It was yet another great, mostly stress-free horsey filled weekend. I started off with a non-horsey thing – a 35 mile bike ride. I pretty much wanted to get hit by a car the entire way home as I pedaled straight into a 20mph headwind. I would have gladly traded my bike (or first born child, or a kidney) for a ride home… talk about pure misery. When you have to pedal downhill just to keep moving forward, it’s too freaking windy. Ugh, fried quads.

After that I headed out to ride the pony, because my legs weren’t quite dead enough yet. We did some flatwork first…

then hopped around the little jumps that were set up in the ring. My friend was there so I actually have video! Mostly we worked on short approaches and turns.

HenryJune from amanda chance on Vimeo.

Good thing to note: he’s no longer curling up behind the bit at any whiff of contact. Praise Jesus hallelujah, the month of flatwork bootcamp was not in vain. There’s still a lot more to work on, but I’m glad to have made progress on what has been the biggest problem we’ve had to date. I feel like the rest of it isn’t nearly so difficult to fix. The video also makes me think I really need to try a figure 8 on him, or – dare I even say it – a Micklem (itssooougly) or a Perfect Sit (iloveit)? Thoughts, blogosphere? He’s a fussy creature.

After the barn I went to Walmart to pick him up a new (seriously heavy duty) fan for the new barn. It’s powerful enough that I’m pretty sure if I ever put it on the highest setting he’d look something like this:

On Sunday we just did a pretty relaxed hack out in the grass ring. He did give me two really nice trot lengthenings across the diagonal, which is seriously noteworthy. This horse doesn’t lengthen anything. I just finally got him to do an actual stretchy trot circle a week ago. Henry generally stays in Henry outline at all times, he’s a very “stuck” creature by nature. The fact that he lengthened – a real true honest to goodness, rocked back on his butt lengthening – was nothing short of a miracle. These are the baby steps that give me hope.

After that I let him gallop down the long stretch of grass by the road. I’m so endlessly amused by his pogo stick gallop, I’m usually about to fall off laughing by the time I pull him up. He’s not quite sure what’s so funny but I don’t think he could outrun a 3-legged goat. After our ride it was spa time, since he can’t go to a new barn looking like a hood rat. Lots of scrubbing, some suds, clippers, scissors, and a mane pull later, he looks presentable again.

Oh yeah that reminds me – the other fun thing of the weekend! My newest batch of Personally Preppy monograms came! Monogram Everything.

monograms before:

monograms after:

Today is moving day… fingers crossed!

Nothing like sliding in at the last minute, but better almost-late than never right? This is for Eventing In Color’s June photo challenge… I did the best I could.

1. Between-the-ears shot.

Wild man hair adds to the appeal

2. Anything blooming at your barn.

3. A picture of your horse taken from a random/weird/artistic angle.

4. The most attractive horse at your barn other than yours.

It’s a baby with gray goggles… I mean come on, how do you beat that?

5. Bath time photo.

6. A sweet picture of you and your horse.

Best I could do, apparently we’re just not sweet.

While I was digging manically  browsing through the Internet a couple weeks ago desperately looking for pictures of Henry’s sire, I came across a couple of tiny photo collage proofs from his Oaklawn wins. I just about died of hysterical fits of the giggles when I saw these pictures. Meet Henry’s sire Skeet.

That is my Henrypants EXACTLY. I have so many pictures just like that.

There you have it guys – the Derps are definitely genetic. This proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Also big round fat butts. Those too are genetic.

Dat azz.

The apple bottom didn’t fall far from the tree

 

Another fun note – I may or may not have picked up an XC vest on ebay yesterday, in case I ever actually get to take Henry out. It was a smokin’ deal I couldn’t pass up, albeit not navy which is sad.

Oh and I now have PURPLE HAIR! Not all of it, just some streaks underneath. I love it though. Happy almost Friday, y’all.

 

Since I used a picture of Kai on yesterday’s blog post I figured I should probably write a little bit about him. He was yet another horse that happened quite by chance. A friend of mine in California that I “met” via an online forum many years ago had a lovely young Oldenburg gelding by Ideal that was coming back from an injury. However, she was headed to law school and didn’t really have the time to rehab him and get him going again. Enter: me. At the time Sadie was 4 and I was really wanting something kinda “made” (or at least not bright green) to ride while she started learning the ropes. Plus I really was starting to have an itch to do the jumpers again, and Kai could potentially be a great way to scratch that itch. His owner was kind enough to trust me with Kai’s rehab (for which I will forever be flattered), so off he went from CA to TX for me to free lease.

I was super meticulous about his rehab schedule. I had a calendar and I had everything written out day by day with exact increments of walking, trotting, when it was ok to start adding circles, etc etc. I figured if someone was going to trust me with their horse, I damn well better do a good job and do it right. After a few months he was back to a mostly regular flatwork routine, although still a bit weak from his extended vacation.

