I is po'

Yep.

I'm pretty poor right now...

I've spent almost all my savings (on Yankee vetting, supps, shows and schoolbooks and tuition) in 2 months...eeeeek! My mom would hang her head in shame at my non saving abilities.

But you know what? Sometimes I don't care. I would spend every cent I have on my Yankee boo if it meant he was doing well. Sure, shows are expensive, but so are fly masks and supplements and shoes and board. All things he needs.

I miiiiiiiiight have to knock out a show or two I was planning on, but its ok, there will be next season in which I will be BACK IN OHIO and hopefully kicking ass! I will have my beloved Janice Holmes again to instruct me and my Ohio turf to romp on :D

I miss Area 8!! Whatever po dunk area Missouri is in SUCKS! The closest show is 4 hours away besides STL and Kansas City and I got spoiled with the KY horse park events being less then 2 hours from my  house.

Looks like I will need to scramble and fight for hours at work. (They just hired 10 new people and hours are scarce)

Secretly I'm freaking out, but I feel like if I share, it makes it all better....

hahahahahahahahahaa....(crazy lady laugh who is slightly stressed out...)

Drumroll please...

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YANKEE TESTED NEGATIVE FOR EPM!!!!!!!

He only has a vitamin E deficiency, and I ordered his Vitamin E supps 4 days ago. They will be here soon and we can get back on track with things :D

OMG I AM SO HAPPY!

Novice QPEE Stadium & T-SHIRTS! :)

 

For T-shirts, skip all this :P

Victory "Gallop"

So that ended that hell-ish weekend. The footing sucked, but the experience was uplifting (besides dressage). He was not too sore, even though he pulled a teeny muscle and I had a good outlook on stadium. It was low, and hilly which would help him use himself correctly.

 We pulled a rail in stadium (in the trees, you could hear it clunk though), I am blaming on the footing for that one. He tripped right before the fence and rapped it with his front, and it came down. Otherwise he was jumping pretty well despite the low height, was a little wiggly since warm-up was brief. Thank you no loudspeakers in the barn. I had to guess when we went, calculate for the mile walk and try to tack up in time. I under calculated or something because I had about 15 minutes to warm-up, which is not enough to get his jiggs out. Oh well, we came from dead last to in the ribbons (field of 14) and had a double clear XC, no falling off this time! HA. Apparently everyone else had a challenging time in stadium...one girl pulled 4 rails! They were just comin' down like raindrops. I feel like I cheated since he can do Prelim height like cake....

Ok I guess I'll take 8th :)

Overall, I was ok happy with 8th, but dressage should have gone better. Next time I will NOT take malarky as an excuse and I will warm up longer. We packed up early (11 am!) and headed home by noon. I linimented him and wrapped his front legs, even at N, the ground was so bad I was worried about sprains. He settled at home well and will have a few days off so I can do some HW and let him rest up.

In some sadder news, we took him to the vet yesterday to get test for Wobblers and EPM. The vet thinks wobbs is out, but EPM, possibly. There are no outright neuro signs when probed, but there is no other explanation for his clumsyness, with the exception of the fact that he might just be super clumsy! I'm hoping for the latter! They drew blood and results will be back in 3 days. He fell down twice Monday and constantly trips on his own feet, so I am really just hoping he is retarded and cant walk proper instead of him having EPM....sigh.

OK more happy stuff, T-SHIRTS!!!!!

I has designs, prices and other stuff :)

eventing design #1 EVENTING: JUST JUMP IT (front)

                                 "Red on right, white on left, insanity in the middle" (Back, optional)

Design #2 for Eventing

iDANCE, iSPLASH, iSOAR

Dressage Design: DRESSAGE: Collect Yourself

These are all preliminary designs I just threw together for ya'll so you can see what they will mostly look like. As you can see, I messed up the haunches of the dressage horse, but it will be piaffe-ing. The iSOAR T-shirt will be better spaced, but that is what the 3 horses will be doing. The computer program will refine the lines of shading too, the iSPLASH horse will be the darkest and the iSOAR horse will be light grey.

The designs will be about 9 in x 9in approx (changes a bit with design)  in the middle of the front of all t-shirts.

 

Designs will all be black or white on the GREY shirts. They can only be WHITE on the other colors.

OK pricing- here is where it gets confusing.

Shipping- $5 (unless you live in CA, WA or any other state on the far West Coast, then it will be $6.50, sorry :( )

Grey Shirt (S.M.L.XL)- $15.00

Special Color (S.M.L) (ex. pink, blue, green etc)- $20.00

Grey shirt with back writing (S.M.L.XL)- $25.00

Special Color with back writing (S.M.L)- $29.00

Also, I can do Hoodies, but they are more expensive by a lot and do not come in colorful colors. Sadface.

