Finals Week :(

Sorry I have been slacking once again. I had no classes this week, but I have finals Monday and Wednesday of next week plus Christmas is coming faster than ever so I have been super busy between studying and preparing for the holidays.

Let's start with the recap of this week's riding. Saturday we had a short hack in the back grass field as the ring was frozen. Sunday unfortunately it poured all day so the pony had the day off. Monday I went to ride ride her bareback in her halter and lead out of the back of her muddy paddock as I do almost every day when her paddock mate decided to come running up behind us bucking so Satin proceeded to do the same. With only a lead to stop her I quickly pulled her head right and did an emergency dismount at the same time before things escalated especially because I was helmetless which is something I rarely do. When I got to the ground I was able to get her to a walk while her paddock mate Jewel continued to run around like a nut. This made things difficult to get Satin out as she would trot forward as Jewel tried to play chase which she never does. Anyway after all that I bring her inside to find she has a lost a shoe so I couldn't ride her. I walked her around the farm to stretch her legs and Tuesday she got her shoe back on. Thank God for my wonderful farrier who is always quick in responding to lost shoes. Luckily this is something that rarely happens with my mare (knock on wood). Anyway so Tuesday we had a schooling session since we had a lesson the following day. She jogged and loped beautifully and we worked on the excercises R wanted us to do while riding one handed. She was very good, but I could feel she wanted to go. Since she behaved so well I decided to reward her by letting her get it out of her system. So I pointed her towards the barrel to do a dash and she loped very slow to the barrel practically walked around it then all of a sudden sat down, launched, and took off like she was shot out of a cannon across the ring. She sounded like a stampede crow hopping and all. It was quite hilarious. So I ran it one more time with the same result except a little faster towards the barrel. Silly girl :) Then we hacked around the property with K and did one or two log jumps which she beasted lol.

So Wednesday we trailered over to my trainer's farm for a lesson. As always we had a great lesson. I can't say enough how much I love my trainer. She is awesome. Satin's walk, jog, lope was great. We worked on a bunch of simple changes doing different patterns, like serpentines, etc. Then we did flying changes, which she did BEAUTIFULLY! She has nice auto changes, but she tends get rushy with them which makes them sloppy and she sometimes doesn't get the back because of that. But, when we do the simple changes first it seems to help warm her up to get perfectly clean, beautiful flying changes. We also did some work with a L shoot that R set up for us and Satin did it perfectly. We then moved on to work on her spins which she has been sloppy on lately. We started with quarter turns and 180s then did a couple of full spins. To the left they were all beautiful, but as usual to the right they were a bit sloppy which I think could be due to the fact that in that direction she has to pivot off of her bad hock. R got on and worked with her a little bit and helped figure out the best way to get her to really pivot on her spins in both directions. She had her doing some really awesome spins! It was cool to get to see her work since I am usually on her. Then I got on and with R's guidance got some of the spins she was getting including some better ones to the right.

Today I just hacked her bareback in the ring for a little bit since she was probably worn out from yesterday's hour and half lesson. Then I rode my friends L's stb Lexie.

On Tuesday I went to visit my friend H and her stb gelding who I refer to as boyfriend. Her back was out so she asked me if I wanted to ride him and let me try him western which is pretty much the only discipline he hasn't done. He took to it as well as all the others and did very good.

Well time to get back to work I have a busy weekend ahead with a Christmas party tomorrow and a day in NY Saturday!

Brrr! Winter Has Arrived

I feel like it just became winter all of sudden. I mean we have had medium temperatures until Saturdays rain/snow storm then boom magically it was high 30s / low 40s and freezing. Sunday especially was frigid. I had to bust out my layers, which are my best friend this time of year (besides toe warmers of course!).

The only good thing about winter is getting to use all my winter supplies for Satin and I. Along with the layers and toe warmers came the bit warmer, riding the pony bareback in her blanket, her new cooler, and my embroidered "Satin" jacket. This year I plan to invest in two new winter tools. One is a winter helmet cover that wraps around your face. I had one about two years ago which somehow got lost in the shuffle, but I definitely miss it! Today in the blustery cold and wind I tied a scarf around my face to simulate that protection. It worked, but was much less efficient and more difficult to put in place and keep there. I also plan on getting a fleece seat cover for my saddle. My old trainer used to use one in the winter and said it helped keep her toasty (plus is comfy too!).

