Blog Sale!

I did some late spring cleaning through all my breeches and I have quite a few pairs I need to get rid of. I've been hanging on to a lot of them just hoping that someday I'll fit into them again, but I don't have enough room for all these breeches so they need to go! Shipping is included with everything, Paypal only.



Ovation Aqua X full seat breeches - light blue color - 32R - $90

These have become my favorite breeches ever. However, I thought I could get away with a 32R, while my other pairs of these breeches are 32L and the fit just isn't right for me. It does have a ~1 inch section of seam that came undone near the knee. It is not unraveling and it would be an easy fix.

Ariat Jean breeches, knee patch - 28R - $65

These are great, very comfy breeches. I think it's hard to find jean breeches that don't feel super fake and uncomfortable, but these feel just like real jeans. Sadly no longer fit.

I can get pics, I just don't currently have any. They are in great condition though!

Irideon ribbed full seat pull on breeches - size large - $40

These are in good condition, some staining from the boots, but not noticeable once they are on. Small snag on the side.

Smartpak Piper full seat - mid rise style - 28R - gray with turquoise trim $55

In like-new condition, barely used.

Tropical Rider - white deerskin leather full seat breeches - size 28 tall - Retail $185, asking $90 shipped

Nice Scholler fabric. Velcro leg bottom. The seat is a light grey color (slightly darker than the pictures show). Well taken care of. Three tiny rust marks on the back of the seat, barely noticeable. Still in show condition.

Horseware AA Motionlite jacket in Primatova - size XL - $200 (regularly $250)

Brand new, never worn, only tried on. I bought this on sale from somewhere I can't return it to and it is too large for me. Fits true to size though, I just usually have to size up on jackets. (Riding Warehouse has a sizing chart on their website)

In terms of tack, I have a black 5-point Nunn Finer breastplate with removable sheepskin. Great condition, well used but no defects or noticeable signs of wear. Comes with running martingale attachment. Retails around $200, asking $120.

I will try to update when things sell or if I find anything else I need to get rid of.

Clinic Recap

It has been seriously forever since I have participated in a clinic! I was SO nervous for our clinic on Saturday - worried about riding with a new-to-me clinician, worried about Jetta behaving, worried about whether the money had been well spent, etc.

Luckily, I needn't have worried about any of those things! This was actually my first time auditing JW but I had heard nothing but 100% positive things about her from quite a few people, which I feel is rare in the horse world, so I felt fairly confident diving in without seeing her teach first.

I got to watch the two lessons before me and I thought she was very fair and encouraging. I had heard that she was blunt, which worried me because sometimes people who are "blunt" are actually "mean" but JW was awesome. But I also don't want someone that tells me how amazing my horse is while we're failing around, I really appreciate honesty while at the same time providing structure for how to improve. I've had bad experiences with clinicians who tell me I'm "ruining my horse", but I've had good experiences with very blunt clinicians who will yell at you until you follow their directions, so it can be a mixed bag of what works for me.

I did get a little bit more nervous watching people in front of me because she liked to use a leg yield at the canter to get the hind end more under the horse and engaged, and recently that has been a sure-fire way to get Jetta completely amped up and running away from me. Luckily that wasn't an exercise she had us do.

Anyways, Jetta was on her best behavior. We had a TERRIBLE ride the day before, mainly because I got the idea to try a new bit on her - just a plain loose ring french link that was slightly fatter than her Myler - thinking that maybe she just didn't like how thin the Myler was. Hahaha you would think that I had put the harshest torture bit possible in her mouth. She hated it. She finally got to the point that she could somewhat put in work, but it was not a very good ride as a whole.

At least we were matchy?

And puppy was perfect for her first trip to the barn!

At the clinic we did a brief warm up and she was paying attention to me fairly well. I didn't canter but we did some trotting, counter bending, shoulder-in, and threw in a couple halts. JW called us over and I told her a bit about Jetta - 12 year old Thoroughbred, had almost a year off for a baby, then has been under saddle again for 3 months. Not currently riding with anyone, we've been having trouble with our canter-trot transitions and lengthened trot. Currently riding first level. She's fairly hot, forward, heavy in the bridle and likes to anticipate things and get wound up.

