Birthday Week!

I have to admit, I've been slacking in all horse aspects this week. No excuse, other than I just don't feel like it. Theo's imminent departure this weekend is looming over me like a giant rain cloud. It's also raining for real. And that always makes me less than motivated to do anything. So since I have no new grey mare stories (although I'm determined to work at least one of them later today) I figured I'll make a list of all the fun or nice things that has happened or will happen on this, the week of my birth. Lol.

1. I got to see Jared Tuesday night. He made me dinner and baked me an awesome fun-fetti cake with pink icing.

2. I had off yesterday, my actual birthday. I got to sleep in! Hooray!

3. I got about 8 inches of my hair chopped off. Time for a change. And *gasp!* bangs.

4. I finally made a phone call about an OTTB I've been stalking for the past couple weeks. Now I just need to find a couple more to look at at the same time so the 4 ish hour drive up to the racetrack in NY is worth it. Not getting my hopes up just yet, but fingers crossed!

5. The season premieres of Big bang Theory and Grey's Anatomy are tonight! Woo hoo!

6. And finally, Jared is coming down tomorrow and staying the whole weekend. :)

I feel better now. Hooray! Here's a picture of Jared's awesome cake. That's me riding a unicorn and slashing two swords at the wer-bats flying over head. My bf is strange.

A week in review: Grey mare drama

It's been a busy week with horses that's for sure. We'll start with the new girl first, since I'm sure everyone is dying to hear about her since my mention in my last post. Maija is another grey mare, a thoroughbred, I've just started working. Her mother, the hilarious and awesome Tiffany Finlan is currently dealing with an excessive work schedule on top of wedding preparations and asked me to ride her over the next couple of weeks til things settle down and she has more time. I had ridden her once before months and months ago and knew she's had a good amount of training, mostly dressage, and it would be a piece of cake and a good way for me to keep my riding legs. Hahaha. Famous last words, right?

My first ride on her was Tuesday. I tacked her up, threw on a surcingle and lunged her since she had been on vacation for a week or two just as a precaution. No issues there, so I get on and instantly the first thing that comes to my mind is "maybe I should have worn my vest". Thats really not a good thing. Lol. I don't know what it was but she had lost her shit a little bit. After fumbling around with an extremely tightly wound horse who would get light in the front anytime I asked for contact for about 10 minutes, I decided the best idea was to throw her back on the lunge and REALLY work her before I got back on. Much better. I put her through her paces to figure out what I was gonna be able to ask for. Walk and trot were good. Canter not so much. Leads were iffy, transitions need mucho work. Laterals, just leg yield and shoulder in, are lovely to the left but non-existent to the right. Typical OTTB.

Weds and Thursday were much the same. Although I think some of the canter transition issues stem from probably not doing a whole lot of cantering this summer and me needing to ask a little more aggressively. It takes her a long time to warm up enough to be round and stay round, so maybe more lunging is in order before riding. We shall see!

She also has this ridiculous quirk I had completely forgotten about until it happened on thursday. While standing in the cross ties for girthing, she will sometimes fall asleep. We're talking legs give out and she almost falls down asleep. It's really weird. And slightly disturbing. Lol. I've only seen one other horse do that in my life. It's insane to watch. I just poke and lightly smack her to keep her awake. Ohhhh horses.

On to the pony! Work wise, Pepper has been doing really well this week. She lunged every day except Saturday (I was in Hersey with Megan to see Dave Matthews!) and really seems to be getting it. She's actually given me a nice round trot a couple times WITHOUT side reins that almost made me pee myself. Pony is smart! Hopefully it will translate well into riding in a few weeks.

As for her general handling issues, things are not progressing as well. I've pretty much given up on cross tying, at least for now, since all she does is break clips and freak herself out. Single tying has been working out pretty well so I don't feel it's necessary to push it. I've also taken to hosing her off outside in the grass because I think she gets claustrophobic in the wash stall. This Friday we identified a whole new level of awful. Pepper does not like being sponged off. I don't know if it's the sponge itself or maybe the smell of the liniment (which of course was meant to make her feel better, god forbid). She basically melted down, flew backwards, sideways, all over the place, and managed to knock the entire bucket over even though I had placed it over ten feet away just to avoid things like that. Ugh. Oh well. I'm going to experiment with smaller sponges or wash clothes and see if that makes a difference.

