Year: 2014

1) Take off work. It’s even better if you take off work for the actual day and also the day after. SO has to do the same so that when you want something you get to say “but it’s my birthday!” and they’re required to do it.

2) Go ride your pony. When trainer does a double take and asks you why you’re there at 9:30am on a Tuesday, reply with gusto “It’s my BIRFDAY!!!! I don’t work on my BIRFDAY!!!”. Then he will laugh and offer you a free lesson as a birthday present. More details on the lesson in a minute.

3) Spend some time outside with the dogs. It really doesn’t matter if it’s 98 degrees, pack a picnic lunch, load up the dogs, and go for a hike. Even when it’s hot as balls Austin is still beautiful. Just bring a few dozen bottles of water.

4) Have Indian food for dinner. Because chicken tikka masala and stuffed naan. Boom.

5) Enjoy a brownie pull-apart cake and several Ace Berry ciders in the evening with good company.

 

I feel like I’ve finally mastered the art of How to Birthday.

As for the part everyone cares about, the lesson, I come bearing another diagram. The jumps are still set up the same, with the zig zag exercise, but we did it a little differently. First we did just the zig zag alone except started off the right lead, so it was right lead to the first jump in the zig zag, left turn rollback to the second, right turn rollback to the third, left turn rollback to the fourth, right turn rollback to the fifth.

Then we made a different course out of it.

 

It was just okay. Henry felt a little behind my leg and I still don’t really feel on my A game right now. I’m trying so hard to fix a lot of little things but only succeeding at about half of them at any one time, so I’m getting impatient with myself. I know it’ll come eventually but still frustrating. Very grateful for the surprise lesson anyway… the more we work on it, the better it’ll get.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes on Instagram and fb! Today we’re off to an ice cream factory for a tour and free ice cream, to cap off the celebrations. Because that’s how it’s done.

 

Tomorrow: tack swap/sale! Hope you’re ready.

I just can’t resist a blog hop like this one.

Hillary of Equestrian at Hart asked:

I want to know about what you ride in and why? Show us your Equestrian Fashion choices and tell us why you wear them!

Riding clothes are my favorite. Breeches, shirts, boots, helmets, gloves, socks, boots, belts… all the best things. Functional is important but I also want to look well put together and nicely turned out.

First, breeches. As we all learned last week, I’m obsessed with Animo. My second favorite is Tailored Sportsman, and these are the only two brands in my closet. I have navy Animo, french blue TS, charcoal TS and hunter green TS for schooling, then a pair of tan TS and a pair of tan Animo for showing. Since I do jumpers I am usually not limited to only tan for shows and some of my other breeches have been known to make an appearance. I’m fairly satisfied with my breeches collection except it needs more Animo and I feel like I’m in dire need of some Redwood or dark brown (or both).

For shirts we’ve also already covered my love of Kastel. I have 4 of those (with plans for more) in peach, white, gray/tan and royal blue. I also sometimes ride in a few old Essex show shirts or, if I’m feeling particularly fancy, a Le Fash – although I usually save those for shows. I also have a long sleeve Animo polo that I love but it only comes out in the winter.

As far as footwear I’ve got brown Mondoni tall boots and black Ariat Monaco’s. Generally the Monaco’s are for showing only but I’ll whip them out every once in a while for a lesson or something. I’m digging having brown boots a lot though. Whenever the Mondoni’s die I want to order Eiki customs in chocolate brown with navy piping, because I’m a little obsessed.

My GPA Speed Air is one of my favorite things, although I have a little Ovation Schooler that I use during the summer to prevent the GPA from developing The Funk. Both have their own Personally Preppy monogram of course.

I have to give a mention to hairnets here too, since I consider them essential and I’m honestly a total snob about them. I do proper “hunter hair” every single ride and having the right hairnet is really important. Aerborn heavyweights, all day every day. None of this fancy one knot or no knot or whatever other modern day voodoo they’re trying to bottle these days. No bobby pins, hair clips, double hair nets, panty hose, or what have you. If you know what you’re doing, an old school Aerborn heavyweight and a hair elastic is all you need. I’ve never once been unable to get someone’s hair done properly with just those things. And it takes less than 30 seconds.

As you can see, I’m a Roeckl-only girl when it comes to gloves. Nothing else lasts as long or looks as good or works as well for me. I absolutely love those things and need them in every color.

For socks I’m a little different – I really hate the “boot socks” sold by most equestrian manufacturers. Those thin little slippery things were great when everyone was still suffering through pull on boots but in our modern day zip-up boot era I mostly just find them annoying. They’re too thin and wear out too quickly. Instead I buy socks mostly from Sock It To Me . These things wear like iron, are thick enough to be comfortable, but at the same time they’re not too thick as to be hot or alter the fit of your boots. Plus they have some awesome ridiculous socks and I love ridiculousness. For how majorly stick-in-the-mud I am about hair, I’m the total opposite about socks. Be crazy, have fun.

  

Last but certainly not least… BELTS. The Mango Bay obsession is real.

Plus I’ve got a wide navy Equine Couture quilted belt, a couple of plain leather belts and a Peruvian belt on the way.

 

You’ve probably noticed by now that Hillary and I seem to have a lot of the same stuff. Mutual awesomeness, that’s the proper term for it…

 

I did so well last week with my whole “trying to be less fat” thing. I rode my bike 5 out of 7 days and rode my horse 4 out of 7. So naturally on Friday night when we had our Old Horse Friends Happy Hour I ate like a freaking pig. In my defense we decided this was my pre-birthday celebration and therefore we should order the Pazookie Party Platter. Let me show you what this looks like.

