Category: Uncategorized

In between all the fun stuff like finishing Stranger Things, catching up on Project Runway, and wondering if the gods are trying to send me messages via songs on the radio (seriously, if you’re on the verge of an existential crisis, nothing will push you over the edge quite so well as hearing Suit and Jacket six times in two hours), it was a very Dressage-centric weekend.

It kicked off on Saturday with a couple of tests at a show that was benefiting the local Thoroughbred rescue. They let you do whatever dressage tests you wanted for only $15 a pop, including USEA tests, so I was totally down with that. The venue was about 40 minutes from my barn and my tests were at 2:07 and 2:30, so I spent most of my morning watching TV and feeling very weird about the lack of urgency. At noon I went out and loaded him up, drove to the show, parked, got my number, and slowly got ready.

 

There really wasn’t anywhere flat or bigger than a 20m circle to warmup, so I did what I could and then just walked around the grounds. It was incredibly humid so Henry was miserable, but also quiet. We went in for our first test, Training A, and I felt like it was okay, but as usual he was tight in his back. I’ve really missed that test lately though… I love it way more than B for my horse. Stop using B, horse shows.

One person went in after me, but the other ride wasn’t there yet, so I offered to just go back in early. After a quick perusal of Test B in my CourseWalk app, up centerline we went again, much to Henry’s chagrin. The second test was maybe slightly less tight, but he was also grumpier and kept swinging his haunches in instead of going forward. BTW, I maintain my hatred for test B and it’s canter lengthenings on 20m circles at the middle letters (like why tho?), but it was fine. We were both pretty tired of dressage by the time we swung up centerline again and halted at the end.

Both tests scored a 63% with pretty much the same comments on both, which are nothing new. The judge thought he would be brilliant if/when he lets the tension out of his back… you and me and everyone else that’s ever worked with him, sister! The scores ranged from 5.5 for one particularly shitty transition to 8 for one particularly straight halt, with pretty much everything falling around 6.5. At least we’re… consistently average? The scoring seemed pretty on point to me.

But the most entertaining part of the day came while I was waiting for them to finish with my score sheets. I dragged Henry over to the little obstacle course that was set up behind the arenas so he could see all the “scary” stuff. There was much half-hearted snorting at first, but he gave in pretty quickly and let me drag him through all the different obstacles.

The only thing he wanted nothing to do with was the hanging, billowing curtain. Which makes zero sense because that was the most “normal” thing out there.

 

And I was back home by 4:30. Totally weird, to a) have so little stuff to pack, and b) be completely done in less than 5 hours. It was good to get some cheap easy time in the rectangle though, even if we didn’t exactly blow anyone away. Henry did maintain his streak of everyone thinking he’s a QH, though… two people asked what he was and seemed dubious when I said thoroughbred. Look y’all, he’s just ROUND with a big butt, okay?

And congrats to Chrissy E for winning the Two Socks Designs saddle pad giveaway!

I was pretty sad this year when I sold Henry’s PS of Sweden quarter sheet. I mean… it didn’t fit him anymore since he decided he’s a beefcake, and the attachment method that it had didn’t really work with monoflaps, but I loved that thing. It was wool and it was pretty and it was a discontinued model. Alas, it’s gone now, and that leaves me in need of a new quarter sheet.

Shockingly (insert heavy sarcasm) I’m really picky about what I want.

1) I don’t do fleece on a horse at all. So no fleece or fleece lining. I have a slight preference for wool but a waterproof nylon would be good too. Not super crappy thin acrylic wool though. Blech.

2) It cannot be hideous. I don’t do plaid. Or neon. Navy or black would be my preference.

3) It has to be removeable while riding, so I can’t do the ones that go completely under the saddle.

4) It has to work with a monoflap. While I loved the attachment design of the PS of Sweden, the attachment points were too high to work unless you had a dual flap saddle. Of course, this means that most of them will have to go over my legs, which I don’t love but can live with.

5) I’m cheap, and I only use a quarter sheet like 10 times a year, so I’m not looking to spend a lot of money.

Are we having fun yet???

There is a Horze one that is $40 that would probably work, but I have yet to come across anything of the Horze brand that I would consider to be good quality. Granted, I don’t use a quarter sheet that much so it might be fine? The Z is hideous but still a thousand times better than if they spelled out HORZE, so I could probably live with it. It claims to be “water resistant” but not waterproof. But do I really want to give my money to Horze?