On the plus side, I think she's lost some weight! The fat patches behind her shoulders seem smaller. Hooray for not so obese ponies!

Picture below is Maija.

Grey Horses

As some of you know, or maybe all of you if I don't have any readers who don't know me personally, I make my meager living as an Equine Sanitation Engineer. Yeah that's right. I made up a fancy title for 'sh*t shoveler'. For the past 6 years I have been employed at Boots and Saddle Riding Club in the Lehigh Valley. As glamorous and mentally challenging as my job is (not), I usually have a good deal of time to contemplate things. Most of my blog posts are written in my head as I clean stalls. Today, of course, is no different.

When I was first a horse crazy child and pre-teen, my dream horse was a grey Arabian mare. That's what I wanted. Nothing else would suffice. Nowadays, I know better. Arabians are not my cup of tea. Neither are mares. And grey horses in general? All they are is a pain in the butt to keep clean and the reason for the purple hand/fingernail look on show days.

I have to admit, in my slightly obsessive search for that costs next to nothing, diamond in the rough, those darn grey horses still seem to catch my attention more than any other. I think it's the fact that grey horses, which always end up as white horses, are portrayed as being magical.

Pegasus was white.
Unicorns are white. Shadowfax from the Lord of the Rings is white (lol!).
My favorite movie growing up was The Last Unicorn. It was a late 70s, early 80s, cartoon about a unicorn trying to find out what happened to all the other unicorns. I'm pretty sure I borrowed it from the public library so many times they eventually gave it to me. The original version had some cursing in it. My new DVD copy has been changed so it's suitable as a G rated movie. Darn. Maybe that is the basis of my love for grey horses.
Over the years I haven't actually ridden or even worked with many grey horses. Dusty is a palomino and Theo, a chestnut. Now all of a sudden I have access to two. Pepper the hony and Maija, who I'll post more on later today or tomorrow. Seems like I've finally gotten my childhood dream. Pepper is possibly part Arabian and both are mares. Maybe I should just start eventing grey horses only. Seems like it worked for Becky Holder and Michael Pollard. ;)

Two steps forward, one step back

The title definitely embodies Pepper the pony's training right now. After 2 pretty good days last week (thurs and fri) where we managed some solid work on the lunge, Sunday was a bit of a disaster. She had Saturday off while I was out of town visiting the bf, and it did not bode well for getting down to business straight off yesterday.
All I wanted was for her to walk. In a circle. Around me. Just one full circle. But no. Wasn't going to happen. She jigged every couple steps, went back to her halt and face nonsense at the slightest movement of the line, and was really starting to try my patience. Gah! Finally, after about half an hour of trying to get just ONE consistent circle at the walk, she just barely gave it to me and we moved on to trot. Ugh. Same thing. Pepper just wants to CANTER!
New tactic. Not going to fight anymore. You want to canter? Then canter until you can't anymore. I think she literally cantered a solid 10 minutes. And we're not talking a nice slow canter. Most of the time it was balls to the wall borderline gallop. I'm amazed by how much stamina she has for how overweight and underworked she is. Lol. Ashley says its the 'ayrab' in her. Ha! After she settled herself down a nice slow canter I eased her down to trot, and continued to trot until she broke to the walk herself. (another 10 mins or so) Crazy pony.
Yay! Now we can actually do something productive now that you're exhausted and finally willing to pay attention. Haha. We finished up with starting to bend in her side reins and a nice long walk and shower. Hopefully I can manage to at least lunge her to get her crazies out on a daily basis so working gets easier. I don't know what I'm going to do when she's actually fit and a good weight. Calm n Cool anyone?

Pictures are her new/used English bridle and a screen shot from a video of her working in side reins. Go circus pony!

