LAME?!

Today I had a spare moment to nip to the barn at lunch time and even though I was very sleepy (I fed horses at 6am this morning with a 8a class amd more to follaw till 1pm...gag) I was determined to groom Yankee within an inch of his life.

Yankee remained in Ohio for a few months without me there to spoil him, and mom did not groom but maybe once a week and she never touched his tail so it looked a titch ratty. I curried the crap out of his coat, but he really just needs one more good bath. Hopefully saturday it will be warm enough but I can feel the cold creeping in on us here in Missouri.

So I curried and curried and brushed and brushed and didnt really get far. His top half was still dusty and gross but his bottom half gleamed like he didnt even have a winter coat. I found some scissors and trimmed up his mane and tail and I hope to attack his whiskers later.

He seemed to throroughly enjoy the attention which I was all too happy to give :D

I bridled him only, since his saddle pads needed washing and I had to return to class within the hour, and decided to lunge him out since I figured he'd be creaky after a 10 hr trailer ride.

Well, he was off and I was worried. Like REALLLY off. to see if he was truly lame i turned him around and lunged him the other way at a trot and he was perfect, so I assumed he was just sore. Sure enough when I reversed him again, all syptoms of hurting were gone. Phew!

He probably only got lunged for less than 10 min which is fine since he is so out of shape. Satur day I plan to do a little dressage work but thats it, maybe take a walk around the farm.

Happy to say that he was good and I cant wait to see him tomorrow! Toodles

Good Things Come in...3's?

But 1st, a picture of my very bad pony

in his grumpy moods. This is going to change aye?

Anyways, so many good things have happened recently to me and I'm quite excited. I hope my good fortune lasts!!

I'm only going to write about my new job for now, but pics from the WEGs will come.

ALSO, Yankee and Z are arriving in Missouri tomorrow!! Whose excited-this girl. Yankee has become quit the grumpy dick lately and I'm pretty sure he is pissed at me. Hopefully riding him more often will really help his attitude.

But back to my new job, which kind of ties into Yankee arriving here in Como tomorrow. I just happend to stumble upon New Springs Farm, the one and only owner of the famous and amazing Windfall. I contacted her about possibly working there and she got back with me within the day! I went the next day for an interview and she hired me to ride her babies, or "Windfoals".

They are the most amazing bunch of 3 year olds I have ever had the pleasure of riding and I look forward to every day i get with them.

Cheryl is really helping me to gain back my riding strength back and teach me new skills and methods.

Along with helping her ride the 'children', I am getting board in exchange. I COULD NOT believe my luck. Not only am I getting to ride Windfall's foals, but I get to keep MY horse at the same barn he is stabled and ride on that land and use the facilities. HOW LUCKY!? Who would have gussed that the Hoelkamps would be located in my college town, and who would have guessed that I would get to see and TOUCH Windfall as well as see him be worked.

I. AM. SOOO. Thankful, for this chance.

I am trying my best to please Cheryl and I am really enjoying my time there!

So far I have ridden 5 Windfoals, Hermin, Speilmacher, Komik, Angie and Thomas.

More later on them, for now I am going to bed, as riding starts at the break of day :) toodles.

WEG 2010 Countdown!

I apologize in advance for all the supercaps and exclamation points you will be seeing, but I am really excited about this!!!!!!

I have been waiting for the World Games for 4 years-ever since I saw the sign posted on the highway. In case you didn’t know, this is the first time the U.S has hosted the Games since its beginning in 1990! AAAAND what makes this even better is that they are being held at my beloved KY Horse Park! I have competed here many times and this was my childhood birthday party place I ADORE it!

Hopefully the U.S. will rock Germany’s socks off since GER currently holds the record for the most medals and the most GOLD medals won since WEG began. GER holds 46 medals, 21 gold whilst the U.S. holds 27 medals overall with 9 of those being gold…We have some massive catching up to do.

My stupendous boyfriend heard about my excitement and went ahead and bought us tickets to the Games for XC day! we leave next friday for OH, then Sat AM for KY. I can barely contain my excitement.

Our riders this Year include Phillip Dutton, Will Faudree, Karen O’Conner, Becky Holder, Kim Severson, Allison Springer, Amy Tryon, Boyd Martin, Holly Hudspeth, Stephen Bradley, & Bruce (Buck) Davidson jr. I am REALLLLLLY rooting for Will Faudree, Becky Holder, and Allison Springer!

Phillip Dutton

Becky Holder and the gorgeous Courageous Comet

Kim Severson and Tipperary L.

Will Faudree I may have a slight crush on this guy )

Allison Springer

Karen Oconner and the late Teddy

Amy Tryon and Poggio

The Aussie turned American, Boyd Martin. Ohhh yeah.

