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.

Mojo Has Returned

Tacked up the pony beast on Tuesday even though it was 90 degrees and I thought I was dying. (though in one night, it dropped 50 degrees and has been rainy and shivery 40 today. We are all confused. I thought I wanted the cold but really, I don't. Florida is looking better and better).

I was feeling frisky and I wanted to jump. I saw a girl on IG jumping her pony over a block fence vertical and I was like..Yankee can do that. Lets do that.

So we did.

And I found my Mojo.

Don't know why my body/mind wasn't cooperating over the last few weeks but not only did my brain tell me I'm a winner, my solid base eq came back to life!

Not sure how high that is but I'm guessing 3'9? It looked massive from the back of Yankee, but he was like, got it mom and I was like, sweet, I'm not worried about it.

For longtime readers, you know verticals are my scary human eating monster fences that I constantly get horrible distances to/ride badly to/almost fall off of at, kind of fence.

Got some pretty cool pics too, thanks to A!

I think it was my shirt giving me good juju...USA USA USA!

Wordless Wednesday

Twerkin like Miley

In the last week I haven't been doing much but hacking...

...and workin twerkin the bow

Its been oddly hot and cold for the past week and Yankee's poor body can't decide if it should grow fuzzes or stay sleek ( I vote sleek, thanks).

I wish there was some way to stem a coat from growing but I've tried everything (yes, even lights) but NOTHING works. And I swear to god my TB grows the fuzziest coat I've ever seen on a TB. Ever. its unfortunate.

Getting sidetracked.

The bowing has reached a plateau.

While I retaught him how to bow..

(switching from this...

..to this...)

I can't really get him to do it any better.

I WANT to be able to command him and he bow, but I'm not 100% sure how. He will literally learn any trick for cookies. But I don't know how to transition from begging for a bow with a cookie bribe, to asking for one with a word. Even with the clicker...not sure.

You cookie whore, Yankee.

I knows you has moar cookies. Give.

Also, there is literally a horse in the back of this car. A fucking horse. Why?

Also, also, I uploaded the totally wrong video in my last post. That was a jump off round, not the actual round. I suck.

Epic Hangover

...of the horse show variety, har har har.

I meant to do this post before everyone overshadowed me with their AEC successes and course walk photos and free XC watch giveaways and t shirts and hats and... whatnot (slightly bitter about this), but I simply could not make myself do it after the show.

It was a great show, don't get me wrong! I just worked so much around it, that I was near the verge of sleeping while walking.

Now, 9 days later, I've lost my gusto and excitement/frustrations of the day, but I will still try to make it a post worth reading.

Yankee was...perfect. I don't know why I was ever worried. His rollbacks were on mark, he galloped fast when I asked, he rated on a dime, his turns were smooth, he picked his feet up and he was happy. So I was happy.

People were dazzled by the hackamore. Have they really not seen a horse in  hackamore before?

For the most part I was anxious about remembering my courses...there were 4, not counting jump offs.

I have a difficult time remembering my dressage tests in my "oh shit" moments, so I was slightly extremely frightened I would be mid course and forget where I was going.

And oh it happened.

Twice.

To watch a pretty amusing video of me cursing loudly and asking the crowd "DO I GO HERE?", after twice forgetting my course, click HERE. Good grief.

I also skipped a fence completely and got eliminated in one class. It was tragic, because I would've won and it actually meant something to me because it was a 3'6 speed class. DAMMIT brain.

In the first class (my warmup, but a ticketed class), I got eliminated because I didn't do my jump off immediately. I have never once in my life stayed in the ring and ran my jump off round directly after the first and NO ONE bothered to tell me. I was not the only person to do so in the class, so they ribboned us anyways.

I STILL could not win the mini Prix and AGAIN got 4th. I think we will forever get 4th in this class. We were less than 1 second away from the winning time so it was close.

I won the 3'6 class with a stellar jump off, won the 2'9 speed and got some other places mixed in there. Not one rail or refusal though, so I was super pumped about that.

My favorite thing about this show? Free adult beverages.

Bloody Mary's for the win

I also had an amazing cheering section that stuck out a 9 hour show day with me. My friends came and my boyfriend, who is slowly befriending Yankee and realizing that he indeed, will not eat him.

Watch out, future horse husband in training

Overall, a stunning show. As always the owner outdid herself with the prizes and I had tons of fun. Absolutely worth the money, time and distance travelled! I'm sad I will never get to show at that venue again, but I'm gad I made my last trip a good one.