GREY/BLACK/DARK BLUE (S.M.L)- $40.00

Writing on back (S.M.L) $47.00

Your name/farm name/event team can be added for no fee on the front, or on the back for the extra fee of $5

If I get 8 orders of the SAME shirt, its 15% OFF, this is because if I print in bulk, its cheaper :)

I know some of you live near each other. If you want, I can combine shipping, so you don't have to pay as much!

Send Specs to: mavg24@mail.missouri.edu

Address, specify PAYPAL or CHECK

Phone number or Facebook/email so I can contact with questions

Size, color, design, quantity

Payment: Ok, this is where I'm not sure how to do it, since I'm not a real business yet, just trying this out with my guniea pigs :)  I have a Paypal account, and I've learned money can be exchanged that way, or you can write me a check and BE SURE to say that in your email and I will give you my address. I will leave orders open for ONE WEEK. I would like to get them done all at once, and hopefully get the bulk discount :) If some stragglers come in with orders after JUNE 22, it might take me longer to get it to you. On JUNE 16, I will place the orders and hopefully ship the same or next day. So, you will get your T's in less than 2 weeks (hopefully by JUNE 25!)

Ok so the rundown,

Orders open tonight JUNE 15

Orders close Wednesday, JUNE 22

Orders will be made JUNE 23 

Orders will be shipped JUNE 23/24 

Orders will arrive HOPEFULLY on JUNE 25-27 (depending on where you live from me [I live in Missouri])

ALSO, If anyone has any other design they want, tell me via comment and I will get it drawn for you! I won't charge for that, since I want you guys to be happy and I know how much we already spend on our horses! I just want this to be a fun thing we can have to represent our sports. I apologize if anyone is not an Eventer or Dressager, but from what I know, most of you are.

If you can, please comment in this post in addition to emailing me. All you have to say on the comment is that you sent me an email. I have a gotten a few already, so you guys don't have to email me back unless you decided you don't want one, or you want a different one.

Thanks so much for following my blog and hopefully getting a fun T-shirt :)

QPEE Novice A Dressage, XC Day

QPEE XC

 

What can I say about this weekend? Ups and Downs.

The dressage....just freaking awful. Worst test we have done in almost 4 years. I don't know if it was a combo of the weather (rainy ish), the ring (holey, sloping and soaking wet WTF) or yankee just being an idiot but after I thought I got stopped (at M I heard a whistle blow but it was for the other ring...this happened to about 10 other riders too) the test just went mega south. Brandon stopped taping when I stopped after M, but the judge waved me on so I kept going an he resumed from there.

The warm-up was exceptional, but our test, dismal. We got a 41.7 which is freaking terrible and it put us in dead last. I was crying down center line...I couldn't believe how badly he behaved. Its not like he is 4 again, he is NINE and has been eventing almost 6 years! I was about to just give the F up. At NOVICE we couldnt even rock out a dressage test with a 30 or less. I was beyond pissed and upset. He was dead to my leg, crooked to the left, bucked twice, tripped, broke gait 3 times and was just god awful. I was ashamed and hurt that my exceptionally well trained horse could be this bad. Someone comforted me by saying that since he knows prelim stuff, novice is too easy and he was just playing, but that playing put us in last in a field of 14. Beyond upsetting.

I can't say I was surprised though. The ring was AWFUL. Who the F gave permission to do dressage in a ring like that?? a rig should ALWAYS be flat and definetly not full of holes. I MUD STUDDED for dressage. WTF. It was slick as shit and he tripped twice, once pretty good at the walk near K. Many many horses fell actually t their knees or slipped badly. One horses even fell completely down! I will not be going back to Queeny Park unless they can fix the footing (terrible in all 3 phases). Not to mention, Dressage as 1.5 MILES from the barn. Least we had a good walk warm-up. HA!

But hey, whatever, I will take this as a learning lesson. I'm not so upset anymore, just wondering why he was so bad!

The braids I did for dressage. Getting better after ten years practice, haha.

Ok so after I cooled down from our worst test ever, I got ready for XC. I left his studs in since XC footing was retarded too. I was not nervous one bit. The course was a baby one and the only fence I was worried about was one -it was bright orange and pretty big  with tons of flowers. The course as a whole was just one big loop and not challeging by any means. I was going to give this run a chance for us to practice pacing ourselves. Yankee being a TB is always hella fresh and tends to blast through the course without me realizing it!

Warm-up sucked ass. not only was it almost THREE MILES from the barns, but the area was severly hilly and HOLEY. WTF is with the holes here. Yankee almost bit the dust 4 times. I was nervous about the footing so we did mostly cantering in large loopy circles away from the inside of the field. He was jumping well and not one bit sucking back. I've tried hardly warming up, or running him in the ground and either way, he is ALWAYS fresh, so I've decided on 45 minutes total is perfect. 10 minutes walking, straight to cantering some fences, chill for 5 then cantering fences about every 2 minutes. Keeps his brain engaged. No matter though, he is always looky and retared the 1st fence.

