Off

The snow has finally receded enough that driving can be considered "normal". Still a little slushy in some places but most roads are clear! Phew, I was ready to be done with that nonsense, I don't know how you people that live in colder climates deal with it!

Anyways, today was supposed to be a nice long, relaxing day at the barn. Not. Woke up almost two hours late to start it off so I didn't have enough time to begin with. Cleaned stalls which was a major struggle because the path to the manure pile has gotten super muddy so it's nearly impossible to get a full wheelbarrow up the little incline to dump it. I was definitely breathing hard by the end.

The plan was to lunge Jetta, braid her mane, ride Misty and wash her tail and legs. It ended that I lunged Jetta. She's definitely a bit off on her left front. I'm pretty sure she pulled something up in her shoulder area from her shenanigans yesterday on the lunge. Sigh. She's almost completely sound to the right, but slightly off to the left. No swelling, heat or tender spots on her legs or hooves. I really should invest in some hoof testers, but digging around in her feet with the hoof pick got no reaction. So that's a bummer. I'll just hand walk her the next few days, maybe give her a bit of bute and we'll see from there!

I cut our lunge session short and braided her wild mane and gave her some cuddles. She was in an especially sweet mood today. 

This mane is out of control... Hopefully soon she will get her teeth done and I can pull it while she's drugged!

Oh mule-horse. Why do you look so disproportional here? At least her body condition is looking good!

I ended up not having enough time to do much with Misty. She was quite spunky on the lunge. She has little scrape marks all over her body which I'm assuming are partly self inflicted (the ones on her face) and partly from her bratty neighbor (the ones on her butt, even through the blanket). She had a new scrape on her left front that was a little bloody, so I rinsed it off and put some vetricyn on it. Luckily she wasn't off as well considering her tendency to be a delicate flower.

Hopefully Thursday I will get to retry having my "nice long, relaxing day at the barn". Give Misty her leg/tail spa day, ride at least one monster and hopefully have two sound horses!

Snow Day

It's so unusual to have this much snow around here. This is our second round of snow and our cities just aren't cut out to handle it, lol! We've gotten quite a bit for us, around 14-16". SO MUCH SNOW. I love it, but it does make driving places scary with some of these drivers...

Anyways, snow makes for pretty pictures. I turned Jetta out in the outdoor arena to let her run around.

My favorite nosy

Selfie!

Jetta: "Here, let me smoosh my cold, wet nose in your face."

Jetta: "I hate selfies..."

Manageable

Well I survived round 2 of riding the monster pony yesterday. She was much more manageable. I got to the barn before feeding time and decided to ride while the arena was still empty instead of cleaning stalls first. A long warm up on the lunge, before throwing a leg over the fire breathing dragon.

She was a lot better. I switched out her bit, from the Myler loose ring to a Herm Sprenger Mullen mouth. I really like this bit. Before Jetta, I never tinkered with bits. Everyone got ridden in the same bit and they all went perfectly well. Then there's Jetta. I've tried all sorts of things on her. I still ride her in the Myler most times, but she goes really well in this HS bit.

I've had a couple dressage trainers tell me that the Myler is "too severe and thin" for her, but honestly it's one of the bits she goes best in on the flat. And if a bit is too severe for her, then she's even worse and dives on the bit, flings her head and gapes her mouth. So it's definitely not too severe. Thick bits make her less responsive to my aids and she grinds her teeth. But even though this HS bit is definitely thicker, she has a very quiet mouth, no grinding or gaping. She is also still responsive without being too sensitive. The mullen aspect means she can't lean on the bit, but she more than happily takes up contact with it. I just wish it were legal to show in! (While it's described as being "shaped for the horse's mouth", USDF considers it to be ported since it has a deviation of more than 30mm, therefore not legal).

Anyways, our ride was a lot quieter with only one spin/leap when someone walked past the arena gate. We even managed a nice canter. It was short and sweet though because almost as soon as I switched directions another boarder started leading her amped up horse to the arena to lunge. Just what I needed, another horse to convince Jetta that spooking is necessary! So after a quick trot to the right, where she was soft and polite. I stopped and dismounted just in time for the other horse to enter the arena and blast off on the lunge. Whew, crisis averted.

Me? Be bad? Never

Today was just going to be a lunge Jetta and ride Misty day. But when I got to the barn after work, at 28 degrees... I'm embarrassed to say that I wimped out. It was FREEZING. I know, I know. It's way colder basically everywhere else. Well, 1) I'm a wimp and 2) it's been 50+ degrees the past few weeks so I haven't gotten acclimated to the temperatures yet. I resigned myself to picking frozen poop nuggets out of the stalls. Jetta was pretty amped in her stall so I decided I would lunge her anyways even though my nose and fingers were about ready to freeze off.