And then Riding Warehouse has this one by Bucas on sale for $70, which is of similar design and materials but I’m guessing probably much higher quality given the brand. It says it’s waterproof. I like giving my money to RW.

Riding Warehouse also has this little waterproof nylon one for $42. Super basic, nothing fancy, and it doesn’t say a brand name, but I like the price. And RW has a good return policy, if it sucked.

Centaur makes a “climate control” exercise sheet that is supposed to have good breathability, but I’m not sure that I’m super enthused about spending $80 on something that essentially looks like a giant saddle pad.

Or I could just say screw it and buy the Back on Track exercise sheet when they do their Black Friday sale, which would make it like $110. Because who needs money anyway? I know that Henry likes Back on Track stuff though, and they’re well made.

Are there any other magical quarter sheets out there that fit my criteria that I haven’t seen yet? Anybody have one of the above and love/hate it? I’m so uncharacteristically indecisive on this one.

 

Or – Happy No Stirrup November, everyone!

Normally I don’t really participate in this kind of stuff. I have enough struggles in my riding without introducing new and better ways to make it even harder. But something came over me yesterday. Some kind of “I will do this and I will be a better rider!”. Why do I do these things to myself? Who sold me on this hype?

First of all, I was in my dressage saddle. Which… I don’t even want to say this in public but I’m riding in it so much these days that I’m actually more comfortable in that one now instead of my jump saddle. Clearly this whole dressage thing has gone way too far. Anyway, getting ON the horse was the hardest part. Why is the cantle so high? Why is the mounting block so short? Why did I take my stirrups off BEFORE I was mounted?

I did about 10 minutes without stirrups before I wanted to work on a few little things that I thought would go better if I had them, so back on they went. It was fine, my legs were already a bit grumpy anyway. I figured this morning would be rough, but I woke up feeling surprisingly great. Until about halfway through my morning run, when I debated just laying down in the middle of the road and waiting for morning rush hour.

Part of it is that it’s still so hot. I kind of just wanted to die this morning when it was 75 degrees with 95% humidity at 5am while I was running. Don’t get me wrong, that’s way better than two months ago, but still… it’s NOVEMBER. We had like 2 days of brisk, fall-like weather before it was back into the mid to upper 80’s, where it’s gonna stay for a while. Henry and I were kind of enjoying being able to breathe, and not sweating profusely. He is about as unenthusiastic as a horse can get at the moment, and it looks like I’ll be body clipping him AGAIN (for approximately the 9 thousandth time this year) next week.

We’ll see how much no stirrup work I actually do this month. I think for a lot of people this is their off season, but we still have shows going on and I still have a lot to do. For instance, we’re headed to a small local show on Saturday to do a couple of dressage tests. Yeah, dressage ONLY… Henry is gonna be pissed. I briefly entertained entering Training A and Prelim A, but our sitting trot work is still pretty inconsistent. Some days Henry is solidly “there” with me, other days we struggle with tension. I didn’t think it was ready to roll out in public yet. So Training A and Training B it is.

On Sunday I’m going to try to pop over to Dressage Trainer’s barn and audit the Charles de Kunffy clinic. There is entirely too much dressage in my life right now.

It’s officially NOVEMBER (holy crap) which means that if you want to order awesome, custom Christmas presents for people, now is the time. I post every year about Hamer & Clay because it’s one of my absolute favorite companies that makes some of the absolute best gifts for horse people or animal lovers in general. Plus it’s a small business. Plus the artist is a horse person. Plus they’re super affordable. It’s a winning combination all around.

For those who aren’t familiar with Hamer & Clay, they make custom ornaments or magnets of horses, dogs, cats, unicorns, or just about any other animal you can imagine – real or imaginary.

Every year when I decorate my tree, my H&C ornaments are my favorite thing to put on. They make me smile every time I see them, and they’ve also been a huge hit every time I’ve given one as a gift (which is a lot by now).

Part of what makes them so great is the impeccable attention to detail. Color, markings, distinguishing features, tack details and color… H&C does some pretty incredible things with clay.

If you don’t put up a Christmas tree, or if want to get something that you can enjoy year-round, I highly recommend a magnet! You can stick your favorite animal on your fridge, or on your file cabinet at work (not that I’ve done this or anything) and get to see it every day.

The thing about H&C is that she can only make so many ornaments in time for Christmas, and orders are filled on a first come, first served basis. If you want to make sure you have them before the holidays, get those orders in NOW! Just in case you need any incentive to do that, H&C has offered a coupon code exclusively to my readers. SHOP THROUGH THIS LINK (which applies the code likemagic to your cart automatically!) to get 30% off  *TODAY ONLY*.  