Basically we all got The Diabeetus and gained 5lbs in the process. Worth it. (Side note: my friend K who took this picture just started her own blog! Everyone should follow her, she’s cool and smart and has cute animals.)

On Saturday I was up early to go ride Henry. He was a little wild, which with him comes out as silly spookiness, so we did some snorting at random things and trotting sideways because the sandbags that are always sitting by the rail were STILL SITTING BY THE RAIL. Terrifying. But he settled fine once he got his sillies out and as usual left me giggling at his antics.

After I got home from the barn I had the bright idea that I should ride my bike over to visit my mom in one of Austin’s suburbs… cuz ya know… major day-after guilt from The Party Platter Diabeetus Incident. It really isn’t a bad journey, only about 19 miles round trip, and no major hills or bad traffic to negotiate. What I was failing to take into account is that it was 101 freakin degrees. I opted to wear a Kastel shirt instead of a regular bike jersey to keep the sun off my arms, but again failed to take into account that I wasn’t wearing gloves. Guess who has a super sexy hand sunburn? Guess who just about died of heat stroke by the time she got home? Total idiot. I will say though, that Kastel felt a million times better than my regular jerseys.

Sunday morning I was once again up bright and early (feeling like a tired sack of dog crap) for cyclocross practice. We did a warm-up ride through the park – aka by the time we were done with the warm-up sweat was rolling down my legs and face like someone had turned on a faucet – then proceeded to practice sprint starts 9,000 times. This could be a slight exaggeration, but not much. It was hell. Then we practiced barriers and run-ups, which I can only explain to you as a lot of running and carrying and other awful things like that. By the time we were done I was completely out of gas and really hot. So off I went for a lesson on Henry because as we’ve already discovered, I’m a total idiot.

Trainer had set up an exercise in the center of the ring that basically made a crap ton of turns and necessitated a steady collected pace and deeper distance if you wanted to succeed. Great… the exact things that take a lot of work for me, since I wasn’t already beat to shit. Note heavy sarcasm.

We went through the exercise a couple times with the jumps tiny, then put them up a little bit and did it a couple more times. When I actually sat up and rode and had a plan it worked out pretty well. I wish I could sit here and tell you that I sat up and rode and had a plan more often than not, but meh… 50/50. The fact that I was still on the horse by this point was kind of miraculous.

Then we added more jumps after the zig zag exercise. An outside line that rode in a short six, across the diagonal over what was also jump 4, to the other outside line also in a short six. They were set short enough to where if you jumped in from a gap or with much of a bold pace, it was a 5. Guess what I did the first time? Womp womp.

The second time was better, I actually rode to the deep one with a collected canter and the six worked out on both lines but I still felt like I was crooked and reacting instead of creating. At this point Trainer asked me if I was okay (pretty sure my face was past the color of a tomato) to which I replied “No, I’m about to fucking die. Let’s do it again.”. I really wanted to get it right.

Halfway through the last attempt I was starting to get dizzy but I managed to finish and it wasn’t awful. Still not really what I’d call great but passable. Henry and I were both cooked by then so we called it a day. My quads were quivering when I got off and I had to hose myself down in the washrack a couple times. Completely overdo yourself in one weekend? Yes please!

Video of the last part of the last attempt – best on full screen since it’s little. Also turn the sound on for Trainer’s glowing praise of “Alright… that was better” at the end. Hilarious. Poor guy, sometimes it really must be a struggle to be positive.

Henry Aug10 from amanda chance on Vimeo.

Attention other bloggers:

Since there seemed to be a lot of interest in this idea when I mentioned it yesterday I figured I would give everyone a heads up over the weekend. I do plan on setting this up next week, so now is the time to go through your stuff and make a list and take some pictures. Think of it as summer cleaning!

  

Several unrelated things happening here today, so I apologize in advance for the random.

First – today is the LAST DAY to use coupon code fbpony14 to receive 15% off your Mango Bay order. Get on it!

Second – I measured Henry for his PS of Sweden bridle last night. I was finally able to get in contact with them and they answered some questions for me, so I’m going to take the plunge and order one. It’s definitely different looking but I think it’s pretty and has the same general idea of a Micklem without being so ugly (IMO). I’m sure I’ll get lots of weird looks at shows but I’m okay with that. Hopefully it works for us. He measured pretty solidly in the middle of the cob size measurement range except for the upper part of the nose, where he was on the higher end. I was kind of hoping he’d measure as a full so the bridle would fit Sadie too, but I’m afraid it’d be too big for Henry. Cob it is.

Interesting to note: The prices on the PS of Sweden website include the 25% VAT that Euro buyers have to pay. Of course, I am not a Euro buyer so the bridle is actually only $267 for me. That makes it pretty reasonably priced considering it comes with reins. They are backordered until mid-month for the model I want and then it has to ship from Sweden so it could be a while until it arrives. Fingers crossed that it fits and we both like it! Total leap of faith here but I can’t get it out of my head so I’ve gotta give it a shot.

Third – As I’ve been going through my excess stuff lately I realized that I have several things just sitting around that I’d like to sell. Would anyone be interested in a “tack sale/tack swap” type of thing? Maybe in a blog hop style format or something? Open to suggestions. The idea just occurred to me the other day when I listed a couple things on a fb sale group and I figured I’d see if anyone else had any interest.

And for a little bit of Friday fun… since everyone enjoyed Henry’s tongue antics so much yesterday, I thought I’d make a video of a typical day with him and his weirdo tongue. This is what it’s like pretty much all the time, although the more bored he is the more he plays with his tongue. Last night he was pretty bored after all the measuring. 😉 Now you can probably see why I have more pictures of him making faces than I do of him standing there being normal.

Henryxties from amanda chance on Vimeo.