Musical Horses

One of the things I love about being at a boarding barn is the social aspect - having friends at the barn is pretty awesome.

Yesterday was so much fun, a bunch of us were all riding at the same time and we decided to trade off horses. The two middle-school girls took turns riding Katy while ML rode one of their horses, Willow. ZS and I swapped so she rode Jetta and I rode her horse Cisco.

Jetta was so good! I was a little worried because ZS is a western pleasure rider and Jetta is, well, a bratty dressage/jumper horse some of the time :) Anyways, ZS and Jetta did great together and I had a blast riding Cisco.

While I do ride western, mainly I do trail and some reining with a tiny bit of western pleasure in the mix. I've never ridden a finished western pleasure horse and I have to admit that it was a whole lot of fun! I'm not a fan of the four beat lope that looks like the poor horse is crippled, and while Cisco can go incredibly slow, he didn't bob his head or carry it super low. And it was fun!

I made him go a bit faster than he's "supposed" to go (still a ton slower than I'm used to on Jetta) and I made him do flying changes and jogging and stopping. I'm sure he was not as enthused about me riding him as I was. I know what a spur stop on a horse is, and how to ride it, but I've never done it before. Very interesting. If you don't know what it is, it's when you apply both spurs to the horse to get them to slow down and drop their head and neck. This way you don't have to pull on the reins. To go forward you use your calves or one spur. It took me a minute to figure out how to lope but then I didn't want to stop! I might just have to steal him :) Especially because ZS's parents want to send him back to where they got him because he's got horrendous ground manners. He bites and kicks and rears though you can tell he knows he's not supposed to, but I guess he's gotten away with it enough from his previous owners that it's pretty ingrained now. I'd love to work with him for a couple weeks and see if I can help her out, but ZS is a pretty experienced horse person and doesn't let him walk all over her and he's still pretty naughty.

I wish I had a picture of me riding him, I'm sure we looked ridiculous with me in my breeches and tall boots with giant western spurs on.



This is the image I got when I googled musical horses.
Just think of us as less pink and frilly ;)


And don't forget to enter the contest if you haven't already! It's still open until Friday. Thank you everyone who has entered so far :)

Contest: FAIL

So... Bad planning on my part. We had a grand total of two people enter the contest, and while I could have those two people be automatic winners in the contest, it's not really a contest then! (But thank you Kate and SprinklerBandit for actually entering!!) So I'm extending the contest for an extra few days. Enter by this Friday, June 3rd to win a t-shirt (like the one pictured to the right or the Dressage Love one by Behind the Bit) or a photo collage. To see the prizes and enter, go to this post here. It's really easy, I promise! All you have to do is leave a comment on the post (not this one, the original one) and you'll be entered for the drawing. Let's see how many people will enter this time :)

What I do when procrastinating...

Laptop screen shopping. Somewhat akin to window shopping, albeit through my computer. I am a master at procrastination - I wait until the day before something is due and then in one fell swoop I get the whole project done. Admittedly it would have been much easier to get something done in the two weeks prior to it being due, but hey, I work well under pressure :)

I am yearning for summer and right now it is pouring down rain outside... so what am I laptop screen shopping for? Summer clothes. I've found some really cute equestrian inspired stuff that I thought I'd share. While I'm putting off doing my terrible, horrible statistics homework.

Ecote Equestrian Ankle Boots



Modcloth Full Steed Ahead Dress




Forever 21 Equestrian Racerback Tank


I'm sorry if anyone reading this likes these, but I think the by far silliest equestrian inspired clothing item out there is the jodhpur pants. Don't get me wrong, I like my breeches, but I prefer to stick to wearing them around horses. That, and the price tag of these pants are just ridiculous. $2000! That is not a typo, two thousand dollars! Can anyone think of functional designer breeches that cost that much? But I guess you're just paying for the brand name when you buy these:



Ralph Lauren Black Label Jodhpur Suede Pants


And don't forget to enter the contest here by Monday at 5pm. Just leave a comment and you will be entered! So far only one person has entered (really?!) so chances are that you have a pretty good chance at winning!

Weekend Contest

Contest! Ok, after much deliberating, I have decided on a contest. All you have to do is leave a comment saying you would like to enter the contest and you will be entered! If you are a follower of this blog and you leave a comment you will automatically get two entries!