**EDIT: I just realized, I uploaded the wrong video. Its a jump off round, not the round where I messed up. HAH. Fudge.

Special Hot Mess

Ignoring everyone's success/end of season showing/new horses/good times I'm going to try and remain positive but its been very difficult this week.

I have not had one good ride. Not one. They actually have gotten progressively worse and I want to cry.

Dressage day was an absolute fail and I'm pretty sure Yankee forgot how to canter. Literally. Forgot.

I don't even want to share how our jump school went Friday but I'm going to anyways because I like to exploit my failures with an attempt at weak humor.

 I even brought my trusty bf and put Yankee's fancy white boots on in an attempt to get some cute pics. The weather was perf and I was optimistic.

The jump school ride started off per usual, him feeling a bit lazy and knocking a few low rails. He always does this because why pick your feet up for sticks.

NBD, happens often. He works out of it.

Oh look, I have a reining horse...

I actually almost fell off. Pretty spectacular refusals. They happened at almost every fence. Brilliant.

And even when he jumped, my body..was just...terrible.

What in the actual fuck am I doing. No really. Where did my eq go?

No matter how hard I tried to get it together, my leg slipped back. I jumped ahead or I got left behind. A few times I jumped no hands and that fixed my leg but most of the time he refused or knocked the rail down. We are a special hot mess.

Got maybe 2-3 alright pics. Maybe.

I still can find major flaws and out of the 50 attempts we probably took, 2-3 is just so...fail.

I entered Ridgefield for this saturday, but if my ride tomorrow doesn't go well I may have to withdraw.

Great.

I Like Things, Buy Me Stuff

Ahhh, its the christmas season.

No really, all the stores have christmas decorations and trees out already. Its September. Are we bypassing  Halloween and Thanksgiving now? Will we eventually really have a Christmas in July? Perhaps we will never know.

I do know though that the Dover sale got me all a tither with the wants. I got it bad. Typical American. Forget the real meaning of christmas, just give me stuff. But really, now I have thoughts of tack trunks and leather goods with red bows on them dancing in my head. I need want so many things. ALL the things.

 I saved supe rhard this year and managed to purchase myself a pair of bitchin XC boots, and a five point breastplate (drunkedly on Ebay). I also got a noseband for Yankee that cost an arm and a leg, but it was necessary and works swimmingly for XC. Too bad we never once evented this year.  (That IS going to change in FL). But we are dressed for it! *sad laugh*

I've been plotting what I can con my boyfriend and parents into buying for me. Since I'm a big girl now (haha, right) I only get one present from the rents and I usually ask for something expensiver. Last year mom bought me GORGEOUS plaid shipping boots. They are amazing.

This year...oh this year. So many options. SO little time. So so little monies I has.

Do you ever realize just how much money you don't have until you look around at the barn tack room and every single saddle is a custom schleese? Every bit cost about $100. ALL the boots are at least $100/pair and the riders are always wearing the classiest breeches and fashionable tall boots. Um. I can has preese? Donate?

And I'm over here, queen of second hand shit. Yay Ebay.

So this year, to try and be fancy, I asked for one thing I have ALWAYS wanted. A wooden tack trunk. Gotta stay swagtacular, especially among all the bitches in Florida. My crappy $60 black thing I bought at home depot just won't do anymore. I hooked the BF in on this one ;)

Specifically, dis one.  Its an awesome weird color (cherry) and its just beautiful. My tack whore self needs a place to store all my things and I am OBSESSED with nameplates. All my tack (no seriously, all of it) has a name plate and oh my god, you can put a nameplate on a wood box.

 The rents have been heckled to get me new field boots. I don't know if you've seen the ones I currently own, but they are...dead. I have to keep them closed with vetwrap and there is a giant hole in one of them. They are so ratchet it aint funny. Luckily Jackie donated her half chaps to me, and loaned me her show boots for this season but I really do NEED new boots. For riding. I don't need them to survive, but whatever. I need them. You know.

Two other smallish things I would really love is the combination polo wraps (elastic on the inside, polo wrap on the outside, extra supportive and shit) and a thinline half pad for my dressage saddle. I really think it would make a difference, but I can't justify even the Ebay price of $100. Gah.

One day I won't even blink at dropping some hundos on my horses' wardrobe but for now I still cry a little inside when I pay board and buy grain.

Its a beautiful curse I tell you. Riding.