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.

Belated Christmas Pictures!!

We actually did take Christmas pictures this year, but they were part of a present that was being mailed out of the country and customs decided to just plunk it's fat ass down on them and they ended up being late. Because they were a surprise, I didn't want to flood the internet with cuteness until the intended recipient actually got to view them.

Anyways! They have arrived. Because some of them are just too cute for words, I decided I need to share more of them on the internet. Many thanks to Redheadlins for taking the pictures and hiding them from me until the time was right because my head would have exploded if I couldn't share such cute pictures.

The old man horse in all his fuzzy glory

:-)

So lovable!

Just getting to know Courage

I was having a good hair day

It's New Years Eve. I'm working on setting goals for next year and hope to get that post up in the next week or so. Hope everyone is warm and well!

2013 Year in Review!!

Probably my favorite aspect of having a blog is just the ability it gives me to look back over my life and see where I've been and where I'm headed. I love this time of year--I look through my posts from the past year and pick out one per month that really summarized what that month was about. I usually try to do a goals wrap up, but that was an epic fail this year for reasons completely out of my control. Instead of worrying about that, let's look at what happened in 2013!

I hate winter

January: 

This goes down as the second most miserable month of my life and I was I was being hyperbolic. I was laid off from my office job and picked up full time hours at the barn just in time for Idaho to experience three weeks of record breaking cold. Highs in the single digits, lows below zero, and I was struggling just to put gas in my car. Did I mention the barn had no power and the hydrants all froze and I was hand-carrying buckets to all 17 horses? Here's a post I wrote just before the cold really got bad: Winter Sets In.

Best Valentines

February: 

Basically I just appreciated what Cuna and I had going. I wrote One Year and One Day to celebrate our first anniversary. The real take away from February was just reflecting on what great things Cuna had been able to do for me.

From the day we met <3

I realized the value of a schoolmaster and overcame some lingering mental blocks about what I perceived as failures on my part with the mare I sold last year. Here's the post that sums up my feelings on the matter: Honesty and Horsemanship

handwalking is not his favorite

March: 

Cuna and I were taking some dressage lessons and advancing quickly. In Fancy Pants Dressage, I talk about the progress we were making. My blogging was down that month--Cuna was having some odd problems that didn't make sense. Little things here and there were popping up. None of them were concerning on their own, but putting the pieces together wasn't making a lot of sense. Cuna tied up on a trail ride in March, summed up in the post: A Scare

flicky toes

April: 

More changes. Cuna and I kept working hard at the dressage with an occasional jump lesson. Elbows on Fire is a post where I talk about our breakthroughs. I got his hocks injected again and he was in fine form. His body looked like a proper dressage horse and his neck was incredible.

hacking out

We were also getting pretty burned out on arena work. He and I started hacking down the roads around the barn to visit friends and meet new people. I could trust him in the worst of conditions and one of our friends took pictures of him in her field, chronicled in Coversation Starter.

more handwalking

May: 

The shit hit the fan in May. Cuna was brilliant in our jumping clinic and exceptional at our dressage show. That was the last time he was sound. Again, little things weren't adding up and I blogged about it in Stuck.

His team at work

After his public successes, Cuna continued to get progressively more lame despite all the management changes that were made. We made a joint appointment with his vet and farrier and took him in. It wasn't all smooth sailing. I summarized the appointment in Cuna Update.

a moment in time

June: 

There was nothing easy about June. Cuna was trying to get better, but it was a very long process. He made strides at first and we took his picture in Happy. Shortly after that, he regressed. I kept away from the show barn as much as possible, because it was just too hard to watch everyone else doing what I knew Cuna couldn't.

still together

I spent in a new part of the horse industry: the racetrack. It went from a fun night out with friends to showing up to help out several times a week and get my horsey fix as noted in At the Track. At the end of the month, I made the decision to retire Cuna instead of torturing both of us over something we couldn't change in the post Towards Healing.

after a bath

July: 

It started out slow. We hit record high temperatures while Cuna hung out in the shade at his new home. In The New Normal, I talk about the dealing with the emotions of letting go of a career for the horse I love the most. His shoes got pulled and he just got to be a horse with no plans or goals.

meet Courage!

