Author: Amanda C

First: on Friday I got the one pro picture that I ordered from our event. My experience with the photographer was… interesting and unusual to say the least, but that is a long and winding rant story for another day. Until then, I present SUPER WATER PONY!

Last Thursday’s dressage lesson was a hard one for Henry (we’re starting to ask for more difficult work from him) so I decided to keep the weekend pretty low key to give his brain a break. He tries so hard that sometimes he gets flustered and upset when he’s learning new stuff but can’t quite figure it out, thus I wanted to just take all the pressure off and let him do things that are fun and easy. Saturday my fabulous photo-taking friend Amy was able to come back out, and I really wanted to get some pictures of things for upcoming blog reviews, so I just did a short hack out in the field then I got off and we played photo shoot.

I wasn’t going to share any of the non-riding pictures until later, but my pony looks so darn handsome I can’t help but pick a few. Sorrynotsorry.

On Sunday I put his hackamore on, tossed on my Ogilvy pad to spare my lady bits, and hopped on for a bareback hack. One of the recurring themes in my dressage lessons is that I tend to get stiff and tense in my hips, which in turn translates to the horse. I’ve been working a lot on loosening my hips, following the movement, not gripping with my upper thigh etc. Bareback, especially on my bouncy ball of a horse, is fantastic for that. You grip and tense up – you bounce and fall off and die. You loosen your thighs and let your hips go with the motion – you’re golden. So we spent about 20 minutes just walking around the property then did 10-15 minutes of flatwork in the field. No bit and no saddle shines a really big spotlight on how effective your aids are, and Henry was super. He is such an honest horse that he really goes however well you ride him. Which I believe is true of the vast majority of horses, but it’s especially true of this one, pretty much 100% of the time. He teaches me just as much as I teach him, if not more.

At the end I tried to get him to turn his head so I could get a picture. He wasn’t that interested.

So I bribed him with a cookie.

And got blurry shark horse. Picture fail.

Aside from that it was a fairly uneventful weekend, which is kinda what I needed and wanted after the previous week. I did manage to gather all my sale stuff together, clean it, and get pictures. I’ll have all that up tomorrow.

We also put our Christmas tree up! SO kept grumbling something about me having too many horse ornaments. I dunno what the heck he’s talking about, personally.

First, thanks to everyone who shared and/or expressed interest in my logo contest. I’m super excited to see what y’all come up with! I also decided that if I get enough entries, or several really awesome ones that make picking a winner hard, I will offer smaller prizes to the 2nd and 3rd place logos as well. Not sure yet exactly what those will be, but something cool. I promise.

In other news, I had a dressage lesson last night. I’ve figured out by now that dressage just hurts. It hurts my brain, hurts my legs, hurts my abs, and hurts my pride. You win, dressage… you win. But lookie at how cool the Tardis Blue Annie’s breeches look! I’m pretty in love with them – best breech color ever. Thanks Annie’s!

If you haven’t seen it already, Now That’s the Spot is hosting another blog hop tack swap, so if you’re looking for good deals or have anything else you want to clear out before the holidays, go check it out. I’ll be going through my stuff this weekend and posting next week so I can start trying to accrue money for Belgium. Buy things.

On that sad “I’m so horse poor” note… Henry’s almost-favorite Santa (he has many because he’s an extra good boy) is gifting him with a PS of Sweden dressage bridle. He was gracious enough to let me pick which one, so I’ve narrowed it down to two:

the Flying Change Revolution (comes with a plain leather browband)

Super gorgeous customer photo here

or the High Function Revolution

Happy Friday!

 

Calling all creative types – it’s time to put on those thinking caps!

I have decided it’s finally time for me to upgrade my little blog to it’s own domain name. Along with that upgrade I’d really like to roll out an official “The $900 Facebook Pony” logo. Unfortunately I’m not creative in the slightest when it comes to that stuff, so I figured why not turn it into a win-win situation and offer a contest!

Fun part first – what you win:

A prize pack with a product from each of the businesses featured on the sidebar of my blog page. From PS of Sweden you get snap-on dark brown leather running martingale rein stops and a pretty leather keychain with the PS logo. From Mango Bay, a beautiful belt of course! From Firefly Bonnets – a one of a kind baby pad with the Firefly logo, in white with black trim and lime piping. You cannot buy these anywhere, it is the only one in existence. And last but certainly not least, Luxe EQ is graciously offering a Kastel sunshirt with their logo on it. That’s a lot of awesome swag (about a $150 value but who’s counting).

 

What you need to do to win all that awesome stuff:

Please read this part, it’s important! All entries must

– include the name The $900 Facebook Pony

– be a vector logo

– if it is in color (doesn’t have to, just saying if) including some kind of blue is preferred.

– submit your best logo designs to me at charliebrowntb (at) hotmail (dot) com.