Changes

It is with great sadness that I announce the end of my partnership with Theo, the big red horse. His owner has decided to move him to a different farm and retire him from his brief eventing career. To say that I am disappointed would be a gross understatement, but she feels with his navicular he has made it as far as he can go. So two weeks from today, a mere 2 days after my birthday, I will say good bye to the irritable red head I have grown to love and probably never see him again.

As much as I would love to say the plan from here on out is to purchase a young ottb prospect to retrain and bring up through the levels, my finances currently do not allow for a budget much higher than free. And sound, sane, young, free horses are hard to come by. For now I will continue to work with the pony mare and hopefully take George out a couple more times before the season ends. I wish he lived closer, that would make things a lot easier.

Thank you to everyone who has and will continue to support me in my endeavors. Hopefully with the closing of this door another will eventually open.

Progress

I went back and realized there were some typos in one of my posts. I figured I could just fix it and everything would be fine. Apparently now I have to republish it and that's kind of annoying. From now on I think I'll just leave the typos alone. Haha.

Ok! On to the horses. I finally got my butt in gear and worked Pepper again. I've been kind of slacking since last week, which is bad since I had a whole weekend of doing mostly nothing. Oh well. She's definitely starting to figure out the lunging process and responding better to my voice commands. We seem to have squashed the halt and face in problem by just wiggling the lunge line when i ask her to slow to a trot or walk. Whatever works, cuz that was really annoying. Haha. I also FINALLY remembered to bring home an extra bridle and pony side reins and she looks seriously adorable in English gear. After a few tense moments when I shortened them to actually have contact and all she wanted to do was go backwards (I worried she was gonna flip over; yikes!) and then she seemed to figure it out.
*lightbulb moment*
You mean if I go forward and carry myself with my head on the vertical it's not going to feel like my face is being ripped off?!

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it went in her brain.

So now that I know she can successfully work in side reins without dying we're looking at another couple weeks of lunging to build some muscle, drop some fat, and get her to balance herself. There were some really fancy moments that give me hope for possibly taking her through the lower levels. Onward we go!

I'll try and take some pictures of her adorableness tomorrow ;)

Totally Random Tuesday

Tuesday used to be my first riding day of the week. Since Theo is still on vacation til after the 13th, I'm just going to post a lot of random nonsense and pictures. Because I want to. So there. ;-P

1: Theo is a cribber of epic proportions. At one time, he wore a collar 24/7 until it started rubbing his neck off. Ouchies. Now he just cribs to his hearts content.

Because he cribs so much, and has for many many years, his teeth are like little chicklets.

2:  Some of the boarders at Boots and Saddle have hay boxes. They're like hay racks only cooler and more mobile. Normally they fit about 3 average sized flakes. I have one for my Pony because he's a picky hay eater and tends to waste it if it's on the ground. It also makes the hay last longer for the vacuums in the barn. Great for when tied to trailers! The down side? If you stuff them too full they pop apart at the bottom and are a pain in the rear to put back together.
Want your own? Go to healthezhayfeeder.com


3: My equitation over fences used to be REALLY awful. We're talking, my trainer feared for my life, awful. Apparently years of no lessons has given me some pretty bad habits. I'm your typical leg swung back, heels up, shoulders round, way up the horse's neck kind of jumper. In general, AWFUL. A year of lessons with the incomparable Megan Allen and I'm getting better. Not perfect, but better. (and I don't scare the crap out of her anymore!). It's worse when I jump big things. Probably because all I'm thinking is 'woah that thing is huge!' instead of 'heels down, leg forward, back flat, WAIT!' Good thing eventers don't have to look pretty while jumping. Sometimes you just gotta get over the jumps and not fall off. I think i'll keep working on my Eq though, so Megan doesn't slaughter me.

Oh yeah. And sometimes I do things like jump my pony bareback over tires in near perfect form and then be completely unable to reproduce it in a saddle. Bareback eventing, anyone?

