2015 Goals

Here were the goals that I made for this last year. Overall, I was really disappointed in this year horse-wise. It just didn't really come together for me very well.

• Compete in a recognized dressage show. Finally.

 If you had asked me which of these goals were one of the least attainable, I probably would have said this one. I've been wanting to ride in a recognized dressage show for at least the past three or four years but it was never in the cards financially or in level of preparedness. This year, our dressage team went as a group and I had a total blast. Never would have thought it would be on Misty either!

• Get a ribbon in a horse trial! Either from a schooling or recognized one. I don't care I just want that ribbon!

Success! I rode Misty in the spring at a one-day horse trial and she was absolutely fantastic. We placed 2nd out of 12 horses! 

• Ride at Inavale and/or one other recognized HT.  

Nope

• Compete at Second Level at least once and score in the 60's. 

 Nope

• Compete at Novice and just not get eliminated. 

Nope. Funny story. I actually did try to compete at Novice this year at a little derby. I didn't write about it because I was hugely disappointed in myself, but it was a major fail and I actually ended up scratching. 

• Show at 3'+ in a jumper show 

Nope

• Do at least one, but hopefully two LD endurance rides. 

Nope


Overall, I am actually surprised that I actually accomplished two of my goals. This year was just really tough juggling full time work, two horses, no money and my research.

Next years' goals? I'm not sure I want to think about where next year will go. I know I won't have enough money to do a recognized dressage show (I didn't have to pay for it personally last year) and I don't think I'll be able to afford a recognized HT either.

• Compete in the one-day HT with Jetta 
• Ride a second level dressage test at a show and not fail horribly
• Sell Misty
• Compete in an LD

TOA Blog Hop: History of the Horse

Blog hop from The Owls Approve! We're quite a bit behind the ball on this one, but I still wanted to participate anyways.

Before you met, where was your horse?  Who bred him/her?  What do you know about his sire and his dam?  What do you know about where (s)he came from?  Tell me about the time before (s)he had a trainer.

Before I met Jetta, she was living at a Thoroughbred breeding farm. I met her as an unraced two-year old.

She was bred by Dr. Rodney Orr. I did some stalking and found this article about one of his broodmares, which also talks a little about his farm and breeding program.

Her sire is Private Gold, whose sire line is Seeking the Gold, Mr. Prospector, Raise a Native and Native Dancer. He's a pretty popular stallion here in the NW as far as I understand and have seen in many pedigrees of local TB's as he stands in Washington.

One random thing that I think is interesting is that I heard fairly often about what a bad personality/unpredictable nature that Seeking the Gold had. I am a huge advocate of breeding to stallions with good personalities because I think it is somewhat of a heritable trait, so it's funny that I own one of his offspring now. I think some of Jetta's attitude must come from her grandsire! Even though she can also be a total sweetheart most of the time.

Her dam is Step Away. I remember that she was a gorgeous mare when I met her. I actually had a reader reach out to me when I posted about Jetta's family tree that she had bought Step Away and that was so awesome to hear!

What to say about the time before she had a trainer... Well she was a brat, but then again she still is. She was unnamed, but the Barn Manager called her "Punky" which totally fit. I think it was in reference to a TV character that was before my time, but to me, Jetta was definitely a punk. She knew how to lead adequately and lunge, had worn a bareback pad before, but other than that, she had mostly been handled with a stud chain, she kicked, didn't allow her feet to be handled and didn't trailer.

When I got her, we worked for the first year on ground manners. I can't tell you how many times she took me "mud skiing" in the pasture before she learned to respect pressure without a stud chain. And teaching her not to kick and let her feet be done was a nightmare. 

The day I met Jetta

But it turned out well for the most part, I absolutely adore my stubborn monster child now.

30 Day Challenge - Wish List

Year end posts are in the works, but of course they are quite a bit more labor intensive, so have some more 30 Day Challenge posts in the meantime!

Day 6| Make a wish-list of the top 10 tack/riding clothes/horsey items you would buy if you were given an unlimited budget.

Ohh boy, here we go. 

1. CWD Custom Saddle. 

2. Dream brown boots, originally I was going to go with La Mundial but since they seem to be failing at customer service lately I'll need to figure out somewhere else to get them made

3. MORE BREECHES! Like I don't have enough... But I'd love another pair of FITS for schooling (Mink colored, yes please), a pair of jean breeches from Ariat, a pair of berry colored Tailored Sportsman and some aqua blue Annie's breeches. 



4. New truck. I love my truck, but it's getting older and has a bit of trouble hauling my little two-horse up a hill with two horses inside. 



5. An Ogilvy pad because why not. Plus all the pretty color combinations



6. And because of course I need even MORE saddle pads, I've wanted this purple OTTB pad for a while. And now I have a pretty purple bonnet that needs a matching saddle pad!

7. Since this is far fetched enough, why not a trailer with living quarters. I really love my little two horse bumper pull, and really don't mind sleeping in the bed of the truck with the camper shell, but having living quarters would be quite the luxury. And I have always wanted a Trails West trailer...



8. I guess this kind of qualifies as a "horsey item"... but I'd love to breed Jetta. Top two stallion picks are Mirabeau and Diamond Hit, so with an unlimited budget I'd buy a breeding to one of them.



