4 Good Things About Winter

Plus this face is too cute

I really hate winter. I always have. It's cold, it's ick, it goes on for way too long. That said, I try to always find positives. Here is my current list:

1. Courage and I have spent a lot of time bonding on the ground. He's learning to not just "toe the line", but actually understand what I want from him. It's not a bunch of formal training, but anytime I have to go empty water buckets or something, I drag him along. Or rather, I let him learn to respect my space and pay attention to my verbal cues and body language.

ouch

2. The nasty winter footing prevented any craziness, so Courage got to explore new horizons (ie get turned out in the big pastures) without the risk of running himself stupid. He actually did very well up until it thawed on Saturday.

Then he demonstrated that he is still the best at awesome in the pasture. No one saw it, but I so hope there was silly squeals and deer leaping. (No worries--aside from some missing hair, he's fine.)

even trying to grow a real tail

3. Courage put on more weight! He was gaining and filling out nicely anyways, but I think that the lack of structured exercise allowed his body to rest and reset a lot. He's about as fat as I want him, since I don't like obese horses, but he looks really good. I can't wait to start putting sport horse muscles on him now!

4. This is more just a subset of 3, but he looks more comfortable in his skin and more relaxed with his life. His headset is lower and he feels more settled, somehow. It's not that he was ever bad, but now he's being really, really good.

There's a chance that the arena/pastures will be good enough to ride in this week. My fingers are crossed and I'm bouncing around the office. As many good things as have come out of winter, I AM SO READY FOR SHIT TO GET REAL. Let's go, YEAR OF THE HORSE!!!

Ammy Hour: Meet Jen!!

So cool!

I make no secret of the fact that I absolutely love the hard working, hard playing folks that make up the backbone of American equestrians: the adult amateur.

Jen, of Cob Jockey fame, is another one of my favorite adult ammy bloggers. She and Connor have trained hard and weathered plenty of challenges together. Here's a look at how another adult amateur makes horses work with a 9-5 job and real life commitments.

1. You’re at dinner with work colleagues. How do you introduce yourself? 
Hi, I'm Jen.  I'm an IT sysadmin for a large county government, and I seriously love my job.  No, actually I majored in Equine Studies.  Yes, I do have a horse.  No, I don't run barrels.  I compete in the sport based off of the old test the military used to determine horses' suitability for the cavalry.  It's an Olympic sport and you'd probably like it if you saw it, it's pretty exciting.

2. But what you really meant to say was this: 

Hi, I know what you're thinking, and I'm the systems administrator, not the secretary or the waitress.  Really.

3. Tell us about your horse(s): 

Connor is a 2006 Section D Welsh Cob gelding who is just barely 14hh.  His parents are *Tuscani Dundee and *Bwlchllan Bessie (and he looks JUST like his mom!).  Connor likes playing in his water trough, escaping from his pasture, stretching like a cat before being fed every morning, and being my talented, fun, safe eventing buddy.  He's forward, smart, sensitive and reactive, but not stupid, and has feet so hard the farrier swears they cause him to buy a new set of tools after every trim.  Connor is also really athletic, but doesn't need to be ridden daily, making him very adult ammie friendly!

4. How did you meet him? 

During a class in college in which we break a young horse to ride for an outside "client" (no compensation), my client sent me a Welsh Cob.  I had never heard of Welsh Cobs before, but fell in love with the breed, and looked the pony's breeder up on Facebook, sending a message to introduce myself.  We became friends, and I spent the next couple of years helping her show, ride, video and even foal her Welsh Cobs.  When she sent me a video of a 5 year old gelding who was coming back to be sold after learning how to ride and drive at a CDE driving barn in Pennsylvania, I was immediately awe-struck by him.  Fast forward almost a year later, I show him in-hand and under-saddle for her at a couple of Welsh shows, feel myself "click" with the fun and forward pony, and she makes me an offer I can't refuse. 

5. What have you done together? 

So far, Connor and I have shown rated and unrated starter-level eventing, and through Training level Dressage.  We've gone cross-country schooling, trail riding in state parks, and survived a lot of baby XC questions for the first time together.  He's so game and ready for anything, but safe at the same time, which is one of the things I love about the Welsh Cob breed in general.  When I say "Let's have an adventure!" he says "Okay!"  I think it says a lot that I've worked with Connor and many other Welsh Cobs for years now, and I've still never had an "unplanned dismount" on one.  (No, I will not knock on wood!)

