And I do wish it was Sunday!
I don't know about your weekend, but mine was awesome.
The weather was great, which always makes us feel better, right? Our horses are happier (sans blankies, even!), people are happier, shows don't have to be canceled, and I can teach all day long in a light long-sleeved shirt!
P went to Jordan Lake with me on Saturday and taught a lesson for me. :) I always enjoy watching other people ride him because it makes me realize what a nice horse I have! I was able to do a quick jump school on him afterward, where we had this funny problem that the jumps felt too small! I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but it'd definitely weird. After a quick trip home to throw him in the field, I was off to teach several more lessons, and finish the day.
In the meantime, C-Horse students, Sarah and Taylor, cleaned up at the JoCo winter-warm-up! So proud of them, with Sarah running the gambit from 1st-5th in VERY large classes and Taylor placing well in hers also. I hear that Sarah's horse, Arnie, amazed the crowd with his high-flying over the 18" hunter hack fences -- always the entertainer, he is. YOU GO GIRLS!
Sunday brought another great day for the C-Horse family, with Lisa winning her dressage class, and Nancy placing 3rd -- much improved from a couple months ago, for sure!
The great show was followed by a couple of awesome new clients, that I'm very happy to have joining the "team". They were my first lessons taught out at 5-County Stables, a beautiful facility in Zebulon, NC where I'll be teaching the Intro to Eventing Clinic in April (10th and 11th). I'm very excited to expand my teaching, and to welcome such great people and horses!
After a quick trip to the other side of town, and a couple more hours of standing in the sandbox, I then got to help separate the baby donkey, who, just a couple of months ago was so small, that we could carry him around. He was none-to-happy about being put in the roundpin, and entertained us for a bit with his running, bucking, etc... His mom, on the other hand, was a bit relieved to have her life back, and wasn't concerned in the least about the separation.
All in all, it was a great weekend, and now I'm looking forward to prepping this week for The Ark this weekend... lots of getting ready to be done!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Oh, portablemusicplayer, how I love thee....
As I sit here typing, I am entertained by my personal music-producing device -- serenading me with the likes of the crazy types of music I love.
Now, if you've met me, I bet you can't really peg the type of music I listen too. Country? Sure. Rap? A little. Hip-Hop? A bit. Folk-y? Yup. I am a giant sponge of music, and my brain is muddled with half memorized lyrics from all different genres. For instance, right now I am rockin' some Gavin Degraw, preceded by Damien Rice, and proceeded by Eric Church's classic "Smoke a Little Smoke". :)
Also, if you know me, you'll also understand why I have a portablemusicplayer, NOT an iPod... it's not that I'm an anti-Mac person (I've had the same Mac desktop since 2002), but it's that an iPod is really expensive, and I'm probably going to leave it in my pocket and wash it, or loose it, or something... so the $50 Philips serves me just as well. PLUS, it has a nice little clip that attaches it to my pocket (although I did find out that the clip does fail when I'm flying through the air after one of P's monster spooks - oh well, earbud cord kept it from hitting the ground. :) ).
Anyway, there is a horse-point to all of this, I promise, just wait.
With the imminent arrival of the T3D over Easter weekend, my time between now and then is going to be spent perfecting P's imperfect dressage, jumping jumps that make my stomach feel a little bit funny (Gotta be ready to move up to prelim after the 3-day), and millions of seconds, thousands of minutes and several hours spent doing hacks, trot sets, and gallops (gotta get the ex-racehorse pony to delve into the repressed memories of when he used to know how to gallop).
That later of the list is why I bought the now hailed, protablemusicplayer (ok, and maybe to make our dressage schools a bit more interesting).
Why so much time spent in the saddle? For those of you who don't understand what it means for us to be doing a full-format 3-day, here's a bit of a breakdown on what we will be doing.
Day 1 - Jog Up for soundness
Here we simply jog up and down a path (with me leading him) for the veterinarians to make sure he is sound enough to safely compete in the event. He is groomed within an inch of is tolerance, and I actually may put on make-up.
Day 2 - Dressage
Just the usual dressage test -- hoping to stay in the ring and do the circles and lines when appropriate.