She watched us go for a minute and started right in on our issues. While I normally find it annoying if a clinician gives me the same exercises that we've been doing at home, this time I felt it was more reassuring than anything that I was on the right track with her, plus she did it in such a way that the exercises were building on eachother plus I had a person on the ground to tell me when I was letting Jetta get away with doing stuff only part way.

We did some transitions in the trot - she had me start with a big working trot, only a little bigger than what we'd show with. JW labeled this as a "5" trot, then had me slow her to a 4, 3, 2, 1, keeping her rounded and on the bit. The main thing I've been letting her get away with is not keeping her round on both reins. I have her nicely on my inside rein, but let her drop the outside rein. We kept playing up and down with this scale of trotting, and JW would occasionally call out a number for us to go to or tell us to make a 10 meter circle.

At home, we've been doing lots of 10 meter circles, figure-8's and serpentines. We've also been doing bending and counter bending. This theme was reiterated in our lesson. JW had us exaggerate our inside bend and counter bend, getting Jetta to accept my leg. That's the other thing that we really need to fix is her not accepting my leg, instead she's running away from it. I've been trying to work on it at home, but I guess I haven't been as committed to it as I need to be.

Then we really got to work. Enjoy my artwork of our exercises:

First exercise at the trot

Second exercise with canter-trot transitions

We did these until we were getting more consistent transitions. Still not great by any means, but Jetta was staying rounder, definitely trying to do things correctly, and the quality of her trot had improved quite a bit. JW ended by saying that while I think Jetta likes to come up with avoidance techniques for everything (and while I don't try to let her get away with it, she still does in some capacity), she liked how Jetta wasn't resentful about anything. I'm just needing to expect more from her, focus on keeping her round and on the bit at all times, keep my leg on in transitions and circles (especially my outside leg!).

Some favorite quotes:

• "Good struggle!"
• "Don't fight with them... think of it as a clarification of expectations"
• "Why do you let her do that?" "I don't know" "Well figure it out!"
• "Is she bending on both reins?" "No" "Then why haven't you fixed it already?"

Overall, I enjoyed the lesson. I like that she didn't go easy on us, she seemed to easily pinpoint the two underlying problems we're having. Her exercises made sense to both me and Jetta and didn't make Jetta upset or make things worse. She wasn't mean though and seemed to think that I was competent despite my many failings and that Jetta was a nice horse. I would definitely ride with her again!

Mini Break

I got jealous of everyone on my social media going for gorgeous trial rides while I was stuck all day in school and studying, so last Friday I threw Jetta in the trailer and we went for a very short and fast trail ride at our favorite trail. I'm not sure why this one is my favorite - it's a logging trail like most of the other local trails - that briefly has a one-track dirt trail at the apex of the hill. Regardless, I love it. I let Jetta power trot up the hill until we reach the dirt trail and then slowly meander the rest of the way up. It was a good reset to a no-good, very bad week.

My favorite place to be

Lost in the woods (but not actually)

<3

We had it all to ourselves

More Learnin'

Baby continues to learn about life, you know, the difficult stuff like fly spray and clipping and being caught.

She thankfully has improved since her vaccine reaction. She didn't really want to eat for a couple days and I was worried she just didn't like her new food. I gave her some probiotics and she bounced back a few days later and is now eating her new food! She is not food motivated in any way, so getting her to eat grain is difficult. I got her a ration balancer so she only needs to eat 2 pounds a day and she'll be set for everything she needs, but getting to 2 pounds might take a while. We finally moved up from 1/2 a pound twice a day, to one pound in a feeding so she's gradually learning to eat it!

She dropped a good amount of weight and looked terrible, but luckily gained it back. She still hasn't shed out her winter coat and it's been in the mid-80's a couple days here and she seemed uncomfortable and I was over it, so she got body clipped.

I usually think it's silly to body clip in the spring since they're going to shed anyways, but she was taking altogether way too long. All the other horses in the area were shed out except her. The surprise? She didn't care one bit about being clipped. She even let me do her bridle path and chin! She even stood super well for the whole thing since it took a while, letting the clippers cool off every few minutes. I'm kinda bummed - I got these fancy brushless motor clippers by Wahl thinking they'd be cooler but they get WAY hotter than my last pair of clippers.

Before clipping

So much hair!

Anyways, I was impressed by the clipping. I didn't attempt doing her muzzle since I know that's a really ticklish area and we did plenty for one day. But we have found her new nemesis: fly spray. She does not like it one bit and dances around, bolts and just generally hates it. So I bought a spray bottle and now we get to practice with water every day after she eats her food! Very unhappy baby, she would like you to know she is being cruelly mistreated over here.