Again, psycho pony. It was feeding time and everything was terrifying. She pranced and galloped and bucked and whirled around. Finally calmed down, cooled her off and put her away. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow and campus is freaking out with their winter weather warnings and "dangerously low temperatures". Personally, I'm not sure how big of a "storm" this'll be, but if it snows I'll be happy! I finally have my truck back (four wheel drive!!) so I can get out to the barn.

27 Questions for Winter

Ok, so it's not really that cold here at the moment so I can't name this like Tracy or Carly. We had our one week of 0 degree and below weather and now are back up to "normal" cold weather temps. But I have no interesting things to blog about, so questions! You'll probably see a lot of these posts coming up in the next week. Officially set a day for the 19th to move the girls to the new barn. So excited!

1. Favorite thing about riding? The challenge. The feeling of working with a horse when everything (or at least most everything) is going well.

2. Green horse or trained horse? Green horse. The less training the better. Then you don't have to fix anything and it's easier to install the "buttons" the way you like them. But it's still really nice to get on a well trained horse from time to time.

3. Have you ever wanted to quit riding? No. I couldn't ever imagine not riding. Frustrated and wonder why I do this? Yes but never wanted to quit.

4. Do you prefer to ride inside or outside? Outside! But I don't like riding in the rain. And it's nice to have a cover when it's super hot out. If I had to choose one to ride in for the rest of my life though, it would be outdoors though since I could never give up my trail rides!

5. How many times a week do you ride? Right now nada. Well, maybe one at most. Usually, around four or five.

6. Have you ever fallen off at a show? How? Oh yes. Let's see... once I was cantering around the warm up ring and Jazz decided to duck out the open gate. I went one way, while she went the other. This is why helmets are amazing, I went head first through the fence! Then I got right back on. And then there was the time with Tux we just were leaving the dressage ring on a loose rein after winning our dressage equitation class and he bucked, I went flying.

7. Do you have a private or group lesson? Both. Jumping lessons are group, dressage lessons are private.

8. In your opinion does it make you less of a rider if you don't own a horse? No. Like what Carly from Poor Woman Showing said, I think it makes you less of a rider if you only show up to ride and don't do any of the hard work "behind the scenes" that goes into horses.

9. Do you plan on having horses in your life, for the rest of your life? Definitely!

10. If you could ride any famous horse (dead or alive) who would it be? Why? Snowman. He just sounds like an awesome horse. I love horses with quirks like his only jumping on a loose rein. He just sounds like an all around great guy, I loved hearing about him with his owner's kids all riding him bareback and going swimming.

11. Does winning ribbons matter to you? Yes. I love winning ribbons. I'm super competitive. But I try to compete against myself and I don't get too upset about losing (or at least I try not to).

12. Worst riding experience? I haven't really had too many bad riding experience. Probably the worst was falling out with my first riding trainer. Huge blow up and that was the end of our relationship. It was sad.

13. Describe a time when you wanted another equestrian to fail at something – Uhh, I can't remember a specific time, but there's always those one or two people who are super snooty you always compete with and they're not all that great of riders and you just want them to fail to take them down a notch. This sounds bad and I think I'm normally a nice person, just sometimes there's those people who get under your skin.

14. Describe the proudest or happiest moment you can think of in your riding career – Geez, I feel like I haven't had any super amazing moments, but so far I think winning my class at a dressage league show at First level this summer with a competitive class was super great. Also, completing Jetta's first recognized horse trial without getting eliminated was awesome.

15. Do you think any disciplines are cruel? Which one(s) and why? No, no discipline is. But certain methods that are prevalent in those disciplines or circuits can be.

16. Your worst riding habit? On Jetta, I lean forward. Only on her and it makes me seem like I can't ride. I have no idea why and it irritates me and all the trainers I work with to death.

17. When you’re in the show ring, what’s going through your mind? My test or course. And I'm trying to remember to breathe, though that doesn't always work out so well. And usually if I'm jumping I'm also mentally cussing when we chip in or refuse or I forget my course lol.

18. If you owned a barn, would you try for a laid back casual atmosphere, or a professional fast paced one? A combination of both. I would want it to be very welcoming and comfortable, but also very professional and clean and well run.

19. I give you a $2,000 gift card to your favorite tack store/online retailer, what do you buy? I would put it towards a CWD jumping saddle! I could probably buy one used online somewhere...

