Dropping Like Flies

My show plans seem to be steadily declining, which makes me kind of sad, but at the same time my original plans were quite ambitious.

April 27th - Dressage League Show- decided not to go to this unfortunately. I thought it would be perfect preparation for our recognized show, but the ultimately decided that it's not work it to drive four hours away. It would be cheaper to just take a lesson with KB instead.

May 4th - H/J show. Local, not the cheapest, but I think it would be fun to take Jetta and Misty. But I'm not quite sure yet, so this may not happen either.

May 10-11th - Heart of the Valley Recognized Dressage show- definitely going to this one. I've gotten my entry confirmation already and I'm super excited!

May 17th - Mt. Adams endurance ride. I've been planning this ride since last year, but as it gets closer and closer I'm getting less sure.

It doesn't help that I found out that there's an open Quarter Horse show that I could take Misty to and show her in the beginning ranch pleasure, reining and working cowhorse classes. The prize in which is a belt buckle... Tempting. Mostly because I'm not sure Jettas exactly where I want her in terms of fitness. I'm sure we could go out and do it jut fine, but I want to be a little bit more competitive this time. I know we're nowhere near ready to try and compete for top ten, but I still have a little bit of competitive drive kicking in.

May 31st-June 1st - One day horse trials, planning on going at least one day with both horses!

While I want to do all of these, I'm just worried about being able to do the recognized Horse Trials I wanted to do. I really wanted to aim for two of them this year, but since one generally wipes out my horse show money account, I don't know how I'm going to manage it so I'm thinking that in terms of money less shows is better, but in terms of preparation, more is better. Ugh. I hate making these kind of decisions.

At least last year was super awesome in terms of dressage shows, but I was wanting this year to be the year of horse trials! I got my award plates in the mail last week to add to my collection. Jetta got two plates for training (4 scores) and first (6 scores) and Misty got one for intro (2 scores)! Can't wait to order a plaque to mount all of them on.

Sunshine Award

Thanks to Hillary at Equestrian at Hart!

The sunshine award is for people who 'positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere'. The nominee of this award must do the following, thank the person who nominated them, nominate 10 bloggers of their own, answer the 10 questions given to you, post them, and add the Sunshine Award Button to the blog.

1. Mares or Gelding? I prefer mares, but I like both. It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me either way.

2. English or Western? Both. I guess I've turned more English, but I'm really having fun with Misty Western. I missed it!

3. Do you prefer younger or older horses? Younger. 

4. Have you trained a horse from ground zero? Yes, I've trained a handful of horses from start to finish. My first one I was under the supervision of my trainer but I still did all the work and the rest (including Jetta) were just me!

5. Do you prefer riding or groundwork? I like both. Depends on the day and what I feel like doing.  

6. Do you board your horse or keep him at home? Well, that's a little bit up in the air at the moment (more on this later) but I've been boarding for the past three years but before that I kept them at home.

7. Do you use all natural things or just commercial stuff (the products you use)? Both, I like the idea of using more natural things, but as long as it works I'll use it.

8. All tacked up or bareback? Both. I ride Jetta mostly with tack because she has the most awful withers of all time.

9. Equestrian role model? Not sure I really have one, I admire a lot of the upper level riders, but honestly don't follow anyone that closely. 

10. What's your one main goal while being in the horse world? Not quite sure how to answer this one, I just hope to keep improving!


My 10 nominees. I tried to pick those that hadn't been nominated, but I think that I failed miserably in that respect!

Matt the Cowpony
The Adventures of Crispy-Creme
A Collection of Madcap Escapades
My Mojito
Pony Express
The Owls Approve
Chasing the Dream
Sweet Horse's Breath
Poor Woman Showing
She Moved to Texas

Liebster Blog Award

I LOVE blog awards :) I was nominated four times, by Monica at Panic and the Pony, Niamh at Life of Riley, Ruffles at Just a Girl and her horse, and Carrot Top at Little Bay Horse. Thank you!!! For some reason this post took me forever to get together, so here it finally is. I decided that I'm going to answer all 4 sets of 11 questions, but I will do two sets in another post so this doesn't get too overwhelming :)

How to accept the award: The Liebster Blog Award is a way to recognize blogs who have less than 200 followers.  Liebster is a German word that means beloved and valued.  Here are the rules for accepting the award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and include a link back to their blog.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions given to you.
4. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.
5. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or fewer followers to nominate and include links to their blogs.
6. Go to each blogger's page and let them know you have nominated them. 