Project Pony Pepper

Since I haven't been riding much lately, I've been getting home from work very early and subsequently being a lazy bum. Luckily, I live on a farm in a loft apartment above the stables owned by the Persing family (their daughter Ashley is my eventing buddy). One of the boarders has 2 horses, a big appendix and a little grey hony (borderline pony/horse) mare named Pepper. She's young, about 4 I think, overweight, and kind of adorable. Her mom is currently out of commission with an injury so I volunteered to do some work with her. Wellllll, Pepper is tough. For starters, she doesn't cross tie. She doesn't single tie very well either. We'll just say she doesn't tie. At all. There are broken clips to prove it. Her answer for everything that makes her nervous while tied is to fly backwards and either break things or slip out of her halter. Fun.

I've worked her 3 times this week on the lunge line with waaaayyy long side reins. Her mom doesn't actually have any tack that fits her since the mare really belongs to her sister. (long story) Good thing my pony has plenty of extras. Hopefully I can remember to bring a bridle and his pony side reins home one of these days.

So basically our lunge lessons go something like this:
-enter the ring, start walking Pepper in a circle and slowly let out the line
-Pepper realizes she's on a lunge line and takes off at a ridiculous trot then canters around like a maniac
-I spend the next 20 minutes just trying to get her to WALK in a circle. The main problem? Every time I put any pressure on the line, even if it's just to keep her circle somewhat round, she halts and faces in. When I ask her to move forward she backs up and tries to change direction. If I try to block her with the whip, literally just holding it out to keep her from changing direction, she bolts.
-after a couple half decent walk circles we move on to the trot. Same thing. Tries to break into the canter constantly, to the point where she looks lame behind from half cantering with her hind legs only. Pressure on the lunge to keep her steady? Halts and faces in. Ughhhh.

I can tell already, this is going to be a looonnnngggg process. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. all of her lunge work so far has been done with the side reins attached but with no tension in them. I worry that when shorten them so there is even the smallest amount of pressure, she's only going to go backwards and possibly try to flip herself over. Not something I want to happen.

Meet George!

This past weekend, on another labor day Monday, I got to go to my first horse trial since JUNE! How is that possible you ask? You thought Theo was still out of commission? Well, you are correct!

Meet George! ( you'll have to scroll to the bottom for pictures since I haven't figured out how to put them in the middle of my posts with the blogger app. The joys of not having wireless at home) George is a 10 year old, 17.2h Clydesdale-Arabian cross. He is owned by my trainer's good friend, Karla, and he is magnificent. Before Monday, I had only ridden him twice. Ever. And one of those times was Saturday, 2 days before the trial! I know you probably think I'm NUTS (which may or may not be true) but George is a very sensible guy. His mom has done a fab job giving him a substantial dressage background, so it was fairly easy for me to just get on and go. Jumping? Well that's a little bit of a different story. He had apparently been popped over some little things at one point in his life by Karla's daughter, but that's about it. The first 2 times I rode him our jumping consisted of 4 fence rails and 2 mounting blocks. Lol. He was game and seemed brave, and since we were only planning on doing a combined training and schooling xc after, I figured the little starter cross rails they had had at this event last year would be no problemo.

Monday morning:

We headed to Bucks County, me with all my gear and the boy in tow (gasp! horses AND boys?!) and Karla and Megan bringing George from far away Pine Grove, arriving about 11 to have plenty of warm up time for our 1:10 test. Big surprise, it's raining. Same as last year. Crud. After a very lengthy warm up, we're talking over an hour of trotting at about mach 50 while trying to avoid little kids on tiny ponies who can't steer and pay attention to their instructors at the same time, we head up to do our test. The judge gives is some constructive criticism, to keep his ears as the highest point and not let them drop below his neck and to free up his shoulder for more expression, we head back to the trailer to untack and retack for stadium.