So what is the prize? Well, there will be two winners. You can get a T-shirt: choose either a Thoroughbred Adventure or a Dressage Love design (from Behind the Bit blog).

Or you can choose to recieve a custom photo collage poster, similar to the one below (I'll be using a different program to make the collage so it will actually be a lot better than the sample below!). You can send me your own pictures that you want included or I can use all of my own pictures, or a combination of both.

So, leave a comment on this post with your preference (t-shirt or collage) by Monday 5/30/11 at 5 pm. Winners will be randomly drawn out of a bucket and announced on Tuesday where you will have to check back to see who won and send me your contact info!  

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

So exciting! Well, at least I'm excited, but I may just be weird like that. Love getting pictures of me and my horses, and it shows me how Jetta and I look together!





The last picture makes me laugh, she's over jumping but she's just so cute! Overall, I'm thrilled with the pictures because these are my first ones of her jumping! My baby's growing up, *sniff*.

Interesting Dressage...

Love this! I can't tell you how many similarities there are with this and how Jetta feels right now. She has improved so much but it can still be very interesting...

My Picks: Favorite Grooming Products

Well, it's that time of year to get the horses all cleaned up to start showing! Or just for heading out on the trails if the show scene is not for you. My horses have mostly finished all of their shedding already (thank goodness!) and I can't wait to start going to some shows. I thought I'd share a few of my favorite grooming products, on the off chance that you haven't used these before and were maybe looking for some good grooming tools:

Canter Mane & Tail Detangler - Best detangler ever! Not only does it last for days (seriously, if you don't believe me, go try it), it also works well and smells wonderful. Like roses, in case you were wondering :) Previously I always used Cowboy Magic Detangler or Showsheen, but the Cowboy magic bottles leaked goo everywhere and it wasn't very easy to get even coverage with the gel, plus it didn't last long. The Showsheen was similar, love it for their coats, but not the mane and tail.
Unfortunately it's super hard to find in stock around here, so whenever I do find it I buy it!

Furminator - A super, duper shedding blade on steroids! This tool is great when you're dealing with horses shedding out massive amounts of hair. It comes off so quickly and easily, no elbow grease needed. While this tool can be a little expensive, there are other brands on the market that work just as well because the basic design is the same. I think I've got my money's worth out of mine though, going on three years running!

Showsheen Finishing Mist - Showsheen has always been my go-to grooming product for silky and shiny coats in the show ring. This is a new product and it's the best Showsheen product out there in my opinion. They made it smell better, which is a bonus in my opinion because I always thought that the regular formula smelt like glue! Anyways, the continuous mist makes it easy to spray on and get an even coat without soaking random patches of your horse.

QuicSilver Whitening Shampoo - If you've ever had a horse with white on them, you know how hard it is to keep them clean. I use this on all my horses white socks and go through a ton of it trying to keep Katy clean. Ah, the joys of keeping a white horse white. This is the only product I've used so far that will seriously get rid of any dirt/grass/urine stains no matter what. For particularly ingrained stains some serious scrubbing might be in order, but this shampoo is a staple in my bucket of bathing tools.

Laube Speed Clippers - Favorite clippers!! Please don't try to use the cheap-y clippers that cost around $20-$30, they usually don't work. Especially when you've got a horse with unbelieveably thick hair. I've had these clippers for four years and I never had a problem until I lost them :( But I got a new pair! I've used them to shave bridle paths, whiskers and body clip too. They're cordless, which is one of my favorite aspects and the blades are sharp and cut through hair oh so easily.

EQ Solutions Body Wash - Another bathing favorite makes giving baths so, so much easier. Attach the hose and turn the dial and presto! It makes it easier to spray water on without having to hold your thumb over the end of the hose, it works well, and get this: you can even leave the shampoo on and it won't irritate their skin. Get the horse wet, spray on shampoo, spray off shampoo, spray on shampoo again and leave it. The coat is super soft after using this shampoo.

Horse Shaves - These are always floating around in my trailer and grooming bag for show days. They're very handy little razors that you can bring a couple with you just in case you forget to clip your horse or notice a few stray whiskers you missed. These guys are sharp so use with care! Also good for horses afraid of clippers, yet need their whiskers trimmed.