6. Where are you going together? 

In 2014, we are moving up to Beginner Novice eventing and First Level Dressage.  I am also aiming for the National Dressage Pony Cup with him in September.  Long term, he will probably top out at about 3'3-3'6 and Training level eventing, but with Dressage, we're going to go as far as we can. He's showing talent for it, and I am the odd eventer that really enjoys Dressage.

7. How do you finance the addiction?

I went to college for Equine Studies, but while there I learned that what I really wanted to do was Information Technology, and that's how I finance the addiction.  I finished my Equine Studies degree even though I knew I wouldn't pursue it as a career while getting an unofficial second degree working in my college's IT department.  In addition to my IT job, I also do all of the feeding, turnout and stalls at my barn one day a week, and will continue to do so until my husband's student loans are paid off.

8. How often do you ride? 

Connor's barn is 45 minutes away, and with my 8-5 job plus our 24/7 on-call rotation, I can usually manage 4 rides a week, one of those being a lesson.  My department supports 911 and the police/sheriff, (plus 36 other departments), so on-call sometimes makes the barn interesting.  One time I reset a deputy's email password by using my phone to remotely access my office computer 40 miles away while sitting on Connor in the middle of a ride.  I also sometimes stay home from the barn if the weather will be bad or a server is running poorly and I think there's a chance I'll get paged.

Together <3

9. What’s the single biggest thing that helps you achieve your goals?

My current trainer took me from just surviving each ride to being able to feel and control Connor's individual body parts, and got me over my fear of jumping.  Her ability to analyze the situation and break it down in easy-to-understand terms, as well as her tendency to push you without over-facing you when she knows you're ready (even if you don't know you are!) is the only reason I've gotten so far with a green horse.

10. If there was one thing you could say to people getting ready to join the ranks of riding (or re-riding) adults, what would it be? 

Keep one word in the back of your mind: balance.  We all have goals, but we also need the money from our jobs to finance those goals, and the support of our loved ones to achieve them.  Train hard and be a badass, but never let your health, job, marriage or financial security suffer for it.  

11. What are your horse keeping arrangements?

Connor is on full-board at a fantastic facility with great care.  He's turned out in a field year-round from around 8am-dark, except in spring and summer when he's often on 24/7 turnout.  Having great people caring for him gives me a lot of peace of mind, since I often can't make it to the barn due to winter road conditions or work emergencies.

12. What is/are your long term equine goals? 

I discussed my long-term performance goals above, but my general goals are to keep Connor happy and healthy, to never stop learning and to continue to promote the Welsh Cob breed.  I think a lot of people, especially female adult re-riders, are looking for the sanity, soundness, athleticism, intelligence and safeness of the Welsh Cob breed, as well as their smaller size (they are generally 14hh-15.2hh) but they've never encountered them before.

So fancy

13. Bottom Line: 

The bottom line?  You hear all the time that adult ammies have it rough, but being an adult amateur is awesome!  We get to participate in the hobby we love, but not get burned out on it by turning it into our livelihood.  Sure, there's never enough money in our wallets or time in our days, but we get to unwind with our horses at the end of the day rather than wondering if we have enough energy left to ride our own.  (Of course, if you find yourself wishing you were doing 17 stalls and riding a string of horses every day, you may want to consider a career change!)  I hope you, like me, can enjoy and appreciate the benefits of being an adult amateur instead of focusing on the negatives, and thank the equine professionals in your life for being there for you.

 Many thanks to Jen for taking the time to participate! You can keep up with her at Cob Jockey.

Do you know someone who should be featured here? Are you a candidate? Contact me through email or the comments section and let's chat! 

Share Your Barn Blog Hop!!

It's blog hop time! Since most of us are just passing time until it's riding weather again, we might as well look at what range of facilities and horse keeping styles are available across the country. I find the different barns and set ups fascinating, so I hope you're willing to share. Here goes!

As per the usual, one picture really isn't enough for me, so I included several.

1) A view of the barn

I had to take this yesterday. I guess I'd never taken a real barn shot before. The main barn has five stalls, plus indoor crossties, a fancy ass tack room, and an upstairs storage area that is very useful for taking big pictures of the arena. (It's come up).

