Blogger Gift Exchange

I love this secret santa that Tracy at The Printable Pony hosts every year. I love putting together fun gifts for fellow equestrians, just as much as I love what people come up with for me!

This year I got a gift from Rebecca at Diary of the Over Anxious Horse Owner. She did a great job!

And she wrapped everything beautifully!

Well, it's sideways but oh well

I got a awesome set of monogram stickers, as well as one with Maisie and Jetta's name on them. I just have to figure out what all I want to put them on! Also, a pair of adorable socks with llamas in ties which are just hilarious. I absolutely love this brand of socks and already have a fair number of them so these will go nicely with all the rest! And lastly, some horse treats that Jetta has already eaten a large proportion of.

Thank you so much for all the goodies! I love them!

All the Presents

I love Christmas, mostly because I love giving presents and I love spending time with my family and the little traditions that we have.

I'm super excited about the gifts I received, and since I participated in the Blogger Secret Santa, we'll start with those!

Carly was my Secret Santa and I love what she got me! I got a set of gray polos with a very pretty blue velcro pattern. I have always wanted to buy some polos in this style so I'm really excited for them! They're going to look awesome on Jetta. She also got me a couple things from Beka's metal smashing shop - a bracelet with a cute little turquoise horse shoe stamped into it and also a halter tag for Jetta's little nugget!

I absolutely love my presents, so thank you Carly!

Then my parents also got me some cute stuff for the baby... A scrapbook to put all of my baby pictures in, and a Breyer mare and foal. The mare looks pretty spot on for Jetta with a very similar blaze and one hind sock. The foal is (supposed to be) buckskin and they said we'll get it painted for however the foal's markings turn out! I thought that was such a thoughtful gift.

I also got my truck tent! I can't wait to try this out. I'm going to buy an air mattress for it and then it will be perfect.

My roommate got me a foal halter which is absolutely the cutest thing ever - it's so tiny. 

Then, the bf's mom outdid herself and bought me a Pella (the required brand and color for my vet school) palpation jacket! I'm so excited to use it, it's going to be awesome!

Of course I had to buy myself Jetta some presents as well. I ordered some Majick Equipe Color Elite XC boots in turquoise (obviously) as well as some aqua leather gloves. Can't wait until those get here!

All in all it was a great Christmas and I'm so thankful for my horse, friends, family and bloggers!

Happy Holidays and New Year from Jetta and myself!

Christmas List

I always really enjoy reading everyone else's Christmas wishlists, so I thought I'd add my own. I'm someone that always has a huge list of "I-wants" and this year is no different!

Tack

Le Mieux Windsor Halter - I just saw this gorgeous halter. It looks so neat and what do you know, it's in our colors. It'd only have to be for special occasions since I'm not sure how you'd clean it, but it's so neat!

Ogilvy custom baby pad - I can't decide if I want a navy base with turquoise binding and gray piping, or a gray base with navy binding and turquoise piping... But I think I need a dressage and a jumping one in my life.

Since we're going with saddle pads, I think I have a problem. I love these Le Mieux one's. I think I need a turquoise, emerald and plum one.

Majyk Equipe Color Elite X Country boots - as soon as these came out, I knew I needed them. In turquoise obviously. I've heard such great things about these boots and we are definitely in need of an upgrade.

Harry's Horse Dressage Boots - if it comes in turquoise, basically I have to have it. We already have some dressage boots, but I love the color of these ones!

Cambox Helmet Camera - I've been wanting a helmet camera for a really long time and this just seems like a great design!

Apparel

20x60 I need tee - I love this shirt!

G/FORE leather gloves - these gloves are gorgeous. They come in pretty much every color and look amazing, they would be so much fun to have for schooling in aqua!

Coolblast Medallion Shirt - I really enjoy this pattern. It's a bit out of my price range for a schooling sun shirt, but I'd love to give it a try!

Dubarry Glanmire boots - My Dubarry's have seen a lot and I love them but they are definitely starting to show their wear after a lot of hard use. I love this new design!

Miscellaneous


 Truck tent - this would make horse showing so much easier!

