Ride All the Horses PT III-IV

Since I have been just THE WORST blogger the past week, I'm going to condense my last few rides into just pictures.

After I rode Gid the bad pony I flatted the Yankee pony, working on relaxing the neck and moving forward with dat trot. I also tried out the black sheepskin thin- line pad. (Christmas liiiiiiist!)

Working on moving forward

Looking very relaxed & forward!

Haunches on helped a little

Sadly he will never have a bomb ass trot for dressage. If he was in the hunter ring, I think they'd die for it because he's pretty flat and non expressive, but it still looks flowy. Just not what judges in dressage want to see. Forever trot less.

The day after we jumped and it was just fantamiscal.

Minus the one time he took off about 4 feet early and I almost died

dat bounce doh

He was like a loaded rocket that day!

We also did some bow work

Yesterday, I let my horseless friend hop on Yankee for a bit. Her horse died in a freak accident a year ago and she was itching to ride. I felt so bad for her :( She's actually a seriously awesome rider and has been trained in dressage. She had Yankee looking ridiculously good...like, better than I can ride him.

They worked on a little shoulder fore since he HATES it and general forward moving. For not having ridden in a whole year she looked amazing. Yankee really liked her!

And yes, pony face is sportin a fresh new 'do. Clipped by yours truly.

Might do flames on a friends horse.

I think I'm all caught up now! Jumping tomorrow!

Ride ALL the Horse P2

In addition to worrying about adult things like health insurance and taxes, I've been riding a few friends horsies. I LOVE riding other horses because I've (mostly) exclusively ridden Yankee for the past 4 years and it really makes you look at your skill set. I trained horses for 3 years inbetween high school and college, but had to stop after my injuries. After that I've always just ridden Yankee and I've missed the variety! Sure I've ridden Isis and Pronto a little but not enough to fix my bad habits! Thats what you need naughty ponies for!

Enter, Gideon.

A dollface little fucker of a pony. He is adorable and rude. Pretty and mean. Cute but squirrely. But he is FANCY. When he feels like it.

He's like,

Gotta love ponies ;)

In his defense he's only 3, but he really is a handful. He regularly chomps any human within reach, rears on the ground and in saddle and has a habit for bucking. His owners are exasperated. Since his birth they've worked with him and they don't know where his exceptional pony attitude came from.

Nonetheless, he just needs a firm hand. As soon as you reprimand him and remind the little brat who's boss, he begrudgingly behaves.

One day he will be a nice show pony

I like horses like him. They make you work. Stay on your toes. And they are the most rewarding. Sure. they are awful, but when you get what you ask for, finally, its a good feeling. YOU made that happen.

As soon as I got on he attempted to launch me off. Dead to my leg. Behind the bit. Oh wait here comes a rear. What a little shit. To snap him out of it I halfhalted while giving him a VERY sharp jab with my spurs. The instant he responded and walked forward, praise! If he resisted with a buck or rear I immediately did something. Circle, bring his head up, etc. You CANNOT let them rear or buck. Best way to do this is circle. Can't do much tantruming with your head by your shoulder ;) After 2 times of this little game he figured out, 'man this bitch aint movin'. FINE. I will trot with some resemblance of forward. Some.'

Dawww, baby pony dressage

A mini "pony fit"

 Once you get him "unstuck" he truly is a nice little mover. The key is unsticking that silly face.

Oh he jumps too...

 Gah. I love him. I want him. You will see more of him on this blog.  Might be the next Teddy.



I also rode Miss Isis for Jackie this week since J has an injury that prevents her from jumping too much.

Normally I don't like to jump her since we really have never had a good jumping session together

Jackie says we are too alike; stubborn and anxious-and when we screw up we get mad at ourselves and bitch at anyone who tries to help us.

Jackie always makes her look good

I think that perfectly describes us. Sadly.

Put two of those crazies together, and you have a full on hurricane in the arena.

This time however Jackie told me to literally do nothing. Just sit there, point her at the jumps and sit there. Me being me I just wanted to fiddle fiddle fiddle and not touching the reins (besides baby half halts) was TORTURE.

Trying uber hard to be the softest rider ever

Yankee is a very firm ride. He needs contact, always. And doesn't mind a firm grip with the leg. I prefer riding in that style, I feel as if I am always ready for action, ready to apply any aid at any second.

Riding Isis is a 180* difference. NO contact, leg or hand and two point all the fences. I feel like I'm riding a cloud and it makes me anxious...and she feeds off it.

Yeah, it can be a hot mess.

It wasn't though, and it was awesome! :)

Cruisin

Jackie jumped her just a bit first to make sure she was gucci for me

I love this so much

Then I hopped on

Is this not adorable??

FINALLY getting along!

This one is my fav

Considering her nickname is the "eq ruiner" (spring loaded), I felt I stayed with her fairly well and she was VERY willing. Very good girl! I actually had fun too :)

One more post in this series then we will move on to the AWESOME jump school I had yesterday!