Every horse trial I've been to we've always had a ridiculously long break between dressage and stadium, usually close to two hours. This day, we had about 20 minutes to get back down to warm up over fences before they lowered the jumps to intro level at 1:45. AAHHHHH! Luckily, with the help of Megan and Karla, and Jared (the boy!) running to the booth for a copy of the course since I didn't have time to walk it, we managed to get both of us in our jump gear and to the warm up ring in a timely fashion. We popped over the warm up jumps, and feeling mostly prepared, headed over to take our turn. Even in the pouring rain I can see that they are ALL verticals. With flowers and other scary fill. George had never seen any of that stuff before. Our goal was no refusals. Do everything at a trot and make it a good experience.
He blew me away. Not once did he feel like he wanted to stop or run out. He didn't even glance at the flowers or bright colored rails. We had one spooky moment as we were coming up to a single on the rail where they had stuck the bigger flower boxes along the outside of the ring that were apparently going to eat him, but he composed himself and continued on.

When we finished I had the biggest smile on my face (apparently it was also there through the entire course) and plenty of pats and good boys for George. Afterwards we headed out on the xc course with Ashley and her new tb Quincy, who was also doing his first CT, to school a little in the rain. Both horses had no problems with the jumps we pointed them at, but the big scary ones they had to trot past before and after made it interesting.

The whole day was a terrific experience for everyone. We finished in 2nd on our dressage score of 33.5 with high hopes for a full horse trial in October. Yay George!

Theo: updates

Well, we are almost to present day! One more post from the past after this one and we should be set.

Theo has been on vacation the past 2 weeks. He's been reshod, seen the chiropractor, and has a follow up on the 13th. Fingers crossed for being able to get back on soon!

Me on the other hand? I am going out of my mind not being able to ride him. I still have my pony, but I just get frustrated when I can't work him at the same level red horse is. Boo.

Heartbreak

A couple weeks after our June horse trial I noticed that Theo was not quite right on his left front. Nothing glaringly obvious, he would take bad steps once in a while, mostly while warming up at the trot. He seemed steady when he was collected and put together, but left to his own devices he would bobble. After discussing it with his owner, Bev, we decided to give him a couple days off to see if it worked itself out. He goes out in a big field with a bunch of rowdy boys, so the most reasonable explanation was a rough night in the pasture. Nearly a week later, it wasn't any better. Wasn't any worse either. Just that mystery 'not quite right'ness about him. No heat, no swelling. We had his farrier pull the shoe and hoof test him to check for an abscess, and while he didn't find one, he did have some sensitivity in his heel. Uh oh.
Not wanting to mess around with foot problems, Megan suggested we call Dr Peter Blauner, a family friend of hers and lameness specialist working primarily with performance horses (and an eventer himself!), to come take a look.
The day of the appointment I was a nervous wreck. Hoping for good news, something that would be fairly easy to fix, but trying not to set myself up for devastation if it wasn't. After a very thorough exam and X-rays of both fronts, we had our answer. Navicular. Dr Blauner seemed fairly confident about the management, stating that with medication and supportive shoeing he had about a 70-75% chance of being capable of returning to full work and competitions. Score! We would have to be careful of the hardness of the ground he worked on a to not aggravate his poor foot, but we were optimistic.
The downside? Our summer season was pretty much shot. We would probably need to travel farther to compete at events where the ground is immaculately taken care of. No big deal.

A week or so later, in his new shoes, on his new meds, we were back to light work. And he was SOUND! Hooray! Scheduled our first lesson in weeks, tack up on the day of, warm up, annnndddd he's off again. :( the culprit this time? An abscess in the hoof with navicular, most likely from a stone bruise to his no longer pad covered sole. Poor boy. A week of poultices and Epsom soaks, and we're back to business!
2 weeks later: I bring him in on a Tuesday to ride and notice as we warm up he's bobbling. On his RIGHT front. The navicular is in the left. Whaaaattttt?! So back to the barn I go, searching every inch of his leg. The culprit? A kick to his shoulder. Darn boys need to not play so rough! I'm breaking out the bubble wrap.
After the last fiasco, things settle down. We get back into our rhythm. Rides on Tuesday and Thursday, lessons on Friday. We even do a schooling show at our home barn and while he can't imagine why he's trotting around in a class with a bunch of other horses, and it's dark out, and all his buddies are outside, and he can't seem to remember how to pick up the correct lead, we still manage to win both equitation classes. Woot!
The next day, we were finally going to get to jump again. And of course, as is my luck, he trots out lame again. On the good leg. Arrhghhjhhjdehfbj!?! What now? :(