Day 3 - Endurance
The break down of endurance is pretty much the following: Phase A: 1.8 miles at 8.2mph. straight onto Phase B (steeplechase): .93 miles at 19.4mph with 4-6 jumping efforts. straight onto Phase C: 2.2 miles at 5.96mph. 10 minute box (where grooms cool down the horse as much as possible, riders freak out about the next phase, farriers replace shoes if necessary, and vets watch the horse jog for soundness). Out to Phase D (cross country): 1.55 miles at 17.52mph with 20-27 jumping efforts. Horses are then cooled down in the vet box until they get the release to go back to the barns.
Day 4 - Jog/Show Jumping
Horses are Jogged for Soundness again (just as in Day 1). Repeat steps to make horse beautiful, and put make-up on my face. Once they pass, then we do show jumping in a ring (just as a normal horse trials).
So now see why I'll be spending hours and days in the saddle with my music blasting, getting both P's butt and my own flabby body in shape for the 3-day?
Thank God for my portablemusicplayer.... :)
Now, if you've met me, I bet you can't really peg the type of music I listen too. Country? Sure. Rap? A little. Hip-Hop? A bit. Folk-y? Yup. I am a giant sponge of music, and my brain is muddled with half memorized lyrics from all different genres. For instance, right now I am rockin' some Gavin Degraw, preceded by Damien Rice, and proceeded by Eric Church's classic "Smoke a Little Smoke". :)
Also, if you know me, you'll also understand why I have a portablemusicplayer, NOT an iPod... it's not that I'm an anti-Mac person (I've had the same Mac desktop since 2002), but it's that an iPod is really expensive, and I'm probably going to leave it in my pocket and wash it, or loose it, or something... so the $50 Philips serves me just as well. PLUS, it has a nice little clip that attaches it to my pocket (although I did find out that the clip does fail when I'm flying through the air after one of P's monster spooks - oh well, earbud cord kept it from hitting the ground. :) ).
Anyway, there is a horse-point to all of this, I promise, just wait.
With the imminent arrival of the T3D over Easter weekend, my time between now and then is going to be spent perfecting P's imperfect dressage, jumping jumps that make my stomach feel a little bit funny (Gotta be ready to move up to prelim after the 3-day), and millions of seconds, thousands of minutes and several hours spent doing hacks, trot sets, and gallops (gotta get the ex-racehorse pony to delve into the repressed memories of when he used to know how to gallop).
That later of the list is why I bought the now hailed, protablemusicplayer (ok, and maybe to make our dressage schools a bit more interesting).
Why so much time spent in the saddle? For those of you who don't understand what it means for us to be doing a full-format 3-day, here's a bit of a breakdown on what we will be doing.
Day 1 - Jog Up for soundness
Here we simply jog up and down a path (with me leading him) for the veterinarians to make sure he is sound enough to safely compete in the event. He is groomed within an inch of is tolerance, and I actually may put on make-up.
Day 2 - Dressage
Just the usual dressage test -- hoping to stay in the ring and do the circles and lines when appropriate.
Day 3 - Endurance
The break down of endurance is pretty much the following: Phase A: 1.8 miles at 8.2mph. straight onto Phase B (steeplechase): .93 miles at 19.4mph with 4-6 jumping efforts. straight onto Phase C: 2.2 miles at 5.96mph. 10 minute box (where grooms cool down the horse as much as possible, riders freak out about the next phase, farriers replace shoes if necessary, and vets watch the horse jog for soundness). Out to Phase D (cross country): 1.55 miles at 17.52mph with 20-27 jumping efforts. Horses are then cooled down in the vet box until they get the release to go back to the barns.
Day 4 - Jog/Show Jumping
Horses are Jogged for Soundness again (just as in Day 1). Repeat steps to make horse beautiful, and put make-up on my face. Once they pass, then we do show jumping in a ring (just as a normal horse trials).
So now see why I'll be spending hours and days in the saddle with my music blasting, getting both P's butt and my own flabby body in shape for the 3-day?
Thank God for my portablemusicplayer.... :)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The big-boy pants come out of the closet...
With the plans of running around the 3-day at FENCE looming over my head, I've made a new vow to keep my horse and myself first, rather then scheduling everyone else over the top of us. I think it's a good problem to have -- growing clientele makes for a busy schedule when you're trying to fit together several jobs, but it also means that P was just stuck in there when I had a few spare minutes to get on him.
