A hypothetical for funsies, because the weather outside is… well… frightful.

Let’s say you had a mare by the hunter stallion Westporte out of a TB dam. She’s 16.3h, leggy, of medium build. Let’s say she jumped like this:

And moved like this:

I have no recent confo pictures but here’s a basic idea:

Now let’s say that you were breeding said mare with the goal of producing a marketable hunter foal. What stallion would you pick and why?

First of all – my SS loot arrived this morning! At 6:58am… which I know because the mailman rang the doorbell. This time I’ll forgive him because a pretty little box was waiting for me from Beka at The Owls Approve. She definitely wins for artistic box decorating skills.

 

And it contained some awesome loot! Treats for the dogs, treats for me, and SOCKS! I love socks. And these are my favorite brand – Sock it to Me. Thanks Beka, you did great! I love everything.

I already gave Stewie his treat. Sadly, it is no longer with us because he devoured it in 30 seconds. RIP pretty Savannah dog treat. Delia isn’t out of bed yet so she doesn’t know what she’s missing.

I also might have had some of the pecan praline and am now riding a very impressive sugar high for not even 8am. Thanks again, Beka!

On to the Christmas summary… this year we had our family Christmases before actual Christmas, so SO and I decided to make this a “Just the two of us” X-mas extravaganza. First we rolled out of bed at a lazy 7:30 (late for me), I popped a hash brown casserole in the oven, and we opened presents. I think, as usual, the dogs made out like bandits.

Then we loaded up the car and headed down to the local mountain bike trails. The weather was absolutely perfect for it, and I didn’t die (a couple near-misses don’t count), so that’s a bonus. My legs still felt a little tired from all the spin classes though.

Then it was home to shower and change before heading to the barn. SO very rarely sees Henry so he was quite entertained with taking pictures of Henry’s funny faces while I picked his feet.

Then he got a big warm carrot bran mash and I tried on his new blankets. Perfect fit! Hopefully those stupid rubs will start going away now. Anyone want a lycra shoulder guard that doesn’t seem to do jack?

The dogs got to come to the barn and play too, wearing their new outside coats.

Then we walked over to the other barn to say hi to the basically famous Autobahn and give him some treats since his mom is out of town. Any guesses as to why he and Henry are great buds?

After a quick pit stop at home to drop off the dogs it was off to – what else – a Chinese restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. The food was nothing to write home about, but it was definitely an experience.

And then we stopped at the gross local neighborhood bar for a beer (him) and cider (me). This was a great reminder of why we never go to said gross local neighborhood bar, but there weren’t many options on Christmas.

And then finally, we headed home to veg on the couch and watch the Doctor Who Christmas special. All in all – a pretty awesome day.

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too. It’s back to reality for me today – starting with a trip to go get my passport. Joy.

 

 

Wednesday words of wisdom: 3 spin classes and 3 rides in 4 days make for a tired body.

I’m not saying PS of Sweden has a few awesome sales going on, buuuuut I’m just gonna drop this here… http://www.psofsweden.com/en/offers/. I know a few of you were talking about buying one, so get yourself a nice Christmas present. I mean really, look it in the eyes and tell it you don’t love it.

Also, this is your last reminder to get those entries in for the logo contest! You have until December 31. In addition to the awesome prize pack offered to the winner, I’m offering a gift certificate for a custom Firefly bonnet to the runner-up (an $80 value) and an Ogilvy baby pad (a $40 value) to the second runner-up. Don’t forget to title your submissions CONTEST ENTRY and email them to charliebrowntb (at) hotmail (dot) com. Note that if you have several files, it’s probably best to only send 2-3 at a time so hotmail doesn’t reject them.

Everyone enjoy your holiday! From the $900 Facebook Pony – Happy Holidays!!!

Henry is wild so very rarely that it’s nothing but hilarious to me when he gets to feeling frisky. Mostly because his frisky is a lot of head twisting, and maybe the tiniest most pathetic crow hop you’ve ever seen. But he’s trying really hard and he’s REALLY impressed with his naughtiness, which only makes it even more hilarious.

My standard “I think he might be wild” approach to a ride is to put my sidepull hackamore on him and let him canter around the field. He gets to hop and play and toss his head for a few  minutes and think he’s fantastic, and I get to just sit there and giggle and let him get it out of his system. Alas the field was still a bit wet so I headed into the ring instead.

We trotted around a bit, with Henry at what is his Mach 10 (so a normal horse being forward) and wanting to canter canter canter! Trainer asked if I wanted to join in the lesson and first I said no but then I figured what the hell, this should be entertaining if nothing else. There was a gymnastic set up – two crossrails that were a canter in one stride, and then 3 options for jumps afterward. A bending two strides left to a vertical, a bending two strides right to a vertical, or just go straight and jump out over a vertical in 4 strides.

After a bit of warm-up the first course went like this:

It was actually a really good exercise to do with his hackamore on. The first couple times through he wanted to drag me and mini crow hop through the corners, and of course I had pretty much no control over that. But his lack of focus resulted in him burying himself, which in turn ended up being a good self correction. After that he came back pretty well from my seat and decided that plowing through and yeehawing around the corners was perhaps not a great idea (commence Henry pouting because once again I took all the fun out of everything).

The second course got a lot more complicated/tight/twisty, but again – great to do with the hackamore. Precision was key, so I was forced to use mostly leg and seat to steer instead of relying more on my reins.

He was being good by this point, he figured out that everything came up really quickly so he settled and listened and looked for the jumps. Nothing earth shattering happened, but I love a good gymnastics lesson with low jumps that really drill on basic concepts. I really had to sit up and ride accurately, and he really had to pay attention.

Today the vet comes for his coggins and shots, but hopefully I can squeeze in a quick jump school first.