I spent increasingly more time at the track. I was having fun out of the saddle and things were going along just swimmingly until I accidentally ended up bringing a second horse home. It was the beginning of a more hopeful era summed up in The Road Goes Ever On and On.

important Cuna stuff to do

August: 

Courage came to join us, but Cuna was still my main man. He was taking it slow in the field, which I talk about in Can't Forget Cuna.

bay ears!

Courage came straight off the track and started under saddle. He continued to prove that he was the second most awesome horse on the planet by going on field trips to group lessons and getting his first set of real horse shoes which he tried to eat in Taking Off the Gym Shoes. He learned important skills like eating cookies and lunging and was the first bright spot for me all summer, which I talk about in One Month of Awesome.

first show!

September: 

I was dealing with the emotions of letting Cuna retire. In Honesty, I talk about how hard it was for me when our relationship changed. Courage was helping me stay focused and upbeat. He demonstrated his road-warrior brain when he didn't even flinch about going to his first horse show in Showtime for Courage.

artsy fun!

Based on our success there, I took him to his first ever XC clinic and wrote the Wrapup here. As long as we were out and about, I also took him to a big group lesson so we could practice having horses go by and jumps fall down. He rocked my world in Only the Best Idea Ever.

love them

October: 

In keeping with our up tempo pace, Courage and I participated in the two point challenge. I talked about the year for Cuna and why I decided to retire him.

SEE ALL THE THINGS

Courage continued to impress as he went on his first ever trail ride and acted like a total pro. Ellie came out to visit with us. She got to be in the Cuna photoshoot and she did the first ever proper pictures of Courage.




Courage got his own micklem bridle and he finally started to figure out this whole jumping thing.

November: 

We carried on, full speed ahead! We went on another trail ride with an exciting adventure. Courage started to really get this jumping thing down. He got clipped for the first time as a sporthorse and rocked out with his stars. We also had to work through some residual groundwork issues.

the best at lessons

We hit the lesson circuit hard at the end of the month.

legit cold lesson

December: It's been really quiet this month. We did get to ride one time. I talked about my past and why I make some of the choices I do in Amateur Hour. The boys are taking some well-deserved time off due to absolutely miserable weather that refuses to end.

love this

It's been a wild ride! This year went absolutely nothing like I planned or expected it to. Let's face it: I started the year working full time at a show barn with Cuna all set to move up and ended the year sans barn job but with two horses.

Christmas!!

My family doesn't believe in buying me horsey things. They think I'm some sort of addict who shouldn't be enabled more than I already am.

I say I can only have one hobby, so I might as well go for it.

As such...

He is the best at modeling 

The little dude got a brand new (used) bridle! It's a strangely nice Circuit figure eight in cob size that actually fits him and looks pretty smashing on his face if I do say so myself.

I would never, ever buy a Circuit new, but I have to say that I'm totally blown away by this one. I didn't expect to like it, but I do. It's slightly raised and not fancy stitched and someone looks SO CUTE in it.








My blogger secret santa sent me the luxurious and wonderful Higher Standards soap, which I already blogged about. I will do a proper review once the holidays are over, but I really do love it.













I was surprised and elated when Me over at Charlie and Me sent a Christmas present too!!

It's the conditioner to match the soap. I was wildly excited, so I spent a whole evening cleaning and conditioning the new bridle. Too much fun!







And then!

Niamh over at Life of Riley (who makes the stunning paper cuts) has been working on one for Cuna for a while now and it showed up just before Christmas!!

I don't know how to photograph it in such a way that shows how cool it is in person. It completely captured the photo and the moment and I love it.




I know I'm a bit late, but Merry Christmas to all! I hope you and your ponies are well.