Naked!!

She is 9 months old now and just hit 14 hands at the shoulder! She weighs a little under 600 pounds. We are getting better at being caught (she tends to walk towards me now in the pasture instead of immediately walking away), she is a pro at tying and loading in the trailer. She hates fly spray, clippers are acceptable, treats are still very meh. We need to continue working on trailering away from home, tying in the cross ties, and our new adventures will include ponying and a bath as soon as I have time!

That's pretty much a complete update on little Miss Maisie.

Jetta continues much the same. Our trot work seems fairly good and we had a great ride yesterday. The canter continues to be a mystery as to why on earth we seem to be flailing around. I waffle back and forth on "it's all me" to "my horse is being a resistant idiot" and I'm pretty sure it's 50/50. We are playing around with different exercises, stirrup lengths, and bits or lack of bits to try and find SOMETHING that works. I'm pretty bummed that this is the place in our current training that I'll be taking her to see the clinician this weekend since I'd love to work on stuff more towards preparing us for 2nd level, vs. "how to canter" like we haven't been doing it forever. But oh well, at least she keeps me humble!

At least our outfits are matchy

She's getting pudgy! We just cut her grain back finally

She's lucky she's pretty

Dressage Debut

We had our first dressage show in a long, long time since baby made her appearance!

And it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be!

Luckily, the show organizers were very flexible and we were able to drop down from First level test 2 and do Training test 3 instead due to Jetta's terrible behavior these previous couple weeks. This was SO helpful in terms of having a positive show experience.

Jetta was very hyper the morning of the show. I turned her loose in the arena before we loaded up and she galloped around like a psycho for at least 10 minutes before she regained some semblance of a brain. We picked up a friend on the way to the show and he was quite amped up, whinnying and pacing the entire time once we made it to the show. Luckily, Jetta seemed to remember that she's supposed to be a seasoned veteran show horse and behaved like it, settling down to snack on her hay without a peep.

I helped my friend most of the afternoon since this was her first dressage show ever (she does hunters/eq) and called tests for her. She did great for her first time not having any idea what she was doing! It was super fun to have a group of friends at the show since I'm so used to going solo. Jetta warmed up ok. The show seemed to remind her that she can actually be a real horse, but she was quite heavy on the forehand and especially stiff going to the left, not wanting to move her barrel off my leg. We had a bit of a half halt and she was only sometimes running through my aids.



We did Training 3 first and it seemed fairly lackluster to me. Jetta was mostly obedient, listened to my half halts, transitions were acceptable, she bent when I asked her, etc. The worst parts were a couple steps of trot in our free walk (seriously horse? this is always our best movement!), our canter-trot transition at X that she completely ignored and we got late, and a stretchy trot that didn't show a whole lot of stretch.

Otherwise, it wasn't a bad reintroduction to showing for us. I didn't think it was great, but I definitely couldn't be upset about it.

I was pretty shocked to see we got a 72.5% to earn us second place. The judge was VERY generous (not a problem to me!) but I was surprised to see that it looked that good when it felt just meh. But I will take it! We got an 8 on one canter circle (very surprising!) and an 8 on our impulsion. Mostly 7.5's and 7's on everything else!

Our ponies are in love - and just too cute!

Shiny!

Our second class was First 1 and unfortunately we got a little too carried away taking pictures in front of the blossoming trees, so we didn't have any time to warm up for this class. Oops. Jetta was not very good for this class. She was WAY too excited about the lengthenings - she basically took off at a gallop for the second canter lengthening, then got sassy when I circled and asked her to come back down to a reasonable speed (judge's comment was "disobedient" = accurate). Her trot lengthenings were ok, but mostly just quick and on the forehand. We need to do a ton of work to be ready to put in an acceptable first level test.

The judge was, again, very generous and gave us a 64.25% which was much more than we deserved, but we placed out of the ribbons which was accurate.

Overall, not a bad way to kick of the show year!

Her favorite move - free walk

Trying to do a stretchy trot

Wheeeee!

I think our takeaways for the weekend were the same things we've been working on - get her off her forehand, get manageable lengthenings that are not just going faster, improve our stretchy trot and my equitation is awful and I really need to work on it!