2015- The Year of Doing

headed home from Deer Field

I have self proclaimed this year to be the Year of DOING!!!!! I have been trying to compete successfully since graduating college but job, money, horse, life, seems to get in the way. I know I'm very fortunate to have a horse because many of my horse friends growing up don't ride anymore due to babies, money, grad school, job, living location, etc. I started to get back into the swing of things with Gus but the past 2-ish years have totally thrown any competition dreams for a loop with new additions to my family (I got married in November!), general horse problems that seemed never ending, moving, changing jobs, new job having ZERO flexibility, planning the wedding, buying a house, moving again, and millions more excuses that just find a way to pile up and before you know it- it's been 2 years.

NO EXCUSES! DO IT!!!! That is the motto for My Year of Doing! My friend Em is going to be joining me in the YoD and hopefully getting some rides on Gus and helping me keep all the beasties at my farm in riding condition.

Em on Finn during the New Years Ride

So GOALS for this year (like all the other blogs out there- but it's a good thing to do!)

• go Beginner Novice with Chimi
• Fingers crossed we'll shoot out of the starting gate in April at this level. Chimi has felt great these past couple of weeks that I really feel we have a shot at BN this spring. But horses are horses.... we'll see where we are come April...
• Compete in some of the local hunter/jumper shows
• There are lots of fun local shows in this area. PSJ, BRHJA, and a great little series of schooling shows that are perfect for getting some experience under your belt. Also hoping to find myself at Tryon International  for some of the shows there. We'll just have to see how that goes- schooling shows are much more budget friendly but potentially for winning money at TIEC??? We'll see :)
• Get Marley going again
• Marley's had a string of bad luck since fall of 2013 and I have given her some time off, made some changes, and will hopefully get her up and going again sometime this year. 
• Become fitter and stronger
• joined Curves end of November (closest gym to my house- Jillian Michaels workouts there kick my a$$!!!!)
• Blog More
• I think I average about 3-4 posts a year? My internet is crappy so uploading pictures takes forever to Blogger and I flip around the internet while waiting and then I get distracted and don't have time to finish the post. I probably have more drafts than completed blog posts- whoops! Going to work on this....
• Go Fox hunting
• I grew up hunting and there are 2 fabulous hunts in this area. I need to make it a priority and actually go hunting!!! 
• Go Novice with Chimi
• This would be a fall goal vs. the spring season. Chimi just needs experience because height is no biggie for him. The main difference between BN and Novice really is the height of the jump and if he feels confident I really think we could make our Novice debut this fall. I don't know what/if any show experience he's had in the past, but I don't think it was much. But he's a clever guy and I know just getting him out will help with his show nerves :)
• Go on a lot of Hunter Paces
• I want a year end ribbon! I love ribbons!! But starting this quest when half a season has gone by... even if the ribbon doesn't happen these are great ways to get out and about and see things. Plus major fitness points! 1.5-2 hours, 6-9 miles of walk, trot and cantering- Heck yeah.
• LESSONS LESSONS LESSONS
• have started back with weekly lessons. There's a covered arena so even if the weather is crappy I know my lesson will still be on!! (unless it's super cold- I don't do super cold- like below freezing super cold. I live in the south- I don't do major cold!)

Who? Me?

Here's to the YEAR OF DOING!!!!!! May my Ponies be sound and happy, excess weight disappear, and all of my goals met/kept up! DOING IT!!!!

a winter ride

From Bay to Grey

Last year I was making plans with my little bay Connemara/TB cross. I was going to event him beginner novice, try to qualify for the Eventing Championships, and generally have fun with my cute little guy. But since change is inevitable, and plans don't always go accordingly, I find myself a year later with a exuberant grey OTTB mare that I'm trying to keep inside a dressage arena and not go advance speed around a BN cross country course!

