Author: Amanda C

Guess who got a real, genuine leather, CUSTOM saddle and is no longer riding in a Wintec? That’s right, this douchebag:

A few months ago I came across a picture of a really cool saddle on facebook that was in Bobby’s colors, so I sent it to him. He actually said it was beautiful, and I politely encouraged him to ask how much it was. It was made by a very small saddlery in the UK, so I thought maybe the price could be reasonable. And while yes it was SUPER reasonable for a custom saddle, it was a bit more than Bobby could justify spending. So he did what any self-respecting manchild would do and dropped many not-at-all subtle hints to his bf Dustin about what a good birthday present it would be. Dustin pretended to laugh it off, but he’s a devious one…

And so began the process of Dustin and I plotting behind Bobby’s back to get him his dream saddle. Dustin emailed the maker about ordering and payment, and I provided the fit details (seat size, flap length, forwardness, etc) and the tracing of Halo’s back. This was a pretty massive secret operation, trying to get the saddle just right but not let Bobby catch on to what we were doing.

Dustin was able to pull off the extra miraculous feat of getting the saddle delivered to him in about a month. Pretty amazing turnaround time for custom, and the saddle is beautiful.

When it arrived, Dustin asked me when I thought he should give it to Bobby and I said please god do it immediately. #1 keeping secrets as amazing as this one is physically painful for me, #2 if he’s gonna show in it on his birthday at his first recognized Training with Halo, he needs to ride in it a little bit first. Guess who legit cried when he got his saddle? He also told me he loved me. Twice. Just for the record.

Because Dustin is the best human ever, he also asked me if Bobby needed any accessories to go with his new saddle. I happily directed him to a real bridle (no more plastic bridle!) and a new saddle pad from Riding Warehouse, plus the saddle maker provided leathers with red stitching to match. He is 100% re-outfitted and ready to look like a total badass. My little Bobby is growing up!

I have never been so excited for someone else to get a present. I feel like we’ve all won here. I also want to go on record with a few direct quotes from a newly-reformed Bobby:

• “My girth actually works. But wintec is shit so maybe I should go buy a fancy one for him.”
• His comment after he gave me his navy saddle pad “It’s gross, it doesn’t match. I can’t have it near the saddle. It hurts my eyes. I’m buying another pad today so I have two schooling pads. White red or black…..”
• “I want to burn this ugly plastic shit!”

I need a new skull cap. The very cheap, purchased-on-clearance one that I bought last year isn’t fitting me so well now that I’ve cut off 5″ of hair and all the padding inside of the helmet has compressed. There’s more slippage than I feel safe with, so I need something better.

The only other skull cap I’ve ever owned was a Charles Owen, and it was too round for my very long oval head. Granted, I don’t remember which model it was or how it compared, shape wise, to other models. So that’s helpful. The only other brand I’ve tried on was a One K and it was far too round as well. There are a lot of new brands and models out on the market since the last time I really truly shopped for one, but I’m not sure how all of them fit and I’m at a bit of a loss as to where to begin. There aren’t exactly a lot of skull caps in the shops around town, so I don’t have the luxury of trying a bunch on in person.

Since I really only wear a skull cap for XC, I don’t want to spend a ton of money. So – best long oval shaped skull cap under $200?

Of course the two that I’m most interested in, safety rating-wise and review-wise, are the Gatehouse RXC1 and the Champion Ventair Deluxe, which are only sold overseas. Typical.

 

But on the more entertaining side, while looking around at skull caps on random British websites (they have so many more options) I found plenty of helmets and helmet related accessories that I don’t want. Because it’s impossible for me to ever stay on task. And also because who wouldn’t be distracted by these things?

I call this one “My Starry Eyes Are Bleeding”:

Or the “Big Eq Barbie” (as dubbed by Karen):

Or the “I Always Wanted a Browband to Match My Horse”

Carry on…

What, you haven’t gotten a tattoo with one of your parents?

My dad has all kinds of cool stuff on his goals list for the year, including run a half marathon (which he already did) and getting his first tattoo, which is now also a checkmark in the “done” column. I hope I’m this badass at 63.

On Saturday after the horse show I met him at his house and we went to get tattoos. He’s been wanting to get Pigasus and I have several on my list, so why not go together?

I got a quote (I have this quote on lots of stuff, just none of which are on my body or permanent):

Yes, more Narnia stuff. It’s a great quote and it reminds me of my mom, so it seemed perfect. The crown (hard to tell, but it’s purple) above the “C” in courage is from the logo she used for all of her quilting stuff:

I think she would like it. ❤

Originally this show was supposed to be on the 13th, but we got massive amounts of rain and they had to reschedule. I was debating scratching either this one or the combined test on Saturday, but finally decided it could actually be good for us to compete two days in a row. Miles and all that.

This show was a derby – we had dressage first, then about an hour break until a mixed round of XC and stadium. There were 12 XC fences and then once you landed from the last XC fence you just kept going and jumped 7 stadium fences. I thought this could definitely be a challenge for us, considering that XC Henry isn’t exactly ideal for stadium. I also entered Training, and while it was soft, there were still a few max height fences and some combos. I was just hoping for a clear XC and maaaaybe a low ribbon. This show has badass prizes, and I wanted a badass prize.