Though I would trade the use of fun winter supplies in for some warm weather any day! I am definitely not looking forward to the cold weather still to come. Yesterday was tease. It was rainy and gloomy all morning then around noon the sun came out and it was 60 degrees! I almost wasn't going to go out to the farm because of the morning forecast, but the afternoon turn changed my mind. And thank God! It was a gorgeous day to ride. I mean really, how many 60 degree days do you get in December? So K and I hacked around the farm and then did a few barrel dashes. Satin was very hyper and feeling her oats with the warm break in weather. She took off full force for the barrel, crow hopping all the way. Such a silly girl. She is always out to prove that 20 is the new 2!

So this weeks riding log includes a schooling ride on Sunday. Satin had a beautiful jog and lope, though I should have worked on one handed, as well as, two. Then we worked on quarter turns, 180s at the jog, and rollbacks as per Renee's instructions and she did well. The rest of the week we mostly hacked around the farm, including Wednesday as I already mentioned where we added some barrel work. Today we rode in the ring bareback in a halter. We also did some brideless work and she was pretty good. She got a little quick at the canter, as she usually does bridleless, but was otherwise very responsive. We even did some bridleless spins, which were very nice as usual. I hope she is hiding in her shed tonight as I can hear the wind blowing full force outside my window. Tomorrow she will get the day off to relax.

On Sunday I also my friend's STBD Larry. Larry as I may have mentioned has not been ridden in over a year pretty much until the week before when I climbed back on. Larry is a very nervous boy. I call him the boy in the bubble! So Sunday we head into the indoor with our friend M and her mare. We were unhappily surprised to find that there were three large hyper thoroughbreds having a jumping lesson and a fourth joined shortly after. Our two nervous greenies who had not been ridden in a week were obviously "hot" especially on such a chilly day. Larry was very nervous with horses cantering past in all directions and tried once or twice to go up. R fixed the situation asking for the horse turned out in the outdoor to be brought in. The outdoor arena was mucky, but parts were decent enough to ride in. It took a few minutes to get Lar settled in and in a work frame of mind, but once he did he was very good. He gave me a nice ten minutes worth of trot which is very good for an out of shape pony like him. He also backed beautifully and walked several times over a cavaletti with very little protest. I hope to ride him again this weekend as we are shooting to have him ready for April showing!

These last 2 weeks have been super busy at school with the semester ending. I have been buried under papers, projects, quizzes, etc. I am so glad that today was my last day of classes. I handed in my final creative writing piece, though I still have the portfolio to complete for next week. I did my group presentation for International Media too, which I think went well. Now besides for my portfolio I just have Astronomy and Women Writers finals to prepare for. Unfortunately my exams are on the last two exam days write before Christmas, but the only good thing is it gives me almost 2 weeks to study.

Holiday Break

So it was great to have a few days off of school, especially because once I return today it starts the last 2 weeks of the semester which are always hell basically. But, anyway I tookd advantage of my vacation to get some extra riding time in of course. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best except for yesterday, but thats alright.

Wednesday was rainy and gross, but K and I rode Sat and her paddock pal Jewel bareback around the farm. On Thanksgiving my barn manager D organized a Thanksgiving morning trail ride and last minute was unable to go since she did not have anyone to watch her toddler. The rest of us went however with her daughter K and myself leading as our horses like to be first. We were with some girls and horses that do not usually go on trails so we kept at walk trot and had to deal with a lot of nervousness. We did have a few incidents with one girl falling off as her horse decided to go bucking up hill and another friend's horse who is usually great on trails took off to catch up with my horse and K's horse who are much faster walkers and the horse behind her following suit. Long story short it wasn't one of our best trails, but when we came home K and I let our horses blow off some steam around the back of the farm.

On Friday I ran a few errands and went to visit my friend R's Standardbred Larry at his new home. I used to ride Larry and showed him once or twice and now that he is at a barn with a real ring and indoor we are getting him back into riding again. I got him and he was great. We walked and trotted for about ten minutes as he is out of shape and hasn't been ridden in a while, but he was very good and he gave me his nice almost jog. His trot can go so nice and slow especially for most Standardbreds I have seen. Then I hacked Satin around the farm a little since again it was a gross day.

Saturday my friend Kt came over for a western lesson. She has ridden english forever and has started riding on her school's western team and doing well. I had her on Sat and gave her a little western pleasure lesson. They both did great though I was surprised Satin was in pleasure mode since we haven't worked on it in while. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous! It was the perfect trail day but I had no one to trail ride with. So I hacked around the farm for a bit and then decided to go out on a short little trail by myself. It was only about ten minutes of the closer paths, but Sat was very good for her first time out alone and we had a nice ride.