We went right on time at 1:06, and like I predicted, he looked hard at the 1st fence. There were tons of ppl around since the start was also the finish, but it was low enough he sailed right over it. Cantering to #2 he was looking all around for the big fences. He kept jumping 2,3 and 4 like, "really mom? This is it? PFFFT!" Literally, he was, I think, upset I subjected him to this torture. I made him trot #5, 6 and 7 since we were up on time, realizing how short this course really was. He jumped #10, 11, 12 and 13 like they were nothing and I began to realize we were down on time now. This always happens, we go too fast, then too slow then we have to kick it into gear to get OPT time. So I let him really run through the water (#14 AB), the table #15, the bank #16 and home to #17 which you can see below the dressage vid.

As a whole I came in 3 seconds under OPT which is perfect. Even if we were wishy washy on speed. Its hard at the lower levels with a TB to keep it together! We had a double clear round, which to be honest, I was expecting. But I am really happy! I'm definetly ready to move back up to T, but I am going to do one more just to be sure. He was a hungry jumping hound, so I am no longer worried about that.

Even though I though XC was easy, apparently some did not. One got E, and others had issues so I actually moved up to 9th! Out of dead last! I was pretty happy, but at the same time I felt like I was cheating since Yanks can jump prelim no prob. Haha!

After XC, I cooled him out, hosed him off and let him be for a few hours. We watched Super 8 at the local movie theater and it was AWESOME! After that we came back to liniment/wrap him and walk him out. I started linementing his back and noticed he was extremely touchy. Like his back was so sensitive he almost fell down when I put the stuff on and began to massage it. I was concerned, but not suprised given the amount of almost-falling he did  that day with the shitty footing. I went back to tenderly massaging his back and he stopped twitching after a few minutes. I walked him an extra 15 minutes and just hope he'd be ok. If he wasn't too sore in the A.M. I'd continue, but if he was too sore, I wasn't going to finish. XC was our issue, so scratching stadium wouldn't hurt me too bad.

I won't cliff-hang you...he was fine. Barely flniched when I massaged him the next morning..

to be continued...

HT Ready, T-Shirt Time and Tack Whoring!

So ready.

This will be a piece. 

Unfortunately...I might be a little sick and t-storms are predicted for the whole gosh dang weekend.

Yesterday I practiced some XC jumping with the Yankee Doodle...he was freakin brilliant. I'm not the least bit worried. I was a bit concerned though that he has already jumped all these fences with the exception of the hay bale oxer (which he refused twice!) and the ones at the show will be all flowery and spectatory. hmmm.

As for t-shirts, the design is as follows.... BUT the words will be computerized, not hand drawn.

They will be on grey t-shirts, unless you want a different color then you will have to tell me. I have yet to go to the actual t-shirt factory, so there might be discounts on group orders but a plain, one design t-shirt is $17. Depending on pricing (which I SWEAR I will get Monday since I am off BOTH jobs :)) I might get the slogan "red on right, white on left, insanity in the middle" on the back. ALSO, I am offering a Dressage T-shirt. It will have a line drawn dressage horse and rider extended trotting with the words "DRESSAGE: extend it". Or maybe "just extend it". Any ideas on the dressage shirts? I'm only offering those because not all of you are eventers! For shipping, I will be SUPER reasonable because I am NOT looking to make $$ on this endeavor, I just wanted to share a sweet T with you all. If successful though, I would like to try to start selling them. Think of it as an introductory offer :) Email me at mavg24@mail.missouri.edu with specs (Size, color, address, etc) and I will get all the orders together and made at one time. Payment...still figuring that out. Can Paypal accounts pay paypal accounts??

OK back to the jump pics! I know I post pics a lot, and of basically the same jumps, but there are a few different ones here this time. 

Using smaller fences to help him slow was a good thing, I didn't warm up at all, just started trotting low fences for about 5 minutes then moved to cantering fences and then moved up to bigger ones. Jumping right into things seemed to actually help. Weird. 

ALSO, check out the sweet ass German made breastplate/martingale combo with real sheepskin center and elastic breastplate part. OMG its beautiful. I got it for $98 including shipping on Ebay. Yay tack whoring! Aslso just bought a hackamore to test out for jumping....he worked well in a western one (had no idea it was a western one!) so I wanted to get the english one with sheepskin noseband and shorter thicker shanks. $23 on ebay. Frick yes!

(Western hackamore I jumped him in once)

the corner...jumping ahead I know....