11 Facts about me:

1. I hate giving facts about me; I feel like I'm not that interesting of a person. 
2. I love traveling, it's my goal to visit every continent someday. So far I've been to Costa Rica, India, France, Spain, England and Bhutan. The next places on my list are Italy and Ireland, hopefully with a stop in France again. 
3. If I could pick any job in the world and not worry about money, then I'd probably be a horse trainer. Or rather, anything that would allow me to spend all my time with horses - training, rescue, rehab, breeding, competing, etc. 
4. My dream is to one day be able to build my dream barn/house. It's literally just that: a barn with living space on top! I pretty much have the entire thing planned out, down to a floor plan and decorating scheme, lol. 
5. I love to read and I will pretty much read anything, though fantasy is my favorite genre. Plus, I read really fast so usually during the summer I go through about a book a day.
6. I love bling! Sadly it's not as accepted in dressage, which is my main discipline, but I still have a sparkly browband and my ear net that I can use in eventing dressage has crystals. I would love to be mainly in western disciplines where you can bedazzle everything, but I like my english disciplines just a little bit better :)
7. Hot pink and sky blue/turquoise are my two favorite colors, with purple coming in a close third. I have a strong desire to make all of my tack come in those colors and be matching. 
8. I love, love, love seeing horses of non-traditional breeds succeeding in different disciplines. Such as drafts in eventing, quarter horses in dressage, etc. 
9. My least favorite foods are raw tomatoes, shell fish, mushrooms and olives.
10. I'm addicted to Netflix and will totally binge-watch TV shows. The latest was Desperate Housewives (with my roommates) and Doctor Who. 
11. I raised rabbits and showed them competitively in 4-H and ARBA (breed shows) for 10 years. I had Dutch and Champagne D'Argents rabbits. I am quite knowledgeable about them and love helping people at the vet clinic with their rabbits since the vets don't have a ton of experience with them! I miss having rabbits and hope to get one as a pet soon.

Questions for me: (I got nominated four times, therefore you get 22 answers to questions this time and more to come later!)

1. What's the last book you read cover-to-cover?
I (re)read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (one of my favorite books!) and am currently starting on the Game of Thrones series...

2. Have you ever broken a bone, and if so how?
Nope, amazingly I have not.

3. If you could chose any super-power, what would it be?
The ability to speak and understand any language, animal ones included :)

4. What would you change about the horse world that doesn't have to do with animal abuse or money?
I guess I would encourage people to be more open to new ideas and new people. Obviously what works for one horse/rider might not work for another, but I find a lot of people immediately discredit some ideas, simply because it's just not what they are used to doing. And being open to new people too is important I think. A lot of horse people are really open and friendly (obviously! Just look at the horse blogger world) but there's quite a lot of horse people at the other end of the spectrum that come across as snobbish.

5. What are those 'Baby on Board' signs for cars really for? Nobody have ever been able to give me a satisfying answer.
I really have no idea... I think some people use it as an excuse to be a rude driver, like you can't be mad at them when they have a baby in the car.

6. What are your three favorite words?
Serendipity, juxtaposition, dilapidated.

7. What's the most 'out there' thing you believe in?
I have to say that I'm rather boring... I don't really believe in anything that "out there". I don't believe in aliens or ghosts, or being able to know the future or travel in time. I'm definitely open to the possibility of some "out there" things, but don't explicitly believe them to be true.

8. Describe the last time you laughed out loud.
The last time would have been last night, hanging out with my 4 roommates. They are all hilarious and ridiculous, so any time we're all together we are bound to have a good time.

9. Mares, geldings or stallions?
Well, I don't typically have a preference, I've worked with all three. But, I've owned way more mares than geldings and I get along well with them.

10. Who would you most like to go on a trail ride with?
Not sure if this is supposed to be a person or a horse, but I'd love to have one more ride on Grady and pony Jazz on him. That was my favorite thing to do...

11. What's the most ridiculous thing you've bought for riding or horses?
Ha, a pink sparkly crop.

12. Were horses is your childhood?
Yes, I got my first horse when I was nine (Grady) after moving to the country where we had a barn and a pasture. I begged my parents for riding lessons and after riding the neighbor's very ornery horse, Ruby, for a while, they finally caved and found a trainer who found me my first horse!

13. What's the weirdest lesson/clinic you've ever had on horseback
That's a tough one... there hasn't been anything too crazy, I'm usually pretty good at picking up strange ideas and figuring out how to apply them, but the weirdest has to have been with this local trainer through the dressage team. He's a nice guy and I have several friends who board and train with him full time, but he's just strange. The weirdest part of my lesson would have to be when he kept telling me to relax my forearms and wrists. I just didn't understand how to and finally he came over to me and started shaking my arms to get them to relax. Something must have worked because he stopped bugging me about them, but I don't think I actually changed anything?

