It’s official – we’re one week away from leaving for Coconino.
the left – me on the outside; the right – me on the inside
We’ve already talked about the tremendous task that is packing, and right now I’m choosing to bury my head in the sand and pretend I don’t have to worry about that yet (omg), so let’s not talk about it again. But as I’ve tweaked Henry’s work routine a little bit this week to prep for the long trip followed by two weeks of showing, it got me wondering what other people do to prep for shows.
stand around and look magnificent?
Most of the time I don’t really do anything drastically different before an event, I just scale it all back a bit. Usually a few days before we leave I pop Henry over some fences, more for my sake than his, and put in a dressage ride or two, but mostly I just focus on keeping him happy and feeling good. I don’t like trying to fit a bunch of lessons and work in at the last minute; I want him to get to the show and be happy and interested in what we’re doing, not mentally/physically burned out or tired and sore. I feel like if I’ve done my job on a day-to-day basis in preparing him, there’s no need to cram a million things into the last week or two.
his mental health is ever-precarious
Of course for this show we’ve done way more conditioning than we’ve ever done in the past, so while I will keep up with his normal schedule of conditioning rides, he had his last really long one on Monday and now they’re getting scaled back a bit. We’ll do a couple more dressage rides and he’ll have his last jump school this weekend. The day before we leave he gets a day off and a massage. Otherwise we’re gonna hack out in his sidepull, go on some long walks, and take a little bit of a breather before the whirlwind starts. We’re as prepped as we’re gonna be.
It takes a lot of work to look this good
Which approach do you prefer – a lighter workload the last week before a show, or lots of cram sessions to try to sharpen things up? And more importantly – why?
In my continuing efforts to make Bobby and Halo more fabulous, I’ve been fighting the bonnet battle for a while. When I first met Bobby he pretty much refused to put anything extra on Halo, saying that “he doesn’t like having stuff on him!”. So he went boot-less, and breastplate-less, and obviously bonnet-less.
Now that he’s past his 6 year reign of Beginner Novice and going around solidly at Training, we’ve spruced him up a bit. Everyone remembers the custom saddle of course, and the real leather bridle. He’s also got a full set of both XC boots and stadium boots now, and Trainer basically forced him to buy a breastplate. He’s so much more legit. Yet he has still staunchly refused to come around to the magic of a bonnet.
Bobby is out of town right now, and he left me with the task of working Halo while he’s gone. Yesterday as I was tacking him up I noticed that he was just swarming with flies despite being doused in fly spray, so naturally I thought “I’M GONNA PUT A BONNET ON HIM! BOBBY ISN’T HERE TO STOP ME!!!” <insert much cackling>. So I did. And you know what? Not only was he cute as hell, he had zero flies or gnats bothering his precious (giant) ears.
I immediately sent pictures to Bobby, who admitted Halo looks damn adorable in a hat. Once again I’m right. Halo needs one. Everyone tell Bobby that Halo needs one!
Just one with like 2″ longer ears than Henry’s bonnets have. Halo’s big ol’ donks were testing the limits of spandex.
His colors are black and red, so I was thinking either black with two rows of red cord (stealth mode bonnet) or black with red trim and white cord (bling bling bonnet). Obviously no rhinestones or beads, because while I have succeeded in making Bobby hella fabulous compared to the sad state I originally found him in, there are limits to my magic. I’m not a freaking miracle worker.
Peer pressure, people, let’s do it! Halo needs his own hat!
Steph, a fellow blogger who is also breeding her mare this year, did a post on why she picked the particular stallion that she did. I thought it was a good idea, and interesting to follow her thought process, so I stole it. Or forcefully and unofficially blog hopped it, however you want to look at it.
Like most things with horses, the choices we make about breeding are so very personal. A lot depends on the exact mare in question, the exact person in question, what the foal is intended for, and the current circumstances. There’s no such thing as a “right” or “wrong” answer, and there are hundreds of different choices that could work just as well as the next one. Choosing a stallion is a bit overwhelming. It’s not as simple as “this one is really pretty, let’s go with him!”.