Portable water heater - It would be so nice to have hot water for bathing in the winter. I feel so bad using cold water so I try to avoid bathing, but sometimes it just has to be done! Stacey just got this one and gave it a great review so it's going on my list :)

Scattered post

I had high hopes for blogging more over winter break, but failed sadly. Nothing was too interesting around here though. I go back to school today tomorrow (ice day today!) I'm slightly nervous for the new term since there will be four "real" classes this term instead of three.

The ponies have been good though. Misty has been getting more attention as usual. We're still playing with western, and I finally put the curb bridle on her. My original one walked away (which is beyond annoying, but at least is was my "cheap" set up). I rebuilt the bridle mostly from extra pieces I had around, except for buying a new set of reins. She was really good in the curb bridle, but needs a tad bit of work on neck reining as she's a little rusty.

Cutest western pony ever

We've been working on flying changes, which we put on a back burner for a while. She's rougher from left to right and had lots of bucks and opinions to say on that flying change. The first time through she wouldn't change behind and was being altogether much too sassy, so she got in trouble. Then she was kind of like "oh, I guess I can't do that" and was much more polite and on time for her changes. We did serpentines where sometimes we'd do a simple canter-trot-canter change, or a canter-walk-canter change or even a canter-halt-canter change or a flying change. That way she won't anticipate anything and will be listening for what I want. It's a fun exercise, at least I think, I'm sure Misty doesn't agree.

I am hoping that this year I will blog more. I'll definitely be busier than ever, but I miss blogging! I have a few blogs in the works, including some reviews. I got some Ariat denim breeches (and tall boots!) as a birthday gift to myself, so I need to review those. And some new clippers for Christmas, which I can't wait to try out.

Before I got my gift clippers, I used my roommate's to do a trim on the ponies. They were looking rough. I decided not to do any body clips since I haven't been riding much. They just got their socks, beards, muzzles and bridle paths clipped. Or in Jetta's case I roached her mane again. It was getting much too long for my tastes, since with Jetta long = mega thick. I could double running braid her mane like a cob or spanish breed or something.

Jetta's looking good! I cut almost 5 inches off her tail...

The horse's got their Christmas bran mash. I decided to do something different this year, as usually I buy some wheat bran and make their bran mash at home. This year I found some pre-made bran mash which sounded cool so I just got that. Less mess! You just add hot water to the bag, it ziplocs shut and then dump it in their feed bin, perfect!

Ingredients: Wheat Bran, Barley, Cane Molasses, Dehydrated Carrots, Peppermints, Soybean Meal, Peppermint Leaf, Cinnamon and Chamomile.

I would definitely recommend it. Both horses loved it and it just makes me feel good to give them a nice warm treat on a cold day.

And the latest dilemma... I'm still drooling over a PS of Sweden bridle (thanks to certain other bloggers... who know who you are). I was hoping they'd have a holiday sale at some point, but to no avail. I got Christmas money to use to buy one bridle. The only problem is that I want two. I need some votes on which one to get!

I only have one black bridle, so it'd be nice to get a second one for schooling. I love both the Jump Off and the Get Set, but can't decide. Thoughts?

I'd love to get Misty the Jump Off in black to replace the Micklem bridle we ride in

Or, I want to get Jetta the Get Set bridle in black

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!

Good Start

I don't know why, but I am having a FANTASTIC morning today. I'm just super happy, which is unusual. I guess it's a combination of:

• Sleeping more than 6 hours last night! 
• Getting all imminent homework projects/studying done last night so that I don't have to worry about them today. Feels good!
• Found a forgotten Almond Joy candy bar in my backpack during class. It was delicious. 
• I easily found a parking spot on campus this morning and didn't have to drive around looking for 20 minutes. 
• I get to have a 4 day weekend at home which = two days off of school work and riding my horses!
• Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I LOVE Thanksgiving food. My mom is an amazing cook. Can't wait!
• Took a final exam in one class today and I felt great about it.

There is still the chance that my amazing day will decline, but here's to hoping it won't :)

But really, there's so many things I'm thankful for!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and also share two things:

First, Niamh had a bunch of tack stolen the other day. I can't even imagine... So if you could go to her blog, maybe see if you have anything she needs that you'd be willing to donate to her, or just offer support. The blogging community really is awesome for things like this.