And while you’re thinking about holiday orders, remember that this Friday November 3 is the deadline for custom holiday orders from Boy-O-Boy Bridleworks and It’s a Haggerty’s sunshirts! If the Bonnet Fits also posted this morning saying that they only have room for FIVE more bonnets in time for Christmas delivery!

Oh, and don’t also forget that the Two Socks Designs saddle pad giveaway closes on Friday as well.

I simply cannot resist TAAHH’s blog hop asking us to showcase our first horses!

I was a certified barn rat when I was a kid, spending as much time as possible at the barn, working off lessons, grooming at shows, and sitting on as many horses as my trainer would allow me to toss a leg over. Old, young, crazy, quiet… whatever. If it had 4 hooves and a tail, I was happy. In those days I rode at an A show hunter/jumper barn, and as the years went on it seemed like all of my peers got their own horses. I had a couple lease horses for a while, but mostly I just rode whatever sale horses we had in the barn at the moment. I fell in love with one in particular, and when he was sold to another girl in the barn I was pretty devastated. Enter Charlie.

Although that wasn’t his name to start with. This tall, scrawny, neurotic TB had come from one of the horse trader guys that my trainer got a lot of his sale horses from. Who the heck knows what the horse’s backstory was, or how he ended up with a horse trader. He was bodyclipped (really badly) when he arrived but he came with no name, so he was called T-4. The horse trader’s name started with a T, and whichever ones came without names usually got a number added on to the end. Except my trainer forgot that we’d already had a T-4, so really Charlie was T-4-II. Instead my trainer started referring to him as “the brown horse” which I morphed into Charlie Brown… thus Charlie. I started riding him right off the bat, and he proved to be quite the interesting horse. He was older, probably early to mid-teens, yet he acted like a horse that hadn’t been off the track for long. He weaved, he roared, he rushed the jumps, he ran off with me at least once per ride, and sometimes for funsies he’d go flying backwards when you put your foot in the stirrup to mount. He was quirky as hell.

But the horse could also jump, and he loved the job. Granted, getting him stopped at the end of the course usually required running him into something, but he would jump anything from anywhere and never touch a rail. This barn rat was smitten. The best part? Nobody else really wanted to ride him. I had him all to myself.

Eventually the pressure ramped up for us to either buy him or he was going to be shown to prospective buyers, and my parents agreed. He may have had more than a few screws loose, but he was mine, and that’s what really mattered to 16 year old me.

My trainer made me show him in the hunters and eq a few times (I can only assume this was for his own entertainment, because lord have mercy) before we switched over to the jumper ring. I preferred the jumpers anyway, so I was super happy with that, and Charlie brought home more than his fair share of tricolors.

After high school I moved to Maryland to be a working student, and Charlie came with me. I’m pretty sure he weaved for all 1500 of those miles on the Equine Express semi, because he unloaded looking absolutely skeletal and more than half-crazed. But he settled into pasture life in Maryland pretty well, and together we started learning the ropes of eventing. We went to Full Moon, and Jenny Camp, and Elysian Hills, starting at BN and then moving to N. I only had a jump saddle and all of my hunter show clothes, so we stuck out like a sore thumb, but we did it. Eventually we moved back home and tackled our first Training, where I literally fell off at jump #3 (a big table that he for some reason decided to bank, throwing me over his shoulder). In those days Training riders could get back on after a fall, so once someone caught my horse for me, I got back on and we finished the course. It was only when I got off afterward that I realized he’d stepped on me and I had cracked a couple of ribs.

Our dressage was always borderline hideous, and he legit had THE BOUNCIEST TROT of any horse I’ve ever encountered in my life, but that horse was nothing if not tryer. He taught me how to be brave, humble, patient, and persistent, but most of all he taught me what it was really like to love and appreciate a horse. He might not have looked like much to an outside observer, but he meant the world to me.

Over the years he mellowed a lot and seemed more settled with his life. Eventually Charlie went to the retirement farm when his hocks could no longer hold up to the job, and he got to live out his days with his best TB friend, eating all the grass he could possibly desire. One day he was found dead out in the field, likely of a heart attack or aneurysm, and seemed to have passed quickly and peacefully. He was buried beneath his favorite tree.

I always wonder where Charlie came from, what his story was, and what happened to him along the way, but mostly I’m just glad that he found me. Nothing would have been the same without that crazy old nut of a horse.