A little sneak...

Ride ALL the Horses PTI

First off, I am SORE!

Which is good because all I've been doing lately is....

...mostly chicken wings too considering I work at BWW and they're free and I'm a broke bitch...GAWD IM SO FAT.

I noticed in the recent pics we took that I seriously look like I gained all 40 lbs back. I've never liked the way I look in a saddle (my legs are stupid long and I have a short torso), but add thunder thighs, jelly tummy and ratchet ass love handles and BAM, whale in the saddle. I havent worked out in over 2 months and its showing. But. I work like, so much. Last thing I want to do is expend more energy working out. I think the problem is I only eat dinner because I dont have time to make meals during the day and keep forgetting to pre-make stuff, and whatever I eat I eat too much of, even though I avoid fast food like the plague and my metabolism is like the fuck is happening and now I'm jiggly. The struggle is real.

I digress.

This weekend I made a swift trip to the O-H I-O to pick up my silver child. She is perfect and I love her lots already.

Yankee pretending to hate it..but he told me he loves it. Its SO roomy!!


Also over the weekend I learned that one of my online horse friends died suddenly (even though people said at first it was a hoax) and it jolted me into some weird emotional state where all I wanted to do was cuddle things and tell everyone I loved them.

(The girls name was Lacey J and she was very famous on instagram for her trick ponies and daredevil feats like jumping 4'9 bareback or without hands. She was an amazing rider and a beautiful person all around. Never seen anyone like her and she died far far too soon. We only talked a little bit, but she was truly fantastic).

All I wanted to do was ride my horse when I got to the barn Monday. And I wanted to do all the things I've been wanting to do for a while, just in case I never got the chance again (see, death makes me weird).

I did some flatwork bareback despite his mount everest withers...

Try not to die of cuteness overload

NICE use of hind end buddy

  Jumped bareback...

Enjoyed my horse....

Jumped my favorite jump...

and galloped out in a field...

Sometimes you just gotta do what makes you happy. I won't get too emo here, but take a step back and appreciate what you have! Some people have it a LOT worse than you and you could be dead. Think on that, but don't let it ruin your day. Lacey J lived a beautiful life and she influenced thousands of girls to keep their heads high despite sometimes horrible circumstances. She was an inspiration and it made me think about my own life a little more. I needed that.

Hug your horses and people! (and other critters!)

Part 2-3 coming soon!

A New Baby

I posted a while back that I was on the hunt for a new trailer.

I had this wild scheme in my head that I would sell Big Sexy (truck), my car, and my big ass horse trailer for a compact, yet high powered SUV and lightweight 2 horse trailer.

It was a good plan.

Fast forward 4 months to present day where I made even bigger plans to move and still hadn't found a trailer.

My budget was $5k. I needed a lightweight 2 horse. I didn't care if it had a tack room. Bumper pull. No rust. But didn't have to be new. Oldest I wanted was a 2006. reasonable I thought.

4 months of searching...nothing.

What I WANTED was something like this....

what I could find under my budget in the midwest...

...okaaay. Option numéro dos. Ship Yankee and buy a trailer in Florida. Surely I could find one for under 5k. There are more horse people there, thus more selections. Right? Yeah.

Delusionally I was like, yeah yeah yeah good plan. Shipping a horse 1000 miles can't be more than like...$600, right?

WRONG.

I was quoted by 7 different companies and none gave me an estimate less than $1, 200. If they even made it my way (Missouri) at all.

How silly of me.

Back to square one.

aaaaand nadda. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.

Ah, well. lightbulb. Look in the states around me. Duh.

Oh nothing still? Neat.

Then I get a call from my mom. She found me one in Ohio (where I am originally from). Knowing my moms aptitude to pick out shitty horse things I begrudgingly asked for pictures...and was mildly surprised....

...I texted her back. "I'm buying it. Today. Can you go pick it up for me and make the exchange?"

"Done and done"

Love her. (^thats me. I was literally doing that at work. It wasn't awkward at all)

And then I was like

...now I have to DRIVE to go get it.

I wasn't thinking on that end. Now I have to get my shifts 3 different jobs covered fri, sat and sun of any given weekend. I can't RO because the max amount of people have RO'ed for the next 5 weekends..I work every weekend and I want to get it before the snow comes. I don't think you understand how hard it is to get 5 shifts covered. All of them. All. I also have to get someone to feed my horse for 3 days and that is like pulling teeth...(I even PAY people and they're like...nooo..and I'm like, YOURE ALREADY GOING TO BE AT THE BARN TAKE MY MONEY)

But magically, this weekend, everyone was thirsty and I got my shifts covered in less than 6 hours. Also, the girl I trade feedings with on some days was willing to feed the pone. Um...

And thats the story of my new(ish) baby.