Second, Tracy at Fly On Over is hosting a Blogger Gift Exchange! I'm so excited about this. I briefly thought about doing this myself, but decided that I was too unorganized to run it, so I was so happy to find that someone else had this awesome idea! I LOVE giving gifts, especially to horse people. So I'm really looking forward to that :) Everyone else should go join too, it will be so much fun!

Story of My Life

I'm so excited! I won the contest over at Slow and Steady for a $50 Smartpak gift card! Only problem? I have absolutely no idea what to spend it on. I have a couple "needs" and a ton of "wants".

The three things I actually need right now:

• White show breeches
• Black leather gloves
• Happy Mouth bit

Smartpak has absolutely no white fullseat breeches that I want/can afford. So that's a no. I even emailed them to see if they could order the Tredstep breeches I like in white, since Dover carries them in that color, but Smartpak only has them in blue and tan. No can do apparently.

I do need a Happy Mouth bit but was waiting to see what turned up on ebay, I could possibly score one for half price.

Or I could get new gloves. Not exciting. 

My want list at Smartpak is huge, consisting mostly of really cute schooling breeches. A sheet for when I go to shows and need to keep the ponies clean, a Herm Sprenger hole punch, a Newmarket throw blanket (to obviously match my horse) and an IRH Elite Ultra helmet. But none of these things are ones that I need and most are too spendy for me right at the moment and nothing seems "worthy" of such a great opportunity to spend the $50 that I've won!

I feel like the Happy Mouth bit is the mostly likely choice at this point. It's right around $50 so I'd only have to spend a couple extra bucks plus shipping. But then there's the decision of mullen or roller center? I have no experience with Happy Mouths, but I feel like Misty would probably go equally well in either, the goal is just to find her something gentler that she will take up contact with more eagerly.

Any thoughts? On the type of bit or on good things to buy ;)

Story of my life: decisions, decisions...

Oh and to add to the whole "my want list is a million miles long" this is the weekend that Mundial boots are in town... When I was looking for boots to buy I emailed them to see when they were in my state and this was the ONLY time they were here in the whole entire year. I opted not to wait several months to get fitted plus the 3 month wait to actually get the boots, but I still want them. I can see my dream custom brown field boots now... Gah. I have half a mind to go and get fitted just because and then wait until I can save up and order them. I just want to see them in person!

These. I want them.

I'm in Love

Guess what arrived today?!

Everything! I got both my Smartpak order and my order from Amira Equi. I was completely surprised by how fast Amira shipped out since they're located in the UK and I'm on the West Coast of the US so with that I would highly recommend them! And my coat arrived in perfect condition without a single wrinkle (*cough* Smartpak *cough*).

First up, my new De Niro boots. I love them. They're not going back. In fact you'd probably have to pry them from my cold, dead hands. I may just sleep in them tonight.

They fit perfectly! I ordered the regular calf and tall height and a size 8 footbed, though I normally wear a 7.5 they didn't come in half sizes. I'm pleased to say they fit like they could have been made for me. I wobbled back and forth over ordering the slim fit since the sizing was 1 cm away from my actual calf size, but the regular calf size fits snugly so when they stretch out they will be absolutely perfect. I'm glad I read through the sizing chart a couple (million) times because I almost didn't order the talls, but I'm glad I did because they're supposed to drop a couple centimeters and they probably would have been too short otherwise.

The only negative is the square toe which makes my feet look rather big and like another reviewer said on the Smartpak website, "duck-like" but I can live with that. My first new pair of boots that actually fit in seven years!!! ♥

Also in my Smartpak order was some Dubarry boot conditioner. I haven't mentioned my Dubarry boots much since I first got them but I'm still in love with them too. I wear them to the barn a lot because they're super warm and they've broken in wonderfully. I would highly recommend these boots too, especially if you can get them on sale like I did!

Since I want them to last forever and ever, I decided to spend the money on some Dubarry conditioner, after all their products are made for their boots. It took me a while to decide on which product(s) to get because they're pretty spendy, but eventually I decided on just the conditioner since it both conditions and waterproofs the leather and I will just use my regular leather cleaner on them. I was pleasantly surprised by the conditioner. It's nice! It's a rather large tube (which is better be for 20 bucks!) and a little goes a long way. It got rid of all the scuff marks and now they look brand new! As an added bonus it smells really good too.