20. You’re riding in an arena at home with several other riders, and one of them obviously doesn’t know the rules of the ring, even though they’re posted. The others are clearly annoyed, would you do anything? I wouldn't say anything. Because I'm super quiet and non-confrontational and I wouldn't want them to hate me lol. I would just hope someone else would say something!

21. Worst fear riding? That I'll look like I don't know what I'm doing or that I'll embarrass myself. I'm not afraid of much, just self conscious.

22. How old do you imagine you’ll be when you stop riding, and what’s the cause? Hopefully I'll be super old and when I stop riding I'll probably be dead. 

23. If you could own any number of horses, would they all be the same discipline or a mix? Mix. Obviously based on this blog, I could never just choose one discipline!

24. Favorite colors for your horse? Aqua blue and navy blue. Though currently I'm also obsessed with how plum and gray look on Jetta.

25. Favorite tack brand? Don't have a favorite at the moment, but anything high quality pretty much!

26. If given the opportunity would you breeze a race horse? YES. I really hope someday someone will give me the opportunity since it's a dream of mine and it's on my bucket list. Really want to!

27. Three ‘You know you’re an equestrian when…’

You know you're an equestrian when your most expensive clothing items are all for riding. 

You know you're an equestrian when your home and/or car is also used for storing tack. 

You know you're an equestrian (and also not a morning person) when getting up for work or class early is a major struggle but you have no problem popping out of bed at 3am to get ready for a horse show.

Time for an Update

Wow, it's been a long time! Sorry for being such an awful blogger this month. Things have not been blog-worthy lately. 

But, here's what's been happening recently. 

First off, I got some exciting stuff in the mail!

First was the blogger gift exchange. Anyways, I asked for some of the Higher Standards saddle soap in lavender vanilla and that is what I got!

Thanks so much to Hawk for it, it even came with a nice little note :) 

So of course I immediately had to try it out. I love it. Anything that makes cleaning tack slightly more enjoyable is awesome. I loved the smell of the soap, it wasn't overpowering and cleaned GREAT. Even my girth that I sometimes have a hard time getting the sweat stains off came completely clean. This stuff gets an A++ in my book!

The second goody I got in the mail was the Equestrian Culture magazine. They had a kickstarter campaign to go to print so in return I got a year's subscription at a discount. I LOVE this magazine. It's laid out beautifully and had some neat articles. It's just so pretty! I think it needs to go on my bookshelf and get flipped through from time to time. I am obsessed with art which is a really heavy focus in this magazine. Let's just say that someday I'm going to need a house with a lot of walls...

I finally got to ride! I've ridden both a handful of times. Both were good but SUPER hyper. One day I just got off, pulled off tack/blankets and let them gallop around.

Crazy pony

Fancy pony

Hoping to take Jetta for a trail ride soon and I am planning on hauling out to an arena to ride Misty more. I went and looked at one barn out of the two I was planning on looking at. Not sure how I feel about it but I'll post more soon!

Snowy

Not too much excitement in my horse world right now. I've been wanting to post, mainly as a way to procrastinate on studying, but I don't have anything to talk about!

We've been having quite the cold front here this weekend, beginning Friday and possibly going until tomorrow? But we're not used to this cold! It was -3 degrees F the other morning when I got up to go to work. Brr. I'm not cut out for this cold! The coldest I can remember it being in the valley since I've lived here (for 14 years) was a week in the 8-10 degree range.

All I can say is that I wish it wasn't finals week and instead I was at my parents' house in front of the fire drinking eggnog and eating Christmas cookies and riding my horses in the snow and sledding, haha. Now that would be perfect!

Wish I was doing this! Our first snow ride in 2011

Still one of my favorite pictures of us to this day.

Luckily it sounds like the horses are doing fine, though they've recently decided that their hay is not up to their standards. So they are now BOTH getting alfalfa (stinkers, I think they know how to milk the system) in addition to their normal Orchard grass hay just to make sure they're eating enough forage to keep themselves warm. I'll probably make them some mashes once I get home to warm them up. Since everything's frozen, I guess my mom has been shoveling snow into their heated stock tank to provide water. My poor parents! I think my mom wins best parent award right there though.

In other exciting news, I finally have 100 followers! It took a while to go from 99 to 100, but now that we're here I can figure out a contest! I'm having a bit of a struggle thinking up something to give away, but I'll figure it out and once I do I'll announce the contest. And I know I keep saying this, but stay tuned for a contest in the (very) near future :)

5 Day Challenge - Day 1

Tracy at Fly on Over started this and it sounded like fun, plus with nothing exciting happening this week, I thought I'd join in!