Under the overhang, we have the feed/spare blankets/additional storage area. It's completely out of reach of horses, so we don't have any unfortunate accidents involving grain. There's also a shedrow with a few more stalls and several dry lots with shelters.

2) Your horse's living space:

I love this about our barn. Courage has a 14x14 fully enclosed and insulated stall with a window into the main aisle (for feeding cookies) and a barred window (no glass) between him and the next stall so he can see other horses. 

It has an attached 12x24 run that is completely covered and bedded. As the picture shows, the panels can't be kicked through on the bottom and then block the wind in winter. Oh, AND the runs have a mister system installed for cooling in the summer time. 

Picture from this summer

PLUS

All the horse get turned out 6-8 hours a day, depending on weather. Right now, that's not terribly exciting due to excessive amounts of snow and ice, but in the summer, there are acres of maintained, irrigated grass that is neither muddy nor dusty. 

For this part of the world, that is heaven. 

3) In the tack room

Not my bridles, believe it or not

I love this. 

Super pretty cedar paneled tack room with custom painted bridle hangers. I also have a pretty sweet tack locker that I neglected to get a picture of. 

It's heated. 

There is also a tack hook for cleaning that's set up on a pulley system so we can lower it to use it and then retract it so it's not in the way.

Coolest thing ever.

4) Where you ride:

Misery

Yeah. We don't have an indoor. 

In the non-icy months (eg everything except December and January), it's a lovely sand ring with sprinklers that gets worked pretty much every day and watered as needed. 

5) My favorite feature:

C-rage inspects a sand pile from a now-complete project

Quite honestly, it's the barn owners. They give personalized attention to every horse. They constantly do maintenance and projects to keep the place going and even just to make life easier or nicer. They are always going above and beyond and are some of the nicest people I am fortunate enough to know. 

They even help out with my projects--when Redheadlins and I decided to enter the success Equestrian contest, they were in on the action. They gave suggestions, took pictures, and even told all their friends to vote for us. 

Taken by the BO

It's blog hop time!! Ashley at The Process of Learning wanted to do a "show us your barn" series to give us something to think about other than winter. Thanks Ashley!! 

Happy Birthday C-rage!!

I like to celebrate the boys birthdays on the actual day vs their legal day, just because it seems unfair to have to share the special day. Courage was foaled at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds on 1/7/05, so he turned nine years old yesterday.

Our package from Pia and Prairie arrived just in time, so here are my favorite shots of the birthday boy from yesterday!

So debonair!

The dramatic pose

And the other way

An outtake

Hullo camera

I think I get a treat if my nose touches the lens

I see you on the internetz

Happy birthday to my darling little bay man!

Back to Work!

My arena. At noon. Wish I was kidding.

C-rage has had five weeks off and I am going to kill something if I keep making two board payments without riding.

Vacation is over.

That said, my world is still ice over frozen footing. Despite the fact we're facing some sort of epic drought crisis, the weather refuses to warm up enough to let snow from a month ago just melt. Whiiiiiiiiiine. Sore subject.

So. A friend headed back to school came out on Friday and rode the little dude out in the pasture. He was shockingly good, given that he hasn't done anything since his one ride mid-December and hadn't actually worked since November.

Wild!

He started out a little up. By that, I mean his head and ears were up and he looked around. He didn't put a foot wrong.

I thought the footing was slightly safer in the field than the arena and he marched around like he owned the place.

One of his better moments

He also trotted a little bit, but his shoes got pulled the last time the farrier was out in December. Between being a little bit footsore and having NO FREAKING CLUE what to do with his legs over terrain, it was hilarious to watch.

My friend just floated him the reins and kept him moving and eventually he figured out how to trot instead of tranter and flail. I tried to get video, but somehow managed to only video my feet and the ground. Oops. Probably just as well.

Taken at 1pm on Friday. Not edited. 

Anyways. The horrid inversion+fog finally went away for basically the first time in a month and I decided it was time to get back in the saddle. The footing is crap, the ice isn't leaving any time soon, indoors are not in the picture, but hey. We can walk. I'm putting together a schedule for him that just starts out with 3-4 weeks walking under tack.

I'm hoping that by the, January will be over and the footing will improve and we can put his shoes back on and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.

