Author: Amanda C

The fun part first: congrats to Hillary H., you’ve won the Mango Bay belt giveaway! Check your email for details on how to claim your prize. Big thank you to everyone who participated – this was the biggest weekend ever on my blog and there were almost 70 entries in the giveaway! If you didn’t win, get on over to Mango Bay and buy yourself something nice to ease your sorrow.

My weekend was decidedly horsey and not much else. After a hellacious week at work I pretty much just vegged and watched documentaries on Netflix when I wasn’t at the barn. Friday night was dinner/happy hour with a couple of my favorite horsey friends, then I went to bed early. Party animal – that’s me. On Saturday I got to the barn in the morning to try to beat the heat a little. Apparently everyone else had the same idea – the barn was bustling!

We focused mostly on lateral work and lengthenings, and just being steadier with the contact in general (mostly MY issue). Henry was really super and gave me some really nice moments. Despite several walk breaks and a long cool down walk around the property, he’s still getting way hotter than he should. Not really sure what’s up with him but he’s not handling the heat very well. He’s sweating great, works normally (not lethargic or dull), drinks very well, seems well hydrated, and doesn’t seem distressed when we’re actually working, but by the time I get off he’s very hot and breathing very hard. Even just standing in his stall in front of his fan he’s sweaty and pretty warm. Planning on calling the vet today to see what she thinks. It’s really not even hot yet by Texas standards but it is WAY more humid than normal, so I’m not sure if that’s a contributing factor. He is and always has been a Southern horse though so he should be used to it… I’ve never had a horse have this hard of a time with the heat, even my non-sweater. But this seals the deal on no horse showing for the summer – he’s obviously not a hot weather creature. I’m okay with that since we have the barn move coming up in a couple weeks anyway.

On Sunday morning I decided to focus on transitions, and that wasn’t a particularly great idea. We did the 15-15-15 exercise (15 steps walk, 15 trot, 15 canter, 15 walk, etc etc) which he did pretty well about 4-5 times the first direction, but mentally fell apart the other direction. It was just too much and he got very anxious and worried about any tiny move I made. So instead I had to redirect the ride and spend the rest of it walking and trotting around, getting him to stretch out and relax again. Note to self: he’s not ready for that exercise yet. Point taken, Henry. But once he chilled and accepted the leg/hand contact again I cantered him over a few little logs in the field then went for a walk. Again, he got very hot and it took me a while to cool him down. Hose, scrape, walk. Hose, scrape, walk. Hose, scrape, fan. I’m starting to think this is how our whole summer is gonna go, poor guy.

I think this is how Henry wants to spend the rest of his summer.

After the barn I spent some time hanging out with my dad for Father’s Day, then went down to the park with my cyclocross bike to brush up on my flying mounts and dismounts. There’s a pre-season race tomorrow evening that I’ve got my eye on, but I haven’t been on my CX bike since January when the season ended. Figured I should probably get back on it and practice some of the trickier maneuvers, lest I trip over my own feet and break my neck. We’ll see how tomorrow goes… if I could leave a CX race without shedding blood, freezing to death, or being coated in mud, that would be fantastic! I think I’m safe from the latter two but the first one is never a guarantee.

Yesterday my brain was just done. Too much stress, too much to do, too little time to do it. I went home after work and just blobbed out. Pants and bra came off (liberty!), PJ’s went on, and I plopped myself in front of the TV with a Ace Pineapple Cider. I watched the last episode of 24 then got up to make dinner – cajun corn on the cob, garlic smashed red potatoes, and Parmesan roasted broccoli – and started to feel a bit better. Three episodes of Orange is the New Black and a bowl of Orange Swirl ice cream later… I could breathe again. Sorry Henry, I just didn’t have the mental capacity for the barn last night.

I also got a pretty fantastic 8 hours of sleep. Of course, walking into work this morning instantly deflated me a bit, but only two more days. Just two more. I can survive that. Plus I’m going to the barn tonight and I have TWO ponies to ride. Life could be a lot worse.

Total random sidenote, but when I was in Walmart the other day I grabbed a couple of Danskin tanks in a sporty feeling fabric. I wore one to ride the other day and can’t believe how awesomely light it was and how well it breathed. Of course I went online to buy more since the store didn’t have other colors in my size, and they’re sold out online. It’s the “Danskin Now Striped Performance Racerback Tank”. If you stumble across any in your local Walmart I highly recommend grabbing a few. For $5 they’re awesome summer barn shirts. And if they have any smalls in yellow and blue, grab one for me. 😉

I’m pressed for time (I may or may not be hiding in a corner at work right now) and just way too tired to make coherent sentences today, so here’s a quick and dirty mid-week list of observations.