Banquet and Hunter Pace

So I had a very busy and fun filled weekend. On Friday I had the CJHA banquet where myself and most of my horsey friends received our year end awards for the CJHA horse show series. I was 4th in Adult Amateur Western. All the girls from the barn came home with trophies too. I am on the board of this organization and the banquet is always great. It is nice to see everyone outside the barn and half the time you don't recognize them all dressed up. We had a lot of fun dancing the night away and celebrating a successful horse show season.

Saturday my friend L and I went out on a short trail ride to prepare for the hunter pace we were going on the next day. It was quite eventful for a short hack complete with quads and dirt bikes, L's horse being uncharacteristically spooky, and L's horse also being unusually full of energy which she displayed in a series of bucks during a short hand gallop. We went on a trail ride because L's mare had not been on one since the summer and Satin had not been out in about month either and L wanted to get her mare out before our hunter pace. Well as you can see it was a good thing we did.

So yesterday we went on the Turkey Trot which is an 8 mile hunter pace with L obviously being my partner. We had an absolute BLAST! We were apparantly one of the only teams not to get lost according to what we heard from people who were working the ride and running into quite a few teams that had been turned around. We thought that it was the fastest time wins so we were quite proud of ourselves when we passed a few teams on the trail. Turns out we were wrong. We came in 23 minutes faster than the optimal time LOL! We didn't care though. We just went to have fun and we did. L's mare did take off once or twice, but we got it under control. Satin thought she was a cross country pony hand galloping through a series of logs which she jumped like they were 3 feet tall haha, gota love my lil super mare. Today of course she got the day off to rest up from yesterday's big adventure. As you can see she is back to tip top condition, even with her mother being distracted and forgetting to put her splint boots on for the hunter pace yesterday :)

Back From Mass.

I'm back! I was up in Mass. at Equine Affaire this weekend and had a great time. There were lots of good buys and some great clinics. Satin got a new cooler and few other things. We got to enjoy clinics by John Lyons, Ken McNabb, and many other great clinicians. We also got to see the Versatile Horse and Rider competition which was pretty interesting. I would love to enter something like that. It is like a trail class, but with even more intense obstacles. The obstacles included various jumps, a tunnel, sidepassing while carrying stuff, rollbacks, spins, walking into a kiddie pool filled with leaves, backing over a bridge, ground tying, etc.

Yesterday I got to ride my pony after four days of missed riding from the rain and being away. She felt good just a little stiff from time off and bad weather. We did some work with our bridge at home going backwards, forwards, and sideways over it and had no issues though our bridge is flat while the bridge in Mass. and the one they use at breed shows is raised. We also did some of the sidepass excercises they had to do and jumped a small crossrail. We also cantered over some ground poles which she tends to do rush into and swap leads over, but after a few times over she settled down and did them correctly.

This weekend we have a big hunter pace so I Friday to get year end awards from horse shows this year

Pony is Finally Healed

So I don't know what Miss Satin did when she cut her leg, but her leg was still swollen for a couple days after. I kept up my regimen of walking her, cleaning the wound, buting her when needed, etc. On Saturday there was still fluid in the ankle. My barn manager suggested adding cold hosing and wrapping to my regimen. So I walked her for 15 minutes, cold hosed for 10, then we put on a furazone sweat wrap for 24 hours. When the wrap was removed the swelling was gone and she was sound though a bit stiff from almost a week off. The swelling has not come back and she has stayed sound (knock on wood). Yesterday I just walk - trotted her for twenty minutes to stretch her legs. Today I kept it easy too not wanting to stress her. I walk - trotted her for about 15-20 minutes and cantered once each direction. She felt good so that puts me at ease.

This weekend I am going to Equine Affaire in Massachusetts with some friends, so I am definitely looking forward to that. Will let you all know how it goes!

Slacking Again ....

Sorry guys, I know I have been quite the slacker with posting lately. I have just been super busy with school, the pony, and freelance work, etc.

Ok so let's start with the most important topic the pony. Well yesterday the princess pony cut her leg. I don't know how she did it, it happened in the field at some point yesterday. Anyway the cut was not deep at all it was just long and the leg was swollen. So of course she was off and quite stiff since it is the leg she already has a touch of arthritis in because of an old injury. After walking, cold hosing, betadine, furazone, and a little bute she was much better today. The swelling is gone and she was running around her field bucking like a bronco. I rode her, but we kept it at 20 minutes or walk, trot to help circulation flow, unstick her, etc.