So cute with a new friend up

Part of the plan with the 5 week lay off (other than "IT'S FRICKING COLD") was to allow him to lose some of that racing muscle and let us start all over. I hope it's working--he was an absolute star for his ride yesterday. Instead of giraffing around the field, he carried his neck level and his throatlatch open and just walked like a normal horse. It was fun and relaxing for both of us.

No pictures of me up--my winter breeches have no pockets and our usual photographer has escaped to warmer climates. Oh well.

It's my first time giving a horse a structured winter break. I'm curious to see how he comes back in to work and how long my motivation holds in this weather. It is nasty.

Ammy Hour: Meet Elena!!

Here's the latest installment of Ammy Hour. I love to run this series because I get to learn about so many cool and interesting people and the way they manage real life with horses. I know it's a slow news two weeks because of the holidays, but I have a great interview with yet another cool adult amateur!

Elena blogs over at Out of the Box, where she keeps up with two OTTBs and has possibly the coolest wedding photos of all time. (Why hasn't a horse blog run a 'cool wedding photos' post? I should do that. I love pictures!)

Anyways. Elena is another adult amateur making a go of it and here is how she answers the questions that life throws at her:




1) You’re at dinner with work colleagues. How do you introduce yourself?  Hi, I'm Elena. This is my husband George. Yes, I know, we got married young. Yes, I also know I look just like Jennifer Lawrence.

2) But what you really meant to say was this: Hi, nice to meet you. Would you like to see some pictures of my pets? No, oh ok. I guess I don't really have anything to talk to you about then...I'll be heading to the barn now!








3) Tell us about your horse(s): The Great Gatsby, "Gatsby", is a 17 y/o OTTB who I bought back in 2006. He is kind of crazy but also ridiculously amazing. He LOVES cross-country and pretty much any jumping in general. Not so crazy about dressage but is pretty darn good at it when he pays attention! He loves peppermints and licking my hands. We have a very strong bond but he also has a strong independent streak and may have been tagged by some as arrogant.

Chi-Town, "Kanye", is a 2 y/o TB with no race training. He is still growing and we are still getting to know each other but so far he pretty much seems like a puppy in horse form. Nothing bothers him and he would just like to be next to me at all times.  












4) How did you meet him/her? I met Gatsby when I was 16. I had finally come to terms that my lovely 14.3hh QH mare wasn't going to be my superstar eventer so we decided to put her on the market and start looking for something else. I went through thousands (or so it seemed) videos and ads but Gatsby was actually the first horse I sat on. It was pretty much love at first site when I saw him in the cross-ties. He was 100% nutso and absolutely the wrong horse for me but the more I heard that the more I loved him and, as you can see, it's turned out pretty well!

Also met the dog

I stumbled across Kanye when I was window shopping the SoCal CANTER listings. I was totally not in the market for a new horse but absolutely adored his photos and pretty much had to have him. So far so good on that one!

5) What have you done together? Gatsby and I have competed up through Training level eventing together and schooled Prelim. Kanye and I have gone on many walks together and attempted to lunge.







6) Where are you going together? Right now Gatsby is rehabbing a minor tendon injury. I would really love to be able to compete him at least one more time to be able to enjoy cross-country with him again. In my heart of hearts I also have a, fairly unlikely, dream of taking him to an FEI event one day.
Kanye is still growing up. I plan on starting him sometime next year and seeing how he does but my hope is that he will be a fantastic eventer also.



7) How do you finance the addiction? I have been lucky enough to have a father who was willing and able to finance the addiction from the start. He supported my riding completely until about 2 years ago when we discussed it and thought at that point it made more sense for me to be responsible for it. Generous as ever though, he gifted me a portion of his ownership in a company he jointly owns to assist me in getting by. This still puts me on a pretty tight budget for my boys but I am forever grateful to my dad for making it possible for me to keep them as an adult.

8) How often do you ride? I try to ride about 4-5 days a week but unfortunately my work schedule often gets in the way and I'll be lucky to get 3 rides in.

9) What’s the single biggest thing that helps you achieve your goals? The support of my dad and my husband are hugely helpful but I also like to think that I am a pretty stubborn and motivated person.