9. A Mark Todd anatomic bridle, or one with the similar design but perhaps not the price tag.



 
10. Ummm, this was actually harder than I thought it would be... Weirdly enough I can't come up with a tenth item that I want. Strange.

Internet!!

The internet is an amazing thing. I mean, just having it is awesome. We've been internet-less for about a week and a half so I haven't been able to post anything. Ahh, the joys of being a broke young adult and living with four others in the same situation...

Anywho, back to the ponies. As always, there hasn't been a ton going on. But, I did have a great trail ride last week. One of my roommates has been wanting to go riding for a while and I finally had a day off where I didn't have anything planned so I loaded the ponies up and hit the trails.

Both girls were good, at least once I got Jetta loaded. I dealt with a lot of trailer loading issues when I got her, but we worked everything out. Now, it still crops up occasionally where she throws a complete and total hissy fit about getting in the trailer for about 10 minutes and then will randomly decide that she's done and then proceeds to hop in the trailer like it's no big deal. Sigh.

Minus that incident, everything went great. I haven't hauled the trailer in forever so I was afraid my poor old truck wouldn't start, but it was fine. The weather ended up being perfect and it didn't even rain on us!

I LOVE BEING OUTSIDE

My roommate is one of those people that just picks up riding really quickly. I gave him the rundown of how to steer, stop and go and do an emergency stop and we were off. He told me he wanted to gallop and so after a discussion on how to trot (he picked up posting right off the bat) and then ask for the canter, we went for an easy lope on a flat stretch.

We walked the horses for a while and then came to this really steep hill. Much easier to canter up it than to walk right? I let Jetta out into a nice extended canter and Misty came quickly behind us as fast as her little legs could go. It was fun!

Both girls were puffing a little by the top, but luckily the trail loops nicely around so they got to walk the rest of the way and weren't even damp by the time we got back to the trailer. Overall, a lovely way to spend the day. I haven't been trail riding in forever it feels like and it was good to be back on my monster pony. I haven't ridden her in too long! Plus, it's always better to hit the trails with a friend.

And, almost as exciting (or maybe even more exciting? I can't decide), I got my blogger exchange gift! I love it. I was super vague on what I would like to receive, but it's absolutely perfect. Thanks Kristen and thank you Tracy for hosting it!

Rest assured, there will soon be better quality pictures on the pony!

30 Day Challenge - Your Show Team

Well this will be an easy answer... because my show team consists of me, myself and I.

I don't have a regular trainer, nor do I board at a barn that shows together, so I just end up going by myself. A lot of times I can coerce my mom into going with me, mainly as a camera person, but I've been showing horses alone since I was 16, so I've got it down to a science and oftentimes bringing someone along (especially a non-horse person) throws a wrench in my workings.

It is a bit of a struggle to show alone and sometimes I wish I had a better support network to help me out, but overall it's really not bad.

The one show I even had an actual groom at! But I still did a lot of it myself lol.

30 Day Challenge - Create a fun jump course

Hmm, I'm not the best at creating jump courses. Especially "fun" ones. The ones that I typically end up making when I'm setting a course for myself is two outside lines (one at two strides and one at three or four strides) and one fence set on a diagonal to make a bending line. Mostly just because it's an easy course to set. Then I can mix it up and do right outside line, bending line, left outside line or whatever else I feel like. I have no idea if this is "fun" or not, because I personally consider the circle of death exercise to be "fun" - while most others in my lesson group groan about it, I get excited, lol.

This looks SUPER fun, but I'm way too lazy to design something of my own. Image from Wikipedia

30 Day Challenge - Explain the division you show in and why.

This a bit of a tough question because I show in a lot of disciplines...

Dressage - I am showing at Training with Misty and First with Jetta, with hopes that I'll be showing comfortably at Second level by the end of this summer on Jetta.

Jumping - I can usually be found doing classes from 2'6" to 3' jumpers. I don't do hunters unless it's just to add in some classes for experience, since I have never been competitive in those divisions.

Eventing - I've only ever shown at Beginner Novice. I'm a bit of a chicken on cross country and while I've definitely schooled Novice on Jetta, Misty and my old horse, Jazz, I still haven't gotten up the courage to compete at that level. I'll probably be one of those people who stays at the lower level of eventing forever. But then again, I hope that one day I'll make it to Prelim.

And lastly, I made a small foray into endurance riding last year, and while I wasn't able to compete this year, I really hope to stick with it. I am currently perfectly fine with staying at the LD rides at 25 to 30 miles, but hopefully someday I'll do a 50 mile ride.

30 Day Challenge - Your Most Exciting/Intense Moment at a Show

Hmm, I'm not really sure I have a concrete "most exciting/intense moment". There are so many to choose from. The first time I won a belt buckle at a timed trail obstacle race? The first time I competed Jetta at 3'? My first recognized horse trial on Jazz? When I won not one, but two dressage classes at Tux's first show, a horse that I'd trained from the beginning?

I guess the most recent one that I would choose would be completing Jetta's first recognized horse trial. I was so nervous because we'd done two combined tests previously and had been eliminated at both of them for refusals on cross country.

When we actually came off xc with only one refusal, I was so incredibly elated and just pumped that we had completed. Now stadium was a whole 'nother disaster, but in that moment I couldn't have been more excited.

Such a great feeling