May and June 2012

Summer started off with a bang, bringing a first place in the May schooling horse trial at BCHP. Theo and I scored a 26.5 on our dressage test and finished with only 1.2 time penalties. Time penalties for going TOO FAST! Lol. This from a horse we had to put on red cell to try and boost his energy. He had no problem cantering his courses at hunter pace. Too bad we needed to make time in eventing! He was super fit by June, when we did a Friday eventing event moving up for the first time to Beginner Novice. He was clean and clear and absolutely fabulous. Another blue ribbon for the big red horse!
I was flying high. We had a plan. Theo had the potential to take us both to preliminary if we did it carefully and correctly. Our sites were set on the recognized event at BCHP in September, with schooling trials at BH and BCHP in July and August to fine tune everything. It was happening. We were going to kill it.

Two weeks later, it came crashing down.

Spring 2012

FAST FORWARD to about April. After a not so long winter of a lot of dressage and not as little jumping as I had expected due to mild temperatures, Theo and I were ready to start our second season together. The first event of the spring was a combined training at Bucks County Horse Park. (BCHP) Along with our good friends and fellow students of Megan Allen, Ashley and Cocoa (the Fluff!), we headed out to test what we had worked on and school the xc course afterwards. Theo and I finished 4th with plenty of tips for improvement.

Check out these pics, courtesy of Ashley's dad, Jeff.

2011 Season Review

Instead of boring you with a play by play of every event last season, I think we'll just go over the highlights to get closer to present day. In total we competed in 5 horse trials. 4 at starter and one mix and match event at elementary (2'3" max). We achieved a low score of 27.5% in dressage (intro B), had our first xc refusal (the dreaded coup, the very last fence!), and moved up to elementary in the mix and match to see where we stood for the following season. I had so much fun and am so thankful to everyone who contributed to getting us through our first season successfully, especially Bev, Megan, and Jayne (our trailer driver and hopefully soon to be eventing buddy).

Now we get to move on to 2012! Hooray!

Pictures
1: xc at BH
2: the dreaded coup at Bucks
3: stadium at Bucks mix n match
4: dressage at Bucks
5: stadium at BH (in the rain again!)

First event! Labor Day 2011

It had finally arrived. Our first event was a starter trial held by the Huntington Valley Hunt Pony Club at Bucks County Horse Park. We entered the starter division, which had jumps from 18"-2'. Easy peasy. Great place to start and build confidence. The day was pretty dreary. Our dressage test was a respectable 44.5 for intro C. First dressage test EVER and we had to canter. Apparently Bev was exclaiming expletives as Theo picked up both his leads and did not buck once, things we had had some issues with in the month before. While waiting around for stadium it became apparent that it was going to rain. A LOT. We're talking downpour. But, the show must go on. We completed stadium cleat, hopped around xc in a light drizzle, and HOLY CRAP!!! We WON our division. Talk about confidence boost :-D

A side note

It's really hard to write about past events and not get a little mixed up in my tenses. So Megan, when you read this, which I hope you will, I'm sorry for my awful grammar! ;)

Dressage: a necessary evil

When I first started to prepare for my first event I HATED dressage. Absolutely loathed it. To me it was something to just get through before the fun stuff started. Luckily, Megan is the BEST instructor when it comes to dressage. She also had known Theo for a long time, knew the guy who trained him, and therefore knew exactly how I had to ask him to do things in order to get the intended result. But I still hated it. After a solid month of riding dressage more often than not, being so exhausted after lessons I thought of never walk again, and seeing the changes in the big red boy as he remembered how to carry himself and redeveloped his muscles, you'll never guess what happened. I kind of, just a little bit, started to like dressage :)

Update 9/6/12: I LOVE DRESSAGE! Lol. For real. It's crazy.