While I had always toyed with the idea of keeping one of Sadie’s babies for myself, I didn’t really have a solid plan as to which one, when, or by whom. I’ve been involved in the breeding world for a long time and have a lot of opinions about bloodlines, so just the thought of trying to pick a stallion for her was anxiety-inducing. Then on our Belgium trip last year I kept seeing young horse after young horse that I absolutely LOVED, and they had one thing in common – they were all by Mighty Magic. He ticks all of my personal “must have” boxes:
at least 60% TB (he is 88%)
some Holsteiner blood (they’re guaranteed to jump)
approval by a major European-based registry (he’s approved with pretty much all of them)
average size (I don’t want a giant horse to try to keep sound)
a competition record in eventing (MM won the 7yo World Championship at Lion d’Angers)
offspring competing in upper level eventing (while most are still too young to be upper level horses, there are some starting to pop up)
a very good canter (I always buy for canter, so it makes sense to breed for it too)
Side note: not gonna lie, it was serious icing on the cake that Mighty Magic is homozygous bay, because I’m not a chestnut fan. His excellent test scores for rideability are always nice to see too. He currently shows international level dressage with a young rider.
While in Belgium I was lucky to be in the midst of breeders who had used the stallion a lot, seen/owned a ton of his offspring, and knew a lot about what he produced and what kind of mare he matched best with. MM is based in France, so they’re in a prime location to know a lot more about him than what I’d be able to glean from the internet. I spent quite a while picking the brain of one breeder in particular, and after showing him my mare options (at that time I had two), describing them both, looking at their pedigrees, talking about the tendencies of the offspring, what I wanted, etc, he told me which mare he would pick. Luckily, that was Sadie.
ME!
And ultimately, the mare is the most important piece of the puzzle. I love Sadie, had a lot of fun raising and riding her, she has a fantastic work ethic, she’s a good mover, and she has plenty of jump. If I got a carbon copy of her, I wouldn’t be upset. Ok, I would prefer that her baby be a lot less inclined to smash things with it’s butt (RIP Michelle’s stall walls, trees, truck wheel well, and pretty much 80% of things on her property).
Lies, all lies, none of that stuff ever happened.
We also discussed Jaguar Mail for her, but ultimately decided that their jumping styles might not be a good match. So I came back to the States and proceeded to scour the internet looking at more Mighty Magic foals and figuring out what bloodlines he crossed best with. Just so happened that as I watched youtube video after youtube video, the babies I liked most were out of mares with Hanoverian blood. Sadie is half Hanoverian. To go one step further, the winner of the 5yo Bundeschampionate for eventing in 2015 was by Mighty Magic out of a Hanoverian mare that shares several bloodlines in common with Sadie. That sealed the deal.
We could also call this post “The Rollercoaster of Henny Emotions” or “How Henny Feels”, because his facial expressions are dead giveaways for what he thinks about each phase.
PS many thanks to Erin Roane for taking these, it is much appreciated! Having memories from your horse’s first Training is important when you’re a crazy horse mom.
First we have Dressage “This, it be Dumb” Henry:
Sassy tail is in dire need of a dye jobTrainer has a good sense of humor about it, at least! Or maybe she was smiling because she was almost done…
Getting happier… focused stadium Henry:
Damn start/finish standard in the waylaser sharp squirrel ears
And then of course – Henny on XC, the happiest Henny of all:
HENNY GALLOP!!!Possibly my favorite picture of him EVER – jumping into the waterLanding… can you tell he loves water?And jumping out – bye water!
I might be slightly biased, but XC Henny is really freaking cute. Also, Trainer’s leg is about 9 billion times better than mine. Damn her.
I’m a big fan of USEA and all the perks that come with my membership – especially their Medal Program. I dunno why, but it’s really fun to fill out that form and get a little something back in recognition of your horse’s accomplishments. I can’t resist any opportunity to add to my Henny Shrine.
Granted, they accidentally sent me a second BN Silver Medal instead of our Novice silver medal.
Except now I have a lot, and I don’t really know what to do with these certificates and medals. Propping them up on the dresser in the guest bedroom was ok when there were only a few, but now I basically have a whole herd of them and they’re taking over. I can’t stand to throw them out, and it seems a little sad to pack them away in a binder or something. Seems equally weird to frame them all and put them on a wall, considering there are so many. What else can I do with these things?
the folders are cool
The medals too – they’re cute little pins that I can’t figure out what to do with either, and I’m pretty sure I already lost one. Surely there’s someone out there with a brilliant idea that encompasses both the certificates and pins, yet doesn’t look goofy?
And no, I won’t stop applying for awards every time we qualify for one, so this is gonna be an ongoing thing. I’m an addict for stuff that shows how awesome my horse is.
breedrideevent.com 