Go All-in for a Great Cause!

P-man is helping to raise money for those ponies less fortunate than him -- cause we all know how spoiled he is!

Go to: http://specialhorses.org/?page_id=922 and donate how ever much you feel you can -- $5 goes a LONG way for a horse in need.

Let's buy a couple less treats for our own horses this month so that another horse can have a second chance!

And now for your weekend update...

Ah, the rolling hills of Virginia -- a beautiful setting for the Virginia Horse Trials.

P-man and I rolled into the Horse Center after 5 hours of uneventful travel, ready for a rest and a hack. P-man looked to have settled in well to his new surroundings and acquired his new 'weekend' friends - my friend Emily's connemara pony, Toby and her mother beautiful OTTB.

Saturday morning dawned with the promise of it being a very LONG day - 9:00am dressage time, 4:50pm cross country and poor Emily didn't jump until 7:28pm.

With a quick stretch by my good friend (and roommate for the weekend), Tina -- P-man was prepped for dressage. He blew me away in warm-up -- so soft and supple yet in front of my leg. We shared the warmup with noted names like Kelly Temple and Karen O'Connor and didn't even stick out like a sore thumb!

But then P-man realized that from his dressage ring you could see the whole world (aka - we were on the edge of a hill) and that he needed to concentrate intensly on everything else but me! Lowest dressage score of our career with a 37.9. Nice, eh?

A brisk walk of my cross country course and I was a bit taken aback. Fence 4 was a bank-up > 2 strides > log off a bank > bending line to a hedge... we've never done a log off a bank for sure! Fence 7 was a bounce bank up a hill -- AH! But P-man put on his big-boy pants (minus a brief discusion coming out of the start box), and ran around clean (with some time penalties - with our lousy dressage score I was not pushing him at all). He definitely had some steam left in the tank when we crossed the finish line, and I think he felt like he had just gotten in a rythm!

Sunday morning saw tight legs and a fresh P-man. Another stretch session by Tina, and out to warmup we went. The warm-up fences were still set for Prelim, but P-man didn't care - he flew over every one with room to spare. I changed his bit right before I got on, and was happy with how he responded. Our course was in the huge colliseum and I was worried about how he'd handle all that, but he just jumped extra big over everything - minus a slight rub on #2. I shut him down a bit too much into some of them with the extra stopping power of the new bit, but he immediately stepped up off my leg and made it work.

Overall, I was sooooo happy with him. Excited about Lumber River in 2 weeks!!!

Updating thru Twitter... Aloha from

Updating thru Twitter...
Aloha from the Virginia Horse Center! Please check the left side bar for the twitter updates!

Train of thought... downhill runaway

So, I have this thing where my brain is on overdrive most of the time (ask John! He'll tell you how much I think too much!). Those that have watched me ride P-man would never really realize it, but really that mass in my skull turns into Tourette's on crack. The funny thing is that I hold my breath sometimes when I jump, cutting off oxygen, which seems to slow things down a bit :)

But dressage is where I get all my dirty work done. The following is a random train of thought that may or may not happen during my dressage test...

Whistle... choo choo, that sounds like the beginning of that "Love Shack" love shack baby, yeah... down center line straight - straight don't spook at the letter or the judge or the grass or the dirt. AH we have to turn. Bend around my leg. Wait... did I turn the right direction... where to I turn next. THere's John -- I hope he's getting this on camera... I hope the camera works. I wonder when I'll get it put online cause I'm sure mom will want to see it. Is he leaning on me,he might be behind the bit, oh wait, canter NOW...up into the canter. Wait, that sucked... CAN WE JUST DO THAT AGAIN? Oh my gosh I'm tired. HOw can I hold this all together for one more 20 meter circle? What would happen if I just walked thru the rest of the test-- I bet that'd be entertaining. Or what if I just cantered in a half seat around the ring over and over and didn't stop for the whistle. Gosh I can't wait for cross country. Wait -- free walk -- [insert elevator music here]........... collect for Medium walk... please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode......and TROT. I totally am regretting not eating anything before this, what was I nervous about, this isn't so bad. Wait, its starting to rain, and rain means umbrellas and umbrellas mean CRAZY horse. I guess not, he doesn't care about the umbrellas... AH! apparently he does care about the single peice of grass that is 4 inches higher then the rest of the grass -- it is pretty weird that one peice of grass would be higher... maybe they need to have their mower looked at. Gosh I remember all the trouble we had with that mower at the FORK... glad I don't have to worry about that anymore. At least I have a cool job now. and it means I get to ride in cool tack like this pad I have on. I sure wish I hadn't dropped it in the mud on the way to tack the P-man up -- we'd sure look a bit more polished then what we do now. I hope my hair is staying in it's hair net at least.