1. Most influential person on your riding

My first two trainers would have to be the most influential. My first trainer, DVO, was very hard on me and eventually we parted ways because our personalities didn't match well, but she laid a very strong foundation and I will always thank her for introducing me to my first two horses and my love of training. My second trainer came after leaving DVO and she has been such a great friend and trainer. JF helped me start my first project horse and has most recently helped me get into doing cow work!

JF's just awesome all around

2. Piece of tack you’d love to splurge on

Seemingly like everyone else, it would definitely be a saddle. While I love my dressage saddle, I really want a new jumping saddle. I'd love a CWD (specifically an SEO2 with 3C flaps custom fit to my horse) or Antares saddle with long, forward flaps and a deep seat. Would also love buffalo leather. Drool...

 

So much want.

3. Top 5 riding playlist

I don't usually listen to music when I ride unless I'm in a bad or unmotivated mood, but I definitely do when I clean stalls. Here's my current top 5, though this list fluctuates dramatically from week to week.

Flaws - Bastille
Counting Stars - One Republic
Downtown - Lady Antebellum
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
Lose Yourself - Eminem

4. Most important aspect of your barn?

I don't think I can choose just one! But I guess my top priority would be good care of the horses - meaning they get fed regularly what they're supposed to get fed, they always have water, their stalls get cleaned daily, etc. But also a inviting/friendly atmosphere, turnout and arena with nice footing are also high up there on the priority list.

Of my current barn? The most important thing is that we have awesome turnout and that my parents take excellent care of my ponies.


5. Three winter riding goals

I don't have very cut-and-dry winter goals, but here's the general idea:

• With Jetta and dressage, prepare to show at second level, fine tune first level and introduce third level movements. 

This trot needs to make a reappearance/improve.

• Also with Jetta, continue working on jumping, make my lower leg more solid and get Jetta more confident over cross country-like fences. We probably won't get to school cross country until late spring, but hopefully we can still work on some things. I'd really, really like to show her at Novice this year, but the issue is cross country...
  

Someday we'll conquer this airplane jump.

• Continue to work on Misty in terms of jumping and dressage. I'd like her to be ready to show training and first level dressage at the beginning of the show season and take her to a one-day event at intro or BN as well. And hopefully there's going to be a winter ranch sorting series as well (fingers crossed!)

More cows!

Winter Blues

Ugh, every year. I hate winter. I hate that it's dark, I hate that it rains for 10 straight months, I hate that it's cold, I hate that there's no shows, I hate the mud, I hate that the trails are un-rideable, I hate that there's limited turnout, I hate everything about it. Except snow, I love snow! But that's it.

Even though it's only Week 2 of class (9 more weeks to go!) I'm already overwhelmed by everything and ready for the term to be over. None of my classes are bad, it's just that I'd rather be elsewhere... In addition to school, I'm also trying to set up clinics for the dressage team, sell Tux, be in other clubs, volunteer, and have time to ride my horse. It's driving me a little crazy.

Jetta is at least doing well under saddle which is a huge boost to my spirits. And this week I have a four day weekend to look forward to! So it's not all bad :)

Springtime Snow

Apparently the weather has not gotten the memo that it is now spring.

My brain has been filled to the brim with everything Organic Chemistry so now I am just wasting time while waiting for my last (!) exam of this term. I am so, so ready to be done. It was an awful idea to take 19 credits of difficult classes and it's been a terrible term. I know I probably sound like a broken record, but I'm just glad for it to be over! I feel so bad that I haven't been out to see Miss Jetta but I'll get to tomorrow and the rest of the week.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for exciting (ha) updates about Jetta, enjoy these pictures from this morning when I was walking back from my 8am final exam. I haven't had time to edit them yet, but you get the picture... literally, lol.

Nothing says spring like... snow and flowers?

Sad daffodils :(

Snow Days

Well our winter weather here has finally arrived. It has felt more like spring lately, with crisp sunny days and no rain. That is pretty much unheard of in my area - usually it rains every single day for the whole entire winter season. Either that or its cloudy and gray out. I've been enjoying the sun :)

The last two days though it has beeen snowing! I love the snow. It usually only snows once every winter and usually just a couple inches. We didn't have class yesterday because of the holiday, and unfortunately that was when most of our snow was. I had my fingers crossed that it would snow enough for school to be cancelled today, but no such luck. It's just slushing out right now. We did get a delay though which was nice.

Anyways, I took some pretty pictures of the snow. By the time I had made it out to the barn, there was very little snow and most of it had turned gray-ish/brown, lol. So no pictures of Jetta in the snow.