Well, this weekend kicked off my new drive to get us to the top first, so I has scheduled a XC school on Saturday, Dressage lesson with "the real deal" aka Dieter Riedinger on Sunday, and a jump lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle on Monday.
The weather had other plans.
When I woke up Saturday morning, still crossing every toe, finger, and appendage that some how the snow had skipped this area of the country, I was sadly disappointed, seeing as there was about 3-4 inches covering everything.
No cross country school.
On the bright side, the snow did melt quite quickly and I was able to do a trot set up and down the driveway -- not exactly as thrilling as a XC school, now is it?
Sunday's weather looked WAY more promising, so I headed over to my client's ring for a couple of lessons with Dieter -- first on the client's horse, and then on Prophet. P held his own, and spent a very intense lesson (for both of us!), where I realized how much more I should be asking of him! He was up for the challenge and I was very pleased with my boy. I did get some of it on video, however it looks rather boring with us going round and round... hopefully I can get John to edit it so you can at least get the idea.
Yesterday, there was more rain scheduled, but I was determined to get over some jumps -- and I was so glad that I did! This was our first lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle, and after hearing some very good things about her, I was very excited to get in front of her.
Once again, P did not disappoint! She has a great eye, and caught on to both his and my bad habits right away. Apparently my horse is a bit smarter then I give him credit for and I need to stay out of his way a bit! :) He jumped like a million bucks and I am falling more and more in love with my new monoflap jump saddle every day! I have one more lesson scheduled with her before The Ark, but I feel so happy to have found someone I think can really help us with our jumping (I've been feeling a bit lost since Stephen left).
So excited for the spring season to get rolling... got a busy couple of weeks in preparation for the Ark -- here's to hopin' that the weather keeps on improving!
Well, this weekend kicked off my new drive to get us to the top first, so I has scheduled a XC school on Saturday, Dressage lesson with "the real deal" aka Dieter Riedinger on Sunday, and a jump lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle on Monday.
The weather had other plans.
When I woke up Saturday morning, still crossing every toe, finger, and appendage that some how the snow had skipped this area of the country, I was sadly disappointed, seeing as there was about 3-4 inches covering everything.
No cross country school.
On the bright side, the snow did melt quite quickly and I was able to do a trot set up and down the driveway -- not exactly as thrilling as a XC school, now is it?
Sunday's weather looked WAY more promising, so I headed over to my client's ring for a couple of lessons with Dieter -- first on the client's horse, and then on Prophet. P held his own, and spent a very intense lesson (for both of us!), where I realized how much more I should be asking of him! He was up for the challenge and I was very pleased with my boy. I did get some of it on video, however it looks rather boring with us going round and round... hopefully I can get John to edit it so you can at least get the idea.
Yesterday, there was more rain scheduled, but I was determined to get over some jumps -- and I was so glad that I did! This was our first lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle, and after hearing some very good things about her, I was very excited to get in front of her.
Once again, P did not disappoint! She has a great eye, and caught on to both his and my bad habits right away. Apparently my horse is a bit smarter then I give him credit for and I need to stay out of his way a bit! :) He jumped like a million bucks and I am falling more and more in love with my new monoflap jump saddle every day! I have one more lesson scheduled with her before The Ark, but I feel so happy to have found someone I think can really help us with our jumping (I've been feeling a bit lost since Stephen left).
So excited for the spring season to get rolling... got a busy couple of weeks in preparation for the Ark -- here's to hopin' that the weather keeps on improving!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Bust out the Bubblewrap...
For a long time I've though P would greatly benefit from running a long-format event. I feel like he's just one of 'those' horses. Honestly, it's been in his plans since I got him, but in those 5 years he's just always been overshadowed by his siblings, hindered by finances, and held-back by my life getting in the way.
But it appears the planets have aligned and come hell-or-high-water we'll be trekking to South Carolina over Easter weekend for the FENCE Training 3-Day. Lately it seems the high-water part is desperately trying to keep us away with rain, rain and more rain, but we're going.
And for those of you who know me, you may have been witness to my slightly obsessive tendencies when I have a goal. When I ran in a marathon my freshman year in college, I ended up working out 3 times a day, running through campus in the snow, and doing other sorts of crazy ventures in order to prepare.
