Last year was the first annual Friends of Ellie fundraiser derby at Pine Hill, and it was such a great success that they’re doing it again!

Ruth, the owner/operator of our local eventing venue Pine Hill, has a special needs daughter named Ellie. Last year the derby idea came about as a means to help raise money to give back to the charities that have done so much for her daughter, and the idea really took off. They’ve planned another one for this May, which means it’s time to start rallying the troops for division sponsorships and/or item donations for the raffle. Here is a little more info about the event and the organizations that it’s raising money for, in Ruth’s words:

On May 5th Pine Hill will host a fun day for showing and fund raising, networking and enjoying the Kentucky Derby.  As many of you know, my daughter, Ellie, is a special needs teenager.  Over the years we have been so fortunate to have been associated with organizations that help improve the quality of life for the special needs community.   These organizations have allowed Ellie to experience many of the adventures and activities that her typical peers take for granted.  For the second year our goal is to raise some money and awareness for these wonderful organizations.   Each one of these organizations has meant a great deal to Ellie and I and this is our way of “giving back” just a little for all they have done for us. 

Sponsorships & Donations—We are asking for sponsorships—businesses and individuals to help defray the costs of running the show.  There are a variety of opportunities and levels for sponsorship and we will provide advertisement opportunities and recognition for every level of sponsorship.  We also need donations for a Kentucky Derby raffle.   Please use the form on our website to send your donations or sponsorships.   We are very excited to have many of the awards and ribbons created or refurbished by two organizations that provide work opportunities for young adults with special needs:  Revived Glory and JoyRide Prep–Day Habilitation Program.  By purchasing from these organizations we help contribute to their outstanding programs.  The first thing we want to do is cover as many of the sponsorship positions as possible so that we can commission our trophies and awards from Revived Glory.

 

Ruth and Pine Hill are huge pillars of support for our local eventing, Pony Club, and h/j scene and have been for a really long time, so I would love to do everything I can to help “give back” and make this event a home run. Eventing could not exist in this area without people and facilities like them, so if a cause is important to them, it’s important to us. If you have something you would like to donate, or if you’re interested in sponsoring a division or learning more about the organizations that the show is benefiting, check out this page, and either get in touch with Ruth via her page or just let me know and I’ll help facilitate things for you. Businesses can do tax deductible donations, plus you can get your logo or ad in the event program or even a banner or your logo/ad on a XC jump! There are lots of different options for sponsorship or donation.

And if you’re local, consider coming out to the event! If you’re not an eventer, they’re also offering dressage tests or schooling jumper rounds.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your help! Back to our regular blog content tomorrow.

While I was looking for a specific old video of Sadie last week, I found myself knee deep in my old youtube account. I haven’t really used it much since I switched to vimeo, which I much prefer, but man there are some blasts from the past contained within that old archive. Horses from up to a decade ago, even. A couple of them I had kind of forgotten about, or at least forgotten a lot about them, because they were project horses that I didn’t have for very long. I thought it would be kind of fun (and also funny) to share a few of the videos, with screenshots for those who hate clicking on videos cuz I’m kinda with you on that most of the time.

First and foremost there’s Gracie, a little grade western mare that I picked up for $800. Did she come from Craigslist? I don’t remember. Maybe. Did Craigslist exist in 2008? I think so. Odds are good. Anyway, I got her mostly because I was totally burned out on h/j but still wanted something to play around with. She was sour and rotten, but once we straightened that out she was a pretty cool little horse. Super on the trails. She ended up selling as a lesson horse to the barn I was boarding at… I think she might even still be there. I’m 90% sure I still remember how to put on a western saddle, but don’t hold me to that.

Then after Gracie there was Cruz, who I now realize (as I’m watching his video) reminds me A LOT of Emma’s horse Charlie. Cruz was a fairly unhandled 17h 4yo when I got him for something super ridiculous like $350, and I started him u/s and then resold him. I think he was about 6 months under saddle in this video. Last I saw him he was down in the Houston area, but I’ve definitely lost track of him over the years.

This one isn’t me or my horse, but Y’ALL, I have been stalking stallions for SO LONG that I have a video of the hunter stallion Shine, that I took while standing creepily beside the ring to watch him go. See, I’ve been crazy forever. Video evidence.

Then there was that cutting lesson I took once. I wish I could remember this horse’s name, he was a really cool older stallion. Tiny, so tiny, but what an athlete. Also if you touched your finger to his withers he would stop dead. It was a literal whoa button. I got a kick out of it.

After that came the Sadie years, when she was finally old enough to ride. She was only 3 in this video, just kind of hacking around. Also she was still super narrow, which is just amusing these days, knowing how freaking stout she ended up being. I’ll be happy if Presto can be this cool when he’s 3!