Can't really tell, but it's navy with a black velvet collar.

And lastly, my new Pikeur jacket. I've been drooling over the Pikeur Skarlett for a loooong time, but since I already have one nice jacket (all previous jackets were bought at the Goodwill, I highly recommend doing that if you're on a budget!) it was an unnecessary purchase. Until now :)

I emailed Amira to ask what size they recommended, I heard that the Pikeur's ran small but it was really hard to find a sizing chart that showed actual measurements. They recommended a size 12 which sounds majorly big for me (normally a size 4/6 dress size) but my other jacket is also a 12 so I went for it. I got it in a long so that the sleeves would be long enough. LOVE. It's a tiny bit large (my other size 12 jacket is a tiny bit small, go figure) but I figure it will give me plenty of room for movement during jumping. It is gorgeous and despite being a polyester/elastane mix, it looks rather like wool to me so that's nice that it looks more "traditional" than my dressage coat which is very elastic and slightly water resistant. The best part is that it's machine washable! The only part that I don't like about it is that the shoulder pads are huge on me. But oh well. I still love it :)

Overall, not a bad haul! I'm so excited to have new things. Like I said, it's been seven years since I got my first pair of tall boots that never fit in the first place so this is a big deal for me! I think my roommates might get sick of me walking around the house in my boots commenting on how much I love them but oh well. I'm in love!

Four on the Floor

Update on Tux: He made it to his new home safely. M called me to tell me that he had arrived and today I saw some FB photos of him in his new, all-body coat. I think she has the right idea, but I have to say it's a losing battle in keeping him clean!

Shamelessly stolen from FB. Isn't he cute! Miss him already.

Anyways, today was fun. I headed out to the barn to see Jetta - I haven't seen her since Friday morning because I went and hung out at the beach this weekend. It was beautiful! Almost felt like it was spring or summer it was so nice, which of course made me wish that I had brought Jetta to go galloping!



I decided to ride bareback since I was being so lazy and after lunging her breifly hopped on and walk/trotted around. I think it was a combination of someone hauling in to ride with an unfamiliar horse and the fact that I was making Jetta jog instead of letting her trot out, but she leaped up into the air TWICE, rearing straight up almost to full height.

I was pretty sure I was going to come off, but somehow managed to cling on and once I got her to have all four hooves on the floor (always a good thing...) I slid off and lunged her again.

She was so hyper! She was definitely showing off for the other horse and was prancing around spooking at everything. I just let her run, and run, and run until she decided she was done. She was super sweaty so I let her have a good roll then walked her around to cool out.

Probably not the best idea to ride bareback after having a couple days off...

In other exciting news, my dad finally finished my Christmas  present - a slow hay feeder box! It still needs a few tweaks, but so far so good. Usually Jetta finishes her hay in about an hour or two, but now it lasts about 5 hours. Much better! I think this will make her a lot happier and hopefully prevent any ulcer issues, plus she's getting an extra snack flake of hay in the afternoon.

Christmas Came Early

That's how I feel... like Christmas came early. I got a new pony! In case you hadn't heard yet :) It makes me very excited to have a new project to work on. So meet the new guy, aka The Beast.

 He is the cutest thing ever, but a huge tubba-tubba lard, I've got my work cut out for me! Currently taking bets on his weight! I'm guessing around 1800 with a BCS of at least an 8, but closer to a 9. I didn't have my weight tape on hand, but I'm going to bring it with me and see exactly how fat he really is this weekend. And I think he's already about 16 hands, which means he's going to be taller than Katy!

He hasn't gotten worked with as much as Katy had when I first got her. He's halter broke, but not very well as he doesn't really respect or understand pressure on the halter. He's incredibly spooky, but so was Katy. We'll work through it. He kinda loads in the trailer ok and he'll pick up his feet well. He's got the same beautiful footsies that Katy had which is nice that they don't need any help. After our photo shoot I was leading him back to the barn and almost got run over by him because one of my brother's turkeys gobbled.



The offending turkey




It was a beautiful fall day!