14. What one thing would you change about your horse?
I would change her (Jetta's) argumentative-ness. She always has to have something to argue about which results in so many evasions. She's getting better as she gets older, but a lot of times she will refuse to do something just for the sake of it and after bickering for 20 minutes she gives in and pretends it never happened and it isn't a big deal. 

15. What one thing would you change about yourself?
I would change my laziness. It's my biggest bad habit and it affects my riding too. I'll go to the barn and decide that I'd rather not jump just because it means dragging out the jumps. Or it means skimping on grooming or not practicing riding without stirrups.

16. Do you board or keep your horse at home?
I usually board during the school year and take my horses home during the summer time, but I'm still not sure what the plan is for this summer.

17. What is your favorite thing about boarding or keeping your horse at home?
My favorite thing about boarding is having nice facilities: an arena to ride in, nice stalls, a wash rack, etc. My favorite thing about having the horses at home is being able to walk out the door down to the barn. The horses have a big pasture, big stalls with runs, I can feed them however I like, I can go riding down the street, there are trails behind us. I don't have an arena but I do have a roundpen and I can use the neighbor's outdoor arena.

18. What is your least favorite thing about boarding or keeping your horses at home?
Least favorite about boarding is having to pay... But also the drama that comes with keeping your horse at someone else's barn - you have to abide by their rules and deal with other people. And the fact that sometimes you can't get the exact care you'd like. Keeping my horses at home, I dislike not having certain facilities, but mostly just the fact that I have to be out there two or three times a day, every day and if I want to take a day off that's not usually an option.

19. What nicknames do you have for your horse?
For Jetta it's dork or brat. Misty is Misty-moo. 

20. What scares you the most about riding/horses?
There's not a whole lot about horses and riding that scares me. I've always been that fearless little girl. But now that I'm getting older I'm getting a little more cautious. Jetta's rearing scares me since she has flipped over on me before and I got hurt pretty badly. Cross country jumping scares me a little bit since Jetta dumped me over a jump.

21. What is your best skill around horses?
I would say my best skill is not being afraid. I have no problem dealing with naughty horses, I don't get nervous if I get on a horse that's a little flighty or spooky. I don't have issues dealing with bratty horses on the ground either, for instance the barn owner's stallion who strikes and likes to turn his rump to me. I have no patience for naughty horses and am very much the "alpha mare".

22. What is your dream pony vacation?
I think my dream horse vacation would be some intense, upper-level sort of training trip in either dressage or eventing or jumping. Something where I'd get to ride other horses and learn to improve my skills. Get multiple lessons a day then go for fun rides on the beach or through the countryside. Not sure where though...

11 questions for nominees:

1. What equestrian sport that you've never done before would you like to try? 
2. If you could ride any horse (living or not), who would it be?
3. If you could buy one tack item, no matter the expense, what would it be?
   
4. Why did you start blogging and who in real life knows that you blog?
5. Besides horses, what is your favorite hobby?
6. Second favorite animal? (horses are obviously your first :)
7. Favorite color?
8. Least favorite equestrian fashion fad?
9. Black or brown tack?
10. What is your favorite place to go besides the barn? (can be a travel destination or someplace close to you)
11. Favorite food that you couldn't live without?

11 bloggers: I have no idea who has or has not been nominated at this point, so sorry if this is your second (or third!) nomination. I gave up trying to keep track.

1. Hillary at Equestrian at Hart
2. Karly at All In
3. Matt the Cowpony
4. Kristen at Sweet Horse's Breath
5. in2paints at R Lil Bit of Cash
6. Karen at Contact
7. Lauren at She Moved to Texas
8. Jen at Wyvern Oaks
9. Gingham at Pia's (and Praire!) Parade
10. Checkmark115 at Chasing the Dream
11. Amy at Slow and Steady

Show Ribbons

Whew, this past week has been crazy. I was planning on going for a trail ride and generally paying attention to my horses but somehow it all got away from me. Thankfully, the show that I was managing went well. I think this was the first show I hadn't stressed about, though it still took a lot of time out of my already busy schedule.

I think one of the most important things about running a show - besides getting everyone scheduled properly, renting a great facility and having a good judge - is great ribbons. Obviously that's one of the most important things ;)

Most horse people love keeping their ribbons, especially if they had a great ride or it was a milestone of some sort for them. I definitely keep most of my horse ribbons. The ribbons I don't keep? The tiny scraps of fabric sometimes labeled as ribbons and the generic rosettes that simply say "first place" (or second or third or whatever).

If I'm going to keep a ribbon I want to know what show it was from. And it's even better if it's unique.

Being part of the dressage team, I end up being the show manager for our bi-annual dressage shows that serve as fundraisers. I rent out the facility, find a judge, get prizes and generally organize all the details. My first year being a show manager, I knew I wanted good ribbons. After all, it's so awesome to get neat ribbons at a show!