While Sadie was growing up I leased another horse that I’ve talked about on the blog a little before – Kai, an Oldenburg by Ideal. He was rehabbing from a ligament injury in his foot when I took over the ride, and once he was back in action we showed a little bit in the jumpers before he ended up going back to Cali. I learned a lot from this horse. He was definitely one of the most challenging rides I’ve ever had… as you can probably garner from all the spooking he’s doing in the video (such a little shit!). He sure made you work for every single step, every single day.

And the last horse on my old account, before the Henny videos started, was Salerno. He was a super cute little 4yo Sonntagskind gelding that his dressage-rider owner asked me to start o/f to help market him to be sold. He’d had about a month of jumping experience by the time this video was taken and he was just so super easy and chill about the whole thing. I loved this little horse, I hope he ended up in a great home.

Do y’all ever look back through old videos and find yourself reminiscing, or giggling at yourself a bit? It’s kinda fun…

My 9-5 job isn’t exactly the highest paying gig in town, but what I do have is a crap ton of PTO. Like 32 days. Who can even use that much? There are a few perks to working somewhere for a really long time. So when my friend Megan asked me if I was available to fill in at her tack shop for a horse show in Houston, I jumped at the chance. I don’t get to do it very often, but I love working the mobile shop. And so does Quinn.

I worked my regular job on Mon/Tues, then drove down on Tuesday night. I’m staying onsite in an RV, which is awesome, and Quinn made himself right at home.

Wednesday morning was a lot of setup… there were so many bins of sale stuff that my eyeballs started to cross. The super fun part of unpacking it all, though, is that you also get to GO THROUGH it all. Y’all know me. I friggin love stuff. Especially horse stuff. Extra-especially riding clothes. Extra-extra-especially of the higher end variety.

Well, I unpacked. Quinn watched.

Then I swept, dusted, re-dressed a couple mannequins, started arranging all the other racks, etc. Maybe I’m a nerd, but it’s fun. Really fun. And what was Quinn doing all this time? Still watching from the doorway, probably while silently judging me, because that’s what he’s good at. He rarely moves.

And then I set to work doing what every good friend does… picking out sale items that certain people just HAD to have! Me included of course. Lord help me, if I can escape this weekend and still be in the black, it’ll be a miracle. But a couple other bloggers and my trainer really needed some stuff…

We should play “guess who bought what”! But it was on sale, y’all, it doesn’t count. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works, anyway.

I DO have a pretty awesome collection of stuff in the sale tent though. Winston, Le Fash, Asmar, Animo, Cavalleria Toscana, etc. Belts out the wazoo. Breeches. Sweaters. Casual clothes like shirts and vests. Show coats also out the wazoo. If you’re looking for something in particular let me know, I’m happy to get you some pics and shipping is easy. Being someone’s personal shopper is kind of my dream job. And if you’re looking for a TS alternative I have a decent selection of tan Winston (and a couple charcoal gray) on sale… I have a pair and love them. No Velcro!

Plus, if other people buy everything then there’s nothing left for ME to buy. See my logic here? It’s totally valid.

For real though, if you’re nearby come see me! I’m having lots of fun and so is the corgi. He’ll be on duty all day every day until Sunday, sleeping by the door. And if you’re not nearby but still want to shop, I can help you with that too. Enabling people is my greatest (and lets be honest, perhaps ONLY) talent.

This is definitely a much more physically demanding job than my typical desk jockey position, but my soul is a whole lot happier at the end of the day, too. Hmm… maybe that’s something to think about…

I’ve talked before about how I am the only eventer at my barn, and how, for the most part, it’s actually kind of nice. I’m really one of just a few people there that even rides more than a couple days a week, and definitely the only one dumb enough to show up on rainy days or days with temps below 50. Apparently normal people find those conditions to be undesirable.

Granted, if I was just riding for fun, I probably wouldn’t show up on those days either.

Nah, j/k, I totally would, I’m a glutton for punishment.

There are a lot of perks to being solitary. I have basically taken over an entire corner of the tack room. I pretty much always have the crossties to myself. I almost never share riding space with another person. I can bring the corgi sometimes and not have to worry about his goofy ass getting in anyone’s way.

The barn owner also lets me put jumps wherever I want, and once I set them, nobody else ever touches them. You know how annoying it is when you spend forever setting a good course, only to come back the next day to find everything taken down to crossrails and all the filler removed? Clearly I don’t have baggage about that kind of stuff at all. (seriously though, I will break your damn fingers)

Of course, the down side to having everything to myself is that I have to drag those damn things around and set them completely… by myself.

It also means that there is never anyone around when I jump. Not my favorite thing, but I let the barn workers know when I’m headed out to the jump field and tell them that if I’m not back in 45 minutes, please come get my body with the golf cart. I also always keep my phone with me, either on a standard or in my pocket if I can fit it. Not an ideal situation but it’s reality.