– title the email CONTEST ENTRY so I don’t accidentally junk it.

There is no limit to how many you can submit – the more the merrier. It does not have to be professional quality by any means, and I’m not expecting anything professional, just a cute logo to put on my page. Entries must be submitted by December 31. A winner will be chosen no later than January 2, 2015, and will be announced here on the blog and on Instagram. Please understand that by submitting the logo you are agreeing that I can use it on this blog, on social media, and possibly on some official “$900 fb pony” gear if I love the logo enough to wear it. If the gear happens, you will receive some of that as well. Basically you’ll be famous and have lots of cool stuff to show for it.

Ready, set, create!

 

On Monday when I went out to ride Henry the weather had taken quite an ugly turn. The day before it was in the upper 70’s and sunny, then all the sudden it was cloudy and in the 40’s. Super. But I was determined to get in some pony time so out I went, in every jacket I own (all 3 of them). It should be noted here that Henry is the most rock solid steady horse I’ve ever owned. He is exactly the same horse every time you ride him, no matter how long its been since his last ride, no matter what the weather is, and no matter what the circumstances are. He puts up with me, he tries hard, and he generally wants very much to please and be a good boy. So when I got on and felt a little bit of a fresh and naughty feeling horse underneath me, I was amused.

I made the mistake of putting his sidepull hackamore on him and choosing to ride in the field. He proceeded to scout out all the tall grass from of the corner of his eye, put his head between his knees like an evil pony, and drag me to them. I was powerless to stop him and it took at least 15 seconds of yelling, pulling, kicking, and yanking for me to get his head back up. That happened several times… once even at a canter he tried to do a drive-by munch. The evil gleam in his eye was more like what you’d expect from a pony. A fat evil pony. That’s when I realized that to the casual onlooker it probably looked like a total Thelwell pony situation. Him blissfully dragging me to the tall grass and stuffing his face while I tried futilely but valiantly to stop him. I’m no match for a 16.1h Thelwell pony.  As I thought about it more I realized that pretty much everything about Henry goes right along with the Thelwell theme. Yes… my 7yo TB totally has an old lesson pony soul. He doesn’t buck or bolt when he’s wild, instead he drags me around to patches of grass. I present to you: Henry explained.

How he thinks dressage should go

Pretty much exactly how we look on cross country

Pretty much exactly how we look in stadium

His facial expression in every lesson

Because this is what he thinks I’m doing up there

How it looks EVERY SINGLE TIME I try to get him to leave the barn

His general outlook on life when you don’t give him cookies

Hence why he gets lots of cookies

How I feel about him pretty much all the time

What he constantly dreams of doing but is far too kind to ever actually do

And that’s why I love him. Even when he’s naughty and drags me to the grass, and I’m up there kicking away like a ridiculous pony kid.

 

You’d best do all you can to figure out how to answer the door.

Anyone who’s read this blog consistently probably knows that I’m really into sporthorse breeding and stallions.

Like here: Let’s Make a Baby!

And here: My Love Affair with Stallions

And here: Valentino Z photo extravaganza

I worked at a breeding farm for a while, my mare Sadie is a homebred, and hopefully I’ll have a new youngster coming in 2016. So… breeding nut status is well established.

Last week I got a call from a breeder friend, asking if I had any interest in going to Belgium in March to visit lots of big time breeding farms, see some world famous stallions, and attend the annual Belgian Warmblood stallion selection show.

The answer: DUH! Of course I want to go! That’s like asking a 5yo kid if they wanna go to Disneyland. Or a 20yo girl if she wants to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (side note: I want to go there too). Sadly, money is tight these days since all of my extra is being filtered into the “Get Henry to AEC’s” fund. Then she said that all I’d really have to pay is airfare because of the perks of the group of VIHP’s (very important horse people) that I’d be traveling with. Well that gets more interesting, and more doable.

Alas, airfare is still over 1k plus I’d have to get a passport plus a little spending money for food and whatever else – about $1500. I’ve already tapped out a lot of my “I need extra money” gigs in my attempt to rake in more horse show money, booking some barn-sitting and a little mobile tack shop work when I can. Now I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to come up with extra-extra money for Belgium. I have no idea if I’ll actually be able to pull this off, but I’m gonna give it the good ol’ college try. It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity of pretty epic proportions.

So on that note – looks like it’s time for all of my hunter stuff to go. Yes that means the beloved shadbelly with custom points, my Ovation hunter bridle from back when the Ovations still looked identical to Edgewood, the used-once hunter show pad, the blue Horseware coat, etc. I’ll come up with an official list later this week. In the mean time if you’re looking for something specific, please ask. Now is the time while I’m weak and vulnerable. 😉

Cross all your crossables… maybe I’ll be able to pull this off!