What do you do when it rains 15″ in 3 weeks and turns everything into gross squishy swamp land? You get creative, that’s what. Hence the newest sport taking Texas by storm: Driveway Dressage.
Arena too slippery? Pastures bogged down in mud? Horse hasn’t been turned out in a week and you think you might die? Not a problem. All you need for Driveway Dressage is a death wish and a semi-rideable strip of ground 3-6′ wide. You’ll easily recognize it as literally the only surface your horse can stay upright while trotting on. The shoulder of your local county road or the strip of grass beside the driveway of your barn should work just fine.
Driveway Dressage is super informal. In fact, tacky looking outfits are encouraged. Ideally, nothing should match. Bonus points for big flowy shirts that make you look 20lbs heavier than you actually are and a ponytail flopping out of your helmet (skull caps are all the rage in DD these days).
In Driveway Dressage everything is freestyle. Really you should just make it up as you go along. Planning is strongly discouraged. All you have to do is make sure you include walk, trot, canter, and do something that is a vague attempt at lateral work but not actually a success. Lengthenings are extra credit, especially if they’re not intentional and feature some bucking and squealing. Straightness is strongly discouraged.
Oh, and every time you get to the end of the driveway and have to turn around to make another lap, don’t forget to halt and salute properly – with a fully extended middle finger aimed directly at the nearest puddle.
I keep slacking a bit on the review thing, mostly because I’m lazy and reviews are work. So I decided to group some things together in review posts – tack, clothes, etc – starting today with “show season extras”, because otherwise lets be honest it’ll take me a year to get to everything.
Cambox ISIS helmet camera
This is pretty new to the American market, with Dover being the only US retailer at the moment. They have it listed for $290, but I bought mine from a French website for $270.
The Cambox is, IMO, the absolute best helmet camera on the market. It’s very light weight and unobtrusive, to the point where you don’t even notice it’s there. I also find it much easier to use than my GoPro, too, due to the design. The camera sits under the brim of your helmet and has little LED indicator lights that you can see in your peripheral, letting you know when the camera is on and when it’s filming. No more fumbling around blindly for buttons or trying in vain to hear a faint little beep.
The Cambox comes in a convenient little hard shell carrying case that fits the camera itself, a cleaning cloth for the lens, and the USB cable for charging and file transfer. This also makes it really easy to carry around or toss in my purse without worrying about damaging it.
The video quality is about the same as what I was getting from the GoPro, no noticeable difference to me for better or for worse. The battery life is the only real complaint I have – it’s about 90 minutes MAX. Not a big deal if you’re using it at a show, but something to keep in mind if you want to use it for a long ride or an XC schooling. Also, like the GoPro it is not waterproof, but unlike the GoPro there isn’t a waterproof case available. If it’s a super rainy day, don’t wear it; the footage would be crap anyway. I had a bit of a hard time getting the velcro attachment to stick to the alcantara on the underside of my Samshield brim – I ended up having to use some glue to make it stay. Didn’t bother me because you can’t see it, but I know some people would not be delighted at the idea of gluing velcro to the underside of their brim. I think it would stick best to plastic.
Spot the helmet cam
I’ve had to order a couple of accessories to optimize the camera for my skull cap – a second velcro attachment of course, and their brim stabilizer so that it doesn’t flop around on the looser brim of the cover. A little bit more investment ($25) but I really like the fact that I can put the camera on either of my helmets very easily.
Overall – 4 out of 5 stars for the Cambox, really only dinged for the battery life. If you’re a helmet cam lover, you need this.
I-Quip custom gloves
I posted about I-Quip a couple months ago in a Brand Spotlight feature, so I figured I would update y’all now that my gloves have arrived and I’ve been using them. Those with keen eyes might have spotted them in some of my pictures or the helmet cam video from Holly Hill, their first show outing. I’ve been wearing them every day at home too, because I really want to test their claim for exceptional durability and because I just really like wearing them.
I-Quip cameo
The first impression right out of the box is that these gloves are super high quality and exquisitely made. I examined every stitch, inside and out, and couldn’t find a flaw. They’re butter soft while also feeling rugged. On the first ride they felt a little tight, but by the next time I put them on they had already molded to the shape of my hands and now they fit, well, like a glove.
In the past I’ve tended to stay away from leather gloves because of how they felt stiff and crunchy when they dried, and a lot of them leeched dye and stained my hands. I hate both of those things. But despite getting these things absolutely soaked through with sweat on many occasions, they’ve always dried just as soft as they were before and never left a hint of color on my hands. They are also showing absolutely zero wear so far. None. Zip. Nada. I have high hopes that these gloves are everything they claim to be, in addition to being beautiful and super grippy.
I know that the price is a deterrent to most people on these gloves. Their stock model, the black Signature, starts around $70, and the custom Luxury Eventer like I purchased runs more toward $150. Expensive? Yes. But a) they’re totally custom, color-wise and fit-wise b) even if I only get 3 years out of them, that’s how much I would have spent on Roeckl’s in the interim anyway. They make me happy both to look at and to wear, so to me they’re worth it. Treat yo’self.
Overall – 4.5 out of 5, only because the price point means I can’t justify 10 pairs.
Deco Pony custom stall guard
Deco Pony is a small company that makes custom printed vinyl stall guards and halter guards (as well as some other accessories like bags and shirts). I’ve seen their stuff popping up at events all over the place, especially the stall guards, so at Christmas Bobby and I went in together to get a custom one for our coach.