Summer 2011: the beginning of the dream

Up until this point, my riding experience was limited to hunters and trail riding. I liked to fancy myself a pony hunter princess. Sadly, Dusty Pony and I never really did very well, mostly because of my lack of training since his purchase, and just not knowing what they were looking for. Looking back, I'm shocked I didn't make the switch to eventing sooner. No offense, but HUNTERS ARE SO BORING. Lol. I guess it was probably the lack of money and information about local events. It was just a dream. 'One day I'll ride in the Olympics. I'm only 27. I have plenty of time' was my mantra. Pretty ambitious for someone who never evented a day in her life, right?
Ok, back on track here. It was the summer of 2011 ( sounds like an intro to some campy RomCom, right?) and one of the boarders at the farm I work at, boots and saddle (from now on referred to as BS), had just purchased a 14 year old TB from another boarder who just didn't have time for him anymore. His name is Theo. Registered with the JC as Thepostman, evented as Par Avion, and fondly known as Big Red, Red Horse, or Red-headed stepchild (when he's bad!). Theo's new mom, Bev, mostly does dressage for pleasure. Knowing his experience as a hunter, she asked me if I would be willing to jump him once a week. Of course, my answer was a resounding HECK YES! I rode him once a week and even showed him in a Penn Jersey show that July. He was so much more horse than I was used to, at 16.2hh. Another boarder, Jayne, and I decided to take our guys (she has a paint gelding who is an ex- track pony) to a local farm with a cross country course, Burgundy Hollow, to see how they liked it. I was beyond stoked when that big red pokey hunter came brave and game to all the starter level fences. Officially hooked!

Apparently my enthusiasm was catching, and with Bev's encouragement and the help of my new trainer, Megan Allen, we were planning our eventing debut at Bucks County Horse Park on labor day Monday. Woo hoo!!!!!!!

Pictures: Theo's first xc school

Drum Roll Please

Just before my 16th birthday, after almost 5 years of lessons, my super fab mom bought me my first horse. His barn name was Dusty, and we dubbed him Drum Roll Please for horse shows. My instructor had purchased him about 6 months earlier to replace her beginner lesson pony who has gone home to live in his mom's back yard. Needless to say, the 6 year old, green as grass, 14.1 palomino was not working out for her. I, as one of her more experienced students, had been working with him and was hopelessly in love. He ha one speed. Fast. Fast walk, fast trot, and fast canter. And one lead. And he liked to lay down and roll in the sand arena when it was hot. In the middle of my lessons. With me on him. Typical pony. When Ellie, my instructor, let me know he was for sale and I had first dibs I was thrilled. So after a week of discussions with my mom, trying one other horse (an Arab mare who was NOT for me), and $1000 later, he was loaded on a trailer and on his way to a new farm cheaper and closer to home.

Now, almost 12 years later, after teaching me how to stay on through jut about anything, how to fall off when there was no other choice, ad countless other lessons, he is semi retired, half-leased to a college student, and livin it large at Boots and Saddle Riding Club, where I have worked for the past 6 years. He started my love of jumping by going over pretty much everything I pointed him at Well, when he wasn't dirty stopping or running out at the last minute. Gotta love ponies!

Welcome!

Well, this is the official introductory post of my very first blog. Hooray! It's gonna be a little long to start things off, I have a years worth of back story to write, but I'll do my best to make it as quick and painless as possible.

My name is Emily and I have an eventing addiction. Whew. Feels good to say that out loud. It started as it always does, with a little girl's love of horses. I'm pretty sure I asked for one for every major (and minor!) holiday from the moment I had my first pony ride at probably about 3. Years went by, and I still asked. I also did some things my current trainer would KILL me for, like getting on strange horses in pastures while the owners weren't home. Without a helmet. In the middle of no where. Oopsies ;) Finally, at the age of 11, I was lucky enough to have my very first riding lesson! It was all down hill from there. Over the next few posts I will continue to give the brief back ground of how I got to where I am today. Hopefully competing in my first recognized BN horse trial by the end of fall. Stay tuned, there will be more than one post a day. Basically as many as I can fire out to get us up to the current place and time.