly talking about smaller horses here, those under 16 hands, I just like to call them ponies lol) are my favorites. They are short, easier to manage, you're closer to the ground, they don't have massive gaits. I like <16 hand horses.

Too bad I have a little height discrepancy!

I would much rather have a smaller horse freaking out on the other end of a lead rope than a 17.3 hand beast. I would much rather bounce around on tiny gaits rather than feel like I'm about to be surged off into space on huge, albeit beautiful, gaits. I'd much rather groom a horse whose back I can see over than hop on a stool to put a saddle on and hope that big boy doesn't get ancy about the change in the human's height!

Most of the horses I get to ride, including Greta, are all under 16 hands, although Greta is 15.3 hands so she barely makes the cut haha! On most of them, if I were to hang my legs straight down, my femur goes almost to the bottom of their belly!

I see a lot of - although I wouldn't call it a commonality - short riders on big horses and tall riders on smaller horses. Maybe it's the little-guy factor for the short people? I don't know for sure as far as us tall ones go. I'm sure a lot of your taller pros who can seem a tad big on some of their client's horses would probably much rather ride a proportionate big beasty boy, but seeing as they're getting paid, well... they'll ride little firecracker anyway.

I just think it's odd. One would think tall, long-femur girl would like big horses, but, no, not really. I love any horse, don't get me wrong, but Greta is a nice comfortable height for me.

What size pony (er, horse... we can count ponies too!) do you like to ride?

Twist N Shout Pine "Twist"

2011-07-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

Finished reining stallion I was warming up. He's a fun little guy. Secretly I want to buy him and turn him into a dressage stud hahahaha. He could do it too!

There's one bit where he swapped his leads, but I thought he didn't, so right after he did that I asked him to trot because I thought he was on the wrong lead. Oops! He swaps leads auto-magically haha.

This is stylish: Silver Screen

2011-06-30T23:06:00.008-05:00