He has adapted really well and is already mega-attached to Grady. While it's not great that he's attached at the hip, it's better than the alternative of Grady not accepting him and beating the you-know-what out of him. This is the first time that Grady has ever been pastured with a gelding - he still thinks he's a stallion and routinely challenges the geldings across the street - so I was worried that he'd not want another gelding in his pasture. My parents said that he almost immediately accepted him though! I think he's just glad to have a buddy :)



Bestest buddies EVER!



The Pond Puppy - aka Glory
After running around the pasture with
the new guy in tow, she went for a dip in the
nasty pond. Silly pup!

On a related note, I still haven't decided on a name for him. The current front runners at home are Loki or Tonka, but usually a name just "clicks" for me, so it's frustrating that I can't come up with anything that I like! I have decided on his show name though, that smazourek came up with - Queen's Talisman, since it combines his dam's and sire's names, which I always like. Any other ideas? He's ginormous and a bit (well, more than a bit) of a dork, if that helps you any :)



Your First Horse: Part 2

I remember my first horse. My parents bought a feed store after my dad's work closed resulting in him getting laid off. My dad had always wanted to own a retail store - his dad had owned a hardware store. Working at the feed store always results in meeting a ton of interesting people. One person we met was a horse trainer, I'll call her DVO.

I had been asking for a horse for years. I wanted to take lessons and I used to count horses that we passed while on road trips. Eventually my wish was granted. I could get a horse and take lessons with DVO. I only followed a small amount of my own rules when I got my first horse. DVO was going to take us to visit several horses and the first one we visited I fell in love with (don't do that. Look around at multiple horses before you settle on one). I rode him around the pasture walk, trot, and barely a canter and I wanted him. Sure it took an hour to catch him, he veered off towards his buddy when I rode and he would only canter a few strides. I didn't care, he was the one. He was a 16 year-old QH gelding, 15.3 hh and I would say he was about green broke.

He didn't want to canter, then when he did he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't bend, didn't know how to lunge and refused to be caught. Oh and he bucked and tried to rub me off on fences. But he was perfect in my eyes. Luckily DVO was a fantastic trainer and she helped me to reform my wily horse. He was not a beginner's horse, but he turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me. I would never, ever recommend that anyone get a horse like Grady. He was a brat to say the least. But I was a fearless child who tried my hardest. It didn't matter how many times I fell off or got bucked off, I would get back on. I learned quickly, took weekly lessons and rode almost every day, practicing what I learned. I had a great trainer, a place to ride at home, always wore a helmet and my parent's were willing to cart me around to lessons and 4-H.

Today Grady is a very well mannered old man that I will own forever. He taught me so much about perseverance and training. He made me want to learn more about training horses, not just riding. He is still a brat when other people ride him and still has the occasional buck left in him but he is a totally new horse.

My lovely boy :)

I'll use one of my lesson kids as an example for what can go wrong when buying a horse. She took lessons from me for two years - she rode english and was interested in learning how to jump. She had taken lessons at a fancy hunter barn before meeting me through my parent's feed store. They were planning on buying a horse. They had plenty of money (illustrated by their beautiful brand new Pessoa saddle and girth that they brought to use for every lesson) so I envisioned a dead broke, fancy Appendix QH to learn to jump on and show english pleasure. I advised them to take a horse trainer along with them when looking at horses. They ignored my advice. Things got busy for them when school started again and I never heard from them again. Talking to someone else, I learned that they went out and bought a cutting horse. It was a very nice horse from what I heard, but do you know their reason for buying it? Well, the daughter complained about a horse that they tryed out because it wouldn't do what she wanted and she blamed it based on the fact that it was a western horse. So the mom, to teach her a lesson that it was the daughter's problem, not western horses, bought her a cutting horse. The horse is super hot, way too much so for a first horse so they have invested a lot of time and money in taking lessons and putting the horse into training so it can become a quieter horse. The daughter has found that she enjoys chasing cows, but the horse is still too much for her. The horse is now for sale. 

So yeah, please don't follow either my example or my student's example unless you are one of those people who is not afraid of horses and will work your hardest every single day of the week to make things week. But even then, sometimes (make that all of the time) a well-trained, well-suited horse is worth every penny.