HANDS UP... LEG ON... MOVE THRU. I guess going down center line was a bit late to start thinking of those minor details. OH well, at least that's over with. Halt -- Salute.... Smile (did I even do all the test?)...


Ok, so maybe I'm not that bad, but it sure feels like it sometimes. For instance, last night I was upping the ante on P-man a bit - asking him to be more together and uphill. Things were going well, but I felt something was missing. He would get a bit unbalanced when I changed his bend or when we did transitions. I could. not. get. it. right. And then, like a lightbulb in a dark house, I realized "oh, my leg is just hanging there... engage!" and suddlening my horse relaxed and would bend and mold and do whatever.

It's the simple things, really... and for some reason, I can't keep all the simple things together. :)


Leave for Virginia Horse Trials in 2 days! My good friend Tina said she had some ideas to get my brain out of my way, so hopefully things will work out well!

Dressage Video

Here's the video -- apparently I'm not nearly as technologically inclined as I'd like to think I am because I uploaded the same video twice -- once with music and once without - so feel free to only watch it once....

Some pics from the CT Dressage Test

So today didn't exactly go as planned, but P-man managed to put his game face on and perform a pretty-respectable dressage test. We withdrew after it though - didn't want to risk anything as it began POURING rain and we have Virginia Horse Trials next weekend. All in all he was pretty good -- scored a decent 30 -- I'll take it! Will post the video tomorrow.

We had to do some voodoo work to get the video -- the disk wouldn't transfer to the computer so we had to video the playback with ANOTHER camera and then post it to the computer, so quality isn't the greatest, unfortunately. These pics are pulled from the video.

Crick,Crackle, Pop!

I've never known P-man to not have a bit of stiffness and soreness is some places. I got him after he ran in circles for FOUR (count 'em 1,2,3,4) years and he has VERY clean legs... just a bit creaky at times. There's nothing that I've ever found to be actually wrong, but I always try my best to make sure he stays feeling good -- hence my hard earned money going toward his every want and need...

About 9 months ago, I was introduced to Dr. Libby ENgel of Carolina Animal Chiropractic and she has been my go-to chiro every since then. She did an intense bought of 3 sessions in a row and then moved P-man over toa once every 3 months schedule. Every time she's had less and less to adjust, and this morning she came out and he had just a few minor maintanence issues -- and that's it! For once his pelvis held where it should, she said that was thanks to his strengthening work. Always nice to know my pony feels good!

That being said, maybe he's feeling a bit too good, as he had to have a bit of a come-to-Jesus ride last night. Apparently grass, dirt, trailers, water buckets, people, gravel and cars are all very scary and should not be taken lightly. After having an Easter Egg Hunt for where P-man left his brain, we ended up the ride quite nicely, and had another decent flat/canter ride this morning.

I do love that pony - even though he may be a bit SM.

T-bone is a star!!

Teddy Bear and I are featured on the KPP homepage!!!! Check it out here http://www.kppusa.com/

Happy Mothers Day!!!!

As I sit in North Carolina typing this, my mom is unfortunately in Illinois, so I figured I'd take this opportunity to give her a shout out (cause you know she be stalking me through my blog! :) ).

I realize that most people love their moms... especially once you get to my age and realize that mom's are way cooler then they seemed, but my mom and I have alwasy had a very good relationship. We had to! We rode in the truck together for endless hours going from horse show to horse show, and no one wants to do that with someone you hate.

But really, she served as my instructor and coach, horse owner, mother and friend - and don't kid yourself - molding these things into a seemless effort wasn't easy, I'm sure! I was not and still probably am not the easiest person to be around when I'm under a bunch of pressure, especially for those who are close to me.

She is an inspiration for how I want to beable to read a horse, and I think if you could mold her patience and my boldness, you'd have a pretty unbeatable competitor.

She definitely has her flaws, but she knows them and is ok with us giving her a hard time about them -- she takes the razzing with a smile on her face, and is probably too nice about it.

So this is my ode to my mother... I love you!

And too all my adopted 'moms' -- you know who you are -- I love you too!!!!!

New saddle, new networking, new everything!

So, with my job, I may not have a plush corner office with a view or an amazing retirement plan, but what I do have are the things most important to me... killer connections with the best equine products available.