After researching various online places, I decided to go with ribbonsgalore.com. They are super easy in that you can just design your ribbon any which way you like online (and see a virtual representation) and buy them right then and there. They will even double check your design and offer you tips if you want them, in order to "fix" anything that needs fixing. Ours turned out awesome!

We did not put a year on them, so we get to use left overs for all the different shows, which is good because I would rather order too many than too few, then those that we didn't use can be used at the next show. Also, customizing the center button is really neat. It isn't necessarily a must in my book (though if you are buying ribbons for a dressage show, please don't put a western pleasure horse on them!) they look pretty fancy when it is custom. Our ribbons are also unique to some degree because they have black writing instead of the usual silver or gold, but that was just a random decision.

So those were our general ribbons that we give out in each class.

Even our fifth place ribbons are pretty!

This year, we decided to get neck ribbons for the overall and reserve high percentage of the show. Someone on Facebook recommended for me to like this page, Ribbons N Beyond, for a somewhat local lady that makes ribbons. She makes BEAUTIFUL ribbons. This was several months ago, but she was still in the back of my mind when we came up with the idea of doing neck ribbons, especially because working with small businesses is awesome when possible. I couldn't have been happier working with her either since I contacted her on such late notice, she already had a queue going, but she fit us right in, got the ribbons done and sent off!

Since our school colors are black and orange, we decided to go a little crazy and make them in those colors instead of the traditional tri-colors or purple that you normally get. I think they turned out awesome! With ribbons that you don't re-use, especially for larger prizes like high percentage or champion, it's a nice touch to put the year on it so you can display them and know when they were from (at least in my opinion it's nice).

These look super-awesome in real life

So that's my little spiel on ribbons in case anyone's going to be running a show in the near future and needs ribbon maker recommendations. Basically I just wanted to brag about them :)

Blog Award

Getting blog awards (my second one!) makes me all warm and fuzzy inside :) Especially since I still feel like a new-comer in the blogger world though I've already been blogging a whole year! Definitely doesn't seem that long. Thank you Mona and Ruffles for the award!

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. Here are the rules:


1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award
3. Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs!

Ok, this is tough, but here goes:

Wyvern Oaks 

Chasing the Dream

Contact 

Hunter Barbie Takes on Eventing


Bad Eventer

These are just a few of my favorite blogs (of many). I tried to pick ones that I know haven't gotten this award quite yet :) Thanks for reading!!

An Award

This makes me ridiculously happy. I haven't gotten a blogger award before! So thank you Megan, for my very first award :)

The conditions for this award are to list 15 blogs that you read (yikes! That's almost more than the ones I read, lol. How about just 10?) and I have to list 7 things about me. Well, here goes:

From Race Horse to Show Horse

The Glorious Hoof

The Adventures of Lucy

Tekes Tally-Ho

It's Quarters for Me

Eventing A Gogo

Fresh Perspective

Contact

G is for Greta

Sweet Horse's Breath

Whew, that was a lot! Ok, now how about 7 things about me. Hmmm

1. I like tack. A lot. But you probably already know that. I think that if I didn't want to become a vet, I'd love to work for SmartPak. Not only do I love their products, but also their marketing and promotions, customer service, etc. But hey, I could still work for them as a vet, they have a staff veterinarian!
2. Not a morning person. At all. I like sleep, no actually I love sleep. The only thing that can get me out of bed at the crack of dawn is a horse show :) 
3. Another career I thought about was photography. I love doing it, but it just doesn't seem condusive to a well-paying job to support my ponies so I will continue to do it in my spare time. I love landscape and animal photography and often am the photographer at horse shows.
4. Favorite subject in school - biology. Definitely.
5. I'll admit it, I drink energy drinks. The only one I like is RedBull, the other ones tend to taste nasty IMO. Coffee doesn't like me very much so at the end of a long week when I have to wake up for an 8am class, instead of grabbing coffee, I go for an energy drink. Unhealthy? Yes, most probably. Necessary? Uhuh.
6. The other thing that I do a lot of besides horses is reading. I read pretty much anything though Fantasy (stuff along the lines of Harry Potter, for example) is my favorite. Favorite mythical creature? Toss up between a dragon (the nice intelligent kind) or Pegasus. My horse + wings = incredibly awesome. But I also like mystery, action, historical fiction, humor, whatever. Not to mention horse magazines and educational (training, theory, conformation, nutrition, etc) books.
7. Favorite colors - bright sky blue/turqoise/aqua/whatever you want to call it and hot pink. Probably not a good combination, but individually I must say that they look quite awesome on my horses as saddle pads and boots.

Thank you again to Megan for my first award!