Month: April 2015

Apparently the weather gods don’t like me or something, because I feel like after the last horse trial…

… I should be owed some good weather for this one. Mother (effing) Nature disagrees apparently, because the headline when I open my weather app is “DAMAGING STORMS INCOMING”. Oh good, perfect! Thunder, lightning, rain, wind, chances of tornadoes – if that doesn’t say horse show weather I don’t know what does.

I’m so tired of complaining about the rain, I don’t even have any fight left in me anymore. I’m just gonna show up, see what happens, hope the weathermen are wrong, and quit caring because it’s beyond my control anyway. Let’s just hope there are no tornadoes… that would be unfavorable.

My ride times are actually just about as awesome as you could ask for with a one day event:

And we got a perfect spot in the stabling. I haven’t cleaned my tack or my boots yet because I figure as soon as I do, the skies will open up. I’ll clean them at the very last minute as as minimally as possible, that’s my strategy. I didn’t bathe my horse yet either. AND I packed a rain poncho. Take that, MotherEffing Nature. Two can play this game.

I did make a run to the store yesterday for push lights for the dressing room of the trailer, since we don’t have a hook-up spot this weekend. That makes it almost camping.

I also bought this at the store, because… well, I don’t feel the need to explain myself.

I even did something kinda responsible and bought a little black dry erase board so we can keep track of our ride times. Because we might end up drinking too many Wicked Mangoes and forget. If that’s not excellent planning I don’t know what is. Look at me, adulting and stuff.

I did manage to pack other useful things into the trailer too…

 

and get all my clothes ready. I have to admit, it brings me a perhaps strangely intense feeling of joy to lay all my show stuff out and just look at it. I love my stuff. If nothing else at least we’re well dressed while we’re getting soaked to the bone and covered in mud.

On that note, away we go. Everyone do their best anti-rain dance and send my brain lots of “Don’t do anything stupid” vibes!

 

 

 

It seems like fear is a pretty common thread to see among a lot of adult amateurs. Whether it’s fear of jumping, fear of jumping solid objects, fear of riding outside of the ring, or whatever else, I see and hear the word quite a bit. As someone who is not generally a fearful person or rider, I admit to not really understanding a lot of it. I have a hard time identifying with fear issues and therefore a hard time being sympathetic or knowing the right thing to say or do. So lets use this post as a discussion point and help educate me – if you’re afraid of something, what is it, and why are you afraid? Have you always been afraid or did it happen as a result of a specific incident? What have you done to try to overcome or cope with that fear, if anything? When you’re in a situation where you feel afraid, would you rather people leave you alone or encourage/support you? If you aren’t a fearful rider – have you always been that way or have you successfully eradicated those fears? If so, how?

In my ponderings, and in talking it over with some other friends, it seems like there’s two general categories of fear: fear of bodily harm and fear of failure. I can identify more with the fear of failure… I am never particularly scared, but certain things do make me uncomfortable (ahem dressage). The bodily harm part I don’t get as much. I’ve been hurt before and I’m sure I’ll be hurt again. That doesn’t mean I’m reckless, but “OMG I’m going to fall off and break something” or “OMG I’m going to get run off with” or “OMG I might get bucked off” is never really a thought that crosses my mind. It’s all happened to me before and wasn’t the end of the world so I guess I feel fairly nonchalant about it.

I also think that there’s a difference between fearless and reckless, although sometimes people use them interchangeably. There was one point as a teenager where I would have gotten on any horse and jumped it over anything, whether it was likely to get me killed or a horse ruined in the process or not. That’s reckless. But I also sat on a lot of different horses of varying levels of sanity, so I got to experience and ride through and survive a lot of various misbehavior, which probably contributes greatly to my lack of fear today.

These days, as a 30-something, I will still get on just about anything (except a dangerous rearer, because I’m not suicidal) and not be afraid to try things with it, but only things that I think are within a reasonable expectation for that horse and myself. I’m usually pretty darn willing as long as I feel like it’s not stupid.

While fear isn’t really something that enters into the equation for me, that’s not to say that my heart isn’t hammering at the in gate or in the start box. I get the “let’s do this, self” butterflies for sure. Again, not what I’d classify as fear though, just adrenaline. I feel pretty lucky to not have fear issues, but it also makes it really hard for to me to understand and identify with The Fear Factor when it comes up with others. So, fellow riders – lets discuss!