The newcomer, Holly Hudspeth

Stephen Bradley

Bruce (Buck) Davidson

Quickie

OH MY GOODNESS it has been too long. I SWEAR I will update soon. Mostly since my comp has been in the shop and I can't upload pics of anything.
quick run through
-show season ended up EHH, more on that later
-Yankee is still in Ohio with mother since I...
-Moved back to Missouri for school
-I have been WICKED stressed about $$ and classes and work and its really hard to get everything done and update blogs :(
-Went to a WESTERN horse show on a borrowed Paint horse and had a blast after almost a month of no riding! We got a 4th and 5th in pleasure classes out of like 30 riders, go us!
-WEG 2010 in 2 WEEEEEEEEKS! Who's EXCITED?!? I am! I am! Brandon and I are going saturday to watch XC and I am super stoked! He bought me tickets :D what a good boyfriend.

That's all folks, I gotta run to class, hopefully I can update better soon, it's been AGES!

Needs work??

The first event of the season for Yanks and I is this weekend and I have been TRYING to prepare for it all week, but ive been so busy working and whatnot...I still have so much to do. SO MUCH. Good thing I get off work tomm at 4 and will have the rest of the night to clean tack, find a muck bucket, find my saddle rack, do horse luandry, pack hay and grain and SO much more...like check truck tires, get gas, hook up...

Anyways, today Lauren and I headed out in the POURING rain to go school dressage. We were determined to get a school in and practice our tests, and I was certain the rain would let up. Skeptical, since it rained so hard on the way to Twin Towers park but it really did let up. Unfortunatly, the ring was soaked and full of puddles...ewwww.

I watched lauren school and practice her tests while I took video and pics

OMG knees! I feel his trot has a 9/10 quality. Seriously!

She did well at walk and trot , but as usual with him at the canter his departs are tense. We decided to just practice giving him half a second of loose rein when she asks and it seems to be working a little bit. Other than that a BN test isn't too hard...

Yankeee was next and we warmed up nicely, he felt really good and I was confidant we would ace our practice tests...

Lovely uphill

So after a very nice, even warm up we started our practice test with Lauren taping. It all went well, the trot extensions, canter extensions, free walk-eh, stretchy circle-ehhh, but then, dundundun, he EXPLODED! I asked for the right lead canter in the corner and man oh man, did he go beserk....I have no idea why. It was always in that corner and always t a the right lead....I was perplexed. So I went to schooling and getting him calm. We got it a few times without leaping explosions of badness so we tried our test again. sam thing started nice, and even nicer stretches, butAGAIN, the explosion! I could not figure out why. I was exasperated....and perplexed

All I could think was that he was a) possibly sore from conditioning, b)tired from schooling (it was muggy and gross), c) later I found sand under his girth....so I dont know.

I hope this doesnt cause a problem this weekend...

Schooling Stadium

Schooling some stadium…needs work

June 1, 2010 by checkmark115 | Edit

I think I sweat 7 gallons today. It was so sunny…not too hot, just sunny. Weird I know. In fact there was a breeze going, but I really don’t like anything above like 60.

Yesterday Yanks and I did some gallop sets and he was HYPER. I also brought Cowgirl (CG) home for the summer again, and all the horses were riled b/c of it. I think Yankee smelled the oncoming storm and was hyper about CG, so I just said F-it and quite after 4 laps. Lil mad, but he really doesn’t need any conditioning since he is a TB and maintains it pretty well.

Anyways today, I hauled over to Lauren’s barn today to school some stadium before Spring Run. I was trying to school today in a hackamore since his 3 ring elavator is a bit much going stadium, but nothing less severe works. Well, the warmup and first few small jumps went well (while I was practicing my half seat) with some minor bucking…

Nice canter w/ the hackamore

What a cute face!

Did very well with hackamore over low fences. Practicing my automatic release too!

BUT after we started jumping higher Yankee said, “NOPE, I will blow through this hackamore like its a peice of string”. Literally, he broke it. Well, I’m glad I brought his jumping bridle, so we switched and raised the jumps. Lauren was also schooling on Patchy who was a firecracker.

ROCKETTT POOOWERR!

My goal for the day was to get Yankee to calmly school some stadium fences, work on rollback turns, and possibly work a bending lineall while maintaing soft contact and a rounded back. He jumped everything beautifully, except that damned bending line from a vertical to the oxer. I just couldn’t get him to collect enough after the jump to make the turn and jump it well. Sad face. Everything was set at or almost 4 ft once they were at their highest and he never hesitated over the height. This made me happy seeing as I hope to go prelim with him by the end of summer.

Over the verticle

I was practicing my automatic release but I notice now that even though I got the release, I let my fingers go too far and I need to work on keeping them closed. Also, my body is a bit crouched eve my seat and legs are stable. Least I’m not ahead of the motion. Yankee is jumping well here..

The oxer from the right lead

You can tell that this is his weaker direction. Any jump we take off the right lead he just plain doesn’t jump well. I know this is from running on the track for three years to the left, which makes for amazing movements to the left, but sucky ones to the right. His legs are atrocious here and is my seat, a little forward. OOPS!

Oxer off the left lead

Much better this direction! Both of us look nice and my legs look very secure. Still crouching a bit but it’s such a hard habit to break! Near the end of schooling he was acting very much like a gentleman but am still worried about stadium. It’s our worst phase and we almost always pull a rail. *fingers crossed* Lauren and Patchy I think will do fine, maybe they’ll rocket around at lighting speed but I’ve never seen him knock a rail..