1) Being a grown-up sucks. I hate work. Too stressful. Yesterday I was ready to jump off the roof by 8:30am. Right now it’s 9:38am and I’d give a few appendages for a nap and/or vodka lemonade.

2) I tried Henry in a boucher yesterday, thinking he might like the stability more and be less chompy. It’s cute when I get ideas. If anything he was MORE chompy. Womp womp fail. But he was still pretty good. I’m most impressed with how much his walk has improved… it’s much bigger and he’s definitely feeling way looser in his back. Coincidence that this started right when I got the Ogilvy, or just completely a side effect of flatwork boot camp? Hmmm…

Too sleepy to ride today, come back never

3) Sadie was bred yesterday and Jez was bred last weekend, so everyone cross all your crossables for beautiful black dots on the ultrasound when they go back in a couple weeks for their pregnancy check.

4) I ordered six more monograms from Personally Preppy. I see a 12 step program in my future.

5) I have to admit, I’ve gotten a little excited about the prospect of having access to some eventer folks at the new barn. The idea of galavanting off to the dark side once or twice a year definitely has it’s appeal. I loved eventing, but I’m not an eventer, if that makes any sense. But having it as an “on the side” thing that I do for fun every once in a while to break up the monotony of jumper shows could be perfect. So I’ve been browsing through the rule book, reading up on what all has changed in the past 10 years since I last stepped foot in a dressage ring or start box. I’ve also been browsing gear a little bit… I mean, even if I never actually did an event, owning an XC vest isn’t really such a bad thing right? 😉

Hello, baby horse friend!

Happy frickin humpday.

I knew when I saw the Pimp my Helmet DIY on Shadbelly that this was a project I simply couldn’t pass up. The timing was absolutely perfect. I had just dragged out my “summer helmet” from the depths of my spare trunk – a lightweight, easy to clean Ovation Schooler. Our summers are so hot and gross, subjecting a really nice GPA Speed Air to that kind of mess just isn’t desirable. Poor Ovation was looking kind of sad though. Between all the errant tree branches on trail rides, being crammed into random tight places in my trunk/car, dragged along who-knows-what, and everything else that may have happened to it over it’s past two summers, it was looking pretty darn sad. Lots of little scratches all over it. I swear I haven’t fallen in it yet but it sure looked like it.

So when I saw the DIY instructions I absolutely had to try it. As in, right now. I brought my helmet home from the barn, stopped at Home Depot on the way, then got to work. I have to admit – I am NOT as patient as Shadbelly was. My whole project took less than 2 hours start to finish including all the wait time for drying in between coats. Let’s face it, I’ve never been good at leaving things alone. Good news is – it worked great anyway. Also good to note: there are FOUR metallic brown Rust-Oleum Universal colors. We won’t talk about how long it took me to pick one. I walked in thinking “I’ll get brown!” and stood in the aisle gobsmacked for way too long. Just sayin, be prepared for too many options.

First I took the Ovation decals off the helmet and gave the whole thing a very light sanding, just a few swipes with fine grit sandpaper. The scratches sanded out amazingly easily, I guess they just looked a lot deeper than they really were. Then I cleaned it, wiped it down with a rag, and set it outside to dry while I prepared the rest of my supplies. In my daze of trying to find just the right brown at Home Depot I had forgotten to grab painters tape. The only other two options in the house were a little bit of leftover scotch tape from Christmas present wrapping and a small roll of duct tape I got in my race packet at the 3M half marathon. Thanks 3M – your weirdly patterned duct tape finally went to good use.

Sanded and cleaned

All taped up and ready to go

I taped over all the edge fabric and nylon harness strap that I didn’t want painted, set out some newspaper in the backyard, grabbed a wine bottle (to set the helmet on, not to drink) and got to work. I was a little timid for the first coat, barely misting anything on. Then I stood back, looked at it and went “OMG this is totally gonna work!” and did the first coat. A few minutes later I came at it again for the second coat, although now I was a little cocky and heavy handed. I sprayed a little too much on one of the vents and clogged a couple of the teeny holes in the mesh, so I ran inside for a toothpick to poke them clear. Crisis averted. Then I waited a few more minutes (remember how I said I was impatient?) and did the third coat, then finally inspected it closely and did touch-ups to make sure it was all even.

First coat, hanging out on the wine bottle

Sitting out to dry after the third coat

Dried and tape removed!

I let it dry for about half an hour, then slapped my new Personally Preppy helmet monogram on it, and voila – done. It looks brand new! And it goes with my brown boots! You really would never know this was spray paint, it just looks like any other regular plastic helmet finish. I still can’t believe how easy this was and how well it worked… it gets two solid thumbs up from me. Thanks Shadbelly!

Final product