Five Day Challenge - Day 4

16. One thing I would change about my horse
I'd make Buddy younger.  I wish he was 10-12 so I could keep him longer and wouldn't feel so bad about pushing him to the 3'.

17. Your future with horses
I plan to ride for as long as I can.  Phoenix will live with me forever, and long term if McKenna works out I'd love to breed her and raise a baby.  My barn owners talk about me taking over the place once they retire, but who knows.

18. Worst show ever
There's been a few with Phoenix that were pretty bad.  I think our worst was in 2006 we went to our first A show and it was a disaster.  We started by getting to the show grounds (4hrs away from home) at midnight (we got lost), found horses in our stalls and had to find two stalls together and threw the horses in them. By the time we got to the house we had rented for the week it was close to 2am and we had to get up at 6 to get back to the show.  The hot water heater at the house broke so for the whole week we had to take cold showers. As far as riding goes, we were warming up for a 2'6" jumper round when another girl crashed her horse into a jump in warm up ring right in front of me. They had to take her away by ambulance.  It freaked me out and I locked up and couldn't seem to go faster than a crawl.  We ended up scratching our jumper rounds and switched to the 2' hunters, but I was still freaked and we still barely made it around. It was not a fun week.

19. Favorite horse show venue
My all time favorite is the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego.  I only showed there once in high school but it was awesome.  The fairgrounds is also home to the Del Mar Racetrack, and they use the backstretch of the track as the warm up rings. Some of the OTTBs have a hard time with that, but it was fun.  My trainer let me do my first jumper class there, and they held the jumpers in the giant Del Mar Arena where they hold $100,000 GPs.  It was late at night, and we were under the lights, and it seemed like a fairytale.

The cover was added after I rode there

20. Show day routine
Usually I try to have the trailer packed the night before, if I can.  I'll wake up too early, get dressed then head out to the barn to hook up the trailer.  Grab anything I didn't load already then load the pony and go. 

Five Day Challenge -Day 3

There's still a ton of snow on the ground and it hasn't gotten above freezing since Thursday so there's not much to report with the horses.  They've been getting some turn out time in the indoor, but it's too cold to do much more than that.  I did let Phoenix free in the barn aisle with all the door closed Sunday to help "clean up" the loose hay.

Perks of being a good old boy

11. Critique your horses conformation

The most recent confo type pic of have of him.  He's also muscled up some from when this was taken.

Buddy is very long backed for a horse his height.  He's slightly downhill, but seeing as he was bred to be a cow horse that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Cow horses need to be able to get down low to move the cows.  He's solidly built, and has great feet.  The pic makes him look a little camped out behind, but it's just the way he's standing.

 



12. My horses favorite exercise

Eating!!  For as lazy as Buddy can be, he loves to jump.  Anything and everything.  He's never refused with me and get excited when he knows he jumping, especially out on the grass or XC.

 

13. Favorite spa day products

I really don't use a lot of products on the ponies.  Usually whatever horse shampoo is on sale at the tack store.  I do like the EQyss brand of products, especially the marigold spray.

 

14. 3 best things about your horse

1) He's a been there, done that machine.  When I first got him I had lost a lot of confidence, especially over fences and no matter what I did before the fence he would still jump it.  You point him at the fence and he'll go over it.

2) You can do whatever to him.  He loves getting clipped, both body clipped and his ears done.  He'll lean into the clipper and starts pawing when you stop.  He also loves getting hosed off, except for his face.  In the summer when he hears the water tanks getting filled he'll come up and paw to be hosed off.

3) I trust him under saddle more than any other horse.  There's been times when he's had weeks off and I can hop on bareback and he's fine.  I've ridden him bareback with a halter and he'll just go around. I know that when he's pissed, he won't buck or bolt, he'll stop and won't move.

 

15. Favorite picture of my horse

This is my favorite shot of both of us. 
 

I think this is my favorite action shot.  You can't tell, but we were jumping on a pretty decent angle and landed with a tight left rollback.



Five Day Challenge - Day 2

6. Favorite equestrian book/movie
Book is without a doubt Snowman.  I cried so much when reading it.  My other favorite horse book that I've reread many times is In & Out by Barbara Moss. It's a fictional tale of FEI level jumpers and the A circuit.  It's got some intense NC-17 rated scenes in it, so not for the unprepared. It was supposed to be the first in a series but the author never put out any other books.