After we were finished drilling our poor horses to death, we decided to switch and take a gander at riding each others beasts….

As you can see, we were both having issues with each others horses…I was not used to Patchy’s adorable pony strides and the way he CHARGES at fences. Thus I wracked him in the mouth a few good times. Poor baby, but he took it all in (fast) strides. Lol. He about ripped my arms off too, I give Lauren props for riding him, he”s tough and she makes it look easy! She on the other hand forgot what it was like to ride my big strided TB, and forgot how to sit back apparently. LOL we look retarded. good thing we stick to our own mounts for shows.

Our tired boys

Eventer turned hunter...for a day.

So yesterday Lauren and I packed up our ‘ponies’ and headed out for a day of schooling at a local hunter show. Now, I showed hunters waaaaay back in the day and was actually really good. I went to state twice and got two firsts and an eleventh. lol. But my 13 year old self still considered that cool. I always rocked it at 4-H shows and hunter circuits However, I grew tired of endless rounds in the ring, snooty, bitchy girls and mothers and the hunter look. With hunters though I found my passion in jumping and I learned how to PUT MY HEELS DOWN! That’s about it.

Anyways, we were entered in the hunter flat class and two jumping classes which were that last 3of the day (27, 28, and 29) and since the show started at nine we decided leaving at 11ish would be good to get the horses settled and warm up. I got up at 7 to braid Yankee (even though it was a schooling show for us and I wasnt taking it seriously, I always braid) and load my two horses up to go to Lauren’s barn. Z was coming so I could shave her fat pony butt.

Got to Lauren’s around 9 and grabbed Z off the trailer and started braiding Patchy- it only took about 20 min, and then we geared up the clippers to shave Z. WELL, she was having none of that. AT ALL. Little brat pony decided to rear up and twist around and about break her little neck. God, bad pony! We had about an hour and a half to kill so we decided to play w/Z a bit. Enjoy the pics…

Z and her new trick

A flying pony!

Well after our pony escapades, we ventured to the show grounds and discovered parking sucks, and I got a wee bit stuck in the wet grass, but WHAT-ERR’.

And then we waited. FOR HOURS. Another reason I remembered why I hate hunters. I got hella burned even though I slathered sun screen on. Which is very unlikke my skin, to burn. See I am, you could say, perpetually tan. I gues SEVEN FREAKING HOURS in the sun will do that to you.

Oh, and when it came time to tack up, my bloody horse kicked me. KICKED me. I couldn’t believe it, my sweet, lovely, gorgeous, tame horse, kiiicked me! With evil in his eyes. I was so taken aback.

Well that was the first of many faux paus. I forgot many things, my belt, my gloves, a hairnet, AND my boots didn’t fit. What a fat ass I am. Now I have to go get them stretched or something. Damn.

Me trying desperately to zip up my boots

So I ran around trying to find boots to wear….no such luck. I tried on like 6 pairs…we ended up vet wrapping them closed. Hot mess.

After those conundrums, we warmed up (too early it turned out) and the horses were gems.

Yankee told me he does NOT enjoy being a hunter. In fact he said “I much prefer running around and being a psycho freak on cross country. What is this trotting slower and not bucking during canter transitions and being told not run like a fool because it reminds me of once long ago when I was a racehorse.” He was displeased but tried his best to behave. He put on his hunter face, and unwillingly calmed his shit down.

So after waiting a while in the hot sun for our classes Lauren and I finally went in to our flat class. I know I was there for ‘shit-and-gigs’ but I still wanted my horse to behave. Lots of people I knew were there and plenty of eventers, AND the judge was my fellow competitor in eventing and previous instructor. I wanted to look calm and collected but I didnt care if we won or not. AMAZINGLY we placed 2nd out of about 12 in the flat class even though he bucked in almost every corner b/c he wanted to race, lol. Race pony brat.

My dressage horse lookin like a spiffy hunter. Weird I know!

Note the Ghetto boots, lol! After that we did our two jumping classes which we TORE around at lighting speed. Yankee said “BOO, these are too tiny to take seriously. I’ll show girl by running like a mad fool between fences.” THANKFULLY our endless dressage schools came in handy and I was always able to bring him back down to a collected canter. We placed 6th in one class cuz I couldnt get him to switch his leads, and 3rd in the other.

WEEE!

"Too easy mom, make harder"

Lauren and Patchy being equally wicked fast as Yankee and I, lol

After all was said and Done I SOMEHOW managed to win grand Champion, very strange considering we didn’t even get a first, but hey I’ll take it seeing as we came just for practice. 7hrs later and one hellava sunburn later (and a few steals from the tack sale-woof boots, scrim sheet, lead rope since Yankee broke his(idiot) and blue stable wraps all for 18 dollars!!!) we packed the horses up and left, satisfied but exhausted.

We need to school a bit of stadium before we head to KY for Spring Run. Fact.

Our unexpected winnings

The Championship ribbon I don't know how I won.