schooling Gus through the water- April 2013

The grey ghost herself, Miss Marley- May 2013

I competed Gus at the FENCE HT in April, and we finished 4th overall. We would of been 2nd had Gus not been so in love with his friend Finn and looking everywhere but at the first jump on course, plus I wasn't riding him the way I needed to towards that jump, especially with him being an air head about his buddy. Even if the rail had stayed up and we did finish 2nd, I knew in my heart that Gus just wasn't all that jazzed up about jumping. He can jump, and is a cute little jumper, but his heart just isn't in it, and when the jumps get bigger it could become pretty dangerous. I've taken my share of falls from Gus because he wouldn't pick his feet up going over the jump. As my coach Annie says, he just doesn't have any self preservation and that can be very dangerous over bigger jumps. So I put some feelers out for Gus and ended up finding the perfect home for him. He is now trail riding and fox hunting with my mom's good friend Cyndi. She is a great rider who just wants to have fun and puts up with Gus's silly moments. Plus I get to see him every time I head to my parents' because he's boarding at their place! 

Gus is a cute jumper when he wants to be!!!

 With Gus now enjoying his life as a fat, happy, trail/fox hunting pony, the grey mare that I've been riding on and off for a while had a chance to step into the lime light and become my main focus. Previously I wrote a post about taking her XC schooling for her first time last fall, and then I took her to a Ralph Hill clinic back in January. She's such a cool OTTB with so much heart, but trying to keep her relaxed while riding her is like holding a ticking time bomb. If you "cut" the wrong wire you've got pieces flying everywhere, but there is very little difference between the right and wrong wire. To be fair to her, she's only been in consistent work for 3 months, and even that is a bit questionable b/c we've had sooooo much rain this summer!!!! Either way, Marley has been getting a lot of work and really is progressing, even if at times it feels like at a snail's pace.

This past weekend I decided to take her to her first event. We headed off to the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club Sizzling Summer Schooling Horse Trails (non recognized) for our first outing at Beginner Novice. Last year I won the event with Gus, but this year my goal was to stay in the dressage arena (no joke- this was real goal, not just a laugh!) and to stay in a controlled trot/canter in stadium and XC. I wasn't worried about time or jumping faults, or even what the final Dressage score would be. I just wanted to complete and not scare the living daylights out of the jump judges!

The end result- SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We stayed in the dressage ring, had a terrible score, but again considering I was worried about elimination, I could care less about the score.

Marley being calm...

submission- what?

ok, back to being good...ish

 Had a very green rail in stadium (not listening to a half halt to the 3rd jump on course which was a vertical with a downhill approach will do that to ya). We started to find our rhythm towards the end of the course, but we need to work on keeping a steady pace and not letting the momentum keep building jump after jump- gymnastics are going to be our life for a while!

weeeee!!!!! 

And to seal the deal, we had an amazing, mostly controlled, cross country round! She calmly cantered most of the jumps, and we came in closer to the optimum time instead of the speed time!

making the warmup jump look like a piece of cake

Overall we ended up in 6th place, I think out of 10 or 12, and I couldn't of been prouder! Technically we were last of everyone that completed, but that is not something I cared about at this event. Marley is still quite green, and is still learning the basics. We were nailed on submission and impulsion in the dressage which showed up in our stadium. But this horse has so much heart that I know I must take my time and do it right with her. There are no short cuts with this girl!!!!

Marley in her new pasture

she's such a pretty girl

Marley and her "gang"- Finn, Arrow, and Chimi

A Year Later...

Obviously this past year has been really exciting. Apparently I was so caught up in all the "eventful" happenings that I never posted another blog until now.

Truthfully the year was extremely eventful! It definitely had it's ups and downs and huge shake ups. Liaison- the TB that I had last year taught me a lot about myself and took my riding to a new level- not so much in the direction that I wanted it to go, but gave me a new experience with brain fried TB's. The quick recap of the summer with Liaison goes like this:

He healed beautifully from his run in with Byrd and we were headed off to

our first show together- Dressage Rally. I knew going into Dressage

Rally that we weren't going to have the most amazing score because Li was a tense thoroughbred. He was calm as a kitten at home and had the best ground manners- a puppy could lead him- and well, did!