Crouching....geez oh pete

Jumping ahead, but he took off waaaaaay early

He refused this twice...and when I felt him starting to, I braced, instead of riding (afraid of falling) which I think is half the problem...afraid of falling again. Not for the pain, but the shame and failure!! So then I realized I am an idiot, and rode the fence nd he jumped it fine, haha. Stoopid human.

I love my horse :) 

Stay tuned for Queeny park updates! Mostly on Facebook since I will not have the net over the weekend till sunday PM In which I will be scurrying to do my HW for my Business class!!

Wish me luck, I want to rock this shit this time!

Hate This.

I pretty much despise summer :(

Its so stinking hot.

99 today...heat advisory....not my thing.

Trying to ride when its not hot is totally incovienancing my life, haha. Like I have yet to buy my books for school, run necessary errands, or work out....or eat right. I cram riding in between my to jobs and now school. Along with other lifely things...it pretty much boils down to the fact that summer royally drags.

Not saying I hate riding by any means, just in summer! I hate profusely sweating....always being thirsty....bleached out horse coats....hot show clothes.  ugh.

Anyways, today I rode my dressage test for Queeny Park this weekend. It was to say the least, a piece of pie. If we don't get a 32 or lower I will shit. The most difficult part about it is getting the canter on a half circle which by all means, we could do about 3 years ago. I HATE this. HATE HATE HATE.

I should NOT be this afraid that I have to drop a level. Hell. We've been schooling prelim for over two years and we have ALL the necessary dressage movements for it as well. The Xc height used to not be the problem, it was the dressage, but I worked all winter on it and we've got our shit together (at home at least. Sometimes Yanks loses it at shows...). So, I;m pretty frustrate with myself. Just the thought of doing another XC course gives me the eeby jeebies (which I hate myself for) and reliving my fall scares me. I never used to be scared. I hate it.

To get away from all the hate though, I am very glad how well Yankee did today on our test. Even in the heat, he was a gem and totally just did work. I seriously love my horse. Even if we never make it to Advanced (He is 9 now and I am 20) I know he will be a super solid horse for my kids and I plan on owning him till the day I die. I love him so much! I hope he takes care of me this weekend and tomorrow (schooling XC).

Until next time

If You're Not First, You're Last...Or Fourth. Or Second. Oh Hay I Got First!

Haha don't you just love my vocalization. My OH GOD! at fence two and me yelling at him not to jump the outside line. :P

So to begin, let me just say...it was so. freaking. hot. yesterday. Like incineratingingly hot as balls. 97 with heat index at 102. No wind at all, just the freaking cicadas blaring all day. Thankfully, the show staff had 4 hoses for hosing and drinking and tents and shade spots set up for everyone. Even only being in the sun a total of like 20 min (the rest was chillen in the shade) I got a wicked burn (with sunscreen!). Yankee enjoyed his hosings I gave him (after every round) and since his favoritest thing ever is to drink out of the hose, he was pretty content.

Chillen by the big fan after hosing him off.

So, the show was pretty interesting jumping wise. I think its safe to say I will never win the Grand Prix. I got fourth, again. Dang. Yankee was an abnoxious beast in the grand prix, bucking every 3 seconds, no turning, etc. We missed our line to fence 8AB since he was just blowing through my aids, so we got that counted as a refusal. Something I did not know. We would have won if I hadn't taken a longer line, since I had the fastest time and no rails. Oh well. Next time I just need to enter the Gamblers Choice to let him blow off his first steam so we can win that GP next time!

In the Jumpers Level 1, I screwed up big time and got eliminated, lol. I jumped the last fence the wrong way....so, fail.

In Jumpers 2, A/B, we got our shit together and won both classes :) He finally had settled and those rounds were quite excellent! I took some longer lines since this was PRACTICE for eventing and during eventing stadium, we dont rip around like retards. I still won since Yankee is pretty fast and we had no rails all day!

In jumpers level 3, the video above, he was very good as well. He was a jumping HOUND and I was having a hard time controlling him! He ket just looking around and locking on random fences wanting to jump them! I thought this was better than him refusing like usual, so I wasn't upset or anything. Rather have him excited to jump than refusing!

Hahaha , suck it! Celebrating beating the woman I have been trying to beat in every class :) Yankee doing his best "I don't know this crazy girl" face.

So I am feeling pretty good about dressage and stadium for Queeny Park this next coming weekend. I hope to school some XC Wednesday, since I am already feeling jitters about it. I'm pretty bad about worrying and stuff, and I can't shake thoughts of falling off again. Its pretty destructive. Thankfully at Novice, Yankee can jump that height in his sleep, so I'm feeling better about that. For the dressage we better get like a 30 or something because it is the easiest test ever. I'm going to have a hard time getting him to NOT extend across the diagonal, lol.