Horse baby season, that is.

Cartier/Portia colt from amanda chance on Vimeo.

Huge congrats to my good friend Michelle at Willow Tree Farm on her first foal of the season – a big, perfect, and gorgeous bay colt.

He’s by Cartier R

out of an A/O jumper mare, Portia, who is by Pikadero.

This guy should be a hunter derby or jumper star, and super amateur friendly! And it looks like he’ll stay bay, which is even better so he can keep his chrome. I think he is for sale too. 😉

I’m so glad it’s baby season, I love seeing all the pictures of the new foals on facebook! I am living vicariously through Michelle these days to get my horse baby fix. Next up for her will be my grandfoal – Sadie’s first baby – but it’s not due until July. I’m pretty sure I heard Michelle say she really wants a plain chestnut filly, so keep your fingers crossed. (I kid, I kid… that would be funny though… for me at least, since it’s not mine…)

I’ve opted out of a lot of TOA’s Blog Hop series because I figured people would get tired of me constantly talking about how awesome I think my horse is. But this one is like a collection of all those awesome things, therefore a summation, therefore I’m not sorry at all for what you’re about to endure.

Beka wrote: In honor of Archie’s 18th birthday, tell me 18 things you love about your horse. I could do 18 things about Sadie too but I figure there would really be zero readers left by the end of that, so we’ll stick to just Henry.

1. I love how goofy he is.

2. I love his color – bay with no white is easy.

3. I love his canter.

4. I love how we have the same personality. As in “EFF OFF! Oh wait, you have food, j/k luvs youse…”.

5. I love how willing he is to do new things.

6. I love that he always gives 100%.

7. I love that he’s such a fast learner and always retains things from one ride to the next.

8. I love that he’s a thoroughbred.

9. I love that he’s sensitive – it makes me a more self aware rider.

10. I love that he’s really easy to deal with for day-to-day stuff: clips, loads, stands well for the farrier, ties and crossties reliably, etc.

11. I love that he puts up with all my bullshit and hasn’t killed me yet.

12. I love how photogenic he is.

13. I love that he can have a week or two (or four) off and never needs a lunge.

14. I love that I can ride him bridleless.

15. I love that he’s good with cats and dogs and doesn’t mind them standing under him or running around him.

16. I love that he’s forgiving and doesn’t hold a grudge.

17. I love how proud of himself he is after XC.

18. I love that I found him on facebook and bought him through Paypal – it’s certainly the internet age!

I’m gonna back up all the way to Thursday night first, even though that’s really not the weekend. We had a great jumping lesson to add to the positive momentum from our great dressage lesson on Tuesday. Different trainer, different disciplines, but both really positive with encouraging comments about Henry and his progress. Hopefully we can keep that momentum going since we have our first event of the year this weekend. I’ve now had two dreams about forgetting my dressage test and getting eliminated, which actually happened to someone in the CIC*** at the The Fork this past weekend (well, she learned the wrong test but same thing) and solidified my weird nightmare. My neuroses are strong right now. Of all the stupid mistakes to keep having dreams about, I have no idea why that’s the one.

On Friday we just went for a walk down the road as a reward for a good week, and then did the same on Saturday – except this time with friends. It was the 5 year anniversary of the opening of my barn so we had a group ride and then a little party. Lots of fun and food and cider was had.

 

 

My stuff that I ordered from Calevo a few weeks ago when the dollar and Euro were almost equal finally arrived, too. I nabbed an Equiline coat, navy with golden yellow piping (my colors) for only $170, and it fits like it was tailor made for me. I’m really in love with it so far. After I ride in it I’ll do a proper review but man… I want to wear it 24/7. So stretchy and pretty.

I got some Pikeur X-Grip breeches as well, which also fit nicely, but I’m not sure how much I like them. I just find myself comparing everything to ADE and Animo and they all come up short. We’ll see if I keep them or not, I’m kind of undecided at this point. I’m loving my dressage Ogilvy though, just really hoping I can keep the white clean. Anyone ever Scotchgarded fabric like this? Seriously considering it.

Oh – and I’m pretty happy with how he’s gaining on the Triple Crown Complete. I wish he would waste less of it as he flings his bucket around (grrr), but at least I’m seeing a difference!