 

 

We spent a few more months working on more intense flatwork, building his strength back up, etc. By mid summer he was ready to start jumping again. We started low and slow, and he came back very well with nary a hitch. Before his injury Kai had done a lot of dressage and a little eventing, but hadn’t really competed much. So while he had good basics and a sound foundation to build on, he didn’t have many show miles and still was young enough to where he needed all the finesse work that comes with moving a horse up the levels.

 

 

In October he went to his first show with me, an A show in Katy. It was a lot to ask of him. The jumps were bigger than he’d ever done before in competition, and it had been a couple years since he’d been to a show. But he stepped up and went around the .95m and 1m without any real hiccups. He leaped a mile over the top of everything (pretty sure I got jumped way loose about 15 times that week – there was much sticky spray happening by the end), but he was willing.

 

 

 

We went to a few more shows, moving up to the low Adult jumpers. Most times he was pretty solid, although we were riding more to get us both miles, not to win, so there weren’t a lot of ribbons. One particularly hilarious (and frustrating) show was Waco in January 2012. I don’t know what it was about that ring, but he was terrified of the jump crew (in the middle of the long side on one side of the ring) and the giant judge’s tower of doom (in the middle of the long side on the other side of the ring). So, basically all of our rounds looked like this:

 

He spent the whole week wheeling, spooking, and running sideways from the jump crew and the judges. Thanks Kai.

The thing about Kai is that he could be a real jerk. Every single time you got on him it was a fight to get him moving forward off your leg. A super work ethic, he did NOT possess, and he could be really stupid about the absolutely most inane things. But when it came down to the important things, like the jumps, he was always willing and able. I learned a lot on this horse.

1) How to correctly rehab a ligament injury. I was probably overly cautious to a completely obsessive level, but it worked.

2) Patience. That horse could really push my buttons sometimes with his attitude, but when it came down to a battle of wills I could always win if I just quietly but firmly waited him out. As someone who does not come by a plethora of patience naturally, this was important for me to learn.

3) Tenacity. If you had any “quit” in you, Kai could detect it. Therefore you better be darn sure about what you wanted and be prepared to work for it.

4) How to ride every stride. Kai was unforgiving in that if you made one mistake, he would pull a rail. It’s almost like he decided he was my own personal Mr Miyagi and eventually he could teach his puny human how to ride properly if he just kept “correcting” my mistakes by not giving me a clean round. On one hand – that’s annoying. No one rides THAT well. On the other hand – if I made a mistake I knew about it immediately. Dropped my hands a bit? Rail. Was a little too quick with my shoulders off the ground? Rail. Leaned a little to the side over the jump to make a turn? Rail. He was a crash course in small details and really made me much more aware of my body and how it affects the horse.

5) He re-ignited my love for the jumpers. Before him I hadn’t been in the jumper ring since 2002/2003. I had truly forgotten how much I really loved it. Getting to show and ride him reminded me of where my heart lies, and for that I am eternally grateful.

 

I’m mainly doing this post as a placeholder for me… I keep intending to do reviews of things and end up forgetting, so maybe this will help. In the meantime if there’s anything on this list that you’d be particularly interested in reading a full review about, let me know and I’ll bump it up to the front of the line.

 

Tack:

Saddle – CWD
Bridle – Mark Todd and Ovation
Baby Pads – BobbiGee’s custom and Wilker’s
Half Pad – Ogilvy
Breastplate – Can-Pro and Ovation
Girth – Professional’s Choice
Stirrups – Royal Rider Flex
Stirrup leathers – Schleese

Equipment:

Boots – Tekna and Chetak
Blankets – Amigo and Schneider’s
Coolers – Dover’s Honeycomb Chill Chaser and Wool Dress Sheet
Halter – SmartPak Wellfleet and Dover Suffolk
Grooming supplies – The Ultimate Hoofpick and Beastie Brushes
Fly Bonnets – Firefly Custom Bonnets
Hay net – Nibblenet slow feeder
Clippers – Lister Star and Andis AGC Super 2 Speed

Apparel:

Helmet – GPA Speed Air
Breeches – Animo and Tailored Sportsman (Trophy Hunter and TS Schooling)
Coat – Horseware Competition Jacket
Shirts – Le Fash, Tredstep Symphony
Boots – Ariat Monaco and Mondoni Kingston
Gloves – Roeckl

 

I’m probably forgetting many things, but that’s what I can come up with off the top of my head. There’s also a lot of stuff I’ve had in the past that I could review if anyone was interested – Equifit T-boots, Animo jacket/polo shirts, Ariat Volants, Edgewood bridle, Thinline Trifecta, Oster Clipmasters, etc. Considering I’ve only actually done ONE review, I better get busy…