I liked hers so much that I went back and ordered one for myself a few weeks later. I needed a stall guard anyway, and most of them are in the $40 range, so why not spend $10 more and get something custom?
Since I was the one that set up our original design in the first place, I got to work one on one with Deco Pony owner Jenn to get everything just right. She made a few mock-up designs for me using the barn logo and I picked the one I liked most. She was very easy to work with and did a great job with the design, and there is no minimum order. Once your original design is set up its easy to just go in and order more of the same design, which makes it awesome for barns – everyone can order and pay for their own, rather than having to do one big giant order and pool money.
The stall guard arrived within just a couple weeks and I was really happy with the quality. The vinyl is thick and very well constructed. I keep mine rolled up and stored in my trailer in between shows, and just hose it off whenever it’s dirty. Henry has chewed on it, licked it, and even stepped on it, and it’s survived all of that with no damage. Plus I love the united, matching look of the stall guards together at horse shows.
Overall – 5 out of 5. Great value, durable, practical, and an easy company to work with!
Other items on the docket for review soon:
Majyk Equipe leather stadium boots (next week!)
Back on Track saddle pad, quick wraps, and mesh sheet
Ice Horse tendon boots
QHP breeches
Camelot anatomic girth
PS of Sweden 3 point breastplate
Sporthorse Lifestyle Hudson shirt
Style Stock stock tie
Winston show shirt (gonna roll into review of Winston coat)
As we’ve been gearing up for Coconino, Henry’s conditioning schedule has gotten more intense. Besides just needing to be fit enough for the addition of the roads and tracks and steeplechase phases of the N3D, he’s also running Training the first week. Another level up means faster speeds and longer courses. Add to that the complication of being at high altitude, a long trailer ride, and competing two weeks in a row – if anything I’d like for him to be overfit. It’s not a good feeling to be sitting on a tired event horse.
NOT TIRED
I never used to do much galloping on this horse. He’s a TB, fitness comes naturally to them, and Novice level isn’t exactly taxing. But this spring we’ve added in a gallop day, and stretched out the length of his long trot day. He’s up to 45 minute long trots (which is boring as shit, in case you’re wondering), and 3 sets of 5 minute gallops at about 400mpm. There are a lot of long walks involved too, and trot sets. We still have to bump up the gallop speed a bit over the next month to 450mpm, but otherwise he’s pretty close to where he needs to be.
Aside from his two conditioning rides a week, his regular rides have also gotten longer. Usually I’ll tack on a long marching walk to one of his dressage rides, or do some trot sets before we start dressage work. He doesn’t jump much, but when we do jump those rides always stay short.
still not tired
Holly Hill was his first real test since we’ve started upping the conditioning, and it was quite warm and very humid by the time we ran cross country. Typically those are his absolute worst conditions, where he struggles to get enough air and is generally just kind of flat and dull. That wasn’t the case this time though… he spent most of the course pulling my arms out, was barely breathing hard by the time we were done, and was totally cooled off by the time we got back to the barn. He was still chipper and happy and bright, more like he’d just gone for a jog to the mailbox rather than running 400mpm for 5 minutes. I still had a lot of horse left for stadium. Definitely plenty fit, not that that’s necessarily saying much at Novice.
His body has started to change too. He’s getting that lean but strong look of a real event horse. Luckily the fitness hasn’t seemed to affect his rideability much (knock on wood).
I, on the other hand, need to get my butt in gear. I’ve been doing a lot of this:
and it shows. So now that the days are getting longer I’m back on my bike to commute to/from work, and adding a couple of runs a week. The running makes me want to kill myself and everyone around me, but it must be done. I just have to keep repeating to myself “this is for Henny, this is for Henny, this is for Henny”. Anyone want to volunteer to run 20 feet in front of me with a pizza box? That would help a lot.
Of course, I couldn’t actually be there in person since money doesn’t grow on trees (seriously, money, what gives?) but I spent the past 4 days pretty much glued to the internet. Thank you live streaming and social media for making it possible for nerds like me to feel like we were still part of it. So here, in no particular order, are 10 things I saw at Rolex that made me happy.
1 – Joe Meyer’s kilt and Clip Clop’s feelings about it
7 – Henry’s doppleganger, Cecelia, the horse representing Mexico. It’s borderline creepy how similar they look. I knew he was really meant to be a mare.
That’s 100% Henny faceHenny Run!
8 – Clear XC and a 4* completion for $750 CANTER horse AP Prime! And 5 OTTB’s in the top 20!
9 – The love, pride, and appreciation for the horses from their riders
10 – Uni’s ridiculous adventures (lots more on her page, I had to just pick a few)
Tuesday marked 15 days since Sadie was bred to Mighty Magic. I was pretty nervous about whether or not she would take, considering that last time she was bred it took a few tries, plus this year we were trying with frozen semen instead of fresh. But the difference was a very very good repro vet with tons of experience using frozen, and some history of how Sadie cycles. His success rate is really high, so I was hoping he could work some magic (no pun intended) here.
not her best angle
And he did. This, my friends, is a big beautiful 15 day pregnancy. Ten years ago Sadie was a black dot on a ultrasound screen as well, and I’m just as excited now as I was then.
So we’ve reached the first milestone. Next up is the heartbeat check at Day 29. Hoping that our Little Black Dot decides to stick around and make him/herself at home in there for the long haul. I’ll breathe a little easier once we make it past 60 days, but for now… step 1 is done!
breedrideevent.com 