Favorite time of Year

I can't help it - I love clipping. Yes, it takes forever, you get hair literally everywhere (I found some in my teeth even!), but I think it's super fun.

I mentioned that I wanted to do something similar to what I did last time I clipped and I didn't realize how similar the clip was! Basically I did the same thing, with less hair on the neck, than last time so it's a modified blanket clip. I'm super happy with how it turned out!

So shinyy

Also, I've been wanting to buy some Snaks 5th Avenchew treats for a while now, so I finally ordered a cute Halloween cookie set and the unicorn crunch cups. You can give them to both dogs and horses and Kaida loves them! I've given her some of the crunch cups and she really likes them even though they're very hard and she had to figure out how to crunch them up with her soft mouth. 

Noms

 Jetta was a little less sure about her cookies, especially as they're pretty big. Once she figured out how to eat them she really liked them. They're just so adorable, I will definitely buy them again for special occasions (they're a little spendy), but they'd make perfect gifts.

A monster cookie for my monster pony

Fall (basically all of October) and Halloween have to be some of my favorites. Love this time of year <3

Decisions Decisions

So many decisions lately. A bunch of people have already been clipping their horses and I'm trying to decide when I should do Jetta. It's a little early for me to clip, but then again I have time this week before my schedule gets crazy... so that leaves the decision for what design do I want to do?

I miss her tail!

My favorite

I'm probably going to do something similar to the year before last (my favorite one). She didn't get done last year because of baby, but even if I don't ride her a whole lot this winter she just has too much hair. She's been getting pretty sweaty during our rides lately. She has a super dense winter coat, but there's not a whole lot of length. Still too much hair!

Baby horse hasn't been doing too many exciting things, though she did finally get some boots of her own! I had a pair of medium Veredus splint boots that are a hair too small for Jetta and I haven't been able to get anyone to buy them off me. They're the perfect size for Maisie so I decided to keep them. Then at WEG I looked at a bunch of different boots and decided I liked the Horseware Amigo Air Flow boots. I would've liked some Majyk Equipe boots but I needed to stay under $50 a pair and these were half that price. I'm trying really hard not to buy lots of things for her, especially ones that she will grow out of. I think at this point she has a handful of halters, a cob sized bridle that I used for Trask, a baby blanket, and now boots (one pair of which was a hand-me-down).

Ugly but free!

A friend that used to breed warmbloods gave me a blanket for her this spring. I measured her at around a 62-64" (I was being lazy and trying to measure a moving target). Luckily the blanket fits perfectly, unluckily it fits perfectly so she's going to grow out of it shortly. So now I need to hunt for a cheap blanket that will last the winter! I was thinking maybe a 68" or 70".

She could have cared less about the boots and took a couple funny steps before getting over it and walking a few laps around the round pen. Such a good baby!

Best baby

I made the decision not to go to the dressage show this weekend which is a bummer, especially since I am so ready to start showing at second level and this was going to be out debut. But, we need some more time to polish everything and I have other plans this weekend, so we'll have to wait until spring. The good news is that I really like the new second level tests for next year, so I'm excited to start riding them!

Fall Photos

As usual, I don't have much to report around here. I am enjoying my current rotation on small animal medicine, however it doesn't leave a lot of time for riding. Jetta's mild lameness in her front feet has finally resolved so I wish I was!

However, I've been itching to get fancy pictures with Jetta this year and this fall has been GORGEOUS recently. I can't afford to hire anyone to take my pictures and I don't have any photography friends who had time at the moment so I coerced the BF to take my pictures. He has a rudimentary grasp of photography but I can do all the settings on my camera and direct him how to take them. He was a good sport, though obviously not super enthusiastic about taking a bunch of pictures of a horse, but he got some great ones! He said, and I quote, "Even a blind squirrel can find a nut."

I didn't get all the pictures I wanted (someone was impatient), but enough that I'm content for the next few years probably. They turned out so great and I wish there were other people that would let me take fancy dress-up pics in this little forest grove!

Hopefully I'll get to ride Jetta soon, though sadly I don't think our goal of competing at the end of this month is going to happen. We will see!

Birthday Ride

My birthday was on Wednesday and since I was still off of school this week, everyone else was either working, traveling or in clinics. So I loaded up my pony by myself and headed to the trails. I finally got a new hoof boot to replace the one that broke so we were back in action!

Pretty leaves

I decided to go to Chip Ross, it's a park that's pretty close to me but for some reason I haven't been there in years. I really have no idea why, it's been almost 3 or 4 years since I've been there but the trails are really lovely and I used to ride there a bunch!

Cool fallen tree

Jetta was on her best behavior though we mostly just walked, which was good because we rounded a corner and came upon a gaggle of children sitting in a circle directly on the trail. I'm really glad we weren't going any faster or we would have crashed through them like a bowling ball. Jetta loves little kids though and obligingly lowered her head after they all came running over to pet her.

Overall, it was just what I needed! I've been really stressed this week as I prepare to go back to rotations (I will be on small animal surgery for the next two weeks) and also trying to study for the board exam which is in just over a month. Scary!

A lady at my barn offered to take a "birthday picture because you both look nice". Jetta was unenthusiastic

Also, my birthday is October 3rd, which is also a Wednesday so I had to wear my pink(ish) shirt

Media Monday

Finally bought a couple pictures from our recognized dressage show! I was so excited for these pictures, but I really didn't like a lot of them surprisingly. The photographer is very talented and I always love her pictures, but I was leaning forward and Jetta wasn't moving as nicely as I know she can so that combined just made the pictures pretty meh. I do really like the two that I bought and in a way it's for the best that there weren't more pictures that I liked because they're quite expensive and I can never afford more than two. Two of my favorite pictures of Misty are by the same photographer.

Maybe someday I'll sit like a dressage rider and look where I'm going

While I will always try to support show photographers, it's hard to spend over $100 just for two pictures. Especially when you don't get the complete file. I paid $25 for her to take pictures of me at the show on one day, then I paid $45 for each of the pictures to get an 8x10" print and a tiny digital file that is only good for social media sites. Then I had to pay almost $10 for shipping the two prints. I tried making one of them my computer background and it was terribly pixelated, so that was a bummer.

I was a show photographer for several years so I understand how hard it would be to make a living from that. It takes me forever and ever to edit photos so you have to put a lot of time into these things and photography equipment is not cheap!

Regardless, I love these two pictures. I was so proud of Jetta at the show and I'm happy to finally have some really lovely show pictures of the two of us!


And I'm curious - what do you typically pay in your area for show photos?