This also means that I basically NEVER have media of myself riding at home, unless I prop my phone up somewhere to video and then try to get screenshots later. A media-less blogger is a tough thing to be. Who even reads posts with no pics? No one. Did it happen if there’s no proof? Definitely not. #bloggerproblems

So there I was this weekend, alone, ready to jump school. I was tired of my course (I’m past due for a re-design) but too lazy to move everything around right then and there. What to do in that scenario? I dunno, I figured I’d just jack a couple of them up a few holes. Of course, I have to get off to raise the fences, so I went with the lazy man’s method of setting a 3′ warmup fence, a 3’6″ oxer, a 3’9″ gate, and a 4’3″ vertical. Options, people. Options that don’t require getting off and back on the horse several times.

Then I was like well, if we actually make it over that 4’3″ jump without dying, I’m gonna want proof, so I better go prop my phone up on the barrel (the one that acts as a standard for another fence, bc my life is honestly just kind of ghetto) and see if I can get it. Of course that barrel is kinda far away but it was the only propable surface within video distance, since my jumps are in the middle of a giant field.

And well… that isn’t exactly conducive to excellent quality media. You can tell the blur is a horse and you can tell that the blur is jumping over another blur, but that’s about it. Still though, it’s the biggest I’ve jumped this horse and I’m claiming that it totally counts as photographic evidence.

These are the times when I honestly wish I had someone around to video. Or set jumps. Or any of those things that you totally take for granted when you aren’t solitary.

I say that, but I should actually qualify that statement to be more specific, because the SO came out to the barn with me the next day (for the first time in like a year) and the only video he got is a few seconds of some monstrosity that he shot through literally the worst filter ever created by mankind.

That. Is. Terrible.

It is also still blurry.

It is also set to some kind of weird techno beat.

I should probably look more closely at something like a Pixio or a Soloshot (do those even work in big open spaces?), but I think I’m probably way too cheap for that kind of thing. Not sure that I can justify hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, even if it would be a great learning tool, unless someone wants to give me a bag of money.

Until then… just embrace the blur?

While I was getting all caught up on the Shelley Browning controversy over the weekend, I totally got sucked into the live feed from Del Mar. I am not a DQ, I don’t go to dressage shows, I don’t often watch much of it (love y’all but I’m an eventer, you cannot thrill me), and I definitely don’t know what’s “fashionable” in that world. Every discipline has it’s things, and I’m pretty familiar with the h/j world, very familiar with the eventing world, but admittedly 100% out of touch with DQ’s. Except for the stuff I see on Instagram and now what I saw during the less than an hour that I spent watching the Del Mar live feed. But that little bit of exposure has left me with some questions.

First off: patent. Explain. Surely that stuff gets scratched easily, right? Yet there’s patent on bridles, patent on boots, patent on saddles… I know I’ve even seen it on horse boots and saddle pads before too. Does it just stay shiny forever? Do you have to care for it with kid gloves? What does it look like as it ages? BURNING QUESTIONS. Prior to this trend I thought patent was always something that looked super cheap, like a pair of platform Sketchers from 1998. Is it the shininess factor that we’re going for here or am I missing something important? I need to know these things.

Kind of related to patent but not necessarily – those stiff, fat-ankle tall boots that makes it look like everybody’s got cankles. Can you walk in those? Does it feel like your leg is in a cast? Why the cankle look, don’t we spend the rest of our lives trying to prove to the world that we don’t have cankles (ie skinny jeans)? H/J people go the extreme opposite direction and cover their lower legs with the tightest-fitting, thinnest calfskin possible, so everyone knows exactly how skinny their legs are. I personally lean that direction too, because my legs are thick enough without putting a big ol’ cankle boot at the bottom. Are dressage boots less fitted for a reason? Explain.

According to Instagram, matchy sets are The Thing. Especially Le Mieux and PS of Sweden. The bonnet, the saddle pad, the polos… all the cool kids (I think?) are doing it. Usually with exercise bandages underneath and some skeepskin lined bell boots. I can barely manage the one schooling pad and one half pad per saddle situation that I’ve got going on, and they’re all white. Same with my one set of polos – white. Because white goes with everything and I don’t have to worry about it matching. I can match for shows, but that’s about the extent of my devotion. These are all schooling outfits that y’all are doing though. By my count there are well over a dozen different color sets just from Le Mieux alone, so do you just pick one and stick with it or do you have multiple color coordinated outfits? Where do you store all this stuff? Do you have to always plan your own outfit so that it doesn’t clash with the horse’s? What happens if you mis-match things, are you automatically DQ-d from DQ-land? Y’all realize that extreme matchiness is tip-toeing dangerously close to eventer territory right? Just checking.

Ok, dressage folk, educate me! Tell me the reasons behind your ways. What’s cool, what’s trendy? Clearly I will never be, but I still want to know.