But even though on the ground he was amazing, when riding he was like riding a lit fuse. Most of the time I was able to channel that energy in a positive direction, but other times it just caused him to tense up and be extremely flighty. So with the arrival of Dressage Rally we headed off to see how he would be off the property. I knew it was going to be exciting, but I was not prepared for the end result- elimination because of inability to get him into the Dressage ring. It was the biggest disaster of my riding career (and thankfully an injury free one!) and I was embarrassed by his behavior. When we were in the barns he was great, but as soon as we crossed over into the show area with the announcer and other competitors warming up/riding their tests, Liaison lost it. I barely even made it into the saddle before he started running backwards and leaping into the air and spinning uncontrollably. I heard shouts aimed at me to "control my horse" and others directed at the small D pony clubbers to "MOVE! GET OUT OF THE WAY" who were mindlessly walking their ponies into the destructive path of the crazed TB. I tried to control him and settle poor Liaison down but there was no hope- I was forced to jump off and take him back to the barn. I tried longing him- which was successful while we were in the barns- his quiet unflappable self returned and the TD let me try to ride my test again because she was impressed with how quiet he had gotten. But again- as soon as we crossed the imaginary line he went bonkers. I ended up keeping him under a tree out of the way until it was time for my test- but even with a lead into the ring, I couldn't make it to the letter "B" before he stood up on his hind legs and I was forced to call it quits and take him back to the barn. I was ready to send him away after that weekend, but with no other horse as a B candidate I couldn't send him away quite yet.

So I spent the rest of my summer looking for another horse, and only finding one that was able to do the flat work part of the test, but by that point I had Liaison settled down (sort of) and had kept him away from places with announcers (which seemed to be a trigger- flashback to the racetrack?) and we even completed a successful upper level ratings camp where he was so quiet and relaxed I swore someone swapped horses when I wasn't looking!

My ultimate goal that summer was to pass my B rating on Labor Day weekend, and even with another horse for the flatwork, I wasn't able to make it happen. Heck no one in my rating was able to make that happen! We all failed the very first section of the rating- the Flat. I remember being so pissed off because I thought that I had done so well with Dollar (the horse I borrowed for the Flat part), but in reality the ride was a great one with Dollar-who could be very tricky on the flat, but not great enough to pass the "Flat" section of the "B" rating. (It took me until this past winter to watch the video of my my rating and realize how bad it really was) But in all fairness the weekend ended up being a great experience because they changed it into a clinic instead of a rating- so we were able to keep riding and improve our ride instead of showing off what we knew for the examiners.

After the "B" rating, Dollar, Liaison, and I headed back home and I took Liaison out for one last trail ride before making the decision to give him back or keep working with him. It was the perfect trail ride because he gave me every reason to keep him, and every reason to give him back. I have never ridden a horse so balanced and fast at a dead run, nor with so little control- truthfully it scared the crap out of me while at the same time gave me one of the greatest thrills of my life. I guess this is what it is like to be a race jockey- except I was out in the middle of a field, by myself, a good 30 minutes from home, not on a racetrack where if I had fallen off wouldn't of lost my horse! Coming home from that ride I made the decision to send him back because I wasn't skilled enough to handle all that power and channel it in a positive way. I know I had no desire to become the next Karen O'Conner and become some great Olympic level rider, I just wanted to enjoy my horses and ride to the highest level I could get to- which my goal is to make it to Prelim- hopefully complete a CCI*???? If not- at least be successful at Prelim! Since I do not have to be the greatest rider and be able to ride any and all types of horses to complete my goal, Liaison was packed up and taken back to his owner. I miss moments with that horse, but overall have been very happy with my decision to find another horse- and I didn't even have to look past my mom's backyard- my next horse had been there all along- just waiting for me to get the "B" out of my system! I fell in love with mom's Connemara/TB cross that had been given to her back in March. He proved to be more horse than she wanted but plenty for me! And after coming off of a ride on Liaison I found him slow and simple!!! Just what I wanted (though a little more spark would be nice!)

Gus is turning out to be a really nice horse and has only been jumping for a couple of months now. We have a long way to go before we're even ready for Beginner Novice at an event, but we'll get there! I'm in no rush, and going slow with Gus helps improve his confidence because he isn't the bravest horse in the world, but he is sure learning! Once he figures something out he's golden, but if he gets scared it takes a longer time to get him over it. So no rushing with this boy, but I know once he figures everything out he'll be the most amazing overgrown pony out there!!!!