10) If there was one thing you could say to people getting ready to join the ranks of riding (or re-riding) adults, what would it be? Prepare to sleep A LOT less. I don't know about everyone else but often the only time I have to ride is before work which means getting up before 6am and then returning home after 7pm.





11) What are your horse keeping arrangements? Gatsby lives at a fantastic facility in Santa Barbara. It's got all the facilities we need plus really amazing care and some great people to ride with. They've got stalls and paddocks but I was lucky enough to snag a situation where he lives out 24/7 with the owners retired mare. Kanye lives at my house in our paddock with our retired QH mare. We have the option to open the paddocks up to the trails and let the horses wander and graze which I'd like to try in the summer but it depends on how our other horses are with him.

12) What is/are your long term equine goals? I think I have pretty much the same ultimate dream as every other eventer stateside, to compete at Rolex Kentucky. More realistically, I would be beyond stoked to compete at an FEI event and do decently.












13) Bottom Line: Riding is my passion. There have been times when I've though about how much easier things would be if I gave it up but when it comes down to it, it's definitely one of the most important things in my life. I wouldn't be happy without my horses and I definitely wouldn't be me without riding.

Bridles Part 1: Aesthetics

I love bridles. I suspect most of you have picked up on that by now. I bridle shop enough to know just what type of bridle I like (giant, fancy, padded, monocrown, preferably with sparkles somewhere), but I also know that not every horse can wear every style. I always wished that someone would write a useful style guide for those of us who only had one horse to shop for and didn't want to just buy and return stuff constantly.

So I wrote one. You're welcome.

Here's a look at the facial types I've dressed and what looks work best for them.

good

Izzy

Oldenburg Mare
Facial type: bold lines and features. Simple markings. Straight profile.
Dressing difficulty: easy

Izzy was well bred and a nice mover, but clinicians always called her a "handsome" mare and she was frequently mistaken for a gelding. Her face, while expressive, was plain. That allowed me to dress it up just as much as I wanted.

Here she's rocking the Nunn Finer event bridle. I chose brass highlights because I knew she could handle the extra pizzazz without being overwhelmed. It worked ok for her. There was nothing wrong with the look and it was always clean and workmanlike. That said, her face could handle something more.

better

Naturally, she also had a figure eight. This is a Five Star Tack piece--I don't remember which model. Again, because her face is simple, the white contrast stitching and padded monocrown worked really well for her face.

She had just enough white to set it off without so much that I was worried that the details would get swallowed up.

best

This was absolutely Izzy's signature bridle. It's another Five Star Tack model that has unfortunately been discontinued. It's the Magnolia bridle. She's actually wearing it in oversize because that's the only one I could find.

It's hard to see the details in this shot, but it had a 1.5" noseband with a detailed browband and white contrast stitching. I loved all the details, right down to the buckles, and it looked fabulous with the simple lines of her face. The width in the noseband helped refine her otherwise common lines and the details added visual interest. If I still had Izzy, I would still have this bridle, no question.

OH MY GOD NO

Cuna

OTTB gelding
Facial type: complicated lines, small muzzle, very refined, lots of detail, slightly dished face
Dressing difficulty: HARD

Cuna was immensely difficult to buy tack for, which just meant that I bought a lot of it. I tried the bridle on him that was perfect for Izzy, and we were all horrified and amused. The details that made it pop on her completely overwhelmed his face and looked atrocious.

also no

Then I went in the opposite and tried understated. This is a plain raised, horse sized edge wood bridle that I picked up for cheap somewhere.

Horrible.

In trying to get away from the overdone look of the Five Star bridle, I screwed up and got everything wrong. Cuna needed something simple, but this was too refined for a 16.3 hand gelding. He can't do complicated, but he is too big for this to work and the unique edgewood leather pulls all the wrong colors out for a red horse.

He looks sick.

not quite

I put him in the Nunn Finer. Because it is such a basic bridle, it worked pretty well for him. That said, I bought it with brass details to set off a plain head (Izzy) and brass+chestnut is pretty much a no-go.

Between his adorable fluffy forelock and bright red color, the brass was just too much.

We compromised on this one. The bridle wasn't "bad", it just wasn't best for him. I pulled the brass browband off and we made do.

getting there

Then we tried the hunter bridle route. This was sold to me as a Hadfield bridle, but I've never found a maker's mark to prove it. It worked ok on his face.