Well, now that I've set my sites on running this 3-day, my obsessiveness has once again taken over. After being sick all week, and sounding like I may be coughing up a lung on occasion, I took the opportunity to go riding yesterday in the 40 mph wind gusts. Gotta get the pony ridden! :)
This weekend should be fun with a cross-country school outing on Saturday, Dressage lesson with Dieter Riedinger on Sunday, Show Jump lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle on Monday, and lots of teaching and riding in between!
Ciao, ciao!
But it appears the planets have aligned and come hell-or-high-water we'll be trekking to South Carolina over Easter weekend for the FENCE Training 3-Day. Lately it seems the high-water part is desperately trying to keep us away with rain, rain and more rain, but we're going.
And for those of you who know me, you may have been witness to my slightly obsessive tendencies when I have a goal. When I ran in a marathon my freshman year in college, I ended up working out 3 times a day, running through campus in the snow, and doing other sorts of crazy ventures in order to prepare.
Well, now that I've set my sites on running this 3-day, my obsessiveness has once again taken over. After being sick all week, and sounding like I may be coughing up a lung on occasion, I took the opportunity to go riding yesterday in the 40 mph wind gusts. Gotta get the pony ridden! :)
This weekend should be fun with a cross-country school outing on Saturday, Dressage lesson with Dieter Riedinger on Sunday, Show Jump lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle on Monday, and lots of teaching and riding in between!
Ciao, ciao!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Animals to Wear
About six months ago, I found myself in Lexington, Kentucky working with a friend at NAYRC, and freezing in the dead of summer. The heat had given way to a chilly wind and lots of rain. And there I was with nothing more then an XXXL Sports Innovations jacket to keep me warm. Our booth neighbors (Rebecca and Chris of Animals to Wear) took pity on me and supplied me with a wonderful long-sleeve zip-up that saved the day.
Since then, I've been lucky enough to run into Rebecca and Chris at a variety of shows. They are always coming up with great new products to add to their line of beautiful artwork, and I take the opportunity to stock up when ever I can!
Now Becky and Chris have just made it that much easier for me to stock up on their beautiful apparel by signing on as C-Horse sponsors. I'm very excited to promote their brand and I'm sure if P could talk, he'd say that he is too! Visit their site at www.animalstowear.com for more information about this wonderful company!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Come rain or sleet or snow or ice....
So I had to do it... and with the new revelation that P may run the 3-day in April, I knew I needed at least to get on him and see how crazy the week off has made him...
And man was he full of himself.
I can't imagine what stalled horses are feeling like with this weather, because P (who's out 24/7) sure is tired on not being able to RUN. It sure is making for some interesting above ground acrobatics! He also likes this new game of "kissy face" (also known as I-bite-you-you-bite-me) which he keeps trying to get started with both Ted and I... both of us are quite unimpressed but we've got to give him credit for being persistent.
For all the mud and grossness, he actually is feeling quite good physically. I can't wait to get him in a ring where I can really let him go a bit! Hopefully we'll be getting over to Jordan Lake Equestrian Center this weekend a couple of times to JUMP! :)
And man was he full of himself.
I can't imagine what stalled horses are feeling like with this weather, because P (who's out 24/7) sure is tired on not being able to RUN. It sure is making for some interesting above ground acrobatics! He also likes this new game of "kissy face" (also known as I-bite-you-you-bite-me) which he keeps trying to get started with both Ted and I... both of us are quite unimpressed but we've got to give him credit for being persistent.
For all the mud and grossness, he actually is feeling quite good physically. I can't wait to get him in a ring where I can really let him go a bit! Hopefully we'll be getting over to Jordan Lake Equestrian Center this weekend a couple of times to JUMP! :)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
You know, they really are ok...
With all this nastiness, my horses have been a bit self sufficient. P's had some time off, which I think is disastrous, but in reality, is probably fine for a pony who is out 24/7 and gets too fit easily anyway. I was gone for the weekend in Pennsylvannia for a trade show (which proved to be awesome! More updates on that later), and John took care of the boys through the frigid temps, snow and ice. Now there's mud, half frozen sloppiness, and grossness everywhere, ugh... But I took their blankets off this morning so they could get a good roll in before the next round of winter storms, and you know -- they were just has slick and shiny and fat and happy as they were a week ago. No fungus snuck up their muddy legs, no fat-eating monster came and made them skinny, and I'm pretty sure they did fine without me pampering them for a bit. Maybe this will prove to be just what Prophet needs!
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