Saturday morning marked the end of the 9 day stint of barn sitting. I feel like this whole month has been a blur, since for the first three weeks of it I was only home for 2 days. When I got home Saturday afternoon I basically collapsed in a heap and didn’t move the rest of the weekend. I’ve been battling a sinus infection turned bronchitis since I got back from Belgium, laying awake half the night coughing, so I needed the R&R. I also decided it was a good time to go back and watch the first 3 seasons of The Walking Dead (I started watching at season 4) and let me tell you… jamming that much zombie apocalypse into a day and a half messes with your head a little. My dreams have been weird.

Otherwise it’s been a quiet few days. Mostly because of this, which came through on Friday/Saturday.

Sigh. I know we need the rain but does it all have to come at once? Hopefully everything dries out enough to be rideable again by Wednesday. We’re now less than 3 weeks from horse trial #1 of the year and not being able to ride very much isn’t exactly leaving me with warm fuzzies about it.

I also decided to switch Henry’s feed. He’s been very slow to put weight back on (really he hasn’t gained much at all) and I think he needs something that packs a little more punch, so on to Triple Crown Complete he goes. I’ve been really happy with the TC products in the past and I like how good the Complete is for ulcer prone horses, so we’ll see how he does. I’m tired of seeing ribs.

It also occurred to me that I never really shared Barn Kitty Farrah from the place I was barn sitting. I’m not generally a cat fan, but she’s pretty adorable.

Happy Monday everyone! Sometime this week hopefully I’ll have time to finally put together all my stuff that I have for sale. I’d still like to let most of it go in a package deal to minimize my headache, if anyone is interested. It’s mostly dressage tack but I’ll have some breeches to sell separately too I think. I want to clean out most of what I don’t wear before the new ADE collection comes out.

One of my favorite things about the first few months of the year is seeing all the new collections roll out from various clothing brands. Sometimes there’s brilliance and awe, sometimes there are raised eyebrows and gagging. In the spirit of Fun Friday, let’s play a little game of Hot or Not.

Kingsland Anna show coat – pink fuchsia

Fior da Liso Daria show shirt – Hibiscus. Obviously meant for dressage or eventing folk, with the stock tie. And more pink.

Denim anyone? How about about Le Fash’s upcoming light grey denim City breeches?

Asmar is rocking some pink too with their new Punch color, but they also added Sunshine to their City Jacket color options

As long as we’re on the subject of color, Annie’s brought the Papaya for spring.

WordPress seems to have temporarily permanently eaten the poll for this one so you may or may not ever see it here again. I have no idea, I give up. Move along.

Eeeeeverybody’s on board the sticky butt trend, and judging by their Caja Grip breeches, Cavallo apparently likes red this season. They come in yellow and light pink too if you’re feeling particularly Eastery, but I won’t do that to you.

Kastel is going two-toned with their new Charlotte Studio Collection, coming soon…

Horze sees your trend of colored breeches with tan patches and does the reverse. Rebelz.

Equiline’s Gait show coat is is available in Bordeaux

Lotus Romeo goes for the subtle approach to detailing on their new blouses.

Yet another unique coat, Valentine Equine added some lace side panels to their upcoming Hollywood Jacket.

And last but not least, Roeckl just wants you to have some really fun hands.

Henry and I have now been at the farm I’m barnsitting for since last Friday. It’s a small private barn with lovely Trakehners that the owner does dressage with. Her ring is super nice, a lovely long dressage court with rubber and sand footing.

I’ve had a couple nice dressage rides since we’ve been here, and hacked out in the fields a couple other days. But yesterday I decided we really wanted to jump. A quick perusal found a few standards but no jump cups or poles here in Dressageland. Then as I was out in the ring picking up the letters that the wind had knocked over, it suddenly hit me. Put a bunch of dressage letters together and what do you get?

No, not kvepf. You get a jump, people… you get a jump.

Poor long-suffering Henry has been with me long enough to not be even remotely phased by any of my bullshit or harebrained ideas, so naturally he didn’t bat an eye when I pointed him at it.

 

Every time I think I’m being clever about jumps or courses he’s like “whatever lady, you bore me. But I’m cute and I haven’t killed you yet, so give me cookies!”. Touchè, Henrypants… touchè.

This is what happens when you leave a crazy eventer alone at a dressage barn for a week. Next thing you know I’ll be dragging out the patio furniture. I’m kidding! Be reasonable, I can’t lift that stuff over the fence by myself.