Ok, I actually quite like this bridle on him and still have it, but the truth is that his conformation and movement style are NOTHING like a hunter, so while nice, it was a bit superfluous. Still. We were on the right track. His face is busy, so I needed something simple and elegant without being too refined.

handsome

The next attempt was the strangely nice Ovation wide noseband bridle. I dressed it up with a fancy brownband and experimented both with and without the flash.

What I really liked about this bridle was that it balanced the 1.25" plain raised cavesson with very refined cheeks and simple buckles. It really set Cuna's face off very nicely.

While it worked for his face, it never quite satiated my need for "pretty". It was workmanlike and effective and slightly prettier than the Nunn Finer. It did the job.

Best

Then I found something new. This is a Mark Todd bridle imported from England. I actually love how the unique curves of the bridle balance the delicacy of his face with his large size.

If I'd spent more time playing around with it, I think I would probably have removed the flash just because Cuna doesn't like it or need it.

The buckles are technically brass, but they're a matte finish that is quite innocuous. Can I just say I love this bridle?

Of course, as soon as I got Cuna's bridle selection hammered out, he went and retired and I got to start over with facial type #3.

too big

Courage 

OTTB Gelding
Facial Type: Long, narrow face. Lots of space to fill between jowl and mouth. Flashy white. Plain lines.
Dressage Difficulty: Medium

Courage is funny to dress. His big blaze should dictate simple lines because it takes up so much visual attention, but the lines of his face are rather uninteresting.

I started him out in the go-to Nunn Finer bridle. We put a figure eight on it because after 6 years of race training, there was a lot for him to learn about what was and was not acceptable. Unfortunately, despite being 16.1 and 8 years old, he has a tiny little face and the horse-sized piece just hung uselessly on him.

ok

Next we went to Cuna's surprisingly nice Ovation bridle.

This worked pretty well, aesthetically. The refined cheeks didn't overwhelm his narrow head and the cavesson/flash filled up space pretty well. That said, it was a horse size bridle and he was on the last hole of pretty much everything.

It wasn't going to be our long term solution.

good

Our next step was the micklem bridle. For those who have aesthetic complaints about the design, I don't disagree. It's different. I find them a bit distracting when I'm looking through event pictures, but if they stick around, I think that will be overcome. Let's face it: they're not as ugly as (god help us all) drops. Ew. Hate those. (And yes, some horses go well in them. Life goes on.)

Regardless. Because of his facial structure, the micklem actually worked surprisingly well. It's very busy between the jowl and the chin and that is PERFECT for Courage who has a lot of space there without a lot going on. I've used both the bedazzled browband and plain, and they both work with his face.

This bridle is actually cob sized and fits him quite well. That said, it's unconventional looking and no horse of mine can have just one bridle, can they? The horror!

nope

We borrowed a flat hunt bridle in cob size from our barn owner.

I have to say, I'm glad I didn't buy it. Although it fit well, the bridle was all kinds of wrong for this face. It just emphasized how narrow his head was without showing off his character well at all.

I tried it on twice and the results were the same. Although he is a super cute horse, this bridle isn't aesthetically the best choice for him.

best

Here's my favorite so far. It's the cob sized Dover Circuit bridle. It's very similar leather to the edgewood that totally didn't work for Cuna, but Courage is a totally different color and the slightly red tone looks LOVELY on him. (Note: I would never, ever put this on a black or black bay. HATE that combo.)

The figure eight fills up space nicely and the contrast stitching on the plain raised section is just enough detail without trying to overrun his big blaze.

I will say that I also stuck a d ring bit on it because I knew it would look cute. That's not a concern for under saddle work, but I was dressing him for a photo shoot and cute was at a premium.


And that's not even all the bridles I've ever owned. Please, no one go through and total up the cost for that list for me, haha. Not every bridle works for every horse. This post is just about the aesthetics of the bridles I used. I'm planning another one on function and quality, because hey, I love bridles, and Courage is on Christmas vacation at least until all this nasty ice melts.

Anyone have a picture of a bridle on their horse that is just stunning? Maybe one that is less than stunning? Email it to me. (hakunamatata@gmail.com). I want to do a set with reader photos too. Please include the bridle make/model (if know) and any relevant details about the horse. Headshots are easiest to look at bridles.