Dressage was fine. I got on and let him canter a few laps until he relaxed, and basically warmed him up the same way as Saturday. It was really cold but he felt good… calm, in my hand, listening. If anything maybe a little too quiet, which I’m totally ok with. Considering we spent all of last year not cantering in dressage warm-up because his brain fell out afterward, I’m cool with too-quiet-after-cantering. He was a little more tense in the test itself, but overall ok (another “not brilliant, but not awful” test) and good enough for a 36.1 and 4th place after dressage.

After a quick course walk and tack change, back out to warm-up we went.  We trotting and cantered a few laps, then I opened up and let him gallop a bit (Training speed feels really fast to my micro-managing self so I needed to get myself thinking forward), cantered three fences, then walked up to the start. Hopefully this is the last helmet cam video using the GoPro, since the new one should be here this week. I was having a hard time getting it to stay put, soooo sorry in advance for all the jostling. The damn screw thingy (technical term) doesn’t stay tight anymore.

I came out of the box a little aggressive, wanting to make time, and Henry was totally game on. My goal was to NOT pull on him or try to micromanage (my favorite hobbies), and he pretty much took me to everything without a second thought. Big white skinny ramp, ditch combo, bank combo, water… Henny got dis! Henny got dis a little too much at fence 9 where we almost died. Ok we didn’t almost die but I almost crapped myself. Note to self: ride better. Note to Henry: I’m still in charge. In general I tried to let him just flow forward, tried to stay out of his way, and we saved ground wherever we could.

I jumped the last XC fence in more of a hand gallop, since we literally landed and cantered straight ahead to jump 1 of stadium. He came back pretty politely and jumped the first three fences really well (and I found the base!), then wised up to what we were doing and tapped a couple (coincidence that it was the two fences I had a teeny bit of a gap to? Neh…).

His minimalistic efforts in stadium give me heart palpitations, but they stayed up and we finished double clear. We made time on XC too, so we ended on our 36.1, moving up from 4th to first!

The prizes did not disappoint, it was like mini-AEC. Two gift certificates, an engraved plate, an embroidered belt, a saddle pad, a hat, and a set of Equiflexsleeves. And we won the TIP award for Training (highest placed TB) which got us another ribbon and a Jockey Club backpack. I’ve been tying to win a TIP award with Henry for two years, so I was pretty excited about that!

Overall I’m pretty happy with how Henry handled everything. He was brave and happy, and is getting to be a total pro at hauling and standing tied at the trailer. It wasn’t mistake-free… it wasn’t one of those shows where I walked away feeling like I’d done a particularly great job (I could write another whole post about that), but in the interest of being less self-critical I’ll just say we dipped our toes into the shallow end of Training and didn’t die. We have a lot more work to do before we’re ready for “real” Training, but it’s good to feel like I’m sitting on a confident horse that likes his job and seems eager for more.

Now we go back to plugging away at lessons, then a recognized Novice in Louisiana next month, then more lessons. Keeping our sights on Coconino…

Yes, show recap #1, because we had two shows this weekend!

I was pretty sure I was going to die on Saturday. Let me explain.

I entered Training at both shows, and Wednesday was the first time I tried to run through Training test A. It was really bad. Like the worst ride I’ve had on Henry maybe ever. I never actually made it all the way through the test a single time. Then on Friday night a cold front blew through, dropping the temperature from the mid-80’s to the upper 40’s and leaving behind a 25+mph wind. I thought really long and hard about scratching, but instead I just sent Bobby a quick fb message to bequeath Henry to him and put on my Big Girl Pants.

I unloaded my horse kite (see below) around dawn, because naturally I was the first rider of the day. It’s a small venue geared more toward beginners, so I was the only one in Training. I tacked up my kite while trying to keep him attached to the trailer but off of my feet, took a flying leap onto his back like a spider monkey, and we snorted and spooked our way down the road toward warm-up. Yep… definitely going to die.

As soon as I got to the warm-up ring I got into as much of a half seat as I could manage in a dressage saddle and just let Henry canter until he quit spooking. It really wasn’t that long, maybe 5 minutes, then I was able to pick up contact, sit on him, and start warming him up for real. He was definitely tense but fairly obedient, so after a few lengthenings and some leg yield I decided to wander over to the ring and let him look at it for a few minutes before we went in. He hairy-eyeballed the potted plants at the letters and I could totally feel him stiffen from nose to tail when the big wind gusts blew, but what do you know, he went in there and was actually pretty good.

No movement was amazing, but none were awful either. A lot of the comments were “tense” (well… yeah the wind was literally about to blow us over) but I got the good ol’ “tactfully ridden”, which I’m pretty sure is code for “good job not getting killed”. Ha.

After a quick tack change (not really, I couldn’t even tack my horse up because the wind was blowing so hard, shit just kept blowing off) I hopped on for stadium. I was freezing to death and ready to go home so I cantered two laps each way, jumped two fences, and went in the ring. They set the jumps really soft, only two were 3’3″ and the rest were 2’9″-3′. I tried to move up past the distance at jump 1 (because I dunno, history of bad judgment?), and Henry was a little over-enthusiastic, but other than that it was fine. A hard rub but luckily it stayed up.

Then I stuffed Henry full of treats, picked up my dressage test, tossed him in the trailer, and left. I was dying of cold. Yes it was only 50. Whatever. I couldn’t feel my legs or my face. I had gotten quite used to the 80’s last week, thank  you very much. My desire to be warm far outweighed my desire to wait for a 1st-out-of-1 ribbon.

The pone is pretty cute though. And by the end he was no longer a kite anymore, so that’s a plus.

And then it was on to our Sunday adventures…