 

Although I am not a breeder, I have worked for breeders, bred one horse of my own, and been avidly interested/semi-involved in the breeding industry for over a decade. Often when I see a horse at a show that I particularly like, I will approach the owner and ask what it’s bloodlines are. 9 times out of 10 I get a blank stare. Once I even had to tell the person that their horse was registered BWP (according to it’s brand) because they had no idea what that “wagon wheel” was. Serious facepalm moment.

I understand that sometimes papers are lost and people just don’t know anything about the horse, but the amount of people who also just don’t care in this country is pretty shocking to me. If you ride sporthorses, and have any interest in riding them in the future, you should care! The breeders are the ones that produce the horses, but the riders are the ones that end up with them. We wonder why Europe outproduces us? Do we just enjoy paying 10k+ on top of purchase price to import their horses?

I think what a lot of people just don’t understand is how heritable many traits are. It’s no coincidence that certain lines are known for producing a certain temperament, or requiring a certain type of ride, or being slow to mature, or jumping over themselves in front. If you ride a horse that was purposefully bred for sport, someone somewhere planned that breeding with an end goal in mind. They picked out both parents and considered traits that they hoped both would bring to the table. The results may vary, but they are no accident. You can often tell a lot about a horse just by looking at the papers.

Even those of us sitting on OTTB’s (or QH’s, or Arabs, or Morgans, or or or) should not consider this a reason to be uninterested in pedigree. In the same way as sporthorses, any breed has lines that have become known as standouts for certain abilities (or lack thereof) in sport. Study well enough and eventually you’ll be able to look at a pedigree and make a guess as to what the horse might be suitable for, even though it was originally bred for something else. Sure, there are exceptions, but you’ll be right most of the time.

Dr. Ludwig Christmann did a really interesting study on heritability with the Hanoverian registry many years ago. Want to know the two things that were found to be MOST heritable? Head and jumping ability. What ranked lowest? Legs and correctness of gaits. If you want to read more about it, go here. Of course, some stallions pass on certain traits more than others (for good or for bad), but those little nuances are the things you learn along the way.

Really I cannot wrap my head around why anyone just plain wouldn’t care about breeding. Even if you say “I don’t need a top level jumper or an amazing mover, I just want something that is enjoyable to ride!”. Guess what else is highly heritable – temperament, character, rideability, and willingness to work. Guess what some of the qualities are that they evaluate at stallion testings – ding ding ding, you got it.

I know it can be mind boggling at first, but in the internet age where we have so much information at the tip of our fingertips, it’s easy to learn. Be that weirdo that sits in the stands with me at horse shows and looks up bloodlines on USEF, only to be super frustrated when there’s nothing listed. If we want to get better we have to fix this, and it starts with changing people’s minds about how much it matters.

We’ve all got them to some degree. You know those things that you’re just really particular about? Some people might call it obsessive, or persnickety, or… well… anal-retentive. I was thinking about this today after I did stalls, because I couldn’t just walk away from the shedrow without raking a crosshatch pattern into the dirt in front of the stallion’s stall. When I was a working student all the shedrow barns had tiny pea gravel in front of the stalls, and when we raked it every day after cleaning, we always did a nice neat crosshatch pattern. Granted, it didn’t last, but it sure did give a sense of satisfaction and made the job feel complete. It was very zen, like Japanese sand garden style.

Besides my weird raking fetish, there are a few (million) other things I’m kind of nutty about. I can’t polo wrap a leg without doing a perfect upside down V at the front of the fetlock. That’s how I was taught as a kid, it’s how I’ve always done it, and any other way looks horribly wrong. Don’t make me look at a badly done polo.

Do you pay attention to how you’re tightening your girth and make sure that you’re on equal holes on each side? I do. Because being on the lowest hole on one side and way up on the other is just lopsided. CHAOS.

You know what else is chaotic? Bridle straps not contained in their  keepers. If I see loose straps flopping around I find myself hypnotized by them. Yes I’ve put a random person’s cheekpiece back in it’s keeper at a show. You’re welcome, random person.

I also have a texture issue with tack conditioner. I don’t like thick and sticky, or really thin and greasy, or super waxy. Hopefully I’m not the only person that has stood in Dover and opened every conditioner to touch it. I would say sorry but I’m not. I’m just weird.

Anyone else get twitchy when a horse’s mane gets too long? I have a friend who I’m pretty sure didn’t pull her horse’s mane for years because she knew if she let it get long enough I would do it for her while she wasn’t around. I’m looking at YOU, Stacy. Way to benefit from my craziness. It continues to this day.

What are your crazy person issues? Surely I’m not alone here. Honestly, I could probably keep going all day…