On Tuesday we went barrel racing. Now that we figured out the key to her turns I was looking forward to trying it out. My friend K rode her in the barrels as well since at the last minute she was unable to bring her pony. She ended up getting a better time than me at a 19.2. I got a 19.7, but I also slowed her down more than necessary to ensure tight turns since the last few times her turns were half the ring. Anyway I also rode my dash the opposite direction that I usually do, to the right rather than the left. Her turn was good and we got an 8.7. Our poles ended up being our best event of the night. We had our fastest run yet with a 25.9!!! Unfortunately we knocked our last pole which gave us a 5 second penalty. Obviously I was disappointed at the knock but I was absolutely thrilled with our time. We used to get 30s then the last couple weeks we had been getting 27s so a 25.9 was awesome not just for us but in general!

Last Friday we went team penning with our dream team partner who I call Sunshine but also known as our barn owner D. Anyway we had pretty good runs. Two in the 30s and a 23 then one we didn't get the cow because he was a little butt but then we almost got him and I admit it was my fault he got away. But that's okay we still had a good night. I did one run with our friend DNs friend J and we were set up for a perfect run. They called our cow and all the other cows ran left but ours stayed right in the middle. We began to run him down and he cut left and no matter how many times we got him and began to run him he would get away at the last second. He was a nasty little bugger. He wasn't afraid of the horses. Satin bit him and he just tried to kick her. Then my partner's horse almost jumped on him and he didn't give a second glance. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. But like my other friend DR said we took one for the team because now no one else would have that cow.

In other news I went upstate to J's last weekend. They had a clinician coming to her neighbor's farm and she invited me to come ride Flo in one of the spots she had reserved. Saturday I just watched the clinic and Sarah who rides Flo for Jill did the clinic. I did ride Max around for a while though and did some ring work with him. I spent Saturday night visiting my friend's that go to college up there for Halloween. Then Sunday it was my turn to ride. Flo was very good though a bit quick at the canter. I got some good tips and overall it was a good experience (though I still think my trainer R could teach circles around this guy :) ).

School has been busy, busy. I had midterms and papers and all kinds of fun stuff keeping me up to all hours. I took my last midterm today thank God.

I also had two freelance projects I was working on. Both were due last weekend. One was an article about trail riding in Allaire for the Paint Horse Journal and the other was about the SPHO-NJ and the race world supporting them for Hoofbeats. Fingers crossed the Hoofbeats editor likes it and decides to publish it. They were both really fun to work on. As I told you I enjoyed riding in Allaire. As far as the Hoofbeats article I learned some things and talked to some interesting people. I got to talk to Dr. Patty Hogan one of the leading equine surgeons on the phone and she had some great things to say. She gave me phenomenal quotes and I would love to get to do an article just on her. Scratch that she needs her own book!

Upstate and Allaire

So as I said in my last post I went to my friend J's ranch in upstate N.Y. this past weekend. We lucked out weather wise since the forecast was beyond grim. We got up around 8 on Friday so we didn't get to play with the ponies until Saturday. Saturday was chilly, but dry unlike previously forecasted. I had a chance to work with Flo, the palo filly I have mentioned in previous posts. The last time I rode her I used a saddle that does not fit me at all and it really affected the enjoyment of my ride because I could not get a good seat. The seat on the saddle was too big for me which I could have overcome if the stirrups went short enough. I could deal with one or the other, but the combo of the too long stirrups and too big seat made it difficult to get a good position and really enjoy my ride. This time I used a saddle that fits me much better in the seat and stirrups so my ride was much better. Flo is really becoming a great pleasure horse. Her jog is too die for. It is slow, comfy, and she has a nice headset. She has been mostly being worked English because the girl who excercises her for J rides english. Her canter is super comfy, like a rocking chair, but its a medium paced hunter canter not a slow even lope or even close to it. Like J said this is because the girl who rides her has been working on working her up in tempo and headset for jumping. When I am up there I will work on her western as much as I can, but I am not up there enough so hopefully Jill and the trainer work on it in between.

A few weeks back Flo was spooked by a bear in the ring where she was turned out. She ran through the fence and cut up her legs. Luckily the cuts were all superficial, but it definitely had an effect on her. When riding her in the ring where the incident occurred she is very looky. Her ears are always up and head up looking around. When asked to give you her headset and set up she will and a few moments later looks up again. She is still not over the trauma of the bear incident obviously. She did a nice spook at some deer creeping through the trees too. Hopefully with some time she will begin to get over it. She is still very calm and quiet for a three year old.

I also had a chance to ride Max, the gray gelding I wrote about in earlier posts that I described as a barrel/reining prospect. I set up the barrels and did some work with turns trotting and walking him around through the pattern in both directions. Then I tried to canter him through. He broke in between, but cantered parts. He is still out of shape too so you can't fault him. We did a dash or two and even let him run a little. He did a slow hand gallop and I didnt push him for more because again he is not in shape. He was a good boy as usual and has some nice turns. With more work he will be in shape and much better with turns and what not.