 



7. Most common riding misconception
That it's a hobby.  To me, riding is a lifestyle.  It is something I will do for the rest of my life.  I've had people make comments that it's so cute that I ride and am able to maintain my childhood hobby.   My horses are my children, not some set of golf clubs or tennis racket to be taken out whenever I feel like playing. "Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. 2 riding strengths and 1 weakness
I tend to underestimate my riding ability, thinking I'm not as good as I really am.  Which is both a strength and a weakness.  I won't ever over face myself or my horse, but at the same time I tend to not want to push what we're capable of unless I'm in a lesson.  I think another strength of mine is my leg.  I've got super strong thighs and calves, thanks to both of my boys.  My trainer used to call Phoenix the thigh master as it takes of lot of thigh to half halt him, and to get nice lateral work out of him.  Buddy, being super lazy and disliking spurs, requires a strong lower leg to get him motivated.  He's super wide, and will stretch your legs.  Riding him bareback has really helped keep my leg quiet and grippy.

9. Least favorite thing about riding horses
As with everything else, $$$$$.  I also wish being able to show while having a full time job was easier.  It's fine to have one or two day schooling shows on the weekend and work, but trying to take five days off to go to an A show (if/when I have the $$) is hard. And trying to explain it to my boss is even harder.

10. What does my horse eat
Phoenix- Grass hay, 4quarts Strategy, turmeric, celery seed, BL solution, nettle. Both am and pm
Buddy-Grass hay, alfalfa, 4 quarts Strategy, half cup Amplify, turmeric, nettle.  Both am and pm
McKenna-Grass hay, 4 quarts alfalfa pellets, 2 quarts Strategy, 1 cup Amplify, skullcap, MagRestore, both am and pm.
This is the their winter ration, in the summer when they're on 24/7 turnout they get less of everything and don't get fed hay for the first month or so when there's enough grass in the pasture.

Five Day Challenge - Day 1

Because this is the current temp:

And the front of my house looks like this:

I am stuck inside.  We got between 6-9 inches of snow yesterday, and because I'm considered essential staff at the university where I work I had to go in.  It normally takes me 45mins to get to work, but yesterday it took over an hour and a half.  By the time I left work driving conditions had gotten so bad that the state police had required chains for the main freeway between work and home.  I spent over an hour at the local tire place trying to find chains for my car, which they didn't have because the tires on my Scion (which are the original tires from Scion/Toyota) are a very odd size.  I then had to take the two lane highway home, which normally adds another 30mins.  It took me almost 3hrs to get home, and it's a total of 48 miles. I didn't make it to the barn yesterday, but I'm hoping to make out today. So onto the Five Day Challenge!!

1. Most influential person in your riding
My parents!  Without them there is no way I could afford my ponies.  They have gone above and beyond in helping me financially when the easy thing would have been to tell me to sell one of the horses. Thank you thank you thank you!!

2. Piece of tack you would splurge on
Everyone is saying custom saddles, and yes I would do that too.  But what I would really love is considered tack.  I would love a big one ton dually pickup like my barn owner's.  I've been lucky enough to use it to haul and I love it!  It's so smooth and handles like a dream.  Of course I'd love a big 4 horse gooseneck trailer to go with it.

Come to mama!

3. Top 5 riding playlist
We usually have a radio playing the local country station in the barn.  And sometime my barn owner's husband will practice playing guitar in their apartment and you can hear it in the barn.  I usually don't listen to music while riding other than that.

4. Most important part of your barn
Its my second home. I'm pretty sure I spend an equal amount of time there as I do at home.  My barn owners have become family and even talk about when they retire from the barn that it will become mine. I've basically become the assistant barn manager, and when the BO's are gone I'm in charge (which is still somewhat intimidating and stressful!). Our barn isn't the fanciest, and we don't have winter turn out, but our summer pastures and field riding are awesome!!  The footing in our outdoor is some of the best around; it can pour rain one day and be rideable the next.

5. 3 winter riding goals
With Buddy our main goal is to get back in flow with each other since I haven't really been riding him for the past 6 weeks.  I want us to be doing 2'9"-3' and see how much of physical toll it takes on him.  With McKenna our winter goals are to be cantering more consistently and I want to start her over some small fences by spring.