Translated: Even though my new saddle that didn't work out is still sitting in a consignment shop in Kentucky, I was able to place my order for my brand new Kentaur monoflap that will have Ultra ThinLine inserted in the seat and ThinLine inserted in the panels!!! Excitement doesn't even begin to describe me, although impatient does -- I can't wait for it to get here!!!

I also created a twitter feed for C-Horse Eventing. I figured I set one up for ThinLine so I might as well have one for me also! For those of you into tweeting (does anyone else think these social networking terms sound a bit dirty), check me out at www.twitter.com/CHorseEventing. I try to update it fairly regularly, but don't expect miracles! :)

P-man is doing great! I finally got a ride in yesterday that wasn't in the rain or dark, so I feel that we are movin' on up in the world. We are doing LOTS of walk-canter-walk transitions to strengthen that highny of his, and he is getting very light. It's helping his trot work emensly and I can't wait to get him over to Kim's to see if our lengthenings hold up when he gets in a ring. (we both get serious cases of ring-boredom)

I LOVE my Back on Track blanket that I got for him at Kentucky -- really helps with his warm-up time and I think the BOT pad that I ganked from the warehouse is keeping him soft during the rides. In fact, I've been making major phopas (sp?) by riding in our jump saddle with our BOT dressage pad because I just don't want to give it up -- guess that'll be another purchase on my list! (and no, I'm not affiliated with BOT, although we do do a joint saddle pad with them...)

I also feel really gross saying this but, I had a pair of FITS breeches that I got through work, and have been riding in them everyday! I don't want to give up a day to wash them! I think I might have to email FITS and have them send me another pair for 'research' for our new THINLINE Inserts... I'm thinking a pair in creme, a pair in white, and another dark colored pair would work just fine.

This post was just full of endorsements wasn't it? Sorry, but I love me some cool product!!

Ciao Ciao!

Soggy update...

Ah, yes - spring in North Carolina. How it loves to screw up my plans.

Don't get me wrong -- I love the rain on my pastures and my horses love the green grass in their tummies, BUT, when you have a horse that doesn't deal well with days off, the rain doesn't help. Maybe if it just wouldn't rain from, say, 6pm to 7:30pm -- is that too much to ask?

Prophet's has been making good progress, up until yesterday's rain. He hopefully should be on track for a successful run at Virginia Horse Trials in exactly 2.5 weeks (aaaahhhh!!!!).

Hopefully I'll get in a ride tonight after teaching lessons -- hhmmm... how does one have a full time job, teach lessons in the evenings and still find time to ride? Let's just hope that P-man's night vision is better then my own!

P-man racing - not a Derby winner

In light of the heartwrenching article (mentioned a couple of minutes ago and found here http://tinyurl.com/c7r7lh) and the 50-1 win of Mine that Bird, I dug up this pic of Prophet racing, and losing (I think that's what he did best back then)! He's number 9...

I'd like to think that he enjoys this job much better!

Happy Birthday P-man

So, in the craziness that has been the last week, I totally just realized that today is P-man's birthday!!!! I know that birthday's aren't celebrated in the horse world, but P-man is part of the family, not just a horse. Too bad it's too late to throw a PPPPAAARRRTTTAAAAAYYYYY.....

..anyway...

So, have you ever been so tired at night that you were pretty sure that surviving a shower and a tooth brushing would be too much to handle in one energy output. Yes, that was me yesterday. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a weekend full of teaching, even after coming back from 2 weeks on the road. Everything worked out fine, but it was a long day of farrier (7am emergency visit), taking a lesson (more on that next), and teaching/riding at various area barns... and then watching the DVR'd DERBY!!

I think my new odds for Prophet and I is 50-1, since that seems to be a-ok for Mine that Bird... Did you see that race? Absolutely unbelievable.

Earlier this week, I read an article (found here http://tinyurl.com/c7r7lh) that literally had me sobbing at work. I may be prejudice since P is a OTTB, but I really think that any horse that has lived in that world is a special being. Even after he had cleared the leaders, his jockey stopped with the stick, and the croud knew who was going to win, Mine that Bird just kept picking up speed - absolutely loving what he was doing. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Don't get me wrong, my love is with the racehorse - not the race.

I'll go into more detail about the lesson and P-man's week tomorrow... Time for a lovely glass of wine (with a toast to P of course -- I'll have to remember to get him a Guiness tomorrow!), and a movie with John.

Remember -- Ride, baby, ride!!!!