On Monday I finally got back on my mare after four days of not riding her due to rain and being away. We just rode around the farm and did the same on Tuesday. Yesterday was gorgeous and my friend K and I went on a trail ride in the local state park. I am doing an article on this park so I needed to go and we have been wanting to go for a while anyway. We rode for about 2 hours exploring the trails and eventually it lead back to the main path. The trails were gorgeous with mostly good footing. We had a great galloping spot and some beautiful autumn scenery. I got a lot of gorgeous pictures as well. The trails are also open to bike riders and walkers so some are narrow and windy, but most good for a horse to pass. I look forward to going again and exploring the other paths since there were a ton of them we passed along the way we chose.

Today we just hacked around the farm enjoying the beautiful weather. Tomorrow we are going team penning for my friend's birthday. It will probably be one of the last times for the season so should be fun!

Playing Catch Up

As usual, I am playing catch up again. Busy, busy with school, the pony, etc. Okay so over last weekend I was up in New Hampshire for my cousin's wedding, for which I was a bridesmaid. I took two days off of school to get a long weekend, which was nice. And it was great to get to spend time with the whole family. We don't get to get together enough, so it's nice when we do. The wedding was beautiful and we all had a blast.

In other news, I spent the rest of the week catching up on missed riding, which was put to a screeching halt by this horrible cold and wet weather we are having. Tuesday we went barrel racing of course. I don't even want to talk about the barrels, they were horrible. My first two turns were all over the ring and my third was so tight we knocked the barrel. Our dash wasn't bad. We got an 8.9, but our turn was ten miles wide so we could have been closer to last weeks time if not for that. We redeemed ourselves in the poles though. We had our best poles run so far! We got a 27.066 seconds and all of our turns were beautiful. If I could get her to go a little faster going back up the poles we would have even better time, but I was very happy with that run.

So I spent Wednesday working on our barrel turns because I know my mare has awesome turns in her. Thanks to the help of my friend K who is more experienced with barrels than I am we got them going pretty well. We figured out that I should run the pattern to the left rather than to the right like I usually do because she does her turns much better in that direction. It seems her left turns are her weaker ones and if I run the pattern starting to the left that will be the only left turn she has to make. I am thinking of even running my dash to the right since that seems to be her stronger turning direction.

Unfortunately today my riding got reined out. This weekend I am going upstate to my friend J's with my friend S. I was looking forward to riding Flo and Max but this weather prediction isn't looking good for that. Hopefully we will get at least one day of riding though. Either way we will have fun and find something to do and its still a weekend away to relax.

Anyway thats pretty much the news for now, stay tuned for next week!

Show and Barrels

Okay so I have been crazy busy which means I have not kept things updated here. During last week I spent my riding time prepping for the western pleasure, horsemanship, trail show I had last weekend. So I had the show Sunday and it went well. Satin was very good. Her transitions were much better and her lope slower for most of the classes at least. We came 4th in pleasure, horsemanship, and command due to missing our counter canter which we always get. But I had the same problem in my lesson today as well and have it fixed. We came 2nd in trail though which is always our best class and we do compete against born and bred pleasure horses who do it in the breed shows. So all in all I was happy with our day and it is our last one of those for the season.

Then yesterday we went barrel racing. We had a pretty good barrel time for us with a 19.7. She just doesn't seem to run in between the barrels, not sure why. We had an amazing dash thought. We got an 8.5 which is even better than our last time. Our turn was a little wide though so we have been even faster if not for that. We had a pretty good poles run except her first turn was a bit wide but we got a 27.5 which is very good since we used to do 30s.

Today we had our lesson which was good as usual. I can't say enough how much I love our trainer R. We did some flat work, bending, transitions, etc. We worked on simple changes from the correct lead to the counter canter and back. We also worked on our horsemanship pattern from the last show, which went pretty good at the show except for a break in the jog, but we perfected it in the lesson. We also worked on flying lead changes, which my horse can do with her eyes closed. Sometimes she gets quick and rushes because she anticipates too much which makes her changes sloppy and sometimes she forgets to switch behind because of that or what not. We had some late ones, but we also had a lot of great ones, so that was good. I am trying to work on getting them perfect every time since I eventually I want to do some reining stuff maybe at QH shows.

On the non-horsey front, school is school. The usual business with reading and papers and midterms coming. Also this weekend I have my cousin's wedding and I am in the bridal party so that will be fun and busy.